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Sep. 8th, 2008 08:50 pmThe Requisite Semester-Load Low-Down:
1. Intermediate Finance: I know, you're already bored of reading this entry. Among the upsides to the class are that I've taken Principles from the same professor, get to use the same book, and have dulled my dislike for him to a bemused tolerance of his condescension and bad jokes. The downside: ninety minutes of finance lecture twice a week.
2. Investment Analysis: Last year, I had to bring my red face and tears to the professor before she would let me into the class. Possibly, I shouldn't have bothered. The class takes place in the computer lab, and my seat is right in front of a fan. Combining the hum of the computers with the buzz of the fan, the professor's heavy accent, and her quiet voice, I count myself extremely lucky that she posts the lecture notes online.
3. Linear Algebra: Easy, so far! The professor definitely spent thirty minutes today talking about how planes and hyperplanes could intersect, and then covered the same methods of Gaussian Elimination that we learned last session. I like doing the math, so far. I think it could be fun, save for Dr. Van der Beek's monotonic (and again, condescending) lecture style.
4. Advanced Calculus: The hippie mecca of math classes. We are instructed to 'let go of direction' and 'rely on only our inner resources'--which is awesome, because I don't need to pay for a textbook. There hasn't been a lecture yet; instead, we work on proofs, present them in front of the class, and critique each other on everything from concept to execution and brevity. I like it, strangely, although it's meant to prepare us to be 'real mathematicians'--something I never intend to be. I prefer my math to be purely that of practical application, thank you. But it's a good way to stretch my brain after the stifling non-rigors of finance.
5. Music in the Humanities: I needed an art credit. They told me it was Jazz History. Our first assignment was to find five songs that demonstrate how silence is used in music. It's actually a pretty cute class, but our teacher is going to spend the next couple weeks covering some basic music theory, apparently, which doesn't bode well for my attention span. Six years of piano lessons probably got me through whatever he might throw at us.
6. Studying for the goddam actuarial exam. I try to spend at least an hour a day watching the lectures and doing practice problems. I spend a lot of free time hoping desperately that I won't have to explain to my parents that I failed a second time.
7. Mock trial. Being an officer isn't all that it's cracked up to be. I spent five hours yesterday at the bureaucratic wind-fest that was the Club Summit, and was ultimately denied the information that I really needed, and am required to spend another hour or so at the "Financial Information Seminar" tomorrow. Then Information Night on Wednesday, when I give an opening that I wrote yesterday, then try-outs next week. The case this year is super entertaining, though. Simmering grudges, ambition, murder, and defamation. Please, God, let me play a character witness this year. Surely someone else on the team can fake expertise?
Free time is spent making cinnamon pancakes for honors students, watching Buffy with my housemates, and trying not to watch Gossip Girl with the guys. Classes aside, it's going to be a good semester.
1. Intermediate Finance: I know, you're already bored of reading this entry. Among the upsides to the class are that I've taken Principles from the same professor, get to use the same book, and have dulled my dislike for him to a bemused tolerance of his condescension and bad jokes. The downside: ninety minutes of finance lecture twice a week.
2. Investment Analysis: Last year, I had to bring my red face and tears to the professor before she would let me into the class. Possibly, I shouldn't have bothered. The class takes place in the computer lab, and my seat is right in front of a fan. Combining the hum of the computers with the buzz of the fan, the professor's heavy accent, and her quiet voice, I count myself extremely lucky that she posts the lecture notes online.
3. Linear Algebra: Easy, so far! The professor definitely spent thirty minutes today talking about how planes and hyperplanes could intersect, and then covered the same methods of Gaussian Elimination that we learned last session. I like doing the math, so far. I think it could be fun, save for Dr. Van der Beek's monotonic (and again, condescending) lecture style.
4. Advanced Calculus: The hippie mecca of math classes. We are instructed to 'let go of direction' and 'rely on only our inner resources'--which is awesome, because I don't need to pay for a textbook. There hasn't been a lecture yet; instead, we work on proofs, present them in front of the class, and critique each other on everything from concept to execution and brevity. I like it, strangely, although it's meant to prepare us to be 'real mathematicians'--something I never intend to be. I prefer my math to be purely that of practical application, thank you. But it's a good way to stretch my brain after the stifling non-rigors of finance.
5. Music in the Humanities: I needed an art credit. They told me it was Jazz History. Our first assignment was to find five songs that demonstrate how silence is used in music. It's actually a pretty cute class, but our teacher is going to spend the next couple weeks covering some basic music theory, apparently, which doesn't bode well for my attention span. Six years of piano lessons probably got me through whatever he might throw at us.
6. Studying for the goddam actuarial exam. I try to spend at least an hour a day watching the lectures and doing practice problems. I spend a lot of free time hoping desperately that I won't have to explain to my parents that I failed a second time.
7. Mock trial. Being an officer isn't all that it's cracked up to be. I spent five hours yesterday at the bureaucratic wind-fest that was the Club Summit, and was ultimately denied the information that I really needed, and am required to spend another hour or so at the "Financial Information Seminar" tomorrow. Then Information Night on Wednesday, when I give an opening that I wrote yesterday, then try-outs next week. The case this year is super entertaining, though. Simmering grudges, ambition, murder, and defamation. Please, God, let me play a character witness this year. Surely someone else on the team can fake expertise?
Free time is spent making cinnamon pancakes for honors students, watching Buffy with my housemates, and trying not to watch Gossip Girl with the guys. Classes aside, it's going to be a good semester.