Finals Recap

Gratefully, the end of the semester has come and gone. I must admit, this semester's finals were the most challenging I've faced during my various years at school. They proved to be exceedingly trying for a variety of reasons; some internal to the course, some external to school.

Starting with internal factors, the courses were quite demanding in and of themselves and I had four (as compared to three last semester). In the last three weeks of the semester I two group projects, two presentations, two individual semester projects, and two take home finals due. All told, I submitted (or at least contributed to) about 110 pages of writing. A couple of the assignments were projects that I had been working on throughout the semester, but I had to finish them and turn them in. There were a couple of late nights and early mornings but my good friend caffeine helped me survive. The most impressive feat was Thursday night and Friday morning in which I cranked out the take home final and finished up a project for my last class. Both were due by noon on Friday and I submitted my final at 9:30 and the project at 1:30. I had emailed the professor letting him know that it would be a little late and fortunately he did not penalize me.

People say graduate school is difficult with good reason. My impression is that professors are disinclined to fail students, but they are also disinclined to give high marks. The workload is heavy and professors expect students to put forward good effort. That is, you really have to earn grades. I am not complaining, however. Everyone is confronted with the same situation and that's just the way it is.

With respect to external factors, working at the bike shop added more stress to the situation. I maintained my normal work schedule (about 20 hours a week) during finals time, which ate up a lot of potential study time. In addition, there were several student functions going on that I felt compelled to attend. I am a member of the La Follette School Student Association and we had fundraising and social events during finals week. I definitely could have skipped, but I wanted to support the group.

In the end, I am quite pleased with my performance in each of the courses - certainly better than last semester. I received the highest grade level in two classes, and next to the highest in two others. Not only did my grades turn out well, but I feel that I learned a great deal during the semester. My classes were diverse and I feel comfortable with the material in each respective topic.

Almost There

Tick, tock. Time is steadily marching down to the end of my first year of grad school. I must say that I am wholeheartedly looking forward to the end. Finals are feasting on my soul and it makes me feel dead inside. I have a Social Policy final paper due Monday as well as the final exam for my Public Management class. On Tuesday I have to turn in my final project for Statistics. Lastly, I have a final exam and a final project due on Friday for my Community Economic Analysis class. I am decent shape as far as the work load goes, but there isn't a whole lot of room for error.

On the plus side, as soon as I wrap up on Friday, I am heading off to the Twin Cities for Leah's graduation. It is hard to believe that she will be done at Mac. I am especially looking forward to the weekend because all my siblings will be back together. Claire is coming to get me from Chicago and we'll make it up late on Friday night. Aaron's flying in from Philly and Asa will have just finished up his first year at the University of Iowa. My parents will be bringing up a couple batches of home brew and everyone should be in good spirits so it will be a raucous time.