[Rhodes22-list] The Nerd Goes Back To School

[Ronald Lipton]

Good luck Roger.   I suspect that by the time you are done you
may be teaching rather than learning.

Ron

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger Pihlaja" <cen09402 at centurytel.net>
To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
Sent: Monday, September 01, 2003 4:53 AM
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




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