A bit of a student rant

I just discovered that even though classes begin tomorrow (October 1st), I had a preliminary meeting with one of my instructors last week some time. Not only did NO ONE tell me this (not with an email, verbally, smoke signal, or paper airplane through my window), but the instructor I missed the meeting with was the head of the department. Now I am absolutely mortified because I've just realized that I could have missed preliminary meetings with ALL of my classes so far (and did with the head of the department itself), and I feel like a moron.

I've just sent grovelling "Hi I'm a stupid american and didn't know we were supposed to meet" emails along with "I have checked everywhere and can't seem to locate where the class is even supposed to meet" included in there, because there is no literature in print or online that I was given or have access to that even tells you where to go, just at what time and on which day.

Now I feel like I've just completely ruined my start here and my instructors will think I am a class ditcher.  :\\\'(

um, how exactly were you supposed to be able to go to these meetings if you were never told about them?  That doesn't sound like your fault, it sounds like someone dropped the ball.  Don't worry, you'll get back on track.  When I studied abroad in undergrad I missed the first day of classes because I spent it running around campus getting signatures from the departments approving my module choices so that I could register!  It all worked out just fine.

I wouldn't worry about it too much - it sounds more like a lack of organisation on their part than your fault, so you may not have been the only one who missed the meeting(s).

Something similar happened to me when I arrived at my US uni for study abroad. My friend and I went to the international students office to ask how to get our student cards (we'd already asked at our residence hall, but apparently no one could understand what we were saying!) and apparently we were supposed to sign at the office to show we had arrived. However, the girl we spoke to just answered our questions but didn't check that we'd signed in. Two days later, we had an orientation meeting along with all the other international students and it turned out that almost everyone had registered with the office several days ago - except for us, and no one had told us that's what we were supposed to do. The office staff just looked at us as if we'd just wasted their time or something - I felt so stupid!

That's totally why I feel so stupid. If other people managed to show up and I didn't, I'm going to get one of those "if other people showed up and you didn't then there's no excuse for your absence" talks. I've never in my life experienced a class that 1) had meetings before the first week of class and 2) didn't tell you where the beans you're supposed to meet to actually take the class. I've checked this morning and I have no responses yet, so I'm going to try to run down to the department early and maybe sort things out. Sigh.

I felt that way, too, when I did my study abroad.  At my uni at home, we were always told well in advance where/when our classes were meeting.  When I did my year abroad at Kingston Uni, we had to physically go to the department our classes were with, look on a sheet of paper posted on the hallway wall and find where & when the class we wanted was being held.  Times 3-5 for each class (especially if they are with different departments!), and it gets truly irritating!

With postgrad, it was even less clear.  Basically, the instructors scheduled the classes where & when they wanted, so I only knew once an e-mail was sent!

Be warned, Becky, UK universities are NOT as organised or 'with it' as American ones.  Be expected to do a LOT more fending for yourself and chasing things down.  It truly sucks, but it's all part of the deal, unfortunately.

i think you will be fine since you explained things. it's not your fault. i also had some trouble finding out about introductory meetings for my course. i basically was on the phone trying to get the uni to send registration information for 3 weeks and mostly talked to their admissions and recruitment office. they kept telling me information had been sent out and giving me the dates it had gone out, but i never received it. they repeated my address over the phone to me, so it was correct. finally, just over i week before my course started, i gave up with admissions and contacted the department directly. i got all the material on registering and intro meetings two days later.  i think the main offices are overwhelmed with too many students, and with the actual departments, it's somewhat more manageable due to smaller numbers.

Be expected to do a LOT more fending for yourself and chasing things down.  It truly sucks, but it's all part of the deal, unfortunately.

I agree! The challenge is there is an implicit assumption you know who, when and where to chase things up, and as an outsider, that inside knowledge is difficult to know.

Be warned, Becky, UK universities are NOT as organised or 'with it' as American ones.  Be expected to do a LOT more fending for yourself and chasing things down.  It truly sucks, but it's all part of the deal, unfortunately.

I actually pretty much knew I would have to fend for myself, so I prepared mentally for it. What I didn't expect was that they would entirely rely on a thumbtack board to communicate with their students instead of sending out emails. It makes me feel like they should just give up on email altogether. I mean, why keep THAT part of their communication in the stone age but still claim to be "high tech" and use email, have wifi on campus, etc etc.

I agree! The challenge is there is an implicit assumption you know who, when and where to chase things up, and as an outsider, that inside knowledge is difficult to know.

Exactly. Next semester I will do better though, because then I will know exactly where to go to locate the info I need and won't be missing my preliminary meetings!

I've been here for about 4 weeks and I know exactly what you mean.  It seems so much more damned difficult to track people down here... a lot more red tape to go through.

I had this issue with a meeting with my admissions tutor that nobody told me about.  The uni told me that I had a reminder sitting for me in my uni email inbox, but they had not given me the password to the inbox at that time.  So... yeah... real efficient!