Lizet's Place

Universities are popping up out of the woodwork!

I joined this one site called Cappex to help me find universities that fit my educational goal within my financial constraints.

There wasn't a lot that I was 100% or even 90% happy with...at least not in California. I mean, Cal State LA has the Healthcare Administration program I want, but was sort of excited to move to an all-new state, and Washington University in St. Louis was like in the top 5.

Then I started having second thoughts because I won't have a job to bring in money to so that I can get an apartment and I don't know anyone in St. Louis who I could crash with while I did school and looked for a job.

Then there is Arizona. They have a couple of my backup program options (general management and tourism) as well as the option to do the program online. If I did it online, I could remain here in California and eventually move to AZ or move to AZ right away and I could stay with my best friend, who lives like an hour or so away from the college I'd be going to or my childhood pastor and his wife live there; they're further away, but I know I could stay with them.

Now, for the universities that are popping up.

An enrollment/transfer counselor from Woodbury University in Burbank emailed me. They got my information from Cappex. They have a business administration program, but it's in general management. Then, as a requirement of graduation, I'd have to take an internship to get real-world experience. I will have a better understanding come Saturday when I attend an online information session.

I think, before I continue to change my mind, I'm going to stick with the 5 or so universities here in California and the ones in AZ and MO. I keep feeling like I'm indecisive each time I come across another college that has a business program with the concentration I want.

In another post, I'll talk about my plans for my 40th. I'm having professional pictures taken since I won't be going on the cruise.

It's my last semester and doing Bachelor's level coursework freaks me out. I think there's a bit of imposter syndrome? in that I don't know that I can do the work, but I've been in college long enough that I should have like 5 bachelor degree or 3 masters degrees or something. It's been 22 years since I graduated high school. I should have more than an associates degree and 1 (or 2?) certificates in a field I don't have much interest in other than in passing (travel & tourism).

I could very well continue with Travel/Tourism with regards to my bachelor's degree and go the hospitality route...but where I'm at now in dealing with elderly people, I'm thinking about healthcare management and working at a nursing homes or outpatient care facility or even a community health agency.

So I have options, but I feel like at my age, my hireability is going down fast, even though I know I could work for another 20-30 years!
Anyway...I'm looking at universities. There are a lot more business schools out there than I thought...or I wasn't searching the right places.

These are the ones I'm heavily considering:
Whittier College
Business Administration with Concentration in Management

Cal State LA
Business Administration with Concentrtion in Healthcare Administration or Human Resource Management or General Management

Cal State Dominguez Hills
Business Administration with Concentration in General Business or Management & Human Resources or Sports, Entertainment & Hospitality

Biola University
Business Administration with Concentration in Business Management

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The perk of Biola is they're the first university that I've seen that advertise that I can do my degree coursework all online. A drawback of this one is they're a Christian university. I'm more spiritual than Christan and I don't necessarily want to take Bible course.

I'm sure the other universities offer online courses, which I prefer since I can't leave Kim alone for 5+ hours a day and her sister always finds a reason to not come down during the week, so going to campus is out of the question at the moment.

I have 4 universities on a back up list. 2 in California (further away, would probably have to move if I attended), 1 in Arizona (they also offer business administration degree coursework online, but I think I need to research it more) and 1 in Michigan (probably last option because I don't do the snow and idk with my aunt/mom would let me live there rent free until I could find a job/get my own place).

I signed up for a transfer assistance session at my current college so that I can find out what to do and when and get some direction on the universities that I listed that I was interested in applying to. I was looking for a Spring 2023 transfer, but if there's not enough time, I can do Fall 2023 and use the time to apply to work from home jobs and search out which universities offer online coursework for my degree.

It should be a requirement that students take at least 1 online class in their college career so they realize just how much of a balancing act it is in regards to their other classes.

The downside of discussion boards for school comes when the instructor says that once we post our answer to the discussion question, to reply to 3 or 4 other people.

AND I CAN'T!

BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE HAS POSTED THEIR ANSWERS FOR ME TO REPLY TO!

It's not fair that I have to wait for other people to get around to answering so that I can complete my assignment...but they can post their response and do the required replies all in one go because they waited until the day of or the day before the assignment was due.

And I get it. They have work for other classes they need to work on. It's just frustrating having to wait and then worry about missing something because I wasn't constantly checking the discussion board for posts to reply to.

The posts are time-stamped so the professor can see who waited until the last minute and who is on top of things with their schoolwork.

