My University of Phoenix Online Experience

Success!

2009-12-04T03:41:00.001-05:00

I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy for the last couple of years. :)

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I did receive my Associate of Arts Degree in Psychology from Axia College of University of Phoenix, with a GPA of 3.97. Not bad, huh?

I did re-enroll this past month to pursue my Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology. So far it has been pretty good. I had a little trouble with financial aid. There was a gap between what I could get and what I had to pay. It wasn't very much though, so with a little more work I should be able to cover it.

Sorry, I haven't followed up on this blog for anyone who has stumbled upon it. I was surprised to find that it was still here. :)

Well, that's it for tonight. I will try and check back in the next couple of years to answer any questions that you may have. :)

Have a good time!

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Here's Another One For Ya!

2007-12-15T23:28:00.000-05:00

Another program that the University of Phoenix requires us to have is a .pdf reader called Acrobat Reader. It's free too and it does it's job pretty well, but I know it's taking about three days to load on some of your computers, and you can't modify the files you are looking at. Now, for our purposes it's not really necessary to modify .pdf files, but here's a scenario for you:

You download a form that's in .pdf format. Now you gotta fill out this form and get it back to somebody quick. First, you gotta print it out (wasting ink and trees), and then you gotta fill in the info with that old tube and ink device(more ink), and then you gotta find a fax machine (ink, trees) to dial the person up and hope that they stroll by the fax machine in their office at the right time and your fax doesn't end up somewhere it shouldn't, because then you'd have to start the whole process over again.

Or you can just download this program: Foxit Reader . This program is small, so it loads fast. You just bring up your .pdf file, call up the Typewriter Tool, and enter your information directly into the document. From there you can print the document out back to a .pdf file, using CutePDF and e-mail it back to whoever needs it. That quick! Oh yeah, both those programs are free too.

Oh yeah, and you know that software suite I told you about yesterday- OpenOffice.org .
You can export your documents to .pdf in Writer. You can't do that in Microsoft Word.

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Get What You Need For Free!

2007-12-15T00:10:00.000-05:00

Seems, I've missed my deadline again.

I spent yesterday getting caught up in both of my classes, and also getting caught up on some much needed sleep, so I'm sorry that I missed out on the post I promised. But I got a good one today.

There is a variety of software that the University of Phoenix requires you to have in order to be able to appropriately present your materials in class. Basically a big part of this requirement is Microsoft Office- Word, Excel, PowerPoint, whatever. I've got a secret for you though.

YOU DON'T NEED TO SPEND MONEY ON THIS SOFTWARE!!!

And I'm not saying steal it either. I haven't advocated that since I became old enough to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Besides, there are alternatives out there that are free and functional. The main one I want to talk about at this point is OpenOffice.org. Yeah, I know it looks like a website, but it's a software suite too! And guess what? It totally replaces Microsoft Office, and its FREE!!!

There's Writer (Word), Calc (Excel), and Impress (PowerPoint). Those are the three main ones right there. Then there's also Base (Access), and two other programs: Draw- a paint program with many more features than the one that comes with Windows, and Math- some kind of crazy scientific calculator program that I don't quite understand yet.

Did I mention you can get all this for free? NO SPYWARE! NO ADWARE! Just plain free.

So don't pay however many hundred bucks that Microsoft Office costs now. Go to the following link and download it for free.

http://www.openoffice.org/

This is not an advertisement. I don't get squat for this. I just want you to know it's out there.

Peace,

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Adsense Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

2007-12-13T04:35:00.000-05:00

I wonder if anyone ever thought of that one before. Pretty witty, huh?

I'm delirious right now- forgive me. Between school and work, and getting a new apartment I haven't been sleeping at all. I also realize that I haven't been posting here either, but guess what? Neither has anyone else. I invited all my classmates to the blog to share their experiences also, but so far I've got no bytes. (Oh, I'm pathetic.)

