On a whim last night, I was poking around CUConnect, our university portal for grade information, news, financial updates, etc, and I decided to look at my degree audit. Back when I was registering for classes, my major adviser told us about the great system CU has to help you keep track of your the credits you've taken and those you still have to take. However, film was one of the departments that hadn't been upgraded to this new system, so I never got to see what the degree audit was really like.
It seems film has now been added to the degree audit program for Arts and Sciences students, and what a cool website I stumbled onto last night. Beautiful pie charts and other graphs show you what your credits look like so far, and everything is easy to navigate and follow. You can look at a full list of all the core credit areas, for example, and see which you've fulfilled, which you're taking right now, and a listing of possible classes for those you still have to take.
Anyway, all this got me thinking about when I could graduate (potentially early, thanks to IB and AP credits) - which in turn got me thinking about the cool things I could do other than classes: study abroad, internships, maybe a BAMA (something CU's film department offers). It's overwhelming and at the same time extremely exciting to think of all the potential paths I might take over the next few years.
Mostly, I feel the need to have a sense of all my options now so I don't miss out on anything. I overheard my roommate having a similar conversation the other day - about summer classes or travel plans or internships... so it seems this may be on the minds of other students as well. I'm guessing now that we freshmen have settled into CU, more and more of us may be starting to think about plans for the future.
I'm sure that any plans that are made now may change - after all, I just added a minor and switched my focus from a BFA to a BA in the last few weeks, so clearly, goals can change with little notice, but it feels important to keep the future in mind. If you're a CU student and you haven't looked at your degree audit, I suggest you do - it's really quite interesting.
That's it from me for now. I hope anyone who's reading this is having a nice weekend. Seems Boulder may be in for some snow!
Cheers :)
This blog is sponsored by the CU Book Store.
Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label goals. Show all posts
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Monday, November 9, 2009
Registration madness
Well, we didn't get that snow day, but such is life.
The past week was spent looking forward, preparing for registering for classes - my registration time was last Thursday. Now that I have everything set up, I'm in a completely different mindset. But I was definitely very wrapped up in all the details last week, worrying about the classes that were filling up already, arranging and rearranging various options in the CU Schedule Planner, and generally worrying about how it would all work out.
A few things I learned:
1. Don't get too attached to one plan/class/schedule: This kept happening to me. I would think I had "the perfect schedule," with all the classes I thought I needed, all arranged in just the right order (not too early - no 8AMs - and not too late - this semester I have a class that goes till 10PM). But again and again, these "perfect schedules" kept falling through, and I'd have to start over.
2. You should prepare: I have no idea how I would have dealt with picking classes if I hadn't already known what I was planning on doing when I signed onto CUConnect at my assigned time. There's plenty you can do to prepare, like making several schedules that would work, or at the very least, choosing classes you're interested in.
3. Keep track of things: both the Schedule Planner and CUConnect itself will list how many people are already enrolled in classes, whether the class is closed or still has room. Several of the classes I wanted filled up or were even canceled before I got there, but I was able to rearrange my plans because I kept checking every few days.
As for my own personal approach, I made goals: I didn't want 8AM classes, I wanted either Friday or Monday off, I wanted to get as many Core credits done as possible, and I wanted to continue moving in my film major. I was ready to acknowledge that some of these goals might not work out, but in the end, I kept working on my schedule until they did.
So that's a little bit about my experience with registering - I'm sure that each semester, it will get easier. I hope it goes well for everyone else in college this semester, or that it went well, if you've already registered.
Cheers :)
The past week was spent looking forward, preparing for registering for classes - my registration time was last Thursday. Now that I have everything set up, I'm in a completely different mindset. But I was definitely very wrapped up in all the details last week, worrying about the classes that were filling up already, arranging and rearranging various options in the CU Schedule Planner, and generally worrying about how it would all work out.
A few things I learned:
1. Don't get too attached to one plan/class/schedule: This kept happening to me. I would think I had "the perfect schedule," with all the classes I thought I needed, all arranged in just the right order (not too early - no 8AMs - and not too late - this semester I have a class that goes till 10PM). But again and again, these "perfect schedules" kept falling through, and I'd have to start over.
2. You should prepare: I have no idea how I would have dealt with picking classes if I hadn't already known what I was planning on doing when I signed onto CUConnect at my assigned time. There's plenty you can do to prepare, like making several schedules that would work, or at the very least, choosing classes you're interested in.
3. Keep track of things: both the Schedule Planner and CUConnect itself will list how many people are already enrolled in classes, whether the class is closed or still has room. Several of the classes I wanted filled up or were even canceled before I got there, but I was able to rearrange my plans because I kept checking every few days.
As for my own personal approach, I made goals: I didn't want 8AM classes, I wanted either Friday or Monday off, I wanted to get as many Core credits done as possible, and I wanted to continue moving in my film major. I was ready to acknowledge that some of these goals might not work out, but in the end, I kept working on my schedule until they did.
So that's a little bit about my experience with registering - I'm sure that each semester, it will get easier. I hope it goes well for everyone else in college this semester, or that it went well, if you've already registered.
Cheers :)
This blog is sponsored by the CU Book Store.
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