So how's school/college so far?

[Rainman]

I'd like to see people's schedules and what their impressions of them are so far.

Here's mine:

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Professor seems to be one of those eccentric, passionate, liberal types. I shouldn't be to annoyed by that if politics don't stray into the lectures too much. The course is all about the various cultures that have existed or currently exist and how they compare/contrast. This could be quite interesting, but taking a course on such an abstract, subjective topic is kind of a brain shock when I take computer courses the rest of the time. The work I'll have to do is just a couple essays, some reading, and some exams. Not too bad.

Advanced Digital Design Concepts
This whole class is about building a processor from the ground up. By the end of the class I should have a processor designed and simulated. So far it's an easy course since I just have to follow the tutorial through each part. There will be two main group projects that take up most of the grade.

Programming Languages for Web Applications
I'll be learning many different languages and tools for web programming. I've wanted to learn this stuff for the longest time and this year I'm taking just that course. There will be a programming assignment every week or so.

Departmental Seminar
Bah, it's nothing. It's just a general body meeting for the computer/electrical engineering discipline. I only need to go to about half of them.

Introduction to Computer Architecture
This course is designed to run along my Advaned Digital Design course. It's goes over the higher level stuff and part of the computer other than the processor. I really like this course because I can definitely see how it applies to my future career.

Probability and Statistics of Engineers I
Just a stats class. I'm actually interested in learning it though since knowing how statistics works is important for analyzing stuff like polling data. Homework will be like most math classes, weekly homework out of the book

Overall
It's just the beginning of the year, but I'm immensely pleased with the courses I'm taking this semester. The courses are relevent to my major (except the anthropology one) and they are going exactly where I was hoping to go. I'm really learning how computers are designed and I'm excited about it. The work load doesn't seem like it's going to be too tough. Last semester one of my course forced my to stay in the lab for 10-15 hours a week to keep up. Thankfully I won't have to do that again.

[AtmaWeapon]

Intro to Anthropology
Professor's cool, we're not really covering topics I like but that's OK. I'm sure I'll pull something useful out of this class if I start getting enough sleep to pay attention.

Physics III
The last Physics I took was a summer class 2 years ago so this is pretty much knocking me out. If it were a normal class I could probably get by with a B but the teacher is hardcore into making sure you understand concepts, so all tests are no-calculator and require algebraic gymnastics. If next week's exam goes poorly I am debating withdrawing and taking the class next semester, when my courseload is much lighter.

Project Management
Until recently, the university saw no error in making all Engineering students take the Industrial Engineering project management course. Someone realized that optimizing assembly lines was not necessarily appropriate for our disciplines that deal in less tangible deliverables so this is the pilot CS Project Management class. I'm not really sure where we're going in here because the professor had a death in the family and we've had a week of substitutes.

Computer Architecture
So far we've talked about assembly-level programming and some of the ways to represent data in binary, but I'm pretty much not sure what our ultimate goal in this class is. I'm doing fine, but I'd kind of like to have some idea what we are trying to learn. (So far the material is pretty much review for a student that has been through certain electives.)

Engineering Statistics
This is one of the courses that hasn't had a special-case CS section made for it, so I'm learning all about how to determine the probability that a certain defect in a plastic disc was due to high levels of heat. The material is actually useful, I'm just tired of the Industrial Engineering slant the whole class has. I had an exam today that I thought I was going to fail but several strokes of genius in the last 10 minutes answered the 4 blank problems for me.

Ethics in Computer Science
This one-hour lecture is OK I guess. Week 1 I was informed that I had a presentation due week 2; I was told I set the bar pretty high for the following presenters. I like philosopy and ethical theories are pretty fun things to work with so I kind of wish this class wasn't just once a week.

Overall
16 hours is supposed to be easier for me, since I've been doing 18 or more in all previous semesters. However, the inclusion of a class that I knew would be difficult plus some classes that as of right now I have no idea if I am studying appropriately makes this a pretty unknown semester. I guess I have it pretty good though; 2 semesters ago I was stuck with 3 group assignments that all had the same start and due dates. Nothing could possibly be tougher than that semester.

