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elwen[In which I rant about my schedule. You probably will not care, nor understand the catalog codes. This theme will also probably continue for the next few days if not weeks.]
More freedom in schedule was clearly not made for indecisive people like me.
So it all started with the great MS115 drama. MS115 is an introduction to materials science, and from the textbook it looks like it might at least brush upon the materials engineering sort of thing that caught my interest on an "educational business trip" in Japan. The ChE people suggested that we take it this year, as an overview, if we're interested in one of the three materials subtracks. Unfortunately, it coincides with p-chem, which is required this year. The prof was reluctant to reschedule before classes began, and it sounds like the MS majors don't like any other possible times.
As an alternative to MS115, we were going to take MS131, which is a senior year materials track course. It sounds rather deadlier than 115, since it's about chemical bonds and involves lots of quantum, but it wasn't absolutely horrible, I guess. Except that class apparently got rescheduled to the same time as an ESE class I was excited to take, on climate change.
So I suddenly found myself facing a 40 unit term.
This morning, I sat in on ESE/Ch/Ge175, which is titled "Environmental Organic Chemistry" and actually seems pretty interesting. I will probably take it, especially if the MS115 issue doesn't resolve itself. But, most other junior ChEs will probably want 115 rescheduled to the same time as 175, since for them it fits in a nice hole between ChE transport and ACM95. For me, it creates a huge moment of indecision. I like the sound of ESE175, even though it deals more with organic chemicals in water, where I originally thought I'd do atmospheric stuff if I did environemtal at all. But it seems like a neat class, I'd always wondered why I wasn't pursuing organic, I like the prof so far, and there are a few other juniors in it, which is always helpful. (It's also half graduates, though.) But I probably can't fit MS115 in my schedule next year, since it will probably keep it's highly prized timeslot, and the material seems so much like something I want to explore, moreso than the actually required materials track courses.
So that's the morning problem. Two topics I think I'd be highly interested in, mirroring my current overall indecision as to whether to pursue materials or environmental.
Then there was MS131, the chemical bonds class. It's part of the structural materials subtrack. The polymers subtrack requires Ch120, which is also about chemical bonds. As it turns out, the classes were combined this year, seemingly with more preference for the MS version. It doesn't sound terribly interesting, but I had thought it might be the mythical class that applies group theory to chemistry. [I went to the bookstore today and found two books relating group theory to quantum and chemistry, and I'm not so sure I like the idea after all. Plus, it's really been so long since I've done group theory, and I doubt I got very deeply into the material. I should stop pretending I like it and know something about it. It's like a silly childhood dream by this point.] If I do go into materials, I'd probably take it, whether I did polymers or semiconductors.
But this year, it conflicts with the course for the environmental track, ESE148, which covers climate change first term. The catalog description sounded pretty interesting, and I've always thought things like the cyclical ice ages and such were neat, so I was pretty excited about taking it. But when I looked at the textbook, there was so much more math than I expected. It seemed to combine the annoying part of Ph2a, when we were calculating intensity and radiation and such, with the unpleasant part of Ge1, which I otherwise greatly enjoyed, with partial derivatives of depth for calculating temperature gradients and the like.
I will take one or the other, but like the opposite of the morning problem, the afternoon problem seems to be turning into which class will be less annoying.
If I step back and try to look at it more objectively (or something), I think the optimal solution would be to take ESE175 and MS131. Both go towards requirements in their respective tracks, unlike 115. (148, however, is specifically required, rather than just an ESE elective the way 175 is.) And I'm taking one from each track so I can try to decide which I want to stick with. But somehow I'm not happy with the plan. [For the moment at least, I'm hoping the MS115 issue will decide the morning for me. It didn't sound like there was much hope of moving it to that timeslot anyway, especially with the seniors violently opposing a morning class.] Also, upon hearing that Ch120 and ESE131 were one and the same, to my surprise, the other person was actually less eager to take it early, even though it would probably considerably free up her senior year, and she was intending on taking an MS class anyway. Go figure. So if I'm going to be all alone in the class to boot, no way I'm taking it early.