Let me tell you the boneheaded mistake I made...THAT WASN'T EVEN MY FAULT!

So...classes start tomorrow, so professors are opening up the online forum where we have our discussions.

The accounting class is going along nicely.

But Spanish 2...holy cow! One set of links take you to one location, but another set of links, actually provided by the professor, don't take you to the same location!

Now, since I was already on the discussion forum due to reading up on my accounting class, I clicked over to my Spanish class to read up on what's going on.

There's a tab called Modules. That's where the daily/weekly assignments are. The one for this week shows how to register on the website where we will actually be doing our assignments and tests...and it's also where we purchase the textbook.

Okay, let me purchase the textbook NOW because it's going to take like a week, from the order processing date, for it to ship. So I follow along on the video provided BY THE PROFESSOR, on how to set up my account and which book to order.

I get that taken care of (and my bank account is $159 lighter) and as I navigate back to the discussion forum and click to see the syllabus, THERE IS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT BOOK LISTED! WTF!

I BOUGHT THE WRONG BOOK!

Que me freaking out because I've already used the activation code for the website! I find a live chat on the publisher's website and chat with them about what to do.

I return the book (or rather contact UPS once I get a tracking number to refuse delivery and it will be sent back to the company at no charge to me) and once the company receives it, they will deactivate the code that I have and it will take 30 DAYS TO GET MY MONEY BACK!

and in the meantime! I HAVE TO SHELL OUT MORE MONEY FOR THE CORRECT BOOK AND ACCESS FOR CLASS!

I also emailed what happened to my professor and she forwarded my message to her publishing company rep to see what can be done.

While ALL of this is going on, I'm searching the website to see how I viewed this incorrect video (meant for a higher level Spanish class) and what's going on.

I take a picture/screenshot of what I see and how I got there to the professor and she thanked me for being a self-advocate and they will get me set up, whatever that means.

A big take away from all of this is that I found out the correct book for my class is only $96!!! *SCREAMS IN LOST MONEY* I don't have to shell out another $159, but I still have to take out a quick payday advance loan to cover the course (it would probably be like $120) because I just don't have the money.

OH! I still have to buy the book/online access for my Accounting class! No way out of that $119.99!

I went from 12 units and being full time to 10 units and not quite making full time

**CRIES**

But! Now I'm only taking classes that I need.

I dropped English 1 (Reading Composition) because I took it at a previous college and passed.

I dropped Law 20 (Property Law) because I didn't need it for my degree. I still might take it at a later time because I'm interested in law.

In place of those 2 dropped classes, I added Spanish 2 (Elementary Spanish) as it's needed to transfer to UC Riverside.

I need an art class and Art 10 (Art Appreciation) was added to my Ed Plan, but holy cow is that course full and so is the waiting list...for both classes that are available, so I can't take it this semester.

Spring 2021 (February 8 to June 9)
ACCTG 1A Financial Accounting M/W 8-10:30am
SPAN 2 Elementary Spanish T/Th 9-11:05am

ALSO!!!

The counselor said I would have enough credits and all courses taken to transfer to the university next year!

Umm, what?!

I wasn't expecting that soon and I'm not prepared! Of course, this hinges on being able to get the classes on my ed plan, of which there are 5, not counting the 2 that I'm actually enrolled in: Art 10 (Art Appreciation), STAT 1 (Elementary Statistics), ACCTG 1B (Managerial Accounting), COSA 50 (Intro to IT Concepts & Applications) and MATH 47 (Calculus for Business).

Those courses will be split between summer and fall of this year. And try as I might, there's no getting out of Statistics or Calculus.

January 16th was the last time I posted. Since then I have finished up spring semester. I did okay last semester.  I passed my classes so that's all that counts. And that's about it LOL

Saw my sister for the first time yesterday in months. I think there was a day when I went by her apartment to pick up my mail and I spoke to her but I couldn't tell you when that was. It felt weird seeing her because she gave me a hug and she asked me how I was doing and I'm just like don't touch me (in my head). It just felt really fake because of all the times I reached out to her and she never returned my phone calls or replied to my texts. Sure there was the odd one when she would say thank you when I wished her a happy birthday or Merry Christmas or happy Mother's Day, but other texts...she would leave me on read.

There are 12 days until my church's Family Camp up in the mountains and I'm really excited about it.

