Finally Class Type Infos

Well, I have so far discovered that Grad School is rather different than Undergrad college was. By this I mean that right now I'm taking a very heavy load with a whopping three classes. but there is a chance that I will only actually be taking two classes (a normal load) this semester. That depends on the grade that I got on the recent Stochastics test. I think I did will and thus will keep all three classes but you never know till you do, it is Stochastics after all. Anyway this semester I am taking 18 credits. Listed below are the classes I am taking with a short description.

Class 1 -- Stochastics
This class is the "hardest ECE class in Grad School." It is all about random processes and using statistical type methods to predict what is going to happen. Heavily mathematical. I'm taking this because I think this class is going to provide a very useful mathematical foundation for much of my future work. So far seems easy, but we've only covered one fourth to one third of the material as of yet.
Credits: 3
Meets: Monday and Wednesday 4-5:15

Class 2 -- Radar System Design
This class is all about radar systems. I am taking this one for a good overview type course about communications systems. Basically this course is all about re-enforcing what I already know. This course should be really easy if it doesn't get away from me.
Credits: 3
Meets: Thursday 4-6:45

Class 3 -- SDR
This class is all about software defined radios. I'm taking this because working with Cognitive Radios (an offshoot of SDR) I need to have the "formal" background. This course is so far a joke. Everything that has been covered I have already had a much more in depth course on. The major points of the class are repeated every time we meet. The professor who was supposed to teach this course dumped it on another professor, who got a bunch of grad students to teach various parts of the course. Only problem is the grad students largely don't know what they're talking about and tell us (the students) that. I know people who have not even turned everything in for this course and gotten an A-. I'm not worried at all, but that doesn't mean I'm completely blowing it off only that I'm not stressed about any part of this course. No tests even.
Credits: 3
Meets: Monday and Wednesday 2-3:15

Wait a second if I'm taking three classes, each three credits, that's only nine credits... Where are the other nine from?
Well I'm talking a seminar style course on how to teach college students that is one credit. I have to talk that just in case I need to teach at some point before I graduate. Before classes started there were two eight hour days of this, then three sessions throughout the semester and one writing assignment. I'm done with one of those later sessions and I have another one tomorrow. The writing assignment is something like 500 words about how you feel about the course (this course was not designed by engineers...). That's not due until November, so I'm spending my time dealing with lab projects right now.

I am also taking the one credit ECE Grad Seminar course. This one meets five times through the semester and forces us to listen to talks about cutting edge research in ECE/how to do research/companies that may want to hire us. There are no assignments. This would be the world's best way to get one credit it all the meetings weren't on Friday from 4-5:30.

Ok, so now I'm up to 11 credits (nine from classes, 2 from seminar thingies). The other seven credits are from "research hours." Basically these are official hours that I spend doing research for my dissertation. I'm a little ahead on that front, because I have a general topic and a rough plan of where I'd like to go with it. Right now I count this time towards writing papers, reading papers, reading books, and working on lab type projects.

The specifics behind what I need to do to graduate are slightly complicated and I'll probably cover those later.