McGill Administration...Need I Say More?

So we're three weeks away from convocation. Three weeks! I'll walk across the stage, shake hands with all the so-called important people, get that little piece of paper (which might as well be toilet paper for all it matters) and then step off the stage. Or at least that was how it was supposed to go....

Today, I received an e-mail from the Graduation Approval Office which said that I'm missing two credits. Ergo, no graduation. Ain't that a peach. Three weeks to convocation and I get notification of this NOW. I doubt much of this makes much sense out of context, so allow me to explain.

Near the middle of my Fall 2005 semester, I went to see my advisor in the Biology department to verify a few things. Most important among those items were these questions: Do I have enough credits to graduate? And if not, how many credits will I need to get next semester? Her answers were not yet, and four. So I registered for my four credits and proceeded to wade through my final semester at McGill. I scored A's in all my classes this semester, no problem. Alright, I'd finished my final credits and would now have enough credits to graduate.

Now when you go see someone like an advisor, you expect that they know what they're doing, right? Advising is what they do for a living. They ought to know what they're talkin' about. I've known my advisor since I got here and she has been exceptionally helpful through the years. I have never had a complaint about her before now. So when she told me I would only need four credits to graduate, I never doubted her for a second. Nor should I have had any reason to. Four credits it was, done deal.

I don't entirely blame her for this mess. After all, the Student Affairs Office has been sending out e-mails that warned us to verify ourselves that we had all our affairs in order for graduation. Although, in my defense, these e-mails presented two options: verify my records myself (with the possibility of incorrectly interpreting the complicated and overly difficult transcripts), OR go see my advisor and have her look it over without worrying about mistakes. Which option would you choose??

The next step of course is to speak with my advisor and hopefully one of the Deans so that I can get this whole mess straightened out. If she can explain to the Dean that this was all one big misunderstanding then perhaps I stand a chance of being able to graduate this summer instead of in the fall. Ideally I would be able to graduate with my friends, take a course in June, ace it, and then receive my degree. No big deal.

The problem is that my family has already booked tickets to come out here, arrangements for the sale of my condo are in progress, and this is turning out to be one of the worst months of my entire university career. It's like playing Monopoly. You're almost at Go, ready to receive your free $200 and you get sent to Jail. How shitty is that?!

What bothers me the most is that I applied, like everyone else, for graduation months ago. MONTHS AGO!!! The graduation approval office has had my records since my registration for courses in the Winter 2006 semester. Why didn't a little flag go up that said, "Needs more credits"? Why didn't Minerva do the math and put a hold my graduation approval? It has all the information right there, why the fuck didn't it do its job?! As always, it comes down to the poor organizational skills of McGill Administration. Everyone whines and complains about the Admin, and most of it is just useless and unfounded noise. But this really takes the cake. Fucking over students mere weeks before their convocation. Why do they wait until just a few weeks before convocation to confirm all the details? I understand they need all your grades before you can be approved for convocation, but all the other aspects of the approval process should have been done earlier. MUCH earlier. I just don't understand this could have happened. This ain't shit hittin' any old regular fan, this is explosive diarrhea hittin' the industrial fan.

And so, once again McGill Administration has succeeded in its utter stupidity, incompetence, and disorganization. Goddamn I wish I was done with this Hell-hole already...

*EDIT: No blame can be placed on my advisor, as having spoken to her and having clarified the situation, it was I who made the wrong assumptions and thus this mess is entirely my fault.*