update to grad skool

[Asmodeus]

Essentially, this looks to be my one and only semester of grad skool. I was told, by the director himself, that depending on my grades at the end of this term I would be fully accepted into the program. All because he said my grades for my bachelors were too low.

Whelp, I just got me one of them there letters in the mail, from the same director, stating that my provisional status is extended to 12 semester hours and depending on those grades will be accepted.

Thus, being provisional status, I am not elligible for financial aid. I maxed my credit card out to get the two classes I am taking now. $6 an hour at hastings does not exactly give me the money to pay off that credit card- thus can't take any more classes cause I can't afford it.

So, this is what it means to be a WASP who makes below the poverty limit. I have always wondered about that.

References for those shouting :blah: and :gr_bs2:

In one of my classes I have two students who are classified as being minorities- one is a black female the other is an man originally from El Salvador. Being the deceptive SOB that I am I have asked each of them, through various roundabout means, what their bachelors degree GPAs were. His was a 2.35 and hers was a 2.65. While mine was a 3.2.

Oh, they are both in the graduate assistantship program to boot.

Neither of them had to be placed on provisional status because of their GPA being too low. Makes one wonder, no? So, they show up, apply and congradulations yer fully accepted. While I show up, fill out the application, have to wait a few weeks to get any reply, but can't be fully accepted into the program because my grades are too low.

Now, I am all for taking advantage of oportunities should they present themselves so I am not knocking those two their chance at advanced degrees and possible success in academia. What I knock is the lack of consistancy and "equal opportunity" there is in the higher education community.

Needless to say there will be a rather scathing letter addressed to the president of the university as well as the Texas Board of Higher Education. Which, in of itself, will not change a single thing because they are all hypocritical dipshits that have been bought and paid for for decades. But, it will inform them that there is an intelligent white man out in the workforce- one of many- that will not put up with their bullshit.

Or, should I do like in the movie "Soul Man" and OD on melanin pills to get a scholarship to Harvard? Or start prancing around lisping like a fagboy and sue the university for sexual discrimination?

And as for why this is my only semester? 1. I won't put up with their BS. 2. why don't I get a higher paying job and keep going? A. my experience is primarily oilfield and if I get back into that I will be 24 hour on call and working 12 + hour days, thus no time for class or studying. B. Get another kind of job? Sure, ok. There are two plants up here in Paris that provide above average wages- enough to have an apartment and some spending money. Sounds perty reasonable right? Well, they both have rotating shifts. Throws out skool don't it? As for asking the profs for extenuating circumstances... I have and it has been a collective NO. If I am registered for a class I had better be in the class or I will be dropped in I miss 3 in a row.

Now as for those thinking that whenever I post something it is almost always life sucks and people or the system is out to get me. Nihillistic? Quite possibly. Paranoid? Just because yer not paranoid don't mean they aren't out to get you.

It is not that I go looking for the worst in situations: they just seem to find me. Why fight it.... I treat them as people and fairly then they try to ram it up and break it off. Burned some bridges in my time, yer durn tooting I have. And proud of it.

Options: 1. head back overseas, teach or merchant marine, start drinking again, hit the whorehouses and basically join the land of the living again.

OR:

2. I have an... oportunity(I think) of a relationship in Tyler. At least she alluded to something of the sort when I spoke to her last. And yes, if I pursue this it will be my first- relationship that is. I could find some meaningless job that pays the bills and see where she leads to- she has a bookoo $$$ job at UT Tyler and 6 years my junior... and blond. ;)

OR:

3. get a few more credit cards, cash advance them to the limit, and hit the beaches of Thailand or South America for as long as I can.

OR:

4. start hitchhiking again- south. It's been a while.

I am tempted by all scenarios.

Thoughts?

[SimpleSimon]

Head south - forget the blonde.

[MuffyTheVampyreLayer]

Wow - that bites. No advice sorry - just sympathy.

[ms. bing]

1. nobody at UT Tyler makes bookoo $$$ anymore. they just keep adding buildings to the school in the hopes of someday generating such bookoos.
2. that being said, i believe you told me once that you're in the A&M system, right? the UT system has rules like this: if you had at least a 3.0 you have up to 9 credit hours of grad grace period before you have to turn in your GRE scores. if those scores are high enough, you're in. if they're not, you get another 3 hour grace period, so study your ass off. you can take it as many times as you want.
3. never hinge your future on an SO unless you're marrying him/her. you're a guy, you should know that. if you don't, turn in your man card at the door.

[Asmodeus]

GRE done taken and passed with flying colors. So that's not the holdup.

That and the director is about 5'2". he took one look at me and you see the veil of indifference/stupidity/ etc etc go over his eyes. I look like a jock so I'm supposed to be stupid like a jock right?

[MuffyTheVampyreLayer]

I look like a jock so I'm supposed to be stupid like a jock right?
Absolutely! I hear law students are all supposed to look like assholes...hmm. Nope, I looked more like a slapper ;)

[ms. bing]

dude, i'm telling you how it works at my school. if you wanted to go there and your grades are what you say they are, you can go. you'd get all accepted and have the student loans available to you, and life would be peachy.
i get the sneaking suspicion, however, that life in grad school isn't agreeing with you and your wanderlust is ready to move on. so you have no motivation to make your situation better. so instead of owning that and saying "ok, i wasted some time and money, but at least now i know what i don't want to do", you are going to whine about how oppressed you are and how unfair life is. if you wanted to be there, you'd make it work.
the setbacks are temporary, the success is permanent.

[Asmodeus]

i get the sneaking suspicion, however, that life in grad school isn't agreeing with you and your wanderlust is ready to move on. so you have no motivation to make your situation better. so instead of owning that and saying "ok, i wasted some time and money, but at least now i know what i don't want to do", you are going to whine about how oppressed you are and how unfair life is. if you wanted to be there, you'd make it work.
the setbacks are temporary, the success is permanent.

Oooh, talk dirty to me. ;)

And as for yer question, it is a yes to that too. Skool sucks=yes. I'm broke=yes. Wanderlust kicking in=yes. Gettin screwed=yes. All the above in other words.

Yer probably right in the account that if I truly wanted to be there I would find a way- like robbing a bank: I have two scenarios that are almost foolproof. :D

But, I don't really want to be here(in grad skool). I don't like the profs and just the thought of continuing with them and getting my Masters and teaching at some skool somewhere with other beurocratic pansies makes my skin crawl.

"God hates me." "Hate him back. Works for me." :hitit: