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By way of backstory, I graduated in May and am currently working on a grant for my former adviser that goes through the end of next year. During my capstone class, I noticed that a lot of people were having similar problems and eventually decided it was a result of the curriculum missing a few important pieces. Since I was still semi-attached to the department, I designed a course to fill in those gaps and pitched it to the faculty. It was intended to be an elective for just the people who needed it, but after one meeting it's now turned into something that may be a required course for all students in the major.
After that meeting, the department chair (completely out of the blue) offered me a graduate assistantship, and this is where the problem comes in. Grad school is not something that I had planned on doing any time soon...for health and financial reasons I was limited to 2-3 classes a semester during most of my time as an undergrad, and it takes a very long time to graduate at six credits a semester. While a masters is something that I might want to go after eventually, I don't know that I want to do it this soon...thought the fact that I wouldn't have to pay for it is pretty decent incentive.
Assistantships here entail paid tuition, insurance, and a stipend which is fairly decent if you actually consider it a 20hr/wk job, but given that I've been doing independent contracting in addition to the grant it would be a substantial pay cut at a time when I've spent a long time in school (and thus debt) and am ready to get on with my life. In a lot of ways it would be a step backward because I've been working in the field the entire time I was a student and have some decent professional traction there. I've been in delayed gratification mode for quite a while, really, just waiting for the pieces to come together. On the other hand, a masters is probably worth more in the long run, particularly since I'd probably be going from a new media BA (a what now?) to a comp sci MS.
So those are my options: getting on with life and continuing to do project-based work, or taking a detour that pushes real life back another couple years but may give me a leg up once I do get going.
After that meeting, the department chair (completely out of the blue) offered me a graduate assistantship, and this is where the problem comes in. Grad school is not something that I had planned on doing any time soon...for health and financial reasons I was limited to 2-3 classes a semester during most of my time as an undergrad, and it takes a very long time to graduate at six credits a semester. While a masters is something that I might want to go after eventually, I don't know that I want to do it this soon...thought the fact that I wouldn't have to pay for it is pretty decent incentive.
Assistantships here entail paid tuition, insurance, and a stipend which is fairly decent if you actually consider it a 20hr/wk job, but given that I've been doing independent contracting in addition to the grant it would be a substantial pay cut at a time when I've spent a long time in school (and thus debt) and am ready to get on with my life. In a lot of ways it would be a step backward because I've been working in the field the entire time I was a student and have some decent professional traction there. I've been in delayed gratification mode for quite a while, really, just waiting for the pieces to come together. On the other hand, a masters is probably worth more in the long run, particularly since I'd probably be going from a new media BA (a what now?) to a comp sci MS.
So those are my options: getting on with life and continuing to do project-based work, or taking a detour that pushes real life back another couple years but may give me a leg up once I do get going.
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