Retold

I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure it would all work out and now that it has, I have something exciting to share.  Pardon the upbeat tone of this entry, I’m still feeling pretty positive.  I’m sure I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled cynicism in two shakes, but for now, I’m happy.  So what’s my news?  Yesterday, I signed up for my first grad class!  I’m still an undergraduate until December, but when a student is within 12 hours of graduation, with a GPA of 3+ on the last 60 hours of coursework, they’re eligible to sign up for up to 9 hours of graduate coursework.

Initially, before the semester started, I had decided against signing up for graduate work in my last semester.  I wanted to make sure to give myself every possible chance at success as I approach graduation.  The last thing I need is to mess this up and be stuck in undergraduate studies until I need wrinkle creams or something (jokes on me, I guess, since I already need wrinkle creams, but I digress).  At that point, I went ahead and signed up for my last 10 hours of undergraduate work and was happy with my choice to wait for grad classes until I was a graduate student.

Then, yesterday, I found out that there’re some rules in the English department about signing up for more than 6 hours of coursework until a student has taken “Methods of Bibliography and Research Analysis” (Engl 598).  It makes sense, I thought, since the Bib and Research class is the foundation for all of the coursework for thesis based graduate students.  Unfortunately, Bib and Research is only offered in the fall, which means in the spring I would have only been eligible to register for 6 hours, which would have made me ineligible for a graduate assistantship, as one must take 9 hours of course work to be eligible for the GA position.  I want to be a GA when I go to grad school, I’ll even apply for it though the GA position usually begins in the Fall semester.  So, my only really good option was to sign up for Bib & Research this semester, while I’m still an undergrad, bumping my course load to 13 credit hours.  I can handle that!

So, after lunch yesterday, it was like flight of the bumble bee!  I went to the English department and asked them how to proceed, they weren’t sure, but told me to talk to the College of Graduate Studies.  I walked across campus, as parking is a nightmare, and thankfully the grad office was able to help me.  Yesterday was the last day of late registration, too, which had been something I hadn’t known.  I only had a few hours left, but I met the requirements for registration for a grad class as an undergrad, so the dean of graduate studies, Dr. Jones, signed my form and I was off to registration.  They registered me!  Then, it was off to Financial Aid, for two reasons.  First, I had to see if they could fund the remainder of my grant since I’d signed up for more hours.  Second, we needed a book loan to pay for textbooks.

In financial aid, I ran into some issues.  The people that work in the financial aid office at my school are clueless in a way I cannot begin to express with words.  You would have to experience these people to understand.  I asked them about my grant and I got mixed answers.  The prevailing state was clear confusion.  One of them told me that I might lose my grant because it was a grad class.  When I asked her what could be done, she looked me right in the face and said, “you should drop the grad class.”  I almost strangled her!  No way was I dropping it.  Luckily, she was wrong, my grant went ahead and funded because I am still an undergraduate.  So far, so good.

Today we went and got textbooks, which came out to about $350.  I was thinking I’d be okay this semester, that the work would be moderate, but not terribly difficult… then I saw how many textbooks I needed.  I walked away from the bookstore with 7 books and one on order.  When it comes in, I’ll have bought 8 books.  Technically, I have 9 books for my 4 classes, but I already had one of the books I needed.  At this point, I’m thankful that it was only $350!!

Anyway, I start my grad class Monday night (6-9pm).  Grad classes at my school are only one night a week each, but there seems to be more than enough work to go around.  This class I’m taking has a 25 page paper due at the close of the semester.  Thankfully, but also dauntingly, I can choose the topic I want to write over.  I think I’ll likely do something over one of Kate Chopin’s works, as I plan to write my thesis over Kate Chopin’s work.  It’ll be good practice!  Oh, and I get to take class with Melanie again (yay!!).

Here’s the funny part of this whole tale… it turns out the information that Melanie was given, which she gave to me, about Engl 598 being required before more than 6 hours could be taken was false.  When I emailed the professor for the course to let her know I’d registered, a professor who also happens to be the graduate coordinator for the English Department at Tarleton, I explained that I had signed up for the course because of the requirement.  She said no such requirement exists, but that it’s a good idea for me to get this class out of the way now!  3 cheers for misinformation!

Now if I could only get Matt to stop going around telling people I’m a grad student already, things would be awesome!!  Technically, I’m not a grad student until January… or will be once I get my application submitted, anyway.

…(¨`·.·´¨)
…..`·.¸.·Kristyn