About seven years ago, I was in my senior year of college and knew graduate school would be an important step for me to pursue a career in student affairs. I didn’t know much about how to get there, but I could see that GRE scores were a requirement of the programs that caught my interest. So I signed up, studied what I considered to be my areas of weakness, did my best on one of the first computer based tests, and scored 50 points higher than the only other person I knew who took the test-I was pleased. Although the score was not the strongest part of my graduate application, I was eventually accepted to the graduate school of my choice (several years later, after a round of rejections-another story for another post).
My score has expired and I am thinking about what’s next for me, both in education and career. My colleague Linda (of this very blog) told me about the discount when you take the newer version of the test and it seemed like a good time to refresh my score. Knowing the new score would expire in five years gives me a sort of deadline to use it, although if I go through this process and decide now is not the time, at least I only paid half, right?
In some ways, my journey mirrors the one from seven years ago. I know I want more education, but I am not entirely sure how to get there. I’m worried about test scores and funding. I don’t know a lot of people who have done this. I have no idea what I want in a program, much less what I hope to do when I finish. Some things feel different this time around, though. I feel like I have resources (i.e. people to ask, the Internet, twitter). I am not afraid to ask for help. I am okay with saying no to the PhD at this time of it means a higher income is an unlikely outcome.
Just being a part of a group of professionals exploring our educational options and helping each other through the testing process has been a great experience for me. It has me thinking in new ways and excited about the possibilities ahead.
