I'm going back to school!

I wanted to upload pics but I can't find the camera cord we bought to replace the one left on Liza's desk in Hungary, so. . . I can't show you the pics from Samuel's concert last night or the last two weeks of garden pics. (Aw, shucks???) I'll work on that.

In the meantime, I gave you a kid update (and you need another one), but I didn't share my good news here, and I got lectured Sunday night for not telling everyone-so, to all my loyal readers, ;-)
I hereby announce that I will be starting my PhD in Sociology this fall at the University of Maryland. Between my last minute decision to apply, and a few computer glitches, it took them a while to make the decision, but they offered me admission with an assistantship that includes full tuition and a stipend that will cover books, fees, transportation, and other expenses related to this adventure. As Mom put it, I'll probably learn more from that part of my education than I do from my classes.

Why am I going back to school?
With the big girls out of the house, and the twins starting high school, I'm really moving out of the intense parenting phase of life. (No, Beck, we're still not going to adopt a few more, much as we love yours!)
I considered employment, but with those aforementioned big girls in college, 47% of my after tax earnings go to the increase in their Expected Family Contribution, so I'd be working for a third of whatever the nominal paycheck was. James & I looked at that, and had a hard time finding anything that would pay enough to make it worth the restrictions on our family schedule, unless it were something I'd enjoy doing for "free". I am pretty comfortable with computers, but I'm no geek.
I miss the delight of watching the light go on in my students' eyes, but I still can't handle the noise inherent in a middle or high school situation. (Thanks so much little Lyme buggies!) There are more teachers wanting to teach Spanish at the community college than they need, so it's takes timing, luck, and connections to get in there.

With this as background, I was thinking about our co-parenting situations, and began wondering about if & how it is possible to create a situation where children of divorced parents really feel like they belong in both households. . .more questions: how to define that?, how to assess it?, is it better for the kids to feel like they are part of both households?, how would that be measured?, what are some strategies that support (& interfere) with that belonging?, etc. As the project developed, I quickly realized that, as diverse as my background is, my limited experience in social research would present challenges and I needed a couple of courses in research design & methodology to do this well, and make it meaningful. Investigating the graduate programs in the area, I realized that the courses I would need to feel confident in doing effective and safe research would get me most of the way to a Masters degree, and the other classes I'd need for the Master's degree would complete some 70% of the coursework for a PhD. The project itself will easily work into a dissertation research project, so. . .

The end of the first week of January I decided to apply for the PhD program. Never mind the deadline for applications was in early February and I had never taken the GRE! I scheduled that, checked out three review books from the library, and went to take that as the January ice storm rolled into town. I managed a 700 Verbal/800 Math (better than my SAT scores!)-we do enjoy the challenge of standardized tests!- and had the scores sent on to UMCP. I filled out the first part of the application online, and somehow there was a glitch and I never could get into the supplemental part. Two of my recommendation letters made it in on paper, but the other one was waiting for the electronic format, but the department stopped sending the weekly status reports so I thought everything was in.
And so I waited to hear from them. . .
And waited. . .
And waited, until late March, after the letters were supposed to go out. They pulled my application off the shelf, decided they really did want me in the program after all, but had to figure out where they were going to get the money to offer me the assistantship. . .and so things were still "pending" when I left for Hungary. The Graduate Adviser called while I was gone, but I didn't get the message for some reason (?!?). I had an emailed acceptance waiting for me when I got home, and the official letter came the first week of May.

I'm really looking forward to: being back in class, the intellectual exchange, learning new things, meeting new people, teaching again (eventually), etc. At this point I'm expecting (and the department is too) to specialize in Social Psychology and Gender, Work & Family areas. Now, if they only had some environmental sociology courses. . .but I've tracked down a contact with that background to guide me in some independent study in that area!

The family's screaming that it's dinner time, so I'll post more later (and won't wait a month this time!).