Friday, July 17, 2009

BU can suck it

A very nice girl of 22 works in my lab. She is unmarried with 3 year old twins whom she loves very much and cares for very well. Every day, she drops them off at day care or camp or school or what have you, works for 8 hours, then picks them up, feeds them, gives them a bath, puts them to bed, and then someone from her family babysits while she takes night classes at BU to earn her Bachelor of Science. And don't forget, these are twins we're talking about, meaning there's two of them.

Today I was asking how many classes she had remaining before getting her degree with a major in biomedical sciences, and she mentioned that she was nearing the end, but still had to take some required core classes: History, English, and Philosophy 101. I commented that gee, that must be damn expensive, and I was right: each class is a couple thousand bucks. I then asked why she didn't take the classes at Harvard, because as a Harvard employee, there's only a nominal fee to enroll in night classes. She said that BU won't accept Harvard classes for credit. Let's say that again: Boston University won't accept non-major classes from Harvard and instead engages in a blatant money-grab from a single mother... with twins!

I'm sure most other schools are similarly greedy, but wow, you'd think some dean would be willing to make an exception. So BU can suck it.