It’s CSM’s census day today, which usually means one thing for me: changing classes at the last minute. Sixteen credits turned into fifteen (I really don’t want to take Senior Seminar). I wanted to take Database Management, but the professor left Mines, and the class was cancelled. Next on to my next choice Compiler Design (I’ve been wanting this class since I took Principles of Programming Languages, and it’s only offered once a year. You get to write your own Java compiler! How awesome is that?

I would really like to make it out of Mines in a timely fashion, and I’ll have some graduate school requirements, so… on to the next really enticing class: CSCI562 Applied Algorithms and Data Structures. One of my favorite classes was CSCI406 Algorithms, and Dr. Mehta is teaching this one as well.

I hadn’t turned in my grad school application when it was due, so I was planning on starting my grad work this spring. As it turns out, there’s a mechanism for allowing undergrads to take graduate courses. Unfortunately only seniors are allowed to, and from my first two years at Mines, I had only 88 credits (two credits shy of seniorhood). My transfer credit from my year abroad hasn’t come in yet (all up to 12 credits of it). A signature from the prof of the course, my advisor and the man in charge of grad school, and I’m in the class!

My first graduate class! In the of the l337, “w00t.”