Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Thoughts about school

Author's note: I just re-read this post and it's so negative! I guess this is just how I typically feel about the whole thing at the end of a long day. Take it as it is or leave it I guess! :P

My capstone professor is a squat little man who wears a Gucci belt and refers to us as "young Jedi," and "young Obiwan." He gets hung up over the difference between a 'strategy' and a 'tactic,' and is prone to treat you like one of life's great failures for forgetting to grab a calculator as you ran out the door at 7:30 that morning. He compares the capstone classes to standing in front of a gushing fire hydrant and trying to just take a sip, which feels about right.

Thankfully, the involvement in capstone is offset by Operations Management, which is taught by an Ecuadorian professor who looks like a deer in headlights most of the time. Pretty much all we do for 2.5 hours twice a week is watch movies and (barely) discuss their relevance to the current chapter. Yesterday we watched clips about Indian children marrying in their preteen years, the creation of the Disney Parks in different parts of the world, and about 30 minutes worth of Hotel Rwanda. I saw Hotel Rwanda when it was new, and though it had an important message, was not a movie I ever wanted to watch again. The common ground between the three movies? Cultural differences. Also, one thing this professor has done with us is put us in groups of six and given us a project that would require all six of us to take time off work at the same time in order to complete it. It's not going to happen. So, we're going to do what people do when placed under unrealistic expectations: find "creative ways" to get it done. It's unfortunate really - the whole class feels like a complete waste of time and money - but you do what you have to to pass. Except take time off work. I'm very stubborn about that. To me, work absolutely comes first; I will not give up something good for something stupid. And that's that.

Unlike, say, my IT professor from last semester, it is sad to say that I sometimes doubt the ability of some professors to do in the 'real world' what they teach in the classroom. But maybe that is why some of them teach. I've had some really great professors too though! Not to knock them all...

Also, what else is kind of lame is that UVU doesn't even have a capstone for accounting majors, so they stick us in the business management capstone until they get one for accounting.

I've been thinking more about graduate school - I really don't know if I'd want to do an MBA. The business classes are all super boring to me. And as for the MACC, it looks like there are a lot of tax classes, which is almost more boring. If I know myself well enough, I know that graduate school is something I'm going to have to really want really badly to be able to get through it. So I'm walking that fence right now. I am definately taking some time off in between. And when it does come time for that, I'll be taking the prerequisites at that school, wherever it is. Two of the prereq's that are required for the MACC or the MBA with Accounting emphasis are not offered by UVU at night, so it would probably be my only option anyway. If UVU ever offers Auditing at night, I might go back and take it, but other than that I am more than happy to kiss that school goodbye. Anyway, this will hopefully be the last time I talk about graduate school until I've decided what to do.

1 comment:

Sven said...

good riddance to UVPoo.