MA Graphic Design Semester 1

I've had many of you ask me about how my semester is going, and now that it's pretty much over I'm ready to answer that question.
First of all, my course is organized quite differently than what I undertook with my BA. I don't take different "classes", think of the entire 1 1/2 year as an extended class in 3 parts. In the first part, I had 2 different subjects being focused on, "Research Methodologies" and "Theory into Practice." I attended probably 10 lectures for each subject and I'm turning in different assignments for each, but they are assessed together to give me my first semester overall grade. For Theory into Practice I have four graphic design pieces that I'm turning in; they are hard to view on the computer because they are quite big but I am going to at least try to make a post of them when they're done, so you can all see what I've been up to! For Research Methodologies, I have a class notebook with notes and critical analyses and also the project proposal for my MA Thesis project. No finals!!!
Next semester is focusing strictly on the MA Thesis project, we're coming in 2 days a week, one day to keep learning design theories and the next day for group discussion about the progress of our project.
And now, how do I like it?
I love being an MA student! The pace is so much more doable than the BA was, and I like that we're focusing in on this one subject. The course is an equal emphasis on research and critical thinking and on creativity and design. This is really good for me (not having done graphic design before) because I've always been rather strong academically, especially after Moody. I have had to do some catching up on graphic design history (typical lecture consists of name-dropping hundreds of famous graphic designers, with a "you'll all know who (insert name) is...). I had assumed that I would be really behind my classmates as far as graphic design goes, but we seem to be all at about the same level, and my professors say I'm doing fine. Having to make designs with purpose and research behind them is a bit different from the need-it-right-now-make-it-pretty mentality, but I like the challenge!
Overall course satisfaction level: very high
Overall feeling about cost of program: very worth it
(the picture is one of my four projects. I was given two words and had to make two signs to illustrate them(the purple and blue ones). The other four pictures are other related words that might help you figure them out. Can you guess my words?)