FSU CARE Program/ dorms

<p>how are the dorms in FSU Landis hall singles, doubles and triples and is it difficult living in a co-ed dorm? i want to hear from past experiences perferably during the Care program. oh and how are the Care counslers and how is the Care program? i amreally curious anything you can tell me will help.</p>

<p>My daughter did CARE last year. She had a single room with a bathroom shared by one other girl (her suitmate). The residence hall was standard. Room was small (twin bed on stilts, small fridge, room for a three drawer small dresser under the bed, a desk and a vanity area, TINY closet). Recently renovated (last few years). She was mildly irritated and sometimes highly irritated by the amount of required counselor meetings, group meetings, small meetings, etc. all with very short notice (sometimes only 5 -10 minutes notice). Her counselor was completely unorganized and she has ZERO contact with him now. He was not helpful in any way at all - just doing a job for money or financial aid or whatever. They made her take a class she did not want to take but was required for all CARE students (Diversity and Justice) and then they tried to make her take other classes that she was not interested in (American History and some basic math class she didn’t even need as she had already taken all her math as a dual enrollment student in high school) but she refused and built her own schedule (European History, Psych). They set things up for you to do in a group (like go get your books from the bookstore) but she refused to do it on the designated day (went in and did it earlier in the week) because she was not interested in standing in the bookstore with 350 other students in line for several hours. Her friends that followed the schedule did complain about the long wait in lines to pay for books when they could have just gone on their own previously and since most students did take the classes CARE tried to make them take they also could not get the books they needed as the bookstore ran out of them. If you have any common sense you should be able to navigate within the CARE system and still maintain some semblance of sanity. By the time the summer C session was over she was ready to move on and now only participates in the bare minimum for CARE. They are still very disorganized and it messes up her study patterns, etc. For example, you are required to do a certain # of study hours during Summer C (10 per week) which is not unreasonable. But these study hours stay with you on into your years at FSU. Also, fine. When you start in the fall, your mandated number of study hours is based upon your GPA at the end of Summer C - makes sense. When she started her Spring semester, CARE posted a notice on Blackboard that study hours would still be based on Summer C GPA. She continued to do the same number of hours as the fall semester until last week when another email went out stating that students should be doing study hours based on Fall GPA. She now has to go back and put in even more hours to make those extra hours up or a hold will be placed on her account and she won’t be able to register for summer classes…Just one example of bad communication and how it affects her ability to be productive and stay on track. It’s not all bad, they gave her quite a bit of financial aid.</p>

<p>thanks for replyimg so quickly. you really answered a lot of my questions. one more question though. was it hard for her to get into CARE? i have a 3.7 GPA a 1500 on the SAT and a 22 on the ACT. does this seem good enough or is it pretty average?</p>

<p>I would say that those were standard stats last year. I don’t know about the stats of the students this year. How long ago did you submit your application?</p>

<p>jh, it doesn’t sound like the Care program was a good match for you and your daughter. It seems to me you should be more grateful for all the free money you got. The Care program has some expectations of its participating students; students shouldn’t be allowed to just do the parts of the program which they like. From my understanding, the Care program allows a lot of students to attend, and to complete successfully studies at FSU who wouldn’t be able to without the Care program. The Care program is more than just a program to give out free money! Constructive criticism of the Care program is one thing; bad-mouthing it after getting all the aid is another thing.</p>

<p>January 18th</p>

<p>Tallalassie - My daughter and I both are actually pretty organized and neither of us thought her grant money should be spent duplicating classes she had already taken and gotten credit for. The CARE staff was disorganized and they did want to make her duplicate classes so maybe you’re right and the CARE program wasn’t the best choice for her. Unfortunately, we couldn’t know going into it that it was going to be run in a counterproductive fashion. I thought when they emptied the staff this last semester it might change but, as I explained in my previous post, their written instructions are not typically clear and they give out misinformation which then causes more last minute problems for organized students. I felt like I gave an accurate picture of what goes on in the CARE program and explained to OP that if they have any common sense they should be able to work within the system. I left out all of the offensive things that happened while she was in the program (for instance, the staff setting up and condoning a talent show in which all the different types and colors of vaginas were sung about) while the parents and many small children were in attendance. I gave my impressions of Landis which were not really negative but important if you are a female student that is planning to bring suitcases full of clothes with you. I even noted that it was recently renovated. The fact that the CARE program last year and on into the current term is disorganized is just that - a fact. If you find facts offensive I can’t really help you with that. Are you sure you aren’t just looking for a fight? I know I’ve had to steer clear of you before when all I asked for was information…</p>

