Who do I write this letter to? Sorry, loooong

[Anonymous]

I was a student at a local community college and had several issues with their administrative staff. I must say that they drastically changed the course of my life with their mess and I'm fed up.
DH told me to let it go when I started getting mad but now he's also mad. I need help figuring out who I should write to and what expectations I should have regarding the outcome.

If you don't want to read the entire story go down the page to the last paragraph.

Let me begin by saying that I'm an international student so I was paying almost 3x per credit. I was advised to enroll in their English as a Second Language program, took all the tests and when I was ready to begin they told me I was not allowed to start because my English was just too good for their classes and if I wanted to study there I should pick a major and go straight to college level classes.

Well, I had to write my sponsor a letter and explain that the amount of money I'd need was almost double of what we agreed on. My wonderful sponsor said it was OK and agreed to pay for it.

When I checked on my options I saw they had a major in Special Ed (my field back home) so I went for it. During my second semester there they opened the nursing program for international students and I ran to enroll since the waiting list is always so long. Let me tell you that the order for enrollment is first for American Citizens, then Green Card holders, then non-immigrant Visa (my case) by GPA so the chances of me getting in were almost nonexistent even with my 4.0 GPA. I went to the international students office to ask a few questions and the counselor laughed on my face saying it was impossible and they never heard of an international student getting in. Well, I took all the required tests and surprise! I got in! I then requested my transfer to the medical campus and started my nursing degree. I was on the dean's list and kept my 4.0 GPA. I had every professor tell me they'd be pleased to write recommendation letters if I ever needed any.

In the end of the first semester the secretary from the nursing program sends me a voice mail saying there was a mistake and that I was never supposed to be enrolled in the program mentioning that the nursing board in the state doesn't allow immigrants to take the nursing certification test. I was baffled! It took them several days to clarify the issue and I was only allowed to continue because I explained I was getting married and getting the Green Card through my husband.

The next issue was a problem with one professor who was always late and never taught anything pertinent to the subject he was supposed to teach. He only gave us assignments, papers to write and readings. He never gave a lecture. We tried talking to the dean several times and she dragged the issue until the semester was over. She never really took any action. The following semester came and I had to make an emergency trip to my home country. I went to the International Students office to make sure I had all the necessary paperwork they asked me to look for the ISO in the medical campus. First of all I was told there was no "ISO" in the medical campus since I was the only international student there so they assigned one person (without any experience) to do the job. Every time I went there with a question it would take her 3-4 days to get me an answer and most of the time it was not complete. I went to her office 5 times to make sure my paperwork for my trip was done and I finally got it all 2 days before my trip.

Well, I went home, did what I have to do and headed to the airport to return to the US. Well, what was my surprise when I tried to check in I learned I would not be allowed to board the place because one of my papers was expired!!! This was Wednesday before Thanksgiving and I had a final on Monday morning. I called every single office in that school desperately and obviously nobody picked up the phones and they would not return my calls until Monday morning. I tried reaching the American Embassy in my country and well, you guessed, nobody picked up the phones until Monday morning.

I left several voicemails to everybody involved (professor which was giving the finals, international student's office, the person assigned to do that in the medical campus, dean of nursing, etc). I spent the entire "weekend" (Thursday through Sunday) researching my options. I spent so much money paying for internet access and bus trips to the next town!!! Not to mention the fortune it cost me to change my flight. On Monday evening nobody had returned my calls so I went ahead and tried to get a new student visa all over again. I applied in the Embassy's website and had to cry on the phone requesting an emergency interview. They wanted me to wait 35 days!!! I explained my situation they asked for a letter from the school (I felt like laughing inside) and I said they were having a hard time returning my calls, etc. so I got an interview for 7 days after the call. I obviously was not ready to go through the process again so I had to ask a friend to break into my house and get all my personal papers, had to ask her to scan everything and send it to me. FF to the day I finally got my visa and hopped in a plane to return to the US. I missed the enrollment dates for the following semester so besides failing one subject I fell behind one semester compared to my class. I was pissed! I cannot go a semester without enrollment or I fall out of status and I must hold a full time load so I had to take random classes that have nothing to do with nursing (yup 12 credits of random classes and a lot of money).

OK, the following semester went by and I finally could enroll to the class I failed and the other ones. The professor in this class had absolutely no tolerance with immigrants. It was the first time in my entire life in the US that I met someone who dislikes immigrants. It was so humiliating! The entire semester was hell in my life. She would mock my accent in front of the entire class. She'd give me instructions and then later on say I misunderstood her. It got to a point I was throwing up before entering her class because I was so nervous. Because of a power outage one of our labs had to be re-scheduled and she gave me a date she knew I could not attend. I asked to have it changed she said no. I could not show up. Our last assignment in her class was a seminar. She spent the entire presentation pretending she could not understand me and making faces. (I get people all the time saying I barely have an accent!). She stopped me in the middle of my presentation to ask random questions about my uniform!!! I was so upset! She interrupted a girl who was actually asking a question regarding the presentation and I asked her if I should address the girl's question or hers first and she got all offended, stopped my presentation in the middle and asked me to sit down.

