IT 235: Database Design

Let’s start off with the good news: I completed this course with an A. My GPA is steady at 4.0 at SNHU. I am hoping to keep it that way for as long as possible. This course was a reading/book heavy course with long chapters. There were almost weekly discussion posts, which I find EXTREMELY easy to write. You also had to post 2 responses to 2 different peers, which isn’t that hard as well. There were two assignment activities, which again, were easy As for me and only took 30 minutes to an hour to complete. Then, there were the 3 parts to my big Final project. The first part was drafting out my database design in words like the goals, objectives, and restrictions of the database. The second part of the assignment was designing the database: deciding the important entities and attributes, outlining the important pairings, and designing the actual database using the normalization process. The last part of the paper was designing the final database (based on the feedback from the other two parts of the paper) and commenting on whether you achieved your design goals that you had outlined at the beginning of the paper. Overall, this class was very easy to me. The most time consuming part was reading the chapters and taking notes.

The next class that I am taking starts May 6th and it is DAD 220: Introduction to SQL.

With Love,

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September Semester RESULTS

Another semester has come and gone. This time my wrap up is coming to you rather late. I got caught up in the new semester and haven’t had the time to sit down and write this one. This was my 2nd term at SNHU and I thoroughly enjoyed my time at this college. This term was less stressful, but more rewarding. The 1st term was just so much pressure. The 2nd term went by a lot smoother with less stressing by me. I think the only time that I panicked was the second to last week when I needed to write all of my body paragraphs, because I couldn’t stop at just three. I ended up going one page over on my History 200 class. All of my IT papers I was able to keep at the maximum of 2 pages.

HIS 200: Applied History

I was able to achieve a perfect score in this class. 1,000/1,000 point. I got a perfect A and I am so excited about it! There is nothing like maintaining a 4.0 in college. It feels even better than getting pretty close to it in high school. I had two big projects for this class. One was a writing plan and the other was the actual essay. I wish we spent more time on writing the essay rather than the plan. I feel like I could have benefited from one more week crafting the essay and one less week on the writing plan. I really enjoyed this class a lot and the only annoying part was having discussions twice a week instead of once. It was really hard to keep up with.

IT 140: Introduction to Scripting

I got 1,000/1,000 in this class as well. So, I ended the term with a 4.0. At Pine Manor College, I ended my time there with a 3.97. Now, I have a child and working full time AND I am doing even better?! It doesn’t make sense! I am super proud of myself. There were 4 reflection papers and honestly, I wrote most of them on the fly on Saturday. The most challenging aspect of this class were the challenge questions every week. Even the project were MUCH easier than the challenges. The challenges were horrible! Some of them, I really had to research online to see how I would attempt to answer them. I found a really helpful Youtube channel that were run by IT teachers at SNHU and they broke down the project and challenges and answered them. It was a gold mine.

Here’s to the next semester being just as great!

With Love,

October Semester

Okay, my October term started on 10/29 and I really started it the day before with looking at what was to come. I am so nervous about one class this semester and I am glad that I basically have a good part of December off due to my dad’s surgery for it. I also have just discovered that I have a good part of November off as well. I will even be able to work from home in January, so I am very happy about my little vacation from work this year. I am writing this on November 1st and I am currently suffering from a Crohn’s medical complication. I am on antibiotics and steroids. I am doing well but as you can imagine, I am very uncomfortable. Working on my blog and school work gives me something to focus on during my day off.

MAT 140 – Precalculus

Yep, the class that I fear is this one. I am so nervous about this class, but so far it is going great. The first week hasn’t been as hard as I thought. I just have to make sure that I work on my weekly problems early on in the week. I am sure that explaining my thought process to solve a problem will be difficult for me to write or challenging, but I am confident that I will be able to keep up with this course to be successful. I have already earned 100/1000 points for completing a quiz and the initial assessment. I get 75 points every week that I do the problem set for the week. The final test is worth 155 points and the project is worth 100. Doing the problem sets every week is critical for success since it is weighted for 75% of the course. I have complete confidence that I will pass this course and I might even get an A. We shall see.

