As we’re preparing to register for classes I want to provoke your mind with a few last-minute thoughts about scheduling.
Yes, there are those classes that as students we have to take and we know just aren’t going to be easy: global business, gross anatomy, business policy, integrated marketing campaigns, thesis and anything ending in 400.
They’re difficult, but they test your knowledge, or at least your capacity for studying.
At this point in my senior year I have lots of options.
There are three classes I have left to take. Woo hoo!
However, if I want to remain a full-time student and keep that snazzy financial aid, I’ve got to pick up some courses.
My initial thought is to take classes that are less academically rigorous.
I’ve thought about how wonderful it would be to only have yoga and beginner ballet all day every day.
But we only get to go to college once, if we’re lucky, and that makes me realize that some part of me wants to get the bang for my buck.
I want to take classes that are really useful for what I want to do in the future. I want to make sure that before I leave Gannon I’ve gotten the best courses under my belt from the best professors, obtaining the best skills. If that challenges my GPA, then challenge accepted.
The difficult part is finding the right classes.
I don’t want to just take difficult classes as some sort of badge of honor. I want classes that will give me marketable skills on my resume.
There’s nothing wrong with taking a class that’s not academically challenging, especially if you’ve got that option for electives.
Taking a class that’s outside of your matrix could give you the perspective that you need.
Your academic advisers are there to be used. Ask them questions about what they suggest for you.
They may not know your whole life story, but they have the experience of being at Gannon for longer than you have.
I admit, I use ratemyprofessors.com every time I have to schedule classes.
I think it’s a good reference to use, but it’s a reference, not a tool.
There’s no reason to take a professor’s class just because they have a chili pepper next to his or her name, but it’s not a bad thing to know.
I care less that the teacher gives a lot of homework and care more about what he has to teach and how he teaches it.
I’d love to graduate summa cum laude. But I would rather be adequately prepared for the workforce come May 2015.
I also ask around to all of my friends what the class is like before I take it. I trust their opinions on what classes are intriguing and who presents that material the best.
There’s only so much information you get from the illusive undergraduate course books.
At a point in your college career, you eventually realize that your undergraduate degree here is the last stop on the learning marathon that you’ve been running since kindergarten.
Graduation is the finish line and I don’t know about you, but I want to feel that when I cross that stage on commencement day that I have given it my all and put my hardest work into that piece of paper.
BRIANNA WOODS