I later on went to her office with flowers to apologize for the misunderstanding. She accepted the flowers and as I was walking out she said "Oh, by the way you failed". I could not believe what I heard! She failed me! I tried talking to the dean but obviously they always stand on the side of the professor. I was expelled from the nursing program and my GPA went down to 3.2 after all this mess. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown!

Since I needed the school to keep my visa status I just changed majors to General Studies and took the classes that I had left to graduate and get OUT. So I did this last semester and finally graduated. Well, after all the pain and money I spent I never attended any graduation party or celebration. I just wanted out. DH got a job offer elsewhere and we moved. Now, I'm trying to transfer my credits to my new school (I'm getting an MBA) and the whole process has been a ridiculous bad taste joke. During my admission interview I had to explain how I went from the dean's list to 2 Fs in my transcript and I didn't want to bash the old school during the interview but I was honest and said there were a lot of misunderstandings along the way and some people with no experience dealing with important paperwork. Well, now my new school is seeing it first hand. They've been trying to reach the IOS since July with papers they need to be signed to get immigration to transfer my papers and the old school will not return calls, emails, will lose paperwork, ask us to sign stuff and send it again because they misplaced it. I'm about to fall out of status, the classes in my new school are about to start and they will not transfer my papers! I'm so so so very mad! My new school keeps calling me to try to reach them and they just had to ask their own dean to call my old school to see if this will get them to finish this.

Not to mention that this might interfere with my husband's GC application. If I'm out of status it can be used against him. He has been waiting for almost 10 years!!!!

Bottom line is, they gave me wrong information and I got stuck in my home country, as a result of being away trying to fix the paperwork they failed me and messed up my records.

I need to write a letter to let the school know what is going on. What's your suggestion? Who do I write to and what do I say?

Thanks for bearing with me, I hope it makes sense. This was long...

[Anonymous]

I really don't understand 90% of this except are you sure you shouldn't accepy some responsibility for this? So you switched from special ed, to nursing (which you were supposedly psyched about) and now are getting an mba? Do you have a bachelors? Also, are you married or no? Who is getting the green card? My mind is having so many issues processing this post. Write a letter to the president about the issues you had with the nursing program and with some of the paperwork. You start to lose cred when you blame a teacher for not liking you and that's why you failed and why your status fell behind.

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP, I think you got it.

In my home country I have a bachelors in Special Ed. I always wanted to go to nursing school so it was a dream come true for me. Now I'm getting an MBA just to keep my status. I have no interest in having a career in business. It's my only legal option to stay here legally until I can join my husband's GC.

Yup, I'm married now but I cannot join his GC until his priority date opens so until then I have to keep my student visa up.

[Anonymous]

I really don't mean this as snarky, but once you decide who to send the letter to, I think you need to craft your letter very very carefully with a summary of your complaint clearly in the first paragraph. Your original post is very long and even skipping to the last paragraph didn't help me understand what your issue is.

[Anonymous]

Can you send the letter (to the Dean of students??) and then go in person if they don't respond?

[Anonymous]

What do you hope to gain by writing to somone? Is it just to vent, get something corrected, an apology? Honestly I would just focus on getting your transfer paper work and be glad you are done with the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really don't mean this as snarky, but once you decide who to send the letter to, I think you need to craft your letter very very carefully with a summary of your complaint clearly in the first paragraph. Your original post is very long and even skipping to the last paragraph didn't help me understand what your issue is.

Oh no, absolutely!

I'm typing this one handed while feeding my baby LOL I'll def take some time to make it short and direct. And have DH proofread for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really don't mean this as snarky, but once you decide who to send the letter to, I think you need to craft your letter very very carefully with a summary of your complaint clearly in the first paragraph. Your original post is very long and even skipping to the last paragraph didn't help me understand what your issue is.

Oh no, absolutely!

I'm typing this one handed while feeding my baby LOL I'll def take some time to make it short and direct. And have DH proofread for me.

The first post must have taken a really, really long time.

[Anonymous]

Didn't read all the way through, but sorry about your situation. Seems very frustrating.

[Anonymous]

Send the old school a certified return receipt letter saying that if they do not provide the docs you have already requested (include copies of your prior requests) it will force you to hire an attorney to subpoena them.

Have you considered sharing your story with an investigative news team?

Although, it's a little upsetting that you took a spot in a program that's very hard to get into, all just to stay in this country, and you're not even working.

[Anonymous]

What school?

My general advice would be to deal with the individual problems individually. Yes, overall, they snowballed into bigger problems. But if you combine them, people will feel inclined to disregard you. (No one wants to deal with generalizations, like, your school ruined my life. It'll just make you sound crazy.)

So, if you have specific complaints with a specific professor, I'd recommend talk to the dean. Or ask about an ombudsman (ombudsperson) or someone who deals with student concerns.

That said, I'd say that the better the school, the better the service. Sounds like this isn't a great school. Feel free to share your bad experiences on review sites, etc., but keep it brief and straightforward. Again, if you say the school ruined your life, you'll look like the crazy one. If you say, "administrative inefficiency delayed important paper" and "school supported professor who seemed to have a grudge with me," you'll sound more reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Although, it's a little upsetting that you took a spot in a program that's very hard to get into, all just to stay in this country, and you're not even working.

