graduate from college

So here’s the situation: As I had mentioned, my current plans were to graduate after the Summer 2009 semester. It’s a tight fit between the amount of time and the number of credits I have left, meaning that I would have to take a more than a full load both semesters. This is not a big problem, but it is stressful and tolling. In addition, our school’s budget has been cut yet again and from what I hear, they may not offer summer classes at all. To counter this, I registered for all my core classes for the Spring, and left all my Business classes for the summer which are more likely to be offered.

That’s all fine, except that I met a really great Professor this semester that is offering me a Directed Independent Study (unpaid research) with him and another Prof. in Austria. It’s really attractive and I feel that working with this particular Professor would, in itself, be an enjoyable and edifying experience (unlike the project in which I participated last semester), not to mention that it would probably result in the publication of a paper and thus a better-looking CV—good when applying for grad school. The cost, however, is having to push graduation to the Fall… this may not be so terrible as it would allow me to stretch out my classes so as to reduce the load on any one particular semester, which will increase my chances of doing better on my classes as I can focus & invest more time in each—again, good for grad school applications.

But despite all these positives, I’m not getting any younger and I’m really done & tired with school (the Bachelor’s part of it at least). I want to move away from Florida, too. I feel that my time here is expired and I’m overdue to get some momentum in my life by opening the door to new opportunities & experiences elsewhere…

At the same time, I don’t have any research experience which is what grad school is about (right?) Then again whether having that experience before getting to grad school may not be necessary/mandatory, but rather the learning that one is precisely supposed to acquire while in grad school. Also, having a connection in Europe may be interesting and something I may want to take advantage of or come in handy in the future.

At the end of the day, I have to judge this by the amount of opportunity that either option creates, and by that measure I think the answer is clear, but I’m still struggling making that choice.

I’d appreciate some input on this :)

I realized I haven’t posted on this goal since spring 2007. Since then, I decided to get a minor in Business Administration in addition to my BS in Computer Science since I already have 4 out of the 7 classes required. Basically I’m 2, maybe 3 semesters away from graduating. Whether it’s one or the other will depend on whether I decide to get a job or accept the unsubsidized portion of the Stafford loan and float myself for the next 9 months and take a full load of credits in the fall & spring.

I got straight As last semester in Microprocessors, Foundations of Computer Science & its lab, a B+ in Discrete Math, and that F on Differential Equations that still makes my blood boil and my chest hot. The summer wasn’t too bad, I hope to get 3 As in Physics 2 lab, Data Structures and Internet Technologies, and I definitely got a B+ in Stochastic Methods (::shudder:: I would’ve taken any grade on that class as long as they promised me I didn’t have to do it again).

I really enjoyed the Internet Technologies class that I took this summer. I’m taking Cutting-edge Internet Technologies this fall, which should complement and deepen my understanding of that area, along with Software Engineering which promises a collaborative project in java.net with students from San Francisco State University in California, and University of Applied Science in Fulda, Germany. I’m also taking Embedded System Design, Database Structures, and retaking Diff Eqs with the same professor (he’s the only one that teaches it grrrr).

_{I made this with the Google Chart API in case anyone’s interested}

It turns out that my school does not offer Environmental Engineering or Environmental Science as majors. They offer the former as a Master’s degree for people with a Civil Engineering BS, and the latter only as a minor for majors like Biology and the sort. I thought it was like a “bait & switch” because they have both of these listed on the programs offered.

I sat down with a very enthusiastic and pushy engineering advisor and devised class by class a program that would get me a Civil Engineering degree. Problem is, I would graduate in 2011 which seems ridiculously far away. In addition, as much as I love physics, I have no interest in things like ‘Strength of Materials’ or ‘Foundation Engineering’.

I feel disappointed and disoriented that I had made up my mind about getting and environment-related degree and now it isn’t offered.

Check this out

So instead of my usual rant & rave about textbook prices this term, I am happy to report a small victory: For our English class we had to buy yet another $100 anthology (I already own 2 of them), so I asked the teacher whether there were any graded assignments from the Perrine’s anthology aside from the readings, and she said no, but she wanted to know why. I explained that I already owned the Norton and Bedford anthologies and it had been my experience that teachers only assigned the readings and that the literature pieces were available online for the most part, at which point the entire class realized where I was getting to. To my amazement, the teacher agreed to everyone not getting a book, and in fact, she was happy about it because it gave her liberty to choose stories that weren’t in the anthology, so it was a total win-win!! :D

I got straight As this term (that’s 2 consecutive ones). Granted, I did drop 2 classes because I couldn’t get back on track fast enough after my elbow thing, so I was only taking 2 and a lab, but still…

I’m retaking this summer the 2 classes I had dropped, which will be challenging (and fun) since they’re on a fast track term (i.e. 6 weeks vs. 5 months). I’ll get my AA at the end of the term, not that I intend to stop there, but I decided to get it instead of just transferring out. So here we go!

Why doesn’t this surprise me.

Grrrr.

is worth every penny I paid in tuition this semester:

[...] my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.—James Joyce

Let me count the ways I love thee.

English II as an aperitif, for an appetizer we have US History to 1865 (blegh), then Chemistry II as the main course and finally English Literature after 1800 as desert.

I used to think that getting an Associates degree would mean little to me and so had decided not to take the extra 2 or 3 classes I needed to get it and transfer straight into a university. More recently, I reconsidered and decided that I would get the degree; it felt like some kind of achievement in an otherwise bleak path, an imaginary stepping stone if you will. I also learned that as a holder of an Associate degree, any university in Florida must grant me admission. So if all things go as planned, I will graduate at the end of the Spring semester, and then onwards to my Bachelor (and Master?).