A little history...

I started looking into doctoral programs last year and received an easy acceptance from a distance-learning university (which will remain unnamed).  The price tag attached, however, would have cost me a kidney, at least, but quite possibly an even more vital organ.  Husband and I were still pretty gung-ho on the whole thing until I started researching the university.  To be clear, I do realize that discussion boards found online can be more like venting sessions rather than useful information.  But when I saw a few comments on the degrees awarded from this particular university not being taken seriously, and when I read the words "diploma mill" more than 15 times, I was out.  The price-tag, plus the risk that six years of work would be taken as a joke led me to withdraw from the program. 

During that enlightening internet surfing session, I also found the university where I am now a doctoral student.  I'll also leave this one unnamed.  This university is another distance learning program, but this one is more rigorous, and liberal arts-y.  I don't have to post ideas to online discussion boards and respond to the opinions of others (when honestly, people are just posting whatever to get the job done).  I have to read, have phone discussions (lasting one to three hours) with professors, and write papers.  My mid-program comprehensive exams are three hour oral exams.  And I end the deal with a massive legal publication. This university may not be a brick and mortar university, but it sure works like one!  To get into this one, I had to write a real paper, submit recommendations, and have a phone interview.  I didn't feel like the acceptance was just given to me.  I feel like this university knows my writing, and how my former professors/current supervisors view me as a professional.

In the next week, my books should arrive, and I will be submitting my first assignment. I'll post some more then...

I want this blog to show what it really looks like to be a working mom/doctoral student.  I hope it encourages other women to go after what they want, too (which in my case, is the utmost nerd-dom one could achieve!).  But most of all, I hope you can read it, and laugh along with me... because without laughter, none of this is really worthwhile. 

"Yer doin' what now, hon?"

Seems crazy, yes?  Children: ages 3 & 2.  Married (very happily).  Middle School Teacher.  And I'm going back to school to get a Doctoral degree in Education (EdD-Curriculum & Instruction).  Where, pray tell, does this fit into my life?  And what on earth was I thinking?  I actually do have a tendency to think things through.  And I realized, that if I start this now, my oldest child will be between 9 & 11 when I graduate (pending a massive legal research publication by yours truly).  This means  his mother will not have her nose in a book at soccer practice (unless it is a novel of her choosing!), or have her laptop open working on her dissertation.  His mother will be finished all of that.  And at present, their bedtime is before 8 p.m.  So mommy has several uninterrupted hours of work time (at least for now).

Some might say that I need "me" time.  Correct!  I do belong to a gym (where I will be reading my course material on the bike, no doubt)... But the fact is, for me, this is "me" time.  I am a hopeless nerd; a fact which I not only can't deny, but have come to embrace.  Grad school was a rush for me, as I felt great satisfaction in reading challenging texts, and producing quality papers.  Now, before you start thinking too much of me, I also greatly enjoy toilet humor and country music.  Call me well-rounded.  And a little bit crazy...