Susquehanna University

Date: Nov 04 2010
Major: Perfomance Arts (This Major's Salary over time)
I was a mildly successful student in high school, although I was only okay at academics my passion was theater and I excelled at it, I competed against thousands of kids for a nomination for a cappie in the category for best comedic actor in a musical. I received the nomination and appeared at an award ceremony at the kennedy center in D.C. and was inducted into the top 20% of actors in the maryland virginia and D.C. area. When I went to chose a college I knew I was looking for a small liberal arts school that would let me focus my studies in performance emphasis theater while being able to pursue the possibility of another major. I picked Susquehanna because it had those qualities and because the theater department was focused in the Russian system of acting as set forth by Constantin Stanislavsky, and because it was friendly and because they seemed to genuinely care. After being accepted here I was thrilled and couldn't wait to arrive in the fall. However, upon my arrival here for "orientation" I was sorely disappointed. The 3 day "Orientation" consisted of incessant meetings with a very small group of freshmen overseen by two upperclassmen. In those groups we discussed nothing of importance, simply going over the summer reading over and over again and I didn't get to know anyone. The next day of our orientation was much the same only now we discussed the summer reading with a randomly assigned teacher. The third and final day we went out into the community and worked for eight hours cleaning up a hospital. The next day was the official start of classes and I was late to every single class and nearly had a nervous breakdown. Our "Orientation" didn't bond us with other students, didn't show us the different buildings on campus, didn't go through our courses, didn't introduce faculty, and didn't explain ANY school policies except don't drink. SO for the first week I wandered ALONE, LOST, and PANICKED, all over campus discovering what classes were where how many days a week and so on, the type of things you would expect to learn during orientation. During this ordeal I sought help with the STUDENT LIFE OFFICE, my STUDENT ADVISER, and the HELP CENTER all of whom despite their incredibly pleasant demeanor had the responsibility nor the inclination to help me. After a while I started to catch on to exactly how to survive, something I had figured out on my own while the faculty excused themselves saying "no one will help you in the real world". It has been three months and it is now november and I this past weekend I went home only to become disastrously ill. I had a fever, was vomiting, and had acutely painful headaches for a full four days and was stuck at home. Upon my return on wednesday night I unpacked and fell asleep, feeling worse for having driven three hours back to school. Upon awakening the next day I began to vomit again and decided to get back in bed to sleep a little while and try to feel better. I ended sleeping for the entire day accidentally and so I tried to contact my adviser who urged me to go to the campus health center, which I did. Upon my arrival at the student health center I was informed that it was by appointment only and that I had to wait until tomorrow at 1pm to see the doctor. Taken aback by the venom with which the woman told me that, I made the appointment for 1pm the next day and walked back across campus to my dorm in the pouring rain. Once I was dry and back in my dorm I began e-mailing teachers to let them know of the latest developments in my predicament. I soon had responses back from all of my professors, each one informing me that all assignments I hadn't turned in were zeroes and no late work would be accepted,and my final grade in every class had been dropped a letter grade and that there was no way to change them. I was extremely distraught and e-mailed back asking about what I had done and why this was the unanimous decision. My professors got back to me telling me that in order to have received credit on my paper I would have needed to apply to the student dean for permission to be excused on the grounds of an unavoidable family or personal crisis BEFORE I started missing class, and that would mean I would have had to get it BEFORE I WAS SICK. Questioning this policy I asked for clarification and was informed that sickness did not qualify as UNAVOIDABLE PERSONAL OR FAMILY CRISIS. Shortly after that fiasco I was informed that at this point I was informed that we were required to sign up for classes for the coming semester, and as I began to sign up for classes I was introduced to the CORE CURRICULUM which consisted of 21 Required classes on top of which I had to take all of the classes required for my major, then I was informed that in addition to that I was also required to do a GO program, which is a trip to somewhere else(almost exclusively abroad) for at least two weeks. Taking into account the GO program and the fact that it simply fulfilled a requirement but that it did not count for any class credit. Another part of the class requirements is that some classes are only to certain grades or they are only offered once every other year, every three years, every four years, or every five years meaning that some classes that I was forced to take to fulfill my requirement would not be offered to me or would be offered out of order making it harder to learn, for example I have to take acting 1 acting 2 acting 3 and directing with each one harder and relying on knowledge from the last, I took acting one this semester and acting two is offered next semester but I can't take it because it is only for sophomores and next year acting 2 isn't offered but acting three is, but I can't take that till I have had acting 2 so I have to wait till I am a junior, and then I have to take directing my senior year without having had acting 3 and after directing acting 3 will be offered because it is only offered 2nd semester and directing is only offered first semester. However, what was truly angering was that we were the only school in the country that REQUIRED a trip, and the only reason was for the publicity of being the only school to require it. These ridiculous requirements coupled with the incident with my being sick has forced me to start meeting about taking overload courses, which is deciding to take more courses that 5 at a time. It was decided that in order to graduate I would have to do overload until my final semester in senior year. I AM A FRESHMAN IN HIS FIRST SEMESTER AND ALREADY I HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT GRADUATION BECAUSE NO ONE EVER EXPLAINED, BROUGHT UP, ADDRESSED, ACKNOWLEDGED, OR EVEN MENTIONED THE RIDICULOUS RULE REQUIREMENTS AND REGULATIONS. ON TOP OF ALL OF THAT I CHOSE THIS SCHOOL BECAUSE IT WAS ONLY 3 THOUSAND STUDENTS AND IT HAS JUST RECENTLY BEEN REVEALED THAT THEY WANT TO DOUBLE IF NOT TRIPLE THEIR STUDENT POPULATION!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS A SORRY EXCUSE FOR A UNIVERSITY, THEY THROW YOU FACE FIRST INTO A TOTALLY NEW ENVIRONMENT AND THEY LEAVE YOU WITHOUT ANY HELP OR CONSIDERATION WHATSOEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!