What's with all the drama?

Ok well this is senior week, this is supposed to be the week when you chill with your classmates, party, chill....But know Hampton waits to the last minute to tell you you're cleared for graduation. They make you sweat and panic until graduation day. Maybe thats how they make you appreciate that degree.....Interesting method Hampton.

So here's the story: The week of graduation seniors have to pick up their clearance cards in order to participate in the ceremony. We go the office of the registrar where our names are posted on the door. There's two lists; cleared and provisional. Provisional means there is something wrong somewhere in the system either academically or financially.

My name isn't on either list......

So I go check it out. Turns out I gotta do the exit interview for my loan. K. I do that. There's still a hold on my record. Check that out and find that I gotta sign the papers for another loan. K. Do that.

I still can't get my clearance card. I go to the registrar and they say there's two credits missing for a non- business elective. WHAT?!!! I'd checked my credits! I'm supposed to be good. So I go to the chair of my department and he says he can give me two credits for my independent studies class. But when he talks to the registrar she says 'Oh you're not two credits short, you're three credits short.'

When I talk to my advisor I found out where the problem was. When I did my audit, I was taking a class that I ended up not passing but they gave me the credits for anyway. So when I calculated the credits I needed to graduate I included those credits for the class I had to re-take and Hampton policy says they won't give you credit for the same class twice. But I didn't know they had already given me the credit. Wouldn't you think if you didn't pass a class that they wouldn't give you a credit?

SO, my advisor tells me to try and test out of any class I can in order to get those credits. I do that. I ran to get six signatures. In the rain. To take a test in a class that I had never taken before. And I passed!

So I'm thinkin 'Aight, I'm cool. I got my credits and I'm gonna get my degree.'

Saturday: I check my credits on the University website. Everything is there. Bachelor of Science Degree. Awarded: May 8, 2005. Instutional Honors. Departmental Honors.

Sunday, Graduation Day: I try to pick up my honors cords. My names' not on the list. I felt so inadequate without my cords. We go through the first ceremony. I see my my name in the program for Institutional Honors and Departmental Honors. Great. I get to the Business Dept. ceremony and they say 'Oh we don't have a card for you. My advisor goes to check with the registrar. I wait and wait and wait. I figure I'm the very last person to go so they should figure it out by the time I get to the stage. Nope. So they were like just walk in and we'll write a card for you. I walk in and everyone's fam is screamin their names. I even manage to find my fam even though I don't have my glasses on.

Then they tell me 'They aren't gonna let you walk in the ceremony. Sorry.'

Are you serious? ARE YOU SERIOUS?! All the crap you put me through and you can't even say my name as I go up to the stage so that my family that drove 24 hrs from Oklahoma can see me walk across the stage because of three f*in bogus credits that YOU coulda told me about last week when I was just chillin because I thought I was done with exams for the rest of my life and then I run all around the whole school to take a test that I PASSED just for you tell me I can't walk across the f*in stage?!!!!!!!!!