Graduation

Friday night I went through my graduation ceremony at Delta.  I dressed up, of course.  It’s about making mom proud, after all.  I got there at about 5:55, and stood in line for an hour while the graduating class of 2009 got assembled around me.  This seemed the longest, since I did not know anyone around me.  An older lady, presumably in charge, kept reminding us to go to the bathroom.  I have a nervous bladder anyway, so this didn’t help. It was like she was our substitute mommy.

Eventually we got in 2 lines, one on each side of the hallway.  It was hot there, with little air circulation.  I wasn’t looking forward to the gym, figuring if the hall was this hot the gym was probably going to be worse.

5 minutes late, at 7:05, we walked into the gym.  I had enough people in front of me that I figured that I would be in row three or so.  Ultimately though, the line on the right side stopped and let the line on the left side progress.  I ended up in the front row, right on the very left edge.  The lady that I was sitting next to was overly friendly.  She treated me as though I was her best friend for years, which was kind of odd since I just met her minutes before.  The gym was surprisingly very cool, and not bad at all.

I sat through the ceremony.  Thankfully, the little old lady reminded me to go to the bathroom earlier, so I was a-ok.  The entire thing only lasted an hour or so, and all culminated in this moment:

Video – Walking Across

After that, I sat and watched a large amount of people I did not know graduate mere feet from where I was sitting.  I contemplated what would happen if someone really did have to go to the bathroom during the ceremony.  I pictured random graduates as they walked across, regretting that bottle of water they drank just minutes before the ceremony. Overall though, it was nice, with refreshments afterward down in the commons area.  I ate many many brownies.  I drank a ridiculous amount of punch, having only drank a bare minimum of liquids that day.  Again, I didn’t want to have to go to the bathroom.  I couldn’t be that guy.

Saturday

We got home late Friday night and got up early Saturday, as per normal with the beasties.  For some  strange reason, they get up earlier on weekends than they do on weekdays, when they’re hard to wake up and get going.  I don’t understand it.  It’s probably one of those things, like how women go to the bathroom in flocks.  Just strange behavior.

Anyway, we went to a pancake breakfast for Ben.  I looked quite well rested..

… well, maybe not.

Ben was nominated as an “incredible kid”, and got free pancakes and all sorts of accolades.

More pictures and video here.

Then I took Maddie to soccer; her team won.

Finally, I went to a heavy metal concert with my wife.  It was a good concert, and I figured out where the bathrooms were  in cobo hall pretty easily.  I used them fairly continuously, as normal.  It was after the concert that I found perhaps the most convenient bathroom.  We walked into the parking garage and made our way towards my car, which I had parked near a corner.  As we drew closer, we saw a very large man standing next to my drivers side door, urinating on the wall next to the car.   As I approached I figured I had to say something, so I said “Hey, thanks for not peeing on the car man!”.  He was very drunk.  As we drove away, we saw the enormity of the puddle.  I wonder, how many beers did this guy drink?

We drove home and arrived around 2am.  We were in bed by 3am.

Sunday

We woke up at noon and eventually made our way to Ghengis Kahn, a mongolian bbq place here.  My parents took everyone out to celebrate my graduation that Friday.  Afterwards, we went to their house for some cake…

… which was very tasty indeed.  Thanks mom, it was a nice day.  I got nice gifts, and I’m thankful for all of this.

Regarding The Baby…

I looked up the information for the development through this week, and it’s getting incredibly human looking

Also of note, vocal cords are in place, fingernails and toenails, the brain is fully formed, and facial features are in place. Most importantly for this entry, it has developed kidneys and have started to secrete urine.  The cycle is complete.  From me at graduation, to a large drunk man at the concert, to the fetus, this entire blog post is urine related.  I’m not sure how I’ll top this.

Tomorrow is both our anniversary as well as the first doctors appointment wherein I’ll hear the heartbeat and see the kid.  It should be interesting!

Oh, and if you’re still confused as to what Micturition is…

… Or, how to graduate community college in as little as 14 years!

The Beginning

I started my college journey before I even graduated from high school.  The theory was that I would complete the easy courses and get them out of the way so that I could finish up early.  I started with taking CIS-133, a basic computer class.  Today, they teach you about this stuff:

Prepares the student for the on-going ethical, environmental, societal and global issues of technology. Presents computer concepts including input and output of data and how information is processed, stored, and shared. Examines the purpose of networks, their technologies, scopes, and connectivity issues. Gives major consideration to Internet technology and access emphasizing research, education, communication, e-commerce, and security. Provides an introduction to software engineering and the analysis and design of computer systems. Discusses computer platforms, architectures, and system software. Develops PC competencies and skills including file management, word processing, spreadsheets, presentation graphics, database, Internet, Web pages, and graphics.

