Yesterday I received my acceptance letter from the U of G for entry into a part-time Master’s of Science – Population Medicine (Epidemiology)! 😀

Ok, actually my parents received my acceptance letter, all I got was an email from the school telling me to check my mail for the acceptance letter. For some reason they sent the paper copy to my parent’s address, instead of the address I put on my application. I understand how it happened; I was a student there previously and that was my permanent address while a student, and the address I had them mail my degree to when I graduated back in 2006, so they had it on file, but you’d think they’d update their system to use the new address I gave them.
Now I must wait for my parents to forward it to me so I can fill out the acceptance of the acceptance form and get it back to the school by August 4th. Should be ok; I think the mail backlog from the Canada Post strike/lockout is mostly gone now, but just in case they were nice enough to scan the forms to me just in case.

Despite that, I’m pretty darn excited! ^_^ I love learning, and this Master’s is focused on coursework rather than research (a big plus!), and I can earn another degree while still keeping the job I really like. 😀
I’m also nervous and sort of worried (as is my nature) because the first time through university things kind of sucked. Partly because I had come direct from college – where we got to do everything hands-on and learned so much from independent lab projects, to university – where the TA did most of the fun stuff, and we just had to write 6 pages about the results.
This time, there’s a gap of 5 years (OMG, really?? o_0) since the last time I was in school of any sort, so I’m hoping it’ll feel different. I’m hoping my real world experience will let me adapt easier this time. 😉

This time, however, I also have a full-time job to worry about. A full time job I really like and won’t jeopardize, though fortunately my job requires little thought outside of work hours. To this end, I have effectively shut down the t-shirt business I run with a friend. I feel a tiny bit like a failure for “giving up”, when I know it could succeed if I just put more time and effort into it, but I have come to realize that I’m currently more enamoured with the idea of being a business owner than with actually running a product-based business at this point in my life.
Getting a new degree is more important to me than “making it” as an indie shop owner, so I’m adjusting my priorities accordingly and freeing up time. I’m sure I’ll find I need to give up other things as well once I actually start classes, but this is a great start and feels right. ^_^

Now all I have to do is wait for the mail from Kincardine, sign the form and drop it off, and wait for another reply from the school telling me when class registration is, etc. Then I should be able to find out how job-friendly my classes will be. It’s not a night school, or distance education, or adult education program, it’s a normal degree, which means the classes are in-person and many of them will be scheduled during normal work hours. I guess this time around I’ll be pleased instead of annoyed when one of the classes I need is scheduled for 7pm. 😉

I have an awesome boss who is pro-education and is willing to let me flex my hours a bit to be able to fit in both classes and work, but I only want to push that so far, ya know? I don’t want to wear out my welcome, so to speak, especially since this degree will take a few years at a part-time rate. My acceptance letter has allotted me 11 semesters (~3.5 years) for completion. I rather hope it doesn’t take that long, but it all depends on how much I can handle at once, and I’m definitely going to start slow.
MY company itself is also pretty awesome when it comes to employee education that is relevant to the company (and this MSc definitely would be), and will often provide funding assistance, but the policy is usually geared toward individual continuing-education classes, not entire degree programs, so I have to wait and hear back on that point. It would be awesome to have any kind of financial help, though. ^_^

TL;DR: Caitlin is going back to school and hopes she doesn’t go insane this time.