Hey gang!
Still have not left yet, still at home trying to
get things in order before I leave the 14th (OMG pinch me! haha).
Getting my courses to work out for my year
abroad has been a lot of work these past two weeks. For starters, Sheffield has
a different way of setting up their schedules unlike Buffalo's proactive
approach of allowing students to craft their semesters several months before
the school year has even ended. Us UB students have been used to looking at our
shopping carts midway through a semester with the class times and professors
listed waaaaay in advance. Sheffield does not do this, heck they still have not listed which modules (or "mods", what courses are
called overseas) will be offered at the end of this month, let alone the
location and instructor. In doing so, they will have a complete timetable of the
year so students can schedule classes for both Autumn and
Spring. I assume you can change your mods once Spring comes rolling around
but you know what they say about assumptions...
So this stress has been building up a little bit
and I did not post last week because I was in the middle of it all so here I am
making up for that! There is this deal with general education courses (GenEds). I need to take one GenEd abroad to fulfill my department's requirement. I have
found for Autumn semester three music and one sociology module. Getting a
syllabus and having it checked off has been unsuccessful.
Let's dive into my junior year schedule for just
a moment... I have been checked off with my Department advisor over at Furnas
Hall for the engineering courses I will be taking in Sheffield. For Autumn
semester, I have down 5 chemE mods and one intended GenEd mod. As of now, I
need 3 GenEds to be fulfilled by graduation: Art, Social and Behavioral
Sciences, and American Pluralism. My schedule in Sheffield has space for one
GenEd for Autumn semester because Spring is packed with all 6 courses being
ChemE courses. Soooo I had asked for a syllabus for several music modules
being offered and I managed to get one a while ago. It was denied by UB for it
not filling the art requirement. Ok… so then I waited on the other ones to see what would happen. The
other two music courses I cannot even try to register because Sheffield says it
is not offered to exchange students and that I am not qualified for the 2nd music mod -_- . My
next option was through the sociology department, but just my luck, they do not
hand out information externally so no syllabus for this guy.
I decided to contact UB's study abroad office, whom
asked me to talk to the college of Arts and Science which advised me to call the
Engineering Department at Bonner Hall. Got through with someone in charge of
advising and it was a very helpful phone conversation. It gave me an idea on what to do
next because while I can still look for different departments for courses
myself, I’d like a little more help.... pleaseeee.
Emails were exchanged and the hunt for a GenEd
continues. I was able to give her a link of the Directory of Sheffield Modules
to look at all the departments and what they offer. This is the help that I
need, someone that knows about what has worked in the past for engineering
students and their requirements to look at what department I can contact
overseas to get a syllabus. Then send the syllabus to the respective UB
department to then forward it to Engineering to have it checked off in my file. This
will all resolve soon enough. I needed this little extra something because I am hitting a dead end each time I select a GenEd option that may work.
Thanks for the read friends and family,
hopefully I can bring some good news in the future. I am staying positive and
proactive :-). I will blog again next week before take off, then I will really have
new and exciting things to talk about with pictures! Take care guys and to my
friends at school, have a great time at school this year. Miss you all.
Cheers! ~
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