DAT 210 – Foundation to Data Analytics

AKA a business proposal course. This doesn’t really touch much on Data Analytics. It is more of a project management class on how to construct a business proposal for a business question that you want to answer to resolve a business issue. How it relates to data analytics is you have to gather data and analyze the results of that data. It is a lot of little papers, I think there are 5 little papers that break down the big project. Then, you put them all together for the final. Along the way, there are chapter readings each week and discussions that you need to post and respond to. I don’t think that this will be a difficult class as long as I keep up with it. I am very good at writing and forming plans. It will give me good real world experience.

I think this will be an easy term overall for me. Yes, Precal is going to be very challenging but I can handle it. It is funny how the Freshman class is going to be harder than the Sophomore class. As long as I give myself plenty of time to do the problem sets in math, I think that I will have an easy term. I might even be able to work ahead this term, because the assignments are less than previous classes. There is only a chapter read once a week for the data class, but no reading for math. It is built into the problem sets which makes it very convenient. I am looking forward to another great term!

With Love,

September Semester Classes

I am back with my two September-October Semester Classes. I cannot believe that the last semester has gone by so fast. I am enjoying my week break while starting to work on this semesters classes to get ready for my first week back on Labor Day. Last semester classes were tough in the beginning, because I didn’t know what to expect. This semester, I think that the classes will go smoother and I will find my balance a lot faster this time around. I have already planned out what I am doing school-wise for the next 8 weeks, so I have a rough sketch of what I want my weeks to look like. I am excited to share my classes and this time, I actually have a book that I can do a review on at the end.

History 200: Applied History

This history classes uses the same application as my Social Science 200 class called Mind Edge. I know already that there will be a lot of reading and embedded work throughout the week. I also see two discussion posts for some weeks, but I think those are really easy. I only have two projects, which I see as one this course. I have my Essay Plan and my Essay. I am guessing that the first one is an outline and the second is the actual essay or research paper. I am totally happy about this, since I want to murder PowerPoint right now. I know this class will be work, but I also think it will be a lot of fun based on my experience with SS200. Hopefully, my professor is a good one, because that makes a difference. So, far, every class I have a new professor.

IT 140: Introduction To Scripting

Okay, this is the class that I am worried about. I have never done anything like this before besides HTML coding in high school, which is really old school now. I have 4 different scripting projects, a book to read (seven chapters), discussion posts usually once a week, and coding challenges that can take 1 to 2 hours depending on how fast you get it. I like that there isn’t really any papers or much writing. You are basically coding, so it will even out with the work for my history class. I’m nervous about the coding part though, because I’ve never done it. It is totally new to me and its scary. I signed up for both webinars for history and for this class. I think that I will REALLY need it for this class to keep me sane. I think the coding challenges are part of your coding project, but I might be mistaken. I looked over the class and it seems like the challenges are connected to the coding projects. It will be work for me for sure, but I think less work than history.

I am really excited about both of these classes and I look forward to sharing my thoughts at the end of the term with all of you. I am really enjoying these school related posts. I hope everyone enjoys these posts as much as me and can relate on some level. This will be my second semester of my Junior year and next summer will be my Senior year. I just cannot wait to get my BA already and have a better life for my son. I am making sure to love the journey though. I don’t want to miss the present by looking towards the future.

With Love,

Online Orientation & Intro to BrightSpace

I thought that I would share a quick post about my online orientation at SNHU. BrightSpace is the online platform, where my courses are taking place. To introduce you to the platform and to how your classes will be at SNHU, they give you a First Year Orientation course that introduces you to the college, resources, expectations, etc. It was mean to be taking over 5 weeks, but I finished it in 2 weeks. This reminded me that I really miss school and I spend too much of my time watching Netflix. LOL. I highly recommend that you take your introductory course, because I feel very confident on the platform because of it.

I also had to take two FYE (First Year Experience) webinars: one for Brightspace and the other for the resources that the college offers. These were also helpful, but more so the resources one than the Brighspace one. I feel like if you explored the FYE “class” on Brightspace that it prepares you better than the 30 minute webinar.

