Going to College as an Adult

wormie said:

I bombed my orgo test just now RIP life.

That GRE score should be fine for a non quant PhD, no?

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Man, orgo isn't hard unless you try to brute force/memorize it. Learn the language first (how to draw bonds, arrows, etc.). Then basically identify the nucleophile and the electrophile and let them react to one another - pushing the electrons lower in energy until everything finishes up. This is correct 95+% of the time, so unless your prof is a complete dork about the ~5% of exceptions then you're golden. The remaining exceptions aren't that extensive and often fall into groupings themselves.

In short, flashcarding your way through orgo is nothing but pain for all involved - learn the reactivity rule(s) and follow them when you do it next time!

Of course, I have a Ph.D. in chemistry so your mileage may vary......

wormie said:

Yeah that sounds nice except thats not how tests go. Most of the questions today involved a molecule and 5-6 reagents all leading to a product we had to identify together with the name of the reaction. There were maybe two mechanisms and those were fairly short and easy. It seems I was expected to basically memorize like 30 mechanisms and fuck that. If we were actually given time to sit there, draw out the reactions until we reach the final product then this wouldnt be an issue and what you said can be done. But nope, time limit and a retard test designed to be finished in that time limit and not faster. Fuck this garbage subject with a rusty dildo, I have never attempted to study anything so trash in my 300 credits.

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Naming reactions is total bullshit for entry level courses. Doesn’t help understanding, I’m sorry your prof is stupid old school. Naming can be important later, but in orgo 1 it’s a waste. (Reagent choice is fair game tho).

I'm currently 38 years old. I'll be 39 the end of August. Anyway, after graduating High School, my parents told me College was a waste of time. I was working for the family business, and I always would be, so why worry about College? Anyway, a few years ago I decided to upend my life and move out to Hawaii with my wife and daughter. Life in Philadelphia was all that I ever knew, but I fell in love with the scenery and friendliness of the locals when I came here on a vacation. Also, stress levels didn't really seem to exist out here they way they do on the main land (continental US).

Well, since moving here, I've been a disaster. Financially speaking. I had 20 years working for my family business, and I worked my way up to Vice-President, but honestly... it was in name alone. I didn't have any authority over others. But I was very good at problem solving when it came to handling customers, so that's a plus. However, those "family business VP" skills didn't appear to translate out here. I tried retail sales, which I enjoyed. Maybe because it was something different. But I'm not into playing the gossip game with other employees, which singled me out. I moved on a little later.
Then I decided to become a Realtor. Using my history in Sales (as the VP), as well as the retail sales, I figured it was only natural. I tried for a while, but it turns out that I'm not meant to be a realtor either. I enjoy the work, but I'm not the best at connecting with new potential clients. And most agents won't really allow you to follow them around, so you're pretty much on your own.

While acting as a Realtor, I needed another job that gave me SOME income. Real Estate is a gig that pays $0 unless you're closing a deal. Either buying or selling houses. Or rentals, if that's your thing. It's a 100% commission type of career. That brings us to Lyft. I actually like being a driver, go figure. I get to meet a lot of new people (and I used to give out business cards to ALL of my riders), and it's something I really like. What I don't like, however, is the wear and tear your vehicle suffers. It's VERY easy to drive 50-60k miles in a year. That's pretty fucking crazy. Especially with your own vehicle. And you're completely fucked if ANYTHING happens to your vehicle. For example, I purchased a used mini-van. Initially I got it for the option of getting better rides with Lyft, but it turns out I REALLY like this vehicle due to all of the bells and whistles (and technology) it offers. But someone ran into me right before NYE, nearly tearing one of the sliding doors off in the process. I waited forever for insurance to finally respond that they felt they had no liability in the situation. I'm still battling them now to get it resolved, but I'm done driving. It just isn't worth the frustration. Not to mention, this is a gig that doesn't do ANYTHING for the drivers. And the company Lyft takes 40-60% of the total from EVERY ride. No exceptions. So a ride that may cost the customer $25 will usually land me between $10-15. Factor in your gas mileage, insurance, tires and any possible damage to your vehicle and it's a losing gig. Not to mention, you're completely on your own for vacation (ha), or being hurt. All of your income reaches $0 the moment you aren't driving for the company. So it's a great gig for extra cash, but NOT a career by any stretch of the imagination.

This brings us to now. I'm extremely mechanically inclined. I'm very good at understanding how things work, and I'm good at self-teaching myself. But I decided that I should finally attend college and start out a new mid life career. And honestly, I can picture myself being an Engineer for the rest of my life. And I've been told that the degree offered by the local university is pretty good. So I think it's finally time to figure out my future. A legit career that would be good to me and my family for the rest of my life. I have a sit-down with the university on the 6th to discuss that future. And classes will start up in August, so I have quite a bit of time to go... but at least it's working towards a goal. And realistically, I could go to community college for the "normal" classes, then transfer over once I've done those pointless credits. I'm tired of just wasting my time without any clear goal in life. I think this would be a great next step.

Oh yeah. I've thought about numerous other careers with easier cost of entry. Real Estate for example, and that hasn't worked out very well. But other options are Electrician or Plumber. There's the potential for great income doing that, but it's something that can beat the hell out of your body. I have Multiple Sclerosis, which has the possibility of making me wheelchair bound in the future. It's unlikely, but it's still a risk. With that in mind, getting a blue collar job wouldn't offer me the long term stability that a white collar job would do. Especially if something were to happen that could leave me disabled. Not a good idea to go for blue collar while keeping that in mind.

Indeed. Isn't it strange that you're required to take general education classes for every degree? Why don't they have "fast track" classes that eliminate the busy work classes that won't help your chosen degree only to focus on the meat of it?

Don't just "wing it" by just taking classes and figuring it out as you go. That's what I did and although I got many accolades, research opportunities, NSF grants, and had the best time of my life I ended being 40 years old trying to start a career that only payed $35k/year. Ultimately I ended up doing the same thing I was doing before getting my Bachelor's, albeit at a much higher level and pay rate.

My advice would be to first comb the available jobs where you want to live and see what they pay and what the work entails. Then once you've found the career you want, tailor your degree to that.

Definitely start knocking out those shitty "core" classes at a community college on the cheap. Most states if you transfer enough of those with a GPA 3.5+ to a state University its worth a couple grand per semester in tuirion assistance.

Nice. I had never even heard of CLEP until now. And after doing a quick search, UH does accept CLEP tests.

If you're able to do 100% of all GE classes with CLEP, what type of realistic time reduction would you be for a standard Bachelors degree? (IE: 4-years)

And because the "new" students start in August, I have 7 months to tear threw CLEP and accumulate as many credits as possible ahead of time.