School is consuming all of my time and energy. On weekdays, I carpool with my parents, so I get dropped off on campus at around 9am. After my classes are done for the day, I spend a few hours in the library until my parents pick me up around 6pm. When I get home, I continue to study and do homework until around 12 or 1am. Lather, rinse, and repeat.
My weekends are also filled with studying (though I do take a little time off every now and then). Even though my homework assignments are due on Fridays, I like to get a jump start on the next week’s assignments over the weekend so I don’t fall behind.
I was a pretty good student when I went to college the first time, but I don’t think I was this studious before. My outlook on life is different now, and my motivation has changed. I’ve been out in the “real world,” so I understand what’s at stake. I’m not in school just to get good grades or get a degree (I’m not getting one right now anyway); I’m in school to learn the material so I can use it in the future.
It helps that my statistics classes are specifically designed to be applied in the practical world. My professors often express how important and universal statistics is, and we often analyze real data that my professors have used in their work. I don’t know how much the other students appreciate this, but the connections to real life fascinate me, and I stay motivated to learn more.
I think this all means I grew up a lot over the last couple years and I didn’t even realize it. Being lost wasn’t a total loss.
October 14, 2009 at 8:28 am
There’s definitely a different mentality for a student returning to school after some time in the ‘real world’. I noticed it a lot when I was getting my MBA, as many of the students had taken time between their undergrad and graduate studies (and many MBA programs require that). My 26 year-old brother also went back to school full-time this fall after a few-year hiatus. It’s so cool watching him be in school for something he really loves, and seeing him take everything so more seriously than he did when he was first in college (as he is NOT the studious sort).
On another note, I worked full-time in human resources before I left the corporate world for full-time momhood. I didn’t work in a traditional HR capacity (the touchy-feeling hand-holders); rather, my group were the HR data specialists of the company. We knew what data we had, where we could get it, when we could get it, and what we could do with it. We also were charged with getting new data — in the form of designing and administering employee surveys. As such, we all had to have a basic handle on statistical concepts, and we had two statistical experts as part of our group whose sole purpose was to do analysis of survey data, employee data, etc. through studies they designed themselves at the behest of other HR employees. As far as corporate jobs go, it was a pretty cool group to work in. I don’t miss having a full-time job at all, but I do miss the work. Luckily I do a little consulting for them still, which gives me a nice little hunk of money, keeps my resume current, and lets me dabble a bit without feeling overwhelmed or torn.
Anyway, my main point is that there are myriad directions you can go with a firm statistics foundation. While some corporations maintain their own data specialists like my old group, many farm out that work to consulting firms, which is definitely a place to look for employment once you have your statistics classes under your belt.
October 15, 2009 at 6:16 am
Let me know what makes an interesting Stats class…