Back in 1995, in the Midland off-campus center we used Microsoft Offce 4 on Microsoft Windows 3.1.  This was before Microsoft went to the year numbering method for their software, of course.  Printouts were handled by dot matrix printers, and done rather poorly at that.  Key concepts included saving files, what a word processor is, and so forth.  It’s a world of difference between the class I took and what it’s become.

Still, I was in school to get a degree in Computer Information Systems, CIS.  This stuff was remedial at best.  Because of my disinterest in the class, I only received a B+.

This class ended up being the only one I would take during high school.

The Early Years

After graduating High School in 1997, I began taking classes, starting with the basics:  College Composition 1, Algebra, and C++ Programming.  These would, I believed, be a good base to start at.  I wasn’t going to school full time, which I later learned was a mistake.   I intended to earn my Associates Degree and transfer to Saginaw Valley State University.  Oddly for a CIS major, I aced College Comp and got C’s in both of my other courses.  Perhaps this should have been where I decided to change my program, but I never did.  Computers were what I loved, and I really intended to do whatever it took to get through the coursework.

Next semester, the fall of 1998, I began taking the next math class, skiing, a computer class called as/400 intro, and the next college composition class.  I did reasonably well, except for intermediate algebra.  This was another sign, perhaps, that I missed.

I continued.  Throughout these first years I didn’t take college as seriously as I should have.  That, combined with my part time status caused me not to make quick progress through my required courses. In 1999 I continued my poor math related scores.  In 2000 it all fell completely apart.

The Bad Years

In 2000 I got a job at a .com, and had a schedule that varied.  I had difficulty in keeping hours straight, and attending classes regularly.  I massively bombed, and failed all my classes in the fall of 2000.  It was very disheartening, but I didn’t worry about it too much since, after all, I had a job that I was happy to work at.  My GPA fell to the lowest it had ever been, a 2.55.  I still live with the mark these classes made on my transcript;  I had neither the time to retake them, nor the capability to in one instance (the class is no longer offered).

So I dropped out.  Not officially, of course – I just stopped going.  Eventually my job disappeared, my marriage disappeared, and I became saddled with debt.

Every time I thought about college I would feel sick to my stomach.  It seemed like a foregone conclusion that I would graduate from college when I was in high school.  Things seemed beyond repair.

Jolene

Eventually I met my wife, and she had expressed a desire to go to school to get out of her current place of employment at some point in the future.  I shared my feelings, how I felt like I had failed miserably and not lived up to my expectations.  It was then that, with Jolene’s encouragement, I went back to school.  Without her, where I am now would certainly not be possible.  She helped fix me.

What would I do, though?  I decided that perhaps working with computers alone was not for me.  I looked at my skills, and what I enjoyed about running my own business.  Strangely, the financial aspects were the most enjoyable.  Something in accounting, then, would perhaps be good?

The Returning Student

I went to Delta and signed up again, and got my new ID card.  I signed up for a science class, to fulfill a requirement for SVSU and a Intro to Accounting class.

It was strange to enter back into the classroom.  I was considerably older than most of the students, which was dismaying in its own way.

I excelled at both classes. Since then, this has been what my transcript has looked like:

There is no entry for Guitar yet, but I’m certain I’ve received an A.  The GPA calculation since I’ve returned is a 3.755, which is quite a bit more impressive than the 2.55 I had previously.  Cumulatively, it’s only raised me up to a 3.04 so far because of my other failed classes in 2000.

Perhaps most entertainingly, one of the E’s I recieved in 2000 was in Accounting!

Highlights

There’ve been some interesting times in class I’ve had since I’ve returned

• The Mr-Wizard esque science teacher in my first semester returning
• Nearly turning an E in accounting into an A (it would’ve been more satisfying than the A-)
• Taking the required 1 credit gym class and having to run a mile lap with a bunch of 18 year olds.  Getting lapped.
• Taking two speech classes, since I had decided to go to CMU, which requires a different class than SVSU
• Calculus is still hard.  Statistics is much easier and more interesting.  I’m glad to be done with both, at lease insofar as classes are concerned
• Almost acing Intermediate/Managerial accounting.  I was 1 point shy of a perfect score.
• Learning that adjunct professors don’t necessarily care about their classes.
• Microeconomics is much more interesting than Macroeconomics.
• I enjoy teachers that use beer instead of ‘widgets’.
• Getting told that I couldn’t leave my Business Communication class without penalty to my grade, even after I had completed all of the classwork and homework due for the next period – with nothing scheduled for the rest of the class except for working on, you guessed it, the homework that was due.  Being spoken to as though I were in middle school.

