I am, by all rights and privileges, a professional student. I really enjoy going to school and learning more about a wide variety of topics as I go along in this thing we call life. Given that I am a professional student I have attended a wide variety of educational institutions. I have gone to community colleges (3), small universities (1), large universities (3) and probably some places in between that I have likely forgotten. I began my educational career at a small NM university Eastern New Mexico University and I had a GREAT experience there. Everyone was interested in my learning and was willing to go above and beyond to ensure that you learned the material and could apply it to the work you wanted to ultimately do. The instructors and professors were most interested in that you LEARNED the material not that they could lord themselves over you.
I then went on to the University of Texas at Austin, which at the time was the largest university in the country. That was a SUPER experience, and I really felt that I came into my own at this university. Again the instructors were focused on ensuring that you learned, and fostered a great amount of in/out of class discussion that you could clearly see the application for the future. They were all approachable and helpful, and it seemed as if each of them wanted to truly mentor you. Many of these professors were leaders in their respective areas of research and their work is used in college/universities all over the world.
I went to the other colleges/universities to get various pre-requisites to end up where I am now........the bowels of hell. I can truly say that the community college experiences I had were more helpful than being at UNM. We are 7 months away from gradutating, which means I've survived 9 months of the worst educational experience of my life. UNM's system, generally, is impossible to navigate. Try changing your name after you get married - you need approval from literally 3 different departments. Forget finding a quick solution to a financial aid problem because NO ONE CARES! Call the bursar's office and you will find the most disgruntled worker with the most horrible attitude ever.
(ring ring).......(music....talking....holding for 20 minutes)
Bursar: (imagine a VERY angry woman with an Asian accent answering) Hello
Me: Yes, I was calling because it says online that I have a balance due and I was calling to see why my financial aid wasn't used......
Bursar: (interrupting me) What's your name?
Me: Jennifer W.....
Bursar: (interrupting me) What's the student ID?
Me: My UNM id # or my......
Bursar (interrupting me) What's the ID?
Me: ########
Bursar: No, your ID
Me: ummmm ######???
Bursar: you need to register
Me: But i can't because of the balance --- so there is a hold and...
Bursar: (interrupting me) I took off the hold. --- CLICK
Me: Hello????? (realizing that she just hung up on me!!!!!!!!!!!)
Now I gave her the benefit of the doubt-- maybe she just had a bad day??! however Justin came home one day telling me a similar story and I immediately knew who he had spoken to. (to this lady if you read this blog : GET A NEW JOB OR A BETTER ATTITUDE!!)
Don't even get me started on the instructors at the nursing program - HORRIBLE. I've encountered maybe 2 good ones --- one we have this year and one from last year--- everyone else has royally sucked. They are not friendly, not helpful, BORING as all get out, waste our time with their classes, apathetic, and DO NOT care about promoting learning. I kid you not the youngest instructor is in their late 50's (there is one of these youngesters lurking about) and the rest are in their 80's (no lie).
At the beginning of the year they asked for all people car pooling to alert the staff so they could be accomodated for clinical placement. So Justin and I followed protocol.....we were not placed together but everyone else who car pooled together was placed together. We finally found someone willing to trade us places in groups so we could be at the same location, but then were told we could only be at the same location for 1/2 of the semester -- umm ok....
I've already written about how you "choose" your clinical placements -- the word choice is used very loosely --- so loosely it barely applies.
Forget about asking someone a question because they either get defensive because they feel you are challenging them or they are absolutely clueless.
I've disengaged and CANNOT wait for this program to end.........As a professional student with numerous educational experiences the grade I'd give this university and this program is a big fat
F!!
I then went on to the University of Texas at Austin, which at the time was the largest university in the country. That was a SUPER experience, and I really felt that I came into my own at this university. Again the instructors were focused on ensuring that you learned, and fostered a great amount of in/out of class discussion that you could clearly see the application for the future. They were all approachable and helpful, and it seemed as if each of them wanted to truly mentor you. Many of these professors were leaders in their respective areas of research and their work is used in college/universities all over the world.
I went to the other colleges/universities to get various pre-requisites to end up where I am now........the bowels of hell. I can truly say that the community college experiences I had were more helpful than being at UNM. We are 7 months away from gradutating, which means I've survived 9 months of the worst educational experience of my life. UNM's system, generally, is impossible to navigate. Try changing your name after you get married - you need approval from literally 3 different departments. Forget finding a quick solution to a financial aid problem because NO ONE CARES! Call the bursar's office and you will find the most disgruntled worker with the most horrible attitude ever.
(ring ring).......(music....talking....holding for 20 minutes)
Bursar: (imagine a VERY angry woman with an Asian accent answering) Hello
Me: Yes, I was calling because it says online that I have a balance due and I was calling to see why my financial aid wasn't used......
Bursar: (interrupting me) What's your name?
Me: Jennifer W.....
Bursar: (interrupting me) What's the student ID?
Me: My UNM id # or my......
Bursar (interrupting me) What's the ID?
Me: ########
Bursar: No, your ID
Me: ummmm ######???
Bursar: you need to register
Me: But i can't because of the balance --- so there is a hold and...
Bursar: (interrupting me) I took off the hold. --- CLICK
Me: Hello????? (realizing that she just hung up on me!!!!!!!!!!!)
Now I gave her the benefit of the doubt-- maybe she just had a bad day??! however Justin came home one day telling me a similar story and I immediately knew who he had spoken to. (to this lady if you read this blog : GET A NEW JOB OR A BETTER ATTITUDE!!)
Don't even get me started on the instructors at the nursing program - HORRIBLE. I've encountered maybe 2 good ones --- one we have this year and one from last year--- everyone else has royally sucked. They are not friendly, not helpful, BORING as all get out, waste our time with their classes, apathetic, and DO NOT care about promoting learning. I kid you not the youngest instructor is in their late 50's (there is one of these youngesters lurking about) and the rest are in their 80's (no lie).
At the beginning of the year they asked for all people car pooling to alert the staff so they could be accomodated for clinical placement. So Justin and I followed protocol.....we were not placed together but everyone else who car pooled together was placed together. We finally found someone willing to trade us places in groups so we could be at the same location, but then were told we could only be at the same location for 1/2 of the semester -- umm ok....
I've already written about how you "choose" your clinical placements -- the word choice is used very loosely --- so loosely it barely applies.
Forget about asking someone a question because they either get defensive because they feel you are challenging them or they are absolutely clueless.
I've disengaged and CANNOT wait for this program to end.........As a professional student with numerous educational experiences the grade I'd give this university and this program is a big fat
F!!
