The possibilities are endless

So… college, amirite?

I’m currently in the process of applying for graduate school. One of the applications is due tomorrow (and it is done and I feel great). But now I’m thinking of the possibilities in a different way and thinking of the fact that I don’t HAVE to attend a brick and mortar school.

My projected field of study is Library Science. Yes. I get it. I’m not a quiet person. I’m not the traditional stereotype of a librarian. I’ve heard it all before, and it makes me angry. Just because I don’t fit a specific stereotype, does not mean I can’t do the job or that I wouldn’t be good at it/like doing it.

Then, all of a sudden, today it was brought to my mind that I could attend grad school online. The American Library Association has a list of schools accredited by them (which is important because libraries want employees that went to an ALA-accredited school/program) including a long list of schools which offer 100% online degrees (including schools like Florida State University, Wayne State University, Kent State University, St. John’s University, and a bunch more). There is also a school with satellite schools that offers mostly online degrees with 2 weekends a semester of face-to-face classes.

I got supremely excited at the prospect. I could get my Master’s degree and live wherever I wanted to live, whether that was back in North Dakota with my parents, in Minnesota with my family of friends, or somewhere completely different. Then, I started thinking… I could get a job and stay in Morris for a year while starting my degree, then move to Minneapolis with my friends. I started looking around at job possibilities in Minnesota and found a job at UMM’s library as a Circulation and Technology Support Manager. I checked out the requirements, all of which I will have at the end of the semester (only one I’d be waiting on is my Bachelor’s degree). The job is full-time paying almost $20/hour (or approximately $41,000/year).

Another possibility would be doing my degree online and asking for a promotion at the gas station back home. The store I work at needs an Assistant Manager and I have the experience to do it. I could hang out with my parents for a while, get a place of my own, and go to school at the same time. Or I could do my degree online and going to North Carolina and hanging out with family down there. Heck, I could even do my degree and bum around the country for a while, if I really wanted to!

Either way, there is a possibility with some of the schools’ schedules, that I may be taking a semester off (the school with the satellite campuses only admits for spring semester).

The possibilities are endless… and that excites me.