San Antonio College

Date: Jun 13 2011
Major: Industrial Design (This Major's Salary over time)
The professors at San Antonio College that I've encountered are all quite knowledgeable and proficient. The administrative side of the college, however, is a total nightmare. Many mistakes were made in the course of the 2010-2011 school year. Mistakes which now seem about to cost me my chance at a college degree.

About admissions… my out of state transcripts were lost on no less than three separate occasions. The first of which required me to sit out a semester. The second of which I'd prepared for with extra copies, and it did not stop me from being able to see an advisor and register. The third of which got me purged from all my classes less than one week from class start, making it necessary for me to see the department dean with yet another transcript copy and have myself "written in" to whichever class slots were still open in anything applicable to my major. The resulting schedule was much less than ideal.

About financial aid… the department is woefully underequipped and understaffed to deal with a student body of this size. It is not at all unusual to stand in line for literally hours, waiting to talk to someone seated behind one of four protective plexiglass windows. Waiting to talk tp someone who may or may not be an actual financial aid councillor. At SAC there are no such things as emergency loans and anything involving aid money takes

a minimum of ten weeks to process.

Disbursement takes an additional week or two.

I was mistakenly told by financial aid that "Your Pell Grant will cover the cost of tuition. No problem." Though she had my information up on her screen, she apparently didnt actually look at the bill which was twice the size of my incoming aid. So now I faced the spectre of being once again purged from all classes for nonpayment of the remaining balance. I applied for loans, took on a second job (45+hrs work per week between the two jobs), and dropped from 12 hours to 9. I wanted to withdraw from a second class, bringing my total hours down to 6, but was mistakenly (by the reactions of the rest of the staff, "Why would she tell you that?") told by financial aid to wait until the disbursement or I might not get that badly needed money. I waited, withdrew, the withdrawal was never processed, and now I have an F instead of a W in that second dropped class. As a result of this semester, this comedy of errors; my respectable 3.5 gpa has dropped to a point which renders me ineligable for financial aid. It also, in turn, renders me unable to return to school.
This is definitely not what I went into debt to pay for. Thank you San Antonio College, for crushing my college career.