I hate Statistics. Don’t get me wrong, Darla Emerson is a fine teacher and I understand the real world benefits and applications of statistics, but the way my brain works I have absolutely no patience or motivation for the subject. I had to get out, so I tried to get back into calculus for the second semester, which I enjoy and find interesting. Unfortunately, the math gods were not pleased and made it pretty much impossible for me to get into calculus with my current schedule.

I talked to both an assistant principal and my counselor and they suggested I explore another option (well, really my only other option): college algebra. It’s a dual-credit class that I would take at Collin College and I would get both high school and college credit. I would take it either two or three days a week and not come to school until second period since first period would be “off-campus math”. At the end of the semester I get guaranteed college credit as long as I pass the class. Sounds like a good deal, and easy too, right?

I thought so. I decided to take the college algebra path, and my counselor told me the next steps to enroll. I had to apply, be accepted, take a placement test, register for a course, get a parking permit and a school ID, and turn in all kinds of paperwork and permission forms.  I realized this was not going to be as easy as I thought. I had to wait a week after applying to be accepted, stand in a line for an hour and a half to even get the testing permission form, come back the next day to take an hour long test that placed me exactly where I told them I would be, then stand in line for another hour only to be told that they couldn’t help me at all and I had to email or call someone else that was in charge of dual credit.

I called said person many times and either got the answering machine or a secretary that told me to call back later. After more than a week of waiting, I talked to my counselor again and she referred me to another dual credit person who might be able to help me. I emailed her and she finally responded, saying that the deadline for enrolling was two days away and that I needed to both get approval from the professor of the class and the dean of the school. I emailed as many college algebra professors as I could find in a mad rush to get approval before the deadline. I refreshed my inbox every five minutes, waiting to get into someone’s class, anyone’s class. After about the hundredth refresh, I got an email back from a professor who said I was welcome in his class. I immediately emailed the dean and got his approval, enrolled online, and paid for my class with about 45 minutes to spare before the deadline.

I made it, but it was not easy. So kids, the moral of the story here is that if you want to be in dual credit, sign up when everyone else does at the beginning of the year, and don’t try to do it on your own unless you have strong legs and a passion for bureaucracy and frustration.