October: the month of Tricks, Candy and...MIDTERMS
Happy October! To see how I measured up to my to-do list, I pasted last entry's contents into this one and slashed the ones that have been, to my relief, accomplished.
TO DO List 9/29-10/3 [bold indicates top priority]
-Read Economics homework assignments
-See Profesora Castro-Gerpe regarding in-class translation I got a B on
-STUDY STUDY STUDY for Economics midterm (10/13)
-Do Economics homework problems
-Attend Residence Hall Association Retreat on Saturday (2-8:00 p.m.)
-Do Laundry
-Write Sociology Perspective Taking paper (10/6)
-Study for Spanish quiz (10/1)
-Do English reading
-Call Department of Asian Lanuages
-Type Economics notes, both lecture and reading, in Word
-Submit Rebate for Laptop
-Get batteries for calculator
-Update livejournal with longer, more interesting entry
-Print off old Econ mid-terms online and review
-Go to Economics office hours Thursday and ask questions on last week's homework problems
-Read over Nick's WMU college stuff
-Update FAFSA information
-Council for the Advancement of Minorities at Mosher Jordan (CAMM) E-board meeting (9/30)
Not bad, considering I'm in the process of updating eastmeetswest with a little more lively of an entry and the FAFSA has no approaching deadline to updating it. So about this Econ business: I know it sounds like it's far away, with the midterm being next Wednesday and all, but I'd much rather be over-prepared for my first real college midterm. Out of the three old midterms available online, I printed off two of them and already slugged through them. I went to Office Hours today to see my GSI, and I'll probably continue to study, study, study so I will have questions during office hours on Thursday. My initial impression about the exams is that they're challenging, which is the nature of the beast. But, at the same time, I am not 100% comfortable with the material, so I feel that if I know how the various forms of government intervention affect markets, I'll be in a much happier boat. There are no essays, which I'm sure will end up hurting me in the end. Grades still are important to me because I need a solid GPA to apply to good graduate schools and because I have merit scholarhips to keep. The other aspect about Econ which makes it so challenging is that it is a pre-requisite for the Business School, meaning then there is lots of competition to do well. And, because the class is bell-curved, I could do very well on the midterm, but still end up with a B. At this point, note, that I'll be happy with a B.
Enough about depressing Econ and on to slightly more exciting events as of late. I found out last night that Chinese 101 is NOT offered next semester, and neither is Biology of Human Nutrition. To make matters worse, I can't major or minor in Econ unless I take Math 115: Calculus I. I was so set on never taking math again that, even knowing how ridiculous it sounds, I'm not sure if I could bring myself to take it next semester. Thus, I'm in a rut: two of the four classes I wanted to take next semester are not being offered; availability was something I definitely should have checked in July. If I want to major in Political Science or Sociology, I need to take Statistics 350: Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis. And, I can't minor in Chinese unless I have reached fourth semester fluency! It's kinda hard to reach any level since 101 is not offered next semester. I'm going to LSA Advising on Thursday to figure what the heck is going on with my schedule. I wish that my advisor, as knowledgable as he may be, would have stressed us to check availability and concentration requirements before registering for classes during Orientation! Groan.
Unfortunately, I'm not having as good luck as naancy in the English realm. I got a 4/5 on our last short paper, which upsets me a little. Professor Herold has a strange grading scale for short papers...she only grades them out of five, so it's impossible to get a A- or B+ for that matter. She simply rounds. Still, for some reason, she tells us what we got on a letter scale, even if it doesn't quite match the numeric scale. It worked to my benefit last short paper. I got an A-, but that's technically a five. I got a B+ on the one that was due last Monday, and it was, of course, a 4. I shouldn't be concerned with these minor points yet, seeing as how large papers are going to be worth fifty and one hundred points. And, I'll admit that the B+ paper wasn't the greatest thing I could churn out, but it wasn't terrible, which...I guess is what a B+ is.
On to a more entertaining note: Sociology. Unlike evil Econ, Sociology has NO MIDTERM. Hahaha, I love Sociology. And, interestingly enough, here's a passage from our reading that I thought was really well-written. It's a little long, but I think you'll enjoy it:
I remember one incident of watching a White woman down the hall in my dormitory try to pick out which sweater to wear. The sweaters were piled up on her bed in all the colors of the rainbow, sweater after sweater. She asked my advice in a way that let me know that choosing a sweater was one of the most important decisions she had to make on a daily basis. Standing knee-deep in her sweaters, I realized how different our lives were. She did not have to worry about maintaining a solid academic average so that she could receive financial aid. Because she was in the majority, she was not treated as a representative of her race. She did not have to consider how her classroom comments or basic existence on campus contributed to the treatment her group would receive. Her allowance protected her from having to work, so she was free to spend her time studying, partying, or in her case, worrying about which sweater to wear."
-Patricia Hill Collins's Toward a New Vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection
There's some other interesting information from Sociology that I think ties in perfectly to what Collins is saying. We were given statistics about national household incomes versus UM family income. Here's an example: 31.0% of UM families (meaning parents whose children attend the University of Michigan) make less than $75,000 a year. This is compared to 77.4% of the U.S. Household Income. On the "higher" end, 18.6% of UM families make $200,000 or more; 4.8% of US families make that same amount. I always had a feeling that UM, being an elite public university, was wealthy, but I never knew to what extent until I saw the numbers!
