Back to School
I just concluded my first week (September 25-29, 2006) of school here in the US. I'm taking up Systems Analysis certification in UCLA Extension. UCLA Extension is the continuing education division of UCLA. Its courses are designed as post-bachelor's studies for working professionals. Naturally, almost all of my classmates are professionals with the exception of a few international students (like me) here and there.
For this term, I only have 3 subjects, adding up to a grand total of 12 units (4 units per subject). 12 is the minimum number of units required by immigration laws for an international student to take. I didn't take more subjects because the tuition is expensive. I hope to take up more in the following terms though, if my application for extension of stay gets approved.
Anyway, my classes are Mondays through Wednesdays, 6:30-9:30 PM. The reason why they are held at night is to enable working professionals to attend after hours. UCLA runs under a quarter calendar system, with each quarter running 12 weeks. Here is the week that was:
Monday, September 25
I originally enrolled for the course Business Programming and Software Development. This is a required course to take for the certification, not an elective. However, when I browsed through the text books I ordered, I found out that the subject covers the basics of programming using C and Visual Basic. I felt that I already know this stuff so I talked to an academic advisor. He was pretty liberal about it as I told him that I've been programming in my undergraduate and that I felt that this course is not useful to me and I'm better off taking a course where I could learn new skills, blah blah. Eventually, I was able to transfer to another subject, Introduction to Information Security, two hours before the class started.
I was excited about the Information Security because the instructor turned out to be the author of a new book tackling the same subject. He must be popular in the industry, I thought. So I set out to my very first class located at the Math and Sciences building of UCLA, in which I had a weird experience (I'll talk about this in another blog post).
After three hours of lecture, mainly about the course overview, I didn't feel like attending this subject too. I'm having second thoughts on how useful this would be since it's very generalized and I don't intend to pursue the Information Security track (which includes Cryptography and Advanced Information Security) and be an expert at this field. I don't think I could tell a company, "...Well, I know something about Information Security and how it works coz I've taken 4-unit subject about it but when a hardcore, extreme hacker breaks into your system, you might want to consult a real expert to clean the mess. Oh! I know, my instructor in UCLA is pretty good at this..."
I went home that night thinking about how to tell the academic advisor that I want to transfer to another subject again.
Tuesday, September 26
For Tuesdays, my class is on Relational Database Management. Right at the start, I don't have any plans of not taking this subject since database management is one of the core concepts in Information Systems.
My class is at the Humanities Building. I know already have someone I know in the class who's also an international student from the Philippines. I think I've got a very good instructor. He's a graduate of BS Mathematics at UCLA. He started in the Computing Industry in the 1960's. Despite being there right when business IT got out of its mother's womb, he seems to have kept himself updated with the latest trends and technologies.
We are expected to read the book on Modern Database Management by Jeffrey Hoffer et al. throughout the 12-week course from cover to cover, the whole 600 pages of it. I just finished reading Chapter 1. At least, I can expect to get the most out of the 150 dollars spent on purchasing this book.
Wednesday, September 27
My course on Wednesdays is Introduction to Client/Server Computing. I was also kind of iffy about this though I knew I had to know something about high level networking.
This class is also being held at the Humanities Building. My instructor is the Senior Managing Director of Citigroup. He talks with what he calls, "...slangy Californian accent with a touch of profanity..." With a great sense of humor to boot, I feel like he can make any class interesting as long as you don't mind the, uh, minor profanities. What's interesting about him is that he has worked for the US Air Force in computer simulations and projections, a job I once dreamed of having.
This course is also a keeper, so I went home planning what to do for the rest of the week.
Thursday, September 28
I was again back at the UCLA to talk to my academic advisor who was warm enough to welcome my crappy words on how I think I need to take up another subject for now and decide if I should take Information Security in the future. He did suggest a subject, C++ Functional and Object-Oriented Programming, because he said that the instructor there is "different". Apparently, this instructor just got a recommendation from the Dean of UCLA's engineering department of being an exceptional one who teaches a lot of programming and problem-solving tricks. I remember the advisor telling me that this instructor pulls off surprises now and then and will make life different (difficult?) for his students.
Partly out of curiosity, I decided to take the class.
Friday, September 29
I went again to UCLA to have my payment for the books in Business Programming refunded. This marks the first time I chatted with someone I have never met before for more than 30 minutes during the travel to school.
It started when he asked me which bus to take to Westwood. Eventually, we talked about 9/11, Pres. Bush, and the Bourne Identity. This guy turned out to be an action film fan. So even though I said that I've watched the Bourne Identity, he still narrated his favorite action scene and practically acted it out (as Jason Bourne) along the street as we waited for the bus. He goes on talking about a James Bond movie starring Sean Connery, and acts his favorite scene even more dramatically. By this time, I was thinking the guys back there must be thinking this guy with me is a weirdo. He almost falls off the street to the road at one time. When a bus came by, all of a sudden he says, "You know what I don't like in riding buses, you encounter all sorts of weirdos. I know a weirdo when I see one..."
