Today is the first day of school. I’ll be taking an intro to chem class this semester at a local community college, I am concerned about taking a class on the semester system since it would overlap with my Spring quarter at UCSD come March. The positive side is that this is an intro to chem class and not Chem I, which would make it less distracting from my upper division work at UCSD. It has been over 6 years since I’ve taken chemistry and I fell just 8% short of passing the districts petition test which would have allowed me to go directly to Chem I. It is a bit depressing to be spending time in an intro class when I have so much course work to complete, I hope the 16 weeks I’ll spend in class & lab will pay off come Chem I.
I feel fortunate to be a student in such an economy. I have been an equities and derivatives trader for over 5 years and was very fortunate to have worked with some very talented quantitative traders during the long bull market and subsequent correction. I subscribe to various regression theories and the following image is what I consider to be an accurate analysis of market prospects. (click for larger image)
Room to fall
I better stop before I turn this into a finance blog 
I have one last tidbit to share however: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html
The US is now at the bottom of the world wide list of account balances.
Nice insight into the intro days and getting back into college courses you’ve been away from for a while. I was in the Army for several years and had to retake Algebra. The intro stuff didn’t take much personal time away from anything. Don’t think you’ll have any worries. Hey, if you can figure out the economy, chemistry is easy!
As a physician and pre-med pseudo-adviser for nearly 5 years, I’ve gotten a lot of questions about specific classes, prerequisites and the dreaded intro classes. Having had to retake classes myself, I can attest that it has no negative effect in the long run.
Just a tip, use this next month or so to get hyper-organized about how you’re going to handle your life once the studies really pick up. This can be a good time to upgrade your filing system, both physical and on your computer. Also, playing with reading schedules, the way you take notes and highlight – all of that can save you time later. Prior Planning Prevents Pisspour Performance, as they said in the Army.
Case in point, all of my notes, and hundreds of others, were so organized and now people download them from my website!! Ha.
You never know where organization can take you.
Best.
Thanks for the motivating comment! I already felt like an old soul due to my experiences in my upbringing, but the 4 years in the Marine Corps just made me feel that much more out of place in school, especially in intro classes at a JC. Thank you for being a testament to dedication and success post military service.