1. Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

I Am Such A Nerd

Discussion in 'Baptist Colleges & Seminaries' started by Martin, Aug 18, 2006.

Top Posters
  1. Martin

    Martin Active Member

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2005
    Messages:
    5,229
    Likes Received:
    0
    Faith:
    Baptist
    I started back to school yesterday, to earn my Masters in History, at a secular state University. While I knew it would be challenging I never guessed it would hit me as hard as it has. I have little time to read my personal books and that is a shame because I am trying to read Tacitus' "Annals of Imperial Rome" (my fav subject), a book by Tony Evans on Angels, Nehemiah, and a old text book on American history up to 1877. Thanks to school I have book reviews due (several before early Sept), journal article reviews due, a historiographic essay, and two research projects. I knew this would be slightly more difficult than Liberty, or the year I spent at Southeastern, but this has taken me a bit by surprise. Don't get me wrong I can do the work it is just alot more at one time than I am use to. On top of all of that...no "C"s allowed. In fact the grading scale is "A", "B", "C", and "F". Three "C"s and you are out, one "F" and you are out...no coming back. I doubt that will be a problem for me since I usually pulls "A"s or "B"s anyway but, I tell you this, it did make me sit up and take notice. One of the professors yesterday said if you think this is alot you just wait until you find yourself in a PhD program . Who am I kidding though? I LOVE IT!!!:love2:

    Man I have become such a nerd!
     
    #1 Martin, Aug 18, 2006
  2. paidagogos

    paidagogos Active Member

    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2003
    Messages:
    2,279
    Likes Received:
    0
    Okay, not bad. I assume this is for just one course. I'm actually surprised that a state university, even UNC-CH possibly, still has some decent expectations. BTW, how long do you expect your research papers to be? How many sources? I know of a 5-6 page research paper, not mine, with 7-8 sources that received a B in a state university. Now, I know some short papers can be quality work and long ones trash but it's hard to survey the literature, unless the subject is very obscure, in just 7-8 sources. BTW, I despise the idea of doing research for practice so I suggest writing something that's good enough to be published. :type:

    BTW, no one gets a C in grad school. It's part of the good old boy system at ECU, UNC-CH, and NC State. I don't know about some of the other state schools. Would you mind telling us which state university? UNC-G actually has one of the better history departments, I think.
     
    #2 paidagogos, Aug 19, 2006
  3. Rhetorician

    Rhetorician Administrator
    Administrator

    Joined:
    Feb 1, 2005
    Messages:
    2,208
    Likes Received:
    68
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Good Success!

    To all who have an ear:

    How many classes or hours are you taking? Usually 9 grad hrs. is considered a "full load?" I too was surprised at the difference b/t seminary and grad school at the state university. I was also unpleasantly surprised at the difference b/t the work load at the seminary and a Christian university's grad school of religion. In both cases the university work was "PhD" (pilled higher and deeper). There was more of it, and the assignments were longer, and it was more intense. But if I had never been put at it I would not have known that I could do it!:laugh:

    It is hard now to keep myself motivated to read one book per month. Then I was reading at least one per week on average just to keep up.

    But, I too loved it! I guess there must be a gene in the DNA of us professional nerds!?

    sdg!
    :thumbs:
    rd
     
    #3 Rhetorician, Aug 19, 2006
  4. El_Guero

    El_Guero New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2004
    Messages:
    7,714
    Likes Received:
    0
    You have been in seminary too long.

    Every graduate program that i have looked at, 6 hours was considered a full graduate load.

    In the programs that I have been exposed to: 12 hours at the graduate level was an overload and discouraged.

    Only in seminary do we have different learning expectations. We do expect people to remember this stuff after graduation right?

    ;)
     
    #4 El_Guero, Aug 19, 2006
  5. mcdirector

    mcdirector Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 11, 2005
    Messages:
    8,292
    Likes Received:
    11
    Well, I'm taking one class at a time at East Carolina (Masters in Technical Communication) and it's all I can take if I want to remain polite. ;)
     
    #5 mcdirector, Aug 19, 2006
  6. Jack Matthews

    Jack Matthews New Member

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2006
    Messages:
    833
    Likes Received:
    1
    Nine hours per semester in law school equalled about 25 hours per week of outside reading and research, which was the recommended course load. Then, of course, you have those professors who seem to think that their class is either the most important one you are taking, or the only one you are taking. My favorites were the summer school courses, three hours in six weeks, with a syllabus that was "telescoped" with an exam the third day of class and a paper due at the end of the first week. :mad:

    It is a myth that state universities are not as academically challenging as private schools, especially on the graduate level. Grad school is grad school, demanding and professional.
     
    #6 Jack Matthews, Aug 22, 2006
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)
Loading...