Adventures in Admissions and Registration

So yesterday was super productive! I took the day off from work to get most of this admissions business handled.  I was up and out of the house at 11am, and headed over to the Beaufort County School District office to request my high school transcript to be sent over to the college. It was super quick and easy, I was handed a receipt for my $3.00 payment, and I was on my way.

From there I went to the TCL admissions office. It's in the same building as the testing center, where I had a 12:30pm appointment to do my AccuPlacer entrance exams/placement testing, so I popped in to check on the status of things. I spoke with my admissions counselor, a SUPER sweet gal named Kimberly. As soon as introduced myself, she laughed and greeted me.  Apparently she'd been working on my stuff just that morning and she immediately recognized my name. We chatted for a while, and she gave me a ton of good information!

One of my questions for her was regarding the status of my old, failed attempt at college courses at CofC, and if I was required to submit that transcript or not. She wasn't sure so she checked with one of the higher ups in the department, then relayed to me that the decision would be totally at the discretion of my academic advisor. I told her I didn't have one assigned to me yet, but she assured me she'd have a name for me by the time I finished my testing.

Then we got to chatting about the status of my financial aid, so she got me in with a counselor there. It turns out that my aid won't kick in until the Fall semester, dashing my hopes of starting classes next month. That's okay, though. August is right around the corner.

The Financial Aid counselor also informed me that there is additional verification paperwork needed, specifically a "Tax Transcript" which I have to request from the IRS (because apparently a copy of my tax return just isn't good enough). She couldn't tell me a thing or help me at all until she had that in-hand.  (Nice of them to call me and let me know this, right?)  So she sent me away with those directions, which was rather disappointing.

It was 12:15 or so at this point, so I headed upstairs to the testing center a little early. They went ahead and took me and got me set up on a computer and I go crackin'.  The testing really wasn't so bad, and I got through all four sections in about an hour or so.

The results? We'll start with the bad news...

Arithmetic: 95
Not super great.  From what I was told, pretty average actually. But it's enough to keep me out of having to take remedial math. And honestly, that's the best I was hoping for.

Algebra: 30

Yeah, you read that right. 30. Sooo. What does that mean for me? Well, the long and short of it is that I now have to take twice as many math classes. For my degree, I am required to take College Algebra (MAT 110) and Statistics (MAT 120). However, as this test accurately assessed, I can't fucking algebra. At all. So before I can even attempt MAT 110, I have to take two additional semesters of math: Beginning Algebra (MAT 101) and Intermediate Algebra (MAT 102). It's essentially the equivalent of retaking high school Algebra I and II. Yikes.

And then the good news...

Reading: 119

I missed one question. One. I asked if I could redo that section to try for a perfect score, but they said no. Hmph.

Writing: 120

PERFECT SCORE, BITCH! The test center attendant was shocked, said she'd never seen a perfect score before. I asked if I'd be a good candidate for the CLEP exam, and she and the other girl there both emphatically encouraged me to do so.

CLEP exams are the tests you can take to earn college credits based on your knowledge of a subject. So if I were to take the English Composition CLEP exam and pass it, I would automatically be given the full 6 credits for ENG 101 and ENG 102 (both of which are required for my degree) without actually having to take either class. The drawback is that it's $105 bucks to take that exam, hence why I didn't go ahead and set it up. But the girls gave me some information so that I could read more about it and decide.

I headed back downstairs to find Kimberly, but she was at lunch. The girl is good, though! She gave her colleague a note with my name and my academic advisor's name on it.  That girl (whose name I did not get) was also super nice and helpful, and gave me a campus map and the location of my advisor's office.  Since I had some more time to kill, I decided to take myself on a little self-guided tour of the campus.  I went explorin'!

One of the first buildings I came to was Building 9, where I knew my advisor's office to be. I realized it was seriously unlikely for her to be in her office and available, plus I wouldn't be rude enough to just ambush her like that, but I thought I'd at least find out where in the building she was for when I came back for an appointment with her. It wasn't too hard to find, and sure enough she was in there with the door open.

She's a Spanish teacher named Rosemary Hunt.  I stuck my head in and introduced myself briefly, and explained that I didn't need to see her right then but would like to schedule something for when she has time. She ended up just inviting me in and talking to me for a while. She was pretty cool. Basically everything she was telling me to do, I either had already done or was at least already on top of. Finally she looked at me and said "So what do you need ME for?!"

She did help me narrow down the classes I should take my first semester, though. She also sympathized with my algebra struggles, and walked me around the corner from her office to show me where the math tutoring lab is located. Sadly, I can see myself spending a lot of time there over the next four semesters.

Before I left, I also brought up the issue of my horrible academic performance at CofC nearly 20 years ago, and relayed to her what admissions had said about it being her decision to require that transcript or not.  She looked me dead in the eye and said "What transcript? I know nothing."  Yeahhhh, I like this lady.

After my meeting with her, I walked over to the next building and just wandered around like a noob. Found the bookstore, the auditorium, and the student lounge. Apparently the library was in the same building, but I missed it.  Let that sink in, ya'll.  The girl who reads approximately 100 books annually MISSED THE LIBRARY.  

