This summer I’m taking two online Anthropology classes at the local community college. But I wasn’t officially enrolled at the college as an Anthropology student. For that, I’d need to set up an appointment with a counselor to make an academic plan.
I hadn’t bothered meeting with a counselor back when I first started taking classes in cinema and filmed plays, because I was taking them to backfill areas of knowledge I felt I lacked. My goal was to aim toward a master’s program in Shakespeare, so official enrollment didn’t matter as much as course content and being able to talk intelligently about filmed versions of Shakespeare’s plays.
Now, though, the situation has changed: I want to be enrolled in City College’s certificate program in Archaeology. So, I can’t only take the classes ad hoc to learn the content, I have to be enrolled as a student and have an academic plan on record, which requires meeting with a counselor.
To do that, City College needed my 35-year-old college transcript from Cal State Fullerton.
Ordering my college transcript turned out to be astonishingly easy and inexpensive. I ordered two copies for myself and one for City College. Funny thing: City College wasn’t on the list of educational institutions; I had to select “other” and enter their address manually. I guess once you have a BA no one thinks you’ll be going back to a two-year community college for undergrad work. Ha!
Anyways, I received my copies in the mail just the other day, which means City College received theirs. So my next step is to book a virtual counseling appointment, which opens in August. After that, I should be officially in the Archaeology program!
By which time I’ll have completed six units of Anthro coursework, plus I’ll be registered for nine units of Anthro/Archaeology coursework in the fall. All that in addition to the nine units of Drama coursework I did before this.
I wonder if an AA in Anthropology would be useful? That’s a question I’ll have to ask, and weigh whether it’s worth it considering I already have a BA in Comm.
Again, my goal isn’t to get a master’s degree; my goal is to get trained for a job doing something fun and interesting that doesn’t involve contributing to the downfall of humanity.
But for now, right now, I’m actually on my way to becoming a real student again, with a plan and a program and everything!
