2005-05-13
What a relief!!!
I had a lot of trouble sleeping this past night, nervous about the grades that would be visible in the morning. Nervous because whether I graduated with honors depended on a class whose grade was unknown to me, but could have been very bad. I was able to find out my grade about 90 minutes early by checking a system that updated before the main one for viewing grades. That class didn't end up with an A, but it was good enough to leave with with a 3.52 QPA overall, guaranteeing the honors! If I had gotten 1 B instead of an A during the entire time I was at CMU, I would have had a 3.494, losing the honors. I'm so relieved now!!! Tired too, so I'll take a nap.
CMU VI
I moved off campus junior year, to 300 craft avenue in south oakland. Rooming with my good friend Carlos. I love living off campus... I don't like being in the CMU environment 24/7 and there's also privacy and no bedroom sharing. The downside was I skipped more classes. Sure I have a bus pass, but who wants to use that when you have a car. Cars and CMU don't get along too well though, parking is at least 50 cents per hour, you have to make sure you have tons of quarters for the meters, and it can take up to 45 minutes to find a spot. The classes junior year were slightly more challenging but I actually felt like I was learning business which was a good thing. I also ended my relationship with CMU solutions, a business club I helped start up (but that's a whole other story). Junior year ended and I stayed here all summer, unable to find an internship.
2005-05-11
Freedom Loses
An $82 billion dollar war spending bill was approved unanimously in the senate today. It contains the Real-ID act which kills our civil liberties. Soon enough we could find ourselves going through a checkpoint between, say, Ohio and Michigan and be asked "can I see your papers please."
This sucks.
This sucks.
2005-05-08
CMU V
The last two posts on CMU didn't really follow the first two, but this one does...
Sophomore year was a pretty good year, I lived off campus at the run-down Cathedral Mansion apartments at an apartment rented through campus housing. The first half wasn't very memorable.
In January I finally brought my car here which helped a lot. I could finally go places, explore the city, and easily buy groceries. Got my first parking ticket within a few days too!!! In the second semester I had more "real" business classes which I was glad to finally begin taking since that is my major. They were alright. Business Communications caused a lot of headaches and Organizational Behavior had a lot of group projects.
The best part of sophomore year was at the end when I met the love of my life, Kenzie! I met her near the end of the semester but it was pretty obvious that we really liked each other so I made plans to stay in Pittsburgh for the summer. I took an ethics class which was interesting, but not really useful. The summer was relaxing and some of my good friends were also here. About two weeks before school started again Kenzie and I took our first vacation together to Niagara Falls. It was really fun and there are lots of good memories from it.
Next entry: Junior year.
Sophomore year was a pretty good year, I lived off campus at the run-down Cathedral Mansion apartments at an apartment rented through campus housing. The first half wasn't very memorable.
In January I finally brought my car here which helped a lot. I could finally go places, explore the city, and easily buy groceries. Got my first parking ticket within a few days too!!! In the second semester I had more "real" business classes which I was glad to finally begin taking since that is my major. They were alright. Business Communications caused a lot of headaches and Organizational Behavior had a lot of group projects.
The best part of sophomore year was at the end when I met the love of my life, Kenzie! I met her near the end of the semester but it was pretty obvious that we really liked each other so I made plans to stay in Pittsburgh for the summer. I took an ethics class which was interesting, but not really useful. The summer was relaxing and some of my good friends were also here. About two weeks before school started again Kenzie and I took our first vacation together to Niagara Falls. It was really fun and there are lots of good memories from it.
Next entry: Junior year.
CMU IV
More about my time at CMU:
One thing I will not miss one bit are final exams. The end of all 8 semesters (which includes this one), has always been filled with dread, sleeplessness, nervousness, and after the final a feeling of being fucked.
Finals can seriously change your grade... Thankfully I think at the worst they've only dropped me by 1 letter grade but that has happened several times. The other bad thing about them is that they all take place over a period of two weeks (max) and sometimes you'll have 2 of them in one day. Studying in advance isn't always an option with final projects and other things due the week before. Trying to learn an entire semester's worth of information in 48 hours is an acquired skill, but a necessary one to get by in school. And you have to do that over and over again until the last final is done and you sleep for 12 hours straight. My worst experience ever was a year ago when I woke up 10 minutes after a final had started and had to rush to school nervous as hell. Thankfully it was an easy class and I ended up getting an A, but at the time it was just awful. So, after this last one I can say GOOD BYE FINALS for good!
