Has anyone ever had a problem with a school continuing to extend your requirments for graduation?

Question

My wife has been 1 semester away from graduating from ETSU, for quite awhile now (about 2 years). When she gets registered for the next semester they always seem to find more classes that she "needs" to graduate. Is this something thats common practice amongst universities across the country? I think its just dead wrong that a university can do this. Just wondering if anybody out there has had a similar problem. Thanks for the answers.

Answer 1

There is a degree requirement listed in the catalog that she enrolled with. Once she's met those requirements, she's done. If she hasn't met those requirements, she's not done.

There is no "they" unless she isn't able to interpret that catalog on her own. Check the degree requirements in the catalog, mark off what is completed, take what isn't completed, graduate.

This is not an uncommon problem but many students don't understand where the real responsibility rests. It is up to we students to read and understand the catalog. I've heard many stories (every single semester) about "but my advisor said..." and it always end up with the registrar's office saying "we don't care what your advisor said, you have to do what's in the catalog"

Answer 2

Coach T. is right. The catalog for the year she started at ETSU gives the requirements she had to meet in order to graduate. The school doesn't "find" classes for her to take; she needs to take control of her own education, know what she needs to graduate, and take those classes. It sounds like she has been listening to advice rather than looking up the requirements for herself. I'm all in favor of talking to an advisor, but the student still needs to know her own requirements. I've taught at several different schools, and every time I've run into a student who was surprised to find out that s/he wasn't graduating, it was because s/he ignored the requirements or listened to the wrong advice and failed to read the catalog.

Answer 3

What's ETSU? Unless we know the full name of the university, we have no way of telling what their policies are.

Every university gets to set its own policies. Most will have, like Coach T said, a policy that you get to graduate if you meet requirements of the catalogue in the year when you first enrolled. But there are many exceptions--the university might allow itself to change requirements on the fly, your wife might have skipped a semester and thus needs to qualify under the catalogue when she returned, certain programs might have exceptions to the rule, and some colleges have time restraints so that a student who attends part-time can get caught by changing requirements.

Unless we can reference that specific university's policies and unless we know your wife's academic record, we can't tell for sure.

I'll note that I abhor the universities that won't abide by their initial agreement with the student, but my attitude is not going to fix your dilemma.