Exchange Department Scams KU Student

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I got a really raw deal out of an exchange trip, and I am really kind of angry about it. I thought about trying to publish an article in the university newspaper (first draft below) that describes what happened to me. If they won't print it, then maybe a newspaper in the competing university in my state will.



In the spring semester of freshman year, I signed up for a year-long exchange to Stuttgart, Germany. My parents and I were given repeated assurances throughout the process that I would be able to get credit for what I did there, although none of them were in writing. I was supposed to have some idea of the courses I was going to take before I arrived, so the exchange department told me that I should talk to the heads of the departments of the classes I wanted to take to find out about that. I am in the Engineering Physics major, so I take classes from several departments.

Whenever I went to the exchange department for information, they told me to go to the heads of other departments (eg, Mechanical Engineering, or Astronomy and Physics), and whenever I went there, they told me to go to the exchange department. I once went on a wild goose chase for 3 months, where each faculty member I met with told me that they didn’t have what I needed, and sent me towards somebody else. Eventually I was told to go back to the head of the exchange department, which is where I started the goose-chase in the first place. So eventually I found out that no one in the entire university knew which classes in Germany I should take. However, that didn't stop me because I really wanted to go, and my parents had already paid the exchange department large sums of money by then.

So I ended up bringing the course descriptions for all the classes I wanted to take with me to Germany, and I hoped that the Germans would be able to point me in the right direction. They were actually very helpful and did their best to find classes that fit. I ended up taking courses whose translations sounded very similar to the English equivalents, such as “Circuits 1” and “Physics 3.” Nothing was a perfect fit, and I often ended up having to do extensive research on my own to understand what was said in lecture (I had to learn how to use the Fourier transformation by myself, and how to find complex impedances), and I was also often retaught material that I had learned years ago. However, I thought everything would work out alright in the end, so long as I got credit for what I did. In the second semester, most of the courses related to my major took place simultaneously, so I was only able to sign up for 3 courses, but I figured that would only put me behind about 6 credit hours, which was not so bad.

I ended up getting pretty bad grades in most of the classes. I know that is my fault, because I was the one who took the tests, but they were in German, and they were really hard. One question on a physics exam asked me to find the polarization of a light beam after it had entered a pool of water at a given angle, bounced off a glass plate, which was oriented at some other angle, and exited the pool of water, and all of that without a picture. The exam was over before I figured out which angle was which, or whether the given angles were measured from the horizontal or vertical (the exams were meant to press students for time). Also, the Germans are not afraid of failing ¼-1/3 of their students who take their exams, because they can keep retaking the exams year after year without extra charge. So a D in the USA looks much worse than the equivalent “4.0” in Germany, because the average in Germany is the equivalent of a C (“3.0”), and the students can often just keep retaking the tests if they want. I was told that engineering students were given generous grade boosts during credit transfers, but it turns out they gave me a straight grade transfer, which was really something like a 10% grade reduction, based on how people interpret the grades on different sides of the ocean.

When I got back to the USA, I did not get confirmation from the exchange department that I had passed the courses in Germany for 6 months, and then I still needed to talk to the heads of the engineering and physics departments to see if they could be accepted as KU equivalents. I only got a few credits, and most of them were D’s, so I was advised by family members, and my KU adviser, that I should retake the KU courses to get better grades. However, I have recently found out that I do not get to choose whether I accept the credits I took in Germany. In fact, I was told that I would not be able to graduate until I had gotten some equivalent for the courses I took. It also turns out that the heads of the engineering and physics departments did not accept most of the classes I took as KU equivalents, so now I am stuck with a lot of sh***y grades on my transcript that are unrelated to my major, and which I can’t wipe out by retaking courses.

So all in all, my parents paid the exchange department $30k for the service of having me figure out everything by myself, I got no credit related to my major for anything I did, apart from getting a D in thermodynamics, and I have several other Ds on my transcript that I can’t get rid of or use towards my major. I feel like a year of my life has been stolen from me. As far as my transcript is concerned, and my parent’s wallet, it would have been better for me to sit in my room drinking booze for a year. I would strongly advise against anyone going on a KU exchange, unless you are just looking for a more legitimate-looking excuse for partying in Europe.

I'd sure hate to take courses in a language in which I was not fluent.

That is not a good way of exchanging. But I respect your resourcefulness in Germany.

I have been an exchange student from the Netherlands to Sweden. Since I used a special grant (Erasmus, EU programme) I needed to make a complete plan. So everything was official between the both universities before I even started. And it was a fantastic time. I hope aside from the official business your time there was good?

About your grades, I assume you compared the grading systems carefully. Sometimes they seem similar, but have a different base-number or methodology (p.e. linear vs. curved)
So be really careful when they transfer your grades, really look at the (statistical) system. Maybe that could help some things.

About your article, it is really negative and black... maybe you should make it more about warnings and preparations? So sketching your problems and giving solutions (like making a roster of courses before you go abroad). When you steer toward that it is more likely to be read and accepted.

I'd consider getting a good lawyer.

Yes, I'd hire the services of an attorney, and ask this attorney what he or she thinks of a pre-lawsuit letter asking that the university departments reconsider whether the classes have KU equivalents. That seems like what's most important to your college career, that you have a chance to re-take these classes and wipe the bad grades off your record.

Sonetimes in these kind of cases someone fights a publicity battle the same time they fight a legal battle, sometimes it's a matter of subtly flashing an ace. The department heads in their role as administrators and bureaucrats have probably done the safe, usual thing. The initial goal is to get them thinking that reconsidering your case is the right and proper thing, because you were misadvised, because you were told that these have KU equivalents. And we're not talking about Russian literature or pre-Roman German history for crying out loud. We're talking about physics and engineering which certainly there are close equivalents.

I'd say you'd have a healthy 50% chance to win. It might even be sixty or seventy, but the way to look at it is healthy 50% (and must become zen master). You might even ask your attorney to ask for refund of monies as part of negotiation process.

And if it turns out that they're sticks-in-the-mud, please remember, lots of people have had good, interesting, worthwhile, meaningful engineering careers with an up and down college background.

I am not exactly the fondest person of university officials (and that's putting it mildly!). Besides the lawyer, try not to go through this alone and try to have someone else as a support person.

Thx for the advice. I'll try talking to officials on campus before I try anything legally.

My father doesn't think that legal action would work, because they never promised us that I would actually be able to get credit. They didn't promise anything at all really, they just took the money and then sat on their asses.