I will be starting graduate school in the fall. My plan was to do grad school at the same place I did my undergrad. My MA would be in Written Communication, Professional Writing. We currently live a block from campus, and there is a great Kindergarten nearby for my DD to go to.
However, DD's dad and I have a split week, so she is with me from Saturday night until Thursday morning school drop off. I'm feeling a ton of guilt/anxiety/etc. over grad classes only being offered in the evenings. I'll have to be gone two nights a week out of the few that she's here, after both of us have been gone all day at school. I live with my boyfriend (not DD's dad), and so I will have someone here to watch DD, but the guilt is eating me alive.
I decided to apply to a semi-online MLIS program based in Detroit at Wayne State (about 40 minutes from where we live in Ypsilanti), with the option to go fully online, because I knew it would mean that I'd have (most) evenings free to be with my daughter. However, if I do my Masters at my current school, I will have an assistantship that would pay tuition and offer a significant stipend. If I do the MLIS program, I will be paying out of pocket with loans entirely.
Upside to doing the MA at my school: funding, and the potential for a lecturer/adjunct position post-graduation. Downside: the assistantship would be teaching, which we all know isn't over at the end of the day - there are papers to grade, meetings with my cohort that I'll have to attend, office hours, working in the writing center, conferences, and so on. I am nervous about there not being a line between school and home. This has been an issue through completing my undergrad as I am involved in many projects, and I am also working alongside the grad students who are teaching and I see how much time it takes up out of their daily life. There is the option to do a different assistantship and take a non-teaching track in my program, but the pay is significantly less.
Upside to doing the MLIS program: not having to be in class two nights a week, and potentially being able to work on my own homework during the day rather than having to be available for teaching. I might even be able to find a part-time day job that doesn't drain me after my work day has ended. Downside? Loans. More loans, and more loans.
I've thought about doing the MA and then doing the MLIS as well, just because I desperately want to do both programs, and I think the MA would be good preparation for the kind of writing that an MLIS job would require, plus I think that having both degrees would be very marketable for both library positions anywhere as well as teaching positions at say, a community college.
I try and tell myself that being gone two evenings a week for two years is a small investment, a small sacrifice, so that by the time DD is 8, 9, 10, and so on... I will be able to focus on being there for her as she enters adolescence. I know that being there in early childhood is extremely important, but I also think it's equally as important to be there during the older years too and I don't want to lose that either. I don't want to wait until she's that age to go to grad school. I want to be able to provide for my family, and being stuck with $40k in student loans with only a B.S. isn't what I want to do.
What would you do? Take the position with the funding and swallow the evenings that you have class? Would you take the teaching assistantship, or take something that pays less (we're talking like, a $9k/yr versus $7k/yr stipend)? Or, would you take the online program that allows you to be with your daughter? Any MLIS parents out there?
However, DD's dad and I have a split week, so she is with me from Saturday night until Thursday morning school drop off. I'm feeling a ton of guilt/anxiety/etc. over grad classes only being offered in the evenings. I'll have to be gone two nights a week out of the few that she's here, after both of us have been gone all day at school. I live with my boyfriend (not DD's dad), and so I will have someone here to watch DD, but the guilt is eating me alive.
I decided to apply to a semi-online MLIS program based in Detroit at Wayne State (about 40 minutes from where we live in Ypsilanti), with the option to go fully online, because I knew it would mean that I'd have (most) evenings free to be with my daughter. However, if I do my Masters at my current school, I will have an assistantship that would pay tuition and offer a significant stipend. If I do the MLIS program, I will be paying out of pocket with loans entirely.
Upside to doing the MA at my school: funding, and the potential for a lecturer/adjunct position post-graduation. Downside: the assistantship would be teaching, which we all know isn't over at the end of the day - there are papers to grade, meetings with my cohort that I'll have to attend, office hours, working in the writing center, conferences, and so on. I am nervous about there not being a line between school and home. This has been an issue through completing my undergrad as I am involved in many projects, and I am also working alongside the grad students who are teaching and I see how much time it takes up out of their daily life. There is the option to do a different assistantship and take a non-teaching track in my program, but the pay is significantly less.
Upside to doing the MLIS program: not having to be in class two nights a week, and potentially being able to work on my own homework during the day rather than having to be available for teaching. I might even be able to find a part-time day job that doesn't drain me after my work day has ended. Downside? Loans. More loans, and more loans.
I've thought about doing the MA and then doing the MLIS as well, just because I desperately want to do both programs, and I think the MA would be good preparation for the kind of writing that an MLIS job would require, plus I think that having both degrees would be very marketable for both library positions anywhere as well as teaching positions at say, a community college.
I try and tell myself that being gone two evenings a week for two years is a small investment, a small sacrifice, so that by the time DD is 8, 9, 10, and so on... I will be able to focus on being there for her as she enters adolescence. I know that being there in early childhood is extremely important, but I also think it's equally as important to be there during the older years too and I don't want to lose that either. I don't want to wait until she's that age to go to grad school. I want to be able to provide for my family, and being stuck with $40k in student loans with only a B.S. isn't what I want to do.
What would you do? Take the position with the funding and swallow the evenings that you have class? Would you take the teaching assistantship, or take something that pays less (we're talking like, a $9k/yr versus $7k/yr stipend)? Or, would you take the online program that allows you to be with your daughter? Any MLIS parents out there?