Opposable Thumbs

I'm sure many of you (all three of you that read this, that is) have heard of MIT's OpenCourseWare program. If not, it's a program where MIT publishes the materials for a large number of their courses online. Although I've been familiar with the site for some time and have regularly visited to check the latest additions, I've recently become more interested in it. What brought this up was that I was looking for courses to take this fall at PSU or PCC, my two options for taking classes after we get to Portland. I was searching for classes in engineering, science or math, but was limited to the evening offerings. Due to various schedule constraints, issues of prerequisits, etc., it occured to me that I'd really only be able to sign up for one course. However, I knew I'd have time for other things and decided to look for some self-study type program. Of course, my usual bent is to just read whatever comes

I guess those of you who know me already suspect it's about time for another change of plans anyway... well, it is that time of year again, isn't it? I guess it occured to me when a co-worker of mine brought up a program he was enrolling in that would allow him to continue working towards his computer science degree in the evenings. Of course, I've seen plenty of programs like this, but I didn't know there were any in Austin. Not that this should mean too much to me -- as you should know by now, I'm planning on moving to Boston in less than a year's time. However, it got me thinking. See, I had always taken UT's CS program as the example. Going by their transfer guidelines, I didn't think there were any classes in the Austin area that I could take that would apply towards a degree. However, the program this coworker sent me (I have the link around here somewhere, but it's unimportant) involves taking the first couple of semesters classes at ACC and then transferring these to Southwest Texas. Of course, I don't plan on going to SWT, but it did make me realize that a number of the classes at ACC might transfer to other schools. And since I've already been taking a handful of classes here and there at ACC I know that they can be of decent quality and definitely of low cost. Moving forward, I happened to stumble on the computer science program at UMass Boston. I noticed that their curriculum matches up closely with the program at SWT. And, looking at their transfer guide, it looks like the ACC classes should transfer. And so, I'm now signed up for Advanced C++ and Data Structures this fall. I plan on taking Computer Organization and Machine Language in the springI figure that I can finish a CS degree doing part time work in a couple of years. Not that the math degree would have taken me any longer, but this way I'm a little more certain of making good grades along the way (I have been doing this stuff for quite a while now, after all). Also, I planned on focusing on the computational areas of mathematics anyway. I can still do the math work as I find time and perhaps focus a graduate degree in a direction that combines both interests.

You know you've been working too much (been putting in overtime during spring break) when you're ready to go back to school when you've got two tests the same week.

So, as any of you who know me or have been keeping up with my past entries here know, I'm preparing to re-enter school. I never finished my undergraduate work and have decided to go back with the goal of persuing a bachelor of science degree in mathematics. I'm not going to go into why I choose that particular degree just yet (I'll save that for a later entry), but rest assured that it is what I want to do and that I have thought about it a good deal. Regardless of all that, I've enrolled fulltime at Austin Community College. While I would have liked to be back at UT, I didn't have the time or money to get back in this semester. The fact is there are still a lot of classes I can get through ACC that will transfer to UT and will apply to my newly chosen degree plan. Specifically, I've signed up for four classes this semester: US Government, US History II, Engineering Physics I and Chemistry I. I'll be cutting back to 30 hours a week at work, so I think I should be able to handle this load. Unfortunately, I can't take any more math courses through ACC. I've already taken all the transferable classes that are available there. The problem now is that I have doubts about my goal of getting into the math program at UT. I know I can get in eventually after I've taken enough classes and shown that I can do it (my past record is pretty poor because of my initial couple of semesters out of high school -- sometimes it's just not wise to go straight into college after a torturous college prep program). I need to prove to the advisors in the math department that I'm a good candidate for their program. Which means I should be loading up on math classes. Granted my science classes should show at least the proper apptitude, but I'm not certain that will be enough. The other issue is just timing. I mean, I'm not in a huge hurry to get through, but it would be nice to get down the road a bit and be able to look more seriously at what the future holds. The fact is that for the bachelor of science degree quite a few hours are going to be needed before I can start seeing the end approaching (at least 40 hours of math total, of which I already have 12). So, the other option is that I can sign up for a course or two through the UT extension program. This program makes certain standard UT classes available to non-UT students in the evenings. The classes are not cheap ($460 a piece for the ones I'm look at, and that doesn't include the books). And I would need to drop a course or two (I guess I can wait on the history or government classes for now -- in fact, I could probably test out of one or the other with a little preparation). I just don't know... and I've got to make a decision in the next day or two.