Finished my last final this afternoon, so I’m home free. After 55 pages of papers, 6 hours of sitting for testing, I’m all done. Just packing this evening (…all evening…) and moving things into college storage tomorrow. I’ll be back in Newton Tuesday night. It’s been a very interesting year, lots of new experiences, and I will be posting some reflections soon–just have to take a little breather first, spend some time with my dog and relax. I’ll be home for the next few weeks until I am leaving memorial day for California, then starting June 1st at my internship in Washington D.C.!

Good luck to all those readers who still have final exams going… more details soon.

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Two weeks ago I outlined all the courses I was taking this semester, and a few days ago announced that I was going to become a complete recluse while I worked on my final papers and studied for tests. Let’s combine those two thoughts, and take a look at what my finals schedule and workload looks like. This is not exactly typical, thankfully. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have to do it all!

In the order that the final exams are due:

• May 2nd (already due): 15-18 page paper for EP&E 353, Critique of Political Violence. I wrote 17 pages exploring the possibility of “nonviolent nonviolence in a violent world.”

• May 5th: 20 page paper for EP&E 440, Nonviolence and Political Power in the Twentieth Century. I am writing a paper questioning the Universality of Eastern European nonviolent movements 1920-1980 and tracing the disconnects between universality in theory and universal practicability, comparing successful 1980s nonviolent movements with unsuccessful antecedents and comparing with Gandhi and MLK.

• May 6th: 3 hour comprehensive French FR139 final, 9 am sharp… on science hill. Why my french final is in Sloane Physics Laboratory, I don’t know. I just resent the fact that it’s about 20 minutes away.

• May 6th: 10-15 page Sociology SOCY015 research paper. This is why I was running that survey for current Yale students. Collected the data, now have to analyze it, compile literature, write about findings.

• May 12th: EVST 245: 3 hour environmental studies final, wherein I will have to come prepared to regurgitate my prepared response on how to develop an effective global environmental governance scheme. So, basically, save the world.

So… that’s why I shouldn’t be blogging right now, why I’m going to stop blogging right now, and why I could be a little bit happier… wish me luck!

0_o

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Though we have seen college blog networks come and go over the last few years, there is one especially promising network on my radar that I thought I would share with everyone today. The College Blog Network is a recent entry to the scene but more blogs join daily. It’s intended to facilitate communication between student and other college bloggers (with .edu e-mail address). You can create feeds of the general college blogging firehose, get links to new blogs, compile favorites, vote for the best, etc.

I wanted to encourage all readers with .edu email addresses to both sign up their own blogs, and also to go to the site and give the current Yale blogs a “thumbs up”! You have to register, but it only takes a second to do so.

I saw that TCBN was advertising for “college blogs” on some search engines, and driving traffic in some other ways, and I hope to see some strong growth here. The site is developing a great blog widget, which you can see in action on the homepage and at rocloop.com right now. Once it is less beta-y, I might try to put it up here.

Anyway, classes are over for most people (I have one which meets during reading period) and I have 3, 20 page final papers due in the next week and a half or so, and will have to blog correspondingly less. In the meantime, check out the archives for my blog, and go look for other interesting posts on TCBN! And don’t forget to bump this site and any others you find interesting : )

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This is what one of my professor’s did today–not with any ill intent, but with potentially catastrophic results!

Step 1: Assign a 20 page long research paper, worth 70% of the course grade. Have it be due May 5th.

Step 2: On April 22nd, send out this e-mail (names changed):

Dear [course] students,

In response to queries:

The paper is due this Thursday. You may bring it to class, or if need be, bring it by 5 pm to room # of [building]. Give it to [name] at the main desk, or, if she is not there, anyone else in the office.

The papers will be graded and returned to [name] by May 11, and will be there in the fall if you don’t get them this spring.

Also — don’t forget! — in addition I want an electronic copy.

Best,

[Professor]

Step 3: Success! Fewer papers to grade because, imagining themselves to have only 2 days to complete their probably unstarted 20 page papers, the students’ heads have all exploded.

Step 4: For plausible deniability, send out another e-mail, a little bit later, acknowledging your mix-up:

Dear [class] Class:

Big mistake on my part! i confounded our due date with that of my other class. The real due date is May 5, with the same procedures to be followed as in the last e-mail. Don’t forget the electronic version.

Sorry!

[Professor]

Aiee!!! In all fairness, this was just a simple mixup between two classes’ final paper due dates, and not some ingenious attempt to drive part of the class insane, but it certainly caused me a fair amount of moral trauma! I read of the message just before going to a meeting with another professor to discuss topics for a separate 18 page paper, and was somewhat visibly shaken… : ( Still, the “oops” e-mail did come only 15 minutes afterwards, so that limited the time in which any drastic actions could have been taken.

Still, a message to all professors around finals time: be careful, please! For the sake of your students. : )

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Bulldog Days 2008 are upon us here at Yale, and the campus is teeming with excited admits and their families. I did not attend Bulldog Days as a prefrosh last year, and I found myself conflicted about it: I had applied the Yale early, been accepted, and not applied to anywhere else. Taking time away from my internship to go the New Haven might have vindicated my decision, but what if it left a sour taste in my mouth? Yale turned out to be just about everything I hoped it to be, Bulldog Days or not.

There is a lot going on for Bulldog Days, which happily means I have many opportunities to profit from free improv shows and plentiful other student group-led events designed to entice and enthrall admitted students, catching their interest a year early to cement their favor and boost participation in the fall.

The campus is supposed to be “dry” during BDD, and prefrosh are supposed to be kept too busy with fun events to get into much trouble; hopefully that will for the most part hold true, because people should leave with happy memories, not bitter trauma. So, to the 2012 prospectives: enjoy Yale! Visit classes! Welcome, Hope you like it here! For those of you who couldn’t make it, don’t worry. You’ll have lots of chances to get to know your peers and Yale!

Photo courtesy Anna Ershova

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