Dual-School Academic Planning
Updates for both my UVM and UW experiences
As I said in my most recent previous post (Happy Post-Independence Day Weekend 2025!) - I had other updates for you all, as far as my academic stuff, as well as some planning I’ve been doing for evolving this Substack, the former will be discussed here, the latter on a post I am planning on publishing on this Friday (11 July).
I enjoy this picture taken from my first visit to MoMA during the pandemic (24 June 2021), but also, since it is something fun, it is something I hope you all also enjoy it as well.
Given I have things for both UVM and UW to discuss, I will do those in that order.
Part A - UVM discussion & degree updates
My grades/marks for my two UVM public health courses have posted, and with an A+ in PH 6060 (Social & Behavioural Public Health) and an A in PH 6010 (Public Health & Health Policy), this means I am now, officially, coursework complete for my masters in biomedical engineering at UVM, and not just that, the fact that I will leave UVM with a 4.0 GPA for said masters.
As I have discussed in previous posts - I was able to transfer in three of the engineering courses I took when at Cornell for my MEng, which made my life at UVM at least marginally easier as far as degree planning purposes, and certainly in retrospect given my current set of obligations.
Admittedly, given that I had to withdraw from both Orgo 1 (CHEM 2580) last fall, and the Orgo survey (CHEM 1580) this last spring (for different reasons, 2580 - I had to drop in order to free up time to prepare for my Board of Veterans’ Appeals hearing in early November 2024, 1580 - once I knew I was coming home to Seattle at the end of the Spring Semester to help take care of my father &c. - there was no point taking a class that I may not have been able to transfer back to UW), so my transcript is not without blemish, but this is as good of one as I have ever had, even my Cornell MEng had an A- and a couple of B’s. However, for someone who had difficulties in my youth (given my untreated (and unknown to me) ADHD - which my parents thought could) and in undergrad (that (unknown to me until 2008) ADHD as well as my service-connected/induced mobility problems and PTSD with major depression - which I obviously knew about in theory, but the particulars of them took me a lot of time and work to sort out). Which is my way of saying that a semester GPA of 4.0 was never something I expected ever attaining and a cumulative GPA of 4.0 for any degree anywhere at any time I would have thought was impossible to attain - so this feels like a major achievement for me, although I know it isn’t that big of a deal on the big scale of things.
Now, I just have my lab work for the An-Cockrell Lab as well as my related master’s thesis work for UVM to complete. I still have to finish assembling a committee, formally propose my thesis (what UVM calls a comprehensive exam), do my research, write my thesis, and then defend said thesis. Given I have already done all of this at UVA, as well as my MEng degree project paper at Cornell, I am not worried about these steps, I just have to execute them.
Part B - UW discussion & degree updates
Obviously this summer, with first quarter orgo (CHEM 237) and biology 3 (BIO 220) is set, it’s the what happens after that merits discussion.
Before that starts, let me digress a little.
When I was an undergrad at UW from 2004 to 2009, unlike many veterans whose educations were funded by the GI Bill (either the Montgomery GI Bill or the post-9/11 GI Bill), my education was funded through VA Vocational Rehabilitation & Education (VA Chapter 31, aka Voc Rehab) - which is specifically geared towards helping me to secure gainful employment given I was unable to continue the work which I was doing in the military. So, I was specifically obligated to pursue a degree that would increase my ability to acquire and retain civilian employment. For me, that voc rehab plan was an economics degree, focusing on quantitative economics. Given the specifics of UW, this meant that my plan was to pursue the Bachelor of Science track economics degree1 along with a minor in mathematics2, applied mathematics3, or statistics4.
Given the lack of an applied maths major at UW when I was an undergrad, as well as other factors - my plan (which I executed) was to take a double degree, both the BSc track economics degree as well as the BA standard track mathematics degree (which given the courses I took for it, including MATH/STAT 394 & MATH/STAT 395 (Probability 1 & 2), MATH/STAT 390 (Probability & Statistics for Engineers and Scientists, now no longer dual listed between both departments), AMATH 351 (the applied maths version of ordinary differential equations)) - I built a de facto applied maths degree for myself, along with my economics degree, and double-degreed (that is to say did a BA in one and a BSc in the other) vs double-majored (either both a BA in maths and a BA in economics or a BSc in both) given that double degreeing allowed for being able to go over the cap of 225 undergraduate credits - which given the number of credits I was carrying when I showed up to UW in 2004, the double degree option was a necessity for me.5
I did this given my intent at the time to go to graduate school in industrial/systems engineering (most of which will admit you with a bachelors in maths or one in economics with sufficient maths coursework), and admittedly I implemented the Yogi Berra philosophy of degree selection.6
Given the degree options and specialisations now available, with my previous goals in mind, I probably would have done:
The applied mathematics BSc (specifically the data science option),
The economics BA (or used the individualised bachelors degree programme to custom-build a philosophy, politics, and economics degree), as well as,
The international studies minor (which I did take).
