End-of-course blues

So… I'm in the final throes of two courses now: Epigenetic Control of Gene Expression from Melbourne University (Coursera), and MongoDB Advanced Deployment and Operation (MongoDB). In addition, ASTRO1 from ANU is also officially closing in a few days − I already have my final score for ASTRO1, in contrast to the other two, and anyway ASTRO2 is starting in a couple of weeks.

I always feel a bit bluesy when a course ends. I guess that's because, well, it's the end: all of the time and effort you've invested in the course have born their primary fruit (some additional knowledge or skills, maybe a bit of paper to prove it), but − unlike in a “real” course − you don't go on hanging out with classmates, you won't be bumping into the professors in hallways, etc.; finishing each course is in that respect more like graduating: the end of something.

Then of course, when I've made time for a 7, 10, or 15-week course in my schedule, when the course ends, there's a hole to fill in − things can feel a bit empty at first.

So, onwards! To recap, in the first half of this year I've completed the following courses:

• Economics and Calculus at Caltech
• Statistics part 1 and 2 at Berkeley
• Immunology part 1 at Rice
• Analytics at MIT
• Bioinformatics at Peking University
• Astrophysics part 1 at ANU
• Diabetology at Copenhagen University
• Epigenetics at Melbourne University
• MongoDB administration (both courses) at MongoDB

(Okay, so Epigenetics isn't quite over − I still have to grade my peers' assignments − and it is possible that I utterly failed the final essay and therefore the course; but that's very unlikely.)

Besides, I am now enrolled in the following:

• Statistics part 3 at Berkeley
• Genomic Medicine at Georgetown
• Quantitative Biology at MIT

I may drop the Genomic Medicine course − it's interesting, but it feels way too basic, especially after the rather challenging Diabetes and Epigenetics courses. Of course, I have now a bit of time on my hands, so may stick to it just to get busy.

Later on, I am pencilled in a few additional courses: ASTRO2 (Exoplanets) from ANU, two analytics/statistics courses (one focusing on healthcare data from the Karolinska, and a more general one from Duke), a couple of medical courses (Immunology Part 2 from Rice, and Anatomy from Harvard), and a discussion about Scottish Independence from the University of Edinburgh (obviously centered on the referendum date so as to discuss the issues as well as the aftermath).

So − that's eight more courses I'm either currently doing or scheduled to take before the year's out, bringing the grand total of 2014 to a whopping 19. I am quite certain I'll find an additional course to take it up to 20, which when you add the 5 certificates I got in 2013 makes for a not completely awful curriculum.