A New Direction
Now that I’ve had a chance to talk to my family, I’m ready to share a big employment decision with the wider world. Some of my friends know this already, but many people who may have been following my journey do not. I have decided to enlist in the United States Coast Guard. In fact, I signed my contract and took my Oath of Enlistment today. This is a decision I reached after many months of thought and research, and I believe it is the best path for me to take for several reasons. This is going to be a long one, so the rest of the story is below the cut.
Steps Back and Forward
The day before Thanksgiving I had to take a step back in my plans. That was the day I received my letter stating that I was not accepted to American University for January 2011. While I knew that my odds were 50/50 at the best, it was still a big disappointment for me, since I’ve been itching for a general change in my life for several months now. I’ll admit that I cried a few times after I got the news. The short, cold, dark days of winter make me a bit more susceptible to my more negative emotions. It’s been about four weeks since I got that news now. I’ve been figuring out what I want to do.
Waiting Game
The month has been a quiet one. I did a bit of research and found out not to expect a decision about American University and the School of International Service until mid-November. Which means that now that we’re getting to mid-November I’m nervously watching my email and physical mail for word of whether I get to begin graduate study in January. I did decide that American was the only program I would pursue for Spring 2010. I’m building a list of top programs for Fall 2011 as well.
Two schools in particular stand out to me. The University of Denver and Tufts University have both reached out to me through the GRE Search Service. I had looked into Tufts before, but not U. Denver. I’ve given a second look to Tufts, and decided to pursue both it and U. Denver, which has a program that lines up very well with my career goal of working as an economic analyst for the U.S. or an IGO such as the UN or WTO. Thanks to the competitiveness of graduate admissions in a tough economy, I’ll be applying to several other schools in addition to these two if I don’t get into American.
In the next week I hope to have a short 10-page version of a subject I would like to study in depth in graduate school: how to best integrate developing economies into the world economy in a way that promotes growth and has positive benefits for them and their trade partners. I’m doing a short 10-page paper exploring the ideas of Joseph Stiglitz of the WTO and Ha-Joon Chang, who challenge the notion that neo-liberal strategies are the best way to promote growth. I’m doing this through a case study of South Korea on one hand and Mexico & Chile on the other hand. South Korea carefully sequenced its entry into the international economy, while Chile and, Mexico (especially after the adoption of NAFTA) embraced neo-liberal policies. It will just be a rough exploration, but one I would like to develop as I continue my studies.
And that’s about all there is to report. I’ll check back in when I have news of whether January finds me in Washington or taking a few more courses at RVCC up here in NJ.
The few weeks have been quiet ones, with little of consequence to report. I’ve started putting my teaching certification back to use as an SAT tutor, which provides a bit of income for the months ahead. My second go at the GRE exam didn’t raise my math score by as much as I wanted. Part of that was forgetting that I had no access to a calculator and struggling to gain my stride after that. I’m progressing with the scores I have for my Spring applications, but plan to retake once more for Fall applications should Spring not work out.
My application for American is in the hands of its amazing faculty, and I hope for a decision by the end of October. I’m currently working on my application for Rutgers, with City College of NY and NYU’s applications to follow. It will be a busy month.
On the class front, things are proceeding, although I have had to change my plans slightly. Rather than start my microeconomics class at MCC this past Wednesday, I will now take a more condensed class starting on the 22nd following some prolonged car trouble. (Apparently finding instrument panels for 1995 Fords isn’t the easiest thing to do.) The car comes home today, so that will solve the personal mobility problem.
Hopefully by the end of October or first week of November I have decisions from most schools (Rutgers, CCNY, and NYU all use rolling admissions; AU does not) and can decide where I would like to be in January. I’ll keep you all updated as there is more news to report. For now I have some Foreign Affairs articles to summarize and some notes on Inflation and the Phillips curve to take.
Still Runnin’…
Nothing worth doing is ever easy.
We’ve all heard the phrase a million times. And we all know it from personal experience. It often becomes our mantra when life throws us curveballs and just generally makes things difficult for us as we pursue our goals. That’s part of why this blog’s name is what it is. Pursing something will be difficult, and will be like running against the wind.
I’m leaning on this phrase heavily today. I received notice sometime within the last hour that I will not move on to the Oral Assessment of the Foreign Service in November. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t very upset to get that answer instead of the invitation to Washington for a chance to prove myself in person. But I also knew that there was a high chance that this is the answer I would get. After all, I have never been out of the country for anything more than a high school music competition. I have little formal training in economics, which is the field I want to work in. And I’m sure plenty of other candidates had both of those things.
So what this means is that my back-up plan is now the plan. Graduate school was always the path I wanted to pursue if the Service didn’t work out because it will give me the right combination of academic preparation and personal, or life, preparation. It gives me the opportunity to study abroad, meet people from around the world, and really learn about the field. Knowing that there’s no chance of the Service this time around does mean I have to re-evaluate whether or not to pursue some programs in the Spring 2011 semester. Doing so means starting my studies earlier, but possibly forgoing a chance of going to some of the best schools – which only start in the fall. It also means giving up the option of trying for a Pickering Fellowship, which would help me with both grad. school and getting work experience. I figure I have a few days to figure that one out. Today I’m just going to let myself be sad and work around the house a bit. Tomorrow I’ll start asking the tough questions.
