![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
When I was at UK, my academic advisors were pretty good, but there seemed to be an unspoken rule of "T7 has his act together, so unless he's doing something really stupid, let him do his thing." It mostly worked, but I do wish I'd had similar advice re: the long-term relationship. But anyway...
I met with my SPHIS advisor on Monday. I expected something of a rubber-stamp of my plans, with some guidance on selecting courses. Nope. Turns out that my advisor is also an advocate, and this is pretty terrific. After introducing ourselves, we got down to the business of mapping out the next few years of my life, and here was my first surprise. In her opinion, my plan of pursuing a BS before pressing on to the Masters is "selling myself short." Took me by surprise, but one of the promises I've made to myself in this venture is to take the advice of people who are in a position to know this sort of thing. So, we talked about courses of action, and our first plan was for me to take a set of 500-level classes in the fall and go into the Masters program in the spring, assuming I do well and pass the GRE. All good, and pretty exciting to have a plan in place.
Tuesday, orientation for the summer McJob. Lots of thinking on the drive to Louisville, chats with Mom&Dad. I start thinking about taking the entire summer off, giving me plenty of time to find an apartment, just putting everything in storage and living at the farm for a few weeks. I'm conflicted - it would be less stress, I could find the right place rather than the available place, I can run up to Louisville or Lexington as necessary and wouldn't have any real living expenses. There would be some stress, but it's temporary, so I can deal. On the other hand, while the McJob doesn't help me towards the primary objective of the MPH program, it does help with a couple of the secondary objectives, contingent on finding a place to live in the next couple of weeks.
Got home from the orientation to find an email from my advisor. The program director wants me to go through an undergrad semester or two before launching into the graduate program. It's reasonable, and because of my undergrad GPA. To be blunt, I had a couple of stupid semesters, and really should have done better. This got me down, but I rallied. There are options.
An option I should have considered before now is just renting a room somewhere for June and July. That lets me work without having to make a monster commute (and since these are ten-hour workdays, a lengthy commute would not be good at all), keeps me close to the university and in the city, and I can use the time to keep up the apartment hunt. Not the worst of ideas for a short term. A quick look found a few options, and even a June-July sublet of an apartment across the street from campus. So, hey, there's something.
Had another talk with my advisor this afternoon. She's pitching me pretty hard to the program's higher-ups, and this morning she had a meeting with the SPHIS assistant dean. They came up with a plan. I take courses on the BA/BS track in the fall, and if my midterm progress is good, I jump to the 500-level classes in the spring, and make a good case to start graduate work in the summer. I like this plan. It'll mean pushing myself pretty hard, but I can do this. It's well within my capabilities and I can show that T7 now is very different than T7 in 1995. I should have a couple of two-year course plans in my inbox tomorrow afternoon. I can overcome this setback.
And another option came up tonight. A buddy's kid's mom is looking at moving to Louisville because of some special education and therapy options for the kiddo - and he wants to be close to his son. As it happens, the law firm he works for has an office in Louisville and he can transfer there easily. So, we batted around the idea of sharing a house or condo. The economics are the strongest driver for this, but on more personal levels, it'd make for better living conditions for us both. We're in agreement on a housing budget and areas of town to look into; depending on the mom's decision, we're going to give this a shot. His lease expires at the end of June, so there's no real hardship on my part since I can, well, sublet or rent a room for a month or throw things into storage and couch surf or head off to the farm for a few weeks.
There are plenty of roads opening up. I can manage any of them.
I met with my SPHIS advisor on Monday. I expected something of a rubber-stamp of my plans, with some guidance on selecting courses. Nope. Turns out that my advisor is also an advocate, and this is pretty terrific. After introducing ourselves, we got down to the business of mapping out the next few years of my life, and here was my first surprise. In her opinion, my plan of pursuing a BS before pressing on to the Masters is "selling myself short." Took me by surprise, but one of the promises I've made to myself in this venture is to take the advice of people who are in a position to know this sort of thing. So, we talked about courses of action, and our first plan was for me to take a set of 500-level classes in the fall and go into the Masters program in the spring, assuming I do well and pass the GRE. All good, and pretty exciting to have a plan in place.
Tuesday, orientation for the summer McJob. Lots of thinking on the drive to Louisville, chats with Mom&Dad. I start thinking about taking the entire summer off, giving me plenty of time to find an apartment, just putting everything in storage and living at the farm for a few weeks. I'm conflicted - it would be less stress, I could find the right place rather than the available place, I can run up to Louisville or Lexington as necessary and wouldn't have any real living expenses. There would be some stress, but it's temporary, so I can deal. On the other hand, while the McJob doesn't help me towards the primary objective of the MPH program, it does help with a couple of the secondary objectives, contingent on finding a place to live in the next couple of weeks.
Got home from the orientation to find an email from my advisor. The program director wants me to go through an undergrad semester or two before launching into the graduate program. It's reasonable, and because of my undergrad GPA. To be blunt, I had a couple of stupid semesters, and really should have done better. This got me down, but I rallied. There are options.
An option I should have considered before now is just renting a room somewhere for June and July. That lets me work without having to make a monster commute (and since these are ten-hour workdays, a lengthy commute would not be good at all), keeps me close to the university and in the city, and I can use the time to keep up the apartment hunt. Not the worst of ideas for a short term. A quick look found a few options, and even a June-July sublet of an apartment across the street from campus. So, hey, there's something.
Had another talk with my advisor this afternoon. She's pitching me pretty hard to the program's higher-ups, and this morning she had a meeting with the SPHIS assistant dean. They came up with a plan. I take courses on the BA/BS track in the fall, and if my midterm progress is good, I jump to the 500-level classes in the spring, and make a good case to start graduate work in the summer. I like this plan. It'll mean pushing myself pretty hard, but I can do this. It's well within my capabilities and I can show that T7 now is very different than T7 in 1995. I should have a couple of two-year course plans in my inbox tomorrow afternoon. I can overcome this setback.
And another option came up tonight. A buddy's kid's mom is looking at moving to Louisville because of some special education and therapy options for the kiddo - and he wants to be close to his son. As it happens, the law firm he works for has an office in Louisville and he can transfer there easily. So, we batted around the idea of sharing a house or condo. The economics are the strongest driver for this, but on more personal levels, it'd make for better living conditions for us both. We're in agreement on a housing budget and areas of town to look into; depending on the mom's decision, we're going to give this a shot. His lease expires at the end of June, so there's no real hardship on my part since I can, well, sublet or rent a room for a month or throw things into storage and couch surf or head off to the farm for a few weeks.
There are plenty of roads opening up. I can manage any of them.
