a little COSC whine

[cookderosa]

I mentioned in another thread that the COSC registrar placed a hold on my son's account and he had to schedule a phone call meeting for them to verify his identity before he could proceed. Highly annoying to the point that I even posted about it here. Anyway....

So, now he's gotten an email from his advisor asking for a phone meeting to discuss his courses for his individualized studies. On an aside, my son works for a business that just opened last month, so he's been working 10-12 hour days 6 days per week since December during the launch, and is barely getting his Cornerstone done- he has so little free time. His words "I really don't want a relationship with these people- can't we do that through email??" and I have to kind of agree. I used TESU, never COSC, maybe they just have such a small school that they like to keep it cozy?

I can't think of more than maybe once between my online classes, my husband's or my other kids that anyone has ever insisted on so many phone meetings. He's only been at COSC a few months and this is the second one already.

What do you guys make of their approach? I almost feel like they are way too hands-on.

[suzycupcake]

I would find that completely unacceptable (for me).  Personally, I'd rather handle via email but there are people that need that hand holding BUT I think you should be given a choice as to your preferred method of communication, not going as far as hounding you with phone calls.

That's just annoying!

[nosey561]

I would find that completely unacceptable (for me).  Personally, I'd rather handle via email but there are people that need that hand holding BUT I think you should be given a choice as to your preferred method of communication, not going as far as hounding you with phone calls.

That's just annoying!

The typical COSC student is 30 to 40 years old, has not had success completing a traditional degree and needs a lot of hand holding- so our children do not fit into this group.

[jsd]

Stay away from WGU then

Weekly or every-other-week progress calls with your mentor. Thankfully mine was happy with me accelerating and our calls were basically just five minutes of "you good? Want me to push any new courses into your plan? Okay talk to you next time."

But I heard some stories about mentors who were trying too hard to be involved. I'd go crazy.

[cookderosa]

I would find that completely unacceptable (for me).  Personally, I'd rather handle via email but there are people that need that hand holding BUT I think you should be given a choice as to your preferred method of communication, not going as far as hounding you with phone calls.

That's just annoying!

The typical COSC student is 30 to 40 years old, has not had success completing a traditional degree and needs a lot of hand holding- so our children do not fit into this group.

My son is an adult and doesn't need the hand-holding. He needed me to find the best courses for his Indy plan, but now that they're picked out, I can't imagine what they need to talk to him about.

[quigongene]

Stay away from WGU then

Weekly or every-other-week progress calls with your mentor. Thankfully mine was happy with me accelerating and our calls were basically just five minutes of "you good? Want me to push any new courses into your plan? Okay talk to you next time."

But I heard some stories about mentors who were trying too hard to be involved. I'd go crazy.

This has changed a bit. I talked to my mentor on the phone a total of 3 times. Everything else was done via email.

[jsd]

Nice! Lucky you.

Hopefully that's the new school wide plan, and not just your mentor being awesome

[dfrecore]

I would probably just tell the mentor, nicely, that I really am not interested in phone calls and prefer to use email. Maybe say you have a job that takes up a lot of hours, and you can't talk during those hours, and after work, you really aren't up for chatting via phone with someone.

[Tedium]

I talked to my advisor on the phone one time, but that was a few years ago. The identity verification is a little understandable, but anything beyond that seems excessive as long as he’s doing well. The phone calls happen if you start falling behind or if there was a disconnect somewhere and you are short credits. That’s actually what my call was about and I sent them the FEMA PDS credits I had and that was that.

I’m sure they would understand his schedule and agree to e-mail communication going forward. Have you tried that yet?

---

Thinking about it some more, it may be because of his age and if this is his first attempt at a degree. They may be trying to be proactive to retain him and make sure he doesn’t get bogged down. Just thinking out loud.

I do know that when I reapply, my schedule won’t allow a lot of phone calls, so I’m a little curious to see how this plays out.

[Life Long Learning]

Excelsior College

A couple of years ago I did do a second BS in HSEM at Excelsior College.  I liked talking to my "official academic advisor" Scott in the School of Public Service 2-3 times before I started to pick his brain.   

My Capstone professor was from Notre Dame and she gave a second email just in case of communications issues.  That was neat.

The one that was a waste of time was EC had these "coaches" (they may have a different name) that called me 3 times.  I also did think it was for some folks needed to have their handheld.  On the 3rd time, I told them I do not need any help.