the current thinking on higher education...
I've started my application for the Master of Public Administration program at the University of Baltimore. I'm excited about that. I still have a short personal statement to write and a second recommendation to request, but I've got most of the application done. I think I'm a pretty strong candidate. I think it would be a really good degree for me to have.
I don't want to apply to only one program, though. If I don't get into the MPA program I still want to take classes in the fall. And I don't really know what I'm doing there, but I need to figure out before the end of June.
I'm really torn on business school. Looks like the Robert Smith Business school (named, one has to assume, after Cure frontman and noted entrepreneur) is subject to a tuition cap that makes it prohibitively expensive. The University of Baltimore/Towson MBA program is still on the table, but I'm not as excited about their program. It's a fine school, but much more practical-business and finance oriented, less theoretical-academic and less socially conscious than the Smith program. It's also a full year longer than the MPA. Wouldn't finish til late 2015. I was excited about the idea of an MBA and I was excited about the Smith program; I'm really not excited about the UB MBA. I'm not entirely sure if that's the way to make decisions, but it's how I feel this week.
I'm still looking at the Publications Design program. Kind of a big jump from business and administration, but it has a strong communications and writing element, which seems like something I can always make useful. It also has a lot of web design and web marketing/social media elements, and that's in a certain amount of demand these days.
Plus, it has the advantage of being a semester shorter than the MPA and the course descriptions say things like 'explore imaginative ways of communicating and draw on their own creative resources as they develop original solutions to challenging communication problems' and other things that sound like they would keep me awake for hours at a time after work, which, let's be honest, is kind of a concern with classes on 'municipal expenditure patterns and revenue sources, taxation at the local level, fiscal and economic aspects of federalism and federal-state-local fiscal coordination.' Though, honestly, I think I could geek out about that too. And then get someone to pay me to geek out about it, which is why the MPA seems like the right way to go.
That's... the thoughts on that subject today.
Wait. This entry would be entirely incomplete without one more thought:
I can't quite get over how fortunate I am to have this opportunity. I have a pretty good job and it comes with an almost-free graduate education. That's just insanely cool. I'm going to try really hard to make the absolute most of it.
I don't want to apply to only one program, though. If I don't get into the MPA program I still want to take classes in the fall. And I don't really know what I'm doing there, but I need to figure out before the end of June.
I'm really torn on business school. Looks like the Robert Smith Business school (named, one has to assume, after Cure frontman and noted entrepreneur) is subject to a tuition cap that makes it prohibitively expensive. The University of Baltimore/Towson MBA program is still on the table, but I'm not as excited about their program. It's a fine school, but much more practical-business and finance oriented, less theoretical-academic and less socially conscious than the Smith program. It's also a full year longer than the MPA. Wouldn't finish til late 2015. I was excited about the idea of an MBA and I was excited about the Smith program; I'm really not excited about the UB MBA. I'm not entirely sure if that's the way to make decisions, but it's how I feel this week.
I'm still looking at the Publications Design program. Kind of a big jump from business and administration, but it has a strong communications and writing element, which seems like something I can always make useful. It also has a lot of web design and web marketing/social media elements, and that's in a certain amount of demand these days.
Plus, it has the advantage of being a semester shorter than the MPA and the course descriptions say things like 'explore imaginative ways of communicating and draw on their own creative resources as they develop original solutions to challenging communication problems' and other things that sound like they would keep me awake for hours at a time after work, which, let's be honest, is kind of a concern with classes on 'municipal expenditure patterns and revenue sources, taxation at the local level, fiscal and economic aspects of federalism and federal-state-local fiscal coordination.' Though, honestly, I think I could geek out about that too. And then get someone to pay me to geek out about it, which is why the MPA seems like the right way to go.
That's... the thoughts on that subject today.
Wait. This entry would be entirely incomplete without one more thought:
I can't quite get over how fortunate I am to have this opportunity. I have a pretty good job and it comes with an almost-free graduate education. That's just insanely cool. I'm going to try really hard to make the absolute most of it.