The Scrolls

Archive for the ‘School’ Category

Accepted.. Conditionally?

I got an acceptance letter, of sorts, from MATC today. It seems I am accepted for the funeral service program (although I don’t know how much I really want to do that so yea..) but with conditions. What the conditions are, I do not know. The letter assures me that many conditionally accepted students progress normally through out there program and I shouldn’t worry. Wait, what?! That means that some students don’t? Because that worries me. I wasn’t worried before but now I am.

I also worry about working with program and financial counselors. The FAFSA thinks we can contribute $7,000 which is much more than the courses will cost (thus no financial aid). I think not. So how many classes I take will really depend on the cost. And, of course, I still have to take the classes online and cannot possibly meet with a counselor face to face. I’m just super anxious that the school won’t work with me on these things and I should have just continued taking individual classes online like I have been doing, especially because one of the more important reasons I applied for the program at this time was to get financial aid. Bleh.

The future, it worries me.

Finished, Take Two

So I thought my classes were all done on the 9th, sent in both my finals.. Lo and behold, I sign in to my e-mail to see if the last of myg rades were posted and I see we have a final exam in sociology. Good thing I hadn’t sent back my books to the rental service yet. Bad news it they have to be mailed by the 15th and the 25h just so happens to be a holiday. Here’s hoping I can catch the UPS man today or tomorrow.

Dude, you’re a moron.

Allow me to express here my lack of appreciation for one of my teachers who gave us an example of what our final project should be without expressly stating what the assignment was. Thanks for being such a wonderful teacher.

I’m glad the semester is done.

What has 4 limbs and a whole lot of crazy?

My sister. She’s clingy and exhausting but I love her. I can’t leave the house or even stay up without her throwing a fit and it certainly takes its toll. Add into all the licking and boob grabbing attempts and she can be a handful.

I have been having a pretty laid back time without making any stressful or pressing plans. Just seeing some people here, doing lunch there and we went out for bowling last night as well.

Unfortunately, I haven’t kept track of the dates very well and I will need to do something awesome to make up for this in my classes. At least, I hope I can.

Hitting’ the Books

Sunday marks the first day of this semester for me. My second as a (part time) college student. I passed both Accounting and Psychology with As (96% for both). This time around is Sociology and Economics – both of which I have at least a little interest in so I hope it will be a decent semester.

Rather than buying my books ($150 total for both of them, used) I stumbled across a service which allows you to rent your books for the semester at a fraction of the price – Chegg. Very neat.

Other than that, life is quiet,

Hurry Up and Wait

I recently filled out an application toward the college program I want to take – Funeral Service – as well as FAFSA. However, it doesn’t seem like I’ll really qualify for any financial aid because of how much Ryan made last year which, mostly, seems to be due to the living allowance he got for being overseas which shouldn’t count in my opinion. Really, it exists to provide an equivalent style of living to those in most expensive areas and overseas where there is a different currency.

I think I really was cutting it close when it came to filling out the application so we’ll see if I get in and, if so, how soon I can enter the program. I was hoping for January so that I could use financial aid for the next semester but, the way things are looking, I’ll have to pay a lot no matter what. Ick.

I’m also planning on flying home next month, for Thanksgiving. It will be awesome to see Mom’s new house, no vehicle and, of course, Samantha!

My Fears Confirmed

One of my worries about taking classes online was the quality of education I would be getting. Being in an actual classroom and interacting and discussing topics with other students and your teacher can lend valuable insight to a subject. It can also enable the teacher to bring in knowledge from his or her personal experiences and sources outside of the textbook.

This lack of personalization really worried me and I am sad to announce that I have experienced it and happy to announce that I also haven’t. As I have discovered, some teachers put in about as much effort into online classes as the majority or students and some don’t.

Several days before class started, my psychology teacher e-mailed everyone to let them know she was setting up the online site and how it would work. In fact, she gave us the first week entirely to familiarize ourselves with the site. Since then, she has posted an announcement at the beginning of every week including assignments and she also e-mails us these weekly announcements as well as special announcements, such as when she has completed grading an assignment.

Assignments themselves consist of textbook reading, reaction papers and discussion participation on the forums. The reaction papers, while relevant to the section of the textbook, do not follow it exactly and require a bit more thought. The same can be said for discussion questions which require each student to answer the question and then respond to others’ answers as well. The assignments also include sources and work outside from the textbook to give us a little more variety.

Overall, I have been pleased with this professor. She adds the human touch and I am getting more out of this class than if I were to just read the textbook which is absolutely necessary in my opinion; otherwise, why am I even paying for the class if I can just buy the book?

On the other hand, my accounting class is quite sterile compared to the ‘loving touch’ of my other professor. With only one announcement in over 3 weeks – and that one was after the class began, to boot- it’s increasingly obvious that this professor does not think highly of online education or wish to enhance the information in the book in any way.

The only thing he updates is the assignment list. Assignments are very cut and dry; read a chapter, do the questions and check back next week to see if your answers are correct. Each section has an online quiz and exam which is timed and because assignments are not checker or graded, these are the only scores which count.

In my experience the time alloted for the quizzes and tests is many times the time necessary and provides time for reading the text if you have not already. Combined with ungraded assignments and there is really no reason to do any of the work.

If the tests and quizzes were adequate, this might not be an issue as test grades often make up the bulk of your grade in college courses. Of course, all of the questions were true or false because they were entered into an automated system so there isn’t much room for discussion, argument or even thinking.

As someone who likes a challenging class and strives to feel as though she is actually learning something useful, I am quite disappointed with that class.

Overall, I am both relieved and disappointed with my experiences. While one professor is going beyond the bare minimum and I am getting my money’s worth, the other is barely doing that and I would be much better off if I had simply read the book.

When it comes down to it, quality of education probably has more to do with the teacher than the medium.