Finally, my work for the term is complete, and all I have to do is await the damage. I don't know if damage is really going to be the operative word, because things are looking pretty good thus far. Grades for three of my classes have already been posted all of which are 'A's'. I was surprised to receive an 'A' in 'creative non-fiction writing'. I got the distinct impression that my professor considered me a 'B' student, but I'm not going to complain. My final essays for Political Philosophy class must have rolled over real well with my professor since my only grade up until that point had been a 'B+' on the midterm, and he indicated that he was going to grade harder on the final. The computer ethics final was yesterday. All things aside I think I did decent, though there WAS the occasional memory lapse. The articles we read for class all seemed to blur together, and the final essay asked us to extract all the major point of ONE essay. Seems like this would lend an advantage to students who just happened to read one essay. Since we completed the exam less than 24 hours ago, the grades have obviously not been posted yet. The computer science exam was given this morning at 8am. I was less than thrilled by the exam-time, but at least it is out of the way. My grades in the class, up until this point make it impossible for me to FAIL. Having calculated it out, I would need to get a 13% or less on the final to get a 'D' in the class, between 43%-14% for a 'C', between 79%-44% for a 'B', and 80% or above for an 'A'. The thing with CS exams is that they are unpredictable as far as grades are concerned. Typically I end up doing better than I think, so I am going to go out on a confidence limb here (extremely uncommon for me) and say that I will probably get an 'A' or 'B' in the class, which is most agreeable, especially since this will mark the end of my Computer Science (C++) requirement at Drexel, I AM FREE I TELL YOU, FREE!!!
Then there is the issue of my ISYS210 grade. My ISYS210 teacher decided not to give us a final exam on account of her not wanting to grade them (a rare instance in which the teacher is lazier than the students). Instead, she only required that we turn in our Drexel-Check%20TM%20Documentation.doc">final project document and a disk containing our constructed database tables. For those of you keeping up, that is the Drexel Check System mentioned in a previous post. The problem arose when she failed to show up for class on the day we were supposed to submit our projects, but she called in and requested that we simply submit them at the CRC Desk in the IST Building. This all occurred last Thursday (08/28/2003). One of my project group members, Tom, works at the CRC desk, and informed me that as of last night, our professor has yet to pickup our projects from the CRC. We are not very confident that our grades will be submitted promptly if at all. The fact of the matter is that nobody learned much of anything in the class. She may be a very nice lady, but she has no idea how to teach. Aside from her shortcomings in the teaching area, she is also has an extremely caustic delivery, oftentimes demeaning or insulting various students. I know that several students filed complaints with the college about her in-class behavior, and piss-poor teaching ability. Since she is an adjunct professor, many believe she will be let go as a result of the various complaints. Personally I can deal with her lack of professionalism, my chief concern is the fact that she is extremely lazy when it comes to returning assignments, and that I got 'NOTHING' out of the class. I am supposed to proceed with the second half of our database course load, not having learned ANYTHING in the 1st. Entering Database 2 with a disadvantage could prove disastrous.
Despite all these issues, I am pleased to be done with classes. Now I can proceed onward to a relatively worry-free co-op with ISSI. My GPA is strong and my worries greatly reduced. Not having to program C++ for a while is enough to put a smile on my fact for at least the next 3 weeks. I'll be returning to classes at the tail end of March 2003, right before I take off for a week to go skiing. I plan on applying to the Honors College while I'm on co-op. I took Political Philosophy which was supposed to be 'Honors Only', but they didn't seem to notice an 'outsider' in their midst. An 'A' in HNRS202 (Political Phil) and my high GPA should be enough to get me in, though I am told the Honors College itself is not big deal, but it always looks good on a resume.
Well, Andrew just IM'ed me and wants me to come help him set up a wireless network to get his new Alienware on the net. So I guess that mean that I should make with some decent garb. I'll try to squeeze in another post later. I just bought Battlefield 1942, so I'm a little distracted. Having demo'ed it a few months back, it didn't impress me. It seemed to be very sloppy with poor graphics handling and countless bugs. Though after patching it, it plays pretty well. OK, i have to split now.
Bob Jones University, Oh yea... and HO HO HO!
I recently finished Al Franken's book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. In it Franken discusses a comical ruse executed by him and a research assistant at Bob Jones University. I'm not going to relay the story in its entirety, you can buy the book for the whole thing, but lets just say it involves a widowed born-again mother, a box of blood, and evolution... Regardless, It's just the kind of civil and polite irreverence I enjoy. The mentioning of one particular article titled "Three College Shipwrecks" really demanded my personal investigation. Al claimed it to be written by Bob Jones, founder of the University, and treated me to a small sample. Though I never hastened to call the writer a "liar", some of the things he relayed, through his telling, defied belief. Though the radical right rarely disappoints…
Below is a link to the article in question, being freely displayed on the BJU (the 8th grader in me chuckles) website. If you do a little poking around the University Policies area of the site, I think you'll be particularly shocked at just how RADICAL BJU's policies are. In fact, BJU supplies several explanations as to why parents should not allow their children to make their OWN choice when it comes to where they pursue college education. I'm also greatly entertained by the section explaining to parents why they shouldn't care that BJU is NOT an accredited University. << Your Feedback is MOST welcomed >>
Article By BOB JONES - Three College Shipwrecks - Apparently all of us attending non-Christian 'accredited' universities are doomed to "blow our brains out".
BJU's Special Articles Section - A Sort of FAQ - check out the Religion on the Gap Theory Section... perhaps this is not the best place to go pre-med.
... thank you in advance for you observations ...
Posted at 01:08 PM in Dysfunction, Religion, School, Social Commentary | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)