University of Florida Pulled a TESU

[sanantone]

Remember when TESU decided in the middle of the school year without any warning that it would change its residency requirement? I had to file complaints with multiple agencies to graduate with my BSBA because TESU first refused to escalate my complaint with them. Now, UF's College of Medicine is doing something similar. 

I started the program Fall 2018. In the middle of Spring 2019, they changed the degree requirements on their website, and I just happened to catch it. So, I emailed one of the program advisors, and he said that I will continue to follow the program that was in place when I started. Well, guess what! They didn't even know what the requirements were. The graduate catalog for the 2018-2019 school year doesn't list specific course requirements, and the people overseeing the forensic medicine, veterinary forensic science, and wildlife forensic science programs didn't keep a record of what the original requirements were. How stupid and unprofessional is that? I had to pull up an archived webpage so that they could see the plan I was following. 

I thought this issue was resolved when I sent the email a few weeks ago, but the education technology specialist for those three programs registered me for three courses I did not request. One of the courses was one I already took. Check this out, the College of Medicine does not allow students to register for courses on their own! Even though I sent this man three emails about the approaching registration deadline and impending late registration fee, he waited until the last minute and got things all wrong. We ended up exchanging emails back and forth about which courses I'm required to take even though he was informed last month that I was following an older plan. Most of the people who are currently in the program started last fall, so it is beyond me why there was any confusion. These students must not be paying attention. I'm paying attention; I care about my time and money. 

Since they removed Forensic Medicine 3 as a core requirement, they removed it from the Summer 2019 offerings. I tried my best to not curse them out when asking how in the hell am I supposed to finish the program when you removed a formerly required course? So, they are letting me take another elective in place of Forensic Medicine 3, but it will have to come from the veterinary or wildlife forensic science program. I was already having to take my last elective from the veterinary program because they eliminated one of the forensic medicine electives in the middle of the semester. I had my degree planned out based on what they said they were going to offer each semester. I like animals, but I enrolled in a program to study human medicine; it's frustrating that I have to take two courses that aren't about human medicine.

[dfrecore]

And here I thought that TESU was the only school doing idiotic things, and making major changes without thinking through the implications for people who are following the plan they were given! Not sure if it's good to know that other schools are full of morons or not...

I'm sorry that you're going through that, it sucks that they are making changes without any thought to their students. It's infuriating.

[Ideas]

That's lousy! And scary for anyone else who wants to go there.

Did you already transfer in the max credits?

[SweetSecret]

That is infuriating!

What is the program you are actually enrolled in? I am suspecting it's something either forensic or genetic having to do with medicine.

[sanantone]

And here I thought that TESU was the only school doing idiotic things, and making major changes without thinking through the implications for people who are following the plan they were given!  Not sure if it's good to know that other schools are full of morons or not...

I'm sorry that you're going through that, it sucks that they are making changes without any thought to their students.  It's infuriating.

Thanks. The solution they have come up with is to let me take more electives, but they have to come from the College of Medicine. The Forensic Medicine program is the only online program in the college that deals with human forensics, so my options are animal classes. For some reason, they no longer want students to take electives from the College of Pharmacy even though they have forensic science programs with relevant courses. The Forensic Medicine program is new-ish, so they're still designing courses. 

I'm just hoping there are no issues when I apply for graduation since I'll have a missing core course. I suspect that no one else in the program has noticed the changes. Technically, this is supposed to be a 2-year program even though it's only 37 credits, but I'm on track to finish in one year. 

That's lousy! And scary for anyone else who wants to go there.

Did you already transfer in the max credits?

I didn't transfer in any credits, and I don't think there's enough time for me to enroll in summer courses at another school. I think this problem is isolated to the College of Medicine.

That is infuriating!

What is the program you are actually enrolled in? I am suspecting it's something either forensic or genetic having to do with medicine.

It's an MS in Medical Sciences with a concentration in Forensic Medicine. It mainly covers forensic pathology and forensic anthropology. My plan was to take applied osteology (study of bone structure) this summer, but they removed it as an option. The common sense thing to do would have been to allow me to take a course from the anthropology department. Since they eliminated one required course and the one forensic medicine elective I haven't taken, I will be taking veterinary toxicology and contemporary issues in wildlife protection and conservation. The toxicology course is sort of relevant, but the conservation course is kind of silly for a human medicine student to take.

[sanantone]

This is funny. The program used to have a 27-credit core plus 10 credits in electives. The webpage now says that the core is 28 credits, and you need 9 credits of electives. Since they eliminated a 4-credit course from the core and replaced it with a 3-credit course, the curriculum they have listed for the core is only 26 credits. That means 11 elective credits would be needed to complete 37 credits, but one would have to go over one credit because all of the electives they have now are three credits, and 11 is not divisible by three.

[cookderosa]

So very frustrating! I'm glad you're paying attention, hopefully, you'll get this to work out. I'm just shaking my head because I'm sure there are tons of students who are completely unaware of these changes.

[angelman]

TESU isn't the only place that changes things without telling people exact reasons and consequences. Such a bad management tbh