I think things are starting to wind down a bit, although today was another full packed day. I somehow managed to get up at 7:30, showered (imagine that... it hasn't even been a week since my last one), and went to grab some breakfast before taking the Russian placement test. Over all, I didn't do well, but unlike the calc test, I felt like I was able to say what I knew how to say, and do the things that I knew how to do. I just got an email earlier saying that I basically failed it (i.e. I have to start from scratch) but I'm not too concerned. I'm going to take the Japanese competency exam to get rid of the foreign language requirement, and perhaps audit some Russian classes if my schedule permits.
After lunch, I bumped into Lindsay, one of my Chicago Life leaders and fellow Stony Islander so we walked to Ida Noyles for our second Chicago Life meeting. I'm not sure what Ida Noyles used to be, but it's one of the really old buildings on campus, with an amazing interior. The walls have dark wood panelling, and the railings on the stairs have all sorts of cool carvings on them. I kept thinking how it'd make a great location for a movie set in the late 19th or early 20th centuries...
After that, the masters of each core division did a short talk in the theater in the Reynolds Club (basically the student union). Some talked about the historical process of how the core requirement came to be, or what the main principles and goals were, then talked a bit about some of the courses. Basically, the U of C core (which apparently was the fore front of liberal arts education as we know it today) consists of 7 major groups: Humanities, Social Sciences, Civilization, Arts/Drama/Theatre, Math, Physical Sciences, and Biological Sciences. The first four are pretty much common for all concentrations (U of C lingo for "majors"), but the last 3 differ slightly depending on whether you're concentration is in the math/sciences or not. So if you're a PoliSci major, you can take stuff like Astronomy to fulfill the Physical Sciences, but us CompSci concentrators can't (well, we can, but then we'd still have to take calc). On the other hand, us CompSci people can take stuff like "Bioterrorism" for Biology (after taking 1 class of real bio). In my case, only one class transferred as Civilization, so I still have 14 units to go.
One of the main concerns so far has been how the heck I'm supposed to graduate in 2 years when I still have practically all my core, and half my concentration left to do. You see, most people spend more than 2 years on their Core, so I have to do it all plus more in less time. It turns out that if all my CompSci courses from Chico transfer, I can do it in 6 quarters (2 years) provided that I take 4 classes every quarter (3 is considered a full load). I actually wrote a grid and practically planned out all my classes for the next 6 quarters. I'm sure things won't go according to plan, and I still need to talk to my advisor about it, but it looks like it might almost be doable. The only bad thing about the plan I put together is that I manage to finish my Core on my 5th quarter, and end up taking 4 CompSci classes during my last quarter here...bleh.
Posted Thu, March 18, 2004 08:50 by Alex
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