Get my Master's Degree

is the END of class number three (hence the skimpy entries as of late). It’s business law, and, let me say, it’s been a real scream [insert sarcasm]. Next up: ECO 515, Collective Bargaining and Labor Law. Please, oh please, let this class be more interesting than the one I’m in now. Labor law should, in theory, be fascinating as this was my original major in college, and is still something that inspires me deeply. It’s the meat and potatoes of my childhood, coming from a union family, where we were always active in issues that affected workers.

We’ll see. Grad school has been less than inspirational thus far.

and figured that I will be done with actual classes next September, and done with my thesis by next December. Yeah! I’m confident I can stay on track, because my degree plan even includes taking two sessions off in the next year. I’d LOVE to be done with this ASAP. My next class starts in two weeks: “Environment in Administration.” Sounds like a real scream.

my second class and it seems hard to believe I’m on my way! I have been unable to purge my soul on 43T lately because I’ve been doing _gasp homework. I didn’t miss it, either (homework, that is).

but I’m slated to start my Master’s program on February 23! I had been admitted to Central Michigan University as a non-degree seeking student, until all of my four, count ‘em four, undergraduate transcripts could come in for evaluation. (Yikes, what can I say? I had a wandering undergraduate path…). Until that happened, I couldn’t get any financial aid. Which means…I wasn’t going to start unless it came through. Anyway, after many phone calls and wrangling over transcript mailings, the transcripts were finally received at CMU today. So, my admission status should be updated by tomorrow, and my financial aid package should be set by next week. As of now, I’m scheduled to start on time, in two weeks! Yay!

I applied for an MSA program last weekend, and I sent out all of my transcript requests today. Hopefully, I will be able to start up Summer session or before. I am very excited to have taken the beginning steps!

today on the base and made contact with an academic advisor. I have a meeting on Tuesday (yeah!) to discuss taking the GRE and applying to programs. It feels good to have the ball rolling…

I switched my major to literature in my junior year, I knew that I wanted to keep going after my undergraduate. I developed a passion for literature that far exceeded the casual love I’ve had of reading since I was a child. I started to think that I would really love to teach literature at the college level. As I really started to set my sights on this goal, life (as it tends to do) threw me a curve. The Air Force saw fit to station my husband and me in Minot, North Dakota. The problem with Minot is that the only state school in the city is so small that there are no graduate literature programs. After a lot of complaining, anger and finally, reflecting, I decided that school is still a passion, and I didn’t want to quit because I couldn’t find my top choice in degrees. I did some soul searching and decided that, among the degree programs available to me, I would like to pursue an MPA. A degree in Public Affairs would give me better job competitiveness in the service or non-profit sectors, another area I feel I could be passionate about. So all that remains is to actually get serious and apply to MPA programs. I need to:

take the GRE (first and most important step)
get two letters of recommendation
write my essay
get transcripts
I have to get this done by March 1st, for entrance in summer quarter. Time to get crackin’!