Things I’ve Learned

• I perform best when I have a lot of things on my plate.  I do better with a full schedule than a mostly empty one.
• Organization is the key to A’s
• Note-taking on the laptop is key.  I cannot read my own writing otherwise.
• I am apparently very effective at public speaking, regardless of my distaste for it.
• The teaching staff, for the most part, has been excellent.  The support staff, for the most part, has been terrible

Graduation

Tomorrow I will be graduating from Delta.  It’s been a part of my life for so long. Strangely, I will have one more ‘make-up’ class this summer over the internet, so I don’t waste time at CMU taking it.  The only thing I know is that I cannot stop.  We must continue to push our boundaries to continue to grow.  I am slowly turning into the person that I want to become.

The drive there was 40 minutes.  It’s not that far away, but there’s a number of red lights on the main road there and you have to go slow to watch out for cyclists and the like while at the college.  It’s only some 28 miles away.

I got to the college and scouted out a metered parking place.  You have to pay for the parking at CMU, and if you don’t you have to park in a metered spot.  There are relatively few metered spots, but I found one near the admissions center, near the middle of the campus.  I deposited 50 cents into the meter, enough for an hours walk.  I figured that by that time I’d be either cold or wet, given the weather.

Almost to the college I realized that I did not bring my map of the campus.  This was a major detriment – so I started my tour off at the book store.  If any place had a map, I figured the book store would be it.

The bookstore had course schedules for the current semester, which conveniently had a map in it.  I didn’t take any pictures from the inside, but the book store had 2 levels.  The first level you see when you get in is filled with clothing and other college supplies.  All the books are in the basement.  Each level is about as big as the Delta College Bookstore in its entirety.  I snooped around but didn’t buy anything – I figured I’d have time to do that on Friday after orientation if I chose.

Attached to the book store is the Bovee university center.  Not much picture-worthy here, it’s mostly offices for student services.  This is where I’ll start my day Friday.  They do have some interesting dining facilities in this building though, including Quiznos subs, Big Apple Bagel, Starbucks, a full food court, and other places to eat.  The top level of the building is all conference rooms and such.

Armed with a map, I proceeded to the next point of interest – the library.

This library was HUGE.  A multi-story building with a running exhibit inside of the history of the printing press, immaculately maintained.  This was around lunchtime and there were lots of people inside at the many study areas. I went up several stories, and found a likely place for me to camp out if I have to wait in between classes.  It’s close proximity to the food area of Bovee makes this a good place if I need to eat something as well.

I walked past Warriner hall, the admissions building and where all my student records are kept to my next destination.  Warriner hall dates back to the 1920’s.  When I was here last to speak to an admissions advisor I walked around the building – it’s very 1920’s in design, and quite cool.  I guess it was built on the burned down remains of the first CMU building that stood here.

Since I’ll be going to the College of Business for my major, I walked to where I will likely be spending a lot of time where those classes are taught, Grawn Hall:

I entered the building and checked out the first level.  Most of the class sizes seemed to be about 25-30 students – I did not take pictures as there were lectures and such going on.  This made me feel better though, knowing the area that I’ll likely be in and the types of class sizes I can expect.  Some of the rooms were larger lecture-style rooms but the majority were of the same size that I’m used to currently.

Right across from Grawn Hall is a malt shop.  The campus is peppered with little places to eat and buy stuff

Also of interesting note, everywhere you walked there were things written on the ground in chalk.  Here’s one outside of the library

Some of them, like the one above, were for events.  Others were just random words or sayings.  Occasionally I’d run into some other strangeness as I walked my figure-eight around the north part of campus, like these two people who were fencing in the walkway

I unfortunately didn’t get a close-up of the swashbuckling action.  I didn’t want to seem all touristy, ya know?

Continuing on, I saw the music building – which was a massive structure, and very artfully crafted as you’d expect a center for the arts to be.

Nearby was this building, which was still under construction.  It was slightly castle-like, and is apparently going to be used for educational services.  The pricetag was still in front, it cost 50 million to build.

