Aviation Science Major

UVU offers a very nice perk whereby they give their adjuncts tuition waivers beginning with the second semester of employment. (I don't know what the wait time is for full-time faculty and staff, if there is one.) In any case, I thought it would kinda cool to take some aviation courses, not necessarily getting the flight or instrument ratings, but whatever else would look interesting.

After making various inquiries and talking to several people in different departments, I was able to confirm that I had to actually apply to become a student, so I dutifully filled out the application form, paid the $35-non-refundable application fee, which required me to declare a major (although one could indicate that one wanted to take classes for personal enrichment), and dug out the required transcripts from both my undergraduate and graduate school days, which I hoped would allow me to bypass "required" courses like English 1010, which, by the way, is the class I happen to teach, a class that's required of everyone at UVU.

(Fortunately, I did not have to submit a high school transcript, which would have struck me as silly, considering that I had graduate credits. It's happened before: When I was offered a job teaching in a pre-school, a position that required a high school diploma, I was asked for a copy of my high school diploma, which I wasn't sure I had, considering I had graduated more than 15 years previously. I offered a copy of my college diploma, which I knew I had. This confounded the woman who asked for it: "But we need a copy of your high school diploma." "Well, since I graduated from college, couldn't one presume I graduated from high school?" She didn't know how to answer that.)

It did not end there, though: I still had to complete the WebStart pre-advisement program (reading through their various policies and passing a few quizzes) before the required meeting with my advisor, who would then release the hold automatically placed on my account, and which would have to be removed by my advisor before being permitted to register for classes.

Everything has been accepted, though: I am now officially an Aviation Science Major with a concentration in Professional Pilot!