I left shortly afterwards, but had some other stuff to do in the late afternoon and evening, so I didn't make it home until 9pm or so. I know once I cooked and ate dinner and got my shower, it was well after 10pm by the time I was able to sit down at the computer and review the information I'd collected.

The first thing I looked into was that IRS form for the Financial Aid stuff, and was pretty dismayed to discover that I have to request to have that Tax Transcript form sent to my home, and then I take it back to the Financial Aid office... which can take up to two weeks. Woof. Good thing I'm not starting until the Fall, I guess.

After that. I looked more into the CLEP exam. Turns out that those results take about 4 weeks to come back. Again... So much for summer semester this year. But honestly, I figured I could work around that. I didn't plan on signing up for ENG 101 in the Fall anyhow, to give me some time to get the cash together to take the exam.

So then I found some practice CLEP exams online, and dove into those, anticipating high like-a-boss scores based on my success earlier at the testing center.

Dude, I completely BOMBED the practice tests! I'm talking I fucking failed them in spectacular goddamn fashion.  The questions are waaay harder and far more nitpicky. And for several questions, there were 2 answers that could have been correct, and I gambled on the wrong one. It was just... UGH. So disappointing, and totally killed by buzz from my earlier scores. And more importantly I'm now seriously doubting even taking the real exam at all, to be honest.

However! The good news is that I do have the luxury of time to work on my skills, I can get CLEP study guides and what not for it. I figure that's what I'll work on this summer, since I can't start classes until the Fall.

Speaking of classes that I'm taking in the Fall, I realized that if I just take 1-2 classes a semester, it'll be yet another decade before I even get my bachelors.  I figured if I'm serious about this, then I need to jump into it like I'm serious about it.  So I settled on 3 classes.  Still not a full load, but enough that if I don't take any semesters off, I can have that bachelors in 5 years or less.  So here's the starting line-up, registered and confirmed:

(And yes, I recognize the irony of the glaring typo in the word "beginning" up there, but I'm too lazy to fix it.  That bodes well for my future college success, doesn't it?)

Looking Ahead to Bachelors Degree Considerations

At this point in my life and fledgling college career restart, I'm fairly certain that I'd like to go into clinical mental health counseling. My first choice for my undergrad major would naturally be Psychology with a minor in Sociology.

University of South Carolina offers this program, but not completely online. This is a problem, as I work full-time. And while my boss is AMAZING and super supportive of me going back to school to become a counselor, it's not going to go over well if there's classes I need that are only offered on-campus during the day with no night or online options. I can't risk getting myself into that situation, so I strongly feel it's best for me to ensure that after TCL I transfer to a university with a bachelors degree program that's able to be done fully online.

I'd also like to stay in-state if possible, for tuition reasons mainly, but also because it would be nice to be able to have a campus within a reasonable driving distance just in case for any unforeseen reason I need to pay an in-person visit to the registrar, financial aid office, my academic advisor, etc. (As we all know, issues do arise and sometimes showing up gets business handled better/faster than over the phone/email/etc.)

That being said, from what I can tell, it looks like there are no schools in South Carolina that offer a fully online Bachelors in Psychology.

However! I just discovered that USC currently DOES offer a completely online Bachelors in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Behavioral Sciences and a cognate (kind of like a minor) in Arts/Humanities. Which means my curriculum would consist of Psychology, Sociology, and English. Plus I would do as many of my electives as allowed in Psychology also, just to beef up that section of my transcript and better prepare myself for the field.

Another plus to this degree is that it seems to have more built-in flexibility. You know, just in case over the course of the next 5 years or so I decide to go in a different career direction than clincal counseling (because there's a big part of me that is still hoping to stumble upon a career that I would love and would make me buckets of money with only a bachelors).

So while this sounds kinda perfect in a way, if I don't change my mind and DO decide to pursue a Masters in Mental Health Counseling, I worry about how this course of study will translate when I go to apply for grad schools. While I know this degree would satisfy the minimum requirements for acceptance to most programs, I can't help but be concerned about getting passed over for candidates who apply with actual degrees in Psychology. I don't want an admissions board to see that Liberal Studies degree and assume that I'm not serious about the field.

(If I was a Florida resident, this wouldn't be problem. University of Florida has a fully online BA in Psychology, and while it's SUPER cheap for in-state tuition, it's anything but for out-of-state folks like me. Knew I should have moved to Orlando years ago, dammit.)

Facebook Posts Prior to Today

Since I'm still at the very beginning stages of my college re-entry journey, I thought I'd go ahead and transfer over the posts I've made on Facebook regarding this subject, to bring everything up to speed here.  (I wish that I could also easily bring over all of the WONDERFUL comments and support that these posts received from family and friends!)

------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 20, 2017
4:00pm

So my defaulted student loans from my failed college attempt nearly 20 years ago are finally paid off. Hooray!

So the question I've been pondering is: Do I try to go back to school now?