I should qualify the above by stating that I'm a pretty good test taker, always have been (whether it involves the strategy of multiple choice or the bullshitting of free response), and I don't really dislike tests, I just hate the whole finals experience.
One thing I will not miss one bit are final exams. The end of all 8 semesters (which includes this one), has always been filled with dread, sleeplessness, nervousness, and after the final a feeling of being fucked.
Finals can seriously change your grade... Thankfully I think at the worst they've only dropped me by 1 letter grade but that has happened several times. The other bad thing about them is that they all take place over a period of two weeks (max) and sometimes you'll have 2 of them in one day. Studying in advance isn't always an option with final projects and other things due the week before. Trying to learn an entire semester's worth of information in 48 hours is an acquired skill, but a necessary one to get by in school. And you have to do that over and over again until the last final is done and you sleep for 12 hours straight. My worst experience ever was a year ago when I woke up 10 minutes after a final had started and had to rush to school nervous as hell. Thankfully it was an easy class and I ended up getting an A, but at the time it was just awful. So, after this last one I can say GOOD BYE FINALS for good!
I should qualify the above by stating that I'm a pretty good test taker, always have been (whether it involves the strategy of multiple choice or the bullshitting of free response), and I don't really dislike tests, I just hate the whole finals experience.
1 Left
This past week wasn't very fun, especially Thursday and Friday. Thursday was all about preparing for Friday and Friday was a group paper and two finals. I had finished my part of the group paper on Monday and I couldn't really help the guys out with it too much Thursday night. I felt bad about that, but I tried to write more than my share to compensate.
The two finals were rough, especially since I wasn't able to prepare well for either. The first was at 8:30am, Corporate Financial Reporting. I knew how to do most of the stuff but wasn't very confident. There was also a problem worth 14% of the test that I had no idea how to solve. I had meant to study the specific principle involved but somehow skipped it. I felt like a dumbass when I saw that one on the test...Later in the afternoon came Decision Analysis. The good news was that the types of problems in that final were the same concepts I spent a whole semester learning. The bad news was that these were harder than anything I had ever seen and I had no idea how to do 2 of them, though I wrote some bullshit down (there were about 8 problems total so not too bad...especially if they curve).
My Futures & Swaps final was about 9 days ago on Friday. I ended up getting a 69 on the final and a B overall in the class. CMU business classes are so great for curves!!! That final was hard, but that class had confused me all semester so I'm happy with the B.
So that only leaves Electoral Systems, an interesting niche class, on Monday at 8:30am. Unlike all the other finals, this one is cumulative so I'm going to be spending the next 24 hours (minus sleep) going over a large amount of concepts. The best takeaway concept I learned in that class is that given enough control and intelligence, it is possible to design and election system that will allow you to somewhat control the outcome. This concept especially holds true when setting an agenda, which the Speaker of the House does in Congress. I don't need a very high grade on that final for a B, but I'm hoping for an A. This class was definitely the most interesting I had all semester so I want to at least show that I mastered the concepts...
The two finals were rough, especially since I wasn't able to prepare well for either. The first was at 8:30am, Corporate Financial Reporting. I knew how to do most of the stuff but wasn't very confident. There was also a problem worth 14% of the test that I had no idea how to solve. I had meant to study the specific principle involved but somehow skipped it. I felt like a dumbass when I saw that one on the test...Later in the afternoon came Decision Analysis. The good news was that the types of problems in that final were the same concepts I spent a whole semester learning. The bad news was that these were harder than anything I had ever seen and I had no idea how to do 2 of them, though I wrote some bullshit down (there were about 8 problems total so not too bad...especially if they curve).
My Futures & Swaps final was about 9 days ago on Friday. I ended up getting a 69 on the final and a B overall in the class. CMU business classes are so great for curves!!! That final was hard, but that class had confused me all semester so I'm happy with the B.
So that only leaves Electoral Systems, an interesting niche class, on Monday at 8:30am. Unlike all the other finals, this one is cumulative so I'm going to be spending the next 24 hours (minus sleep) going over a large amount of concepts. The best takeaway concept I learned in that class is that given enough control and intelligence, it is possible to design and election system that will allow you to somewhat control the outcome. This concept especially holds true when setting an agenda, which the Speaker of the House does in Congress. I don't need a very high grade on that final for a B, but I'm hoping for an A. This class was definitely the most interesting I had all semester so I want to at least show that I mastered the concepts...
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