Mini College Tour

Well I'm currently up in Edinboro, PA...waiting for my sister to finish her finals. Colleges in Pennsylvania (especially Western) are curios. Take Edinboro University for example; when I was living in Florida, I would mention where my sister went to school and the response would be "Wow, she went to Scotland to go to college?". Yeah...I initially forgot about that. Of course Edinboro does have a Scottish heritage. But geez. I'm sure people who go to Indiana University of Pennsylvania or California State University of Pennsylvania get some similar sentiments sometime.

What also gets me is the locations of some of these schools. Most of them are over 100 years old; yet are located pretty far from population centers. Well "far" for pre-interstate highway era at least. But now that we do have interstates, there is an amazing number of colleges right off of I-79 going from Pittsburgh north -- at least 5. Kind of convenient. Even so, I don't know how my sister does it. She doesn't drive and Edinboro seems hopelessly boring. It seems as her college experience is so alien that what I went through. I started out at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL. Daytona was a sleepy town for most of the year, but was equipped to deal with the hoards of people that would flock in for Spring Break, Race Week, BCR, and Bike Week. So whatever we needed was there. Then at WVU, even though the school has a rural image, the town of Morgantown actually stands as one of West Virginia's "important cities". In both places I was able to find work and a variety of things to do outside from the college campus.

I myself am done with finals. I got a surprise in that I'm getting an "A" in my statistics course. I do not know the grades from my community college courses but as long as I get at least a "C", it's fine, because I just need the credits. WVU will not calculate the grades earned at out-of-state institutions into your GPA. I met with my adviser last week, and it looks like I need 45 credits to finish my degree. I'm taking 10 credits over the summer, so if all goes as planned, I'll be looking at 35 credits needed going into the fall. This makes the end seem so close; yet still far away.

Even so, I'm very thankful to and for WVU because they are making this possible. I'm in the Regent Bachelor of Arts Program which is designed to help non-traditional students with varying backgrounds get their degree. For a moment, I felt a bit of disappointment with not going for a more traditional degree. But I hope to go to graduate school...which will be a set program. So I didn't really let that hold me back. But now that I'm working through the program...I really appreciate it. You can choose "Areas of Emphasis" (similar to a minor) and mine is going to be business. Then I'm rounding out my programs with other courses that I found interesting and/or useful.

Nevertheless college is full of a lot of stuff that really seems unnecessary. Not just academically...but in the demands that it makes on your life in general. You give up the chance to work, you place yourself in less than ideal living situations, you must put your future into the hands and whims of administrators that do not seem to have your best interests in mind...geez, it goes on and on. And as much as I love WVU, even their name has been tarnished with this whole Heather Bresch fiasco. While talking to my ex about it (who has no personal connection to WVU), he seemed surprised that the President of the University hasn't stepped down. Why should he? I mean yes, it's inexcusable and very shameful. But he should not be held personally accountable for things that we actually enabled by others. Now if they find proof that he gave the ok or approved having officials lie about Ms. Bresch thing...then of course, he should be gone.

Colleges, colleges. Well one thing is for sure, they sure are efficient at taking your money. With the economy slowing down, more and more people will probably be opting for college nonetheless. I will be attempting to get a small fraction of my money back. I will be going down to Morgantown either today or tomorrow trying to sell my books back. LOL...just to turn around and buy more in a couple weeks.