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Monday, Jan. 24, 2005 - 9:10 p.m.
you know, I could be a doctor....
Lucky Kira. And lucky teachers in Chesterfield County (hi Jane!). No school again tomorrow (Tuesday).
I, however, will be going to work, as usual.
This evening, I drove myself down to VCU. Like Betty, I, too, have been contemplating a return to school. The difference is, I have been seriously considering going after my Ph.D. in Gerontology, although art school sounds more fun. But, as my great-aunt artist told me when I mentioned my desire for an art degree...."well, you can do that, and learn theory, and make what they tell you is art and all that, or, you can just go out there and make your art." Besides, the gerontology specialization will probably get me farther career-wise. So, as I mentioned, I was down near VCU this evening, at the Graduate School's open house evening, of sorts. I talked to the director of the distance-learning program in my field, and he gave me some materials to look over, and some suggestions about what to start with, and now I am turning the whole idea over in my brain.
Realize, now, that I have been seriously considering doing this for at least a year.
How serious are you if it takes a year of on-again-off-again thinking and you don't make a decision?
The facts are these:
I would not necessarily earn more money with a Ph.D., but I would be able to teach at the college level. SOmething I can't really do right now.
The program has about four weeks a year spaced evenly throughout the calendar, in which I would have to be "on-campus" for classes from 8 a.m to about 6pm. The rest is done by distance and web-based content and discussions.
I would be able to specialize in the study of geriatrics, and dementia, and do some kind of dissertation in that area.
I have to take the GRE or the MAT over again, if I want to apply for admission. (Yuck! This is least appealing to me.)
I don't know if my current job would allow me to keep my position and do the Ph.D work.
I have not even considered the financial ramifications yet.
I do not know what to do, and time is running out to decide. March 1 is the application deadline, to start in the program in July.
I think some part of me is afraid I'll hate it, be too stressed to enjoy my life, not be able to choose a dissertation project I love, or worse, get started and then not finish it all.
Yikes. I don't know what to do.
I guess I'll start by looking up the GRE and MAT testing schedule online. Can't do anything if I don't take the test.
Going to bed now, to think about stuff. Or not.