<p>anonymous00 - I looked back at some of last year’s posts and saw that some people were still being accepted into the CARE program all the way into April. Just a heads up. I know I have seen other posters on here that are concerned since they have not yet heard anything about their acceptance. Also, you can search on my posts and, over the past year, I have posted a lot of different stuff about the CARE program that might be even more helpful than what I posted above. Also, feel free to send me private messages if you have other questions. I’m happy to help where I can. Ultimately, if you get accepted into the CARE program, I would not turn it down. I would just use your common sense provided with the tools that are in place to make your time at FSU pleasant. :)</p>

<p>Janna, what are some of the positive things about the CARE program? How much grant money did you receive? Would you also mind listing some of the other negative things/hindrances about the program? </p>

<p>Also, how was she able to change her schedule if all students were required to take AFH 1003 (D&J)?</p>

<p>Jossie- Well, you get a jump on the other new freshmen when it comes to learning the town, the campus, the hot spots, etc. You also have access to a dedicated financial aid person and other special services like tutoring, CARE-dedicated classes, and key contacts within the faculty. You have the chance to secure a job for the fall and spring before the rest of the freshman class arrives also. </p>

<p>When it came to financial aid, my daughter received about 11K in non-loan financial aid and then took loans for the rest of her expenses. You will absolutely get more financial aid consideration coming into FSU through CARE. Something else my daughter asked me to add when I told her about this thread today is that she personally knows several of the CARE counselors for the incoming class and they are great
people.</p>

<p>Also, she was not able to get out of diversity and justice. She had to take that class and she said today it is also going to be mandatory this next year. She was able to put her foot down and get into the European History class instead of American History and Psychology instead of whatever math they were offering.</p>

<p>Does AFH 1003 fall under history or humanities? I also thought you could only take up to 7 credit hours, and your daughter would have been taking 9 wouldn’t she? I want to get rid of the humanities requirement in the summer and I want to take two humanities classes.</p>

<p>I just hope it’s not as bad as you described - I don’t mind it being disorganized because I can find a way through that, but the rest sounds sort of awful. Are you allowed off-campus?</p>

<p>AFH is a one credit class. So with her other two classes she was maxed out, per CARE guidelines, at 7 hours. I asked her this evening if it fell under history or humanities and she couldn’t remember 100% but thinks it is a humanities class that meets the multicultural requirement. </p>

<p>I think it’s important to note that CARE is going to be what you make of it 80% of the time. Personally, I think she was smart to go get her books before 350 other students went at that exact same moment (the clerk at Bill’s was so impressed that she offered my daughter a job on the spot and said “Your daughter gives me hope that the rest of this year’s CARE group won’t be idiots.”). Personally, I think she was right to say she didn’t want to take yet another American History class. She preferred European and she took it, passed it and had a great GPA at the end of the Summer C session. The CARE staff was just concerned she would not be able to handle those classes.</p>

<p>Just use your common sense and make a good friend or two or three and then try to roll with the punches when it comes to the disorganization. Jossie, you and I have spoken before and I think you’ll be fine. The summer program is only 6 weeks long - it isn’t the end of the world. Landis is not a pit - it’s a nicer residence hall. </p>

<p>You can go off campus if you choose. However, it is made very difficult by the fact that a meeting can be called with only 5 minutes warning and you might be off campus and have an issue with your counselor. In the two or three days after we dropped our daughter off, we had a hard time even meeting her for dinner because we would be driving to campus for dinner and she would suddenly have to rearrange for a meeting her counselor would call with no warning and it would be mandatory. Like I said, these were irritations to her. But, since you are being told about it now maybe you can set your mind to be okay with it.</p>

<p>As I stated previously in this thread, my daughter and I are both very organized. Most 18 year old students aren’t as set in their ways as my daughter is and everyone may find that sudden meetings, a little bit of disorganization and signs posted in hallways with misspellings and ones that tell you move out day is August 1nd (not a thing) don’t bother you. LOL. If you object to hearing songs about female sexuals organs then get up and walk out of the talent show. You can figure it out and it will be fine. Please do not go into this program thinking it’s useless. It’s just not as organized as we thought it would be since it’s FSU and it’s college. Ultimately, the CARE staff assume they are going to have to babysit the entire group of students and that can be annoying if you don’t need to be babysat.</p>

<p>yeah, but they’ll understand hopefully. i’m just mostly worried about being babysat again, i hate that. treat me like a kid, and i’ll act like one. i honestly think in college, and school in general, you learn a lot more skills unrelated to academics than academics itself…haha</p>

<p>thank you so much for your help janna. i guess being on call can help me practice for when i become a doctor. :p</p>

<p>jh, I’m not looking for a fight and I didn’t mean to upset you. It just struck me as strange as in a “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” or, “don’t bite the hand that feeds you” kinda way. It seems small complaing about small rooms, small dressers, tiny closets, having to stand in line, having to go to meetings, not liking the advisors, not wanting certain courses, etc., especially when FSU gave you $11,000 for the 7 week summer session.</p>