If Music Could Talk

eumaas wrote: ↑

12 May 2017, 12:23pm

Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑

12 May 2017, 11:55am

Are you done after the summer term? And what are you taking for courses?

A bullshit music class, psychology 101, and then a fitness course. Then I'm graduated!

Heh, it does sound like a winding shit up kind of schedule. I think I took first-year psych in my final year to satisfy a science requirement. Garbage class. Glad that you're really close now and can get that degree under your belt.

Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑

12 May 2017, 12:25pm

eumaas wrote: ↑

12 May 2017, 12:23pm

Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑

12 May 2017, 11:55am

Are you done after the summer term? And what are you taking for courses?

A bullshit music class, psychology 101, and then a fitness course. Then I'm graduated!

Heh, it does sound like a winding shit up kind of schedule. I think I took first-year psych in my final year to satisfy a science requirement. Garbage class. Glad that you're really close now and can get that degree under your belt.

Thanks! Looking forward to being done.

Still waiting for grades to roll in from the exams (UNC professors are terrible at getting in grades by the deadline), but so far I'm at two As.

eumaas wrote: ↑

12 May 2017, 12:36pm

Still waiting for grades to roll in from the exams (UNC professors are terrible at getting in grades by the deadline), but so far I'm at two As.

Solid and expected results. No bullshit, but I am really impressed by people who can earn A's while taking lots of classes. I know that I did it decades ago, but it seems like a greater achievement now from my vantage point on the other side of the dais and age.

third A just came in.

and the last grade. Another straight A semester! GPA is now 3.94 out of 4.0

Fantastic, Gene! How much, if anything, do you credit to sitting out a few years and coming back older?

Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑

12 May 2017, 4:26pm

Fantastic, Gene! How much, if anything, do you credit to sitting out a few years and coming back older?

Thanks!

Hard to say. I took five classes a semester when I was younger, while now I take only four. But I was also a lot sharper back then, so it was easier. I only ever got bad grades due to life events (long illness in spring 2006, father's death in spring 2008). Without those, I got straight As. My living situation is very stable, so that probably helps. I feel less interested in the material now than I did back then, though.

eumaas wrote: ↑

12 May 2017, 5:57pm

Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑

12 May 2017, 4:26pm

Fantastic, Gene! How much, if anything, do you credit to sitting out a few years and coming back older?

Thanks!

Hard to say. I took five classes a semester when I was younger, while now I take only four. But I was also a lot sharper back then, so it was easier. I only ever got bad grades due to life events (long illness in spring 2006, father's death in spring 2008). Without those, I got straight As. My living situation is very stable, so that probably helps. I feel less interested in the material now than I did back then, though.

Interesting, tho your assessment does make sense. I'd say that the PhD was my only degree that I actually wanted to do. Which is to say that the BA and MA were done out of expectation or perceived lack of options (I'd wager that up to 80% of people in a Master's program are there because they didn't know what to do next). Between being an even more dimwitted house ape than I am now and that absence of purpose, there's something that feels very limited about those experiences. I felt a lot freer in what I was doing this last time and no matter the reservations I have about how things turned out, it was a much better intellectual experience.

Taking my final classes. UNC requires that I take an Experiential Education course. I'm taking Music in the Community. The idea behind it is to pair what seems like an ordinary lecture course with donating 30 hours of free labor to an organization chosen by the professor, which may involve me having to try to figure out bus lines to Cary since I am epileptic and cannot drive. Furthermore, the standard practice for this class is for everyone to get an Incomplete at the end of the summer term until they are able to complete the 30 hours of free labor.

eumaas wrote: ↑

17 May 2017, 2:10pm

Taking my final classes. UNC requires that I take an Experiential Education course. I'm taking Music in the Community. The idea behind it is to pair what seems like an ordinary lecture course with donating 30 hours of free labor to an organization chosen by the professor, which may involve me having to try to figure out bus lines to Cary since I am epileptic and cannot drive. Furthermore, the standard practice for this class is for everyone to get an Incomplete at the end of the summer term until they are able to complete the 30 hours of free labor.

It's not free labour; you paid to take the class.

Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑

17 May 2017, 2:26pm

eumaas wrote: ↑

17 May 2017, 2:10pm

Taking my final classes. UNC requires that I take an Experiential Education course. I'm taking Music in the Community. The idea behind it is to pair what seems like an ordinary lecture course with donating 30 hours of free labor to an organization chosen by the professor, which may involve me having to try to figure out bus lines to Cary since I am epileptic and cannot drive. Furthermore, the standard practice for this class is for everyone to get an Incomplete at the end of the summer term until they are able to complete the 30 hours of free labor.

It's not free labour; you paid to take the class.

yeah and I'm supposed to pay for transportation too, which may be pretty sucky if I get placed out in Cary because we don't have an adequate public transit system for the whole triangle.

Actually, I'm supposed to cover even more than transportation--it's just a blanket "student is responsible for any costs," and then in parentheses "gas etc." God only knows what the etc is supposed to be.

I told my professor that I'm both epileptic and really short on money (they did not give me enough financial aid to cover my rent for the whole of the summer, so I'm going to have to rely on Kim to float me for a couple months since class and "service learning," which is what they call free labor, will probably fuck with my ability to work a job on the side), but she didn't seem all that sympathetic.

Oh, and I have to come up with the tuition for my final class (a PE class in Summer II) from the financial aid that was supposed to cover my living expenses.

eumaas wrote: ↑

17 May 2017, 2:31pm

Actually, I'm supposed to cover even more than transportation--it's just a blanket "student is responsible for any costs," and then in parentheses "gas etc." God only knows what the etc is supposed to be.

I told my professor that I'm both epileptic and really short on money (they did not give me enough financial aid to cover my rent for the whole of the summer, so I'm going to have to rely on Kim to float me for a couple months since class and "service learning," which is what they call free labor, will probably fuck with my ability to work a job on the side), but she didn't seem all that sympathetic.

Don't know if you want to go down that route, but a threat about a disabilities complaint might help your situation with the prof. (I had a student in the first class I taught who turned in her paper late. In a conversation with her later, she told me she'd just been diagnosed epileptic and it had thrown her schoolwork off. Even at that, she didn't want me to remove the late penalty—she didn't think it was justified—but I did. I told her that she got the right instructor for that kind of issue.)

Somehow missed 8 out of the 40 questions on my psych exam. Really at a loss for how I screwed up on it. Won't find out until Tuesday.