Well, I'm officially registered for my first graduate level course. It's a special topics EE course on robotics at Mercer. I didn't do so well in the robotics course I took at Georgia Tech, but at that point it was an extra class and I had major senioritis. This one ought to be easier and my motivation level should be higher than it was in spring 2007 – having to repay the $2500 tuition/fees if I don't make an A or B sounds like a good motivator.
I've been putting off this whole grad school thing for awhile despite people telling me for years that I should. This year, the Air Force upped the tuition assistance from 75% of tuition (and 0% of the additional fees) to now paying 100% of tuition and fees. That and the likelihood of getting to play in one more junior bridge event put me over the edge to fight through the paperwork and get registered. The world university bridge championships, open to people in college between people 18 and 28 years old is in Reims, France in July 2012. This is the competition that I went to in Poland in 2008. Reims is half way between Metz and Paris, an area I once knew well, and it has been too long since I spent some quality time in France.
The course is just 3 hours per week on Wednesdays and finishes early enough that I still would just barely be able to play bridge Wednesday nights in Macon. That's a game I rarely attend anyway so more likely is that I'll go to a bar after class most days. At the very least, taking courses at Mercer might open up more good places I can meet people – work, bars, tennis courts, and bridge tournaments have not exactly been the greatest of places to meet women. But maybe not – I will still be in engineering classes and only 3 people have registered for this course so far. And if I do wind up finishing with this master's degree in Engineering Management (at the rate of 1 course per semester it might take a few years), it might qualify me for other management positions if and when I decide to change careers.
No comments:
Post a Comment