A few weeks ago Katie asked me if there was any way to finish uni this semester.

I thought I had to do five units, with the usual full-time load being four. Knowing I had to do two of the most difficult units, programming languages and project, I figured it would be better to not overload. This would have meant I would graduate at the end of 2008 if I went part-time or by the middle of 2008 if I went full-time.

I contacted uni to confirm this, who advised I only needed to complete four units, meaning I could finish by the end of this year if I went full-time. As I'd been studying part-time since 2000 (first the Certificate of Software Engineering at Melbourne University, then the Bachelor of Computer Science at Monash), it felt well and truly time to finish it off.

I discussed it with Eileen at work who said I could take leave without pay.

I asked uni which electives I could take, and discovered some of the subjects I'd originally planned to take were no longer allowed. Those included data communications (CSE3318) and computer architecture (CSE3324). I would also have been interested to take LISP programming (CSE3394), but that hasn't been offered for a few years.

I enrolled in programming languages (CSE3322), computer industry (CSE3323), computer graphics (CSE3313) and project (CSE3301) as the only realistic way to finish my studies at the end of this year. It seemed like the options would only be less if I waited until next year (in which case my main subject choices were image processing and project, but the faculty couldn't guarantee those subjects would be offered next year). It was a bit disappointing considering they were part of my course plan when I enrolled in 2004, but I guess that's the downside of doing uni part-time.

My time table looks like being Monday thru Thursday. I'll try to sign up to volunteer at Wholefoods when I have a free hour or two over lunch on one of those days.

As for work, I've been told I'll be able to work on projects when I get back, rather than the support work I've mostly been doing since going part-time at the start of this year. Hopefully it will work out and I'll find something challenging and interesting, but that will depend on whether they find somebody to replace me doing the support work.

I've already purchased my text books (the main one being "Elements of ML Programming" by Ullman and "Compilers" by Aho) and can't wait for the social life!