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A tremendous f***ing SCAM

SwoopGuy's picture
Submitted by SwoopGuy on

Pardon my rage.  I just needed to get that out.

Jeesh, see, this is why I go to UBC...  granted they do have their mess-ups, and granted it's like walking through a sea of earth tones, but i've never heard of them scrapping anyones programs or stealing my monies!

Reminds me of my last term at SFU. I had left the "fun" courses (studio classes to be done at Emily Carr) until last so I could end with a fun semester. Then they cancelled the programme I was in. I was 15 credit-hours short of a degree and the university permanently cancelled the five classes I needed to finish.

When I went to talk about it the "conversation" involved me chewing out one of the faculty heads. I was ready to climb over the counter and do physical harm. Part of my frustration was around having already taken similar studio classes at Malaspina, with the understanding from Malaspina that they were transferrable to SFU. SFU refused to recognize them. I was OK with that until SFU cancelled their arrangement with Emily Carr before having their own studio facilities ready for these required courses. After much screaming I got the the SFU School for Contemporary Arts to recognize the courses from Malaspina toward my degree requiremnent, but the Faculty of Arts and Social Science wouldn't recognize the credit hours. So I was stuck with all my degree requirements met, except I was still five courses short of the hours I needed. My last semester I had to pay for, take, and pass five classes - any five classes as any level - just to put in the hours.

I had to pay a reg fee (not tuition) just to sign up for courses.  This is typical of most institutions, but most institutions(at least in my experience) don't cancel classes at a point when it's too late to sign up for anything else of use.  All this and they get to keep the reg fee!  I registered so I could sign up for one set of courses (I couldn't use anything else they were offering), and they cancelled my entire set.  Yup, I was mighty pissed.

But this is a mute point at present, as I've found my self a wonderfully crappy job providing technological assistance to people too damn stupid to own a computer.

On the upside, if things go well I might end up moving to New Zealand for a new job.  In the meantime I'll do my best to avoid going on a psychotic killing rampage.  (prospective employers don't look too kindly on those kinds of things)

Hugs for you, V.