If you have had problems with Major Cancellation, Registration, Account Holds, Graduation Applications, Senior Seminar Applications, or anything else you can think of, list them here in a comment.
Please post your name (Or at least some sort of moniker) in the comment so that we can respond to each of you specifically. Try to be as specific as you can—we'll do our best to give you advice drawn from over two decades of combined Kean Student experience!
I spent the first half of the Fall Semester trying to get my application for graduation in to the Registrar's Office.
ReplyDeleteI finally managed to submit it, though long after the actual due date. I was lucky enough to have a lot of help from the English Department. The Chair kept extending the deadline for me because the process was so involved (really it was the degree audit that took forever).
Without the dedication of certain full-time faculty, I would not be graduating in May and would probably have to defer or forfeit admission to grad school.
This isn't really a problem with the Graduation Application process itself I guess but a problem with advisement throughout my time at Kean.
I don't really need advice, so I'll leave some rather than asking for it: Make sure you take the time to study your Major Guide Sheet. Make sure that your advisor is a professor inside your program of study. And, lastly, make friends with professors in your department because, without them to stand up for you, you'll get pushed around in circles by the Administration.
I'm an English major in the Writing Option here at Kean. My advisor is a Literature professor. I was told that I HAD to go to my listed advisor in order to get the hold taken off my account and be able to register for classes. I was, at this point, a junior. I knew my guidesheet, and brought it in with my degree audit and a list of planned classes and how they would fit into my degree plan. I was, in other words, a perfectly prepared student going into advisement. My advisor proceeded to ask me if I was a teaching option student, and when I responded that I was a writing option student, he said, and I quote "I don't know anything about that option, get out of my office." Now, I have never taken a class with this professor, because I'm a Writing Option major and he doesn't teach any courses that fit into my degree plan (other than the two literature electives, both of which I took with other professors), and I am pretty sure the man doesn't even know my name. If I was working with a professor who actually taught classes for Writing Option English majors, I probably would not have this problem in the first place.
ReplyDeleteIf Kean would assign students to advisors with more of an eye towards what option of the degree (and English isn't the only major in the school with different options) the student is in, the advising process would be much less stressful.
Do not even get me started on EEO and their utter incompetence or the fact that I have to attend multiple meetings that conflict with either class times, my work schedule or other duties that I have to my family and to classmates when I receive no real assistance from the program. They promise more funding then they provide (the max they provide is $500 a semester. I receive $200 and my income is only about $7,000 a year as an independent student. I know people in that program who were promised free rides if they just agreed to their ridiculous terms), they advise freshman to take up to 7 classes their first semester, and they outright lie about things like internship and networking opportunities. I was told that there were internships available, and when I asked about them, I was told that I wasn't in the right major to qualify. These people also advise students going for their GREs to not worry about the essay portion (including students like me who are going into an English program). Basically EEO has to be completely demolished. Then again, that might just be my opinion.
Haha! You found this post!
ReplyDeleteSince it was posted over the break, we didn't think anyone noticed it (heck, I even forgot about it). We plan to repost it later this semester (of course I'll transfer the comments already here).
At any rate, Claramata: You make a terrific point about the awkward registration procedures being enforced by the English Department. You are not the only person who has complained—I've seen the english office overflowing with students who have complaints mid-way through the semester.
Here's the deal: Although they say that you NEED to go to the advisor they tell you to go to, the truth is that any professor in your major's Department can remove your hold. This means that, assuming you are on decent terms with a full-time professor, you can just stop by his or her office, ask them to do you the favor of removing your hold, and go on to register without even attending one of the preliminary registration lectures.
Of course, it doesn't do to pick classes on a whim at Kean. Remember that free electives CANNOT come from your Department, even if they do not fit into your program of study—for instance, if you are a writing-option english-major, you cannot take the Intro to Linguistics class offered with the ENG prefix. The good news is that many classes are cross-listed between different Departments; you could easily take the same Intro to Linguistics class as long as it is listed with a COMM prefix. Another good example for a writing-option major is Screenwriting, also offered by the Communication Department. (That's the whole English pre-registration lecture, in a nutshell)
As far as your comments on EEO, I am appalled to hear they are discrediting the GRE's. The Essay portion of the GRE is the test's strongest indicator of whether or not a student entering a humanities-based graduate program will be successful. The Verbal section is ENORMOUSLY difficult, and will probably crush anyone who does not read Joyce, Keats, Shakespeare, or the Brontes every day for six months—if you think I'm exaggerating, then please define Assiduous, Enervate, Pellucid, and Conflagration in the next minute and forty seconds.
It is true that many writing programs—especially MFA's—don't require GRE scores, and that tons of other programs accept a wide variety of scores, but any program that still puts stock in that test will throw your application right into the garbage if you don't break 500-Verbal and have at least a 4 for your essay. And, no offense to anyone at Kean, but there are a lot of students who I've seen on campus who would be lucky to receive a 2.5 or 3.
Okay! I'm done with this rant on the GRE, though TBK will have to look into EEO further. At any rate, I hope that this response has been useful to you, Claramata, as well as anyone else checking this far back on the blog. Good luck!
Do you know if I can still major in philosophy? No one wants to give me a straight answer about it......
ReplyDeleteThat is a great question. The short answer is no—there is no longer a philosophy major at Kean University. A minor does still exist, though, and you should be able to declare that minor as a substitute for your general education free electives. The minor, as I understand, consists of eighteen credits in philosophy and religion without any particular course of study. It is a free-range minor that allows you to pick what is of interest to you, thereby personalizing your experience within the field of study.
ReplyDeleteThe bad news is that I cannot tell you how to go about declaring that minor. I myself have been trying to declare the Philosophy minor, now that I am enrolled in the last of the six courses required.
CAS staffords told me to go to Dr. Roxie James (formerly in the GE Department on the 2nd floor of CAS, and now located on the first floor of the old sciences building) but she told me she was not aware that there was still a minor program, and that she did not know how I should proceed aside from talking to a Philosophy professor.
Dr. Sitelman (former Dean of the Philosophy Department) suggested I talk to the Dean of the Political Science Department in Willis Hall. So far I haven't been in contact with that individual, but as soon as I figure this out I'll post again so that you know what I know.
Best of luck,
TBK