Another Semester? Looks Like It!

I happened to take a look this afternoon at my financial aid package for the coming academic year. Since I got married and we had our first child in 2012, which included my wife quitting her job to raise our son, this coming academic year will be the first time that I get Pell grants (and the last, it appears, as any further academic endeavors will be at the graduate level).

The basic setup is that I've been awarded roughly $3000 in grants for the coming year, divided across the fall and spring semesters. That means my previous plan of completing all four required classes for my degree in the fall would effectively cost me almost $1500 in grants (aka that becomes an out-of-pocket expense). If I divide my classes across the two semesters and graduate five months later, I've effectively saved $1500.

The choice to me is obvious, especially considering there's no guarantee that I could find a higher-paying job to increase my income in those five months compared to my current employment. I'm choosing to take the safe bet instead of wagering on an extra five months of having my B.A.

To add another advantage to the list, delaying my graduation will allow me to take Mathematical Statistics II and complete the Applied Math focus of my degree (I'll have already completed the Pure Math focus either way).

Beyond that? Still undecided! :)

In Coursework, Don't Lose Focus on the "Easy Stuff"

I'm sure we've all been there, either in our youth or upon returning to school: the end of a semester approaches and an overall grade is hovering within a few percentage points of going up or down by a letter (or a plus/minus). It can be agonizing to go into a final exam or assignment knowing that your final grade for the course can swing either way depending on your performance. When the last few pieces of graded work are some of the most difficult topics you've faced all semester... well, that just piles on the stress.

It's at times like this that I ask myself: how did I get here? I enjoy keeping a running tally of my grades throughout each semester, updating them and recalculating them as more graded assignments are returned. This not only keeps me grounded as far as my expectations, but it also allows me to dynamically and expediently notice if my grades are falling below levels I'm comfortable with.

This all brings me to my point for this post: don't underestimate the early and/or simple graded work in any course. When you look at a syllabus and see "20% of your grade will be homework" or "10% of your grade will be in-class participation," make a mental note of those easier contributions to your final marks. Homework is usually something you can just put more effort into in order to do well upon (since you have plenty of hours to work on it outside of class), and class participation is almost always the easiest way to boost your grade. In online courses, class participation is even more akin to homework, as it usually involves forum posts or similar tasks.

Those "easy" points quickly add up, and give you some wiggle room for the later weeks where coursework becomes more complicated. An added bonus is that by putting in the time during the first portion of a semester, you're more likely to commit those lessons to memory and be ready to use that knowledge in the later weeks that are built upon it. If you're like me, and find your commitment to coursework to decrease as the semester drags on, you'll be thankful later for the energy you spend in the first weeks of a semester.