Race for the Bachelor’s

Posted on by frankwmcarr

So, as we have just entered May, I am hoping to be accepted by West Chester U.  However, while I am a step away from admission, we still need one factor to be settled.  And it’s quite goofy.

Goofy, you may think.  Yes, this is due to an incident at a community college 5 years ago (2012).  I won’t describe it, but it could put some restrictions (if not a total ban of admission) on me at West Chester U, despite it being well past.  By the way, that very same behavior did not truly cause expulsion from the community college, but an odd “permanent suspension” from the campuses.  So while I couldn’t physically attend the classrooms, I did manage to complete an online course.

Thus, to get this issue settled, which apparently may seem trivial due to great progress in coping with issues and not using assaults to communicate (especially by putting an end to a 13-year series of assaults earlier this year, which started in high school), I must defend my eligibility at an interview at the university.  If not, I could go elsewhere.

But Here’s the Catch…

As a product of the special education system, due to my mild autism and the behaviors that came forth through that, I had little college-preparation.  All throughout middle and high school, I did little homework and similar academic activities (and the stuff I did was far less challenging than a true college-prep high school student).

Later, when I started attending that very community college mentioned above, I never finished a semester with any more than one course complete.  At a later community college, I successfully completed no more than two per semester.

So, is the prospect of a bachelor’s impossible?  Well, I’ll see.  I will probably change my proposed full-time status (12+ credits, roughly 4 courses) to one that is part-time (11 or lower).  Then I can ease my way into the Biology curriculum, especially since I already have 33 credits down (and thus a sophomore status).  Their contribution to my college progress depends on where they fit into the curriculum.

And a Brief Addendum…

Eureka!  I know why I hardly ever completed reading a textbook without an instructor.  While I have looked at textbooks for just the enjoyment of it, time and time again, they have always backfired.  A textbook is chock full of facts, and unless you don’t have a professor as your compass, you will (metaphorically) drown in that factual sea!  Personal reading of textbooks is a sink-or-swim deal, for you won’t know what facts are important and what are not.  In fact, in most courses, I understood why certain things in their corresponding texts didn’t matter so much, not to mention some information that was included in the lectures had relevance.  It’s also a matter of your school’s curriculum in a given area, as well as its strength at it.

So I’ll probably stick to more “popular press” stuff for now, especially for things outside my prospective major (namely, biology).

“Reading textbooks for fun”…nothing but an oxymoron.

College Update

Posted on by frankwmcarr

This afternoon, a few months after submitting an application to Lock Haven University, one of the Pennsylvania “state schools” in the northern part of the state, I returned a call from an admissions director, and I was accepted!  Due to some misconduct over the past few years, sparing the gory details of such, I cannot live on campus.  Nonetheless, I can definitely live in the neighboring town (namely, you guessed it, Lock Haven, PA) and commute to school on time.

While I applied to the University for spring 2017, I probably won’t go until the fall of 2017 or more likely, 2018.  (Spring 2017 was the latest option on the application, so I selected that.)

The other major update is that after a year or so of study at Lock Haven, I may, in addition to my Biology program into which I have already been accepted, may add a “double major,” perhaps in geology.  Just as with biology (if not more so), when studying the subject, as a young-earth creationist myself, I would thinking against what I would typically believe.  Yet I have good resources, such as journals and personal mentors, that can keep me on track.  After all, the majority of scientists (of any kind) that follow creationism have had to take old-earth scholastic routes to get there.

As for my West Chester plan, I felt the double major of Biology and Geology had a better overlap of courses at Lock Haven, so I think I’ll go for Lock Haven instead, even though it’s MUCH further (that is, 4 hours or so from Philadelphia).

So, while I feel headed for “the Haven”, for now let’s just concentrate on getting through its “gateway,” that is, CCP.