Two weeks into the ten week term and I have to change one of my classes. The first class of the second week in Marxist Political Economy was cancelled because the professor was sick. Fine. So I show up Thursday morning to find out that the entire class has been cancelled. Professor Hall had broken his leg just before the term started and was coming to class in a wheelchair. Apparently, there was an infection in his leg that was getting worse so the entire class was cancelled. Great. Now what? They (the econ dept.) were pushing Heterodox Microeconomics, which sounded interesting so I signed up for it. I emailed the instructor who emailed me back that I probably shouldn't jump in after two weeks because I had already missed a bunch of mathematical theory. Swell. Back to the econ department. I didn't really have a lot of choices so I went with Economics of Developing Countries. This should be a relatively easy class, but I don't care much for all the added expenses associated with this class. I found a used textbook for $77 (which should be here next week) so I don't have to keep checking out the one in the PSU library (which has a time limit of one hour, then you have to wait a half hour in case someone else wants to check it out - what a pain in the ass). Hopefully, I will be able to use the books I already bought for the Marx class next year. I also had to pay an extra $20 for this stupid online stuff that basically only saves the professor time. I also have to take my laptop to class every time even though I may not need it. All because I'm trying to save money by not having text service on my phone. This is not a very good way to start out a class. AND I had to read a bunch of stuff just to get caught up. I've been stressing out over this class for the last week. Bitch, bitch, bitch.
I do understand that PSU had no control over this situation and I feel sorry for Prof. Hall, but I just lost 20% of class time and I still have to pay for the entire thing. I don't think this is right. Every person in the class that was cancelled should have had their tuition discounted if they picked up a new class. I'm starting to get frustrated with PSU. They keep raising tuition and the econ department is losing all of it's best professors. Especially those who have experience or knowledge in the energy field. Just a couple of years ago energy was a big focus of the department and its not now. Very disappointing. And now, if political conservatives have their way, I'll be paying even more interest on my loans.
On top of that, I have been sick (just a cold, but it still bites) since Tuesday. It seems to be a yearly thing for me. Luckily, it usually is only once a year.
At least the weather is nice today!
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
First day of classes
I had my first class of the spring term today. It's my once a week evening class, Environment & History. I think this class should be both interesting and relatively easy (it's a 300-level class). It starts at 5:30pm and is scheduled until 9:10, but our instructor said it won't last much more than 3 hours each time. I think I'll be fine with the shorter class in this particular case.
This class is basically a history of man's interaction with nature and the environment, focusing mostly on the last 200-500 years. There will be two exams, a mid-term and a final, and two 1000-1200 words papers on two of the four books we are going to be reading. The first paper (and first book we read), which everyone must do, will be on the global history of malaria. The second is our choice on the remaining three books. The books aren't really very long and they all seem well written and easy to read. The papers seem ridiculously short, but that will make me be more specific, which seems hard to do sometimes. Still, this should be a pretty easy class. Attendance is mandatory. Missing a single class will drop your grade by half a letter. I guess that seems reasonable for a class that only meets once a week.
My next two classes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am to 2pm. The later class is Marxist Political Economy [insert fascist, marxist, socialist, or communist joke here]. There are three books for this class, two of them are quite dense and long. Even though I've been wanting to read Marx's most famous work, Capital, Volume 1, for a couple of years, I'm not really looking forward to it. I'm pretty sure most of it will be dry and boring. And long (1000 pages). Like a lot of the "classics" are. Hopefully, there won't be too much writing in this class.
My morning class is not what I expected to be taking this term. I saw the syllabus for the class I was thinking of taking and it was almost exactly the same as the Green Power Econ class I just took. It would have been a waste of time taking that class from him. I may still take it from the other instructor? We'll see when the time comes. I ended up signing up for Environmental and Natural Resources Economics. I wanted to take this class eventually, but the teacher is the same one I had for Intermediate Microeconomics and I didn't really care much for. But this is the only class that was left that worked, schedule-wise, for me and the other two classes I am taking. Hopefully he's gotten a little more organised since I had him last fall. I'm trying to stay positive about this class. I expect one writing assignment in this class, as that seems to have become a requirement for every class, even classes like math.
I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do for lunch on these two days since there is only 10 minutes between classes. Maybe it will be alright to eat in at least one of them. If not I can live with that. We'll see.
This class is basically a history of man's interaction with nature and the environment, focusing mostly on the last 200-500 years. There will be two exams, a mid-term and a final, and two 1000-1200 words papers on two of the four books we are going to be reading. The first paper (and first book we read), which everyone must do, will be on the global history of malaria. The second is our choice on the remaining three books. The books aren't really very long and they all seem well written and easy to read. The papers seem ridiculously short, but that will make me be more specific, which seems hard to do sometimes. Still, this should be a pretty easy class. Attendance is mandatory. Missing a single class will drop your grade by half a letter. I guess that seems reasonable for a class that only meets once a week.
My next two classes are on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am to 2pm. The later class is Marxist Political Economy [insert fascist, marxist, socialist, or communist joke here]. There are three books for this class, two of them are quite dense and long. Even though I've been wanting to read Marx's most famous work, Capital, Volume 1, for a couple of years, I'm not really looking forward to it. I'm pretty sure most of it will be dry and boring. And long (1000 pages). Like a lot of the "classics" are. Hopefully, there won't be too much writing in this class.
My morning class is not what I expected to be taking this term. I saw the syllabus for the class I was thinking of taking and it was almost exactly the same as the Green Power Econ class I just took. It would have been a waste of time taking that class from him. I may still take it from the other instructor? We'll see when the time comes. I ended up signing up for Environmental and Natural Resources Economics. I wanted to take this class eventually, but the teacher is the same one I had for Intermediate Microeconomics and I didn't really care much for. But this is the only class that was left that worked, schedule-wise, for me and the other two classes I am taking. Hopefully he's gotten a little more organised since I had him last fall. I'm trying to stay positive about this class. I expect one writing assignment in this class, as that seems to have become a requirement for every class, even classes like math.
I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do for lunch on these two days since there is only 10 minutes between classes. Maybe it will be alright to eat in at least one of them. If not I can live with that. We'll see.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)