Sunday, October 12, 2008

Miami Plan, CAS Plan, Majors, Minors, and Scheduling

I'm considered a CAS major (College of Arts and Science) for my Creative Writing major. The College of Arts and Science requires a lot more classes than the university in general.

The Miami Plan is the University requirement. They require 12 classes spread throughout Freshman Composition- 6 hours, Humanities (Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Science)- 12 hours, Cultures (World and US)- 6 hours, Science (Biological and Physical) 9 hours, and Formal Reasoning- 3 hours. Here's the classes I have taken, am in the process of taking, or will be taking to complete these requirements.

Freshman Composition. I tested out of 111, so I'm taking 113 this semester and then will be done with Freshman Comp. Most people have to take two courses for this.

Humanities. I'm in the process of taking the required fine arts credit with MUS 189. I'm also taking one of the humanities courses- ENG 124. I plan on taking ENG 123 and EDL 204 next semester for another humanities course. For the social science course, my EDP 201 course counts. You need 12 credit hours, or 4 classes for humanities within the three different areas, so I'll easily finish this section of the Miami Plan within the next two years.

Cultures. I'm currently not working on Cultures at all. Next semester, I will be taking ATH 185 (hopefully) for my US cultures. Over the summer, I plan on taking HST 121 (at CCAC HIS 101) for my world cultures. Then by next year, I'll be done with this.

Science. Yuck. I'm currently taking BOT 131. It's an awful boring class. Over the summer, I'll be taking a lab science, either in Zoology, Geology, or Chemistry. For my non lab, I'll be taking PHY 111 over the summer. I don't want to take science during the school year because I want college to be a fun experience, and if I took science, I'd be awfully distracted with homework and not be able to do stuff.

Math. I'll be taking my math credits over the summer. I don't know what I'll take, but whatever is available at CCAC. Either Stats or Calc 1. So it won't be too hard, since I've already had Calc 1.


Now, the College of Arts and Science has its own requirements.

Foreign Language. I'll be taking LAT 202 next semester to fulfill this requirement. But I'm going to try and take German classes, I just won't be able to get to the 202 level, so since you need a language to that level, I thought I would get it out of the way in case I can't finish German.

Humanities. Some of my classes overlap, but the courses here are spread out more, so I also need to take either a History, Philosophy, or Religion class. Thankfully HST 121 (CCAC HIS 101) counts towards this and the MP World Cultures, so this will overlap and I'll be good on the humanities section.

Social Science. My ATH 185 and my EDP 201 classes will go towards this, but I need a third class in either econ, geography, poli sci, psychology, or sociology. I'm going to take this extra class over the summer if I can, just because I can and it shouldn't be too hard. I'm going to try to take as many classes as possible in the summer so that I don't have to take so many hard courses during the school year.

Science. This overlaps completely with the Miami Plan.
Math. So does this.

Summary of Summer Courses-
History, Psychology, Science w/lab, Science w/o lab, Math. It's really just one whole semester of classes that I'm saving money on since I'm taking them at home.

Let's just say being an English/Education major is the best combination for the Miami Plan, since so many courses overlap with my majors and within the college/university requirements.

My majors also overlap a ton. I'd list all of the classes and etc, but you're not gonna read that, so I'm not gonna waste my time. 7 courses overlap. That's 21 hours- an entire semester. If they didn't overlap, I'd be here for another semester. So that's unbelieveably amazing. Also, since I'm a double major, I'm not technically required to take a thematic sequence, though I really want to, so I might. If I take German over the summer, and then take one extra class here at Miami, I can get a German thematic sequence. But if I don't, a double major being not required to take a thematic sequence saves me three or four extra courses- almost an entire semester of classes.

Basically my double major rocks.

My minor is also amazing, though. I haven't mentioned it at all, but it is pretty much awesome because it is my relaxer. I have two highly demanding majors, so I need a break from the day. Thankfully I can do music. I love sightsinging. I get to take four semesters of it :D I love theory even if sometimes I can confused on it. I can't wait to start composition courses my junior year after two years of theory and dictation. I'm not looking forward to MUS 185. I hear it's even more boring than MUS 189, which I'm in now.

So next semester, I'm going to try to take 24 credits, not because I need to, but because I want to. 21 credits of classes, and then 1 credit for piano lessons and 2 credits of an ensemble, probably symphony band. I figure since I'm attending 23 credits this semester, it won't be too big of a difference, especially since I won't have an awful science class, I'll be taking two classes with two teachers I've already had, my fiction workshop is just a bunch of writing and editing, ath is an easy level course, and my education classes won't be hard, since well, not smart people tend to try and be education majors and pass with flying colors. So that's my plan. :D

I begin registering for classes Nov 4th, election day, at 7:30 am. I can only register for 15 credits at this time, so I have to pick the five most important classes that will run out of space the fastest.

I'm gonna register for ENG 320 (holds 25 people) first. Unless of course it's already filled by upperclassman. Or unless there's only like 5 people in it by the time I register. Then I'm going to sign up for my music classes (MUS 102 and 152) because I need certain time slots for that, plus all the music freshman are going to be adding this at the same time, so it's actually a competition. Then I'm going to register for the honors courses I want to take. Unless the honors students took all of the spots. Then I'm in trouble, because I won't have any honors credit for the honors program. BAHHH! So maybe I'll sign up for those first. Good plan.

1. JRN 101 H or COM 135
2. ENG 320
3. MUS 102
4. MUS 152
5. ATH 185
6. ENG 123

Total- 15 credits.
After first round of sign ups, I can sign up Nov 24th-Jan 16 (after classes have started). So then I'll add LAT 202 (because it won't ever be full), either EDP, EDL or EDT, and piano and an ensemble. I'll have to force add some classes after 20 credits.

7. EDP/EDL/EDT
Force Add-
8. LAT 202
9. MUS 161
10. MUS 109 (something)

Total- 24 credits.

The same amount of classes I'm taking now :D Just one more credit worth. As you can see, it's definitely a manageable schedule. Just so you know, anthropology, journalism and communications are all required for education, so I'll be taking 4 courses towards my education major, two towards my creative writing major, and 2 towards my minor. LAT 202, ATH 185, EDP/EDL, (JRN, COM, ENG- humanities that I don't need) all count towards Miami Plan. So I'm well on my way to accomplishing all of my goals in college.

College Goals:
1. Creative Writing Major
-nationally published by graduation
-graduate with departmental honors
-undergraduate assistant to assist intro to fiction *crosses fingers*
-Inklings magazine
-Nanowrimo

2. Education Major
-learn to say the entire thing (Adolescent Young Adult Integrated English and Language Arts Education)
-OSEA/MSEA/NTCE-SAM
-America Reads and Adopt a School
-student teach abroad
-tutoring

3. Music Composition minor
-senior project
-have fun!

4. Honors Program
-5 honors courses
-2 course extensions
-undergrauate assistant
-empower
-student teaching as honors point

5. Graduate School
-masters in education
-TA for tuition money

6. College Experience
-become an RA
-Radio show
-mus program
-friends :D
-lifetime connections


This is getting entirely too long, as I have been writing this for over an hour now.
So I'll post it.
Have fun reading it.

3 comments:

Kelly Zimba said...

you are super ambitious/crazy. but good for you =)

Tim Parenti said...

Hey, at least you've got a plan. That can't hurt.

Tim Parenti said...

And your double-major does work out well! I'm sure you'll do great things with it someday!