I am not nervous about starting college at all. I only have two more years left to earn my first BS. I think I will go for my Masters from there, but I also want to use the other half of the credits from going to college previously towards a second degree. I am debating between English and the Environmental Science degree that I originally wanted. I think I might go with the ES. It might open more opportunities. When I am making big money, I can easily fund my own education. I don’t think I will ever stop learning and SNHU makes the process so easy. With a Masters, I could easily be making upwards of 200K with experience.

I figured out that by the time I earn my BS, I will have worked at MAPFRE for almost 6 years. I am not sure which analyst position I will go for at MAPFRE, but I want to get a level 60 position and earn some experience. With the time I’ve spent at the company and my reputation, I don’t think it will be hard once I secure the degree to go from a level 54 to 60. I was once told by HR that it is impossible to do, but I don’t think it is. I’m not going to sell myself short. I am worth it.

With Love,

The End Of My 5 Year Hiatus

I am going to University. I can finally say it, even though it is a British thing. I am going to Southern New Hampshire University. Well….not going per say, but attending the COCE online university. But I am getting ahead of myself here. Let’s start at the beginning. I attended three years at Pine Manor College in Boston, MA. I was a double major in English and Biology and had tons of grants and scholarships. I was a straight A student for most classes (DAMN YOU ORGANIC CHEMISTRY! My only B+) and had a fun time in my classes getting to know my professors. I was building confidence. About a month into the summer, I knew that I was never going back. My childhood home was foreclosed on. I needed to get a job to move into an apartment with my dad. I started at Kmart in September and moved out in January.

We lived in that shit hole apartment for three years. After a year, I got a job at my current insurance company MAPFRE in the Remittance department as a rep I. On my 23rd birthday, I found out that I was pregnant and my fiance left me. We were doing the long distance thing, since I left college. He lived in Boston. My high school sweetheart and all. That December, I got a promotion to Senior Rep and had a baby boy.

I came back from Maternity Leave and decided that I needed to get my shit together, so I worked for about a year and got my associate degree in Information Technology from The Institutes which is an Insurance based accelerated college program supported by my work. Still have yet to hang up the degree yet. Anyways, in Feb of 2017, I left Remittance for my current job as Senior Rep in the paper processing claims unit. I am really doing great at my current job, learning new stuff, working part of the time from home, and being a SME (Subject Matter Expert) again.

Last September though, I decided that I needed to get my degree to become someone and get a better living wage to support my autistic son and his needs. So, I heard the radio and tv talk about SNHU. I decided to go on the website and send in my inquiry. Jessica got in touch with me quickly and soon enough, I was filling out a FASA and waiting for my transcripts to arrive. I was originally going for a BA in Environmental Science, but my work would not support that degree. They reimburse through Edcore up to $5,250 a year and going through Edcore gives you a 10% discount on Tuition at qualifying institutions. Mine is one of them.

So, I switched to a BS in Data Analytics, since my end goal is to be a Statistician. I will probably pursue a Masters for it, once I am getting a good salary to pay for it. In the mean time, I got my Degree Audit and had to fight a bit to get one of my college composition courses recognized for what it was. That was all settled in February, when SNHU was finally satisfied with the original syllabus from 2012.

SNHU made it a breeze to apply and start college again. The financial aid team is great and I am signed up for 5 semesters (I was one semester late for the 2018-2019 school year). Generally, there are 6 online semesters. They are 8 weeks long each and you can take up to two classes. I am very happy with my financial aid package and between that and work, I am looking at contributing about $200 a year myself. Mainly interest and fees for the student loans. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

There is so much more to say, but I am ending this blog post here. I will talk about my adviser and orientation and everything in the next blog post. If you have any specific questions or requests, please comment them down below and I will answer them. I am very happy that I chose SNHU. They call me often to see how I am doing. They are invested in me as a person and not just a paycheck. It is really refreshing. Oh, and in case you where wondering, I will be finishing in the Spring of 2020.

With Love,