New Classes

   The spring semester started yesterday and as Dr. Ciepluch mentioned, "There are only 69 days of classes left."  I've had a chance to go to all of my classes at least once, so here's my first impression review of them.

• Calc II - The professor seems very helpful as do the 6 SIs.  My class is taught at 8:30am and there is another section of it running at 9:30am.  We were told if we overslept for our class we are encouraged to make the one right after ours.  I'm hoping this is an option that a lot of students will take so the huge class size will become smaller (currently I would guess there about 60 students).
• SAGES "Democracy?" - The workload for this class is my one major worry for this semester.  The professor seems like she will be great at leading discussions and has chosen some great books for an interesting topic.  However, after having one 50-page nightly reading and the multiple "short" (5-7 pages) essays I feel like it will be difficult to do all the work for this class.
• Life After Graduation "Economics" - I look forward to having this class once a week.  The topics covered in the class are what you can do with an economics major after graduating, but more importantly it also goes over writing resumes and how to prepare for interviews.  We were also told that we would go over how to act when meeting employers and how to act in social job fair environments.  I can't wait to do more in this class.
• Symphonic Winds - Playing music is always fun.  The amount of concerts and everything else that I have to help out with (for my job in the music department) this semester has me worried though.  Some of my exam dates are around concerts so it will be difficult to spend whole days preparing for concerts and finding sufficient time to prepare for tests.
• Macroeconomics II - This class is going to fly.  The professor seems like she will be good at covering the material, but there is a lot of material to cover.  Fortunately, most of the material this semester is going to be a review from AP Macroeconomics (thank you Mr. Noyes!).
• Statistics - Another class I think I will really enjoy.  The professor goes over the chapters in great detail so I don't think there will be much out of class work (and any work we do have seems like it will be fun).  My only complaint about this class is the $200 book and software cost.  Especially since the software expires after 13 months.  Seriously, how greedy can this company get?
• Accounting - Oh boy, I thought this would be boring basic mathematics but I think I am pleasantly wrong.  The professor is very energetic and knows his material well (he uses Powerpoints but his lecturing alone makes the concepts he's teaching very clear).  He also made it seem that the class will be about analyzing financial reports and deciding which companies would be smart to invest in.  I can't wait.

    I am also currently signed up for Photography I but I'm pretty sure I'm going to drop.  My rationale behind this decision is that the class will do nothing for me except cause stress.  I already know how to take photos (I'm not saying I'm great...but I won't learn anything from this class) and work in a darkroom.  The assignments will only become an annoyance come concert and exam season, and they will only add to my workload.  I rather just keep taking photos on my own, use the spare time I will have from dropping the class to do other school work, and find a club to join instead.  Besides the crazy amounts of work so far, I am enjoying this semester.