Winter Semester

For anyone who read my comment last week about being happy to be back to doing something and said “you’ll regret saying that,” congratulations, you called it. It’s Friday of the first week of the semester and wow, this is going to be tough. Which is a good thing; I’ll complain all day long about extra class work and so forth, but anyone who knows me has figured out by now that I like a good challenge, especially academically. This will (hopefully) be a very fulfilling semester.

It’s not like I really have much to complain about, anyway. Earlier this week I stopped by for an advising appointment and had a degree evaluation done, and it’s looking as though I’m in for some smooth sailing. The degree evaluation filled me in on a number of different things, namely those classes that I hadn’t yet completed, what I have completed thus far and where in my major it applies, as well as a “what if” analysis, for students thinking about changing their major. It goes pretty far in depth, though. Aside from the breakdown of general education courses, courses applied to majors, or courses for a theme, a degree analysis will also give you other helpful insights, such as which course will allow you to “double-dip” (meaning apply a single course to two different requirements. In this case, I think I had a Sociology class that took care of two categories for me). To be honest, though, most of the help doesn’t come from the analysis itself but from the interpretation of the advisor. The advising staff is great, they really know how to get all the information you need across to you in a really understandable manner. I tell most of my tours that one of the first things a new student on campus should do is get to know their academic advisor.

All that said, it has been quite a busy day, at the end of a very busy week, a week that is notably not over with (we have a scholarship competition tomorrow). It would seem that now is a pretty convenient time to sign out, so let me know if you’ve got any questions,

-Kyle