I'm so excited that yesterday, while at Walmart, I picked up some small travel-size stuff that I needed and when I got home I packed my bag. LOL With the exception of some shorts I need to wash and shoes I need to buy I'm ready to go.

The lady I do home care for will also be going with her sister to Family Camp, so I packed her bag as well.

So, our packed bags are going to sit in the closet for the next 11 days. Thank goodness there's a Harry Potter marathon and NCIS marathon to help the days go by faster.

After camp I start the next semester at the local community college. I'll be taking 2 online classes and likely 2 on campus classes. I'm moving forward towards my degree, but I still feel like I'm stagnant about it. I'm taking 3 or 4 classes a semester and should be on track to transfer to the university fall of next year, but I still don't feel like I'm making much progress for some reason.

Also, I turn 36 in 27 days. My niece wants to do something with me and I'm all for that but she doesn't seem to understand that the lady that I care for requires pretty much 24/7 care and I can't leave her alone for 4 to 6 hours to go to a Pirate Adventure dinner and Show like I said I wanted to do. Kim, the lady I care for, could ask her sister to stay with her for that time that I would be spending with my niece but they're still transportation money that I would have to get together and I just don't have that.

Let's see how long it will be before I post again. I know there is more stuff that I could ramble about but I just don't feel like dredging up those memories. That's not to say anything bad happened, I just don't feel like thinking about what's going on to bore you all with.

Tuesday I took a test in a class that I've been having problems with. (DW/LJ/IJ) I was hoping for the results to be in the 70s so that I can remain with a 70% average in the class.

Well color me surprised when the teacher called my name and I got my scantron and he was like "You did good. you probably cheated" and then laughed. This is his usual "joking" with the class.

Anyway, my original score was 84% but he "felt sorry" that so many others missed 3 additional questions so he went back and looked and didn't like the wording of them, so we were given 3 points. This pushed me to 90%! Holy crap!

Not my highest of all my classes, but to go from a 76% on the first test (with points added) to a 90%...I'm pretty proud of myself!

I complained a lot on Twitter on Monday night that the information wasn't sticking and I gave up on studying. Apparently SOMETHING stuck for me to get that grade!

This time around I'm going to try something different. I'll still read the book, but I'll also take notes and compare to what's in the book and see if there's a difference. The instructor basically re-reads the book as the lecture, then come the test...well see the linked entry about what he does for the test.

I'm pretty sure I'm still going to do the extra credit for the class. I have to check over what it is and see if I can finish it before it's due (just before Thanksgiving if I remember correctly).

School hasn't even started and I'm already annoyed lol

the Plus:
the classes for my major are available

the Minus:
the one GE class I need always fills up fast
I can't take a foreign language unless I pay for it myself

as of right now, all my classes are picked. I'll check in 3 hrs to see if they're still available. my registration is in 10 hrs 32 mins. I think I'll keep checking every 3 hours until I register to make sure they're still available and adjust accordingly.

Tentative Schedule:
Monday/Wednesday
8-915am Concepts of Criminal Law
10am-1150am Intermediate Algebra
1230pm-145pm Criminal Evidence
2pm-350pm Intermediate Algebra

I have math listed twice because the 10am class has 14 available seats and by the time I register it could be closed, so I have the 2 pm class also picked and it has 22 available seats.

Tuesday/Thursday
8-915am Introduction to Administration of Justice
930-1045am Criminal Procedures

Really debating if I should search out a Tuesday/Thursday Spanish class and pay out of pocket...for the sake taking 3 classes a day, but I don't want to overload myself. What I have picked now is 16 units...basically full time

Another reason I made my schedule like this is because I want to leave myself available to work in the afternoon if I should find a job nearby or on campus *fingers crossed* but also, I'm debating on if I should change my volunteer schedule at the courthouse to Tuesday/Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. Down side to volunteering in the afternoon at the courthouse is the dress code. CLS says the employees, volunteers and interns have to dress professional. I don't want to go to school wearing what I wear to the courthouse - it's too dressy and I don't have enough time to go home, change and get to the courthouse all by bus. If I had stable access to the car, that would be different. There would be enough time for me to go home, change and get to the courthouse by 130pm when they open up after lunch. Oh! but my mom is a caregiver Tuesday/Thursday so she has the car. Maybe I should just stick with Friday mornings. I don't mind dressing up.

I still have time to think on this. I told J & N I would let them know my schedule so I'm thinking I'll tell them on August 9. I'd tell sooner, but J is out of town until August 5 (I think).