Explaining it to the school

[disneydizzy2]

Can someone help us with the process?

My daughter finds herself in an odd circumstance. She applied and was accepted to the College Program for Spring 2012. Whhhoohooo

She has to respond and accept her position in less than ten days. She went to her academic advisor and was met with disdain and confusion. The advisor had never heard of the program. Financial aid was supportive, but now she is confused. She has a meeting with the faculty advisor today and is feeling scared.

Her school did not have a presentation and she finds herself trying to advocate what the program means to herself and how the school will benefit from her participation.

She called the Disney Recruiter number on her acceptance letter and was told she should have known what to do before applying. Perhaps true but not helpful at this point.

Anyone else not sure of the process? Can someone explain or help her and I understand what to do? She got accpeted and this is a dream oppurtunity for her, what does she do now?

SHe is so afraid she will blow this and not be able to go.

 

[dmarchioni]

I've not had to do this with my school, but here are a few options I have seen done:

1. Disney does offer classes that are recommended for credit, her college does not have to accept these classes, but it's worth a try. She could try bringing a list of those classes to her advisor and working them into her educational plan

2. Failing that she could talk to a professor within her major to try to work out an "independent study course". The instructor would most likely give her a series of projects or one large project to be completed over the course of her program. Credits obtained with this method will most likely not transfer to another school if she plans on that.

3. If her university offers online classes she could take a few simple classes to maintain student status. I wouldn't recommend taking too many classes or classes with a heavy workload as she will be wanting to work as much as possible though.

4. If all else fails she could enroll at another university (Central Michigan University is a popular choice) That will offer credit for the classes and then try to transfer the credits to her original school upon completion of the program.

Congrats to your daughter and hope this helps! See you guys down there

 

[LaurenInNeverland]

Can someone help us with the process?

My daughter finds herself in an odd circumstance. She applied and was accepted to the College Program for Spring 2012. Whhhoohooo

She has to respond and accept her position in less than ten days. She went to her academic advisor and was met with disdain and confusion. The advisor had never heard of the program. Financial aid was supportive, but now she is confused. She has a meeting with the faculty advisor today and is feeling scared.

Her school did not have a presentation and she finds herself trying to advocate what the program means to herself and how the school will benefit from her participation.

She called the Disney Recruiter number on her acceptance letter and was told she should have known what to do before applying. Perhaps true but not helpful at this point.

Anyone else not sure of the process? Can someone explain or help her and I understand what to do? She got accpeted and this is a dream oppurtunity for her, what does she do now?

SHe is so afraid she will blow this and not be able to go.

Poor thing! It sounds like a difficult situation.

If you go to disneycollegeprogram.com, at the top of the page there is a tab called For Educators. If you click on it, they provide this link: http://disneyeducationconnection.com/ I would suggest directing her school to this website. It has a lot of information about courses offered on the program, how to award credit, etc, and it seems to be constructed specifically for schools with similar questions and concerns.

I'm doing the program as a recent graduate, but I remember talking to my university about it back when my original plan was to do the CP as a sophomore. My advisor said that if I ran into any trouble, I could always take a leave of absence for a semester. The downside is that it's more difficult to transfer in any classes you take and it can set you back in terms of your graduation timeline. The good news is that (for my school at least) I wouldn't be paying tuition at the same time, my financial aid would just be put on hold for the semester I was gone, and I wouldn't have to re-apply for admission because I wouldn't be "dropping out." I didn't end up taking this route because I chose to study abroad during school and do the CP after, but it was nice knowing I had that option. Of course, every school is different, so I would find out what the school's Leave of Absence policies are as a back-up plan if her school decides that it does not want to encourage the CP.

I hope that helps. Best of luck!!

 

[dmarchioni]

I would like to add also that the experience on my first college program was a total positive for me and if it were me, The experience I gained, the friends that I made, and even the networking opportunities I had would totally have been graduating a semester late. With so many people applying, it really is a once in a lifetime chance. Again it's a decision for you and your daughter, but I'd say that if you can work it out with Medical insurance and financial aid and without losing enrollment status at her school then go for it regardless of how the school feels about it

 

[disneydizzy2]

Thank you so much for the speedy response, she has a meeting in a few hours and was not sure how to approach it. We are not so concerned with her taking courses, as her major is not really related(Pediatric Nursing) to any that are offered. Still we feel the experience is completely worth putting her academics on hold, and pushing her graduation back by a semester.

She is printing some of the web site material off and will have it and the link in hand when she goes to the meeting

We also were able to get the name of a gentleman at another college nearby who is on the Advisory Board for the Disney College Program, so they can recieve info from another educator.