[Rhodes22-list] The Nerd Goes Back To School

[Steve Alm]

Roger,

Congratulations and I second what Saroj says, wholeheartedly.  One word of
caution however:  When you get in those classes and realize you know more
than the teacher, just bite your tongue and finish your homework!  8-)

Knock 'em dead!
Slim

On 9/1/03 4:53 AM, "Roger Pihlaja" <cen09402 at centurytel.net> wrote:

> 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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