Marist Update

I received my admissions packet from Marist yesterday. Not only have I been accepted to the MBA program (which is not all that surprising), but I have been awarded a Graduate Scholars Award of $250 per class (this was unexpected). It doesn't sound like much when 1 credit is $695, but when you consider that I'll be taking 5 classes a year, that $1250 that I will not have to put out for my MBA. I'm a big believer in self-education, but it's difficult to communicate my efforts to improve my management skills on my resume without a formal program to reference. My goal is to get an MBA for as cheaply as possible with as little disruption to my life as I can manage. The graduate award is one more step to minimize the foot print of my MBA studies on my life.

Saying that I want my MBA to have a minimal foot print on my life is not a statement about the seriousness that I have in approaching this process. I want to extract as much useful knowledge and experience as I can from my classes, professors, and classmates. At the same time, I don't want to take attention away from my career or my family while doing this. These may sound like contradictory aims, but think it's more of a challenge to displine myself and use the time that I have for school work to my greatest advantage. If I have 30 minutes to read or study, I need to maximize the value of that time. Efficiency and focus will be the name of the game.

It's too bad I don't have a man cave. It would be great to retreat into a space like these rooms to focus on my school work for 30 minutes or so. I have been thinking about where I am going to do this intense studying. We have a guest room. Our old desktop computer is on a desk up there just collecting dust. I could ditch the computer and make that my work space. I would like to work at a desk rather than our kitchen table so I can keep my materials out for quick access rather than taking them out and putting them away every time I study, especially on the weekends. The room shares a wall with my daughters room so I would have to be careful about how much noise I made while I was working. I'm sure it will be a trial and error process to see what kind of arrangement works best for everybody. The process begins August 30.