60.72%

What does 60.72% mean? Well I will tell you. This is finals week, and is obviously stressful. My mom sent me a note with lots of goodies, including a magazine clipping that says "60.72% is the difference in salary between someone with a bachelor's degree and someone with a high school diploma (the Bureau of labor and statistics fall 2005)."



Hiram has very unique semesters. A normal semester is 15 weeks, and a typical load would be about 4 classes. At Hiram, the semester is broken into two parts: a 12 week component in which we take 3 classes, and a 3 week component where we take 1 class. The twelve week ends before thanksgiving break and spring break. This mean it is almost impossible to have any assignments over break, literally, because you are between classes. Our finals started on Sunday afternoon and will go through Tuesday. Then we will be off until next Wednesday. Finals are very stressful!! I have been cramming for about a week now. In chemistry we had a test on chapters 6-9 on Friday, and then today we had the final on all the chapters (1-9). John Andrews is my teacher and he is very good! I promise you. It is hard work, but it is well worth it. If i had it to do over, I would still take his class. I am hoping it will help me as I continue toward a science degree. Another professor I would suggest is Joseph Gallant for physics. He is new to Hiram but has a great sense of humor and is very realistic about his expectations. All of my teachers seem to have been realistic about the finals. They all realized that we have other finals and tried to make it as bearable as possible. My cumulative math final was turned into a take home test. Don't think I got off the hook too much because it still took a little over five hours!!! My room mate has a paper that is due tomorrow, and just a few hours ago she got an email from the teacher giving them a week extension. I have heard a few stories of hard teachers; I'm sure we have our share. I heard we have a new psychology teacher that has a pretty high standard. One of my friends, Ben, has an intense calculus class. For each test they take, they have a retake the following day where they can get up to half of the points back that they missed during the first try. Well on the final, the highest grade was a 55%, but they still get their retake. Where every you go, you just have to study and you will be fine! At any rate, I am off to study Physics. Tomorrow after 11 am I will be homeward bound for a week! Happy Thanksgiving!