Thursday, January 2, 2014

Admitted

Admitted.

It's not what you think. Wait, what were you thinking?
Never mind.
We received news today that we will be officially admitted to the Communications program at the University we are attending. Currently the status is pre-communications. In an pre-study one must take certain courses, pass them with high grades (at least a 'B', usually), all while maintaining an overall cumulative grade point average set forth by the department. Once this is done the student gets to choose a faculty adviser to help them plan the rest of their studies and gets to officially declare a major. Or something like that.

So now we get to choose an adviser who will help us plan the path to finishing the degree, and ultimately to employment in our chosen field of study.

*gulp*

So, here's the thing.
While we know this is the right field of study, communications...we're...not confident.
To be specific, we're totally confident in our abilities in most all of the areas of emphasis we could choose...we're not confident in picking the right one.
And we're not confident in actually getting paid to use our education - which doesn't have anything to do with the job market, or the employment outlook for different tracks we can take with the degree (there are many). It's...something else. Something we can't put a finger on, a word or simple phrase to.

This year this body we inhabit will celebrate 35 years of existence (old!).
In all of that time we've been in the work force (since the age of 16) we've been fairly low-wage workers. The time's when the work was "high-skilled", we were either in a traditionally low-wage industry (professional cooking, which we have an education in), or just still paid very low (because it was for a nonprofit organization).
To add, our employment experiences have been...unstable (mostly consistently employed, but with a lot of jobs).
Now...

Well, we've been sort of online job searching in geographical locations we'd consider moving to, even though there is a still a year and a half or so to go...to see what's out there, read the job descriptions, the levels of pay (easily 3 times more than we've ever made)...but we can't imagine being employable...in a well paying job...that we'll be able to keep for more than a year.

That's the main crux of it.
Does that make sense? Does that sound weird?

So, we're already nervous about meeting with our adviser in a couple of weeks...do we tell the person about these fears? Or is it normal...?

In any case, we're officially being admitted into the department. And that's a pretty exciting thing.
*has mental breakdown*

2 comments:

  1. I think it's slightly different in the UK, where by and large nobody cares that much what you have a degree IN, only that you have one.

    Of course, there are some jobs where specific degrees are required, but employers just want to know that you have proved you can learn.
    Hoping that it's somewhat similar for you as you have a metric crap ton of creativity and transferable skills already and this degree should pile up more. Hoping that it can take you wherever you decide to go, in as many directions as you decide to turn.

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  2. Yay! Congrats :) Also, while it may not sound comforting...it is completely normal to have that feeling of uncertainty. Heck, I am halfway through with my MS program and I have realized that perhaps I should have gone the psychology route rather than the counseling route...I really am not a fan of people and don't necessarily want to help them with their piddly problems. So...PhD program in psychology is in my future.

    Again...congrats! Oh, and breathe.

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