4 years ago
The ISE Undergraduate Programs Office has major pr...
The ISE Undergraduate Programs Office has major problems. For one they don't have the correct hours posted. I don't just mean their Google page; even the department's website has it wrong. You'll notice a piece of paper taped to the door once you actually get there. Also, don't even try coming during lunch hour; they'll be sure to have nobody available. I wanted to sign up for their most introductory class, IE300. This was not possible online even though it said there were only 7/60 students registered. When I go to their office I'm told that the class isn't going to be offered this term; they didn't even know it was listed there and people were signed up for it. Later, I discover they are going to hold the class, but they made it impossible to register because only one of the lecture/discussion pair was listed. I went back to their office and had to ask to get this fixed, as well.
Most of these incidents can be forgiven as honest mistakes, but my experience at the office today was far worse. They had me sign up for a wait list to enroll in IE400, a class that has two sections: online and in-person. The absurd part is that neither of these sections are full; in fact, the online section has 0/50 students enrolled and the in-person still has more than 20 open spots. Nobody will even tell me how long until I find out if I can get in. The most I've been told is "sometime this summer." I'd be paying thousands extra to complete the prerequisite in time for this class with no guarantee of whether I can actually take it. They claim to be waiting for transfer students in the department to register before they can give me a chance, but transfer registration ended weeks ago. The only ones who haven't registered are some of the incoming Freshmen, none of whom have the prerequisites to do this class. After calmly mentioning that, I was met with rudeness and yelling and I felt the need to leave that place immediately.
If my department (MechSE) were to treat ISE students this way and make them wait indefinitely to register for our TAM courses, ISE would see how unreasonable they're being. This is completely unacceptable at the University of Illinois and it is my wish that nobody has to deal with that sort of attitude ever again on this campus.