In short, status: unknown. Maybe if I'd spend more time studying and less time internets that would change for the better; let's hope I can perform an experiment about that soon.

[Beldaran]

Physics I - Newtonian Mechanics (calculus based)

Yay, my first physics course. This is my favorite class, also the most difficult since I've never taken physics before. The labs are 3 hours long, so that's kind of brutal, but other than that I love it.

Calculus I

I passed this course with an A about three years ago before dropping out of college to work as a programmer and play in a rock band. I'm retaking it as a refresher course. It's pretty easy since I'm "remembering" instead of "learning".

Intro to Engineering

This is my second favorite class. Last week we studied static forces and how to calculate the stress load on members of a truss assembly. This resulted in a lengthy lab report, followed by actually building our own small trusses out of wood. Next week we get to break them in a machine and find out which group made the strongest one. =) Also, surprisingly, the textbook for this class is interesting and engaging.

Religion 1350 - History of Christian Theology

This is a required course at Baylor, since it's a private religious school. It's not too bad really. I'm not religious, but my professor is nice and the textbook is tolerable. Overally, it's really just an almost-objective scholarly study of the history of Christianity's philosophical and theological evolution. Completely unrelated to my major, but since it's required I might as well make the best of it and learn what I can.

Weightlifting

Required PE course. Snooze. Although my muscles are getting bigger. Might as well get credit for looking sexy right? =D

Sometimes I feel kind of weird being a 24 year old surrounded by 18 year olds, but all in all I'm thrilled to be back in school and learning so much, and I can't wait to get farther into my major. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to study, but now that I know I'm really happy to be here and it was worth the wait.

[Lilith]

English - boring, easy
Psychology - like I know, I've already taken it twice

[Rainman]

I wish I could take weightlifting for a class, but alas I'm not allowed to take any electives like that. They have to be approved by some organization for me to take it.

[Rafnul]

Ancient Philosophy
Not bad; I'm relatively familiar with the material. The teacher gouhly resembles Gargamel from the smurfs, but has the mannerisms of the Village Elder from Willow.

Christian Living and Theology
Taught by a man who has translated the book of Isaiah from the Dead Sea Scrolls... very informative and deep, yet sometimes, perhaps too much so as when I ask my peers "Uh, what did we just learn about?" I get responses like "Well, that there are differences in different translations of scripture, I guess."

Ecclesiastical Latin I
Also a class with material I am already resonably familiar with, also a class taught by someone who does translation working in direct contact with the Pope. Real cool guy, makes it fun, speaks Klingon.

Western Civ
I'm still not sure why I have to take this class since I've taken 9 other hours of history.

Wellness
Your stereotypical required "Get in shape" class. Really not too bad though, only twice a week, and the personal workout schedules are pretty relaxed.

Overall
Classes are really only about 10 percent of my time here. The rest is spent in random spiritual formation/priestly formation/character formation conferences, random meetings etc. Morning prayer every day as a group, mass every day as a group, evening prayer every day as a group. Dress code, yada yada, no chicks.

However, I am surrounded by monks that wear solid black 24/7 so this place scores cool points on those grounds. Oh, and assuming I finish my BA here, then finish the 4 years of grad school and transitional diaconate year and finally get ordained in 2013, my education will be free. If I don't, I'll have your standard absurd pile of student loans to pay off whenever I decide to leave, and a BA in philosophy for any prospective employers to laugh at.

[Archibaldo]

Fundamentals of Business
I swear to god my teacher for this class is a viking. The first day he comes in with long white hair, a long white mustache(sp?) and says he just got back from Norway. But he's not a bad teacher, he knows what hes talking about.

French
French is well French.

Introduction to Psychology
I have the stereo typical boring teacher for this class. Think monotone voice, thick glasses and a comb over. But the class in itself is pretty easy.

Quantatative Methods
Pretty much math class. Learning how to get statistics and them apply them to real life situations. As for teacher, see Intro. to Psyche.

Introduction to Western Civilization
Surprisingly interesting class. My teacher is a very out going Brit and he always seems to be in a good mood.