I couldn't help but smile as I thought of the weird looks from the other people's faces when they saw him do his stuff. But I figured this guy isn't really a weirdo, just animated. Then I thought I could get pretty animated too. I hope people don't find me weird but I don't blame them If they do. Where's justice?
For this term, I only have 3 subjects, adding up to a grand total of 12 units (4 units per subject). 12 is the minimum number of units required by immigration laws for an international student to take. I didn't take more subjects because the tuition is expensive. I hope to take up more in the following terms though, if my application for extension of stay gets approved.
Anyway, my classes are Mondays through Wednesdays, 6:30-9:30 PM. The reason why they are held at night is to enable working professionals to attend after hours. UCLA runs under a quarter calendar system, with each quarter running 12 weeks. Here is the week that was:
Monday, September 25
I originally enrolled for the course Business Programming and Software Development. This is a required course to take for the certification, not an elective. However, when I browsed through the text books I ordered, I found out that the subject covers the basics of programming using C and Visual Basic. I felt that I already know this stuff so I talked to an academic advisor. He was pretty liberal about it as I told him that I've been programming in my undergraduate and that I felt that this course is not useful to me and I'm better off taking a course where I could learn new skills, blah blah. Eventually, I was able to transfer to another subject, Introduction to Information Security, two hours before the class started.
I was excited about the Information Security because the instructor turned out to be the author of a new book tackling the same subject. He must be popular in the industry, I thought. So I set out to my very first class located at the Math and Sciences building of UCLA, in which I had a weird experience (I'll talk about this in another blog post).
After three hours of lecture, mainly about the course overview, I didn't feel like attending this subject too. I'm having second thoughts on how useful this would be since it's very generalized and I don't intend to pursue the Information Security track (which includes Cryptography and Advanced Information Security) and be an expert at this field. I don't think I could tell a company, "...Well, I know something about Information Security and how it works coz I've taken 4-unit subject about it but when a hardcore, extreme hacker breaks into your system, you might want to consult a real expert to clean the mess. Oh! I know, my instructor in UCLA is pretty good at this..."
I went home that night thinking about how to tell the academic advisor that I want to transfer to another subject again.
Tuesday, September 26
For Tuesdays, my class is on Relational Database Management. Right at the start, I don't have any plans of not taking this subject since database management is one of the core concepts in Information Systems.
My class is at the Humanities Building. I know already have someone I know in the class who's also an international student from the Philippines. I think I've got a very good instructor. He's a graduate of BS Mathematics at UCLA. He started in the Computing Industry in the 1960's. Despite being there right when business IT got out of its mother's womb, he seems to have kept himself updated with the latest trends and technologies.
We are expected to read the book on Modern Database Management by Jeffrey Hoffer et al. throughout the 12-week course from cover to cover, the whole 600 pages of it. I just finished reading Chapter 1. At least, I can expect to get the most out of the 150 dollars spent on purchasing this book.
Wednesday, September 27
My course on Wednesdays is Introduction to Client/Server Computing. I was also kind of iffy about this though I knew I had to know something about high level networking.
This class is also being held at the Humanities Building. My instructor is the Senior Managing Director of Citigroup. He talks with what he calls, "...slangy Californian accent with a touch of profanity..." With a great sense of humor to boot, I feel like he can make any class interesting as long as you don't mind the, uh, minor profanities. What's interesting about him is that he has worked for the US Air Force in computer simulations and projections, a job I once dreamed of having.
This course is also a keeper, so I went home planning what to do for the rest of the week.
Thursday, September 28
I was again back at the UCLA to talk to my academic advisor who was warm enough to welcome my crappy words on how I think I need to take up another subject for now and decide if I should take Information Security in the future. He did suggest a subject, C++ Functional and Object-Oriented Programming, because he said that the instructor there is "different". Apparently, this instructor just got a recommendation from the Dean of UCLA's engineering department of being an exceptional one who teaches a lot of programming and problem-solving tricks. I remember the advisor telling me that this instructor pulls off surprises now and then and will make life different (difficult?) for his students.
Partly out of curiosity, I decided to take the class.
Friday, September 29
I went again to UCLA to have my payment for the books in Business Programming refunded. This marks the first time I chatted with someone I have never met before for more than 30 minutes during the travel to school.
It started when he asked me which bus to take to Westwood. Eventually, we talked about 9/11, Pres. Bush, and the Bourne Identity. This guy turned out to be an action film fan. So even though I said that I've watched the Bourne Identity, he still narrated his favorite action scene and practically acted it out (as Jason Bourne) along the street as we waited for the bus. He goes on talking about a James Bond movie starring Sean Connery, and acts his favorite scene even more dramatically. By this time, I was thinking the guys back there must be thinking this guy with me is a weirdo. He almost falls off the street to the road at one time. When a bus came by, all of a sudden he says, "You know what I don't like in riding buses, you encounter all sorts of weirdos. I know a weirdo when I see one..."
I couldn't help but smile as I thought of the weird looks from the other people's faces when they saw him do his stuff. But I figured this guy isn't really a weirdo, just animated. Then I thought I could get pretty animated too. I hope people don't find me weird but I don't blame them If they do. Where's justice?
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