i registered for my spring classes – 7 credits, and they start about 2 weeks before the current semester ends. never thought that a fall semester and spring semester would ever overlap, but i guess that’s what happens when your first fall class goes from september – december, your second fall class goes from november – feburary, and your spring classes go from january – march. it’s going to be a little bit weird submitting my class schedule for my spring tuition to be paid by work since i can’t submit my request for the spring semester until i get all of my grades for the fall semester.
i know i need a biology/physical science class + a lab, and i also need a writing general education requirement course. i signed up for NSCI 100 (“introduction to physical science”) which is a class on “the basic principles of physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, oceanography, and meterology”, and its associated 1-credit lab course NSCI 101. i think it’s a bit odd that you can do a lab as an online class, but hey, i’m not complaining… apparently the lab consists of “experiments, observations, and exercises.” i guess they tell you to go do something and report back?
i also know i need a writing general education requirement course; i had fulfilled the basic english course, but i still need another writing course (recommended: ENGL 291 – “expository and research writing”, or other writing GER course) as well as an “upper-level intensive writing course” (recommended: COMM 393 or COMM 393X – “technical writing”… the ‘X’ version is for ESL students, or “other upper-level intensive writing GER course”). ENGL 291 says it fulfills the general education requirement in communications…. and so does JOUR 201, “writing for the mass media”. i figured if i wanted to get a minor in journalism then why not start by taking a journalism class that fulfills one of the requirements that i know i need?
in order to get a minor in journalism, i’d need the following classes, 3 credits each for a total of 15 credits:
remember how i complained the other day how they have an art minor, but there’s no interesting fun photography courses in the art program? well, i found ARTT 152 – “basics of photography”, covering basic photography techniques and the historical development of photography. apparently there’s also a PHOT 198, but i can’t seem to find any info about this course. in any case, neither of these are offered during the spring or fall 2007 semesters. but! while i was looking at the journalism courses available, there’s the very interesting JOUR 350 – “photojournalism in the digital age”:
(Students are required to use their own digital camera.) Prerequisite: A course in journalism. An exploration of techniques and trends in photojournalism. Practice in the fundamentals of photography (exposure, basic lighting techniques, portraiture and composition, and scanning and digitally toning photos using Photoshop) is provided. Assignments include developing a mini portfolio of short photo essays and a final story project to be published on the course Web site. The history of photojournalism is surveyed, focusing on the recent development of webzines and online newspapers.
AWESOME! this would be perfect for that “any upper-level journalism course”, since it’s 3 credits and an upper-level course. the bad thing is that prerequisite of “a course in journalism” since i haven’t yet taken any journalism courses. i might give them a call tomorrow and see if i can take it at the same time that i’d be taking this “writing for the mass media” class. it’d be 10 credits i’d be taking for the spring semester, but this photojournalism course doesn’t seem to be offered for the fall semester… unless it’s added to the schedule of classes sometime later this year, but i doubt that’ll happen. i don’t want to have to wait a full year to maybe get a chance to take this class. 🙁
so, best-case scenario:
from umbc to umuc
90 credits (assuming they all transfer)
summer 2006
LIBS 190 (this was a “how to do research” class, i’m not even going to really count it since it was 1 credit, and i don’t think it counts toward graduation)
fall 2006
COMM 390 – communication for managers – 3 credits
STAT 200 – introduction to statistics – 3 credits
= 6 credits (total: 96 credits)
spring 2007
NSCI 100 – introduction to physical science – 3 credits
NSCI 101 – introduction to physical science lab – 1 credit
JOUR 201 – writing for the mass media – 3 credits
JOUR 350 – photojournalism in the digital age – 3 credits
= 10 credits (total: 106 credits)
fall 2007
JOUR 202 – editing for the mass media – 3 credits
IFSM 304 – ethics in the information age – 3 credits
COMM 393 – technical writing – 3 credits
IFSM 303 – human factors in information systems – 3 credits
= 12 credits (total 118 credits)
spring 2008
IFSM 432 – disaster recovery planning – 3 credits
COMM 300 – communication theory – 3 credits
COMM 400 – communication and the law – 3 credits
= 9 credits (total 127 credits)
sure, it’s 7 credits more than the necessary 120, but i’m thinking of the opportunities that a journalism minor can give me, especially if i combine it with the information systems degree or my photography skills. it works out even better if they end up having a summer session where i can take some of these classes and get them out of the way sooner as well! no word on when the summer or fall sessions will be since they haven’t released dates for the summer or fall semesters yet. still, i can pretty safely say that i unofficially think that i’ve only got one more year to go at most. i still need an official transcript evaluation to tell me what classes transfer, but looking at the classes that i have versus the classes that i need i think i’ve got a pretty good idea of what courses at umbc equate to what umuc offers.