14 years ago this summer, my best friend Joni and I headed down to "Preview" at ISU. We stayed overnight in the dorms, registered for classes, ate cafeteria food, got student ID cards, etc. I had no clue what I wanted to major in, so paying private school tuition seemed foolish. Plus, the majority of my aunts and uncles are are ISU alum. I knew it was the right place for me. It was the only place I applied.
I enjoyed my time at ISU. Bloomington-Normal is a great area, and one I can see myself happily living in someday. But, sometimes I felt like I was just another nameless face in a student body nearly triple of size of my lovely hometown. My advisor never knew my name, and each time I met with him I had to introduce myself. Each semester I had at least once class of 100+ people. Registration was cutthroat. At the time, I thought I wouldn't be having these problems if I were at a smaller private school.
Enter Dominican. To be fair, everything regarding this school has seemed a bit rushed, because as late as April, I thought I was going to be at Olivet. When that fell through, I got a list of approved teacher certification programs from the ROE. I contacted all of the ones in the Chicago area. Dominican was the first to respond to me, so I went with it. I gathered my necessary documents. I wrote an application essay. I don't remember what it was about. I got three letters of recommendation. By June, I was ready to go...so I thought. The guy I'd been working with in admissions sent me an email, saying all systems go, I'd be getting my official acceptance letter in the mail and I could register. Great! I wasted no time in responding to him. He didn't reply. I never got my acceptance letter. A week or so later, I emailed him again. He didn't reply. Another woman in the department had emailed a time or two about some things. So I contacted her. I said I'd contacted the admissions coordinator twice and I hadn't heard from him. Since it was now already the middle of June, I really wanted to get registered. She wrote back and told me that he was on vacation. Huh. Isn't it pretty easy to set up an automatic email response when one goes on vacation? Maybe if he'd done that I wouldn't have been left waiting for two weeks for him to respond to me. No worries, because the other woman gave me the contact information for the person who'd be my advisor and assured me the advisor could help me out. She also sent me out another copy of my acceptance letter. I contacted my advisor, explaining the situation. She wrote back and said that she actually couldn't do anything to help me until I was officially on her roster. ANNNNND the person who would be putting me on her roster was the vacationing admissions coordinator. Really? Really?! I thought, well it's been over two weeks. Surely he'll get back from vacation soon. Unfortunately I was wrong. Magellan's trip around the world took less time than this guy's trip to wherever he went. Another two weeks passed and finally I got an email from the admissions coordinator. He gave me a number to call him. I called him. I got his voicemail. I left a message, saying I would be home all day until 4:30, when I went to work. He called at 4:45. Of course I wasn't there and the next day was Saturday. Monday morning I called him. Voicemail again. Finally finally finally that afternoon, he called me. Finally finally finally I registered. Now, as you all know, college classes ain't cheap. Next step-financial aid. The admissions coordinator gave me the contact information for the financial aid office and told me they could help me with whatever I needed. The FAFSA website told me the deadline to apply had passed. I decided to contact the financial aid office to ask about the deadline. Someone responded and told me the first thing I needed to do was fill out the FAFSA. Ok, didn't answer my question, but I filled it out anyway. At the end of the application, there was nothing to indicate it was too late, and it said the information would be sent on to Dominican. I emailed the financial aid office back, said I'd completed my fafsa, and to please send me the next step. No response. Meanwhile, I got my tuition bill. Y'OUCH private school! Why why why would anyone do that willingly? As I was learning was the Domincan way, I ignored the tuition bill. I emailed the financial aid office again. No response. I got another tuition bill. I emailed the student accounts office, and asked when tuition was due. The first day of class. Shoot. So I contacted them back, and said I hadn't heard anything about my financial aid yet, and asked about paying the tuition in installments. They said sure, no problem, but the first payment of close to $800 was actually due that day. I died a little on the inside, then made my first payment. I emailed the financial aid department again. I said I knew they were supposed to be sending me the application, so they could email it to me, or I'd stop by the office and pick it up. Finally she responded and said "here is the form you need to fill out"...except she didn't send the attachment. I wrote back and asked her to send the attachment. She responded the next day with just the form, no "sorry I'm incompetent and couldn't send you this two weeks ago when you first asked for it" or anything of the sort. So I did my online loan "counseling" then filled out and faxed my form back. Now, I just have to wait. I have no idea how long it will take. I'm hoping it's sooner, rather than later because I have another $780 payment to make in a few short weeks.