But guess what? Tomorrow, I have my first full day off of work it was has been nearly a month and a half. (That's right! I said a month and a half.) So hopefully I'll be able to get in here tomorrow and leave you some vital information concerning my academic endeavors.

Until then, I'm going to be counting sheep.

Peace Out!

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Tomorrow's The Big Day

2007-12-09T23:12:00.000-05:00

December 10th- my first day of school!

Wow! It's been like ten years since I could say that. It's strange, and in many ways it feels pretty cool.

I logged into the student website tonight, and the option to Go to Class was on there. Even though I wanted to check it out, I know that I'm supposed to go over the process tomorrow with my enrollment adviser, and not much had gone right for me today- so I figure I'll just wait until tomorrow.

I've spent the last couple of days getting organized and looking over materials. I hope I'm ready!

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U of Phoenix Autobiography

2007-12-07T01:58:00.000-05:00

My first task to complete for the University of Phoenix was to create an autobiography. So here it is:

Hello. My name is Shawn Criscito. I am 29 years old. I grew up in New Castle, Pennsylvania which is where I currently reside, but have had the opportunity to travel much of the United States and a small portion of Canada. For a time I lived in Southern California, where I had the chance to experience life in a big city and work for some large and well-known companies as an Executive Assistant and a Website Auditor. I have recently started a new job working as a Caregiver for the Lawrence County Association for Retarded Citizens, and although the job can be challenging at times, it is also a source of much joy in my life. During my childhood and adolescence I spent a great deal of time with my cousin who has Down syndrome and I believe that this experience has provided me with an alternative perception of the world, and a value system that differs from many of those around me. Don't get me wrong- I still like to have my fun, but I have found in my life that having fun at the expense of others usually carries a cost that exceeds the return. I enjoy the simple pleasures now- music, nature, and the company of good friends. I am also much of a computer geek, and find myself spending hours in front of a computer screen. Once, I tried to start my own e-business supporting the Arts in my community, but have had to put this goal on the back-burner until I find myself on more stable ground. For now, I keep a blog that documents my University of Phoenix experience. It can be found at: http://uophoenix.blogspot.com/

Naturally I find myself wanting to help others, and so I have chosen to pursue a degree in Psychology. It seems that I have always been good at listening and analyzing other people's problems, and coming up with a solution. Now, whether or not they want to follow my advice is a totally different story. There was a time in my life, however, that I found talking to an individual that really had no stake in my life to be extremely beneficial to my growth and well-being, and I only hope to be able to do the same for someone else, someday.

Thank you for your time, and I am looking forward to meeting and learning about my classmates, and professors.

Shawn

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Patiently Waiting

2007-12-06T09:11:00.000-05:00

OK. Four more days until I start my scholastic career all over again at the University of Phoenix. I spoke with both my Finance Counselor and my Enrollment Adviser yesterday, and I'm already to go. All I have to do now is wait a little bit.

I have to write a short autobiography of myself so my classmates and professor have some idea of who I am. My computer is supposed to arrive today or tomorrow, so I think I'll wait until that gets here. I usually produce better stuff when I procrastinate a little bit anyway. :)

Then on Monday at 11:30am, my Enrollment Adviser is set to contact me a lead me through the first day of school. He's already sent me some material, so I have a pretty good idea what to look out for.

I'm excited. I'm nervous. I'm a lot of things, but more than anything I'm just looking forward to doing something interesting with my life. I've tried this before and failed, but I've yet to attempt it in such a setting.

I'm just waiting to see.

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Dell Vostro 1000 Specs

2007-12-04T12:39:00.000-05:00

Here's the Spec Sheet, and the pricing on my new Dell Vostro 1000. It's a little more than I need to just take online courses, but I'm also into audio production, and being a bit of a computer geek I wanted a little more.