At this point my hour of meter time was almost up, so I went back to the car.  When I got there, the meter read this:

Just in time.  Although I don’t think they’re strict enforcers of the meters. The car next to mine was on an expired meter when I got there and still was sitting there sans-ticket when I got back.  No, it didn’t have a parking decal either.

So I hopped in my car and drove around the south part of campus, which houses all the sports-related stuff.  I’m not a big fan of sports, but it was interesting to see anyway.

The band practice field:

Football and Baseball fields:

I wrapped up my excursion by driving around the student housing section, called the ‘towers’.  Of interest is the miniature 7-11 tucked in next door to it.  I image it fuels a lot of the caffeine-related study sessions for the tower students

Also of note – people in this area (residents of the towers?) drive like maniacs.  Every person in this vicinity seemed to think they were in Mad Max – since it was lunch time, I got a good sampling of the residents there.

All-in-all, it was a good visit.  I got to have lunch with Jolene, and got to tour the campus on my own time.  I must not forget a map next time though, it’d be for sure easy for a directionally challenged person such as myself to get lost.

So we arrived at Delta College for our meeting with the Director of Financial Aid, David Urbaniak, 10 minutes early.  He came out and introduced himself to us and then we waited for the Academic Adviser, Jessica Miller.  I like Jessica, she’s one of the few helpful staff that I’ve found at Delta.  Should you find yourself in need of advising, be sure to ask for her first at Delta.

The meeting began with a brief overview of the current status – that I was going to be essentially billed for the classes I’m currently taking because of the fact that I’m not in a program currently.  The reason I’m not in a program currently is because an Associates in Science degree was sent to me already, despite me not indicating that this is what I wanted to do.

When confronted with the idea that I never requested this from Jolene, who works in the registrar’s office, he simply stated that he ‘couldn’t speak for another person or department’ and that she stated that I requested my degree to be sent to me as soon as possible.

This is not the case; I provided my substitution request sheet to Jolene in the registrars office and requested she put the substitution through.  We even talked about graduation, and before I left I asked her to confirm that this should be all I need for graduation.  She did affirm this. My witness, also named Jolene, was sitting in the waiting chair across the way from Jolene’s desk, overhearing our conversation.

A Lack of Responsibility

Throughout this whole process nobody has taken much in the way of responsibility or ownership for the issues I’ve faced.  I’ve spent most of a year dealing with this, and mistakes have been very certainly made.  All it would have taken  to make this ‘better’ is an acknowledgment that something wrong happened in the process.

During this meeting, like in every other meeting I’ve had with Delta’s support staff, David did not take responsibility for the issue.  He did take ownership of it, and wanted to have this meeting in order to fix my issue – which I appreciate.  He stated that he didn’t want to assign blame, which is fine – but there was a lot of it that needed to be assigned.

I suppose it really comes down to people skills issues.  Being conciliatory does not necessarily mean that you have to accept all of the blame for the past, but perhaps a glimpse of being sorry that I’ve been through this for this amount of mistakes would have been appreciated.

The Result

Essentially, if I said “I do not plan to take any more classes at Delta College” they wanted me to pay them back their aid.  If I said “I plan on taking more classes at Delta College to pursue a 3rd Associates Degree”, even if I’m lying, they’ll grant me the grace to “continue receiving aid” for the classes that I currently am enrolled in.

So, in essence, they encouraged me to lie to continue receiving aid, in lieu of fixing their mistake about sending me the Degree before I asked for it.

I am now pursuing an Associates in Management of something or another.  I don’t really know what program it is, nor do I really care.

What’s Next

A whole new set of paperwork has been initiated to get me moved into this program, effective from the beginning of the last semester.  If past experiences hold, something will go wrong and I will need to continue to visit the Delta College staff to fix their errors and oversights.

The Associates in Science degree that I received in March is valid and will continue to be.

Graduation will be fine and should not be a problem.

Graduation, however, needs to be fully coordinated with Jolene in the registrars office, the same person who pushed through a Degree when I asked her to push through a course substitution request for graduation.  Then when asked she did the ole CYA manuver (Cover Your Ass, for the uninitiated). This delights me to no end.

I just want this to be over.

They emailed me because they sent me my degree already, midway through the semester.

This leaves me with no degree that I’m currently working towards, which the federal auditors would not like to see.