To discuss my international studies minor, please remember that my goal at that time I left the US military was, get my education, go to DC, and change/improve the world, and everything I did after the service until I left my job at Deloitte was geared towards those goals.
The bulk of my mathematics and some of the economics coursework I took was geared towards my goal of going to grad school in ind/sys e (which I saw as the best way to cover the topics I needed grounding in for the work I was interested in doing), the remainder of my economics classes (specifically ECON 401 - Advanced Macroeconomics, ECON/POL S 409 - Undergraduate Seminar in Political Economy, and ECON 472 - International Macroeconomics) and all of my international studies classes were intended to ground me in national security and diplomacy issues I felt I needed to know about to do national security oriented work as a civilian. Regionally focused classes included SIS 490 – Special Topics (an Iraq War simulation) and SISRE 424 – Security Affairs of the USSR and Russian Federation from 1917 to Present, providing applied insight into specific geopolitical contexts. These were complemented by broader theoretical and policy-based courses: SIS/SOC 301 – War, GEOG/SIS 370 – Geopolitics, and SIS 421 – U.S. National Security, and the previously mentioned macroeconomics coursework. My Jackson School academic trajectory culminated in a substantial independent research capstone (SIS 499), which examined bioweapons and terrorism, integrating themes of global health, international law, and asymmetric threats.7 In short, when considered together, my coursework reflects a coherent (I think) and deeply engaged study of international relations, with particular emphasis on the themes of conflict, security, and strategy.
As I have said at the time I was at UW as an undergrad from 2004 to 2009, and since I did undergrad (reflecting upon it), if not for the fact I was doing Chapter 31 to pay for my undergrad, I would have instead studied:
A BSc in microbiology,
A BA in history, and,
The international studies minor, and,
A minor in mathematics, applied maths, or statistics.
Especially considering the newer and more flexible requirements for those minors stated in (4) (see footnotes for discussion on those minors).
To explain, my two biggest passions growing up were the social/behavioural sciences (with history foremost amongst those) and biology, and those were certainly reflected in the elective courses I took in secondary school.
But for the Voc Rehab requirements to get a degree that was directly practical/associated with a professional pathway, and given my desire to go to DC - I would have done a degree in history (mostly for my love of the discipline) and microbiology (my biology interests have always leaned this way, and in undergrad, I did join the microbiology club given that interest) - my international studies minor research capstone was a direct reflection of that, but I definitely would have loved to have delved more into both.
The minor in pure/applied maths or statistics, along with the baccalaureate degree in microbiology, would have still qualified me for my then goal of going to grad school in industrial or systems engineering, and most certainly would have been more fun for me to do than what I did do.
Doing degrees in microbiology and history would have definitely been better (by which I mean more direct) preparation of my international studies minor capstone topic. It definitely would have also better prepared me for going to medical school now than my actual undergrad course of study did.
Now to the present day.
Given the fact that I’m back at UW intending to take a microbiology degree as a post-bac, and given the following:
Realistically, I can probably only take two classes a quarter that apply to the microbiology degree, maybe three, and,
I need to maintain full-time enrolment (since I don’t have the money to begin repaying my student loans on top of paying for my UW courses as well as my current debt service load (I’m trying to get all of these debts off of my ledger by mid-2026)),
My love of history, as well as the opportunity to take 1-2 history classes a term on top of my 2-3 microbiology degree this time, and,
The fact that, as a post-bac at UW, I can major in microbiology and history,8
so, I am planning on, as a post-bac, double majoring in both microbiology (which I will be able to declare after Summer 2025, when I have Bio 3 and Orgo 1 complete) and history (which I can in fact declare now - given I meet the requirements for declaring the major). Hopefully, I will be able to do the departmental honours track for both programmes, since, I most certainly have research interests I’d like to fulfil for each. For microbiology, I most certainly would like to do something geared towards infectious disease research, given my interest in becoming an infectious disease physician. For history, I have a topic in mind, but not sure that there’s someone in the history department at UW who could sufficiently mentor me for it.
