Yay school!

Last night I finished my first week of classes for the MPA program at George Mason University. This semester, I registered for three classes: Intro to Public/Nonprofit Administration, Organization Theory and Management Behavior, and Managing in the International Arena. However, later today I will be dropping Intro to Public/yadda yadda yadda from my schedule as I only want to take 2 classes per semester and not overwhelm my little brain.

I began classes on Monday night. To prepare, I drank a cup of French Roast from Caribou on my drive from DC to the Fairfax campus. BAD MOVE. I was jittery throughout all of Org Theory and nauseous through Intro Yadda Yadda. It didn’t help that I didn’t have any time to eat the sandwich I bought at Potbelly’s earlier, or that the second professor was so fidgety that he was giving me motion sickness. The highlight of my Monday night was the fact that my second professor of the evening was dorky funny AND had a four-inch rip down the seam of his pants so you could see his boxer shorts.

I am entertained by the little things in life, what can I say?

My third class was last night and it’s being taught by an adjunct. What that means in GMU terminology is that my professor has a day job. His just happens to be President of the Peace Corps Association – which is exactly why I registered for the class in the first place. As a Masters International student, I really want to take advantage of these kinds of classes where I will gain more insight into international development and global issues.

In between classes, I have already signed up for every email listserv I could find, am investigating professional associations to join, met with my program’s dedicated Career Services counselor, and scheduled some one-on-one time with a PIA professor. Oh, and I’ve also house-hunted with my realtor this week.

Needless to say, I’m a little pooped, but I’m excited to be back in school.

Some fun factoids from Ryan’s return to college:

• At grad school orientation, I met the Dean of my program – who promptly fell asleep next to a small group of us during the program held in the Arts Center;
• I spent about $100 between the car rental and parking to get my butt to orientation, only to return home with a GMU mug;
• The orientation speakers commented on the make-up of the incoming graduate students – 80% of us are supposed to be full-time workers, and over 60% are over the age of 30. That being said, I am one of the oldest members in each of my classes, and most of my classmates just graduated from undergrad so they don’t have jobs yet;
• It appears that none of the professors I’ve contacted thus far have any idea what the Masters International program is – apparently, I’m on my own on that score;
• Out of the three classes I attended this week, I met two other suckers… I mean, Masters International students;
• Managing in the International Arena is the smallest class I have taken since high school (the smallest class I ever took was AP Calculus, with only five of us taking class via satellite with a professor from Ohio State University or somewhere) – the class totals eight people, but only six showed up last night;
• The most thrilling news for me is that I was able to purchase four books for one of my classes and it only cost me $115. At Penn, it cost me $115 just to LOOK at the bookstore, let alone leave with some course books;
• I have barely scratched the surface of my homework, but I’m already exhausted.

Let the good times begin…