It is official. I am going to be a freshman in the Spring 2010 quarter at La Guardia Community College. While yes, it is not my first choice school, it is still a school that has accepted me. I was accepted into the liberal arts program. I will have to ramp up my GPA to get into the business school.

I'm excited now.

How About a Stroke of Luck?

I spoke with the head of our CUNY division here who runs the CUNY-311 project and told him of all the issues I've been having with CUNY, the run around, the rejection, my horrible GPA from 10 years ago and he was stunned I was denied.

He asked me to email him a letter detailing the trouble and what I am trying to do, what school I am trying to attend, and all of the information and he will forward it to his supervisor at CUNY because BMCC should give me some slack for life experience. He said that as a manager of NYC's premier customer service agency for so many years, I should be given some credit for the experiences I have gained and will try to sway the admissions office in my favor.

I'm not putting all of my eggs in the basket yet, but this is a wonderful glimmer of hope. I really hope he can move that mountain out of my way.

It Continues

A friend of mine asked me if I would continue this blog after getting the denial from BMCC. The answer is no. I've not stopped looking for a school to go to.

I've used one of my options of changing the school I can apply to and send the application to LaGuardia Community College in Queens. I should hear from them soon.

More notes about BMCC...

A while back, I sent the email to everyone who worked in the admissions office because I could not get through on the phone. I am now still receiving calls from people in the admissions office and made my displeasure of the whole situation known to anyone who calls and asking them what they would do in my position. All of them said I could apply to Queensborough or Kingborough Community Colleges. They do not have the same standard as BMCC. Problem with this is that both of these schools are beyond inconvenient to get to. QCC would take several hours to get to, as would KCC. So those options are officially DOA.

I hope to hear something good from LGCC. I do need something good in my life to strive for. Though these dead ends are frustrating, they're not going to stop me from trying to find an establishment that will allow me to get the education I want and need.

Depressing

So, after 3 hours of trying to just REACH someone by phone in the admissions office at BMCC, I sent an email to every single person who was listed as working in the office. After another few hours, I received a call back from the Assistant Director of the office, who essentially told me that I'm fucked. Eventhough I sent in my application 11 days prior to their policy change, I'm still being held to the new policy. If I knew that would be the case at the time I applied, I'd have saved my $70!

I've been looking at other colleges, but all are AT LEAST TWICE as expensive. On top of that, none of them are easy to get to.

So, because of my abysmal GPA from ten years ago, I am no longer entitled to an education at a public college. Funny how my tax dollars help fund them.

Rejected?!

I’m surprised. BMCC rejected my application. I need to go to the admission office and find out why. It’s rather disheartening to find out that a community college said no to someone who wants to learn.

This will not be the end of it.

Introducing Miss Lew

My cohort at the office, Miss Lew, has been invited to contribute to the blog! She'd like me to tell you that she is a 42 year old freshman, also applying to BMCC.

I think this will be a great project for both of us to undertake to keep our sanity between projects at work and at school. My posts will be listed as EG and her's will be listed as Miss Lew.

A little background on her, she and I have worked together in the same office for over 6 years now, first meeting in a training class. Since then, we haven't been able to shake the other off. She's sassy and all we do is trade snippy comments while working. She's a hoot and I'm sure you'll all like her.

Small Victories

After calling my old high school to complain about them not submitting my transcript to CUNY, I received a letter dated the next day stating that my transcript was sent. I called CUNY and they did receive it. I suppose I'm one step closer to becoming a freshman again.

CUNY is driving me nuts!

OK, so I'm not even an enrolled student yet, but CUNY is driving me nuts. Probably isn't even their fault, but it's still fun to blame them. I've been waiting for my old high school to send my transcript into the school, but I guess it's hard to locate these things from 12 years ago.

Guess I need to call the HS and find out what is the hold up. I need to get this taken care of so CUNY can start taking my money and charging me way too much for textbooks.

The Beginning

About 3 weeks ago, I put in my application with CUNY to go to BMCC. This seems to be taking forever to come through.

I am currently an Administrative Manager for The City of New York. I began looking at other job postings for the same exact job that I do and saw that every single posting required at least a 4 year degree in business. I never finished school, so to be able to move on when I feel the need to do so, I must have that piece of paper from the school that says I know stuff. Personally, I’d value experience more, but then again, I’m the uneducated one.

And so begins my journey. I’ve applied to the Spring 2010 semester. I may not update much until then because right now is just a waiting game.