I started classes as an MAA in April 2009. When I was down to the last two or three days I still didn't have an extern site. My coordinator brought in this couple from Asbury Gardens(which is right down the street from the school, it's like a retirement community.) to interview me. I interviewed with Joseph and Julie and was told that I would be notified on whether or not they were going to take me. I get a call from Julie that same night asking me if I would be interested in the spot and of course thinking that it was so close to the school I asked Julie to let me check on the bus schedule and once I had done that I called back and accepted the site. Here's where it gets a little tricky. I called the bus company over the weekend to confirm the schedule just to make sure I could get to the site and guess what? They no longer ran busses by my house at 6am as according to the schedule posted online. I of course tried to contact Asbury to speak with Julie, but was told that she was on maternity leave. I thought it sounded a little weird because I had just seen her at the school 2 days prior. I left a message hoping they would get it to her in time. So monday comes and I'm supposed to start at the site. I can't make it there and I start to get really nervous to the point where I am having anxiety attacks(I've had these before and they get really bad so I wanted to go see the doc). I called to speak with Sandy-the lady I was supposed to meet with when I arrived on-site to tell her I was going to go to the doctor and she told me that I would need to talk to Joseph the administrator before coming down. So the next week and a half I called I don't know how many times to try and speak with this guy, and never got into contact with him. I get a phone call from my coordinator at school telling me that the site doesn't want me anymore because I didn't go to my first day. How can I go to my first day if I CAN'T GET THERE??? Anyway I stayed in contact with the school and they had me set up to go to this other doctors office in Oswego and I was told I could take the bus there. Easy enough right? I know Pace Bus very well I've been taking it since I was eight years old BY MYSELF. I think I know how far the busses go, where they stop and so on. So the doctor's office in Oswego calls to setup an interview. At first I agreed to go down there, but after seeing that the bus didn't go out that far I had to cancel it. I was then given this lecture by my coordinator that I can take the bus right to the site. The bus only goes as far as the Kmart in montgomery and that is it! So since I missed that site everything kind of came to a standstill for a while. I asked the coordinators at Everest why can't I be placed in town and do you know what I was told? I was told that it would be difficult for me to get a site because I didn't speak spanish. I was back and forth on the phone and writing emails to my department chair and when I told her what they said she was appalled and was going to help me get to the bottom of things. My instructor(who was amazing) even offered to come to my house and pickup my usb key to help me with my resume. Unfortunately things were not working in my favor and I was told that I would have to find a site on my own at this point since I was dropped from my first site for not going and couldn't get to any of the others. I started going through the phone book, calling doctors, dentists, clinics, hospitals, and I found a couple that sounded really good and when I spoke to them they sounded interested in helping me. I'm supposed to notify my coordinator when I've spoken to someone and when I did, I was always met with the same response that they spoke with the site and the site does not want me. What is my coordinator telling them that she is not telling me? I'm running in circles at this point trying to find a site because I want to get done and graduate. I'm thinking I'm just about out of options by now when I get a phone call from this chiropractor in wheaton asking me to come down and interview. I knew right away I couldn't get out to wheaton because of the transportation issue(I called and told my extern coordinator and she said don't worry we'll get you to the site just go to the interview) and when I mentioned that to the person calling they said they live here in town maybe they can give me a ride. So the way I was understanding it was is that the girl at the site and my coordinator were working together and they were going to help me. Now I realize this is not their responsibility to make sure I get to my site, I know better than that. Which is why I wanted to say no to the interview but feeling as though I was backed into a corner by the externship coordinators at my school I went. Everything went well there the doc was really nice and wanted me to start on monday. So as I'm leaving Erica(the girl who called me to setup the interview) took my number and said that she'd call me to talk about the transportation. I was supposed to start that following monday at 9am and when Erica didn't call me I became worried. I called and left a message for her and when she called back she said that when I was being interviewed the doctor's wife was also interviewing and had already chosen someone else for the site. Everybody makes mistakes I get that so we talked and agreed to make arrangements to start at a later time. I get a call from Everest asking why I wasn't on site and I told them the whole thing about what Erica had said. They called the doctor's office and the next thing you know I was scheduled to start on that wednesday, Erica said she'd pick me up. Well wednesday rolls around and I'm getting ready to go, I am waiting, waiting, Erica never shows. Frantic, I call the school to let them know what is going on, having to leave a message because nobody was availiable. I then called the doctor's office and erica wasn't there yet so I left a message for her to call me. When she did she told me about how she now was not sure that she could give me a ride to the site because she no longer lives in Aurora she lives in West Chicago. She said do you think you can make it in today? Luckily we had some inclement weather that day and my mom stayed home so I drove her car out to wheaton. I was supposed to go back on friday and Erica did pick me up but we were late. That's when she dropped the bombshell about not being able to come get me. Well it would've been nice before we got this thing started because now it's going to reflect badly on me when I have to tell my coordinator why I can't go to my site. I was dropped from the program not long after that. Ok when you are filling out your externship paperwork in your 5th mod they give you this card and on this card there is a space for areas you would like to be placed. I specifically put in Aurora first because I live here, and montgomery as a secondary option. I never once listed Oswego, Wheaton, or Naperville as potential places that I could go. Now let me tell you about some experiences I had during class while enrolled. About the 3rd or 4th module, a new student came into the class named Mary. She seemed really nice, a little bit older than the bulk of the students there but everybody has the right to do something better with their lives right so who am I to judge? It wasn't until the second mod that I had with her in class that we all started to notice something was not quite right with Mary. She would come in sometimes all jittery, leave the classroom numerous times throughout the day, only to discover that Mary was coming to class intoxicated and she was bringing the alcohol with her. It got so bad after a while that the classtime was being disrupted on a daily basis because of this. She was eventually taken out and removed from the program only to be allowed back 10 days later. She started drinking and disrupting the classtime again with my teacher having to take time away from the rest of the rule-abiding student body to deal with these issues, to having to be escorted out by Ms. Harbin the director of education, to my instructor being put in the hospital because of the stress it caused her. What makes me mad about this is that according to Everest College's Student Code of Conduct which we read aloud at the beginning of every mod and which I have a copy of it clearly states the school's zero tolerance policy on being intoxicated on school grounds and what it can mean if you are found to be so. I even found out that after I left the school Mary was still causing problems for the class, was sent to AA but was then found at a BAR across the street during the class lunch hour. Here's why I'm upset at the school but before I get into that let me explain that I admit to having made several mistakes during my tenure as a student. 1- That I didn't research the bus schedule more thoroughly. 2- Agreeing to the site when I wasn't sure that I could get there or not. 3- Being dependent on someone else to get me to and from my site. With that said I am upset because while I may have also made mistakes, I still need the help of the school to finish and can not receive it because of them; yet someone who comes to class drunk can keep violating the student code of conduct by coming to class drunk and nothing is going to happen to that student. Having that experience with Mary and seeing how the administration responded to it was absolutely astounding to me. I followed the rules, I never put anyone's safety at risk.