School's in for summer

[fmephisto]

Today was the second day of the summer session at school, and I have now been to all my classes once. It might first seem as though after just one class period I wouldn't have much idea about wot the next 6 weeks would hold in store for me, but when class is 2.5 hours long, you go through quite a lot in one day.

With that said, here is the initial analysis of the classes I am taking:

Statistics of Behavioral Sciences - PSYC 3010 - This is a statistics class that includes a lab. The lecture professor is a rotund Polynesian(?) man who is obsessed with sharks, and he seems pretty witty and entertaining so far which is always a plus when you are sitting through a 2.5 hour lecture about math. The lab TA is a young black woman, maybe a little older than I am. She seems very friendly and very apt to let us do the assignment and get the hell out of there early; again always a plus. This is the first statistics class I have ever taken, but historically I am really, really good at math when I try so I'm not particularly worried about it.

Personal Financial Planning - PFP 4000 - I could have sworn when I signed up for this, it was a 1000 level class. Not sure how I got confused on that, but a bit late to change now. I planned on it being a fairly fluffy class that would teach me some basics about investing, etc., as despite appearances I really don't know much. As it turns out this is a very intensive class, basically teaching me how to develop the sorts of financial plans you would probably pay an accountant to create for you. It is going to be by far the hardest course I am taking this summer, and I am actually considering dropping it. The prof is extremely energetic, and I already like him, but he has made a few points very clear that may make me baulk.

1. There are some skills of a mathematical nature from a pre-requisite class (Finance 3030 I believe) that I will be expected to know. I haven't taken that class, but I am thinking that I might be able to just teach myself wot I am lacking, per the above statement about being good at math.
2. The class will be extremely time intensive. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does make me question the wisdom of taking it during the summer session.

He spent at least half an hour telling the class that we should seriously make sure we were wanted to be there, should drop if we aren't ready to bust some ass, etc. This makes me a little nervous. We'll see how it pans out.

Philosophy of Science - PHIL 4130 - For me, this is the creamy filling on the inside of the semester. Part of the reason I took this class at all was to meet Dr. Almader, as he is a heavyweight in the philosophy department and I have already read 10 or more of his works in other classes. He is a smart and fluid lecturer, and it doesn't look like there will be class discussion so much as him just straight up talking the whole class period. He seriously went on for 2 hours non-stop today. Beyond Dr. Almader, the class looks more interesting than I initially thought. Looks to be mainly epistemology oriented, which is cool because I have yet to take a class that dealt much with that. The reading and assignments in this class also look pretty light compared to other high level philosophy classes I have taken, and I welcome the break.

One thing that I consistently enjoy about my philosophy classes is meeting students taking them. You often get a lot more chance to have discussion with people than you do in most other classes, and you get a lot of perspective on how people think. Coming to this class a bit early I walked into a discussion already under way about gender roles which was taking place between a cute graduate student I had seen earlier in the library, and a guy I knew from other classes we had taken together. The substance of this conversation inspired me to create the following poll:
Poll Ordering for a lady?
I intentionally didn't add any qualifying statements to the poll, but I would love to hear wot people think.

(x-posted to gsu)