Tim....Tim....Don't do it! Just keep your Bachelors degree and spend the rest of your life underemployed!!!
Assuming that my shocking opening paragraph and stunning visual aid did their job, a bit of background info is probably in order- I graduated from college back in May with a degree in Social Work. In August, my wife started back to school working towards her undergraduate degree in Music Education- relegating me to stay-at-home dad duty and part time employment. Which is fine by me- I get to see my kids, hang out, and set ridiculous goals like blogging every day.
My part time job is at a local Christian school, running an after school program. Working in a school district has been a lot of fun. While I am acutely aware that this job is not all that indicative of the actual experience of working in a school, I can definitely see myself working in a school setting when Sara has graduated and I am able to move onto a "real" (read: full-time) job. I enjoy the setting- and the thought of weekends, holidays, and summers off would be totally off the hook. Yo.
So anyways, I was doing some preliminary (as in, not anytime in the near future) checking into the educational requirements to be a guidance counselor. I found out that a Bachelor of Social Work degree is a no go- you need a Master's level degree with a School Counseling emphasis. However, I have never been one to easily give up. That is, if you don't count the times I have easily given up.
I got on the computer, and went investigating (actually, I went to work and left some tabs open and then got on the computer after work over a nice hot 10 piece nugget and medium fry...with Egg Nog shake). First, I checked on the websites of a couple of in-state schools (Western and MSU). The Michigan State website had some fancy little blurb that indicated they were killing their program (when 'moratorium', 'discontinuation' and 'no new students are being admitted to the program' are on the front page of your on-line brochure, I think it's safe to call off the search), and I wasn't feeling too much like snooping around on the Western page. So I started checking into on-line schools.
Apparently, on-line schools use the money they aren't paying for a physical location to hire guys like Dogg the Bounty Hunter, Bobba Fett, or James Vampire. I mean, seriously- I felt like I just mentioned Blackbriar on the phone, they were on me so fast.
Hello...why yes, I requested information from a grad school. Wait, what? Step away from the window?
The first university (which I won't mention by name becuse I'm like 100% sure that they have tracking technology that could take me out the second my fingers brushed the keys) called me literally within 2 minutes of submitting my request for information. That's right- I wasn't applying- I was just asking for more information (never mind the fact that I said it would be most convenient to call me in the morning). I don't even want to know how these guys work with applications- will I be on my way out the door to mail my app, only to be greeted by Agent K?
Within 20 minutes of sending out a handful of e-information requests, I had 7 e-mails and 4 phone calls (in fairness, I'm assuming that 2 of them were, because I didn't answer the phone). I'm starting to think I may have made a mistake- but unfortunately, I've obviously put myself on "The Radar"...and if I try to back out now, I might just get erased from existence.
Where from here? Well, I'll await the information they send me, look it over, talk it over with my wife...and then wait 2 years until we can actually do something about it. Of course, by then there's a good chance that I will have been kidnapped and mindwiped. By the Graduate-program mind-reading CIA ninjas.
No comments:
Post a Comment