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To whom it may concern,

I'm currently writing this as an open letter on my blog because the bureaucracy at the university is such that I don't even know who this should be addressed to anymore. I'm incredibly frustrated with my experience with ECO227Y this summer. Do none of you care that statistics is a material heavy course, and that in deciding that as students we didn't need a TA put us at a huge disadvantage? I've been studying for longer than I can even remember now, and I feel like I've achieved nothing. I have no way of knowing whether or not what I'm studying is actually correct.

It doesn't help that it's impossible to get a hold of the professor. This seems to be a common problem with professors in the Department of Economics. They say, "Here's an email, it's how I want you to contact me." and never bother to respond to the emails. Or, when they do respond to the emails it's to say the tests you've asked about have already been posted. Forget that there are no solutions, and don't bother emailing back. The response will be a sorry, a thank you, and a mention the error has been corrected (It hasn't).

How about the fact that office hours before the final are listed for a building, but not a room number. Apparently they were only for a small group of people who had agreed to meet ahead of time outside the building before going to a prebooked room. Why is there no note of this? And why is there no way to do anything about this? How is it fair, that as students, we're expected to struggle through extremely sub par learning conditions and we still get shit from the administration when we fail? What ever happened to oversight?

I want to keep going, but I've calmed myself down, and since that's all I'm ever going to achieve with this university for this matter, I'm going to go back to bashing regression into my head.

Thanks for proving my mother right - I really should have stayed at UWaterloo.

Mike

Dear Professors,

I would just like to inform you that your duties regarding teaching a class are not over until the end of the final. Just because you switch over to a different prof halfway through the term does not mean you get to pull all of your stuff from the course website and stop answering emails. Especially if you are writing half of the final.

Separately, you should really learn to post the tests written by the class along with the solutions instead of just the solutions. Solutions are meaningless without the questions.

Thanks,
Mike

I'm far too caffeinated to make any sense. I'm trying to figure out money demand. I had a serious question to ask the world, brought to the front of my mind by the red bull I'm drinking. But then the red bull brought four other thoughts forward before I could open this page up. I've now forgotten that thought.

I'm getting really frustrated with school, and both of my profs. I'm sick and tired of hearing things like "If you can do this problem, you'll be fine" or "It's really simple". Yeah I get it. You've been doing this for years, and it's second nature to you. But unlike everyone else, I don't have hours and hours to dedicate to this. I'm already dedicating a huge amount of time and not getting it. So instead of being shocked that something doesn't make sense to me, take the time to actually explain it. Don't just say "it's a proportion, so n equals this". Why the fuck does n equal that? Because you said so?

I've tentatively successfully enrolled in all of my courses for the next academic year. The one hitch being I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be taking a second first year calculus, MAT137Y, or if I can just proceed into a second year calculus, MAT235Y, despite not having the proper prereqs and the fact that 137 is now a program requirement for me.

Here's what I got:

Fall 2008
Monday:
10a-11a. CSC236H1 F
12p-01p. CSC207H1 F
02p-03p. MAT235Y1 Y*

Tuesday:
01p-03p. MAT223H1 F
06p-07p. CSC258H1 F
07p-09p. CSC258H1 F

Wednesday:
10a-11a. CSC236H1 F
12p-01p. CSC207H1 F
02p-03p. MAT235Y1 Y*

Thursday
12p-01p. MAT223H1 F
06p-09p. CSC258H1 F

Friday:
10a-11a. CSC236H1 F
12p-01p. CSC207H1 F
01p-02p. MAT223H1 F
02p-03p. MAT235Y1 Y*

Winter 2009
Monday:
01p-02p. CSC324H1 S
02p-03p. MAT235Y1 Y*
03p-04p. CSC263H1 S
06p-07p. CSC336H1 S
07p-09p. CSC336H1 S

Wednesday:
01p-02p. CSC324H1 S
02p-03p. MAT235Y1 Y*
03p-04p. CSC263H1 S
06p-09p. APM236H1 S

Friday:
01p-02p. CSC324H1 S
02p-03p. MAT235Y1 Y*
03p-04p. CSC263H1 S

If there is one thing that will be the downfall of my chances at completing a degree, it will be my inability to pick up on little things in questions on tests. Stupid algebraic mistakes is a close second though. The number of times that I do a question backwards because something didn't click in my head is getting far too high.

I have misplaced one of my midterms. Actually. I'm being serious. It is no where to be found. This can't be a good sign. Now I can't even remember if I picked it up or not. I must have. Why wouldn't I?

Anyone who's taken Economics at some point, listen up.

I'm stuck on best response functions. I understand the theory behind it, and how they work once you have them. But I question how you actually get them. If you could clear that up for me, I would appreciate it a lot.

Thanks,
Mike

Today is April 1st. I wrote the last of my midterms today. My finals are in about a month. I still have a week (or two?) of classes left. It is also snowing outside. In comparison, most of my friends have FINISHED their university degrees today. Not fair.

I'm off to write my third and final midterm for ECO239Y, roughly a month before the final. Go figure.