I’ve recently completed my third class at Whitworth. This time it was “The Sociology of Middle Eastern Society.” Our instructor was very knowledgeable and simply crammed information into our heads on a non-stop basis for the entire course. The tests were comprehensive and depending on how much a person studied, could be found to be difficult. In my case, I felt I wasn’t doing too bad and I hoped to get a “B” when it was all over. By the end of the course, I managed to pull an “A.” With this one out of the way and the fall class schedule coming out, I’ve had to do some thinking about changing plans, more on that later.
With my last class out of the way, I’ve entered into my next class, or rather set of classes. The accelerated program I am in doesn’t leave much room to be taking two classes at the same time; however, in this case I am taking one full three-credit class and another small fill in for one credit. My primary class is “The Life and Teaching of Jesus” and my minor one credit class is “Problem Solving and Decision Making using Microsoft Excel.”
The Excel class would probably be the easiest. There are four of us in the class and because of this, our instructor has decided to let us take the course in a self-paced manner. This generally means that even though we have to show up for class-time, we are not actually getting any formal instruction. I don’t usually like this kind of format; I’d rather be directed in what I should be learning. I’m afraid I will fall behind in the assignments because I’m not really getting any instruction. I will simply have to really make time at home to sit down and do the work, on my own.
My other class, “The Life and Teaching of Jesus” is more traditional. We have an instructor for this one. The first few classes have focused on developing an understanding of the history and culture around the time Jesus was born. Once we got into the right mindset we then moved on into learning how the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John came about. Our next class we have a test, and I’m not too sure I’m ready for it.
Back to the changing plans. As I may have outlined before, my original plan was to get all my general requirements and electives out of the way prior to entering the Organizational Management cohort. This would allow me to graduate at the point I came out of the cohort. This plan has changed. Once my transcripts were ran through the Registrar’s office, we found more credits that we thought would be transferable.
Based on my present schedule, I was going to take classes through February of next year, and then enter the cohort. Based on the credits I now had, I didn’t need to do that. In fact, I could take one six-week period off. However, for the sake of financial aid I need to keep my status as a full-time student. What to do? I could take any “easy” three-credit class to fill in, and that way I would be sure of having more than enough credits. But then that would take more money too.
After talking it over with my wife Shelley, I decided to begin the cohort this August. This will take me through February of 2008 at which time I will then need to complete three more classes. If I get brave, I -could- take any one of the three as a traditional student over a 14 week period. This would allow me to take two courses at the same time, one accelerated and one traditional. If I could manage that, and I’m not saying at this point that I can, then I could finish my entire education even faster. If somehow I was able to manage all three remaining courses during the time I’m in the cohort, then I could graduate on exiting the cohort. That would mean graduating in February of 2008. That would be really cool, but I won’t push my luck just yet.
So the plan right now is to begin the cohort in August. I’ll need to get an appraisal of difficulty across all the courses in the cohort and see if there is a couple which are light on study. If so, then I might be start to consider taking two courses at once. Once again, plans may change.
Asa Jay
Entries (RSS)