[Rhodes22-list] Roger Goes Back To School

[Kroposki]

Roger, 
	You wanted us to wish you good luck, so here it is, good
luck.....
                                        Ed K

-----Original Message-----
From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org
[mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Roger Pihlaja
Sent: Monday, September 01, 2003 5:54 AM
To: The Rhodes 22 mail list
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] The Nerd Goes Back To School

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 

      

       
__________________________________________________
Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list