I, Curtis

Blue Ridge CC	CSC 251	Advanced Java Programming	Not thrilled about Java, but would help meet my Computer Programming degree requirements.
Cape Fear CC	MAT 263	Calculus II	Calculus scares me. This will be an interesting diversion from Sociology.
Central Piedmont CC	BIO 168	Anatomy and Physiology	I always thought it would be an interesting course, but never had a reason to take it.
	GEL 120	Physical Geology	Another of those courses that I’ve wondered about, but never really had a reason to take.
Fayetteville Tech CC	ART 171	Computer Art I	I’ve wanted to take this course for a while, but wasn’t sure about it, now its available online.
Forsyth Tech CC	CSC 234	Advanced C++ Programming	This course has been quite elusive. Would meet programming requirement as well as be fun and interesting for me.
Gaston College	ART 114	Art History 1	Counts toward art requirements, and is an area I am interested in, especially since I had to withdraw when I originally enrolled.
Johnston CC	CSC 136	Fortran Programming	I wouldn’t actually take this course, but its interesting to note that it is available as an online course.
Lenoir CC	ART 260	Photography Appreciation	This is not a course I originally was looking for, but it pops out as something that may be potentially useful for learning better composition.
Mitchell CC	CHM 131	Intro to Chemistry	I always thought that Chemistry might be fun. I have never had a chemistry course taught by competent faculty.
Pitt CC	ART 171	Computer Art 1	Another section of ART 171, in case FTCC doesn’t work out.
Surry CC	CSC 234	Advanced C++ Programming	An additional section of CSC 234, in case Forsyth does not allow enrollment.
Wake Technical CC	CSC 234	Advanced C++ Programming	Yet another section of CSC 234. I suspect this course might not be that hard to find.

 

There is one course I could find available online at all of the colleges, ART 111 – Art Appreciation. It seems to be the only constant, which I find to be a little funny since it is the first online course that I ever enrolled in. Another thing I found was that a lot of the community colleges are lacking any sense of a physics department, but yet most will have biology and/or chemistry.  There are some schools that no longer have the CSC program, but instead have CTS, which has minimal programming courses. Many of the colleges have “distance education” links displayed prominently on their web pages, but only a few seem to have any significant distance education effort. There are a good number of colleges that by the time I was beginning my course search for spring had not yet made an attempt to publish an online schedule.

 

A few hours ago I sent an “Advisement Verification Form”, an official declaration of my intentions for the registration period that is opening on November 1. This will be my last time filling out one of these forms. The schedule I transmitted is as it appears in the table above, with the exception of a few “safety” electives to fill space in the event of a problem.  As some of you will probably notice, the schedule presented is 4 courses, or 12 credit hours and I prefer to plan for 15 credit hours in most semesters. I will NOT be taking any serious course to fill the last spot, but will use it for something fun or interesting.

At present I am considering Art History 1, one of my “courses of regret”, to fill the spot. Other alternatives would be something like Figure Drawing if I could find it offered somewhere. Alternatively my thoughts have gone to more technical courses such as Database Programming or Advanced C++ (if I could find somewhere that offered it). A final thought goes toward something more rigorous, but yet in a different mental space, such as Physics II. I previously had an option for taking the course, though UNC-Chapel Hill’s Friday Center for Distance Education, but that course is now closed and I can not enroll in it. So yet another course is left up to the whim of the institutions. I have 58 community colleges in this state, so at least one of these courses that I wish to take should be available somewhere (with the exception of the drawing course, which obviously must be in person).

Below is a list of all of the courses that I have considered taking or wanted to register for in the past that have never been completed.

  

 

Focusing on graduate school information and trying to prepare for the GRE (Graduate Records Examination) enhances the anxiety that I already have about my undergraduate career coming to an end. It is like I am in the moments right before a major life change. My undergraduate career has been a very interesting ride. I have been through several majors and attempted numerous programs. I guess I have determined my academic track by trial and error. Baring some major disaster I am on track to graduate in May and I feel scared. All I have known is the way of the undergraduate world. Now I find myself preparing for something completely different.

I remember this feeling. I had this feeling in the months before graduating from Highland. I guess you could say that I don’t mind life changes, but I don’t really like when there are these huge formal separations between the parts. I managed to keep myself away from the emotions when I graduated from high school. I quickly found ways to “transition” to my new academic life. I took dual-enrollment courses and I also took courses during the summer. I did everything except stop and look at what was going on around me. In a lot of ways there was a support mechanism in place to transition me from high school to college. This is a bit different. I am going from college to graduate school. There is no guiding hand (or guidance counselor), there is no net. I am doing this by myself. The funny thing here is that the times I have been offered the advice of an advisor I have refused it, usually while quoting requirements from a catalog. Well, in this case, I have read the catalogs and I have looked into everything I think I need to know, but it doesn’t make me feel any better. It all just feels so isolated and lonely.

The worst thing for me is that my undergraduate career represented a time of exploration for me. I discovered some things I like and some things I’m good at. Also discovered a few things I’m not so good at, but those are still good things. I don’t want to have to declare a major and make a 100% commitment to it. I know what I want to do, but that doesn’t mean that being locked into it doesn’t make me feel unnecessarily confined. There is something freeing to know that at any moment in your undergraduate career you could take leave of your sensibilities and actually change your major to Studio Art and it would work out. Admissions to undergraduate programs is just kind of flexible like that. I will have no problem focusing on my program and completing it, but just feels like there is something missing.

• Physics II – a continuation of basic college physics. Covering more on the topics of electricity, magnetism, light and optics. From this course I specifically would have loved to have gotten into the optics section. Unfortunately, I never took this course. It appeals to a variety of my interests, from the electricity topic covering how energy moves and how it is converted to its various forms. I would have found that fascinated; to my interests in astronomy and photography that would have been aided by learning more about optics. I never needed the course for a major or anything and thus, it never really happened for me.
• Art History I – In this series of courses, I only took the 2nd part. Well, that’s not completely true. I registered for the course and worked at it for a while, but then ended up dropping it because it seemed like a lot of work at the time when I already had enough of a load. I would have liked to have covered the art of pre-history and concentrated on the basis of art, how we have come to know art as we do today.
• 2D Design – Two-dimensional composition is something I feel like I got a healthy dose of in Drawing I, but I do not think I know enough to be competent in most mediums. The opportunity for this course just never really presented itself.
• Figure Drawing – This course I wanted to take, but it was never offered. I feel like I have missed out on this. I have an appreciation for the human form and would have liked to have gotten to know how to properly render it. Mr. Biggers wanted to show us some in Drawing II, but unfortunately he became ill and did not get to teach that particular course.

Just a few of my undergraduate regrets. Surprisingly I thought this list would be longer. Thinking about it, all except for Figure Drawing I could probably pull off between free hours in the spring semester and the summer session for which I currently have nothing planned. Should I go for it?