College Issues and Honors

My experience with a bureaucratic organization has its origin in the expectations a parent has for their child and likely began the moment I was conceived. For me, however, it was never taken into consideration until my high school years and soon dismissed as one of those “later” things that I would eventually attend to.

What I referring to is my academic experience in the world of higher education and the undergraduate degree. While I had been under the impression that completing college would be beneficial, I never had believed it was particularly life threatening until I was subjected to a corrective situation with my enrollment at what was then Kaplan College.

It seems that an error in a bureaucratic organization such as an academic institution like Kaplan College is never attributed to the organization itself and this is where the system of rules that apply to admission notably differ from the set of rules that the internal organization operates.

Worse yet, despite the numerous rules, procedures, guidelines, etc. set forth for the students; the organization demands little accountability for its own actions which occur in part or in whole based on human error. This translates to a given amount of confusion in the process of correction and is why I have opted to use this particular experience as the subject of my project.

Clearly, this enrollment experience certainly fits the project design criteria as a bureaucracy being that Kaplan, “is an administrative structure with well-defined offices or functions and hierarchical relationships among the functions” (Champoux, p.14).

In addition, admissions decisions are made according to established rules, procedures, policies and guidelines.

Goals of the degree programs are attained with precision, reliability and efficiency if a student follows the prescribed degree plan and completion is in a timely manner.

The final outcome or expectation is found in the awarding of an academic degree so it seems that Kaplan University definitely fits the criteria of a bureaucratic organization.

Myself and many others define an organization as bureaucratic if there is a substantial amount of steps which must be suffered through in the event of error and I am living proof that again Kaplan fits the mold. Initially, I had enrolled in the 2+2 Criminal Justice Bachelor completion program because I have previously earned an associate degree from another institution as I have already stated.

There was a mistake somewhere in the process and somehow my transcripts were never recorded to reflect this historical, relevant and factual information and someone in admissions decided to enroll me in the four year degree program instead. Of course, the substantial steps to correct this mistake on Kaplan’s behalf first required that I be held responsible for something entirely outside of my own personal control so as not to suggest any blame on the academic institution.