The continuing re-edumacation of me

Sat down in my first grad class yesterday. Ten people in the class, including the teacher. Not only is it the first class I'm taking (above a 100 level) in six years, but it's also the first time I've taken a class in this department. (Public Administration.) Needless to say, I was a little curious to see what I was in for.

I didn't just get to this department randomly, I thought about it a lot, researched it a lot, talked to faculty, talked to other students, etc. I know that I want to start a Master's, but I waffle on what program. I thought for a half second about English, but the only thing more useless than one English degree is two. I thought about an MBA, but I've met people with MBA's, and I don't think I want to remove all my personality at once. (Not a word Goody, or I'll tell your kid stories about you in college.)

I took a History class last fall, largely because there was one available that interested me, and I have always liked History. I liked the class a fair amount. In fact, the only thing I didn't like about it was that there wasn't enough challenge, which is when I became certain it was time to go back to school. Still, a History Master's on top of an English degree seemed only slightly better than an English Master's. (Better, only because I really disliked a lot of people in my classes. Actually, I really thought they were useless piles of shit.)

So... I came to Public Adminstration. I've got a few friends that got their Master's in that program, and they all raved about it. Seems like a program where you basically try to figure out what the source of a problem is, and then try to figure out solutions to the problem. I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but that's what I got out of it. And that's why I'm taking this class. I met with the Grad Advisor for the program, and she told me this class was a good "building block" class, that would give me an idea about what the program is all about. Tuesday's class was basically just us talking about random topics and what the solutions might be, and what the impact of the solutions might be, and how feasible they were, etc. In other words, right up my alley. Of course, the class ran an hour long, so by the end of it I was exhausted.

We'll see how it works out, but so far, so good.