Monday, December 22, 2008

And all of a sudden...

.. the semester is done.

Ok, not as exciting as you might have hoped, but it's hard to believe that I am now halfway through my academic requirements for school and that's exciting for me. Something to consider... with two degrees being earned, it's comparable to me already earning one. ;) Ok, I know it doesn't quite work that way, but I got to motivate myself somehow. What's left? Well, a lot, actually - 2 more semesters of school, a 6-month internship and writing a thesis.  Piece of cake, right?

From what I've heard, the Summer and first Fall semesters are the two most difficult, and as far as workload, I think I'd agree. The Core classes weren't overly difficult material wise, but the quantity of work at the end of the semester was definitely intense. During the last 2 1/2 weeks of school (classes & finals week), I had the following to do:

- 1 individual and 1 team assignment for my engineering class (each required easily 20+ hours of work)
- final exam in my engineering class
- 8 page research paper & 15 minute presentation for Power & Negotiaton
- 15 page research paper for Organization Processes and 20 minutes presentation for Communication (forunately, both were on the same project)
- Economics final exam
- Accounting final exam

As I've found throughout the entire semester, unless you decide to give up on sleep and socializing, you can't do it all to the level you want to. So, I ended up focusing on the classes where getting an A was most important to me. For various reasons specific to me, I selected Accounting, Communications and my engineering class. This meant the other classes, although I still did a lot of work for them, took the back burner.

I'm not yet sure how the grades will turn out, but the one thing I've come to realize is that it's not so important. As I studied for finals and worked on final projects, I discovered that I actually learned a lot in my classes. It might sound totally cheesy (and I admit I question how useful some of the material is) but it's really rewarding to know that I've come out of this with a little more knowledge. Afterall, I quit my comfy job in the warmth of Southern California and came to grad school with the intention to gain knowledge and skills to help me in my career. It's re-affirming to know that as I "suffer" through the long nights, the rising credit card bills and the crazy wind chill factor, I'm accomplishing what I wanted.

With that slightly serious note, I'll end with some pictures from our social activities of the end of the semseter.

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Maureen, Becca & I - with Rob "ruining" the photo from the background. ;)

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Drew, Anuj, Jon, Lisa (Drew's SO) & Nitida sporting their ugly Holiday grab.

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Me, Margo, Jeremy, Maureen, Mike G and Becca in the warmth of Dapo & Abishek's during the LFM end of the year/semester party.

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Outside after the end of the year party - my last night in Boston included some light snow and brisk temps in the 20's. Fortunately, I left town before the major storms hit.

Coming next, some updates from/about the January LFM activities - plant trek and InternshipFest...

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