“I love it when a plan comes together!” – Hannibal, The A-Team

Even before I went back to Charter Oak State College to complete my Bachelor’s degree, I had a long term plan.  My professional background was in IT and project management, but I wanted to move into higher education.  I figured that a Master’s degree in educational technology would be the best way to put the two together, so I had looked for a Bachelor’s that would be good enough to get me into a Master’s program, figuring that I would look for a better known school when I got to that level.

Many schools offer online Master’s programs in educational technology, but early on in my search process I discovered that one of them was George Washington University.  I was living in Florida at the time, but since I’m originally from the Washington, D.C. area, I knew of GW as a very well regarded school; in fact I’d known people who went there as undergraduates who were doing very well professionally.  When I found out that their Educational Technology Leadership program had a tuition rate that was just one-third that of their on campus graduate programs, and that this was a rate similar to those of other less well known schools, I knew I’d found the right school for me.

So then I made a fateful decision.  Because things had gone so well at Charter Oak State College, I figured that even though I was working full time, I would still take three courses at a time.  I figured that way I’d be done in four semesters, and since they offered three per year, that meant just sixteen months.  The first semester, everything was fine; I did well in all three courses.  Same thing with the second semester.  The third semester I did the best ever, getting A’s in all three courses.  

So I thought I was home free, just one semester to go, and taking the same load I’d already handled for a year.  Nothing could stop me now!  Well, not so.  That semester I started a demanding new job, and that skewed the delicate ecosystem of my schedule in such a way that I ended up doing well in one of my courses but the other two… well, let’s just say they ended up as a smoldering glass-lined crater.  

Worse, the two courses I’d scotched were only offered once per year, so it would be a long time before I’d get the chance to try them again.  And by the time they did roll around, I was nearly eligible for free courses at the university where I work, so I held on to take two courses for free to transfer back rather than pay to take them at GW.

Fortunately, that second time I did perfectly well, and now I have that Master’s degree completed.  So while the detour made the trip last twice as long as I thought it would, at least eventually the plan came together.

(And again in the credit where it’s due category, this was another program I couldn’t have completed without the support of my family, even when it was just commiserating when I’d messed up that supposed-to-be last semester.)

Next up, a few of the milestones on my long and winding road to a doctoral program.