I may have felt like a nameless face at ISU but I never went through anything close to this there...and the tuition was half as much. ILU ISU
Also, my mom is a saint and spent two days cleaning my apartment with me. Seriously, the best.
I enjoyed my time at ISU. Bloomington-Normal is a great area, and one I can see myself happily living in someday. But, sometimes I felt like I was just another nameless face in a student body nearly triple of size of my lovely hometown. My advisor never knew my name, and each time I met with him I had to introduce myself. Each semester I had at least once class of 100+ people. Registration was cutthroat. At the time, I thought I wouldn't be having these problems if I were at a smaller private school.
Enter Dominican. To be fair, everything regarding this school has seemed a bit rushed, because as late as April, I thought I was going to be at Olivet. When that fell through, I got a list of approved teacher certification programs from the ROE. I contacted all of the ones in the Chicago area. Dominican was the first to respond to me, so I went with it. I gathered my necessary documents. I wrote an application essay. I don't remember what it was about. I got three letters of recommendation. By June, I was ready to go...so I thought. The guy I'd been working with in admissions sent me an email, saying all systems go, I'd be getting my official acceptance letter in the mail and I could register. Great! I wasted no time in responding to him. He didn't reply. I never got my acceptance letter. A week or so later, I emailed him again. He didn't reply. Another woman in the department had emailed a time or two about some things. So I contacted her. I said I'd contacted the admissions coordinator twice and I hadn't heard from him. Since it was now already the middle of June, I really wanted to get registered. She wrote back and told me that he was on vacation. Huh. Isn't it pretty easy to set up an automatic email response when one goes on vacation? Maybe if he'd done that I wouldn't have been left waiting for two weeks for him to respond to me. No worries, because the other woman gave me the contact information for the person who'd be my advisor and assured me the advisor could help me out. She also sent me out another copy of my acceptance letter. I contacted my advisor, explaining the situation. She wrote back and said that she actually couldn't do anything to help me until I was officially on her roster. ANNNNND the person who would be putting me on her roster was the vacationing admissions coordinator. Really? Really?! I thought, well it's been over two weeks. Surely he'll get back from vacation soon. Unfortunately I was wrong. Magellan's trip around the world took less time than this guy's trip to wherever he went. Another two weeks passed and finally I got an email from the admissions coordinator. He gave me a number to call him. I called him. I got his voicemail. I left a message, saying I would be home all day until 4:30, when I went to work. He called at 4:45. Of course I wasn't there and the next day was Saturday. Monday morning I called him. Voicemail again. Finally finally finally that afternoon, he called me. Finally finally finally I registered. Now, as you all know, college classes ain't cheap. Next step-financial aid. The admissions coordinator gave me the contact information for the financial aid office and told me they could help me with whatever I needed. The FAFSA website told me the deadline to apply had passed. I decided to contact the financial aid office to ask about the deadline. Someone responded and told me the first thing I needed to do was fill out the FAFSA. Ok, didn't answer my question, but I filled it out anyway. At the end of the application, there was nothing to indicate it was too late, and it said the information would be sent on to Dominican. I emailed the financial aid office back, said I'd completed my fafsa, and to please send me the next step. No response. Meanwhile, I got my tuition bill. Y'OUCH private school! Why why why would anyone do that willingly? As I was learning was the Domincan way, I ignored the tuition bill. I emailed the financial aid office again. No response. I got another tuition bill. I emailed the student accounts office, and asked when tuition was due. The first day of class. Shoot. So I contacted them back, and said I hadn't heard anything about my financial aid yet, and asked about paying the tuition in installments. They said sure, no problem, but the first payment of close to $800 was actually due that day. I died a little on the inside, then made my first payment. I emailed the financial aid department again. I said I knew they were supposed to be sending me the application, so they could email it to me, or I'd stop by the office and pick it up. Finally she responded and said "here is the form you need to fill out"...except she didn't send the attachment. I wrote back and asked her to send the attachment. She responded the next day with just the form, no "sorry I'm incompetent and couldn't send you this two weeks ago when you first asked for it" or anything of the sort. So I did my online loan "counseling" then filled out and faxed my form back. Now, I just have to wait. I have no idea how long it will take. I'm hoping it's sooner, rather than later because I have another $780 payment to make in a few short weeks.
I may have felt like a nameless face at ISU but I never went through anything close to this there...and the tuition was half as much. ILU ISU
Also, my mom is a saint and spent two days cleaning my apartment with me. Seriously, the best.
