it feels like learning a language, and i can get through all of it and communicate but i haven't really gotten the flow of it all down even though i can appreciate that there is one and it is beautiful. i would have really enjoyed a full course. i can brute force remember everything but that's not really learning.

I don't have any advice to offer because I've still yet to take a real chem course. It does seem that there are ton of exceptions to every rule, though, so brute force is probably what's necessary. And while it might be satisfying learning about the hows and whys of such exceptions, it's extremely time consuming to do so. You'd have to study subatomic physics to gain an intuitive understanding of such things.

Like, I have a bunch of students that take their minimally required math classes, and sometimes they take trig. Now, you can just plug square root of 2 into a calculator and get 1.41421356237. That's easy enough but most students don't know (nor are they required to know) the various numerical methods used in approximating the value of a square root function. And I find that extremely interesting, because the concepts behind many of those methods are still rather enigmatic to me, and I can't wait to learn about them. But they're completely useless for most engineers except computer scientists.

I wish it was possible to just take sciences classes until I die.

i decided i'm going back to school because i hate working for mr. burns. ugh.. never thought it'd come to this

i got a 5 on my writing for the GRE

What text are you using?

i dont know what this number means

The writing section is a 1 to 5 scale (5 is best)

wtg trots

on a 0-6 scale with .5 increments so i am just a shade below "actually smart"

You can get a 6? WTF.

and remember you're being compared to college graduates so it's not like you're in the top 17% of muricans in writing, you're significantly higher. Well maybe.

so much information for this final...

hmm, not familiar with that one.

This, so hard. Don't worry about exceptions. For your purposes chlorine is always -1, acids always have H+, bases have OH-...

Since it's for health sciences, you might have more nomenclature than usual...

if you have any questions before tomorrow, just let me know

i was about to say that i missed the GRE writing section somehow, but then i remembered that i actually did take it. i think i got a 4 or 4.5 but i'm not quite sure. don't recall what i got on the math section, but i got into grad school so who cares

thanks. ill be ok i think. hopefully. there was too much info crammed into the last couple days and there is no way i can memorize it all. but its cumulative so hopefully some of the older stuff will be on there.

like i said, a shade below "actually smart"

i got a 92 on my final. somehow. glad the class is over. i picked the right stuff to study and must have done some good educated guessing on the rest. i think i got all the long answer/math ones right.

92? why so low [/asian dad

I'm 28 years old. I live with my girlfriend in Stockholm, Sweden. I have a masters degree in 'Modern Psychology', but I'm currently studying the Swedish law part-time. On average I make approximately 51000 € each year. I play in two bands, one is a fusion of pop and jazz, and the other one is a straight out alt rock project. I've listened to the Pumpkins since I was 13, and never stopped listening. I am very open minded about things, but cannot understand all the cynicism on these threads. Are people here really that locked up in themselves? Are they that lonely, that miserable?

i got an honors college recruitment letter today.

basically i'd have to take 12 credits of regular general ed classes at honors level and 3 credits honors interdisciplinary study which could be on anything really, it depends on the instructor. so one "extra" class (but I have room on my schedule for it replacing a generic elective anyway) plus 3 that should be a bit harder than regular classes.

for that i get:
3 credit scholarship per semester. basically they give me $400 a semester
auto transfer to honors program at any 4 year public university in florida
access to phi beta kappa, brain bowl, etc which are all scholarship opportunities and networking opportunities
class size max of 20 which would be awesome
get to register for classes before everyone else
some certificate with my diploma that "is an articulated agreement with state colleges and universities and entitles you to consideration for transfer scholarships and increases in scholarship amounts"
distinction on my transcript *insert jerking off motion*

worth it?

the only benefit there is the scholarship.

the honors college at ucf seems to only exist to smell its own farts.

@reprise

I am a sucker for honors titles, so I would say yes. But that means you have to take 18 credits/semester, right? I took 18 credits/semester + one where I took 21 credits (15 my first semester because I was scared I might not be able to follow the US school system) and worked part time but my job was on campus. I also lived on campus which made everything quite smooth. If you're going to be working, then it might be really difficult to follow the honors requirements and be alert/good at work (which I think is important to you). But I guess you already know how much you need to study to do well, generally. I slept very little through college, but I'm not "naturally" smart/had to take my time learning. I would definitely do it, but I'm a school enthusiast.

Yeah I'm not going to do it unless there are real reasons to. Scholarships would be a great reason if I can get more than the minimum three credits per semester. Really, just doing it as a challenge also has some appeal.

Nope, you can go three quarter time, which is 9-10 credits (3 classes). Which is what I did during last semester and this summer and will do going forward (maybe go full time eventually). I am working 25 hours a week as well.

Eventually honors might look good in grad school as well. But I would probably have to move, the closest public school that I know of with a PhD in clinical psychology is U of Miami which is very competitive and an hour and a half away. Which is no big deal except for needing to go to therapy, but if it was the only way I would make it work. FAU has PhD in like developmental psych which is not what I want. Too bad. There's also Nova but it's a mediocre private university that mostly churns out PsyDs and not PhDs.

I mean I have like 4 years before I need to worry about this stuff. Maybe at that point I'll be in therapy every other week or something, and who knows if some universities will expand their programs.

Thanks for the input guys.

There are more meaningful ways than an honors certificate to beef up your grad school application. your coursework, electives, gpa and statement of purpose are much more important factors in being considered.

Maybe I'm weird about this stuff but I see zero reasons for you not to do it. I mean, the challenge thing would be enough for me (yeah I like academic validation). You seem like someone who enjoys learning, might as well be in the class where other people are like-minded and professors are more likely to care? I know it's not necessarily going to be like that, but I can't see what you would have to lose. Small classes are perfect and give you more opportunity to interact with professors and other students.

Also, does that mean you don't even have to apply to a 4-year college? Cause that in itself is nice and saves you lots of time and money in application fees. Regarding grad school, my take is that what matters most is what your professors write in their recommendation letters. If you are involved in your department and have in any way impressed your professors (particularly the ones who have been published multiple times), it will matter. Also 400 dollars. Is there a reason why you think an honors program might be bad/not worth it? I think balancing work and school can be very difficult, but you don't have to be full time which helps a lot.

I totally agree, but an honors program seems like the sort of thing that certain schools look for. Somewhere like Michigan or Northwestern.

and of course, the "who you know" letters

I don't want to fuck up my GPA by taking harder courses than I need to basically is my concern. I want it to feel like a challenge and not like a lot of pressure, but I'm not sure it would feel like that or not.

I also don't like the idea of smart people getting together to talk about how smart they are. Wouldn't be down for that.

Going to talk to my adviser I suppose.

I start school tomorrow, I'm going to study game development. I've been working pretty shitty jobs for 4 years now so its gonna be sweet do to something I actually care about.