How about kids declaring a major and then getting most of it finished and then having a hard time getting the last few classes. How much is that happening.
We know a kid who went through a guaranteed placement from high school into an engineering program. He was apparently kicking butt .Recently I found out that it has been taking him a few years to nail down the last requirements due to lack of classes.
Congrats on your kid doing so well![/quote]
Russ, I think I may have posted here a few years ago that I had a kid (a double-major with two business majors) who graduated from SFSU in May 2011 and could not get the last three classes in their senior year that they needed to graduate. They called me in late January of 2011 complaining that they had been crashing classes for a week and couldn’t get in and also could not sign up for the classes they needed online (couldn’t get priority sign up due to mismanagement of scholarship applications which paid the bursar late – that’s why I’m now handling this detail). I spoke to the Dean of the Business School who told me that he had to “lay off” several instructors and not replace several who had retired the previous summer. I told him that it’s not right for juniors to get into the (350+ and 400 level) classes when seniors who have already been in attendance 5-6 years can’t get the classes they need to graduate. He had his assistant find my kid the classes they needed from nearby CSU campuses (Concord and Hayward [CSUEB], who would transfer the credits back to SFSU) and my kid had to pay over $800 (over and above their tuition and fees to SFSU) to take the Hayward class online through their “extension program.” They did so and also attended the Concord campus classes and graduated May 2011. This kid had a great income (~40K) and “rent control” almost all through college. In earning this much, they lost their CalVet waiver for tuition fees, which was worth at that time about $2500 to $3600, but they didn’t care.
NOW, the CalVet waiver is worth ~$5475 year at the CSU, payroll taxes are higher and jobs for students are much harder to find. So it is NOT WORTH IT anymore for the student to exceed the income limits, IMO.
My last kid was admitted to SFSU but their major program was impacted there and the SFSU Business School could not guarantee graduation in any of 8 disciplines they offer in even six years. Life is too short to repeat those frustrations so they are currently attending a CSU campus with more room (both classrooms AND open space) and more individual attention in which were very fortunate to be admitted to (considering the competition).
Folks, be prepared to “helicopter” a little bit for your UC/CSU-bound HS kid during the app process and while they’re a freshman. As a former bureaucrat myself, I consider myself a master at cutting through bureaucracy (2013/14 was the first time I tried this, except for the last semester of senior year for the above kid).