The main reason I'm worrying about putting of all senior year requirements to senior year -- oh, can't you just hear the overachieving in that line -- is because of my humanities and social science requirements. I still have to take two social sciences, and I'm really hoping to take law, which will add to my units next year. I also still need the elusive freshman humanity, that I was forced to drop last year. I guess it won't be that bad, since I won't have Japanese anymore, and there's always overloading if I absolutely have to, but I doubt it'll come to that.
Time conflicts aside, my schedule looks amazingly empty. Four hours of lecture MWF, Japanese in the morning TRF, and that's it? I'm not taking that few units. I guess it must be the lack of recitation sections and time gobbling labs, one or the other of which was always plaguing me last year. Although it'd make me really happy if one of my time conflicts would considerately move itself to Tuesday/Thursday. Otherwise, I'm currently considering sitting in on the APh114 lectures, which is the solid-state physics class required for the semiconductors subtrack. I don't think I'd actually take it this year, as it requires scary physics background that is supposedly fulfilled by the quantum we get in p-chem.
Oh, and I should probably try to find some research to do with a prof. Really... need... to... get... moving... on... that...
A further problem to all this dithering about classes is what I'll do with them next term. Next term I'll have an additional ChE class, and I was thinking of taking EE51 out of sheer masochism. I think all of the classes I'm considering are at least two terms long, although I might not stick with them, or might continue them senior year.
Oh, and hovering on the edge of my awareness is a science fiction class that a lot of people were really excited about. I would have been, too, except I didn't think I could fit it, and I'm not sure how keen I am about actually taking a class on sci-fi. Now I hear that they have more books than weeks in the term -- and lengthy books, like Dune -- so given that I dropped my hum last term because of too much reading, it's probably good that I'd long ago dismissed the possibility of my taking the class. It's neat that it exists, though. Now we just need to work on getting a Tolkien class offered. And that always has the advantage that I've already read part of the primary source text, ha ha. [But I've never read any of the biographies, and I don't think I made it very far through Letters.]
Okay, time to figure out where my afternoon classes are. Hopefully today will be enough to pass judgment on ESE148, combined with hearing from others about how MS131 looks.
More freedom in schedule was clearly not made for indecisive people like me.
So it all started with the great MS115 drama. MS115 is an introduction to materials science, and from the textbook it looks like it might at least brush upon the materials engineering sort of thing that caught my interest on an "educational business trip" in Japan. The ChE people suggested that we take it this year, as an overview, if we're interested in one of the three materials subtracks. Unfortunately, it coincides with p-chem, which is required this year. The prof was reluctant to reschedule before classes began, and it sounds like the MS majors don't like any other possible times.
As an alternative to MS115, we were going to take MS131, which is a senior year materials track course. It sounds rather deadlier than 115, since it's about chemical bonds and involves lots of quantum, but it wasn't absolutely horrible, I guess. Except that class apparently got rescheduled to the same time as an ESE class I was excited to take, on climate change.
So I suddenly found myself facing a 40 unit term.
This morning, I sat in on ESE/Ch/Ge175, which is titled "Environmental Organic Chemistry" and actually seems pretty interesting. I will probably take it, especially if the MS115 issue doesn't resolve itself. But, most other junior ChEs will probably want 115 rescheduled to the same time as 175, since for them it fits in a nice hole between ChE transport and ACM95. For me, it creates a huge moment of indecision. I like the sound of ESE175, even though it deals more with organic chemicals in water, where I originally thought I'd do atmospheric stuff if I did environemtal at all. But it seems like a neat class, I'd always wondered why I wasn't pursuing organic, I like the prof so far, and there are a few other juniors in it, which is always helpful. (It's also half graduates, though.) But I probably can't fit MS115 in my schedule next year, since it will probably keep it's highly prized timeslot, and the material seems so much like something I want to explore, moreso than the actually required materials track courses.
So that's the morning problem. Two topics I think I'd be highly interested in, mirroring my current overall indecision as to whether to pursue materials or environmental.
