Summer is officially over tomorrow, with the first day of fall classes at the University of Texas. Pat and I moved out of Duren last Tuesday morning. I moved into my new dorm at Moore-Hill on Sunday. These past two days have been hectic as hell, according to an official UT document, with the “masses coming in.” And yeah, campus is alive now. Summer was really mellow, not that many people, but now upperclassmen are here, the fall freshmen are here, people I haven’t seen in years are here.

My last final was calculus on Monday night, August 18th. Pat and I decided to move out the next morning at 8. When I finished my final, we started packing up and we were thinking, “What if we left Austin right now?” It was 10 pm when we got the crazy idea. We finished packing the car around 1:30, and did a final sweep and left Duren around 1:50 am. I was hyped for driving, getting the most out of my official summer break. On the way down the elevator, coming up to the second floor where we lived we saw Gee-Wey! We hadn’t seen him since CYC 05, and a couple reunions after that! It was surreal, 2 am and of all the people coming up the elevator was Gee-Wey! we drove and got to Houston around 4:30 am, Pat ended up getting home around 5 am. The week went by way too fast, just catching up with old friends. I also hit up Westheimer with Jonathan Saturday night before the Sunday I move back to Austin.

The last Saturday night before school started, everyone showed out, but cops were smart about it and swooped in early. They kicked everyone out of the parking lot, and of course we just went to another parking lot but they kept following us. Everyone was at the Burlington Coat Factory on Highway 6, and two cop cars actually blocked off Westheimer so people could get out of the parking lot. People just trying to go home from a night on the town were blocked up. It was funny, video coming soon, as soon as Jonathan figures out how to “rip” the video. Yeah, I purposely used quotation marks there.

I had an engineering meeting for the people who fulfilled the summer contract on Monday, and it was exciting. I looked at my degree plans and wow I am so glad I took summer because I only have to take 14 hours this semester instead of 16. Every semester I will be taking 16, but I’m already a step ahead because I took calc and chem in the summer. In the fall, I’ll be taking intro to aerospace engineering, intro to comp sci for engineering, intro to philosophy, calc II, and physics for engineering. Should be a nice workload. I’ve mulled it over while I was showering in the Moore-Hill community baths, and I’ve decided I really want to work hard in college. I always hear from people that I had so much potential in high school, and I could have been top 10 if I tried. And you know what, these next four years, I’m gonna try.

I’ve seen some people walking around with Cockrell Engineering shirts on, and they look like the top 10 type from Bellaire; where are the ladies? I want to meet people who aren’t just all about studying and know to have some fun. That’s my biggest worry, but everyone who went through the summer contract is totally cool, they all better stay in engineering.

I got my grades from summer, C in chemistry, B in calculus, and A in American studies, that puts my GPA up to 3.0. But American studies doesn’t count towards my engineering degree, if only I had known, I would have taken mythology over the summer. My social studies credit has been fulfilled through the American History AP, I just need to do Texas history before I graduate. I’m optimistic about the fall semester, with 400 people classes, I’m sure there will be someone who can help me with physics. I’m going to have to learn to love physics because I will be taking many more semesters of it.

Today I did an interview with Longhorn Confidential, which is the UT blogging program. They interviewed me about my interests and personal life. Blogging for UT will be a fun experience, but the only down side is that I don’t get to design my own page. We’ll see what the masta can whip up ;). The blogs get to be featured on the front page of the UT website, so I guess that’s kind of special. I just need to be more active around campus, and we’ll see what happens.

It’s been blistering in Austin these past couple days, mixed with rain. I walked a bit today for the interview and to catch lunch with some old friends, I was drenched in sweat. I look out my window and I see a light drizzle. Strange. Good luck with school, everyone!

As summer draws to a close, summer freshmen here at the University of Texas at Austin begin slowing down and preparing for the upcoming finals. It’s everywhere you go. Besides the occassional Michael Phelps discussion, it’s all studies. These finals are important to semester averages, and ultimately, GPA. Of course, the people already doing poorly in a course are dropping classes, but for summer session, the drop deadline is much later than in fall and spring.