She is an international student paying international student tuition!! I'm sure the school was happy to have her paying all that money.

[Anonymous]

Okay. I'm going to give this a try!
OP, while you have an a collection of unfortunate incidents, I think you might have a problem turning this into a "global" complaint because there are different issues coming up at different points.

1."Well, I went home, did what I have to do and headed to the airport to return to the US. Well, what was my surprise when I tried to check in I learned I would not be allowed to board the place because one of my papers was expired!!! This was Wednesday before Thanksgiving and I had a final on Monday morning."
I definitely don't have a lot of knowledge about this kind of thing, but your papers being expired--that's actually something you should have checked on before you got the plane and left the country, right? I get that they might have made an error on their end, but you didn't see that there was something wrong with the dates? While in a perfect world you could rely on support staff to always be accurate, we all have experiences where that is not the case. Also, there's no way you can expect them to be able to answer calls during the Thanksgiving holiday. Even once the holiday is over, it's definitely harder to rectify something after an expiration date than before, right? So, while I sympathize and understand it was unbelievably stressful and expensive, I'm not sure that it's the schools fault that you were out of the country with expired papers, or that your expired papers delayed your return and caused you to miss the enrollment period

2. The really bad professor who was anti-immigrant.
Here's where I think you might have more of a chance, although ideally you would have brought this to the attention of the school as it was happening and/or immediately after you received the bad grade. It would have been easier to document instances of the teacher's bad behavior. Perhaps you would have been able have fellow classmate verify the unfair treatment you received. Again, while I think you are right to be upset, I'm not sure that saying something NOW, when it seems to be at least a semester in the past, is going to lead to a good resolution.

Ugh. I do feel for you, OP, and do think you need to speak to people. I think an in-person might be better than a letter--it's so easy to let a letter just languish in someone's inbox. Maybe the specific office that deals with International Students? They need to be a part of this discussion, and will tell you what other offices need to be informed. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

OP, you really need to narrow down what your complaint is with the school, what is relevant to that complant, and what you want them to do. This is a long list of complaints most of which are not relevant to anything that the school as an institution has control over.

"I'm an international student so I was paying almost 3x per credit" -- okay, that's expensive, but that's your choice. Irrelevant to any complaint.

"I was advised to enroll in their English as a Second Language program, took all the tests and when I was ready to begin they told me I was not allowed to start because my English was just too good for their classes and if I wanted to study there I should pick a major and go straight to college level classes." -- That sounds frustrating, but the school has a right to test the language proficiency level of foreign students.

In the end of the first semester the secretary from the nursing program sends me a voice mail saying there was a mistake and that I was never supposed to be enrolled in the program mentioning that the nursing board in the state doesn't allow immigrants to take the nursing certification test. I was baffled! It took them several days to clarify the issue and I was only allowed to continue because I explained I was getting married and getting the Green Card through my husband." So you were allowed to continue? I don't understand the complaint then.

"The next issue was a problem with one professor who was always late and never taught anything pertinent to the subject he was supposed to teach. He only gave us assignments, papers to write and readings. He never gave a lecture. We tried talking to the dean several times and she dragged the issue until the semester was over." OP, do you think you are the only person to ever encounter a bad professor?????? Get real.

"The following semester came and I had to make an emergency trip to my home country. I went to the International Students office to make sure I had all the necessary paperwork they asked me to look for the ISO in the medical campus. First of all I was told there was no "ISO" in the medical campus since I was the only international student there so they assigned one person (without any experience) to do the job. Every time I went there with a question it would take her 3-4 days to get me an answer and most of the time it was not complete. I went to her office 5 times to make sure my paperwork for my trip was done and I finally got it all 2 days before my trip." First of all, your college and its International Students Office is NOT responsible for making sure your visa and immigration paperwork are accurate and appropriate for your trip. I don't know why you thought that. It is YOUR responsibility to be in status at all times. Not your college's.

"Well, I went home, did what I have to do and headed to the airport to return to the US. Well, what was my surprise when I tried to check in I learned I would not be allowed to board the place because one of my papers was expired!!! This was Wednesday before Thanksgiving and I had a final on Monday morning. I called every single office in that school desperately and obviously nobody picked up the phones and they would not return my calls until Monday morning. I tried reaching the American Embassy in my country and well, you guessed, nobody picked up the phones until Monday morning." Why in the HELL would you think someone would be available at your college to rescue you in a foreign country for an immigration dilemma on Thanksgiving weekend?

OP, I could go on and on here. You sound like a person who sees herself as a victim. You also sound terribly immature.

[Anonymous]

I do agree with 13:33 in a way. I also don't understand why you are getting an MBA if you already have a degree in Special Ed. Why not a Masters in Education? Something about this post seems a bit off. I'm not sure if it is because this set up doesn't sound like most CC I've heard of (a separate medical campus, they are in charge of your visas etc).