Then there was MS131, the chemical bonds class. It's part of the structural materials subtrack. The polymers subtrack requires Ch120, which is also about chemical bonds. As it turns out, the classes were combined this year, seemingly with more preference for the MS version. It doesn't sound terribly interesting, but I had thought it might be the mythical class that applies group theory to chemistry. [I went to the bookstore today and found two books relating group theory to quantum and chemistry, and I'm not so sure I like the idea after all. Plus, it's really been so long since I've done group theory, and I doubt I got very deeply into the material. I should stop pretending I like it and know something about it. It's like a silly childhood dream by this point.] If I do go into materials, I'd probably take it, whether I did polymers or semiconductors.
But this year, it conflicts with the course for the environmental track, ESE148, which covers climate change first term. The catalog description sounded pretty interesting, and I've always thought things like the cyclical ice ages and such were neat, so I was pretty excited about taking it. But when I looked at the textbook, there was so much more math than I expected. It seemed to combine the annoying part of Ph2a, when we were calculating intensity and radiation and such, with the unpleasant part of Ge1, which I otherwise greatly enjoyed, with partial derivatives of depth for calculating temperature gradients and the like.
I will take one or the other, but like the opposite of the morning problem, the afternoon problem seems to be turning into which class will be less annoying.
If I step back and try to look at it more objectively (or something), I think the optimal solution would be to take ESE175 and MS131. Both go towards requirements in their respective tracks, unlike 115. (148, however, is specifically required, rather than just an ESE elective the way 175 is.) And I'm taking one from each track so I can try to decide which I want to stick with. But somehow I'm not happy with the plan. [For the moment at least, I'm hoping the MS115 issue will decide the morning for me. It didn't sound like there was much hope of moving it to that timeslot anyway, especially with the seniors violently opposing a morning class.] Also, upon hearing that Ch120 and ESE131 were one and the same, to my surprise, the other person was actually less eager to take it early, even though it would probably considerably free up her senior year, and she was intending on taking an MS class anyway. Go figure. So if I'm going to be all alone in the class to boot, no way I'm taking it early.
The main reason I'm worrying about putting of all senior year requirements to senior year -- oh, can't you just hear the overachieving in that line -- is because of my humanities and social science requirements. I still have to take two social sciences, and I'm really hoping to take law, which will add to my units next year. I also still need the elusive freshman humanity, that I was forced to drop last year. I guess it won't be that bad, since I won't have Japanese anymore, and there's always overloading if I absolutely have to, but I doubt it'll come to that.
Time conflicts aside, my schedule looks amazingly empty. Four hours of lecture MWF, Japanese in the morning TRF, and that's it? I'm not taking that few units. I guess it must be the lack of recitation sections and time gobbling labs, one or the other of which was always plaguing me last year. Although it'd make me really happy if one of my time conflicts would considerately move itself to Tuesday/Thursday. Otherwise, I'm currently considering sitting in on the APh114 lectures, which is the solid-state physics class required for the semiconductors subtrack. I don't think I'd actually take it this year, as it requires scary physics background that is supposedly fulfilled by the quantum we get in p-chem.
Oh, and I should probably try to find some research to do with a prof. Really... need... to... get... moving... on... that...
A further problem to all this dithering about classes is what I'll do with them next term. Next term I'll have an additional ChE class, and I was thinking of taking EE51 out of sheer masochism. I think all of the classes I'm considering are at least two terms long, although I might not stick with them, or might continue them senior year.
Oh, and hovering on the edge of my awareness is a science fiction class that a lot of people were really excited about. I would have been, too, except I didn't think I could fit it, and I'm not sure how keen I am about actually taking a class on sci-fi. Now I hear that they have more books than weeks in the term -- and lengthy books, like Dune -- so given that I dropped my hum last term because of too much reading, it's probably good that I'd long ago dismissed the possibility of my taking the class. It's neat that it exists, though. Now we just need to work on getting a Tolkien class offered. And that always has the advantage that I've already read part of the primary source text, ha ha. [But I've never read any of the biographies, and I don't think I made it very far through Letters.]
Okay, time to figure out where my afternoon classes are. Hopefully today will be enough to pass judgment on ESE148, combined with hearing from others about how MS131 looks.