If you're interested in this machine you have to search in the Small Business section on the Dell Website, though. I spent weeks trying to put together an Inspiron that I wanted, and each time the price tag went well over $1000. This machine has just about everything I wanted. (Except for a 7200 rpm hard drive, but I'll add that later.) And it was a lot cheaper than getting it in an Inspiron. Pretty much all you have to do is supply a business name- which I have, but I don't think they'll mind if you make one up- and not buy the machine for resell.

I can't wait to get my hands on it! :)

Oh yeah, and I'm supposed to be getting grant money in about a month from enrolling in school, so I'll be able to reimburse myself the cost of the machine.

Item(s):

Vostro 1000 - AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor TL- 60 (2.00GHz 512K), Genuine Windows VistaÂ® Home Premium
Unit Price: $1,050.00
Quantity: 1
Total Price: $1,050.00

-- Vostro 1000:
-- AMD Turion 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor TL- 60 (2.00GHz 512K)

-- LCD Panel:
-- 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife

-- Memory:
-- 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 Dimm

-- Video Card:
-- ATI RadeonÂ® Xpress 1150 256MB HyperMemoryè’‚ (integrated)

-- Hard Drive:
-- 120GB 5400RPM Hard Drive

-- Operating System:
-- Genuine Windows VistaÂ® Home Premium

-- Optical Drive:
-- 8X DVD+/-RW w/Double-layer DVD+R Write Capability, for Vista PremiumÂ®

-- Sound Card:
-- Integrated Audio

-- Wireless Cards:
-- Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Wi-Fi Mini Card

-- Productivity Software:
-- No Pre-installed Productivity Software

-- Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-Installed):
-- No Pre-installed Anti-Virus/Security Software

-- Primary Battery:
-- 53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

-- Limited Warranty, Services and Support:
-- 1 Year Limited Hardware Warranty with Mail-in Service

-- Installation Services:
-- No Onsite System Setup

-- Automated PC Tuneup:
-- No Dell Automated PC Tune Up or NW Assistant Installed

-- Purchase Intent:
-- Purchase is not intended for resale.

-- Environmental Options:
-- Support Reforestation: Plant a Tree for Me

-- Labels:
-- Windows Vistaè’‚ Premium

-- Save $290 on select Vostro 1000 Notebooks through Dell Small Business!
- $290.00

Subtotal: $760.00

Shipping and Handling: $19.99

Shipping Discount: -$19.99

Sales Tax: $45.62

Total: $805.62

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Did I mention I work a lot?

2007-12-04T09:52:00.000-05:00

I really intended to be more consistent in my postings, but I really can't remember my last real day off, and my schedule has been sprinkled with doubles and holiday shifts, so I've been falling behind on my new blog's resolution. My laptop will be coming soon, so that should afford me the opportunity to post more regularly, since a lot of the time all I have to do at work is watch TV for hours at a time. There is a possibility that my Dell Vostro 1000 will be delayed until the week of Christmas, but they said that to a friend of mine and she got her Inspiron like a week later. We'll see.

I'm going to give you a short run-down on the process that got me to begin my college career this coming December 10th, simply because my memory isn't all that great and there's been a lot of stuff going on the last couple of weeks, not to mention I'm kind of learning on the fly with all this Google and Blogger stuff. (Anyone has some criticisms or suggestions I'm more than willing to listen and try things out.)

Okay. So I decide that I may want to further my education. I go to the University of Phoenix website because I know people that have done this and have heard much about the university, and not much that is bad. I look around their site and see that they have a variety of degrees available, including those in Psychology that range from an Associate degree up to a Master's degree. I've chosen Psychology because it seems to come naturally to me, since my days of being the resident shrink at the local Perkins restaurant back in the day, and as reflected in my iGoogle home page content- it's something I'm interested in. I decide it's a good idea to start out working on an Associate degree, which I realize isn't worth much in today's Psychology field, but also know that it's not going to cost me as much if I decide not to continue for some reason. I also have a pretty good notion that my loans can be deferred if I decide to re-enroll, and that notion is later confirmed by my enrollment adviser.

