Finally!

This morning I had an appointment with another political science department faculty member to discuss classes for Fall 2010, when I begin my graduate level classes. For those of you who don't know, I'm on a plan known as a 3/2 program, meaning I earn my bachelor's and master's in five years - three years undergrad, two years graduate - instead of the 6+ years it may normally take a student. Since I already feel like a dinosaur due to all of the time I spent on my past adventures (read: transient, degenerate college drop-out), I think it is a great idea to combine things and get 'er done quickly, and move on to bigger and better things.

Back to my story. I was meeting with another adviser on grad school stuff and he asked about my internship plans. I explained I had something lined up in India, but my other adviser wasn't keen on accepting it as an internship. Instead he would approve it as an independent study, and override my requirement for an undergraduate internship. My graduate adviser then said that he thinks that would be a great idea, and since I would be doing an internship in my graduate level coursework anyway, so an internship during my undergraduate portion of the 3/2 isn't really necessary. I then mentioned that I had all of my coursework done, and actually had more undergraduate credits that I needed. I asked that since he was ok with overriding my internship requirement, would it be necessary to do an independent study during my time in India? He said no, it wasn't.

In case that didn't make sense, I'll explain what this decision means to me, personally.

Internships and independent studies earn university credits. For the opportunity to earn credits, a student must pay tuition. This particular 3 credit internship would end up costing about $1000 in tuition and student fees! On top of my tuition, I also have to pay a fee to work with the program ($1010 for ten weeks) and I recently spent over $1300 on my plane ticket. This whole trip is being bankrolled by my savings, and I was worrying a little bit on how much actual saving I will be able to do. This is a override takes a huge, HUGE load off my shoulders and I couldn't be more relieved with this news!

So there is a stellar update for you, my dear audience. I am relieved and excited! My newest adventure is officially coming together quite well. Thank you for reading. :)

All the best,
MCC