First I want to pat myself on the back: I completed 62 credits since Summer 2006, have three classes on my plate now, and just one more stands between me and graduation. There's no doubt I'll be done in Summer of 2008, perhaps forever.
School has wadded me up and thrown me in with the dirty laundry.
Working a new, full time job, and taking three classes at night (Mon/Wed/Thu), my schedule is pretty rigid. I'm pretty good at keeping track and getting everything done, but unexpected events throw me for a loop. As soon as I get a syllabus, I add any tests or assignment due-dates to my calendar.
My Monday class is led by a professor I had last semester. He's a bright guy, and he really wants his students to 'get it' (by 'it', I mean an STD), but he's very disorganized and a little scatter-brained in his examples. He tends to dribble out homework assignments, give an unrealistic due date, then change the due date. I would rather that he either (1) post assignments AND due dates at the beginning of the semester, or (2) at least post due dates at the beginning of the semester, so I can PLAN well in advance for an assignment. All our assignments are done in groups, and everyone in my group HAS A JOB. He handed out our first
on February 11th, and we were certain it was due Wed, 2/27. In fact, it was due 2/20, and we found this out when he gave us an extension to 2/21. That gave us only one day to collaborate and pull this thing together.
P.S. -- the assignment itself: asinine.
Of course we pulled it off and submitted it before midnight, but here I am: instead of doing my job, paying attention in another class, or sleeping, I'm trying to half-ass some assignment he half-assed himself. I'm paying for the pleasure of your unpreparedness.
Wednesday night was Business Law, where our professor (who works for DOJ, and used to be a DOJ trial attorney) scolded us for the grades on our first exam, and suggested that the lower quintile might want to consider dropping his class. I originally had high hopes for this class, but aside from some small legal details (understanding citations like 497 F.3d 955), it's been American history.
Judicial review 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803) gives you a boner: I get it. I'm comfortable with the Bill of Rights, not just because I paid attention in 8th grade social studies, but I go to
George Mason University. Dude may have been 5 feet tall WASP, but he was all BOR all the time. Blah blah blah.
Thursday nights are my
required Systems Analysis class. Forget that I took a 200-level Systems Analysis class as a CS major (which was more difficult), or that I've done this professionally for the past 10 years, there is no mechanism in SOM at GMU to let me waive or substitute it. My professor is an adjunct who works for
Oracle, and everyone who works for Oracle is a sales person. This is the first class I've had where the professor will be getting all 0s on his evaluation. I like Oracle's tools, but I don't need a 3 hours sales demo
every week.
I'm at the end of the road, and I will finish, but I am exhausted, and it's pointless. I don't care about my professors, I don't care about my course work, I don't even care about my grades as long as I pass. I want out.
And...I'm sad because I want a puppy, but it would be lonely and die with my schedule. Most week days, I leave the house by 9:00am, and I'm not home until after 10:00pm. I'd rather have a puppy than school. George's new puppy, Maggie, is cuter than words:
Tell me: would you rather have that sweet face, or a business law test?
I thought so.
