longhornkate

I took my comprehensive exam!! So glad it is over with. I chose this instead of a thesis option for my MPA. It was an experience I do not want to relive any time soon, but I'm confident I passed and will graduate this semester. After the exam some of us who took it, plus other classmates, all went out for drinks. Then I slept a ton.

Well, I've had my share of feeling like an idiot in some of my classes. And the ways my stress has manifested itself before? Yikes. Right now I'm job hunting (just completed a required internship). I think since I'm not working and only have one other class I'm just desperate for extra stimulation. There's only so much Netflix I can watch. But even when I take that into account, the class just feels so different.

I know teaching evaluations stick with people...I've never given a bad evaluation before and do not plan on being harsh or mean. I initially just wrote that she is nice but I thought sweet describes her better. FWIW, the retiring chair of our department, a man, is most certainly sweet and is referred to as such by almost all students in our program. Any sexist implications were not intended. Now, thinking about it more, I shouldn't have used sweet at all, because saying she is sweet while at the same time telling us we need assignments dumbed-down and telling guest speakers loudly that we are "INTRO" students so to go ahead and explain every detail doesn't jive. This is her second career and she's a former public official - I think I have a lot to gain from her perspective. I believe it is the first time she has taught graduate students though, and this is probably the source of the issue. I appreciate your honesty in how going to someone else in the department might look. I need to speak with her about my project soon, so I'll take an approach suggested here and let her know I'd like additional challenges. And thank you St Andrews for the perspective (sorry, I don't know how to multi-quote). I definitely don't want to wind up being complacent before exams! I like being in class and class is usually fun for me, so already feeling like I have to drag myself in every week is awful. I thought because I took my comprehensive exams this weekend, I was just having trouble focusing on her class, but this week was even worse. I'll go in asap.

As an undergrad I took combined courses, and the graduate students had extra assignments and different expectations. Even now in my professional program, the elective courses that are combined with phd students have them doing extra work as well.

I am an MPA student in my last semester, taking a capstone course and an elective. This elective is taught by an adjunct and the content is seriously dumbed-down. I signed up for the course when another professor was scheduled to teach it, but due to both some university and departmental upheaval, the teaching assignment was switched. Honestly, this class is easier than almost anything I took in undergrad, nevermind grad school. In four weeks I haven't gotten anything useful out of the class, and it's torture to sit through. I participate as much as I can to stay engaged, even though I have no prior knowledge of the subject, and strongly suspect things are actually worse for the students in the class that are familiar with it or are practitioners in the field. The professor is sweet but she is constantly telling us she is "dumbing things down" for us and that this is an "introductory" course. It's not an introductory course, and I don't need her to simplify anything. I feel like a jerk - I basically am feeling the opposite of imposter syndrome - and some students think I should just sit back and enjoy the easy A in my final semester. I plan on writing a firm evaluation, but should I bring this up with the current interim department chair? We have ten more weeks of class. Will I just cause trouble?