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Empowering students to fulfill their dreams through education.



Friday, January 31, 2014

Lessons From Orientation continued by Kelli Turpin

pic by Tulane Public Relations

Lessons from Orientation (continued):

The Computer is Stupid (or: Look at Your Schedule, Silly)
Computers do exactly what you tell them to do and nothing else. Therefore, it’s up to you to make sure you know what you’re telling it.

During Registration/Before the Semester Starts
After you’ve registered for all of your classes, click on the “View Schedule” button.  This is your moment to make sure that you didn’t accidently transpose a number within the CRN (Course Reference Number) and register for Ceramics at Mesa when you really meant to enroll for Beginning Stagecraft at City.

This is also the moment to make sure that the classes you scheduled back-to-back are really at the same campus. The computer requires that you have at least 10 minutes between classes. It will let you register for a class at City that ends at 11:00 a.m. and a class at Miramar that starts at 11:10 a.m. Because the computer doesn’t drive, it doesn’t care that you cannot physically get from City to Miramar in 10 minutes.

While you’re paying attention to details on Reg-E, click on “View/Pay Fees.” Most people have to pay the $19 health fee – even if you have Financial Aid. If you don’t pay your fees, you will be dropped from your classes. Even if you’ve already paid the health fee, click on the Fees button just to make sure (see above “The Computer is Stupid”). I don’t think you’ll be dropped, but better safe than sorry.

If you’re on a wait list for a class, you need to check your e-mail and/or Reg-E at least a couple of times a week. Once you get the notification that you’re able to add from the wait list, you only have a few days to do it. After that, the next person gets the class and you get dropped from the wait list. For some classes, that’s not much of an issue. For others (like English or Biology), it could be critical.

After the Semester Starts
The most important thing to do at the beginning of the semester is to look at your schedule on Reg-E. If you look at your schedule on the second Monday of the semester and find that you’re actually not enrolled in that Art class you love so much, you have plenty of time to make that happen (the deadline is the second Friday -- February 7th for spring 14). If you wait until the third Monday, you’re out of luck. You will not be able to register for any class after the add date.

Make sure that you drop any class you’re not actually attending. Professors are supposed to drop students from their roster who are inactive, or did not show up for class. Usually, they’re pretty good at it. Sometimes, they overlook someone.

pic by Arthur Grigoryan
Pop Quiz: To whom is your life more important? You or the professor?

Answer: You, Silly. Therefore, it is your responsibility to make sure you’re enrolled in classes that you’re attending and that you’re not enrolled in classes you are not attending. 

Monday, January 27, 2014

Lessons from Orientation Continued (Math) by Kelli Turpin

picture by Galaksiafervojo


Lessons from orientation continued: 

Math is one of those subjects that most people either love or hate. If you love it, definitely take it your first semester. Consider majoring in something that requires lots of math – engineering, economics, computer science, physical sciences – because those are majors that are connected with jobs that tend to grow.

If you hate math, you have a couple of choices:

a.       Take it your first semester and plow through until you’re done – once you’ve started, don’t stop. Math builds on itself, so keep building.

b.      Wait a semester. There’ll be flak for this one. Here’s my logic. If you think that you’re going to struggle in math and this is going to be your first semester in college, waiting for a semester to start math will give you the opportunity to succeed in college courses. Once you’ve succeeded, you know you have the study skills and ability to do well in college. At that point, you know that any issues you have with math are with math specifically and not with college generally. Waiting also gives you the opportunity to figure out how much time classes will take without math, so you have a better idea of how much time to budget for math – or how many other classes you can take with math.

Keep in mind that you can’t earn an associate degree without finishing Math 96 (or its equivalent) and you can’t transfer without a class that has Math 96 as a prerequisite. So don’t put it off too long.

Also know that all the baggage you carry around in regards to math is probably from some moment or series of moments in elementary school. You’re not 10 years old anymore – chances are, with the right professor (use ratemyprofessors.com), you’ll actually get it now.

If you need help in math, there is free tutoring available in our tutorial center (room L-205), and you can always arrange to meet with your math instructor during office hours to make sure you are on track.  

Sunday, January 26, 2014

SDSU Student Fee?

picture by lo2013
San Diego State University is considering a new student fee to help pay for classes and instructors. "SDSU Considers Student Fee to Pay for Additional Faculty" was published in the U-T San Diego on Jan. 25th, 2014.

Cinema Jobs!



Pacific Arts Movement is a nonprofit formerly known as the San Diego Asian Film Festival. They are hiring for the positions of Marketing and Outreach Director (open immediately) and Development Director (open immediately).

Monday, January 13, 2014

Scholarships!


The San Diego Foundation has scholarship info. There is a list of separate scholarships managed by the Foundation with their own timelines. Another list of external scholarships provides more scholarship opportunities for San Diego County students.

If you want to create your own profile for scholarships, go to www.fastweb.com. This website is not affiliated with The San Diego Foundation.