Moving along

As I mentioned on Twitter, I have some big news that I can finally share with everyone! Some major changes are in store for me, and I'm excited to be able to bring the #SAchat community along with me!

I was accepted into UCLA's PhD program in Higher Education and Organizational Change, full-time, starting Fall 2011! I'm very excited about the opportunity because getting into a full-time PhD program has long been a goal of mine, and I plan to exit a researcher and professor of higher education. I love working in student affairs, and I am going to miss the work I do, but I'm also excited to be moving along with my goals (my plan, as you may say) and am more than ready to take this next step.

And if you will, allow me to tell the story a bit...

Last summer, I felt like I was at a crossroads. I realized that I had just completed two years in my current position, and I remembered from discussions in my Master's program that 2-3 years into an entry-level position is a good point to start looking for greater responsibility. I began to reflect on my professional goals, and what my next step should look like.

My ultimate goal is to become a researcher and professor of higher education. I sharpened this goal during my Master's program, having been a graduate assistant in Seattle U's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (faculty development office) and having completed an internship with my faculty advisor helping structure and teach our theory course. So the real question for me was: Do I continue working in student affairs and seek out an Assistant or Associate Director position before starting my PhD, or is now the time to apply and move that much closer to completing my goal? I wanted time between my Master's and PhD, particularly to gain experience as a practitioner before becoming a researcher. But how much time?

Ultimately, time was what made the decision for me. I sought out advice from a couple of my mentors, both of whom recommended I apply for PhD programs, but the real answer came from realizing I turn 30 in August of 2011. I will be 34+ when I finish a PhD, and I felt like I might appreciate not putting this decision off further when I reach commencement and start looking for faculty and research jobs. So I started making my list of schools.

I thought 3-4 would be perfect. I picked two school that I know have great reputations and are highly ranked in the field, and I picked two Jesuit universities as my Master's and Bachelor's are both from Jesuit universities. So far, my list went as thus:

UCLA
Penn State
Loyola Chicago
Boston College

From there, I was recommended to add Maryland to my list as a mentor of mine felt their program might better fit my research interests. My fiancee, who originally told me to apply wherever, started to realize that "wherever" would mean moving, asked me to consider staying in Seattle as an option. For him, I added the University of Washington.

At this point, I had six schools--more than I applied to for both my Master's and Bachelor's combined--but I felt confident about my list and I wanted to make sure I knew what options were out there for me going into this process. I created a couple spreadsheets on Google Docs to track all the materials I needed to gather for these applications, and set out asking for recommendations.

What happened next will start my next post, the continuation of my PhD story...

Bryce