Ah yes, break is almost over and now I feel refreshed, relaxed, and… wait a minute… this assignment is due Thursday? We haven’t even met in class yet! How can you assign that?
Well folks, these were my thoughts the week before we came back from holiday break. At first you may be thinking, “Gee whiz! Why is this guy telling me this? It doesn’t make me want to go to SPEA!” However, if you think about it, the point of going to SPEA is to do good in the world and in order to do that, you have to work hard. Whether you support welfare or not, it does not exist in the academic world. If you want an A, you have to work for it, and at the end of the day when you get it, you can feel proud, accomplished, and (most importantly) smarter. I said it in my last post and I’ll say it again: SPEA does wonders in preparing you for the real-world. The classes are laden with real-world examples, so you can visualize the importance of what you are learning. So the point is that yes, SPEA is a lot of work at times, but if you want to be prepared for the professional world, you should welcome a challenge.
On another note, I was just given a Graduate Assistantship. This opportunity is AMAZING, and I only received it because of the Masters Program Office. They work extremely hard to make sure you are aware of all scholarship opportunities available to you. I want to say I received 20 e-mails about scholarship deadlines. These were slightly bothersome, but man did I memorize the dates for the scholarships. So, if you are worried about how to finance your SPEA education, don’t be because opportunities are constantly popping up. I recently read an article saying how cost-effective IU-Bloomington was compared to other public universities.
As the winter continues on, snow does take some getting used to – I am originally from South Carolina. Even so, Bloomington has the #1 Rated Small Transit System in North America, so you will not be waiting long out there!
-Andy
SPEAk: IU SPEA Student Blog 