Complete and utter confusion

The following is Chuck breaking his promise not to vent about school anymore.

If you saw my Facebook status, you would know that I am still confused about school issues. I really should go talk to my counselor and get his take on my school education. You know that spreadsheet comparing the two degrees I am interested in? I shaded all the classes I will have completed by May, 2009, and guess what? One of the two degrees will only have five classes left to take. 5. Five. Cinco. Normal amount of fingers on a hand. THAT many. The other? 8. Or, depending on which track I take, 10.

My choice is between taking 5 more courses to satisfy requirements for one degree, or taking 10 more courses (these all being, of course, after this upcoming academic year) to satisfy another degree. The easier degree to obtain is Communications (of course), the less prestigious but still employable degree, whereas the tougher of the two is Journalism, which carries more weight around it, at least, in my opinion. But you need either one of the two degrees to get a job in media, so it does not matter so much in that regard. And a fair chunk of employers just care that you have a degree, and it does not matter what it is in. (Not all employers, but, a good amount are like that.)

And it still kind of does not matter since I need a lot more credits anyways to graduate from Grand Valley. I know why the University doesn't want me to just transfer in right away and get a degree from them shortly thereafter; they want to make sure that I have been educated for a good while according to "Grand Valley standards," and then I can be truly counted as a "Grand Valley Student." I get that. I really do. But it still stinks that I have to spend time taking courses, courses that don't even matter, to get my degree.

In the fall, I'm currently scheduled for 12 credits. In the winter, 16. (I know!) That makes for a total of 28 credits. (See my mad math skills at work there?) That leaves 30 credits left to qualify for graduation at GVSU. The remaining classes for the Communications degree fills up about half of that. Meaning I have a "wasted" semester. Which, I can fill up with Journalism classes, A/V production, cross-stitching, or what have you.

But then there's another terrible option. There aren't many sections available for the classes I'll have remaining in the second year. Which means if I can't sign up instantly, I may have to take extra classes and wait for another semester to get the classes I want. This would be horrible. The reason being I want to be done with school yesterday. I spent the summer applying to jobs I had no business applying to, hoping that I could become employed and then start my career, rather than finish getting my 'training' for it at college.

And then there's the finances.... !!!!

If I go for the Bachelor's in Communications, I can conceivably be in and out of the college in two years. Which is what I said about the community college, and I stayed there for three. Of course, then I started as a Photography major, so, being decisive about that degree is probably not my specialty.