Do you know what you’re doing? Not in the grand scheme of things, but as in here at De Anza College. Are you working towards a goal, such as an associate’s degree? Or perhaps you are just taking poetry, quarter after quarter, because you hate your job and just need some form of creative expression? It might be a good idea to get a firmer hold on what it is you want to get out of your stay here at De Anza and make a plan.

If you haven’t heard, it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood. China’s real estate bubble just popped and it could be bigger than the U.S. implosion during 2008, the causes of the European debt crisis are still in place and may necessitate dissolving the currency altogether, Iran wants a Tickle-Me-Elmo but spent its allowance on ice-cream so now its throwing a fit, it’s an election year and, oh yes, $1 billion in trigger cuts are going to affect the California’s higher education system, hitting the community colleges the hardest. 

A year from now is not the time you want to suddenly realize you want to transfer and only need three math classes, or suddenly develop an overwhelming desire to finish up technical writing. Classes are either going to be so full that De Anza faculty will be forced to take more than the maximum number of students or those classes simply won’t exist anymore.

So when you’re done reading this, instead of noticing a cute squirrel eating from a trash can, don’t take a picture of it; think about your classes, your grades, where you’ve been and what you’ve done. Has your time here been comprised of electives or general education requirements? Have you focused your time in a subject or have you been tasting everything? How many drops do you have? Do you need to petition the school to overlook a questionably high number of drops for a single subject?

Once that’s done, look at the class requirements and make an education plan, decide what classes you are going to take and when you are going to take them. Don’t plan on taking EWRT 2; plan on taking EWRT 2 – 067 which is taught Tuesday and Thursday from 1 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. and is taught by Professor Hodges. The difference is getting into the class you need and waiting till next quarter.

Do yourself a favor and talk to a counselor. The counselors at De Anza actually know what they are doing and are good at it. They take walk-ins, so show up sometime and pick their brains, they even have seating if the wait runs long.

This plea isn’t entirely for your benefit; do you know how much your attendance at De Anza costs the state? If you don’t have a Board of Governors fee waiver or receive finical aid, look at your bill: don’t double it, don’t triple it but multiply it by seven. That number is about how much you should be paying, but the state subsides you.

You are subsidized because the state has the expectation that you will better yourself and in turn, better society. But most importantly, the belief is you’ll better yourself quickly. I’m not going to say you should be “punched out” of here in two years, but I will say that if this is your fifth year here with priority registration, the excuse better not be, “I couldn’t get in to the classes I needed to because I registered yesterday.”