The first day of class was yesterday and I am feeling pretty great. It’s good to have such a monkey off of my back. I know that it is a far, far way away and tons of classes and exams and you-name-it ahead, but after putting it off for so long to finally actually be sitting in class and able to say that I am a full time student is pretty cool.

I had a lot of anxiety going into the day - I can’t totally explain it. For the most part in life, I have always been confident in myself and the things I do. I guess it’s just that this is such a new experience. I can gauge the levels of importance about the anxiety based on Melissa’s reaction. Since she is getting her Masters right now, she’s done a lot so things that I might freak out about a little bit, such as my original sociology class getting cancelled, but she just says not to sweat it and that it all works out, and sure enough. So that’s great.

My first class was Algebra, and it looks like it should be pretty breezy. I just really want to get the foundation set since it’s been so long. Why rush into something I don’t get? There are ten labs in the class which are basically just classes anyway, which you get 10 points for participating in. And, it’s mandatory really, so there isn’t any point in not being there. There are 10 quizzes worth twenty points each, and if you get a 16/20 or better on all of them, you are excused from the final, and basically get an A. So that’s great.

One girl in class made for good entertainment. First, when the professor was explaining that the course was developmental/remedial and that the credit was only for full-time status and to help you get your foundation with algebra, she proclaims loudly in the quiet room that “it’s a class for retards.” The professor tells her he takes offense to her calling his students retards, and we move on. Then, during the introductions, one girl sitting next to her (and a friend apparently) says that the interesting thing in her life now is that she recently went vegetarian, to which Funny Girl sez, “Fuck That!”

Seriously.

We went from there to asking a black guy in class if anyone ever told him he looked like Tracy Morgan during his intro, and it was a nice source of amazement. (Cool dude by the way, we ended up at the same meeting at the Worker’s Center later in the day to discuss the upcoming campaign for hotel workers.)

Later in class, a student asked the professor how we should refer to him. He responded that anything other than Professor Asshole would be fine, to which the student quickly asked if Mr. Dipshit was ok.

It was all meant to be funny and all that, but I guess at this point in my life, trying to do small things to improve on my temperament and to improve my life and potential future, being a smartass in class just falls so far down the scale of place-I-want-to-be or thing-I-want-to-be-doing that it just makes me shake my head. Don’t get me wrong, I love to fuck around and goof off, and my mouth hasn’t always been the most helpful to me at times. I just didn’t get it.

Later, I checked in on the political science class online and it looks pretty fun. A lot of the stuff I know already, just from the last five or so years, so it will be nice to back it up with an actual class. As soon as I was done with that I went to my sociology class and this should be a cool one, too.

The professor is a self-proclaimed born-again Christian minister as well as a very entertaining guy.

The day we discuss pro-choice/pro-life should be an interesting one.

I’ve always been a firm believer that everything happens for a reason.

So THAT’S why being broke is a good thing….financial aid!

Introduction to Sociology

This is an introductory study of the basic concepts, theoretical principles, and methods used within the discipline of sociology. Emphasis is on group interaction, social and cultural processes, and the structure and organization of American social institutions.

American National Government

An examination of the essentials of the American constitutional system, the function of political parties, the concept of the federal system, the role of administrative agencies, the methods by which foreign affairs are conducted, and the manners in which conflicting ideals are resolved in a democratic system.

Beginning Algebra

This is a beginning algebra course intended for students who have never had algebra or had it many years ago. Topics include operations of the integers, linear equations with applications, exponents, operations with polynomials, factoring, and graphing linear equations.

Biological Resource Conservation

Explores the biological dimensions of natural-resource management issues. Included are discussions of population dynamics, human health and toxicology, wildlife biology and management, food production, pest control, and maintenance of biodiversity. Both local and global issues are addressed.

Academic Writing I

Students develop critical thinking skills as they learn to write and revise essays using appropriate rhetorical strategies and correct grammar. Context for the writing assignments, which may be centered on a theme, is provided by readings drawn from a variety of academic disciplines. Students learn to summarize, paraphrase, quote, and synthesize sources. Students are introduced to the research process, information literacy, and documentation styles.

My registration went pretty smoothly and easily. It took a little while, but I had already obtained my county and state residency, my transcripts from Los Angeles Mission, filled out my FAFSA and everything else. I had a basic idea of the classes I wanted (and thought) I should take.

My previous transcripts (all classes taken in the Winter Intersession a loonnnnngggggg time ago) said that I needed to take the English placement test, but not the math. The tests were a little bit harder than I thought they would be. Nothing you couldn’t figure out, but the questions were multiple choice, and while one of the options was ridiculous, and one was obviously not the answer, I could see how either of the remaining choices made sense depending on how you looked at it. Maybe I think too much. The first test was a reading comprehension test, and I scored in the “97th percentile” whatever that means. The second test was a writing test, and I scored a 9 out of 12. The interesting thing was that the 300-600 word essay you had to write was graded in about five second by the computer. The essay was supposed to be about how I felt regarding minors legally having to wear helmets when biking, skateboarding, that sort of thing.It judged it on a whole slew of things. I took my time, but from a programming perspective or a computer application perspective, I wonder how it worked. I thought that it would be likely that if I wrote the whole thing about how Juicy Pear is my favorite flavor of jellybelly, and threw in the word “agree” or “disagree” several times and the word “helmet” and various other keywords, it probably would have given me a 12/12.

That’s ok though, because being out of school for so long and all, I think that starting over and learning everything I need to know from scratch is the best idea.

That all being said, that’s how I ended up with ENGL 100. Since CU suggests taking college algebra, I thought it would be the best idea to take beginning algebra in spring, intermediate in summer, and then college algebra and trigonometry in fall. I decided to take the math placement test and it said the same thing. That’s all I have to say about that. And there you have MATH 095.

The woman advising me suggested taking ENVS 101 to fulfill the science and technology requirement, and said that the professor is pretty cool. His feedback on professor review sites seems pretty good too, so I am pretty excited about this one.

I also was interested in taking SOCI 101, because the larger packet from CU mentioned that the ILR looks closesly at the grades from social science courses. What better way to start?

Last but not least, the history classes were all full - I had a couple of options in the political science section, including one in public administration, but that one was in Dryden, and at this point the other classes were all either online or in Ithaca, and POSC 103 was available online, so I snatched it.

All in all, very helpful people on campus, and all I need to do now is get my stupid MMR shot.

Ahh, the transfer goal. Well, according to the packet I received from the ILR School:

Successful transfer students will usually carry a grade point average in the range of B+ or 3.3 (or above) at their previous college and have a minimum of two full semesters of college work or between 24-30 credits.

They also say:

We encourage students who are contemplating continuing their studies at Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, to take as many of the following courses as possible:

Two courses in Freshmen English (composition) - 6 credits in total

Microeconomics

Macroeconomics

College Algebra

Three liberal arts courses, one in each of the following distribution requirements:

Science and Technology

Cultural Perspectives

Western Intellectual Tradition

Ok, so there are some things to arrange and figure out. The deadline for applications to the Fall 2010 semester at Cornell is in March. With prerequisites and a limited amount of classes I can take each semester, I am looking at going to TC3 full-time in the spring, summer and fall semesters of 2009. The goal of course is to maintain as close to a 4.0 GPA as possible, and to end up on the higher end of the 24-30. If everything goes according to plan…