And on that note, that’s a full lid for this Wednesday, 9 July 2025.
For any UPenn alumni reading this - the UW divide between a BA in economics and a BSc in economics is not the same as at Penn where the economics BA was offered by SAS and the economics BSc was offered by Wharton.
In UW’s case, the difference between the BA and BSc is that, beyond the core of:
ECON 200 - Basic Microeconomics,
ECON 201 - Basic Macroeconomics,
ECON 300 - Intermediate Microeconomics,
ECON 301 - Intermediate Macroeconomics,
STAT 311 - Elements of Statistical Methods
The specific requirements of the economics BA are:
MATH 124 - Calculus 1 (or some equivalent)
ECON 382 - Introduction to Econometrics or 400-level econometrics course (this was not a course in my time in undergrad, I am glad that it exists and that it is required for BA econ students, since there was not an econometrics requirement for BA econ students when I was an undergrad)
25 hours (five courses) - economics courses at the 400-level
The specific requirements of the economics BSc are:
MATH 124-126 - the entire first year calculus series
15 credits (three courses) of additional theory and methods courses, including:
Either ECON 400 (Advanced Microeconomics) or ECON 401 (Advanced Macroeconomics) - this was still a requirement in my time in undergrad.
One of: ECON 424, 482, or 483 (the 400-level econometrics courses) - this officially was not, but given the classes that always qualified under the theory and methods requirement - it would have been hard to ever do the econ BSc without doing at least one econometrics course.
15 credits of additional 400-level economics courses
The summary version is that the BSc version has a lot more quantitative requirements and is more theoretically grounded than the BA version, and was/is generally meant for people tracking towards more quantitative careers or preparing for grad school in economics, operations research/industrial engineering, finance, and/or mathematics/statistics, whilst the BA version is meant for preparation for employment in the private and public sectors, and for graduate study in a variety of fields, such as law and MBA programmes.
When I was an undergrad, the maths minor required:
Core (24 credits+):
The Calc series (MATH 124-126 (regular) or MATH 134-136 (honours) - 15 hours),
MATH 307 (differential equations, now MATH 207),
MATH 308 (matrix algebra, now MATH 208), and,
MATH 309 (linear analysis, now MATH 209)
Note: (b) - (d) are now all 4 credits, when I was in undergrad, they were all 3.
Electives (12 credits): 300 and 400 level mathematics courses, given that effectively all MATH courses at this time were 3-credits each meant that this was a requirement for four elective courses
Now, the requirements for the maths minor:
Core (18-20 credits):
The Calc series (MATH 124-126 or MATH 134-136 - 15 hours), and,
MATH 300 (Intro to mathematical reasoning, 4 hours, but the old version, MATH 310 was 3) or MATH 334 (first quarter second year honours calc series).
Electives (10-12 credits): mathematics courses numbered 301 or higher.
Generally speaking, I think this reworking of the minor is a good thing, although it means, given that MATH 207/307 and MATH 208/308 no longer count towards the minor, explicitly, and the vast majority of 300 and 400 level maths courses require one or both of them, meaning on net, you have to take 1-2 more courses to complete the maths minor than before.
Relatedly, I am also glad that the 300 and 400 level maths courses are all now 4 credit hours, given that means you can take three classes and be at a full-time credit load, whereas when I was in undergrad, they were almost all 3 credit hours each, meaning you had to take four classes to be at a full-time load. My own time in undergrad was quite impacted by this fact, and I am happy that undergrads today are not impacted by this issue.
When I was an undergrad at UW, the applied maths minor required:
Core:
The Calc Series
AMATH 351 (applied differential equations)
AMATH 352 (applied linear algebra)
AMATH 353 (applied partial differential equations)
Elective: One AMATH courses out of: 301, 383, 401, 402, 403, 422, 423, or 441.