Like everyone else, I’ve calculated the grade I need on each of my finals to get a good grade. I need an 85 on the calculus final to maintain the A average (which is good, considering I took calculus AB in high school). The only downside is that the final is not cumulative and covers the hardest part of the semester, the part most people didn’t learn in high school. There is an optional final this Thursday, but it doesn’t need to be turned in, if it’s too hard, you can always wait till the real thing which is on Monday evening. In chemistry, the fourth exam is Thursday and the final is on Saturday. I’m most worried about this course because I need to get two A’s on both to scrape by with a B-. The final exam can be counted up to 50%, up from 30%, if I do well on the final. The lowest exam grade is also dropped, so if I get over an 80 on the exam tomorrow I should be set. It’s just sad that the numbers are against me. As for American studies, liberal arts classes never give out too many A’s. It seems like everyone in the class has a mid to high B. The final on Thursday is all short answer paragraphs. It’s just the fact that I’ve got to study important people and facts and events and themes in the Gilded Age all tonight. I’ll need an A on that final to get an A in the class.

It’s not too bad, sometimes I get a little pessimistic. I mean, getting a C in a class isn’t too bad. Some say it’s not worth it, that you should just drop. But for me, I need at least 8 hours of credit in the summer to maintain the engineering contract, and I’m enrolled in 10 right now. Even if I drop one class, that sets me at 7 hours, which isn’t enough to fulfill the requirements. It’s time to buckle down tonight. I’ve got my work cut out: thermodynamics, integrals, and the Gilded Age. I’ll be packing the Red Bull tomorrow morning…

It’s August 13th today. It’s hard to imagine that high school was only a little over two months ago. I’m jealous of everyone kicking it at home, having a good time before they all leave for college. The summer of senior year is supposed to be the most fun, no summer school or homework, no worries. In a flash, the fall semester begins in two weeks. I’m moving out of here Monday evening, going back to Houston for about a week. I can’t wait for the fall semester to start because then everyone I know will be here. And all the freshmen won’t know anything, like where certain buildings are. On the flip side, once fall starts, there goes my summer. Then it’ll be back to the day-to-day drill of school.

Hope everyone out there is enjoying summer, watching the Olympics, and having a good time.

I’ve been taking class here at the University of Texas at Austin for four weeks now; midterms were last week. I’m still struggling a bit in chemistry, but after the professors tag-teamed, I’m starting to get a grasp on chemistry. It’s mainly because the new professor teaches with concepts and common sense instead of quantum models. Maybe it’s just this unit we’re on. And the old professor cared when I played on my DS in class, though she thought I was texting. Imagine being called out in a class of 170 students… It’s like high school all over agan, except the classroom is an auditorium. I’ve gotten D’s on both tests so far, and a D is a 60 – 69. Of course, my homework and quiz grades are respectable, but those are only weighted at 10% of the semester average. Looks like it’s time for a clutch when finals roll around.

In calculus, it’s a different story. I took calculus AB in high school. I didn’t do spectacular, finished the semester with an 81. When course registration started in March, I didn’t know how well I’d do on the AP, and the lowest level math I could enroll in was M408C. So in May I took the AP, and I was pretty sure I bombed it. Calculus has pretty much been a freebie, even during lectures I end up falling asleep or watching a video on the Zune. It’s pretty much a review, and I breeze through the quizzes and test. The only catch is that a student needs to get a 99 or above on all assignments to be exempt from the final. It’s too bad that the rule doesn’t work if you have a 99 average. In American Studies, there is a five page paper due next Thursday. For those of you still at home, enjoy summer. Taking class in college is basically like high school, except you don’t actually have to go to class, but most teachers have daily quizzes to ensure you’re in class. And you can’t really get on Facebook or surf the Internet in most classes because the professors don’t allow laptops or the grad students watch your screens.

College is just a lot of fun because of outside of class. It’s good to be away from home and living by yourself. Oh, and you can eat, sleep, drink (haha) whatever you want, whenever you want. Of course, it’s always good to visit home every now and then, and I find myself visiting Houston every other weekend. This weekend I’ll be in Houston again, so if anyone wants to have plans for something Friday evening, I’m free!

I have been ignoring this blog again, and I promise to try to update more frequently! So who thinks I should redesign the color scheme?

This summer I’m taking three classes: Calculus AB, Chemistry, and Introduction to American Studies. The reason I’m taking Calculus AB over again is because I haven’t received my AP score yet and I might as well get that free A since I know the material already. Calc is my first class, at 10 am, and I wake up at 8:30 to catch a late breakfast at the dorm cafeteria. College classes are just like in the movies. Big stadium style seating, 150 person classes, and a professor talking in the front of the class. They usually don’t care if you get up and leave in the middle, or don’t even show up, but they’d like you to be quiet when they’re teaching. But I have this one guy for American Studies who teaches like it’s high school.