So I fill out the information request form that is accessed through the little blue box on the left side of the University's main page, and the next day I listen to the message on my answering machine from my future enrollment adviser. I'm pretty skeptical about these things, so I take a day to really think about this, and come to the conclusion that I'm really not doing anything with my life at the moment, so it might be an interesting thing to try out. I give him a call.

Now, my enrollment adviser is a little cautious about posting his name all over my blog, but can only say that he has been there whenever I needed him. Whenever I have a question he gets back to me quickly and has the information I need to get past whenever roadblock I'm facing. Plus, he's pretty cool. While we were waiting on some stuff to come through the one day, we just started bullshitting about similar interests, and found out that he's into a lot of the same stuff that I am. Since then, we've corresponded through e-mail on various things like software and websites, and music. Turns out he's a DJ and he's starting his own online clothing store. If you e-mail me or leave a comment with your e-mail address I'll give you his contact information. I definitely recommend him!

My first phone conversation with the enrollment adviser went well. Of course, he gave me the whole schpeel that he has to, but I never felt any pressure to go through with this. He was open to my perception of the whole school thing. I have had a good amount of success in life without a degree, and have had a couple of bad educational experiences in the past. I realized that this was more of a personal goal than anything else, and my adviser let me take the lead on the direction I wanted to go with my education.

After choosing which course I wanted to take, I had to fill out a form on the University of Phoenix website that determined if I was a good candidate for schooling online, and if I would qualify for the government subsidies that would help me pay for my education.

The same rules apply to the University of Phoenix as they do if you actually physically attended a campus based University. All the government loans and grants are there if you qualify, and the University of Phoenix also lists a bunch of scholarships that one might be interested in pursuing.

I've heard a lot about the University of Phoenix being very expensive, and based on prior experiences can only say that this is untrue. Sure, there are cheaper ways to earn a degree, but you have to realize that you are paying for convenience here, which is important in my life. And to be honest, you could end up spending a lot more going to a campus based University, and that's before considering the cost of housing and materials.

---

So I've filled out all the government forms to request financial aid. I did it online, and the whole time I was doing this, my enrollment adviser is on the phone guiding me through it and answering my questions. So much easier than struggling through all the paperwork that I have done in the past. I find out a few days later that the government will give me all the necessary loan money that I need and I won't have to worry about paying anything back until six months after I graduate. Plus, like I said, if I re-enroll after I get my Associate degree then I don't have to worry about paying them back until after I get my Bachelor's...and I can do the same thing with my Master's.

Out of pocket cost- $50 on the first day of classes, $50 when I receive my degree. That's it! Sure, I have to pay back my loans, but now I have a degree to help me do that...

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Update: Even better!

2007-11-28T12:28:00.000-05:00

Hey. I just got a call from my enrollment counselor, and he managed to get me started on December 10th. Even better.

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Update: I'm in!

2007-11-27T09:59:00.000-05:00

OK. I know I'm skipping ahead a little bit, but I started this blog a couple weeks late, and I'm too excited about yesterday's developments to hold off until I get caught up. So please bear with me, and I'll get the old information to you as soon as I find the time. But for now...

I'm in! I just got all my paperwork in yesterday, and I'm going to be starting December 17th. I just want to say that my enrollment counselor kicks ass, and I'm really grateful that he's been patient with me and all my indecision. Originally, I wasn't supposed to start until January but there's been a lot of stuff going on in my life at the moment, and I knew that if I was going to do this I had to do it now. So I called him up yesterday, and asked about moving up my start date. He said he could, and then I wasn't sure again so I said I'd call him back. I called him back at least three more times yesterday, until finally I gave him the go ahead. There was a simple form that I had to print out and fax back to him. Generally, you can do this form online, but I had to have my information in that day in order to get my December 17th start date.

So I go to print out the form, and my printer isn't working and then my neighbor's fax machine is out of ink!!! Argh!

