Minnesota State University - Mankato

Date: Apr 22 2017
Major: Social Work (This Major's Salary over time)
This review is an attempt to forewarn particular "age" groups from enrolling in the social work program at MNSU. After thirty some years in the workforce and getting nowhere, I decided to pursue an education. I thought that Social Work would be a good fit for me. I was 48-years-old when I started. Looking back, I ignored the negative signs that should have told me that this was going to be a failure at a great expense. And it was. My advisor was always too busy to meet with me. I switched advisers and it wasn't that much better. The Social Statistics class is the biggest scam of this university as the professor creates her "own" criteria for the class that makes it impossible to get any tutoring for it. She's made it more complicated than it needs to be. Students have had to take the class over just to pass. This is all a means for the university to capitalize on your tuition money to retake the class over and over again. The professor for American Ethics class was rude to me in that looking back, she was deterring me from continuing my education with the social work major. It wasn't until I entered the 300 level social work classes that things really began to change. The staff was rude and essentially made me feel completely incompetent of being able to fulfill this major. Had I known that the so-called unlisted prerequisites were to have extensive background in working with certain populations from the age of five that regardless of good grades or not - you just didn't qualify for the social work major. Classes were taught from such a high profile that I didn't know what was going on. It only benefited the students that had worked in various areas of interest prior and they could "barely" pass the class. It was a way of "weeding out" people like myself as a means to get rid of me because they didn't want an old person like me in the program. I continued to pursue and applied for the major twice. The first time I applied, the university intentionally did NOT send a letter to my home to let me know either way as to whether or not I was accepted into the major. They used this excuse that sometimes the mail process at the university with its complicated process may have inadvertently "lost" my letter. Coincidentally mine was the only one in the class that was "lost." I continued on with the "internship" that was required for one of the 300 level classes. That, too, was like a scam as I was treated poorly from the leader of the staff at that place. It felt like a conspiracy against me and in the end it was. I had a difficult time getting into the class. My advisor gave permission for me to be enrolled, the person responsible didn't add me in and then the class was full…so had to literally push my way to get enrolled in the class. After applying to the major a second time, I got the letter in the mail right away that I was not accepted and that I was to talk to one of the higher up professors within the department about the reason why. So with setting up a time to meet with her, coincidentally she had to cancel it because of an important meeting and wasn't willing to give me the option to reschedule. That told me right then and there that there wasn't any "reason" per se and lead me to believe it was my age that affected this outcome.

I switched majors and this, too, was a similar nightmare for where the advisor and his team wouldn't put me in to be enrolled in the 400 and 500 level classes to complete the major.

Since then I've ran out of financial aid with only eight credits left to complete the major.

The biggest disappointment with my experience is that I took the social statistics class FOUR times…and got a C- with the last time. While social workers use statistics a lot, you could get into the major with a C- in statistics. However, the new major does NOT require heavy use of statistics at all, and yet, need to have a C or better. This is how most of my financial aid got burned up.

Other than that I loved the campus, I loved my classes, I loved learning the things learned, but very disappointed to be singled out and treated with the most disrespect a student can be treated. I did absolutely nothing to be treated like this. It is disheartening.