Irritated with my school

[JoJo90814]

So I signed up for three summer classes at my school, ended up going out of town instead. The online program that our school uses to have us add/drop classes would not let me drop the last class. When I called the school they said I had to come in to drop the last class. I told them I was out of town and couldnt come in and they said I had to come in. I thought this was ridiculous and thought I would deal with it when I got back. So now im back and they say I have to pay the money for the class: $800! I told them my whole story and that I am poor on grants and loans and couldn't pay the $$. I told them I was out of town and how ridiculous it is that you cannot drop the last class online. They say the only way to get it taken off is if I had a medical emergency or military. I know part of it is my fault but also how was I supposed to come in and drop a class when I was out of town?

[arwen]

I guess they don't want to encourage students to just sign up and decide to go and do something else at the last minute. I can see why they restrict dropping classes like that to just emergencies- you decided yourself to go out of town- did you call them then or just now?

[kuiks8]

well it sounds pretty fair to me. They told you to come in...you chose not to. And chose to put off dealing with it...A school is still a business and sets up policies for a reason...

[Seraphim]

Yes, I hate to say it but schools are there to make money.

[JoJo90814]

I was out of town and couldn't go in.

[arwen]

That is not their responsibility, you chose to sign up and you chose to not go.

 

If you buy a bread in a store and you decide not to eat it, do you expect the store to come pick it up and give you refunds?

[JoJo90814]

yeah well their system is ridiculous. You cant drop a class if your in another country for the summer? I mean come on.

[arwen]

Well, what do you expect? The system is not made to please everyone. The system is created to function economically, and avoid people wildly registering and then dropping out. I think they have every right to do so- they have to know in advance how many people will be in the class, and it costs money, time and effort for a lot of people to prepare classes.

[JoJo90814]

I was able to drop all of my other classes just not the last one because of their "system." I still think its ridiculous that I couldnt drop the last class but all of the other classes. Why do you have to go in person to drop the last class? Really there's no point.

[schueysgirl]

I think as the others have said: schooling costs money - sometimes for the students to contribute, but it also costs money in rent, bills, wages for the teachers, teaching materials, stationary etc. When a teacher prepares for a class, they know how many to expect, and prepare the materials, if there isnt enough students cos they all of a sudden drop out, there is no job for the teacher...

 

Usually, schools wont let you just "drop out" of every single class without speaking to you. If they let you do this there is no ownus on you to face up to what your doing, you can just simply do it online and its too easy...usually when someone wants to leave school, college, uni, they do not just leave, there are processes that you have to go through, sometimes it is quite like counselling, so the school or whatever is sure that you have fully considered all your options and what the consequences are if you drop out....

 

so thereforee being able to drop out of everything online is quite a dangerous thing to be able to do....the school needs feedback on why you are dropping everthing, they have to have records on where your going next etc, the funding bodies also need to know...

 

...it is not just a case of clicking a button on the computer to say bye bye im leaving!

 

Could you not of told them you were dropping everthing face to face in the school, before you went out of town?

 

The reason they want u to pay the fees is because you have taken a place on this class, it was reserved for you, and someone else who was going to do the whole class could of had it instead...there is still a teacher to pay!!

[arwen]

It's not about their system. It's about taking responsibility for your own choices and facing the consequences when you change plans. Sorry, I must really annoy you with this. I would really be upset with paying fees, that is understandable. But I really don't see how you can blame the system for it.

[thejigsup]

You enroll for a summer class then decide to go away for the summer without withdrawing from this class, and then you don't want to pay for it? This is not the school's fault at all. You need to take responsibility for your actions, or lack thereof, and pony up the money.

[fragmint]

its called planning. you need to plan are you going to school or going out of town. if you signed up for school you planned to go there, then you CHOSE to go out of town and made arrangements before you could take care of canceling your school plans FIRST.

 

plan. confirm. THEN take action

[fragmint]

I really don't know why no one else wants to support you on this, but I think the school is definitely in the wrong. There is no good reason for them not to allow you to drop the class remotely. I'm sorry that happened to you, but unfortunately that's the way big business turns the cranks these days... without any regard to what or who is getting caught in the gears.

 

i dont think what their 'reasoning' is behind this policy really matters. by signing up you agree to their terms and policies about dropping and receiving refunds. if you dont read the fine print and plan ahead, things can get messy.

[fragmint]

If everything were a matter of fine print being the absoluteness of the law, then it would be legal to loan people money with 1000% interest rates. You told them up front it would be 1000%... not your fault they can't pay because they agreed to it, no matter how absurd it was in the first place.

 

And yet, such things are regulated.

 

Not allowing a student to withdraw remotely is a bad policy.

 

im saying that the OP DID agree to these policies, whether or not they are bad or good in her eyes or our eyes or anyone's eyes or opinion. the fact is she agreed. just because its fine print does not mean its good or bad or the law. but it does mean that she willingly agreed to it when signing up.

 

if not allowing a student to withdraw was SO unreasonable and terrible, it would probably be regulated by the law already too. but its reasonable and its normal for a business to do this stuff

[thejigsup]

Schools do not allow you to drop a class remotely because they have no way to tell if it is really you dropping the class. If you drop, you have to do it in person in most schools. If you could drop classes from wherever you are, people would call up and pretend to be their exes or someone they hate and drop all their classes on them. Not pretty. My son's college is starting to have online registration and it has been nothing but grief for so many students! There is a very good reason for most rules and we have to learn to play by them if we want to function in our society.

[JoJo90814]

I do everything through their online account they have set up for us- accept my financial aid awards, fill out my FASFA, add/drop classes, EVERYTHING! So why I had three classes and could drop the first two (BEFORE THE DROP DEADLINE MAY I ADD) and not the last is ridiculous! Why would the program let me even drop the first two?

 

Its not about being responsible because I was. Its not about me leaving for the summer after I had signed up for classes. Those things didnt matter because I had the online program to do everything on. Like I said I dropped before the drop date.

 

Fine the school has policies but there also needs to be more leniency for these situations, esp. when you are living on grants/loans and can barely afford to buy essentials.

 

I think I might be talking to a McCain/Palin crowd.

[schueysgirl]

I think I might be talking to a McCain/Palin crowd......

 

Not me dear. I'm from UK. But I am a lecturer, so as I explained and so many others have too, we run similar systems. You can drop classes depending on a school system, but when it comes to your lAST module or class, usually there require it in person, because technically there supposed to "counsel" you and ensure you are making the right decision.

 

If it was so easy to just drop classes, then ppl would do it when things were getting them down, too much work, too hard etc and do it irrationally. Then they may regret it later and re-signing is then so much harder.

 

You should not just rely on ONLINE systems. Besides anything else it is polite and curteous to go in, in person and drop out, also you should take in a letter, stating when you are leaving and your leaving date. If you keep everything down on paper it is always traceable and...that way if you had done this you could prove it was before the deadline date and probably wouldnt of been charged.

[Bkoguy07]

I can add/drop classes online... and whats leads you to believe that you are speaking with a particular political party in this thread that has nothing to do with politics?