Okay, maybe for a time I did. Or rather I didn't forget about it but I didn't have time for it and the time I did have for it I used for other things.
So to update you, I finished my first full semester of grad school (again). Two 8-week classes. There was a week between each of the classes but I spent it working long hours assisting with a conference on campus. So - not really a break. I have a couple weeks off before I start my summer class, another 8 weeks. But at least this will be my last summer class and it will be done in mid-July so I'll have a decent sized break after it.
I'll be honest. It feels a lot harder this time around than it did last time around. I wouldn't think that two years would make that much of a difference in terms of me being older and that being the reason it was such a hard time.
It could be because of the classes in particular. The first class, which was an interesting subject - an overview of IMC. I did well in discussions and, in fact, was usually one of the first people to post for the week in my group - something I have improved upon GREATLY from my last program. But we were thrown into a major group project right away. I had a hard time finding my place in the group and speaking my mind. My group mates were great - don't get me wrong! But I have a hard time making friends as it is - I have always been that way and I expect I always will be. So it was a little more difficult for me to get in "group work" mode so early in the program, hardly getting a chance to learn more about my teammates.
The second class - well - it was the strangest graduate class in my LIFE. First, I wound up picking the section that NONE of my class mates had chosen. How I managed to do that I'll never know. Second, the class was one of several MBA courses that are required in the program. So not only was I not with the people I had just spent the last 8 weeks with, but I was with a bunch of MBA students. There were maybe 1 or 2 others who were IMC students like me, but they had started in the Fall. But it gets even better. We had no discussions. We had no papers. We just had weekly homework assignments to turn in. No interaction. I have NEVER had a class where there was literally no interaction except for asking questions of the professor regarding practice or homework problems. This was a class called "Analytical Tools for Decision Making" - but in reality it should have been called "Advanced Statistics" because that is what it was. It really was not any tool for decision making unless you're a math person, which I'm not. I really thought this class was going to kill me. I would spent hours locked in my room on the weekends working on homework. Nothing I was reading was making any sense and the formulas soon became jumbles of symbols I just could never ever remember. But I got through it - with a B average. And I'm happy about that.
Up next is Marketing Research. There's something like 60 students in the class because it is the ONLY summer class the IMC students have to take so everyone is taking it plus all the MBA students that need to take it. I'm sure we'll be broken into small groups - hopefully I'll be with some people I know already! And I hope they assign a teach assistant - I would feel bad for the professor assigned to the class originally expecting only 30 students and now there's over double that and no help.
Last bit of randomness....last program I was literally getting hit with a cold as each course ended. So, in the span of an academic year, I was sick 5 times. I thought maybe I was getting away with the lack of cold. I managed go be well for the time between my first and second classes. I was thrilled! But this morning I seem to have woken with a sore throat, stuffy nose, and stuffy head. Maybe it's allergies? Or it's a cold. Sigh.
