And with that, the year is officially over! Well technically, classes are now over, and finals week is starting to descend upon everyone. While I don’t have any exams coming up, I do have a number of essays that are due, one of which still needs serious work before I hand it in. Sigh…No hanging out and enjoying this last week quite yet.
But in more seriously exciting news, I’ve finally settled upon plans for life post-graduation. It’s been such a long journey to get to this point, and I never thought that what I’m about to embark on was actually going to happen. It didn’t even cross my mind as a remote possibility. That was until two weeks ago.
So after relatively some deliberation, I have decided to pursue two Master’s degrees in the next two years, one right after the other. For the 2014-15 year, I’ll be headed to Central European University, located in Budapest, Hungary. As I’ve written before extensively here, I have a pretty big love for the city and general region. I’ll be studying under the MA Public Policy program, which lasts exactly one year. After that, I’ll continue my studies during the 2015-16 year at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), under the MSc Management, Organizations and Governance program. Insane!
So, dear readers, you might have serious questions about this interesting combination. It’s really unusual, and it’s certainly a mouthful to explain to anyone now who asks the stereotypical question, “So what are you plans after graduation?” It all makes total sense though. Let me explain.
When I was home during Spring Break back in mid-April, I got the acceptance letter for LSE. I had never considered myself the strongest candidate and was honestly expecting a rejection. It was, after all, the most challenging school that I had applied to. The fact that the opposite actually happened, and only about three weeks after sending in my complete application was truly surprising. I have good grades and such, but I assumed that the sheer caliber of the students applying would likely render a decision not in my favor. So I had thought.
With the LSE acceptance in hand, I deliberated going there versus the other choices in hand, and ultimately made the decision alongside family and my thesis adviser to accept the offer from LSE. Such an offer doesn’t come around too often, and it’s one that I wouldn’t want to regret a few years down the road. Having such a prestigious reputation back in the USA as well in Europe was a real determining factor as opposed to the other UK universities I had gotten into at that point.
About two weeks later, I received another big surprise. As I was heading back from a weekend in Akron, I opened my email while on the Greyhound bus, and saw that my scholarship offer to Central European University had been upgraded to a fellowship, up from the small scholarship previously offered at the beginning of April. I hadn’t done anything to prompt this change on my own, so I was really surprised, as I hadn’t considered this program a clear front-runner as compared to my other offers. Essentially all of my costs would be covered, housing and additional stipend included! My parents were just as shocked and thrilled as well over this great increase in award. As I began to mull this offer in my head over, the only thing that stood out in my mind was that all it would require for me to do this degree as well was, firstly, an additional year of study and secondly, a deferral from LSE. Which in the grand scheme of things, considering that my first degree will be fully funded, aren’t too crazy of options.
With all of this in mind, I talked extensively with my adviser and parents, and they were all in unanimity: do both, if I can obtain a deferral from LSE. The time commitment is relatively minimal, as are the costs. And that’s exactly what will happen, as my deferral was just granted a few days ago. The first degree represents more of my academic interests, and would allow me to potentially do PhD studies in the field, should I one day still want to pursue that option. The second one is more geared towards attaining the business credentials I feel would be still so important to attain. In addition, because I would be one of the younger students on the degree program at LSE (the average age is 25), deferring it for a year will allow me to build up my CV even more so that I can better compete with those older people. 😉
So there you go! I’ll be spending the following year in Budapest, a city that means so much to me. The year after, I’ll head to London. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. 🙂
Where Is Christina Now? Ramblings on Life (Mostly) Abroad 