So I know I'm about two months late in my posting, but things got complicated. How complicated? You ask. Actually, not that complicated. I, however, am an extraordinarily pessimistic person. I'm not going to be convinced I'm actually going until I'm half way across the Atlantic. Even then, I'll probably be thinking that there's still a chance that the plane will crash or I'll get to the school and they'll have lost all of my paperwork or my VISA will be voided or the zombie apocalypse will occur and all immigrants will be deported (that's always what happens in apocalypse movies, right?).
So in March we had our meeting, but I didn't write about it because it was about concurrent enrollment. Concurrent enrollment, y'all, is a mighty fierce bitch. In order for all of my credits to transfer and for me to keep my scholarships, I have to get all of my courses to be approved by LSU.
The steps:
1. Choose your courses.
It seems easy enough, but my school has limited courses available for JYA (Junior Year Abroad) English majors and I have to find courses that fit into my requirements at LSU.
2. Get a PACE form.
Programs Abroad Course Evaluation. This is the form that will be filled out in all subsequent steps. On it, you declare what courses you've chosen, the equivalent courses at your home school, the amount of hours you'll be taking at your host school, how those hours will transfer to your home school, and whether or not you'll be taking your courses pass/fail (I have an A average at the moment and the course structure in England is totally different, so yes, please). The following steps note the process of filling it out.
2. Get a study abroad counselor to approve and find equivalencies for said courses.
I had never, ever spoken to an English department counselor, so I had to first set up a dialogue with him, explain my goals and what I was doing and blah blah blah and then set up a meeting to work on the equivalencies. These meetings were an hour and a half of scanning the course descriptions at LSU and trying to match the course descriptions for Nottingham. The types of courses offered are dramatically different, though. If I tried to take two Viking mythology courses at Nottingham, that would be a problem because, while Nottingham offered six distinct Viking mythology courses, LSU only offered one.
In my first meeting, I got a handful of courses approved, however, some weren't and these "some" were extremely important to the balanced schedule I created using a very small sample of course offerings. So after three hours of research and resetting my schedule, I set up another meeting with my counselor. After another couple of hours of scanning through the courses and setting up equivalences and a lot of me using the phrase "but they're close enough, aren't they?" We finally got my schedule approved for LSU and he signed my PACE form.
3. Get the Dean to approve said courses.
My friend going through the same thing had a simpler time doing this. She set up a meeting with her college's dean, they spent an hour looking through everything, and everything was approved. I emailed the dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences a few days after I'd finished getting my courses approved by my counselor. Then I waited. And waited. And never got a reply. A few weeks later, I went to the dean's office and they told me that the dean does not approve the PACE form. I have to bring it to the HSS Student Services office and they send it to someone else to be approved. Two weeks later, they had me come in and sign some paperwork. At the moment, they still have the form and once I go back to campus in a few weeks, I'll go back to the office and make sure it'll get to the next step (which I'm assuming they've done as I haven't heard from them since).
4. Send your PACE over to the Office of Admissions
Here, the admissions people formally decide how many hours you'll be given credit for and add everything to the system for future reference. Now, your PACE is complete unless...
PLOT TWIST
Oh no! You've gotten to your host university and the courses have changed! You can't take the courses on your PACE form! Now, you have to fill out another form, send it over to your counselor and apply for credit for your new courses, but more on this (if neccessary) later.
The PACE process made me nervous enough. BUT, during this time I was also told that I needed to officially apply to my host university. In early April, I was emailed the application and filled it out. It was your run of the mill, birthday, parents' names and contact numbers, address, passport number application. Plus, a list of your requested courses. I filled it out... and then I waited. And waited. And waited. Each day, I got more and more nervous. What if they denied my application? What if they forgot about me? I started getting nervous about not renewing the lease to my apartment and having to tell everyone that, actually, I would be staying in Louisiana next year. Like I said, I'm pessimistic. I couldn't make any arrangements for the next year of my life, which was fast approaching, until they replied.
Finally, yesterday, I got an email. It'd been forwarded from my study abroad adviser from the one in England and it read:
I hope this email finds you well. I am pleased to be able to accept three students to study at Nottingham during the coming academic year. With regards to any student who has noted English modules as ever if you could please make them aware that courses are limited and we will be in touch that would be appreciated.We will be in touch with all students directly with regards to Nottingham ID numbers, accommodation, arrival in Nottingham and various other pieces of information in the coming weeks. Offer letters will then follow the acceptance email.
Today, I woke up a little after noon. I'd woken up for a couple of minutes at 8:30, then at 9, and 10, and 11:15. I'd had plans for the morning. I was going to go get some coffee and go on a stroll around my neighborhood for the first time in months. But I let my day wait, because, my worries subsided, I was dreaming of England.
I'll be back for another update "directly."
Regards,
Julia
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