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April 10, 2006
glints in the night / commas and ampersands
I’ve officially made my decision regarding the next year (probably two) of my life. I mailed in the form and the deposit this weekend after visitation Friday. The policy program gave us way better swag than any engineering program. I received a shoulder bag with a long sleeve t-shirt, garret’s caramel corn, a pen, a coffee mug, and a random tool thingy.
The policy program is bigger than I expected (I’m a product of a small major). There are 250 people in the master’s program (125 per year). This is actually a good thing as there are more class choices (unlike small materials departments). The other “accepted students” were surprisingly old. I expected most of the people to be undergrads, but all but 4 or so were at least 3 years out of college. The vast majority are working in the non-profit sector. I was the only strange person in a Ph.D. program. (I had to say, yes, I like school, multiple times.) It was a really interesting group.
I have to admit that I did not do much researching of policy school. I knew I wanted to stay in Chicago. U of C is an amazing school. They had a program that would enable me to get a masters in a year (because of my phd). So I applied. Turns out, it is a perfect match. The program is heavy on quantitative analysis. It was interesting to see how many people were afraid of the math component of the degree. Math is not scary I told people. A quantitative analysis of anything is perfect for me (hence my aforementioned obsession with data). I am quite excited.
Turns out that it is also the perfect match as it gives me choices. I can either do the 9 class option and have a degree in 3 quarters (by May) or stay another year and do the “regular” two-year masters. I was, of course, leaning toward the 3 quarter, but turns out that your second year is ALL electives that can be taken from any school at the U of C. I am not sure that I could pass that up. There are so many interesting electives in the public policy school alone. Plus there is an internship in the summer between the two years. It is just all so interesting. The amazing thing is that I don’t ever have to decide until I petition for my degree. If in May I am tired of school, I can be done. But who am I kidding? Of course I am going to stick around and take advantage of the amazing opportunity I have to learn and study and be. I am lucky that I don’t need to be earning money to eat (ah, an advantage of being married), so I can learn.
As much as people joke about me being a professional student (and BOY have I been hearing that one a lot), learning is what I love to do.
Posted by christina at April 10, 2006 4:05 PM
Comments
Gee, I'm sure glad you found an advantage to being married...
Posted by: ben at April 10, 2006 7:12 PM
Sounds like an awesome program! Perhaps I should find someone to marry so I can go back to school. :)
Posted by: Sarah at April 11, 2006 10:07 AM
i think you about to be the most educated person i know. ;)
Posted by: chris at April 11, 2006 10:49 AM
Hey Christina - I had a choice between 9 months at Stanford and 2 years, and for all the problems I had there, I was really glad I took 2years. I could take a lot more classes, and devote more time to coursework related activites that weren't actually coursework. Most people I knew who took 9 months didn't have nearly as fulfilling an experience.
Posted by: Jennifer at April 11, 2006 8:55 PM
Cute Dog
Posted by: Rae at April 12, 2006 12:18 PM