My journey to grad school has been a little unconventional in my opinion. Never did I think that I would be starting a graduate program at this point in my life, but here I go!
Since graduating from Ohio University, I have worked in minor league baseball sales and marketing positions with three different teams. During the last several years, I knew that I was ready for a new challenge in my career, whether it was transitioning into a different type of role within the sports industry, expanding my experience beyond working in minor league baseball or going back to school and getting a master’s degree.
I also did a lot of soul searching about what I really wanted next in my career. I have always enjoyed working in minor league baseball and was always excited about getting up to go to work at a ballpark every day. I mean who wouldn’t be excited about that! However, each year that I worked in ticket sales, I knew that it was not the direction that I wanted to continue my career in and knew it was time for a change of some sort. The one constant in all my thoughts and talking with friends and family was that I wanted to be in a job where I was working in the communications field. I knew that in order to transition back into that field, I needed to go back to school and update my skills and credentials.
I had been considering going back to school and getting a master’s degree over the past few years, especially while job searching over the last year or so, and had looked at several graduate degree programs, mostly in either sports management or in communications, but had not found the right program. I came across the Strategic Communications program at American University and I knew that their communications school was one of the best in the country. After doing some initial research, I visited the campus last August to learn more about the program. From the moment that I set foot on the campus and then learned more about the program and the curriculum, I knew that it was the program for me. I remember saying to myself, “If I’m going to go back to school, this is the place and this is the program to do it.” It just felt right and I also thought that I had a good chance of being accepted into the program.
Even though I knew that I was going to apply, I also talked to a couple of students who had completed the program to hear their thoughts and to hear someone else say that they thought the program was worthwhile to complete.
Once I started the application process in October, it was pretty straightforward…submitting a resume, two letters of recommendation, undergraduate transcripts and writing a personal statement. I was relieved when I found out that I did not have to take the GRE admissions test because I have never been good at standardized tests. The most time-consuming part of the application was writing my personal statement. From the beginning, I looked at this as the most daunting part, not because I didn’t want to write an essay, but more because I have never been one to feel comfortable selling myself and my accomplishments. However, once I got my ideas on paper and worked through a very rough draft, it came pretty easy and the ideas for the essay kept flowing. With suggestions and comments from several friends and family, I felt that my personal statement was well-written and accurately described why I would be a good fit for the program and would be successful in it.
I turned in my completed application at the end of December last year even though the deadline wasn’t until the end of February 2017. I knew that if I procrastinated on turning in my application, I would sit there and critique and over-analyze how my personal statement was written and I would drive myself absolutely crazy.
After turning in my completed application, I was a nervous wreck about finding out whether I was going to get accepted or not. To make matters worse, I thought that I was probably going to have to wait at least a month to hear an admissions decision.
To my surprise, I checked my email about a week later and there was an email from American. I cautiously opened it because I was so nervous to see whether I had been accepted or not. After reading the email, I said to my sister, “I got in!” It took her a moment to realize what I was talking about and then I made her read the email to make sure that I was reading it right. (Side note: Marci did an awesome job of doing a dramatic reading of the email!)
I was so relieved and happy to know that I had gotten into grad school. It had been a rough year for me and it felt so awesome to get some good news finally! Even though I pretty much knew at that point that I would be starting school in the fall, I did need time to let it sink in because change is not something that comes easy for me.
Once I started sharing the news with my friends and family, I was super excited to tell everyone! A lot of them knew about how rough the previous year had been for me and how I wasn’t sure what was next for me. The one person that I wish I had gotten to share the news with was my mom, who passed away six years ago. I know that she would have been so proud of me.
After being accepted, my mindset was its now January and I don’t start school until the end of August, so what’s next?
In my next post – mingling and meeting my new classmates and making my first important American University purchase (and it has nothing to do with tuition and fees).