Let's just say that I was running around yesterday like a crazy, wild man but I got everything done. I called my counselor for like the fifth or sixth time yesterday, and he congratulated me and we laughed about all the craziness.

My experience with the University of Phoenix, has thus far been unproblematic. My side of things though? :)

To celebrate, I ordered a new Dell Vostro 1000 notebook computer. I'll tell you all about that later.

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OK. I'll do this! Where do I start?

2007-11-24T11:15:00.000-05:00

By Google-ing, of course. I typed University of Phoenix into the search box, and clicked on the first link that came up. There's a convenient, little, blue Get Started Today box located on the left side of their main page. I clicked on it, and filled out the form that it led me to, and I got a call the next day...

Next: "My First Conversation with my Enrollment Consultant"

To be followed by: "My Second Conversation with my Enrollment Consultant"

and: "My Third Conversation with my Enrollment Consultant"

and: "My Thirty-Third Conversation with my Enrollment Consultant"

and: (I think you get the picture. I had a lot of questions. :)

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Should I really do this?

2007-11-23T18:56:00.000-05:00

I didn't put much time or energy into thinking about this. I sort of did it on a whim. I've been pretty lucky, and have had a good amount of success in my life with my jobs, without having a degree. I've got friends who have spent much time and money earning degrees of their own, and many of them are working the same dead-end jobs that they had before graduating, and they might be earning a little or a lot more, but they also got a big debt to pay off now.

I wasn't so smart earlier in my life. Right out of high school I had a scholarship to go to a local University. It was a full ride. At the time, though, I was determined to be a "rock star" and figured that if I didn't have enough talent to make it before school, then I still wasn't going to be talented enough after I graduated. Looking back, I think that I was just afraid of the entrance audition, since I had always been last chair in any band that I was in up to that point.Then a year or so later, I did decide to go to college after some guy at a job placement center pissed me off when he told me that I needed to be more practical with my choices, even after I totally blew the placement test apart and scored high enough to do whatever I wanted. I enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh. But I was still young, and arrogant at the time. And by then I was a "rock star", only I wasn't playing in any bands or anything. I partied myself out of school within the first three months, which was hard because by the second week I was two months ahead in my studies. LOL

So now I'm old and bored. I don't party any more, and I don't do much reading or studying on my own anymore; not to mention TV and music both pretty much suck now. So what's a (29 year) old man like me do today? Go try and get an actual degree, and find out if I'm really as smart as I think that I am. :)

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"From the ashes rises the sun..."

2007-11-20T00:13:00.001-05:00

So why did I decide to pursue a degree at this point in my life?

Why not!

I've been doing pretty well in my life recently, after spending a great deal of time in a rut that I thought that I'd never escape from. I'm grateful now! I've got a job that I finally feel like I have the chance at some longevity. And although it does not pay all that well, it fulfills a big vacancy that was there with all the other jobs I've had up to this point in my life. I'm doing good now, so why not see how far I can travel in this positive direction?

Why pursue a degree online?

Convenience. I work A LOT!!! But fortunately for me I spend good portion of that time sitting around making sure that the people I take care of sleep well. I'm not really into television, and my workout program is still yet to kick-off, so what better to do what my time than try to increase my earning potential and make up for all the money that I'm not getting now?

Plus, I'm a big computer geek, but I hate fixing other people's computers, so there's no way in hell that I was going to make any money with these skills, other than running office applications or clicking on-screen answers to get to the thing that I could say that would persuade somebody on the other side of the telephone to buy something they don't need, or even worse - TECH SUPPORT!

Why University of Phoenix?

Probably because I've heard more about them than other online schools. Sure, they have a good PR department, but even businesses with a good PR department don't stick around if they don't perform well.

Plus, I'm pretty into the mythical figure that they use in their logo...

I'll give you more in-depth information later. Peruse their site for now, if you wish. And if you decide to request information from them, trust me, you will hear from somebody really soon.

Next: Should I really do this?

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