<p>iamsirjoshua-- you got the wrong poster!</p>
<p>Kingston:</p>
<p>I am very surprised at your response. It is a waste of money to take intro courses a long time after the advanced courses!!! It is absurd and inexcusable!!! It is like taking multivariable calculus and then 2 years later, taking Finite Math. It should be corrected, and we shouldn’t have to suck it up for $48,000 a year. You have got to be kidding me.</p>
<p>Kingston:
You also do not realize that if my daughter can’t get into these intro courses, she will not be allowed to take a good number of the upper level courses to be an art major at all!!! She has gone to the appropriate people to get help, and they were discouraging It is as if they don’t even care about want a real art program there. This attitude is what will keep AU’s ratings down.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if they are possibly phasing out the art program all together? With hardly any studio courses offered this year especially for art majors, I would really like to know. My daughter’s friend is transferring because of the severe lack of art history courses for the art history major. What is going on???</p>
<p>My son just told me he has his dorm assignment for the fall. He’s in a suite in Centennial. Do others have theirs? Supposedly Verizon wireless reception is better in Centennial than in Anderson.</p>
<p>Cadmiumred: the gen ed system is being reformed. your “daughter” will not see the changes in her AU career. The arts program is not being phased out, there are studio classes, and there are art history classes. if you look for things and figure out ways to make it happen then maybe you’ll get somewhere… go talk to an advisor, they’re amazingly helpful and will help you figure it out. </p>
<p>However whining on a message board for prospective students is not where it should be done. we dont care about your daughters gen ed issues. she can go fix it and figure it out. why the necessity to bring it up here?</p>
<p>It’s almost like you’re personally experiencing this and begrudging it, rather than your “daughter”. I cannot ask you to leave this forum, but I will ask all prospectives to ignore this poster since they are just looking for ways to tear down AU, when it is in fact a fantastic school with endless possibilities. As any other school it has its flaws, but they are working on it.</p>
<p>Kingston:
Do you have any other suggestions? She already went to her advisor many times about this and the arts registrar to no avail. I am not whining, just frustrated that a school like this discourages kids who have chosen a major before they came, and the school is not accommodating them. They will not help. She even tried to place out of the intro courses. They continue to say she needs to take them, but won’t let her. The advisor told my daughter about her own frustration about this issue with other art majors. Being on the waiting lists didn’t work, because the openings didn’t occur until after 2 weeks into the semester where she would have to drop a course with a withdrawal on her record and it is risky to under register to wait in hopes of something opening. Prospective should know what they are getting into .We didn’t!!!</p>
<p>CR:</p>
<p>You are the only person I have ever met at AU facing this issue. You are an outlier. Not a norm; so telling students something that rarely - if ever - happens is not productive. Yes, your daughter needs to take the classes. Well then take other classes until you have enough credit hours to sign up for the ones you need. Its what everyone does. How many credits does your “daughter” have? if you dont mind me asking. I am at 51 and while I have been placed on waitlists I have always been patient about taking prerequisites, and working out my roadmap to make sure everything fits. Be flexible, and work with the system, because the system is not going to work with you dear, get used to that.</p>
<p>Kingston:</p>
<p>Thank you. She has 18 completed from first semester and currently taking 18. I think part of this problem of being an outlier is that the studio program is not a popular major and they just don’t seem to care about it like the business or IR schools. So she cannot register until last week of April when everything will be filled.</p>
<p>The reason she cannot register is because of her credit hours. When I had 17, I had to wait to take classes I needed to, its part of how the system works. And yes, its not a popular major, however, it is still important enough for the school to offer it. However, with the credits she has, she has to wait her turn just like everyone else did. It doesnt matter if its her major or not.</p>
<p>It does matter if its her major! There are not enough studio art courses for art majors. The business school and IR offers numerous courses. The studio art program hardly has any, and they give them to the juniors and seniors for their Geneds. There are many designated courses JUST for IR, JUST for COMM so they can get their intro courses. Lots of business choices. Not so for Studio Art. They just shouldn’t allow ANYONE outside this major to take studio art until the art majors have first crack it!! Right?</p>
<p>Not really, i’ve had to back out from some of my classes because there wasnt enough room. And anyway, your daughter has only completed ONE semester of her AU career… she can take them next year; it wont have a dramatic effect on her. so please. stop whining!!! its ridiculous. Priority is by credits, if you dont like it, well I’m sorry, but there’s nothing you can do, find a way to work around it! THERE ARE WAYS! be flexible, and you’ll get everything done.</p>
<p>“They just shouldn’t allow ANYONE outside this major to take studio art until the art majors have first crack it!! Right?”</p>
<p>Wrong. She couldn’t have declared a major in her first semester. But if she exists, and is so miserable, and still hasn’t talked to a single art professor, or the dean, and if you are still doing her business for her, why not have her transfer to a community college until she grows up?</p>
<p>Mini:
