Classes and stuff

This weekend I will endure the agony that is the weekend intensive class at Lesley University. Last year I had to something like this at the start of the program but that was different. It was more a workshop than a class and it was pass/fail and only had one short paper which was a self-reflection paper. And it was one 4 day stretch of 9-5 each day. This time around I am taking an irritating detail oriented academic class that I need a B- or higher in, and the class is being taught on two weekends. Each weekend is friday from 5-10, saturday and Sunday 9-6. Ow my ass. They had better give us a lot of breaks because I have yet to encounter the person that can handle more than 1.5 hours of non-stop research design lectures. I was lucky to get someone to take the afternoon part of my work shift today so that I can go home and sleep before class. Otherwise there's no way I'd stay awake.

The fact that I even have to do something like this really bothers me. The Lesley program, while a wonderful education, is poorly designed. The department arranges the schedule with placating the finaid people in mind. First year you take 12 credits per semester which is full time by gov't standards. This is fine. 4 classes is enough. But then you are supposed to take the summers off and then take 3 classes per semester in the second and third years WHILE INTERNING. This is done because 3 classes is the minimum number that you can take and still get full financial aid. That's fine for a lot of people, but for those of us who are SANE and don't want to be overloaded with academics while doing our first internship (which is the more intensive of the two) it doesn't really fly. So in order to cut back to 2 classes plus internship, I have to take summer classes. Well this is where the stupidity comes in. Even though Lesley claims to cater to non-traditional/part-time students who take one or two classes at a time year round, and even though many if not most of the people in the department DO take summer classes at least once, the summer offerings suck. They offer all the first year classes, which all of us have already taken. They offer one or two very specific electives which are only useful if they happen to touch on your major area of interest in a given year. Then they offer one or two of the second year classes. All but one of the non-first-year classes being offered are in weekend format. Many of them on the same weekends. I was lucky to find 2 classes I could take, and the fact that these two weekends are being eaten up is killing my summer. Before I registered for these classes I was already booked through most of June. I don't think I have a single free weekend day in the entire month of July because the one weekend that would be free is taken up by this goddamn class. It will be August before I make it to a one of Greyhame's barbecues.I seriously considered dropping it, but it will be hard enough for me to get out on time with how infrequently some of the required classes are given. I'm still not sure how I will fit in Bio Bases without sacrificing the electives I want. And based on what I saw in the course listings this year, I may not be able to FIND any summer classes next year. That means doing the 3 + internship thing if I want to graduate on time, either that or taking MORE weekend classes in the January intersession. Sigh.

Classes and stuff

This weekend I will endure the agony that is the weekend intensive class at Lesley University. Last year I had to something like this at the start of the program but that was different. It was more a workshop than a class and it was pass/fail and only had one short paper which was a self-reflection paper. And it was one 4 day stretch of 9-5 each day. This time around I am taking an irritating detail oriented academic class that I need a B- or higher in, and the class is being taught on two weekends. Each weekend is friday from 5-10, saturday and Sunday 9-6. Ow my ass. They had better give us a lot of breaks because I have yet to encounter the person that can handle more than 1.5 hours of non-stop research design lectures. I was lucky to get someone to take the afternoon part of my work shift today so that I can go home and sleep before class. Otherwise there's no way I'd stay awake.

The fact that I even have to do something like this really bothers me. The Lesley program, while a wonderful education, is poorly designed. The department arranges the schedule with placating the finaid people in mind. First year you take 12 credits per semester which is full time by gov't standards. This is fine. 4 classes is enough. But then you are supposed to take the summers off and then take 3 classes per semester in the second and third years WHILE INTERNING. This is done because 3 classes is the minimum number that you can take and still get full financial aid. That's fine for a lot of people, but for those of us who are SANE and don't want to be overloaded with academics while doing our first internship (which is the more intensive of the two) it doesn't really fly. So in order to cut back to 2 classes plus internship, I have to take summer classes. Well this is where the stupidity comes in. Even though Lesley claims to cater to non-traditional/part-time students who take one or two classes at a time year round, and even though many if not most of the people in the department DO take summer classes at least once, the summer offerings suck. They offer all the first year classes, which all of us have already taken. They offer one or two very specific electives which are only useful if they happen to touch on your major area of interest in a given year. Then they offer one or two of the second year classes. All but one of the non-first-year classes being offered are in weekend format. Many of them on the same weekends. I was lucky to find 2 classes I could take, and the fact that these two weekends are being eaten up is killing my summer. Before I registered for these classes I was already booked through most of June. I don't think I have a single free weekend day in the entire month of July because the one weekend that would be free is taken up by this goddamn class. It will be August before I make it to a one of Greyhame's barbecues.I seriously considered dropping it, but it will be hard enough for me to get out on time with how infrequently some of the required classes are given. I'm still not sure how I will fit in Bio Bases without sacrificing the electives I want. And based on what I saw in the course listings this year, I may not be able to FIND any summer classes next year. That means doing the 3 + internship thing if I want to graduate on time, either that or taking MORE weekend classes in the January intersession. Sigh.