Introduction to College English X
The advanced english class. The 'X' is there to make the class more appealing to the younger generation. My teacher must be continously high. The first day she did attendance, she had who ever he called out say where they're from and what they like to do. As a response to each studnt she replied with "Ahhh wonderful" or "That's great". Every. Single. Student.

Gym: Volley Ball
I think the title speaks for itself. Except my teacher has this regime where if you're caught speaking a language other than english you get a waning the first time and get kicked out of class the second time.

[gdorf]

I haven't started classes yet, but when I do I will update this with my first impressions. The classes I am signed up for are:

Calculus 3
Circuits (I think this will be the hardest)
Advanced PHP programming

[Modus Ponens]

Well, I've been going to university since before ZC 1.92 came out, so...I guess that's a while. Despite my linguistics major, I've taken a lot of choir classes, which are always fun (for the kind of person who would take a choir class. I love memorizing German text), but I really think that my favorite college classes that I've taken thus far have been

Philosophy 102: Introduction to Logic and
Philosophy 202: Intermediate Logic.

If an advanced logic class were available, I'd be all over that shit. These logic classes...they're addictive! It's like fun mental puzzle after fun mental puzzle, only you learn new techniques and applications for them as you go along. Proofs and proofs and more proofs, and the homework is fun, and then the final exam is like a boss homework with way more hit points, but just as fun to fight. I really looked forward to showing up to those classes.

Also good was

Linguistics 302: Morphology

wherein we learned how to identify prefixes and suffixes and circumfixes and infixes and suprafixes on obscure foreign languages spoken in tiny indigenous communities. Doing homework for that class, I always felt like I was working in the linguistic frontier; maybe that's what it would feel like to be the first person to figure out how to translate an extraterrestrial language.

[SSJ3500]

PE: Strength and Conditioning:
------------------------------
So far we've lifted on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, some sort of sport on Thursdays, and running on Tuesdays. Sadly, we've played football twice and haven't run at all. Lifting could be going better too, found out my bench went down to 265 over the summer.

Advanced Computer Multimedia:
------------------------------
...So far all I've done in this class is browse the internet and screw around in Photoshop. Hooray for blow off classes.

Computer Repair:
----------------
Haven't really learned much here yet other than a few acronyms, far too much note taking in my opinion, but I really don't care, it's not like they're hard notes or anything.

Brit Lit:
-------
Mandatory Class, I have to say though, now I know I hate British literature. But for some reason we're watching Star Wars in class now, so at the moment, it's going good.

CISCO Basics (Networking):
--------------------------
Got one of the wrong classes, so I switched into this one, so far it's probably the most confusing class I'm in, but still doesn't seem too hard. I just have a bit of a problem of getting tired and zoning out in that class.

Computer Video and Animation:
------------------------------
I was expecting more of a chance to screw around with a 3D program, Flash, or FinalCut Pro. But hey, I guess claymation isn't that bad. The only thing I don't care for in this class is the project requirements.

Senior Survey:
--------------
Thank god this class has a laid back teacher and a lot of people I know in it, I hate learning about politics and stuff. And what the hell is up with the 20 hours of mandatory volunteering? Isn't that a contradiction in itself or something? Meh, at least since I'm going back to help my Junior High with their website and stuff it's not that bad, still kind of annoying though.

Overall though, it seems like it'll be a pretty fun year, none of the classes are hard and almost all of them I have an actual interest in learning (All but Brit Lit and Survey actually). So, so far it's not going too bad at all.

[Kairyu]

CISC-303 AUTOMATA THEORY
I haven't got anything more than a vague suspicion about what's going on in this class. The teacher is kinda old and enthusiastic, but not very interesting and seems to enjoy math a lot. Some of the stuff he's written on the board looks similar to things in a math course that was a prerequisite, but I don't remember much from that class. I'm gonna see the TA next chance I get, but it's required for my major so I can't drop it.

CISC-370 OBJ ORIENTED PROGRAMMING
I haven't actually had this class yet. It's a 3-hour class once a week, on Mondays, and the past two Mondays we've had off. My advisor highly reccommended the teacher, so I'll try it out for at least a little while.

