I Am Now a Management Major

So I was just chilling and minding my own business during course registration for the next semester, when BAM I suddenly get a dangerous burst of ambition. I suddenly decide that I ought to take a class that was actually relevant to my major. I saw fit to not overreach myself, and instead maybe take a demure class in C++, a programming language which I had studied and used for years.

My school was rather inclined to disagree with my petition for a “prerequisite override permit,” which is what I need in order to register for the C++ class, ECE 3090. After all, you couldn’t possibly learn C++ if you hadn’t first implemented some discrete FIR filters in the digital signal processing course first.

OK, just read my response after my registration permit was denied:

Below is the result of your feedback form. It was submitted by xxx@gatech.edu (ZHAO WANG) on Monday, April 05, 2010 at 19:18:02.

grad_ugrad: Undergraduate
term: Fall
GTID: ———
course: ECE3090
major: CMPE
graduation_term: Spring
graduation_year: 2013

comments: I already have knowledge of C++ and programming in 3090; previously held a job at a game graphics/AI company doing software engineering with C++.

On Tue, 06 Apr 2010 09:59:59 -0300, Xxxxxxx Xxxx wrote:

ECE does not override prerequisites for its courses. Once you have
successfully completed ECE 2025, 2030, and 2040, you can take ECE 3090.
ECE 3090 is offered every Fall and Spring terms, and occasionally in the
Summer. You will have plenty of time to take it in the future. Right
now you need to concentrate on completing your core subjects, not junior
electives.

Regards,

Xxxxxxx X. Xxxx
Manager, Undergraduate Academic Advising
School of Electrical & Computing Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
PHONE: 404-894-XXXX
FAX: 404-894-XXXX

Hi Xxxxxxx,

But I will lose interest in schoolwork and begin to find my course-load irrelevant and tedious. Soon I will feel as if I have lost my way, and either turn to religion and/or become a Management major. Either path will only further my anxiety about my capabilities and self-worth, and soon my very existence will come into question. I will wonder if school is worth my time, or if life is even worth living.

Years later, as I lay on a desolate sidewalk, a vagabond stranded by the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering, tears will stream down my face onto my primary religious text and/or my diploma for my Management degree. It will be my last of many cold, lonely nights on that sidewalk. Hunger and sickness have taken its their final toll on my frame, already thin and abused since the second semester of Georgia Tech.

But as the world fades to darkness, I will realize that my tears are not of sadness, but of joy, joy that I had completed my core subjects instead of junior electives.

Oh, the humanities!

But seriously though: [edited]

Thank you,
Xo Wang
gtID: XXXXXXXXX

The subsequent response I got was essentially a combination of “no” and “go have yourself a terrible @#$%ing day,” only without those specific words and phrased a lot less politely. Yes, less politely.

By the way, I’m not actually a Management major now. I’m just going to be an EE/CS who leans towards CS rather than EE. And who hates life.