You know I meant intended art major, and she really is too advanced for the intro sequence anyway. They should have let her place out of those. She has an outstanding portfolio! Why does she need to regress with these courses that she can’t even get?</p>
<p>What you “meant” doesn’t matter. Students at AU cannot declare a major until their second semester. Until that major is declared, she is neither more qualified nor more suitable for those classes than my d. or anyone else’s UNLESS she can convince an art professor or a Dean to go to bat for her. But she didn’t even try. She might have an outstanding portfolio or she might have utter crap or she might have nothing, but since she didn’t bother to show it to anyone to make her case, the school is not in the least to blame.</p>
<p>CR: </p>
<p>BECAUSE ITS THE CURRICULUM!! if she had AP exams for them, then she could place out, but its part of the requirements to graduate. If you dont like it, as mini suggested: have her transfer to a community college where she wont have her mother doing everything for her. She should learn now that just because she has an “outstanding portfolio” doesnt mean she will get special treatment. I can be the most outstanding business mind in the world, but when I started AU, i would have had to take Business 1.0 just like everyone else. And when I get out of college, I would start at the bottom of the ladder and work my way up to seniority. same thing here. its LIFE, its what she is going to experience her whole life.</p>
<p>“Does anyone know if they are possibly phasing out the art program all together?”</p>
<p>If that would mean your D has to transfer and you will not be posting here any more–I can only hope so!</p>
<p>CR, for months and months you have repeated your complaints about the Art Department, and everyone on this thread has given you as much advice as they can. It appears your D’s situation is still unsatisfactory. Students who find their colleges aren’t meeting their needs usually transfer, but apparently your D has decided she likes AU enough to tolerate the problems she is having with her course selections, and you have concurred with her decision by agreeing to continue to pay her tuition. You’ve made your respective beds by foregoing the transfer option, and now you need to quietly lie in them. There is nothing else to say, and no point in further posting on the same issue.</p>
<p>MommaJ:</p>
<p>You are completely right. I was hopeful it would change for the better. Mini: You are right.
She has not gone to the Dean, who I believe was away this year, nor a professor. She did really try with the advisor and arts registrar. As far as placing out, she truly is qualified, and that would be the best solution since she can’t into the required Intro courses Kingston!!! She would take them if she could, for god’s sake, if she could get into them! We are worried about her graduating on time, if she can’t get into the intros. We are can’t afford that.</p>
<p>My son has just completed a series of meetings with his advisor and he is very pleased. He wants to major in international marketing (he is in KSB) but also is interested in another interdisciplinary area for which AU does not offer exactly what he is seeking. So he has been given permission to create his own second major. Right now he is talking to professors in various related departments to get their insight and input…then he will present the design for his proposed double major for approval…and it seems like it should not be too difficult for him to do.</p>
<p>As far as his gen ed requirements…he filled a lot of them with his AP exams. But he is still taking some of the classes that qualifiy as gen eds because they are interesting and in areas he wants to explore.</p>
<p>And his advisor also gave him one piece of advice that may be impacting Red’s daughter…he was told that if he wants to leave fulfilling certain gen eds until later in his academic career, he will be virtually guaranteed to get the exact class he wants and when he wants it because he will have the necessary academic seniority. And that taking some gen eds later on will be a nice counterweight to the rest of his upperclass classload.</p>
<p>This suggestion offers two great advantages. As most upperclass classes are more narrowly focused and very intensive, it’s nice to have a class with a broader focus and to see a wider spectrum of faces in class, instead of seeing just the same faces in your major area. And of course, the class may be a bit lighter/easier and so balance out a heavy academic load.</p>
<p>And, of course, if there is something you really, really want to take you will be virtually guaranteed to get it. For example, my son has always wanted to take a sculpture class. And the way he understands it, he needs to take the general art class as a prereq–so he is planning on taking that sequence junior or senior year. And he may end up “bumping” a first year…oh well…(and my son doesn’t need this area because he has already fulfilled this area requirement with his AP exams)</p>
<p>I am sure he is not the only student given this advice by a savvy advisor.</p>
<p>“As far as placing out, she truly is qualified, and that would be the best solution since she can’t into the required Intro courses Kingston!!”</p>
<p>So as per your note, there is not a single professor in the Art Department who would say she is qualified, nor a dean nor an acting dean.</p>
<p>My d. is now planning to graduate in three years, and use the fourth for an M.S. degree. She will take one gen. ed. each of her last two terms, both pass-fail, as well as on more elective (likely jazz vocal, which of course requires prerequisites, or a declared maejor, neither of which she is. But from experience, she knows she will have no problem getting into the course. She will make an appointment with the professor who teaches the course, show the depth of her musical knowledge and experience, provide an example of what she can do now and, we know from experience, they will sign her right up. Just won’t be an issue.) She will prove she is qualified, which is more than 'red’s theoretical daughter is willing to do.</p>