I have decided, and have also registered, for the three classes I like to take in the coming semester. Now I have to wait til the classes start to go talk to my academic advisor, and make sure that he is OK with my schedule. Even if he is not, I am prepared to convince him, and at the end if he told me again that it was my decision, I am ready to accept the responsibility, lol, have him sign my form, and be done with it.
One of the classes I am taking is an independent study, sort of the continuation of the course I took last term that I wrote two papers for it. I asked the Prof I had for that class, and he has agreed, to supervise me, but he did warn me that this topic is not his background. Let's see, how can I put it; his background is more theoretical if you will, and the course he taught last semester was more applied. I am hoping that my independent study would be the combination of two.
I suppose I might have been able to locate another professor that his/her research interest/background might have been more in line with my independent study, but I really liked my Prof.
He is very accessible. I have always heard back from him within 24 hours, when I emailed him last semester, while my other two professors often did not reply, and even when they did, they were not clear, and thus a few emails back and forth, in the span of few days, for me to finally get my answer! Such a waste of time!
This professor never got annoyed if students ask a maybe stupid question! He really went out of his way to answer and clearly explain what he meant. And if he didn't want to waste the class time, he would very kindly ask the student to stay after the class if he/she wanted to get more in depth explanation of the material, basically implying that the student wanted to dig dipper into the subject, and not that this student had not understood.
I have seen how the other professors get annoyed at baseless questions! They try very hard not to show their annoyance, and I am so glad, well maybe more hopeful, that most of the 20-something students in class, might miss the annoyance, but the 30-something in me, well a closer to 40s, can read them loud and clear that they are annoyed! Good thing, since as we age and can read people a lot more clear, we develop this thick skin, and become more comfortable in our skin; we don't get intimated much by others reaction. I truly hope that the 20-something students either don't get intimated when professors act that way, or miss the whole thing all together!
Anyhow, what was I saying, the independent study, I am really hoping to get a lot out of it. And since the professor mentioned that this is not his background and he has never supervised such an independent study, I decided to come up with a syllabus of my own.
I have defined the three major areas I like to cover. I have listed the theoretical material I like to study and investigate, and then the case studies that I like to tackle.
In the past two weeks I made it to the library a few hours a day, to find good references, came home and proceeded to read them. The texts that seemed useful I am keeping to study further, the ones that I did not get much out of, I have returned to the library the next day. Right now I am up to 11 texts. Happy studying, lol.
I am very glad and feel real good that I spend part of my break preparing this syllabus. I did not want to waste time trying to figure out what I want to study during the semester. Now I am prepared!
I guess I would have much rather I had a part-time/temporary employment during the break, to make some needed money, but at least I am not wasting my time, but using it the best possible way I can.
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