Beginning Semester madness

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

The beginning of each semester always seems like an emotional rollercoaster for me. I can’t help but think that it is inevitable something is going to go wrong, no matter how carefully I planned it out. Seeing as this should be my final semester at San Jose State, the stresses involved in these little hiccups have been magnified tenfold.

Last Wednesday was my first day of class. I had a class that was supposed to be from 9:00 to 10:15. However, I wrote the ‘start’ time wrong on my little reminder card, and came in at 10:15, which was after everyone (including the prof) had skeedaddled. :smack: (usually classes get out early on 1st day).

This was extremely bad. Profs can drop you if you miss the first day of class. Particularly if a bunch of people are trying to add, many Professors will drop people simply to add the people who actually showed up. The screwup was 100% my fault, so I knew I didn’t have any excuse. All I could do was leave a letter in the Professor’s mailbox BEGGING her not to drop me. I came in during the next class meeting (this Monday) and I see people continuously piling in the class. I’m thinking, “Shit, there’s so many people adding, I REALLY hope I didn’t get dropped!” when the Professor showed up, I explained the situation and she assured me I was still registered to the class. WHEW!

One frustrating moment was finding out I need to get the Norton’s Anthology of English Literatore Vol 2. It was only until after I had purchased it (didn’t have time to shop around, needed the book immediately) that I realized I had owned this book a year ago, and sold it, figuring I wouldn’t need the same textbook for a different class :smack:

I had another close call when a class listed as ENGL 120(English 120) was written as TA 120 (Theater Arts 120) on the syllabus. I started to freak out, because I need a certain number of upper division English classes to graduate, and as fun as the class may be, it does me no good if the credits won’t go towards me graduating! Fortunately, it turns out the class gives credit in EITHER major, hence why it was listed twice in the catalog. Whew! :eek:

Thus, the last five classes I need to finish school have all been successfully added and started. I’m actually extremely enthusiastic this semester, for a few reasons-

One, hearing lectures and being very familiar with the material because I actually somehow remembered 4 years worth of English classes. (Me? Remembering something I learned 4 years ago? Impossible! :eek: )

Two, knowing that this is the last semester, and that I can’t drop classes just because I don’t like them or I’m having difficulty early on. This is also my last chance to really shine. I’ve never gotten straight A’s before in my life…but I know that there were many opportunities I had to achieve that, but passed over because of lack of motivation or stress. This time I really do believe I can hack it. Two of my professors have taught previous courses I took. One in particular taught a class I thought it would be impossible for me to pass because the books we were discussing weren’t really clicking with me. I wound up getting a ‘B’ on supposedly “impossible” class, and now I have that same professor again. Given my experience with knowing what both these professors want, it would be mortal sin not to get an ‘A’ when I have all the mental tools at my disposal to excel.

2

Well, finding my classes was alright.

I misunderstood the signs on my zoology lab doors that said “No Biology labs this week” to mean that I didn’t have a bio lab. No such luck. I just completely missed it. Whoops.

I also needed approval to use my scholarship to buy books. Since I had lost the original printout of my account summary that was mailed to me during the summer, I had to wait in the registration line on the day after move-in. Took me about 3 hours to buy my almost 700 dollars worth of books.

I went and took Precal, and my advisor told me not to worry about the calculator class corequisite. Well, my professor tells me that he’ll drop me from the class if I don’t enroll in it. Well, crap. The rest of my schedule is locked into place, and the two sections don’t fit anywhere. (I get that sorted out; they tell me I’ll just have to do everything outside of class… the whole class is review anyway.) I go add that, and brings my total hours up to 19, thus charging me 100 dollars in overload fees. (The total hours of my majors (only the bare-bones minimums for each one…) brings me up to at least 117 hours, assuming that all of my biology classes are only 3 hours (Not sure) and not counting ANY elective classes I might want to take (Like german. Sweet, sweet, German. )

3

So far so… okay, I suppose.

I go to an enormus university, so I’ve gotten plenty of exercise on my bike over the last couple of days.

This is probably going to be the easiest semester of my undergrad career, but I’m still pretty nervous about everything. I’ve got 2 essays due on the 14th, so there’s no time to ease into anything. I’ve been reading like a madwoman (not that I haven’t been wasting plenty of time on SDMB).

I’m in my second year now, but I still feel like a lost freshman on my first day. I know that I’ll get the hang of everything, but it always seems so distant.

Good luck to all students :slight_smile:

4

It’s a good freakin lesson for a (student) to learn … that life ain’t fair. You don’t always get what ya want. You won’t always have your (#2 pencils) there to fight your battles.

this is all a (chemistry exam) really.
And for those who think it’s just horrible… I once heard about a (valedictorian cheerleader) getting cancer.

I joke. This is a woosh (correct word?) on this thread and in particular this post

I attempt to make you happy. I wouldn’t sweat anything beyond trying to remember if the tassle goes from right to left or left to right. In 5 years you will ask this question: college what!?!?

5

Well, I didn’t notice the big ol sign outside the office today saying Evidence was cancelled and proceeded to go to the classroom and sit there with my computer all hooked up wondering why the hell I didn’t recognize anyone there (it’s a small school and being a second year, I’m guaranteed to know a good amount of people in all my classes) and why everyone had a different book than I did. I finally decided something wasn’t right, got up and went to the office.

Yeah. Class was cancelled and another class was in our room. Thank Og I decided to follow my gut and check things out instead of sitting there like a dumbass and having to sheepishly pack up my stuff and walk out once class had started. This way I only had to sheepishly pack up my stuff and walk out in front of an audience of 10 or so.

That was about 3 hours ago and I still feel like a dumbass.

:frowning: