Grad School As A "Nontraditional" Student: First Semester Review

I've written here before about my educational (mis)adventures.  To recap, I started taking evening and online classes when I was working for an employer that provided tuition remission.  In August, I left that job and started a full-time graduate program in speech-language pathology.  I successfully completed my first of five semesters in December, and I'll go back for my second semester next week.  Before doing that, I thought it would be interesting (and potentially useful to other people who are considering going back to school) to write about some of my impressions.

Favorite part:  My program, like many, starts students in clinic first semester.  My weekly clients were hands down the best part of the program.  I looked forward to seeing them and was thrilled when I saw their progress.  I also felt like I learned a lot in this process--when you see the same clients every week, you have a chance to reflect on what went well in a session and what needs improvement.  Then you can adjust accordingly.  In spite of the various ways I'm unhappy with the grad school experience, the fact that I enjoyed my clients so much makes me cautiously optimistic that I'm making a good career change for me.

Least favorite part:  Barely having a spare moment to myself all semester.  I spent two years taking classes on top of working a full-time job.  It never occurred to me that I would be busier as "just" a student, but I was, by quite a lot.  Getting to spend time with friends took great feats of planning.  Hobbies were put on hold, as I worked through most evenings and weekends.  The worst part was mid-semester when I caught a monster cold that hung on for weeks.  I started to feel very nostalgic for sick leave at that point.  I only took one full day off from school during that time, and I spent nearly the whole day working from home when what I really needed was sleep.  Was all this work necessary or helpful to the learning experience?  Absolutely not.  Unfortunately, some of the architects of this program seem to believe that misery in grad school is a rite of passage we all have to go through.

Best thing about being a nontraditional student:  Years of "adulting" have given me very good time management skills.  Unlike many of my younger classmates, I pulled zero all-nighters all semester (and I don't intend to pull any in subsequent semesters). 

Worst thing about being a nontraditional student:  I miss income.  I miss free time after coming home from work.  I miss being around people closer to my own age.  I miss feeling competent in a career, instead of feeling like I'm starting out at the bottom again.  All of these adjustments have been harder than I anticipated.

Advice to other nontraditional students:  I chose my program because they offered me funding.  This might still prove to be the correct decision--after all, who wants to pay more in tuition than they have to?  And in the end, it's always easier to see the problems where you are than the problems you would have faced somewhere else.

However, for people who find themselves deciding between two or more funding packages (or people comparing two or more programs with roughly equivalent tuition), here are some things to consider:  Which program typically has more nontraditional students?  You might have an easier time making friends with fellow students whose lives are more like yours.  Also, programs with more nontraditional students may do a better job scheduling classes to be convenient for people who aren't 22 and living on campus (I'm thinking grumpily about the number of evening classes I'll have next semester, in addition to two Saturday all-day sessions.  Grrr.).  Also, this may sound obvious, but think about what the program specializes in.  I'm going to be deliberately vague here, but my program has a specialty that I certainly don't object to, but that I'm also not planning to incorporate heavily into my future career.  I figured I could put up with it for the sake of receiving funding.  And again, that may prove to be the best decision in the end...but at the moment, I feel like something I'll probably never use again is taking up an awful lot of my time. 

One semester down, four to go!