I've always felt that my biggest regret in my life has been screwing up my college opportunity when I was too young, too immature, and too mentally ill to handle it at 17-19 years old. Now I have the chance to try again, at the ripe old age of 36. The only career fields that I'm truly interested in are Masters programs, and that's a LOT to start from scratch on at my age.

Plus there's a huge part of me that is terrified of messing it up again. Sure, I'm older and more responsible now, but I still struggle immensely with self-discipline, not mention Depression and Anxiety.

Thoughts?


------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 21, 2017
11:22am

Thank you everybody for all of your support and encouragement on yesterday's post about my ideas regarding going back to college. I've decided I'm going to try. My brain is the greatest asset that I have, and I'd like to think that I'm relatively bright. I feel like I've been wasting my intellectual potential for all of these years. Even if a degree doesn't lead me to a different career path or higher earning potential (though I certainly hope that it will), I still strongly feel like this is something I need to do for myself. If only to prove to myself that I can.

The Technical College of the Lowcountry offers a completely online Associate of Arts transfer block. I think that's a good place to start. It's built to get all of my core classes done before transferring to a university to work on a Bachelors of Arts, regardless of the field of study. So that will also give me some more time before deciding definitively on a B.A. major. (Plus even if I decide to stop after completing the required 60 credit hours, at least I'll be able to say that I have an Associates Degree.)

If I decide to continue on and stick with where my head is right now, all those credits would transfer to the University of South Carolina's Psychology, Sociology, or English majors, all of which I can earn right here at the Beaufort campus.

Plus because TCL is a community college, each credit hour is significantly more affordable, so it's less financial risk if it turns out that I fuck the whole thing up again. (Bonus: They offer payment plans, too.) I'm going to do just one class to start, probably English 101, just to see how it goes. If I do well, I'll add an additional class each semester until I learn how many classes I can reasonably handle while also working full-time.

So! My Friday night plans are to work on my application. I also need to find out how to go about getting my high school and college transcripts (though the college one is essentially worthless, as I bombed pretty much all of the core classes I took while at the College of Charleston).

Also tonight will be working on filling out the FASFA, and doing research on grants and scholarships, if there even are any for somebody my age going back to school. (My parents pointed me right to student loans when I was 16 and stupid, so I never did look into free money the first time around, meaning that this will be all new to me so any pearls of wisdom on this subject is most greatly appreciated!)

Once all that's settled, I can set up an in-person meeting with an Academic Advisor at the school, and get on my way to making this happen. I'm already too late for getting into the Summer 2017 semester, and I'm cutting it a little close for Fall 2017 (which registration opened for 3 weeks ago), but I might still make it depending on how long it takes to get the financial aide stuff sorted out. Otherwise it won't be until Spring 2018 that I can start, but hopefully I won't have to wait that long.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 21, 2017
11:20pm

Well. TCL application sent, and FAFSA completed and submitted. On Monday I need to make some phone calls to schedule my placement testing, and to figure out how to get a copy of my high school transcript from 19 years ago sent to the college. (I decided to not even bother with my CofC transcript since my grades were so abysmal; I'd rather start with a clean slate.) So... Now we wait, I guess.

So Very Late for Class

Introduction:  My name is Billie, and I'm a single gal living in the beautiful coastal town of Beaufort, South Carolina.  I have the three most awesome cats ever, and a job that I love working as an Administrative Specialist in the behavioral health field.  I also live with Systemic Lupus Erythematosis, Fibromyalgia, and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.

Things are good now, but they certainly haven't always been.  At 17 years old, I went off to college thoroughly unprepared and in no way at all ready for what awaited me there.  Not financially, emotionally, mentally, or physically.  And so of course, I completely blew it.  After just three abysmal semesters and a GPA of less than 1, unsurprisingly I flunked out, got sick, went home, but with the promise to myself that I'd get my act together and return some day.

But then life happened (as it does).  The years went by, the job opportunities vanished, and the student loans defaulted.  And so instead of going back to finish what I started, I struggled for nearly two decades, constantly underemployed and swimming in insurmountable debt from that first failed college attempt.  As such, screwing up my college opportunity has always been my number one regret in life.

Which brings us to today.  While I've finally worked my way up to decent employment that I love, it doesn't make up for the fact that I never earned that bachelors degree like I should have.  However, there is hope!  Those ancient student loans are finally repaid, which means that I can finally fill out that good old FAFSA again, and throw my hat back into the academic ring.  And this time around, I'm much more prepared to tackle all of the challenges that come with academic life, plus the new ones that returning as a non-traditional student will bring.  I'm older, better, smarter, and more responsible.  And more than anything, I have way more to lose now, which inspires an immense amount of motivation, drive, and desire to do everything right this time around.

This blog was inspired by some very lengthy musing I've been doing on my Facebook page about this subject of returning to school.  I thought rather than continuing to ramble on there, I'd transfer those passages to this blog (which the next few posts will be dedicated to), and then continue to use this forum for such writings as well as documenting the misadventures of being a 36-year-old college freshman.  I am glad you're here with me for this journey.