The End Of Another Semester, The Beginning Of Vacation
Dan on December 14th, 2006
Today marked my last day of school in the fall semester. I’m not sure what my grades were for all of my classes but I expect that my overall GPA will be at least 3.8. More importantly I am now on vacation until January 22, 2007. I now have plenty of free time to pursue other interests such as polyphasic sleep, cooking experiments, my new website, and more. Watch for posts in the near future addressing each of these topics.
The spring semester will be my last at Monroe Community College. I’ll be graduating with AS degrees in business administration and computer science. I’ll be applying to “real” colleges soon to pursue a BS with a double major in economics and finance or something else business related. My target school is Columbia, with the University of Rochester as one backup. I believe my other backup will be George Washington University but I’m not 100% on that yet.
I recently had a personal revelation in regards to school. A month or two ago I started thinking about what I want to do when I graduate from MCC. All of a sudden it hit me: school isn’t about getting a degree or a job, it’s about thinking and learning. It had been building in the back of my mind for quite some time but finally broke through all at once. When I first entered college in 2000 at Rochester Institute of Technology all I wanted was the piece of paper that said I had a degree. I didn’t really care about the process, just the end result. I think that was a big part of my failing the first time around. I wasn’t interested in college, I was interested in getting out of college. Unfortunately that’s a very common way of thinking among our colleges and universities today. The original concept has been watered down and lost at may places of higher education. Students don’t realize that it is the process of getting the degree that is important, not the degree itself.
That has completely changed for me. I’ve decided to shoot for the moon and apply to Columbia not just based on its high level of respect but because it is an old institution based on old concepts of what college is all about. I want to experience college, not just pass through the halls of famous old buildings. Had I felt this way the first time around I may not be where I am today.
