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June 05, 2003
Too Pooped to Party
I picked up my grades for this last semester. To be more accurate, I logged in to check my grades as paper is no longer sent to students. In either case, I got an "A" for the final capstone project. My cumulative grade point average, on a scale from zero to four where the worst grade is zero and the best is 4.0, is 3.9. Out of all of the classes I took in graduate school, I had one "B".
Still, it's a lot better than my GPA in undergraduate school. During that time, just graduating was an accomplishment. My GPA then was something like 2.9 or 3.0. Not bad but not great. Or as one person put it, getting a "B" means either you are a "C" level person working very hard, or an "A" level person not working hard enough. I guess I was the latter.
In either case, the presentation went well yesterday. With that presentation, the only thing left to do is attend a debriefing with the other capstone projects to reflect on the experience and give suggestions on how the class could be organized better.
I don't know if I have anything that will help classes that follow us other than to let them know that conflict among group members is to be expected, but should not rewarded.
Graduates students have to have large egos. If we didn't we wouldn't be there in the first place.
In addition, it takes a lot of self-confidence and stamina to stay the course for three years. Students are pulled in different directions by the needs of your spouse, families, friends, and work.
To put everything aside and stay focused on school requires commitment. To graduate requires a rearranging of priorities to make school the top of the pile.
But when you put a group of such people together, you will have problems. This is further reinforced by classes that teach us to be leaders, not followers. Classes that say we are special and are being groomed for roles of responsibility and power. Classes that reinforce individualism, not working together.
Hence, if there is anything that I would say to the classes to follow it is this: Know your strengths and weakness, know your group members' strengths and weaknesses and try to arrange things so the strengths of each is put to use and the weaknesses are covered by others. In the end, if you can't work together as a group, you will never reach your goals - in school, work, and in life.
Aloha!
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Comments
Congratulations, Dan! You've worked hard, and earned what you have received.
Has it really been three years that you've been working on your Master's?
Posted by: Ken Scott at June 5, 2003 03:09 PM