Calculus is easy, for now, limits and introduction to derivatives. I’m taking it easy in that class for now. Listening to the the professor’s points and doing some of the homework questions. The professor is just awesome. She’s got a great sense of humor, and she obviously loves what she does. On top of that, she’s probably a genius, graduated from Cornell, taught at Princeton and U Chicago before coming to Texas. Did I mention this summer will be her thirtieth year here?

Chemistry has always been my weak point, and college chemistry will probably be harder than high school. I took it non Pre-AP chem and I only got a C. Well, maybe it was because I never paid attention in class because everyone else around me wasn’t getting anywhere in life. But that’s okay, I know a bunch of people who can help me. Learning the periodic table over, I’m glad we’re going over stuff like orbitals, because the only thing I know about those is that they get you really cheap travel prices. Or is that orbitz.com… So far, it’s so good. Homework is actually a grade, 5% of our total grade. It’s on the Natural Sciences’ Quest system, which is similar to the UT homework we did in physics back in high school. Maybe they revamped the system, because the worksheets are the same exact format. Submitting answers is a bit different. The irony is just that I never really thought I’d be doing UT homework at UT… I don’t know what made me think that, really. I guess I was hoping college would be the end of homework.

American Studies is two months about the 1893 Columbian Exposition. An entire class about the Chicago World’s Fair. I signed up for this class because I am a huge American history junkie. I wanted to learn more about American culture as a whole. That’s okay, I guess, because for the first week, I thought we’d just be studying the fair for two months. I’m glad we’re learning about the society and culture of the Gilded Age. Too bad the teacher is obsessed with statistics, and the topics are really stuff that we learned in US History. It’s a lot of background about how America started to really begin to show itself on the world stage.

Mondays and Wednesdays I get a break from 1 pm to 2:30 pm to get some late lunch at the dorm cafeteria. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have teacher aide session for calc, that’s when we brush up on Professor Davis’s lectures from the day before and quiz on material we learned the week before. No class on Fridays. Three day weekends every week are awesome. Hoping to manipulate my fall schedule to get it like that.

How are y’all?

The University of Texas does a pretty good job of digitizing the entire college system. Everything revolves around their UT Direct website, which a lot of us were exposed to back in physics with Ghosh. The reality is that I’ll be doing those UT homeworks soon for not just physics, but for other classes too. The only downside to the website is the terrible layout. You can’t get anywhere you need to by direct links, you have to do a search using their search engine.

Registration for my alpha category opened this morning at 10 am. I got out of the shower and sat in my underwear in front of the computer waiting for registration to open. I signed up for classes in the air conditioned dorm while everyone else stood out in a long line under the hot sun. I wanted to take Intro to Visual Art, but that’s only for Art History majors… And I’m undeclared, so I had to change that around. I’m signed up for philosophy in place of that class.

A couple months back, I got a contract with Cockrell Engineering; if I get a 2.5 overall GPA, get an A or B in my math class, and log 8 – 10 credit hours in the summer, I’ll be admitted in the fall. Pretty sweet deal right? Since I took Calculus AB my senior year, and AP scores haven’t come out yet, I’m taking Calc AB again in the summer. I’m also taking Chemistry and Intro to American Studies this summer. I want to get into Aerospace Engineering at Cockrell, and it only requires students to take one semester of chemistry. Which is great because chemistry is my worst subject. In the fall, I’ll be in Calculus BC, physics, philosophy, and intro to society. So what does this all this mean? It means that everyone who worked their asses off in high school trying to get that A in every class got boned. The top 10% who got into UT and got into engineering got boned. I graduated top 31%, I’ve gotten my share of C’s (and D’s… and F’s). And I’ll be starting fall ahead or just par with them. Summer program is a small price to pay for having (below) average grades in four years of high school. Those of you reading this who are still in high school, don’t give up! There is still hope! All you really need is a good SAT math score, which is what got me into this contract.

I’m excited about summer classes starting on Monday because it means I’ll be that much closer to getting into engineering. At the end of summer, I should have accumulated 10 semester hours. Along with AP credits and that accounting class I took at HCC, I think I just might be a second year by the time winter break rolls around.

College life is just fun. It’s great to be away from parents, and I can do what I want when I want. Doing laundry can get a bit tedious as the machines take a while, they aren’t as heavy duty as the ones from home. Just bring the laptop downstairs for some wifi, haha. The parents are visiting tomorrow, however. I guess they miss me. I miss my swimming trunks, so they’ll be bringing me that. The Gregory Gym outdoor pool just looks awesome.

Pat’s taken two more pictures of me with food. I’m feeling kind of awkward now that I have five total pics of my mouth wide open ready for some food shoveling. I need to get out and use my camera more often, it’s just sitting idle on my desk day after day.