He talked with Jolene in the registrars office who told him that I “Wanted my degree pushed through as fast as possible”.  This is not the case, I asked her to push through my course waiver request, which would allow me to graduate.  At no time did I ever ask for a degree to be sent to me via mail, hence my surprise when it arrived.  We even discussed graduation, as in the ceremony.

I’m going to talk to him at 3:00 tomorrow in his office with the academic advisor that I had been working with.  He mentioned that I had not been in to see him previously, and inferred that we probably could have had it taken care of if I had.

Except, of course, for the fact that the one time I tried to go back to the financial aid office I stood at the desk for 20 minutes without an acknowledgment from the working staff.  This was during the middle of the day, and yes, they saw me standing there.  With that kind of service, why would I object myself to more?

I’ll be sure to update this with more information.

—–Original Message—–
From: Sika, Elvina – Staff <elvinasika@delta.edu>
Sent: Tue 3/24/2009 12:57 PM
To: Cooke, David – Student <davidcooke@delta.edu>
Subject: declaring a new college major for financial aid purposes

Hi David.  I need you to go to the attached link

http://www.delta.edu/currentstudents/ServicesforStudents/ProgramsandGraduate/HowTo/DoaProgramChange/default.aspx

and update your college major to show you are now working towards a third degree.  You received your AS degree in March 2009, and in order to keep your financial aid for this Winter 2009 semester, you must now be working towards a new degree.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me. Please update your major as soon as possible and send me a quick email response letting me know that you have done it.

Elvina Sika
Delta College
Financial Aid Office
1961 Delta Rd.
University Center, MI 48710
989.686.9553
Fax: 989.667.2202
Email: elvinasika@delta.edu <mailto:elvinasika@delta.edu>
Delta’s Homepage: www.delta.edu

I responded with the text below:

I don’t understand your verbiage.  “In order to keep your financial aid for this Winter 2009 semester”…  Does this mean that if I don’t follow this link and change to a third degree that delta will bill me for aid granted, received, and already applied towards classes?

I’ve had such troubles with the financial aid office that it’s insane. I’ve literally spent almost a 2 credit hour class since my initial rejection letter trying to resolve issues that the Delta College administration.  In fact, issues with the financial aid office caused me to write the following letter to the president of Delta college, Jean Goodnow:

*************************

Dear Ms. Goodnow:

I have been attending Delta College on and off for many years, and have been impressed by both the affordability of the College as well as the quality of the instruction.  The staff that I have encountered have been, for the most part, extremely helpful.

I originally began going to Delta in pursuit of a Computer Information Systems degree, with which I was going to transfer to Saginaw Valley State University.  The job market lured me away from college, and I worked for some time in technology.  In the fall of 2007 I returned to school, this time wanting to pursue a degree in Accounting.  I began classes and did very well, earning a place on the Deans List in 2008.

I began registering for classes for four of my six remaining classes needed to transfer to Central Michigan University in the fall of 2009.  As part of this process, I filled out the FAFSA online on 05/08/2008.  Having had no issues before, and a definite need for aid, I did not foresee any issue with this.  It was at this point that I began to have difficulties with the college.

1.      I was issued a denial letter from the financial aid office because of too many credits being taken without a degree being earned.  This occurred on 6/16/2008, and the root cause of this was because I had switched programs from CIS to Business Administration, leaving me with classes taken that aren’t applicable to my degree.  I was busy during the summer, both with a class at delta (no aid for this class) as well as with fulltime work and childcare for my two elementary student children.  I downloaded, filled out, and submitted the “Standards of Academic Progress” form on 9/10/2008.  This process was humiliating since it’s the same form that people that fail out of college while on aid are required to fill out.

2.      On 9/12/2008 I went to CMU and spoke with an admissions advisor there to be certain that my courses were appropriate for transfer.  I registered to be a student there starting during the fall of 2009, pending the completion of the classes I’m taking now and the classes I will be taking in Winter 2009.

3.      I went to see an academic advisor at delta on 9/15/2008 to be sure that I was going to be able to complete my time with delta in a very short time, and he looked over the classes and saw that they were appropriate for transfer.  He saw no issue with what I was trying to do.  I did not get his name.

4.      I waited till the 9/15/2008 and emailed the financial aid office requesting an update.  They requested the 2008-2009 Independent Verification Worksheet, a signed copy of the Federal 1040 tax return including all W2’s, a copy of schedule C tax form, and a copy of the child support my wife receives as part of her divorce from her ex husband.  I returned this information very soon thereafter.

