Category: Academic

There are now 100 days remaining of my undergraduate career. About 92 of those days are active academic days, the remainder are the “rest period” between final exams and commencement. The rest period allows for final grading as well as allowing the registrar to finish “checking out” the degrees so that the diplomas may be issued.

I would love to say that I am not nervous and that this is just another semester on the records, as that would make it easy for me to mentally dismiss, but unfortunately this is not just an ordinary semester. I am nervous about everything this semester. I have to do everything right to keep my GPA high, there are no do-overs available to me, I can’t withdraw from a class because there is not another chance to take them (not that I have ever been big on withdrawal).  The thing that is especially difficult for me is the fact that after the ceremony, my ties with the institution, its staff, its process, its unique personality is severed and I will have to face that this aspect of my life has concluded. On the positive side, after commencement when I enroll in a graduate school program, the GPA slate is wiped clean and I get to start fresh on a new academic career. Graduate school will be more challenging and I have to be more certain of things. There isn’t exactly a grad school option to decide at the last minute “oh, I want to add a minor/concentration to that”. I have to know what I want to do going into it.  I don’t love the idea of moving on because I feel like while I’m at a school I have the opportunity to make a long-lasting impression on the school, even if its just a small thing.

On the bright side of things, in 100 days I move on to a new level of academic existence. There will no longer be freshmen (not that there have been many for the last 2 years) in my classes, and everyone will be closer to my level of seriousness about academics. Still, even that brings up new concerns, such as students being TOO serious about academics and not being able to think about anything else.

I think overall I am excited about graduation and I am looking forward to new opportunities. I believe that I have achieved as much as I can as an undergraduate and am looking forward to new challenges and ways to actually begin participating in academic life.

http://www.cmkularski.net/acad/count.html

Would you yourself be willing to be a participating subject in a research project that investigated your sexual attitudes and your sexual behaviors? Why, or why not? Be thorough in your explanation.

This week’s discussion. My post has been constructed and posted. What would your response be?

I need help with an assignment.

I have an assignment in Sociology of Deviant Behavior that I have been avoiding because I don’t know how to get started. This is one of those times when my lack of desire to break out of society’s norms is biting me in the ass. The assignment is the following:

Think of a time when you violated a norm.  Explain what kinds of social control were used to bring you back into conformity  Remember to incorporate textbook concepts with cites and references.  Give specific examples related to the concepts.

My problem is that I rarely do anything that is truly deviant, at least not to a point where there was any type of social control used to bring me back into conformity afterward. My only example that I can pull into consciousness at the moment is my speeding ticket from several years ago, but that feels like it barely qualifies. I think I qualify to use an “internalization of group norms” theory here, which would allow me to exclude the violation of a norm, but so far everyone else in the class has stated a violation, and the question specifically requests a violation. I know I violate norms all the time, its just my way, I am deviant in various aspects, but I can not recall many times of being “brought back into compliance”. 

How have I violated social norms and what methods of social control has been used to bring me back into conformity?

Boredom set in. I organized my classes by discipline.

I managed to make it through registration and grade reporting with minimal distress this semester, so I am quite thrilled about that. I had a few issues with the department of sociology, but apparently showing them a “Principles of Sociology” credit is as good as a membership card. I was authorized to register for the courses I needed before my final grade was received by the registrar. Also, because of paperwork problems my SOCI 210 credit was a bit in limbo, since I received authorization for the course in summer, but I never updated the paperwork for fall. Oops, one little error. That all got worked out and I was able to enroll for courses I need for my sociology minor.  I was also able to register for my “outside” elective that I wanted. I selected Art History 1 at Gaston, to count toward my Associate in Fine Arts degree.

While my primary registration went over with very few problems, finishing filling out my final undergraduate semester is a little more of a challenge. At this point I am safe. I have the right number of credit hours and everything is on track for graduation. Unfortunately, this does not mean that I have resolved all of those courses that I wanted to take but never have had the chance.

The biggest problem I have at the moment is the graduate/undergraduate course debate. If I receive permission to take a graduate level course, my registration limits will be locked out to 15 credit hours (12 undergrad + 3 grad). If I am not approved to take the course, or if I opt to not take it I will be allowed to carry max load, which is 21 credit hours (7 courses). My minor has 12 remaining hours in it, so that would eat up my hours with the graduate course. The problem is that I have another 3 hour course that I would like to redo to resolve a grade that I am not happy with, and there are some other courses I am interested in as well. 

These additional courses also pose problems of their own. One of the courses I am interested in is “Sociology of Deviant Behavior”. It looks like a really fun class from its description. Unfortunately, at the moment the course is full, and the instructor refuses me a permit. I am pretty confident that if I asked for a permit from the department it would be granted, but I do not like going above instructors like that, so I am stuck with the option of watching the schedule and diving on any open seat that I see. Maybe I might get one during the drop/add period. I don’t hold out much hope for things like that.

I don’t REALLY want to take the graduate level course, not in the sense of its content. I do believe that the course will be interesting, but its not as stimulating as some other courses might be (the course is “Advanced Sociological Theory”). I feel that the course is important as it will show graduate schools that I am capable of graduate-level course work, and it will also serve as a mechanism to allow me to enter the graduate world by transcending my undergraduate career. During high school there were Huskins and Dual Enrolment courses to help me cope with the transition. Taking a graduate course in my last semester as an undergrad is the closest comparable construct of that to my current situation. The graduate course also serves as a final sanity check for a few things. “can I handle graduate level work?” and “do I really want to continue my education now?” are the two that come to mind. I want to take the course because it is the logical thing to do.

For the other courses, they serve no useful purpose, except to allow me to explore a few of my academic perversions. “Sociology of Deviant Behavior” and “Industrial/Organizational Psychology” are the ones that I would like to take. I think I would thoroughly enjoy “Deviant Behavior”. “I/O Psyc” I would enjoy, but to a lesser degree. Both would expand my knowledge of two subjects of interest. Unfortunately at the moment both courses are full and my options for getting a seat are limited. Both will be a “wait and see” kind of course regarding registration.

My Fall 2010 semester papers are now released. These represent my major writings for the semester, both in exams as well as for papers. The are posted to the main index at http://papers.cmkularski.net/

Lecture Exam 1
Introduction to Sociology
SOC 210
20100825-1956.pdf

Lecture Exam 2
Introduction to Sociology
SOC 210
20100902-2076.pdf

Lecture Exam 3
Introduction to Sociology
SOC 210
20100920-2109.pdf

Midterm
Multi-cultural Psychology
PSYC 343
20101012-1949.pdf

Polish-American Experience
Multi-cultural Psychology
PSYC 343
20101107-1950.pdf

Animal Subjects in Experimentation
Animal Behavior
PSYC 443
20100920-2110.pdf