[Rhodes22-list] The Nerd Goes Back To School

[Bob Keller]

Roger,
Best of luck!
Bob K


>From: "Roger Pihlaja" <cen09402 at centurytel.net>
>Reply-To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>Subject: [Rhodes22-list] The Nerd Goes Back To School
>Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2003 05:53:59 -0400
>
>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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