Grades are in and I’ve PASSED! I now have a fucking MASTER’S DEGREE. How insane. Actually only one class’s grade has been reported, but failure is a statistical impossibility in my other class, so it’s party time. The missus and I are hitting VEGAS next week and are prepared to hit the town.
Good times ahead!!! (knock on wood)
One class left until the end of grad school. I don’t think it’s really hit me yet, and it probably won’t until graduation. I did realize today that when I walk out of my last class, it will very likely be the last time I’m ever in the halls of Franklin University. That realization is always bittersweet for me. I have pictures of a random area of all the schools I’ve attended since junior high. I guess I’m rather nostalgic in many ways. I cannot wait to be done and to finally accomplish something that I never thought imaginable for most of my life, but it’s also sad to know that this era of my life is over. I’ve met many great people; professors and students alike, I hope to see them in industry again someday.
Five days until it’s over. 45 until graduation and a new paper hangs above my desk.
It might not look messy to some, but I normally have nothing but hardware on my desk. Did I mention I have three weeks left?
Three weeks until the end of graduate school.
Three weeks.
Three weeks to complete my research paper on cross site scripting, the k-nn algorithm and the Markov Model.
Three weeks to start and finish a distributed Java project with my teammates.
Three weeks to figure out just what the hell the Professor means in the distributed system assignment writeup.
Three weeks until all of the hurdles and hoops are behind me.
Three weeks until that paper is mine.
Man, I can barely make it through classes anymore; I don’t know how it did it before I had a laptop. Shit is sincerely boring. I guess that’s what I get for teaching myself this shit years ago. Jumping through hoops for The Paper. Five weeks left and slowly counting.
So the MSCS Capstone at Franklin underwent a change in the last term, from a traditional research project curriculum to more of a normal class. We are focusing on discussions on ethics and analyzing a research paper of our choosing. The final outcome is a few assignments and a short paper outlining our thoughts and criticism of the research paper we chose.Â
A good number of students were upset that the capstone was changed. I’ve had mixed feelings personally. On one hand, it’s a hell of a lot easier than doing a traditional project, and part of the switch was that the capstone class’ length was halved. So, I get to graduate a full four months earlier than I initially expected. On the other hand, a capstone should be project based. It should be tough. You should have to jump though the hoops of finding and appeasing an advisor.
On the surface, I should be very happy that the class now has a much lighter workload. One nagging thing is in the back of my head is that if I go for my Doctorate, that process will be that more difficult. It almost feels like when I graduated from DeVry with my Bachelor’s degree. That curriculum was extremely light on mathematics; that was wonderful at the time, but set me up for a much more difficult time at Franklin.Â
Ah hell, I’m not sure I’ll be going for my Doctorate at this point anyway. I’m sure in a few years I’ll be bored and figure why not, but at the moment, I’ll get along just fine being away from academia.
For the upcoming term I need to use a web app called the 'Dropbox' at my University. Essentially it is a very easy app that accepts a file for upload, then associates it with an assingment number, and whether or not you'd like to have it graded. It doesn't even allow downloading of any uploaded files.
I just returned from submitting my graduation application for my Master’s degree in Computer Science.
Now if you don’t know me in the physical world; I was never expected to finish High School. I failed four grades. I was suspended the grand majority of the time, and the other times I wasn’t really paying attention if you know what I mean. For some reason, near my 18th birthday, I realized the error of my ways. I cleaned up, hit the books, went to trade school, high school, and worked second shift full time all at the same time for two years. Of the four years I failed, I graduated only two years behind, that’s how much work I did.
To think I will have my Master’s degree is just insane. To think that the focus was on Theoretical Math as part of Computer Science is even more insane. The fact that the only time I’ve ever gotten straight A’s was in Graduate School on a graduated scale.
But do you know what the craziest part of it all is? I’m going to graduate with honors.
The smile in my mind is so big right now that it’s kind of funny.
The Happiest Days of our Lives by Wil Wheaton