CSCC-355 COMPUTERS ETHICS AND SOC
The teacher in this class is pretty awesome. He swears fairly often and seems pretty up-to-date ( I guess that would be an important part of being a Comp. Ethics teacher). We don't have to take notes or anything, we just spend most of class in discussions about issues. The class also has a Wiki.

ENGL-410 TECHNICAL WRITING
This is my first 400-level class, and it's not even specifically in my major. I don't know if all 400+ classes will be hard, but there seems to be lots of work in this class with little warning beforehand. I do need the class, though, so I guess I'll try and get through. Teacher seems nice/friendly enough.

PHYS-207 FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICS
The teacher is a crazy Greek guy who explained on the first day that he was teaching at the UD in order to 'phase himself out' of teaching and into retirement. The work hasn't been too bad so far, but it's mostly been review.

Overall:
I'm trying to finish up any breadth requirements I can as early as possible so I can focus on my interests during my final semesters, and won't need to take a bunch of prerequistes over summer/winter sessions. It certainly won't be my easiest semester, but I think it'll be better than a few other semesters I've had.

[algam86]

I'm only in high school, so...

Chemistry I- Kinda boring. I do like this class because we get to do various experiments, and I'm a slight pyromaniac. I also learn a LOT of stuff I didn't know. (pure sodium burns on contact with water, but sodium chloride just kinda mixes in...interesting.) Teacher's kind of a nerd, though. Always says, "Well, the highlight of your day's over, just breeze through the rest of the classes. Only came here for chemistry, right?" Corny.

English III- English. Easy for me, hard for everyone else. (class is kinda ghetto, actually. How do people who've spoken English for 16 years fail?!) Teacher's corny, too.

U.S. History - I hate Social Studies, the classes are SO boring. Learned a few interesting facts, and the teacher isn't that bad. I have a 98% even after failing a test. (barely. I didn't know we had to read a certain book...) Heh.

Symphonic/Marching Band - Ok, I've taken band for five years now, counting this one. It's exhausting, especially during marching season. Mom won't let me quit. I've a lot of friends there, though. But the tuba is really heavy. I'm probably going to be the leader of my section next year, since I'll be the only senior.

Excel Precalculus - OMG. I thought this was going to be hard. Except for simplifying complex fractions and making compusite functions, I have no problems. But it is boring, again.

Excel Spanish 2 - Ehh...mi maestra habla español mucho. Un poco dificil comprender. La clase es aburrida tampoco, pero la linguaje ayudame no dormir.

Or something to that extent.

[Dechipher]

English Composition I: Required class for all majors. It's not too bad, my teacher is kind of a hippie. I have a paper due tomorrow which I need to start.
Music Theory I: Basics of music theory. Pretty simple, I'm not too worried.
Aural Skills I: This class blows. Its taken concurrently with Theory, so Theory is MWF and Aural Skills is TTh. I have to FN sing and all this crap. Ihate it and I am definitely failing it.
Wellness: Basically they just keep telling me I'm gonna have a heart attack at age 30, so I started working out every day.
American History: Self explanatory. I just get on facebook all hour. I don't know WHAT is going on in that class.
Applied Percussion: This is my bag right here. This includes the one hour lesson every week and the percussion ensemble from 4-6 MWF.
Wind Philharmonic: Basically Band class. MWF 2-4
Class Piano II: I tested out of CP I because I'm a badass, but even this class is easy. And Lame.

Overall: College isn't too bad. I'm taking 16 credit hours, but I'm really doing like 21 or something, because I'm doing classes I can't get credit for becuase they would exceed my hour limit and make me pay a lot more. Basically, I do composer's forum every tuesday from 4-5, Symphonic Orchestra on TTh 2-4, and Pep Band which starts soon and will entail every friday night basketball games. I am soon looking to be adding vocal lessons to the list, and starting next semester I will be double majoring in music performance and composition.

[Modus Ponens]

Hey, Dechipher, which instrument(s) do you play?

[lord_jamitossi]

Ooh, another music student :). I'm doing a double-program, Music & Science :

INTRO TO COLLEGE ENGLISH:
Interesting so far, we're doing Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and talking about symbols and stuff. The teacher's kind of a prick though.

