Well the first semester is over and the results are in I have a A in my Math class and a B+ in the POLS class. This is about what I expected an you may be wondering why I don't have a major with more math and that is because the more complicated math confuses the heck out of me and I don't like it. Even though the POLS class was harder I really liked what I learned and how it made me think. There is a lot that I know now that I wouldn't have otherwise like the fact that Free Trade is a good thing and it has been known to be a good thing since the 1700's. This is because the winners win more then the losers lose. The problem is that you don't get to pick who the winners and the losers are and this can change the balance of power.

Day 1

Well today was the first day of school. Math 1030 is going to have a quiz each week along with homework due the same day as the quiz and several tests but it will all be math in a practical application so it should be easy. I don't hate math I just don't love it and hence the reason that I wont be taking any more math classes after this one. I'm also taking UGS 1010 as a class to help me get to know what there is at the U and to help me with getting my degree. POLS 2100 is one of the classes that I have to take for my degree and there will be a lot of reading and 2 midterms and a final. The biggest problem that I'm looking at right now is that both of my finals are on April 30th which is the first day of a three day drill at Camp Williams. I'll be talking with my professors and hopefully things will be able to be worked out. On top of this I checked to make sure that my Tuition had been taken care of by the Purple Heart wavier only to find out that I owed money for tuition. Well I went to the tuition/scholarship office to find out why. After waiting in a rather long line I was able to talk to someone that did get the information that I needed. Evidently the wavier is treated by the U as a scholarship and so you have to be full-time. This means that the system will not process it because I'm not a full-time student at this time. However they will go ahead and put it through manually but it will take a few days. Also while I was there I turned in the form for the subsidized student loan to help pay off other loans and we will use the money saved to be able to pay off the student loan when I'm no longer in school. That is all for now and best of luck to me in all of my work.

Start of school

Well school is about to start up and I can't wait for it. I have all of my books with two for one class that were purchased from Amazon for just over $100 and one from the University book store that was just under $70. I know that books are going to be expensive because the only classes that I have left to take are all upper level except for three. I need to take a total of 30 credit hours of upper level classes along with 2 lower level classes in Political Science and 1 math class over 1030. I'll be taking the math class and one of the lower level classes in Political Science starting January 11th. I'm also going to be taking a class that is meant to help people that are transfers to U of U to help me with the change. The thing that has me the most concerned is changing from the online environment that I have been doing for the last 5 years to the classroom environment. I know that it will be a change and just hope that my grades don't suffer because of it. With my plan to become a professor I want to keep a GPA of 3.5 or above. Well I won't know how things are going to go until I start doing it and here is hoping that things end up going well.

Ready to Start

When I had last blogged I was waiting for acceptance to the U of U. Since that point in time I have received my letter of acceptance. Along with this I was sent a record of my transfer credit. I then went to meet with and advisor with the department that I’m pursuing a major in to find out what classes I needed to take. At the same time I turned in more paperwork so that I would be able to get the Purple Heart tuition wavier and to use the Montgomery GI Bill. Then I had to wait until November 12th for transfer student orientation to register for classes. I am now registered for classes and am now waiting for school to start in January. When I went in for orientation I also turned in paperwork showing that I am a Utah resident. At orientation I was told to turn in my short records showing that I’ve had the MMR shot to the student clinic. I will be taking 3 classes for 6 credit hours with 2 of them being the beginning of the degree and the other one used to fill out to the 6 and to help me with getting into the campus learning environment. It has been a long time since I was in a classroom type learning environment and I hope that I’ll be able to adjust well. One of the things I do have going for me is that because I’m a junior most of my classes should be of the smaller size which should make it easier for me to learn and to talk with the professors. This is going to be a change and something that will require a lot of work on my part but I’m sure that I can do it. Also I’m no longer on Active Duty Army and have transitioned to the Army Reserves. My first drill is today the 21st of November 2009. Hope that it goes well but no way to know that for sure yet.

Still Waiting

Well the U of U has had my transcripts for a bit now but still haven't evaluated them so I don't know how many of the credits will transfer. Hopefully I'll know soon if I'm accepted or not although I don't see that as being a problem at all as I do have a overall GPA of 3.4. I'm also in the process of getting out of the Army this month and am working on making sure the paper work is all in order. Along with this comes the packing of the house and getting ready to move. This is something that I started doing a couple of weeks ago because of the simple fact that I just want to get it done. I'm also in the process of closing on a house that I have only ever seen pictures of, they were taken by my mother-in-law. Hopefully that will go well because if not there isn't anywhere to move to. The packing does have our dog worried and he doesn't like to be in a room that there isn't one of us in right now. I think that it is because his original owners left him when they moved from Ft. Riley which is where we saved him from the pound. You would think that having him move with us two time already and the fact that we never leave him alone for very long would have taken care of that by now but he does still seem to be concerned about it. Ah well not much else I can do now though except a little bit more packing but I still have time as the U-haul will be picked up on September 1st.

U of U here I come

Well over the course of the last few months I have been preparing for my transition out of the military and back to civilian life. Haven't really seen a reason to blog about any of that stuff but there is some more stuff to do with my college now. I have applied to the University of Utah and most of my transcripts have been received. This is good as that means that I'm that much closer to being accepted for the spring 2010 semester. Along with this has also come some additional information that is going to help me to get through school. That is that the state of Utah offers tuition wavier to persons that have been awarded the Purple Heart. This is not an award that I ever wanted but I'm very glad that I have received because of some of the benefits that I receive because of it. With out the need to pay tuition I'll be using the Montgomery GI Bill which will pay me a monthly amount based on the amount of school that I'm doing. This will make it that much easier to off set all of the other costs that come with going to school and might even make it so that I'm able to make money off of the deal. Best of luck to me and hope that things do go well.

Well the results are in and I received a B+ in my Developmental Psychology class. Good to have that one over with because it was interesting up until it started talking about teenagers and adults. How quickly and how well a infant and toddler learn is remarkable but after that I lost my interest in the class. Along with this though now I'll be taking a break from school until January 2010 when I plan to start up at the U of U, GO COUGARS!!! ah I mean GO UTES!!!. I do need to send off my application soon though and then send all of my transcripts from the various colleges that I have recived credit from. Good thing is that the army has a transcript to so that will be nice to get some credit for my time in the military. If all goes well I'll only need 38 credit hours which means I should be able to get my degree in 5 semester bby taking 7-8 credit hours a semester. I need to go just over half-time to be able to get the most out of my GI Bill.