I had to meet with my counselor today to make sure that I was off of probation now that my GPA is much higher... All in all, it was a pretty informative meeting and went well...

I first wanted to throw something at her that I have been thinking about for a long time, double majoring. I looked into the details of majoring in Computer Engineering and Computer Science. It turns out that if you are a Computer Engineer, there are only three courses that you have to take (according to my university's degree auditing program thingy) to become a major in Computer Science as well. It'd be nice with two B.S. degrees. So I asked her about it. Good news is that there is actually only one course, ONE SINGLE COURSE, that a Computer Engineer would have to take in order to become a Computer Science major. It turns out that since I would have completed the Gen Eds for Comp Eng, I don't have to worry about the Gen Eds for Comp Sci, including the second language requirement. I also found out that one of the courses I have taken is an equivalent to the one CS required. (I knew it was, but I only thought the credit could be used in one direction, not back and forth). So one course, and I'm a Computer Science major.

Well, that's what I thought until she told me about a bs (not the type of degree here) requirement my college has. Because of this little loophole of only being one course different between the two degrees, my university does not allow a double major with Computer Engineering and Computer Science. What they do allow is a Double Degree...

And here's how it works. I would need to satisfy the 30 credit hour residency requirement twice, once for each degree. So bascially all I would have to do is take and additional 27 credit hours (I have the other three from other extra classes I took) and I could have the second degree. Here's the bs part... It does not matter what courses I take to reach those additional 27 credit hours. I could take 27 credits in art, physics, a language, or even BASKETWEAVING (she actually said this). All I'd have to do is come back for a year and force myself to take 101 (or any of the above) classes everywhere and I could get the CS degree... We both thought this was kind of pathetic, but on the other hand, it's not worth the tuition money. I'll explain below.

Since the Comp Eng degree is much harder (and I believe it it the hardest major in the entire University, there are statistics somewhere that prove this), and I know that companies do come back to the school and comment on how good/bad the students are. So I asked if companies are noticing the difference between the Comp Sci students and the Comp Eng students. She said no. :( Because of the economy being so bad as it is, companies are just looking for the B.S. in a degree (IE: B.S. is better than a B.A.). They can't really tell the difference between the Eng students and the Sci students. They just know that they are both good...

Great, now the degree I worked my a$$ off to get is worth the same as someone who took 20+ credit hours less than me and does not know a thing about circuits... >:( Yippee...

So the cookie crumbled. Oh well...

But the day didn't all go bad. I'm am officially off of probation. And as it turns out, I'm doing too well with my schedule. Taking all the courses that I had planned to have taken in the fall would only leave me with two courses to take in the Spring. While all and good, I need at least one more course to make full-time student status (stupid financial aid details). So the plus of all of this is that instead of one heavy semester (17 credits) and one light semester (12 credits) next year, I get two light semesters of 13 and 12 credit hours each... Not bad. :)

So outside of being told that maybe I should have been a Computer Science major instead of a Computer Engineering major because of the lighter course load and better grades I could have received (and because businesses don't know the difference nowadays), I had a pretty good day.

Now off to clean the old apartment for inspection from the building manager...