Transfer- you can either get mad or aggravated or depressed about the administration and their lack of empathy, or you can decide “I’m getting my degree in 16 months and nobody can stop me”. your choice.
Take your transcript, all the documentation you have from the previous college, and make an appointment to see the Dean of Students (not your adviser). Put it all on the table (the literal table, not a figurative table) and tell him/her “I need to graduate spring of 2016. I need you to help me brainstorm on how I’m going to do that.”
Maybe your major needs to have a different name than the one you think you want (don’t let nomenclature bother you.) Maybe you need to petition your department to award you credit for an independent study next Fall to keep you on track. Maybe you need another distribution credit in science or music or art or whatever. But don’t leave the Dean’s office until you’ve got a plan, approved by him/her which states that if you continue to get all B’s or whatever in the following 12 courses or 10 courses of 14 courses or whatever the right number is, that you will get a degree in X from this institution.
You don’t need someone in the department pulling for you or caring about you. All you need is a senior administrator to look over your transcript and the classes you have already completed and fill in the blanks on what you need to do in order to graduate.
I know you can do it. A year from now you will be months away from being a college graduate!!! So stay focused.
And homesickness is a tricky thing- one day you’ll be eating lunch with a friend or heading off to a club meeting or activity and realize that it’s been hours or a day since you’ve thought of home. And then it will be three days or a week. You don’t get a card in the mail which says, Congratulations! You aren’t homesick anymore!. It just sneaks up on you when you invest your time doing things that are more interesting or fun or absorbing than being miserable.
I have been thinking of going to the dean about it, but felt intimidated by the idea. Do people usually do that? Just go and talk to the dean about academic issues like that? It sucks, because I’m redoing that course right now that I already took, and it really is a huge waste of time. The course I’m taking right now is actually LESS rigorous than the one I took at my local CC. It would be a lot easier to graduate on time if I didn’t have to take this stupid class again. Anyway, I guess maybe it would be a good idea to speak with the dean.
Thank you very much for believing in me, I really appreciate it!
I hate how much I miss home, but am hoping it goes away soon. This whole experience has shown me where I want to live once I’m out of college though… Not here!
I know you can do it. And one of the great things that will happen you are done with college and have your degree and are out there in the working world- you can pay it forward. You will run across some kid at some point who reminds you of you right now and you will give him or her the encouragement required to stick it out and finish college.
And on the class that’s a waste of time- an easy A, no???
Thank you again, I really appreciate it. You’re right, that will be a great thing.
That class will be a GPA booster, but I’d rather take a course that I actually need in order to graduate, so that my course load next year won’t be as heavy.
I’d like to add that you should reconsider withholding all of this from your parents because you fear disappointing them. As a parent, I’d prefer to be trusted that I can handle the information that my kid is struggling because a decision they made isn’t working out as expected. I’d probably be supportive rather than ‘disappointed.’ If there’s a financial impact, the sooner I know, the more likely it is that I can handle it (which a dispute about transferring credits may involve). In short, unless your parents are unusually emotionally fragile, they would want to be there for you. Let them do that.
They aren’t fragile, but I also don’t want to seem unappreciative for them being so supportive of everything I’ve done. They know I’m home sick and know about the credit issue, but are still encouraging me to go for it, so that’s what I’ve been trying to do.
There is nothing better as a parent than making a sacrifice for your kid and then hearing from that kid, 'Mom and Dad, just want you to know how much I appreciate you being in my corner". Your parents want you to graduate- and hearing that you’ve had some obstacles which you are addressing is not going to reduce their commitment to you in any way. If confiding in them is going to give you emotional support then do it.
I admire you for not taking the easy path here- most students would be thrilled for the easy A in a class they’ve already taken. But being a realist is going to help you get past this- take the class, get the A, one less thing for you to worry about.