CALCULUS I:
Easy so far, two weeks in and we've finally finished reviewing high school stuff. The teacher talks funny, he's got some funky accent and says things like "And we call this as the radius" which are close, but just weird enough to confuse you.

CHEMISTRY I:
Good so far, the teacher has a french accent but I can understand her. I've got a dumb fat girl in my class who has done nothing but complain loudly since we got here. I don't know her name and I already want to hit her with my way-too-expensive textbook.

BEGINNER'S GERMAN:
This was seriously the only complimentary course that fit into my schedule. I went in knowing only the phrase "ICH BIN DAS WALROS." :) I can now ask the typical stalker questions: What is your name? How old are you? What is your phone number? What is your address? Do you want to do the sex?

FIRST INSTRUMENT (flute) :
I've had one lesson so far and it was the teacher correcting my posture for an hour. It'll be good, though, I've got some interseting stuff to play. I think the flute is the manliest instrument anyone in the world can play. Yeah.

SECOND INSTRUMENT (piano) :
Everyone has to take this. I learned all my scales ages ago and didn't tell them, so it's gonna be easy as hell. The teacher is... kinda a n00b actually. She's french and communicates by illegible english emails. Really weird.

EAR TRAINING:
The weirdest thing ever, I'm being taught by this guy who was my dad's best friend in high school. This one's in the bag.

MUSIC THEORY:
This class is going to be WAY too easy. I got 96% on the placement test but missed the test to not have to do the class at all. This is gonna be WAY, WAY too easy.

MUSIC HISTORY:
This class is actually a lot more interesting than it sounds. Great teacher.


...so yeah. All in all, I start at 8:00 or 8:30 every morning and finish pretty late on every day except Friday. Awful schedule, but at least all my classes are either interesting or short. The residence I'm living in, on the other hand, is mad-ghetto. This post is going to take quite a while to go through, and I can't make long distance calls unless I buy one of their special calling cards. Eugh.

[Dechipher]

I'm at school for percussion, and I'm looking to emphasize on drumset and tambourine. I also play bass guitar, and some guitar.

[zoraking]

High School Student, my schedule seems so inferior:

College Preparatory Chemistry
I HATE Science, but I need this class for college. It doesn't help that this class is two periods long every other day. Although there is a plus to this class--it is taught "boi a Bri'ish goi."

Sociology/Psychology
Sociology first semester. I keep getting due dates mixed up! :eek: Topics we discuss are cool. We debate almost every class.

Español Tres
¡Yo me gusta la clase de español! Linguistics is fun for me. The teacher is great too.

College Preparaptory English Three
I hate to write essays. I hate reading for content. I hate reading others' essays for grammar and spelling. I hate English class. Teacher has something up her ass.

Study Hall a.k.a. Nap Time
I also have a Study Hall second period on the days I do not have double-chemistry. I also use this time to paste Simpsons pictures in my agenda book.

Pre-Calculus
Math comes easy to me. Plus, the teacher makes the class fun. Will have the same teacher next year in Calculus.

Deutsch Eins
We've spent two weeks on "der, die, das", "Das Alphabet", "Die Zahlen Null zu Zwanzig", and "Wie heißt...; Ich heiße...". In English that's "the", "the alphabet", "numbers 0-20" and "What name is..., My name is...." My name in the class can't be beaten; Hans-Jürgen (Hahnz-Yur-gen). Üter wasn't available.

[phattonez]

AP Spanish
Too many rules, the book isn't teaching me anything, and it's too much homework right now. The class is supposed to get easy though, according to people who took the class last year.

AP Physics C
Cool teacher, but it's a lot of work. The class is interesting and I'm learning how to apply Calculus.

AP English IV
Another AP, should be easy. Another cool teacher that limits the amount of work each night.

AP Calculus BC
I learned a lot from the guy last year and I have the same one this year. The homework load has increased, but at least it's not too difficult.

Concert Band
So right now it's not concert band, it's marching band. The class is all right, but it's the practices after schools that can get to me. I've been through it though, so it's not that bad.

Government/Economics
We watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest today, what else do I need to say about it?

Religion 12A
The religion class is required every year at my school, and this one meets once a week. Completely unexpected but I can't complain.