Two terms vs. three

At colleges there are normally either two or three semesters depending on which school you attend.  In my opinion each has its own benefits and downfalls.  Three terms with fewer classes in each might seem like a better idea for a number of reasons.  First, it allows students to focus on fewer classes.  If you only have to worry about two or three classes you can devote more time to the lessons and therefore understand the material better.  If you are taking five classes you are forced to juggle assignments and work on multiple papers at once which may become overwhelming.  However, Because the terms are shorter when there are three papers come at students faster.  As opposed to having one week to complete an assignment you might have a day.  While this might appeal to some students as it keeps them working others who prefer time to plan and consider assignments could easily become frustrated.  Readings are another area that we must look at.  In a two semester college readings at the beginning of the year are often forgotten.  This can result in critical information being lost during finals.  However, in a three semester college with less time readings can pile up for classes.  In one of my history classes I am expected to read form 20-40 pages for each class(Tuesdays and Thursdays).  This is a manageable amount but if the workload was doubled I doubt I would be able to remember everything that I read.  In defense of school with two semesters I have often heard professors complain that you could spend an entire four years of college studying their class and still not be done.  Three term schools attempt to compress the same amount of knowledge in a shorter amount of time.  This means more classes per week or longer classes.  I enjoy my classes but to be honest I don't want to spend even more time in one class.  There is only so much I can learn before I begin to lose patience and get distracted.  Diversity works for me while focusing in might work for others.  In the end I believe that students must decide which type of school suits them better.

Spring Break Assignments

In my opinion assignments given over spring break are like getting stale chocolate.  Its chocolate so you have to appreciate the effort but its stale so you will never eat no matter who gave it to you. My mid-terms over spring break are alot like that.  Im grateful that I do not have three tests and three papers due the week before I head home, but heading home with them really does not seem like a decision that really favors me in retrospect.  My mid-term week was not to hectic and I was able to put in a good cram session for each test.  The remainder were given in the form of take home assignments.  When I arrived home I threw my bags at a wall and ran off to see friends.  After a few days of that I began looking for summer jobs.  Spring break is supposed to be a time for relaxing without all of the pressures from college.  However, when I began looking through my assignments I realized how much work I had to do.  There were new primary sources to read and analyze and relate back to the classes the previous week.  My final days of break quickly became more panicked as I tried to finish papers.  Instead of returning to school refreshed I returned just as tired if not more so then when I left.  Now that I am back and have already stayed up a night working on a paper I would be quite happy to have just have had one more test.  Also, after franticly finishing papers I returned to school tired and dreading the outcome only to learn that due to the fact we had take home midterms the grades will not be factored into actual midterm scores.  If my mid-term grades supposedly counts for 20% of my total grade I very much want to see how it affects me right now and not when my final grade comes in.  In that instance the take home assignment seems more along the lines of the professor slaking off.  My grades are important both because they allow me to see how the professor thinks I'm doing but also because they allow me to make sure that i have a high enough GPA for my scholarships.  To a student this seems like my professors simply being lazy.  I am aware that they have other classes and that they have other work but it seems as though I am being ignored and they are now putting off their work.  In my opinion take home midterms are good only for the professor but are just as miserable for students.

Weaher problems

In my opinion Ithaca college has sound judgment when dealing with winter weather.  Though my first year at Ithaca I have seen it snow a number of times and have never been overly concerned about either my safety in getting to classes or missed a significant number of classes.  Over this semester it has snowed a number of times.  Each time it has snowed I have watched as people shoveled and plowed as the snow fell to prevent the snow from piling up.  The two times where this has not been so were on the weekend and at night.  On those nights I saw very little efforts and paths became wide enough for one or two people.  However, the college quickly made up for their lack of action the next day.  Before 7:00 there were plows clearing the roads.  Before classes the paths were once again manageable.  Of the two times classes were canceled i only disagree with one.  that day i could easily walk from my dorm in the lower quads to friends still wearing my shoes with gaping holes.  I am well aware that the reason for canceling classes in the morning was for students living off campus and faculty who were worried about driving in the snow.  Today is in fact where I have seen a real reason to cancel class.  I got up at seven out of habit and after learning that classes had been canceled went to the lounge to look out the window.  Outside I saw that the roads were completely covered in snow and watched as cars inched up the road.  The paths outside were not much better.  On the ground was maybe a foot of snow on the path and some of the dorms had not even been plowed.  Because of the roads the dining halls were closed and I could not eat.  Deciding to find out what the rest of the college was like i began walking towards towers.  The paths there were even worse.  There had obviously been not effort to clear the snow and paths were one person paths of trampled snow.  The steps were a combination of sliding and stumbling to get up and down.  Today is definitely a snow day and I am glad the college agrees with me.