Capstone with three other courses

[davewill]

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I will go ahead and tell you that you are likely to write far more than 25 pages. I think my paper ended up being 95 pages, because I didn't feel I could cover everything I was trying to talk about in 25. Just the bibliography was probably 10 pages.
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This is largely under your control. My paper was 29 pages and the bibliography was just three. You should be willing to adjust your scope and questions as you go. I cut two of my subquestions while working on the fourth assignment to end up at the minimum three because those two were going to require more research than I was willing to do. Got a solid A on the paper.

[zzzz24]

Yeah, 95 pages really sounds like overkill, but to each their own.

[MrBossmanJr]

I am curious to see if anyone else completed the capstone while taking other courses at the same time. I am set to take my capstone in January 2019, but I have to take some classes to maintain my GI Bill at a local community college. I will be taking chem I with lab, microeconomics, and quality control. I'm hoping these classes won't affect my ability to complete the capstone. Judging by the ratemyprofessor, I'm thinking microeconomics and quality control will be easy classes and chem I will just take a slight bit of effort.

I would agree with your assessment.  Quick question, do you know if you have the option of doing a short session for any of those (I'm thinking microeconomics or quality control).  That's one way to free up some time at the end of the semester and allow more time for writing.  You'd start all 4 at the same time, but in a short session, one ends sooner, thus you'd finish with only 3 on your plate.  (my sons do this almost every semester- they take 12 credits but it's always split so they are doing 3 classes at a time instead of 4)

That would be great, but sadly no. My GI Bill is affecting my choices for classes and one of my classes just got dropped due to lack of registration. I have to choose new classes now.


Is the capstone paper, the 25 pages, built upon through the assignments or is it written alongside the assignments?

[zzzz24]

Seems to be built upon the assignments, but the bulk of the actual information is input into the actual paper as the final submission.

I started reading the e-book, but still kind of confused. I looked at some of the example papers on the net, but they are pretty old and I am not sure what mark these people even received.

In terms of this being a research paper, are we mostly just regurgitating information into this paper and citing it? It doesn't seem like it's a typical "essay".

[jsh1138]

It is largely under your control but if you ask around, 50 page capstone papers are not at all uncommon. Alot of the length will depend on your subject as well, not everyone is doing their capstone on what you're doing yours on.

Obviously I could have done mine shorter, but by the time you get to the end you're basically just combining the 5 parts you've already done so what is the point of knocking off 20 pages you've already written?

But yes, it is possible to do it in 25 pages. I have never spoken to anyone who did one that short though.

[MrBossmanJr]

Lol, well... you are about to meet your first.

[zzzz24]

Lol, well... you are about to meet your first.

Likewise.. I couldn't see doing much more than the minimum standard. 
I just want to pass and earn my degree. 

I would love to have a good cushion going into the final submission, but as long as I pass the course, that's all I really care about.

[cookderosa]

I am curious to see if anyone else completed the capstone while taking other courses at the same time. I am set to take my capstone in January 2019, but I have to take some classes to maintain my GI Bill at a local community college. I will be taking chem I with lab, microeconomics, and quality control. I'm hoping these classes won't affect my ability to complete the capstone. Judging by the ratemyprofessor, I'm thinking microeconomics and quality control will be easy classes and chem I will just take a slight bit of effort.

If I were building a schedule like you described, I'd come at it from a different angle. You can bet your buns that chem lab and micro will be homework-heavy and wide/ Both will require a lot of studying and learning new info.

Since I don't know what you still need, it's hard for me to say exactly which classes, but is it possible that you could bundle classes that have better overlap?

For example (totally random example, but something I know works together) you could take US History 1 or 2, Civil War, and American Literature together - these 3 classes would ALL overlap to the point that your studying could be deeper rather than wider, and the knowledge from one would be applicable to the other.

Just an idea!

[MrBossmanJr]

Yeah, I like the idea. I had to revise my entire course load. So now, I am thinking about taking Digital Electronics (4 cr), Programming Java and C++ (Part 2) (4 cr), and Applied Computer Technology (3 cr). This amounts to a total of 11 credits (12 being considered full time), allowing me to collect 90% of the benefits from the GI Bill. In addition, all of those selected courses seem pretty easy, so I could focus on the capstone.

I just finished Intro to Chem Lecture and Lab, Mechanics, Heat and Sound (Calc-based Physics), Calculus 2, and Semiconductors with As. With this, my motivation is at an all-time high.

[jsh1138]

Let me know when you get done how long it was. I would have bet a thousand dollars that mine wouldn't have been over 50 before I started the course.