I’m baaaaack J
Philadelphia News Flash: For those of you who haven’t been
hearing about the cold snap, polar vortex, whatever you want to call it that’s
spreading across the U.S., it’s been FREEZING here for the past few days! Since
winter began, we’ve already had several snowstorms (one big enough to close the
Penn offices last Friday) and ridiculously low temperatures! Remember all of
those winter items I recommended a few months ago? All of mine have
really come in handy already, and it’s only the beginning of January!
.jpg) |
Unusually cold weather on my walk to work this week!
With the wind chill, it was below zero! Brrrr! |
Now to the real purpose of this post,
After a MUCH NEEDED two week break I came back to the GA
office this week ready to hit the ground running. I’m not quite ready for the
new semester to start next Wednesday, so I’m trying to really enjoy my last few
days of “relaxation” (at least after work hours) before all of the reading and writing
starts up again soon.
Originally for my first post of the new year I was going to
do a review of the things I did and experiences I had in 2013 and what I am looking
forward to 2014 (goals and resolutions and whatnot), but I thought that might
be a little to cliché and boring. I’ve decided to modify that and share with
you all some reflections on my grad student experiences from 2013, and what’s
in store for my GSE life in 2014. So here it goes!
1.
January 2013: Completed my application for Penn
GSE (If you haven’t completed yours yet, hurry up!)
2.
February 2013: Received my acceptance letter to
Penn! What a great day!
3.
March 2013: Attended the preview weekend for
students accepted to the MSED Higher Ed program – I had the chance to meet some
of my future cohort members, some faculty, important GSE staff, and interview
for my graduate assistantship! We also got some yummy food and some free GSE
items, like my favorite coffee mug!
4.
June 2013: Graduated from Drexel University! …not
directly GSE related, but it was something exciting that I had to do before
coming here.
5.
July 2013: Started summer session classes to get
a head start on my coursework! Hands down, one of the best decisions I’ve made
at GSE so far! I was able to get two classes out of the way before the fall
semester started, leaving me with only 4 classes to take in the fall and 4 in
the spring, as opposed to many of my cohort members who are taking 5 classes each
semester plus their assistantships. I don’t know how they’re doing it – one fewer
class each semester may not seem like a lot, but it’s surprisingly helpful! If you
have the opportunity to take summer classes for your program, I highly
recommend taking advantage of it!
6.
August 2013: Fall semester started, the graduate
assistantship began, I got to meet Rebecca and Wesley – my GA coworkers – and the
rest of our wonderful cohort members! Lots of excitement and friendship as
everyone bonded and got accustomed to our brief grad school lives. It was
amazing how quickly we all fell into the routine and got comfortable, but the work
picked up quickly too!
7.
December 2013: Finished classes #3, 4, 5, and 6
out of 10! FINALLY got to take a break and go home to spend some time with my
family!
And now we’re here in January 2014. Some of the things on my
radar for the upcoming semester include…
1.
January 2014: Starting my final semester of
classes (hopefully ever!)
2.
February 2014: Comps! The big essay/exam we take
in higher ed which essentially determines whether we graduate or not! I’m not
really excited for it at all, but it’s
a big deal and passing means I’m one step closer to graduating!
3.
March 2014: Preview weekend for the accepted
higher ed master’s students for next year – I can’t wait to meet them and share
my experience with the program!
4.
April 2014: Hopefully nail down a job to begin
after I graduate! *wishful thinking*
5.
May 2014: GRADUATION!
So, can you tell what I’m most looking forward to this year?
It’s so exciting (and scary) to think that in only FOUR MONTHS I’ll be
preparing to graduate and enter the “real world” and work in higher education –
I can’t wait!!
I’m not the only one who gets to do exciting things this
semester – we’ll have lots of online and in person events for all of YOU to
participate in as well to keep you connected to GSE! We’re still in the process
of formalizing dates for our events, but you can be sure that we’ll be hosting
several web chats with current students and alumni, online information
sessions, as well as meet & greet events and open houses on our campus! I’ll
be sure to share those dates and times as soon as we have them, in the
meantime, keep reading our student blogs and the admissions blog for more
information and experiences!