5.      I received a further denial for financial aid on 10/01/2008, this time requesting that I contact an academic advisor and receive their signature on a form.  I filled out the form and met with Jessica Miller in the student advising office on 10/03/2008.  She provided the signature that I needed, and also advised that I request a graduation for the associates degree that I already have earned but have not yet received.  I filled this out, and turned in the signed copy of the form to the financial aid office.

6.      I received in the mail a denial of the associates degree because instead of 1 LWA class, I had done 2 LW classes back when that was the requirement.  I went back to see Jessica Miller on 10/21/2008 and she assisted me by putting in a substitution request for the 2 LW classes to the LWA.  This was approved by the program coordinators, the dean, the registrar, and then was placed into records.  I later received my first associates degree, and will follow this with the associates for business
administration pending my completion of next semester.  Jessica was, by far, the most helpful person I’ve contacted thus far in this process.

7.      On 11/3/2008 I received notice after emailing the financial aid office that the Financial Aid Appeals Committee met on November 11th or November 13th to review the documents.  On 11/17/2008 I received a response to another request for a status update, stating that I would receive a paper mailing that week.

8.      On 11/22/2008 I emailed again not having received a mailing, and got a response back on 11/26/2008 that it was sitting on the desk of the review committee, and there has been a delay in processing.

9.      I received my financial aid award letter on 12/9/2008.  It included zero aid for the Fall of 2008 semester, and aid for the two classes in winter 2009.  When I responded to the award letter asking why this was the case, I received a response that the committee denied my appeal because they wanted me to apply for a degree.  Since I had done this, they chose to approve the Winter 2009 semester for the two courses needed to complete my degree.  This is confusing, since the classes for the Fall of 2008 contained requirements for my degree, yet they refuse to provide assistance.

This entire process has been exhausting to me.  It has been over three months since my initial attempts at appealing the decision made by the financial aid office and almost six months since my initial denial of aid.

I understand what it means when “The Delta Difference” is mentioned in commercials as well as in my personal life.  Delta has been a part of my life for a long time, and has long been something that I have recommended to others looking to get a start in college.

This is not the experience that I have had when dealing with the Financial Aid office.  While I understand the need to take care and be thoughtful about who needs and deserves aid, it seems as though bureaucracy has allowed students such as myself to be swallowed up in it.  I have even had difficulty getting the attention of someone in the Financial Aid office when I personally visit, as I tried to do on 12/11/2008.  I stood at the front desk for 20 minutes without being so much as acknowledged by the staff that was working.

At this point it is almost a foregone conclusion that I will not be receiving any sort of aid for that semester no matter what hoops I jump through, and no matter who I speak to or say.  I would appreciate any sort of action that your office could take, but after these six months I am rather discouraged.  It is my intent with this letter to make you aware of the issues that students such as myself face.

Please contact me back regarding these issues at your earliest convenience.  I would greatly enjoy having a dialog regarding these issues.

*************************
Following the above letter, the financial aid office approved my requests.  What has happened since then has been the following:

1) I applied for graduation as you are supposed to do, by the deadline that you’re supposed to do it.

2) I received the same denial for the associates in science degree as I did in step 6 above.  Because of the renumbering from LW to LWA, I was unable to graduate.

3) I contacted Jessica Miller again and requested on January 30th a substitution request

4) Nobody did anything on the administrative end, which I’ve come to expect.  I went back to Jessica Miller again on 2/19 and re-requested the substition.

4-10) I went back again and again and inquired about six times to try to get this pushed through.

11) Eventually, it came down to the registrar.  I went to see Jolene in the registrars office and asked her to push the request through.  She did.

12) I received my Associates in Science in the mail.  I’m not sure why this happened.  From my knowledge, I’m currently in the classes required to obtain my associates in science and go to CMU.  The classes I have taken are on the MACRAO transfer sheet.  I need to finish this equivelency before I go to CMU.  I did not ask for the diploma to be mailed to me, I requested graduation.

Now I get your response below.  Is your job to go through recent graduates and attempt to deny them financial aid?

As you’ve seen above, I am more than willing to jump through any hoops delta would like me to jump through.  However, I need to know – if I choose a different program, what will happen?  Does it matter which program I choose?  Why do I need to do this when the whole crux of approval rested before on these classes I am taking now for my degree?

Most of the communications I’ve sent to the financial aid office have resulted in a lack of reading and responding my questions.  Please go through and read these and try to answer them for me.

Regards,

David Cooke