- #1
Chetlin
- 36
- 0
So I got to thinking...it might be better for me to delay graduation by a year..or maybe just a semester. But I need advice on this issue (and others) from a lot of different people, and I figured this is one of the places I should ask.
I just finished sophomore year and I feel like I'm not doing "enough", I guess. Last summer I had a job in this place (U.S. army base, engineering offices there) but all I did was digitize and organize their huge hardly-organized file cabinet of records. This summer I'm going to spend 5 weeks studying at National Taiwan University in Taipei, but it wasn't with a program through my school (it's through the school in Taiwan instead, even though both schools are "partner schools") and it's pretty unlikely any credits will transfer. The credits aren't in my major anyway (math and computer science) but I can't help but think that this wasn't a good idea for this summer, even though I'd be kicking myself for the rest of my life if I didn't do this (and there really isn't a better alternative for this summer).
So, like I said, I feel like I've really accomplished nothing. My grades especially this semester are pretty average (B in systems programming and I'm expecting one in probability theory) and I didn't do anything else really truly noteworthy. The organizations I'm in are nothing special and I didn't even do much in them because of my classes..really. That systems programming class, two of the programming assignments I got scores of around 50 because they made up new assignments this year and the only way to get good grades on them was to pull four all-nighters and technically break the rules (really..that's what happened. The only people who got relatively close to finishing it had to stay up all night multiple nights in a row, abandon their other classes, and help each other on what were supposed to be solo projects, but given their difficulty the course staff didn't care that much about how they had to work together a bit, but I decided that I wasn't going to put that much time into that one class and instead work on that one no more than the amount of time I worked on my other classes and also get enough sleep--which I have mixed feelings about doing).
Anyway, I had a real revelation in April. I realized I was on the totally wrong track and I need to get on the right one. I think I may have made a little progress before, since I got a job "section leading" (basically undergrad TA) a discrete mathematics class next fall almost confirmed, and I have ideas of better organizations to join next year, but I feel that it's kind of too late unless I purposely delay graduation at least one more semester. I could easily get all my coursework done by spring 2012 even with taking Chinese class (which I really want to do, even though it eats up 20 credit hours of the up to 72 I have left in 4 semesters..but if I have to forgo doing that I will) but I'm starting to think it may be better to wait a little longer..that way I get to have two more summers after this one to do things I already should have been doing, more time to take coursework that I should take before even applying for graduate school (which I am nearly 90 percent sure I want to do), and more time to get involved in projects.
So yeah, I'm pretty obviously not on the right track right now, but is this a good idea to get on it? Or is it more important to get done as fast as possible and get out of there? I know that with my bad summer choices so far I've screwed myself a little..but I think I might be able to not screw myself any further, for lack of better words, if I make the right decisions. But is this a good decision to make?
Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this and help me.
-Brian (Chetlin)
I just finished sophomore year and I feel like I'm not doing "enough", I guess. Last summer I had a job in this place (U.S. army base, engineering offices there) but all I did was digitize and organize their huge hardly-organized file cabinet of records. This summer I'm going to spend 5 weeks studying at National Taiwan University in Taipei, but it wasn't with a program through my school (it's through the school in Taiwan instead, even though both schools are "partner schools") and it's pretty unlikely any credits will transfer. The credits aren't in my major anyway (math and computer science) but I can't help but think that this wasn't a good idea for this summer, even though I'd be kicking myself for the rest of my life if I didn't do this (and there really isn't a better alternative for this summer).
So, like I said, I feel like I've really accomplished nothing. My grades especially this semester are pretty average (B in systems programming and I'm expecting one in probability theory) and I didn't do anything else really truly noteworthy. The organizations I'm in are nothing special and I didn't even do much in them because of my classes..really. That systems programming class, two of the programming assignments I got scores of around 50 because they made up new assignments this year and the only way to get good grades on them was to pull four all-nighters and technically break the rules (really..that's what happened. The only people who got relatively close to finishing it had to stay up all night multiple nights in a row, abandon their other classes, and help each other on what were supposed to be solo projects, but given their difficulty the course staff didn't care that much about how they had to work together a bit, but I decided that I wasn't going to put that much time into that one class and instead work on that one no more than the amount of time I worked on my other classes and also get enough sleep--which I have mixed feelings about doing).
Anyway, I had a real revelation in April. I realized I was on the totally wrong track and I need to get on the right one. I think I may have made a little progress before, since I got a job "section leading" (basically undergrad TA) a discrete mathematics class next fall almost confirmed, and I have ideas of better organizations to join next year, but I feel that it's kind of too late unless I purposely delay graduation at least one more semester. I could easily get all my coursework done by spring 2012 even with taking Chinese class (which I really want to do, even though it eats up 20 credit hours of the up to 72 I have left in 4 semesters..but if I have to forgo doing that I will) but I'm starting to think it may be better to wait a little longer..that way I get to have two more summers after this one to do things I already should have been doing, more time to take coursework that I should take before even applying for graduate school (which I am nearly 90 percent sure I want to do), and more time to get involved in projects.
So yeah, I'm pretty obviously not on the right track right now, but is this a good idea to get on it? Or is it more important to get done as fast as possible and get out of there? I know that with my bad summer choices so far I've screwed myself a little..but I think I might be able to not screw myself any further, for lack of better words, if I make the right decisions. But is this a good decision to make?
Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this and help me.
-Brian (Chetlin)