After completing all of the readings for Technical Writing in the textbook, in addition to what was on BOLT for week one, I am remembering one particular topic that stuck with me. This is a topic that has been on my mind since freshman year, and now, being a junior, I have a different perspective when considering this topic. Although I was unable to go back and find the specific text that stuck in my mind, I remember reading about how the Bloomsburg University website is a piece of technical writing. Understanding how the GEP’s work along with core major classes is something you can read about through Bloomsburg University’s website; however, I found it not to be useful. This reminded me of my freshman year at Bloomsburg, and also brought back into my head an idea that annoyed me most about freshman year. Understanding what your major’s “goals” are, and understanding how to incorporate these goals into your schedule alongside your major classes was something that hit me hard and fast freshman year.
My first semester at Bloomsburg I took classes that I did not specifically choose, however I never complained about my first semesters schedule. It was about half way through that first semester, and we were already expected to pick out our classes for next semester. Just the thought of doing this overwhelmed me. So I decided to do what everybody was recommending: meet with my advisor. This didn’t help. I remember leaving that first meeting with my advisor and having more uncertainty about how scheduling my college classes worked, and more importantly, how I was going to manage to graduate in four years. Being on a four year- completely paid scholarship, I felt that graduating in four years was extremely important to me. I didn’t want to have the opportunity to graduate debt-free, yet still somehow graduate with debt to my name. I realized this huge opportunity in front of me, yet when it was time to schedule our first set of classes, I quickly realized that graduating from Bloomsburg in four years was not as simple as passing every class. Rather, there are many variables, plus a dash of luck, that go into being able to graduate in the “standard” four years.
Will you have taken every class required for your major in four years? Will all your “goals” on myhusky be met after four years? Is that course even offered in the spring/ fall? Will that class already be full when it is my day to schedule? Is graduating in four years actually standard? These are all questions I remember being uncertain about during my freshman year. I also remember questioning, how am I ever going to pick a class I want, rather than a class I need. I thought I would be so busy trying to satisfy the first set of questions that I would never have the opportunity to just sit back and think about what classes truly interest me. Part of the reason for me taking this course, this winter, was actually in hopes that my senior year will be more open in terms of what I need to take, freeing up spaces for class I want to take.
Still unsatisfied when I left my advisors office for the first time, I quickly realized that being able to understand how this whole college thing works is going to need some serious planning. I found that the University’s website wasn’t much help. The author of the University’s website, I felt had gotten the audience of their writing all wrong. The writing seemed more geared towards seniors, and less so freshman. I ended up getting a solid understanding of how scheduling works through talking to older peers, and even then there was still uncertainty.
I ended up questioning whether or not this confusion was actually part of the University’s plan. I figured that Bloomsburg could anticipate this confusion, and they just thought that students smart enough to figure it out will graduate in four years, and students that don’t graduate in four years will just end up spending more money at the University. It is a win-win situation for the University. The thought of this use to make me very angry; however, now being a junior, my four-year plan is coming together better than I had thought. In my head, the only question I still have regarding this topic is; were my misunderstandings as a freshman due to me being part of a larger plan, or were they just due to the fact that whoever wrote documents explaining this topic had poor technical writing skills?
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