   Screwed over by Uni
  I just don't know how to feel right now.  I don't know whether I should be angry, disappointed, or just confused.I'm a freshman in college this year and due to hurricane Katrina, my school (Tulane University) was closed for the fall 2005 semester.  It was a setback, not to mention I was stuck down in New Orleans for 5 days after the storm without power/water, but they were all ready to open again this coming January.  Great right?  So, I've been taking some coursework at a local school and getting ready to transfer my credits back down south.  I've already registered all of my classes for the Spring 06 semester and up until today was ready to head back in about a month.A couple hours ago, my roommate's parents called to say that they had checked the school's website and Tulane has a complete renovation plan for their academics.  In that plan, they have, as of today, completely eliminated my major (Comp Sci) from the university along with most of the rest of the engineering program (sparing biomed).  They cite the reason for this as needing the money and having to scrap programs so they can continue to make their best programs stronger.  For one, they have plenty of money:-They recently laid off over 230 employees.-They kept all fall 2005 tuition money (minus room and board) so they could get the college back up and running, supposedly to pay all of their employees during the break.-The school, while it did experience some damage from Katrina, the damage wasn't extreme and the school had insurance to cover it.So now, I'm unsure as to what to do.  According to their site, they will still give a degree to anybody who completes the requirements before May of 2007, which probably won't happen with me considering I'd have to cram 4 years of school into 2.  I'm up for it if they'd let me, but I doubt they will.  I'm going to attempty to email my advisor, but I'm not so sure how much good that will do either.  He was of important status in the engineering school and I'm hoping that he still has a job.  At this point, my only options are to change my major (and it's not something I really want to do), or transfer elsewhere (and drop a $22,000/year scholarship).  I am convinced that they have truly screwed me over, not to mention my roommate who's also majoring in Comp Sci.  They've had a call center set up throughout the whole ordeal with the hurricane, but I'm not even gonna bother with that.  I'm calling straight to the administration tomorrow to hear what they have to say.Things can just be a bitch sometimes, can't they? </rant>-Jeff   
  Can you stay there and get credits that you can transfer somewhere else to finish your degree? Get as much out of that scholarship as you can?   ;  At this point I'm not even sure.  If I end up there next semester, I'm going to take as many comp sci/math classes as I can to try and put them towards a degree elsewhere.  But since they're scrapping the program, I don't know what kind of class selection they're going to have.  I know at Tulane, the comp sci degree required a couple computer engineering classes, which I'll end up dropping because they'll be of no use to me elsewhere.   ;  Are there any partner schools of Tulane that will accept your scholarship?   ;  So wait, let me get this straight. You didn't get any education for the fall courses but you still had to pay tuition? They can do that?Coincidently, someone posted an article on slashdot about this as well.   ;Quote:Are there any partner schools of Tulane that will accept your scholarship?I'm not sure.  I don't think so, but it's something I'll have to look into.Quote:So wait, let me get this straight. You didn't get any education for the fall courses but you still had to pay tuition? They can do that?Apparently, yes...yes they can.  I did get to go to another school for free for this semester because of it though.Quote:Coincidently, someone posted an article on slashdot about this as well.I will have to read that.   ;Quote:Original post by GodlyGamrAt this point I'm not even sure.  If I end up there next semester, I'm going to take as many comp sci/math classes as I can to try and put them towards a degree elsewhere.  But since they're scrapping the program, I don't know what kind of class selection they're going to have.  I know at Tulane, the comp sci degree required a couple computer engineering classes, which I'll end up dropping because they'll be of no use to me elsewhere.Anywhere you go that's near or above the level of Tulane will require computer or electrical engineering courses of some kind, up to at least intro to computer architecture, for comp sci. Admittedly, what you want to do is satisfy general ed courses(math, physics, humanities, whatever) because you will want to take major prereqs wherever you go (because you will be lost if you go into advanced courses and the new school has a different curriculum)What you really need to do is talk to counselors/advisors at Tulane and a couple prospective schools. Call'em up, tell them your situation, and ask them about transfers and scholarships. If they blow you off just try another school. There are dozens of good universities out there, you should be able to find a couple that will consider you.Unfortunately there isn't much more advice we can give, because your situation is unique and so you'll need to get advice from people who know what exceptions schools can and can't make.   ;  You might want to consider checking out UT: Austin if you are interested. We allowed students displaced by Katrina to enroll this fall for a drastically reduced tuition of $700 for up to 14 hours. Check out the computer science site for direct contact information to CS advisers. The CS program is ranked in the top 10.Numbers aside, though, it is my opinion that the computer science program at UT is dying. For example, we're replacing good experienced professors with academic trash for whatever reason. IE - Bruce Naylor ( an original researcher into the development of BSP trees ) was replaced by a young Berkeley doctorate whose 'key previous work' was 'developing' parametrically tweaked key frame animation and giving it a fancy name: "data driven and physically based methods for character motion synthesis". The entire computer science department is really only being held together by two professors right now.I expect computer science, as a whole, is on a national downswing though - so take what I say with a grain of salt. The University gave me alot of chances that I would not have otherwise had, but I'm done and I'm jaded.   ;Quote:Original post by haro[...]I expect computer science, as a whole, is on a national downswing though[...]My limited experience agrees. I think universities are just now feeling the wake of the burst dot com bubble because most people (those that aren't actually interested in CS) didn't notice that the easy money was gone until recently.   ;  My ex's sister goes (well.. maybe past tense now) there for Chemistry. Do they still have that program?In regards to CS, I haven't used much CS in the workplace. My new job is actually as a network technician. I was upgraded from a part time PC technician. I know very little about networks. It seems they did not want to lose the only programmer they've ever had.$23,000 USD a year, but free tuition for as long as I work there.   