Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Maybe I'll Graduate Before Menopause?!?

I am so overloaded. I found out today that the school extended the application deadline for the grad program I was wanting to get into. Good news, right? Well, let me share the backstory to this.

I didn't find out about this program until last fall. It's for students that have a bachelors in a subject that is taught in secondary education, eg. math, science, English, but have no teaching credentials or degree. It is a short Masters program that covers your teaching requirements and student teaching all in about a year. I was pretty excited when I heard about it. Some of the requirements include a personal statement, two letters of recommend, certain gpa, and certain scores on two entrance exams. By the time I found about the program, the application deadline was only about 3 months away. So, I signed up for the next exams, paid extra because I missed the application deadlines, and took them after only a few days of studying. Fast forward a month later, the scores come back, and I narrowly missed the required score on one test and didn't score high enough in one section of the other exam. Ok, I decided to try the one with sections again, pay the late fee again (since I had to wait for my scores to know if I would even have to take it again), and take the test again, mainly focusing on that section since I already passed the others. Another month passes, I find out I still didn't score high enough.

By this time, it's less than a month until the deadline, I have no time to take it again, not to mention that I am also already over $400 lighter because of all the fees. So, after much anger, depression and resentment, I decided that I would have to wait until next year to try again. Fast forward to today in class, my prof informs us that the grad school decided to extend the deadline until one month from now. Apparently, this was decided a month ago, but wasn't circulated very well. I was LIVID! I could have scheduled the exams again and been compiling my application.

So, I went to the program advisor, chatted with her about the situation and asked for her take on my options and chances. She told me that it largely depends on the number of applicants, how much more eligible they are, and how many are entering the same field as me (which is English aka the most popular and populated subject for teachers). On the upside, I did excellent on the other two of the three sections of the test. So, she said I had two options:
1. Play the about 50-50 odds and apply for the program with my new test results pending, but spend a lot of money again.
OR
2. Do as I planned and prep for applying next year. The upside is that I can apply with the more desirable math credentials that I would take between now and then along with the English I already have. The downside is that they are seriously considering changing the entire program and may not offer it next year.

I'm so vexed. I don't know what to do yet. I abhor the idea of having to wait another year, but I also know through watching some friends in the same field that if I only have the English credentials, I won't be highly marketable and it will be hard to find a job. Ugh. I'm trying to think positively about the fact that I even have the opportunity to go to school. But I have been in school going on 9 years soon and I AM TIRED! I want to be done, work, and contribute my skills to my classes and my paycheck to our debt. I want to put all this knowledge to use already.

And if that isn't enough for me to ponder, I have two tests, two papers, a workbook, and a presentation all due in the next week and a half. Please, someone throw me in a class of unwilling high schoolers already. Just kidding. All in good time.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

*Hugs* I know we already talked about it on the phone, but again, I'm so sorry they didn't inform you better. So unfair!