[Rhodes22-list] The Nerd Goes Back To School

[Roger Pihlaja]

Hi Everybody,

Well, my life has changed again!  I've gone back to school at Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU).  I've enrolled in their 2nd baccalaureate degree program in an attempt to earn a BS degree in mechanical engineering (BSME).  As many of you know, I already hold BS & MS degrees in chemical engineering.

The whole thing happened pretty quickly.  In the end of July, 2003, I received an advertising flier in the mail from SVSU.  As I quickly glanced thru it, intending to toss it out as junk mail, I noticed SVSU had this "2nd Baccalaureate Degree Program" & they had programs in mechanical & electrical engineering.  The BSME & BSEE degree programs really caught my eye because I wasn't aware SVSU had an engineering school.  Up to that point, I thought the closest school that offered engineering degrees was Michigan State University in E. Lansing, MI, about 100 miles away.  So, the next day, I arranged an appointment with the SVSU Admissions Dept., took a tour of campus & the Engineering School, & talked with a couple of the engineering professors.  I came away convinced these folks & their program were for real!  The decision to pursue the mechanical engineering degree is purely market driven.  As I've been job searching, it appears about 75% of the engineering jobs that come onto the market in this area are for ME's.  In my previous job, at the Dow Chemical Co., I did a lot of mechanical engineering-related work.  Those of you familiar with my technical writing for the Rhodes 22 list know that most of it is mechanical engineering oriented.  With 26 years of experience, I could probably do the job in most of these positions.  However, without an ME degree, I couldn't even get an interview.

However, I've been unemployed since March, 2002 & our savings are dwindling away pretty quickly.  In addition, my older son Daniel, is just starting his 2nd year of college as a Graphic Arts major.  So, from a family resources point of view, I needed to get the required class credits for this BSME degree down to something that could be completed in a year or less.  That's where this 2nd Baccalaureate Degree Program came to the rescue.  Despite the fact that my 1st BS degree from Michigan Technological University dates back to 1975, in the 2nd Baccalaureate Degree Program, all the general education class requirements were waived.  All I had to do was determine how many of my chemical engineering college credits would transfer & count towards the mechanical engineering program.  Getting an official copy of my transcript from Michigan Tech sent to SVSU was no problem.  However, I needed to somehow get documentation of the course content of certain of my chemical engineering courses from the years 1971 - 1976!

So, on very short notice, in the 1st week of August, Daniel & I made a road trip up to Michigan Technological University in Houghton, MI.  Houghton is in the NW upper peninsula of Michigan, about 450 miles away.  We left early one morning & got to Houghton by about 2:00 PM.  I spent the rest of the afternoon in the archives of the campus library.  The library archives had bound paper copies of the academic catalogs from the years I attended school there.  I was able to photocopy the course descriptions I needed out of these original academic catalogs.  We camped overnight nearby & drove home the next day.

>From these course descriptions, a few syllabuses (syllabi?) I still had from my college notebooks, and some letters of recommendation from my former colleagues at Dow Chemical Co., I put together a stack of course petitions wherein I attempted to preempt out of as many ME courses as possible.  For each required ME course, I took the course descriptions from the current SVSU academic catalog and tried to justify my case that combinations of 3, 4, or even 5 classes from Michigan Tech &/or my work experience provided equivalent training.  I had to prepare stand alone course petitions for each SVSU course I wanted credit for.  I also had to sort thru the remaining required SVSU classes to figure which ones I still needed to take.  In certain cases, I had to petition SVSU to allow me to take classes and their prerequisite classes concurrently.  I had to submit these petitions to the SVSU mechanical engineering dept. and the entire ME dept. faculty voted on each one in private session.   After all the academic dust settled, I've managed to enter SVSU as a senior with 93 credit hours in the bag and 36 credit hours remaining to be earned.  This works out to 17 credit hours per semester in the fall and winter terms plus 2 credit hours in the summer, 2004 semester.  At this rate, I'll be done by August, 2004 with less than $10,000 invested, not including commuting costs.  It's doable; but, I'm going to need to find a job ASAP after that!  If it's not in engineering, I may be flipping burgers at McDonalds a year from now.

12 - 18 credit hours is considered the "normal" range of full time student load.  So, 17 credit hours per semester doesn't sound like a real heavy load, right?  However, the course petitioning process left me with mostly the really hard core ME classes to take - i.e. the real "killer" classes that everyone dreads.  The normal 4 year BSME degree program has students taking only one, or at most two, of these killer classes per semester.  I'm taking three of these beasts at the same time this semester, plus a couple of somewhat easier (for me) courses.  The winter semester class load will be similar.  Keeping in mind the last calculus class I took was something like 30 years ago, the homework load is staggering!  For some reason, I only have classes Monday - Thursday.  But, on Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday, I have classes from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM with a 45 minute commute on each end.  Fortunately, there is downtime during the day to do homework in between classes.  Being a morning person, I'm not too thrilled with the 12 hour days & the late evening schedule.  But, in each case, there was only one section of the class available.  So, my class schedule has zero degrees of freedom.  I'm fortunate it's even possible at all!  I'm very motivated; but, hopefully, haven't taken on more than I can handle here.

So, on September 22nd, I will turn 50 years old.  I will spend my 50th birthday in college classes with students less than half my age.  Because of my late night class schedule, I've resigned my adult leader position in my Boy Scout troop.  You won't be hearing about any more Boy Scout Polar Bear Winter Camping trips for awhile.  For now, I've kept my adult leader position in the Venture Unit.  But, I've warned them I won't be attending any Monday night unit meetings and will be very selective about attending weekend outings for the next year.  Hey, load had to be shed somewhere & I think I'm going to need the weekends to catch up!  I plan to stay on the Rhodes list, but probably won't be as active in my contributions.  I hope you all understand.

Despite the work load, my attitude is better than it's been in a long time.  I'm a very active person & engineers are, by nature, hard wired to be problem solvers.  The past 18 months of fruitless job searching has been pure torture & my ego & self esteem have really taken a beating.  I don't know where this new phase of my life is eventually going to end up.  But, at least there's a goal to be worked for & it feels like I'm moving forward again.  My wife, Deb, is nervous about the cost & worried about me bearing up under the crushing class load; but, in the end supportive.  She was appalled at how many hours it took me to do my homework & amazed at how cheerfully I did it.  The nerd has gone back to school!

Wish me luck!

Roger Pihlaja
S/V Dynamic Equilibrium