Still waiting

Feedback is pretty important to a college student. Timely feedback even more so. For the most part the educational/administrative cogs grind fairly smoothly and we get results within a reasonable cycle.

But I'm still awaiting grades on two of the three mid-terms I took more than a week ago. It's very frustrating... not knowing.

We've been told that everyone did very poorly on the accounting exam - so poorly they're still trying to figure out what to do about it. It's bad enough that a curve wouldn't even help most people. I heard a rumor that only three students out of 1200 got an A! Don't know how true that is. Applying my profound knowledge of probabilities from stats class, the likelihood of me being one of those possibly fictional three is... ummm... slim! Heck, at this point a B appears to be a wonderful grade.

Evidently (rumor again), last year someone stole the exam they used for several years in Accounting 200, so they had to invent a new one. The stolen test was one of those scantron thingies (remember those where you use a #2 pencil to color in the circle?) that could be graded by machine. I far prefer the kind we took which was a combination of multiple choice and worksheet. Given 20 categories and amounts of a fictional account, we had to create a trial balance, income statement, retained earnings, and balance sheet. Tons more practical than any scantron answer, but it means each test had to be graded by hand, which takes a lot longer. Ten days should be enough time.

...Still waiting!

Settle in

I've learned to enjoy this stage in the semester. It's the point after I've completed that first test in each class. Everyone whines about tests - I think that's universal - but they're really a great way to find out exactly what the professor expects of you and to ascertain whether or not you're meeting their expectations.

The syllabus tries its hardest to convey the expectation level; some try harder than others. Last spring my Latin America class had a 35-page syllabus! Most aren't that long or elaborate and don't need to be, but Dr. Barickman sure did a great job of communicating his expectations. And he was consistent about holding us to them.

That's really all you want from a class or a prof... Just be clear about what you expect and then hold us to it.

So, although I don't know my grades yet on two of the three tests, I really feel I'm progressing sufficiently in all of them. That's a good feeling. That's the part I enjoy the most! My routines are working and I'm settling in.

Greed

Bailout... Financial crisis... Foreclosure... Bankruptcy... They can all be explained by one word: GREED. Here, climb on the soapbox with me; we've all got plenty to say on this.

Two sides of greed blew up in our faces. There's the average lower-to-middle class American who jumped into the housing market at a level just a bit higher than they could afford (or a lot higher!). And there's the financial big boys who were glad to grant a shaky mortgage to said American because it nicely padded their already large paycheck. Of course it's not exactly that simple, and there are a lot of scenarios that don't fit into that snapshot but, absent these two factors, we wouldn't be where we are now.

A lot of Americans have lost sight of the substance of a good life. It isn't the *things* you buy or the gated community you live in or the size of the flat screen TV in your livingroom. (Not that there's anything wrong with those!) But it's the whole stupid idea that you can live beyond your means without having to pay the piper at some point...

Unfortunately the piper bill is being delivered in bulk mail to many American households.

One of the best "money" books I've ever read was part of the very first college class I took in the summer of 2007. The class was "Money, Consumers and the Family" and it featured two books by the same authors that helped explain how the financial "rules" have changed in the last 50 years in America. Of the two books, my favorite is "All Your Worth" and I think it should be required reading for every college student (and for non-college students!). You can get the gist of the book on their website here. It's all about living within your means.

I sure wish more Americans had heeded these precautions before getting in over their heads. Now we ALL owe the piper!

Opportunities

It amazes me the opportunities they throw at students these days. Seriously.

The Classics dept is sponsoring a Spring Break trip to Italy (cost is pretty steep - the only thing keeping me off the list).

Many departments have programs to study abroad for a semester or a summer. Classics is offering a summer Study-Abroad tour of Turkey and Greece. Also a bit expensive, but mostly non-doable for us married-with-mortgage types.

In Accounting class on Tuesday there was a representative from PricewaterhouseCoopers who announced their annual contest for Accounting/Business majors wherein they present a fictitious "real world" problem to teams of five or six students who have two weeks to come up with a proposed solution - no wrong answers, just "better" ones. Winning team gets $1000 and a chance to be in the nation's top five teams who get $10,000 and a trip to New York to compete again.

Eller College of Management is opening up their Global Enterpreneurship Program as a minor this year. Info meeting is Thursday. I haven't picked a minor yet so I'll attend and see what that's about.

There are career fairs every time you turn around with potential employers numbering in the hundreds - both local and national - right here on campus to talk about careers and job openings they hope to fill with fresh graduates (go ahead and finish your degree... they'll wait!).

And these are just what is available this week; and only the ones I heard about! Obviously there are many many more I'm not even aware of. It's enough to make your head spin. These kids just don't know how good they have it!

Quiz 1

Can't take attendance in a class with 538 students so the Classics professor administers five pop quizzes during the semester and these act as your "attendance grade." Syllabus says not to worry, as long as you attend lectures and keep up with the reading, you'll be fine. He was right. First quiz came Monday... four items: a true/false, a couple of simple questions and a two-sentence essay. Piece of cake... an easy 5 points.

Here's the class average:


Lucky for them, he'll drop your worst grade and average the other four. But it's gotta be discouraging to be a professor these days! Only 38 of us got 100%. The other 500 didn't.