More spam. What's next in the school world?

[icarus]

Okay.

- I'm slated to do 15 credits, a full course load per quarter. But that will be 3 credits short for my AA degree. So somewhere in there I have to take an extra class.

- I have to pass a math test in the next week in order to take the science/math classes I need next quarter.

If I pass to a certain level, I can take one of my three science requirements.
If I pass to the next level, I can take two of the science requirements.
If I don't pass, I can't finish my degree by summer.

- I'm slated to do 300 hours of tutoring between now and November 2005 for Americorps Students in Service.

- FAFSA application January 1st.

- Need high school transcript from Waldorf by the end of January. Not an easy matter - they don't have my school records. I do.

- Application to UW by February 5th.

Oh. Yes. Minor matter of deciding my major.

Comments

[dryad-duinath.livejournal.com]

*dies in sympathy*

[venivincere]

Let me know if you need any running done for you. I'm downtown most weekdays. Good luck! If anyone can do it, you can. :-)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

That sounds good. Thank you, that's a kind offer. They probably won't let you do anything with my school records however, since these are kept safer than Ft. Knox. ;)

Icarus

[cordelia_v]

If you don't need to complete both science courses before you get the AA and move on to UW, then I'd advise only taking one next quarter, anyway. My guess is that you don't enjoy science classes any more than math? If so, don't overload.

Just focus on studying for math. After that, do the FAFSA (the deadline is no joke). Then, the transcript and UW application. You can do this; and UW is such a lovely place that it's worth the work.

Digression: my spouse finished the PhD before I did (having started a couple of years ahead of me) and got a temporary teaching gig at PLU afterwards. So, we moved to your area and I wrote the last part of my disseration while we lived in Tacoma, mailing the chapters back to my advisor back East. Many days, I drove up to UW to use their library and write there. Such a lovely campus and nice facilities! If I could wave a wand and get two academic jobs for us anywhere, it would be at UW.

So, go you!

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, I've always enjoyed science. Science is very connected to the world.

In Geology and Astronomy we learn the physical history of our world, and it's startling and fascinating how different our world, our universe, once was. Michigan, where I'm from, was formed by glaciers carving down from the north, colliding, and then giving up the ghost.

Washington, I recently learned, is a sort of puzzle palace assembled from various pieces of the land breaking off and being compacted, as well as being in a rather active portion of the 'ring of fire.' Geology will be particularly fun (alas that I have to take it in winter!) because Mt. St. Helen's is once again showing some activity.

I look forward to learning the latest in Astronomy. I've kept an eye on the discovery of planets in other solar systems, and it pisses me off that we're letting the Hubble telescope rot given how much we've learned (er, once those mirrors on it were fixed). *stabs Bush* I'm sure that the facts of Astronomy have changed quite a bit since I last studied it. All science has a sort of Sidereal shift, but I studied Astronomy before the Hubble telescope was sent into space.

I wanted to do my science courses earlier, but the math-thing prevented me.

They won't let me take another earth/living world science course for the third option unfortunately, so there I'm stuck with Logic (sigh) or a... a math course (eeek!). Also for my final quarter I have to take a Quantitative Reasoning class (read: math, though I'm thinking Macroeconomics so at least I have that social element), and that utterly abstract science class. Miserable combination, unless they offer a difference science option, say a general SCI100. I'm saving my English 101 for when I have to do such an amalgamation of math. I love the teacher I plan to take this course with, and it's a piece of cake class.

Math is the only subject that I loathe. Disconnected abstractions are just....

Though it was heartening when my math tutor asked if I'd been previously very good at math, because I was picking it up again quickly. I told her that it was always my weakest subject.

Icarus

[cordelia_v]

Well, at some point in every college education, you're forced to choose a science to study. And as we all know, it is our choices that show what we truly are. *smiles*

Science is very connected to the world . . . Math is the only subject that I loathe. Disconnected abstractions are just....

They're just . . . lovely! Fun! Flexing your mind, because the more abstract the better! You can play with them, spinning out the logic and taking them much, much further down the road of "if . . .then"!

The earth and life sciences, being anchored in the physical world, are also thereby limited to the physical world (and what we can discover about that). You could actually come to the end of them, I suppose, if you studied them long enough.

Naturally, I never had any more to do with them than I was forced to. When my time of science-decision came, I chose physics and then astrophysics. For the final exam in astrophysics, we had to calculate the orbit of a comet, a satisfyingly abstract approach to apprehending something that did in fact exist in nature.

As a distant second choice for sciences, I also chose to take chemistry. It does study the natural world, but on such a molecular level that it's comfortingly abstract and susceptible to logic.

I took macroeconomics. I doubt you'd find the social element to be prominent enough to be comforting: honestly, it's all a logic game. Loved it.

*snorts*

You know, between the two of us, we possess about one complete intellect. Languages seem to be our only common intellectual interest. (I noticed that you've never mentioned history, and wondered whether you were simply being polite)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

You could actually come to the end of them, I suppose, if you studied them long enough.

Oh, not possible, we know so little. It's like Anthropology and Archeology (which I also love): bits and pieces of facts, we've only scratched the surface of what can be known. In my lifetime the theory of what destroyed the dinosaurs and what we know of our own evolution has changed radically, thanks to a geologist at the National Institute of Standards, John Windolph.

I noticed that you've never mentioned history, and wondered whether you were simply being polite.

History is another favorite of mine, and I thought it was eminently sensible of you to teach and write about it. The confounding entanglements of our social sphere are rooted in history. Culture, language, literature, worldview - you could probably understand humanity just by examining history deeply. There are so many layers, and a people don't often make sense unless we understand the historical underpinings. I'm particularly interested in Ancient History, just because I like roots, like to know what were we before and how did we get here from there.

It's a pity I can't take any more history classes, but well, there's that damned math requirement staring me in the face.

Oh, whimper, there's also a science fiction lit class I want to take next quarter. *kicks rocks* It would be stupid of me to take 20 credits when I'm also working, wouldn't it? Even if I do need 3 more credits. *kicks more rocks, which are heavy and possibly basalt or some sort of igneous rock, ancient and venerable* Given 15 credits nearly killed me this quarter? *looks hopeful*

Icarus

[cordelia_v]

History is another favorite of mine, and I thought it was eminently sensible of you to teach and write about it.

That's a refreshing change from the reaction I usually get when I say what I do. Usually, the other person casts down his/her eyes, and mumbles something about how he/she hated the subject in high school, since the high school teacher was the reincarnation of either Prof. Binns (who has many siblings, apparently) or Prof. Snape.

A science fiction lit course? Yeah, stupid to take 20 credits while you're working. Umm, sort of a no-brainer, considering how hard it was to get through this last quarter. I'm quite sure that you possess enough self-control to refrain from enrolling in that course. *said in a reassuring tone*

unless you can take it pass/fail, and still have the credits count for the last 3 you need?

[goseaward.livejournal.com]

WOO! Astronomy! :)

I so love to watch people enjoying it. :D