If I had to pick a minor...

It took me several semesters to figure out why a college student would need to choose a "minor." The best answer anyone could give me was that some departments didn't let you take their classes without declaring a minor in their college. Guess that makes sense. Turns out I didn't need to worry about that, but if I had to pick one, it would have been Economics, primarily due to Dr. Gerald Swanson. That link will take you to an article that honors his 40 years of teaching. Dr. Swanson's "Principles of Economics" class was certainly one of my favorites.

If you have time, play the little movie at the end of the article and you can see him hold the attention of every student in a classroom that seats 500!

And to think I almost didn't take his class. At the last minute I switched my Winter Session class to Managerial Accounting because my accounting lab instructor was teaching it. That meant Economics 200 would have to move to Spring 2008 and Dr. Swanson's class was the only one that fit my schedule. Talk about serendipitous!

I'm a senior now!

No, no, not a senior citizen (although I'm heading down that hill FAST!), but a college senior. How time has flown. Saw a fresh crop of undergrads brandishing their "2010" folders at the Student Union the other day and realized it had been THREE YEARS since I proudly carried my "2007" credentials-in-cardboard. It has been a fun and interesting ride, and I can finally see the horizon.

If it's true that the first two semesters of the accounting curriculum are the hardest, then I have successfully and officially survived. Turns out I'm only an "average" accounting student but, considering the difficulty of the material and the breakneck speed at which we are supposed to "learn" it, I'm okay with that. If scoring in the mid-70s is the worst of it, then average is exactly my style.

A fellow (older) student and I have discussed the relative merits of a department that feels the need to place obstacles in the way of future accountants as they have deliberately done with Intermediate Accounting I and II. I suppose their intent is to turn out only the "best and brightest" accountants and gain a reputation for this consistency. But in the real world, darned good accountants can come from solid C-students and we all know it. My friend had the guts to email an influential professor in the accounting department with this brilliant suggestion: that they continue this "barrier to entry" for only those students yearning to spend 80+ hours per week working for one of the "Big Four" accounting firms following graduation. She recommends they leave us poor grunts - who will be content to get a local job and learn the ropes and perform adequately for our paycheck - to the less rigorous classes. It would be refreshing to take classes that teach us valuable things that we will actually experience in the job market. Her email likely won't change the world, but it was certainly worth a try.

Meanwhile, with those two giant obstacles safely behind me, I'm on to more enjoyable things like Macroeconomics and Tax Accounting! It's almost a shame I chose to take Macroeconomics in a rushed semester because it was SO interesting and probably ranks up there with one of the best learning experiences of my college career. To understand even a tiny bit about classical economics and how Adam Smith (and JB Say and Ricardo) saw things and how Schumpeter, Keynes and then Hayek totally changed how economics are viewed was exciting and mind-expanding. It was one of those mental upgrades that will stick with me the rest of my life. I'm definitely better for the experience.

Now, just two days into my Intro to Federal Taxation course, I have hope that at last I have found a class that will be less of a struggle, given my 10 years at H&R Block. Not that I already know everything by any means, but it is a relief to be able to follow the concepts and anticipate the structure. I have adequate time to spend on the homework and can keep up with the readings and it appears that is all it will take.