Now, the requirements for the applied maths minor are:
The Calc series
Four AMATH courses at the 300 level or above, excluding AMATH 400, AMATH 490, AMATH 498, AMATH 499. CFRM 4XX courses may count.*
I think this is definitely an improvement, given it means that there is a lot more flexibility between taking MATH designated courses and AMATH designated courses (whereas in my day, you were effectively tracked towards the MATH 307-309 series or AMATH 351-353 series), although, admittedly, if I was recommending courses for students taking the applied maths minor, I’d recommend:
AMATH 351 & AMATH 352 (unless they already had MATH 207/307 and/or MATH 208/308, if they did, then I’d say take 301, 383, and whatever other two they wanted)
AMATH 301 (beginning scientific programming)
AMATH 383 (intro to continuous mathematical modelling) unless your specific background, major, and interests orient to a different course that is more relevant.
When I was an undergraduate at UW, the statistics minor required:
Intro Core:
The Calc Series
STAT 311 - Elements of Statistical Methods
Statistics Core:
MATH/STAT 394 - Probability 1
STAT 341 & 342 (these were originally a 2-quarter sequence of mathematical probability and statistics, they are now the second and third quarters of a 3-quarter sequence)
Either STAT 421 - Applied Statistics and Experimental Design or STAT 423 -Applied Regression and Analysis of Variance
Statistics elective - one course
Now, the requirements are:
Core (21 credits):
MATH 126 or MATH 136 (third quarter of the calc series);
STAT/MATH 394 (Probability 1);
STAT/MATH 395 (Probability 2);
STAT 390 (Probability and Statistics for Engineers and Scientists);
STAT 302 (Statistical Computing, this class didn’t exist when I was an undergrad);
either STAT/BIOST 425 (Introduction to Nonparametric Statistics) or STAT/MATH 396 (what used to be called Probability 3, is now called Finite Markov Chains and Monte-Carlo Methods).
Electives (5 credits, 2 courses): typically from the list below
One of CSE 122 or CSE 123 or CSE 142 (first two are quarters 1 and 2 of the new intro programming series (after my time), the last is the first quarter of the old intro programming series).
One of CSE 123 (quarter 3, new intro series) or CSE 143 (quarter 2, old intro series) or CSE 163 (Intermediate Data Programming, a class that didn’t exist when I was in undergrad). Students who have completed CSE 123 satisfy the CSE 122 requirement even if they did not previously take CSE 122.
MATH 208 (previous Math 308), MATH 407 (linear optimisation), MATH 408 (non-linear optimisation), MATH 409 (discrete optimisation), MATH 464 (Numerical Analysis I, which IIRC was not offered when I was an undergrad at UW)
ECON 482, ECON 483, ECON 485 (for an ECON, Business or FINANCE major)
AMATH 352, AMATH 353 (only if both are taken)
BIOST 514, BIOST 515 (for a Biological Science major and only if both are taken)
Minimum grade of 2.0 in each course used to satisfy the minor requirements.
At most 5 credits used to satisfy the STAT minor may be applied to a student’s major. At least 20 credits used to satisfy the STAT minor must be taken in residence through the U.W.
Arguably, the different requirements are effectively comparable, although, of the delineated differences, the newer set of requirements is better, since, as someone who was a double-major in economics and mathematics, I could have filled out the statistics minor coursework with effectively all the same classes I took for my two majors anyway, and would have afforded me a lot more flexibility in electives for the minor.
One notable difference is that, for the minor, the replacement of the STAT 311, STAT 341, STAT 342 pathway with STAT 390 is a pleasant surprise, insofar as it shortens the completion pathway markedly, although, when at UW as an undergrad, my STAT 311 experience (which I took first) was a whole lot better for me than my MATH/STAT 390 experience.
The only substantive difference between the standard-track mathematics BA when I was an undergrad and today is that, on top of the calc series, differential equations, matrix algebra, and advanced multi-variable calculus 1, the current version of the standard-track mathematics BA is that the new version also requires MATH 300. This is definitely an improvement, but I really do wish that the mathematics degrees at UW (other than the teacher prep BA) required a statistics course.
Yogi Berra once said “When you see a fork in the road, take it” when providing directions, since either fork eventually led to the same net location. In my case, when given the choice of doing a quantitative economics degree or a mathematics degree - I did both.
My SIS 499 capstone was overseen by Captain Peter W. Soverel, USN (Ret.), a former professor of strategy at the US Naval War College and staff member on President Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council, who I had previously had for SIS 301. He was one of the best instructors I have ever had at the tertiary education level, and I prize the two quarters I was able to study under him as an undergrad at UW.