I am a current CS undergrad at Iowa State University, and due to some personal issues, I’ve found myself in a position where I need exactly one course to complete my degree. Namely, I failed my Operating Systems course this semester and I had planned to graduate. While the obvious next option would be to simply return in the fall and take the class, this is an unattractive option for a couple of reasons, so I am trying to work with my professor to find another university that offers a similar class over the summer that I can use as a transfer credit.
So my question is, for students who apply to just take a single course over the summer, how does the admissions process compare to normal? Finding a school that offers the particular course I need during the summer is difficult, and many of the schools that I have found are relatively competitive programs. My GPA is passable but not stellar, however my main concern is with the short time frame on these applications (some of the courses start in less than 2 weeks) and the fact that I failed the class I’m attempting to take the first time.
Does anyone have a similar experience, or just any experience with transient/visiting admissions who could weight in at all?
I suspect your larger issue will be making sure Iowa State will accept the credit if you take this course somewhere else. Colleges often refuse to grant much transfer credit from other sources, often limiting it to general ed type courses. If you’re a CS major, Operating Systems is surely not gen ed, but a required course for your major; very possible Iowa requires you to take that course at Iowa since it’s a required course for your major. Do this research first to save yourself some time.
If the course desired is not one that has a waiting list, provided you have the prereqs and can pay the cost of the course, chances are you can get in.
However, you must verify that this specific course can fulfill your graduation requirement, and will be transferrable to ISU. If so, get that agreement in writing not only from your department, but from the office responsible for accepting and recording transfer credits. You do not want any surprises at this point.
Does ISU offer this class as an independent study or in an online version? That might make it possible to complete the work without having to be on campus. Did you already aboslutely fail the class, or could you have it declared Incomplete, and re-do the missing work this summer so as to qualify for a passing grade?
@milee30 I have already spoken to my advisor and my professor about this.
@bopper I’m not sure what you mean by local programs, but since the class is an upper level computer science course, I really need to take the course from another university. I have already checked online for programs near Iowa State, and none of them have what I need.
Also, visiting/transient students are just non-degree students that intend to transfer credit back to another institution. Do you know anything about admission for non-degree students as in my initial question?
Is it just that you don’t want to stay in Ames for the summer? Or is the course not offered this summer? Or do you just think you’d fail it again at ISU?
Summer session courses are commonly less selective or not selective and welcome visiting students (but even not selective courses may fill up on a first come first served basis), but upper level courses are much less likely to be offered.
Since you already have a list of schools that offer the course you need, and generalities are useless when applied to a specific school, I think you’ll have more luck if you either list the schools here, or contact them directly.
If you’re just looking for useless anecdotes, my useless anecdote is that non-degree admission was trivial when I a) already had a degree from another school in hand and b) the school I was applying to as a non-degree student was essentially open-admissions. That same school allowed up to 9 credit hours to be taken as a non-degree student without submitting transcripts or meeting any other admission requirements; you just filled out a form to request an ID number for enrollment.
@intparent the course is not offered in Ames over the summer, or else I would certainly take it here.
@ucbalumnus thank you very much, that’s essentially what I wanted to know. I’ve looked at a few online programs so far, and fortunately many of them show the enrollment directly on the website, so I obviously won’t be attempting to enroll in a course that is already full.
@allyphoe I unfortunately do not really have a list of schools at the moment. Since finding out that I bombed my final, I’ve looked at out dozens of CS programs online, only a fraction of which offer an online operating systems course over the summer. I’ve found 3 programs that fit the criteria, but when I emailed my professor with the course syllabus, he said that they weren’t close enough to his course to apply. I am continuing to search and communicate options with my professor, but currently I don’t really have any candidates.
@allyphoe sorry I didn’t see your most recent post when I posted mine. I actually really appreciate the anecdote, it may not end up applying to my personal situation, (especially since I don’t actually have a degree yet) but it is good information nonetheless. I never took courses from another university during my previous 4 years at Iowa State so i’m not really sure what to expect in this case.
This sounds like a tough course to take one off. Most colleges won’t offer it in the summer. There is no groveling to your prof to do something to pass, is there? Isn’t today the last day of finals at ISU?
@intparent You are correct in that it is not commonly offered over the summer, but I have found a few programs that offer it. The primary concern is finding one that my professor will accept. Unfortunately I’ve already tried asking my professor to give me a chance to work my way back up to a passing grade, but he pretty much just flat out refused. I understand that what i’m trying to do isn’t exactly an optimal solution to my problem, but it is an avenue that I intend to pursue until I am sure that it literally cannot work. In that event I will simply return to ISU, however i’d like to avoid that as much as possible. I am afraid that if I simply return in the fall, the personal issues that led to me failing the class in the first place will just reoccur.
I see the prof’s point, I guess. Do you have a job lined up?
@FreeformJazz - Are the “personal issues” with the instructor, or are they elsewhere? If they are with the instructor, are they remediable, or not? Is this something that should be taken over the instructor’s head to the dean’s office?
@intparent unfortunately no. I was in communication with a few places, but because of my rather shaky academic status, I just kind of let everything fall through. Hopefully I did it in a way that didn’t burn any bridges. Thank you for asking though.
@happymomof1 I appreciate your concern, but the personal issues are entirely my own. While my professor can be a bit inflexible, he did nothing wrong in this scenario.
Be sure to get any course you take in another college approved in advance but your college. Get the pre-approval in writing. Likely needs to be from your academic advisor/Dean but check the process at your college