I'm frustrated. I'm so incredibly frustrated. I feel like I need to start this blog post like that before you continue reading and think I'm some ranting and raving lunatic.
I'm beyond frustrated with my University, so frustrated it's becoming an internal dilemma every single time I have to commute there to go to school. Is it worth it? Should I actually waste my time showing up? You're probably wondering what prompted this barrage of frustration and believe me, I will let you know.
Today, our program head came into our transition to work class to explain the internship for the winter semester. In it he explained that the internship will comprise of 240 hours, assignments and you will be helped to look for an internship by a faculty mentor assigned to you.
The reason I'm pissed?
I took my internship in the summer. I paid the exact same amount in tuition as the winter semester will, I was completely on my own (save for the few emails exchanged back and forth between the prof and myself) and I had to complete 280 hours. I payed the exact same amount of money as everyone else and did not get any guidance as my placement coordinator left halfway through the summer on maternity leave and my prof was gone the last two weeks of the internship on vacation. There was no ability to meet with people in person, it was all done through email and online.
When he said this, I asked my program head if we would be given some sort of mentoring program if we had already completed our internships and his response was - "No. That's for the students who are doing their internships currently or trying to find them." That means - if you didn't sign up for the summer internship course someone is going to be there to help you find an internship. That's bulls**t. If you're going to offer the same class two separate times you cannot stipulate that only one semester gets help! I worked my ass off to find my internship, as did everyone else who found one and just because it was only really feasible for us to complete our internships over the summer does not mean we need to be ripped off. Tuition is a lot of money and I work really hard to afford to go to school, the fact that I can pay the same amount as everyone else and have it justified by "paying for convenience of taking the course over the summer," is BS.
It's just so frustrating to be told that because you completed the same course as everyone else will that you get to be counted out of an opportunity for someone with industry knowledge to mentor you. It's also completely idiotic that if you wanted to ever do your internship abroad or even locally over the summer you are left solely to your own devices. On top of that, requiring that you complete 40 additional hours of work compared to everyone else is completely stupid!
I could honestly just scream at this point. I know, normally my posts have some factual argument that comes from the news or what have you, but this week that seems to just not be happening.
So sorry love. Be proud of yourself for not needing someone's help. Just another notch against our lovely school...
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