Thursday, April 22, 2010

Credit Update

I recently got in contact with my financial aid office about my scholarship, since I was really worried about having to balance online classes with work in Disneyland. Luckily I found out that I'd be able to keep my scholarship in the fall without taking 12 credits. Rather than taking 12 at one time, I'll be taking 7 in the spring (may-june) and 6 in the fall. They'll split my scholarship up so that I receive half in the spring and half in the fall, so I'll still get the full amount.

This means that I can focus purely on working and taking a few classes offered by Disney while I'm in California. This is definitely a relief since I feel like I will have much more time to have fun and not be stressed out all the time. I will also be taking a semester off from my Japanese studies while I'm down there, so hopefully the smaller load will give me more time to review so that I don't forget everything by the time I start full-time again in the Winter.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Credit

Since I haven't posted in a while, I figured I'd update you guys on a meeting I had with my advisor recently about what kind of credit I can get on the program.

First of all, I'm only getting three credits for the working part of the program. The reason why it's not more is because I'm doing the program as a co-op (required of my major) which is only 3 credit hours. It requires 600 hours of work experience, so unless I work more than 1200 hours I won't be getting anymore than 3.

Luckily I can get some credit for the classes they offer, but it may not be exactly what you think. My program doesn't really differentiate between the different classes offered, so collegiate courses are worth no more than the lecture series. My advisor said I could receive 3 credits of Independent Study if I take 2 classes while I'm down there. She said it doesn't matter which ones I take, as long I bring back my "Ducktorate" to show her (to prove I actually attended and passed). I'll probably be taking the easiest classes I can, mainly because...

I'll be taking two online classes while I'm down there. I haven't mentioned this yet, but I have a small scholarship at my school and I have to remain a full-time student to maintain it. That means I need to take at least 12 credit hours every semester. I get six from the program itself, so that leaves at least 6 to fill up with online credits. The two classes I plan on taking are a writing class required for my major and a science class which gets rid of the final gen ed required for me to graduate. These definitely wouldn't be my first choices for online classes, but because I'm almost finished with all of my general requirements and my major refuses to offer much in terms of online credits I don't really have much of a choice. I'm hoping these classes won't take up too much of my time, so that I can have the opportunity to at least have a little fun.

I'm kind of bummed that I couldn't just get 12 credits for doing the program, but I also feel lucky since I know some people have schools that don't recognize the program at all (leaving them with no choice but to take 12 credits worth of online classes). I've heard that 2 online classes is manageable on the program, so I'm trying not to let that get me down too much. The only thing I'm worried about is that these classes may be too hard, since I don't really have any "fluff" classes left to take. Nonetheless, I'm still super excited about the program which is approaching very slowly (although with summer coming up, hopefully it will get here faster).

What do you guys think, is two online classes (along with work and two disney classes) too much? Has anyone done the program and taken online classes at the same time? If so, was it hard? I'd love to hear your guy's opinions on the matter.