In which I’m kinda disappointed.

School starts on Monday. I’m registered, I’ve finally started to get financial aid awards, and I have a list of stuff I need to buy at the bookstore. So exciting! And the city buses have bike racks, so I can ride up to the transit center and take a bus to campus. Whee!

All three classes on my schedule show “ASSIGNED” in the date and time column, though. Hmm. Since all three are all taught by the same guy, I decided to email him to find out when to be in class.

He emailed back today and explained that my classes – Linux/Unix, CCNA, and Windows Client – are all online. In fact, they’re not only online, they’re TestOut lab sims.

In other words: I don’t get to go to school. I have to study online. By myself. Which is exactly what I’d wanted to avoid by going to school in the first place!

I bought the CCNA manual when I got laid off and made it through about three chapters before getting bored and abandoning it. The whole point of going back to school (besides wasting time with the hope that the economy will improve) was to gain structure to help me study the material!

Here’s the math: TestOut lab sims cost about $500 each and I’m taking three this quarter. Tuition at CC is about $1200 per quarter and “books” (which, for me, is the client software for the labs) is about $300. Ergo, I could have blown off the school thing altogether and bought the TestOut modules for the same price! I have no idea why I’m even registered at WWCC, frankly… oh, except that I’m also getting an advisor, and some kind of 1-year vocational certificate, I think. So that’s something, I guess. But I really had wanted to go to actual classes.

Oh, well. At least now I have weekly assignments and test dates; that’s more structure than I had before. And I could probably get into events at student prices. Do they even still have student pricing?

Just you watch: I’ll have in-person classes next quarter, when it’s winter and I don’t want to have leave the house, and then all I’ll do is bitch about it. Heh.