Semester in Review [Fall 2014]

Sailing – I continued taking PE classes for fun, and I liked the exposure to sailing, which I've wanted to try, but sailing is extremely weather dependent and my class happened to get awful weather. It took a month of classes before we finally got out on the water. We sailed small boats (420s, I think, or something very similar), though we went out in larger boats a couple times when the winds were too high. The class was good, but it felt rushed whenever we did manage to go out in the small boats, maybe because we had so much bad weather. I would have liked to have more time just getting used to the boat and sailing in general.

Creative Writing – Not only did this class qualify as a liberal studies class, but it was also 2000-level, and my passing grade means that I have just two liberal studies classes left to complete. As a side benefit, I was hoping that being forced to produce a certain number of pages would inspire me to keep writing, but . . . nope. We split our time between workshopping peoples’ writing and discussing assigned readings. Overall, this ranks as one of the better liberal studies classes I've taken.

Organic Chemistry – So that I could jam creative writing into the middle of my schedule (so that I had seven hours of class and pep band rehearsal on Mondays – bad idea; I wouldn't do it again if I had other options), I took an organic chemistry class that met at 8 am and attempted to cover two semesters of material in one semester. I liked the topics we covered – nomenclature, stereochemistry, transformation of functional groups, mechanisms, synthesis, but there was just too much material. I didn't particularly agree with the professor’s teaching style and with four other academic classes, I couldn't spend the amount of time it would have taken to do really well (i.e. better than I did) in the class.

Organic Chemistry Lab – In addition to learning about orgo, I actually had to do it. My lab technique can be described as questionable at best, and it’s definitely not at its best under a time constraint. Fortunately, the only time orgo lab grades on yield and purity is during the practical, so as long as you do halfway decent on the practical, your lab reports and final can earn you a high grade. Besides being the source of dozens of stories about lab mishaps, I enjoyed this class.

Heat and Mass Transfer/(ChemE) Thermodynamics – Generally, I liked both of the ChemE classes I took over the past semester, but there was more than a little frustration at times. Lectures were good; recitations, problem sets, exams, and office hours tended to vary. A lot.

Up next semester: lots more ChemE classes, a liberal studies class, another PE class for fun, plus pep band, work, and that other stuff on the side like sleeping and eating.