It's been a while since I talked about the academic aspects of college here, so I'll start with my plan before delving into the real reason I'm writing.
I am between my freshman and sophomore years. My major is photojournalism. I was going to have three minors (Japanese, Art and Psychology) but one of them doesn't have enough funding so it's status as a minor is questionable and the turned out to be not quite what I expected, so I am now double majoring in International Studies with an emphasis on East Asian Studies. All that is a lengthy way to say I am majoring in Japanese. I will study abroad the summer between my sophomore and junior years in Japan to fulfill my Int'l Studies requirement of studying abroad for four weeks or more. I will get six credits in upper level Japanese courses from this.
I will graduate in three and a half years.
No, I don't mean four and a half. I mean three and a half. No, not from this point in time. I mean overall. It will take me three and a half years to graduate with a double major. I'm not pulling any crazy stunts, I'm not taking more credits than are allowed without special permission.
I'm kind of proud of this fact. My parents are kind of stunned since my mom was a teacher and had to go to grad school and my dad switched majors so he had to take an extra year, but I think they're proud. They think I'm overwhelming myself, but don't say that to my face. Hooray for loyal siblings still at home to inform me of the truth.
Now that you know my general plan of study, allow me to talk about one of my friend's plan of study.
She is a Mechanical Engineering (ME) major, Spanish and math minor. It takes most people four and a half years (or four years and a summer) to graduate with a ME degree and Math minor. She will be taking six years and two summers, at least. The reason? She wants to study abroad a semester and take random classes because she likes their titles. Sound harsh? It is. But it gets even better.
I've been helping her make her plan of study since the end of last semester, but it's impossible because every other week, just as I'm finishing up the plan, she will come back to me changing something or other. "Leave room each semester so I can take a fun class." That'd be fine, but she's only taking the minimum credits required to be a full time student and struggling to pass all her classes. She has no room for fun. "I don't want to take three mechanical engineering classes at the same time." Later on, she's supposed to take that many; it's what the school tells you to do. I'm just trying to get her back on track for next year. Speaking of tracks, it's really difficult to try and keep her on any track. She just keeps jumping around. I almost want to tell her it would just be better if she went to a community college while working part time. She could explore her interests and not have to deal with working toward an ultimate goal. Then, when she is ready to finish her degree, she can attend the university we attend now, go heavy duty on the ME courses, be done in less than two years. It'd be cheaper too, but she has a full ride from a third party, so that doesn't matter.
Part of me thinks she just doesn't want to graduate. She doesn't know what she'll do with herself when someone isn't there to guide her. She's got a great personality, but she has no common sense. She can't and won't survive in the real world. She has no sense of who she is, and though she has big dreams of who she wants to become, no time frame or means of getting there.
Another example of someone who wants to stay in college. The first week of college, I met a 21 year old sophomore who has not taken a year off since high school. He has switched majors multiple times, but has finally settled on History. He attended community college for two years where he tore through three majors, a handful of minors and one study abroad attempt. Because of this conglomeration of courses, he transferred in as a sophomore. He attended my university for a year, but at the end of the second semester, he dropped out of my university and decided to go to another community college. He gave no reason for this. His academics were good. Even he claimed that the university I attend is the only public school in the state that will give him a decent degree in what he wants.
So why did he change schools? In our many conversations, I could never get my head around the fact that he was 21 (now 22) and only a sophomore. He comes across as a guy who knows what he wants in life. When we talked about the future, he had realistic goals and knew of ways to make these goals reality. I think he lives his life in slow motion. Graduate by the time I'm 30, marry by the time I'm 40, kids by 50.
I don't understand people like this. I plan to graduate early and most everyone else I know will graduate in four years - unless they are double majoring or are going on to some form of graduate school.
Actually, this leads me to want to compare some people, but I'll save that for my next post. I'm going to be updating this more frequently. I'll try to focus on topics related to college, but I might return to just talking about my life. I'll let you know when this happens.
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