Just something to ponder in your spare time. Now I'm off to review basic grammar rules for a grammar quiz in English tomorrow.
zaijian
TO DO List 9/29-10/3 [bold indicates top priority]
-Read Economics homework assignments
-See Profesora Castro-Gerpe regarding in-class translation I got a B on
-STUDY STUDY STUDY for Economics midterm (10/13)
-Do Economics homework problems
-Attend Residence Hall Association Retreat on Saturday (2-8:00 p.m.)
-Do Laundry
-Write Sociology Perspective Taking paper (10/6)
-Study for Spanish quiz (10/1)
-Do English reading
-Call Department of Asian Lanuages
-Type Economics notes, both lecture and reading, in Word
-Submit Rebate for Laptop
-Get batteries for calculator
-Update livejournal with longer, more interesting entry
-Print off old Econ mid-terms online and review
-Go to Economics office hours Thursday and ask questions on last week's homework problems
-Read over Nick's WMU college stuff
-Update FAFSA information
-Council for the Advancement of Minorities at Mosher Jordan (CAMM) E-board meeting (9/30)
Not bad, considering I'm in the process of updating eastmeetswest with a little more lively of an entry and the FAFSA has no approaching deadline to updating it. So about this Econ business: I know it sounds like it's far away, with the midterm being next Wednesday and all, but I'd much rather be over-prepared for my first real college midterm. Out of the three old midterms available online, I printed off two of them and already slugged through them. I went to Office Hours today to see my GSI, and I'll probably continue to study, study, study so I will have questions during office hours on Thursday. My initial impression about the exams is that they're challenging, which is the nature of the beast. But, at the same time, I am not 100% comfortable with the material, so I feel that if I know how the various forms of government intervention affect markets, I'll be in a much happier boat. There are no essays, which I'm sure will end up hurting me in the end. Grades still are important to me because I need a solid GPA to apply to good graduate schools and because I have merit scholarhips to keep. The other aspect about Econ which makes it so challenging is that it is a pre-requisite for the Business School, meaning then there is lots of competition to do well. And, because the class is bell-curved, I could do very well on the midterm, but still end up with a B. At this point, note, that I'll be happy with a B.
Enough about depressing Econ and on to slightly more exciting events as of late. I found out last night that Chinese 101 is NOT offered next semester, and neither is Biology of Human Nutrition. To make matters worse, I can't major or minor in Econ unless I take Math 115: Calculus I. I was so set on never taking math again that, even knowing how ridiculous it sounds, I'm not sure if I could bring myself to take it next semester. Thus, I'm in a rut: two of the four classes I wanted to take next semester are not being offered; availability was something I definitely should have checked in July. If I want to major in Political Science or Sociology, I need to take Statistics 350: Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis. And, I can't minor in Chinese unless I have reached fourth semester fluency! It's kinda hard to reach any level since 101 is not offered next semester. I'm going to LSA Advising on Thursday to figure what the heck is going on with my schedule. I wish that my advisor, as knowledgable as he may be, would have stressed us to check availability and concentration requirements before registering for classes during Orientation! Groan.
Unfortunately, I'm not having as good luck as naancy in the English realm. I got a 4/5 on our last short paper, which upsets me a little. Professor Herold has a strange grading scale for short papers...she only grades them out of five, so it's impossible to get a A- or B+ for that matter. She simply rounds. Still, for some reason, she tells us what we got on a letter scale, even if it doesn't quite match the numeric scale. It worked to my benefit last short paper. I got an A-, but that's technically a five. I got a B+ on the one that was due last Monday, and it was, of course, a 4. I shouldn't be concerned with these minor points yet, seeing as how large papers are going to be worth fifty and one hundred points. And, I'll admit that the B+ paper wasn't the greatest thing I could churn out, but it wasn't terrible, which...I guess is what a B+ is.
On to a more entertaining note: Sociology. Unlike evil Econ, Sociology has NO MIDTERM. Hahaha, I love Sociology. And, interestingly enough, here's a passage from our reading that I thought was really well-written. It's a little long, but I think you'll enjoy it:
I remember one incident of watching a White woman down the hall in my dormitory try to pick out which sweater to wear. The sweaters were piled up on her bed in all the colors of the rainbow, sweater after sweater. She asked my advice in a way that let me know that choosing a sweater was one of the most important decisions she had to make on a daily basis. Standing knee-deep in her sweaters, I realized how different our lives were. She did not have to worry about maintaining a solid academic average so that she could receive financial aid. Because she was in the majority, she was not treated as a representative of her race. She did not have to consider how her classroom comments or basic existence on campus contributed to the treatment her group would receive. Her allowance protected her from having to work, so she was free to spend her time studying, partying, or in her case, worrying about which sweater to wear."
-Patricia Hill Collins's Toward a New Vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection
There's some other interesting information from Sociology that I think ties in perfectly to what Collins is saying. We were given statistics about national household incomes versus UM family income. Here's an example: 31.0% of UM families (meaning parents whose children attend the University of Michigan) make less than $75,000 a year. This is compared to 77.4% of the U.S. Household Income. On the "higher" end, 18.6% of UM families make $200,000 or more; 4.8% of US families make that same amount. I always had a feeling that UM, being an elite public university, was wealthy, but I never knew to what extent until I saw the numbers!
Just something to ponder in your spare time. Now I'm off to review basic grammar rules for a grammar quiz in English tomorrow.
zaijian