to figure out this grad school thing for quite some time now. While I was in the police academy (which took FOREVER thanks to my choice to attend the longest one in existence) I was not allowed to be in school (which was understandable—it was more demanding than college already by itself). Though much has changed now that I’ve hit the streets and am in field training, the rule seems to still be in place (albeit unwritten, now). I say this because missing any significant portion of work as a new officer requires one to halt training and resume it at a later date whenever he’ll be available daily again. My graduate classes are offered in the evenings and will therefore conflict with the two phases during which I’ll be working 3rd watch; I’m in one of them right now and the last phase won’t end until Spring.
Bottom line: Now it doesn’t appear that I’ll be able to start classes until I am off of field training in March, meaning I can start in the summer of 2010. This is WAY later than I had planned, but if I hold off field training till two years from now … I won’t be doing police work at all during that waiting period. They’ll put me in Headquarters doing administrative work until I can get back on the streets, and that just wouldn’t make sense. My department’s tuition reimbursement program is well worth the wait, the more I think about it. I’ll get through as soon as I can and that’s what matters.
ANYWAY … starting in the summer will require me to file the FAFSA of course, so I can go ahead and get that out of the way anytime now.
