Oh, academics… we were not meant to be

Like most determined Wes students, I’ve been checking my Academic History page every few hours, waiting for my grades to appear. I’m still waiting on my final two grades from the Fall ’08 semester. Unfortunately, those two grades are from the classes in which my final papers were not, um, up to my usual standard of quality. I’m holding my breath, waiting for those to come in. In the meantime, though, I’ve received my other two grades, both of which were A-minuses—which actually brought my GPA up by a tiny little fraction of a point. If these last two grades are comparable, then I am golden. If they are not, I may be in trouble.

Unless my current GPA is outside the top 12% of the senior class—and assuming that these last two grades don’t drop me to below a 90 average—Phi Beta Kappa is still within the realm of possibility. The trickiest part, assuming these last two grades don’t disqualify me numbers-wise, is the social networking part. In order to receive Phi Beta Kappa, I must be nominated by my academic department. I say that’s the trickiest part because I haven’t made much of an effort to socialize with my department since I declared American Studies at the last possible moment. Granted, I don’t know that they’ve hosted all that many social events in the past two years. In any case, though, I’m not writing a thesis—so I have neither a thesis advisor to root for me, nor a brilliant piece of writing that’ll attract attention and praise within the department. As it is, I’ll have a new advisor in the spring—my third since declaring my major. I don’t know how to proceed at the moment. For all I know, they’ve already decided who’s going to be nominated!

Sigh.

I was looking forward to taking only three classes next semester—I only need three more credits to reach the required 32.00 for graduation, so I figured I might as well take it a bit easier next semester (so I can take on even more responsibilities outside of classes, hehe) and have some fun—it will be the second semester of senior year, after all! I was excited tonight to remember that up to two AP credits can count towards graduation—and that, all this time, I’d never submitted the form to have my AP U.S. History credit count toward graduation. I’ve already fulfilled the requirement (a B- or better in HIST 151 or higher) to have the AP score count, so all I have to do is fill out a form to have it applied to my graduation credits.

And voilà: with another credit exposed from its hiding place, I’d only have to take two credits next semester to graduate with 32.00 credits. Or, well, so I’d hoped. After a bit of digging around in the Academic Regulations, I discovered that students are only considered enrolled full-time if they maintain a balance of three course credits per semester. So, I’d be at risk of having the administration dis-enroll me if they found out… and then I wouldn’t be able to graduate! Lovely.

Three classes (and 33.00 credits) it shall be!

Oh, and I ran some numbers tonight and discovered that, had I taken that accursed CHEM 119 class for credit rather than for a grade, my current GPA would be 92.109 instead of 91.396 (3.717 instead of 3.646). A 92 is so much better than a 91… at least, in my mind! Insert sigh #2 here.