I have officially been accepted into the Boston University Master of Public
Health program with a concentration in International Health, and my hope would
be to focus on Sex, Sexulaity, Gender, and Health. A mouth full, but exactly
the focus I want. I also was very fortunate to receive a merit scholarship,
which helps make the decision a little bit easier, but I’m still not 100% sure
if I’m going to go.
Why you ask? Well, that’s a complicated question.
While I know this is the program I want to do, it’s more of a question
of do I want to do it right now? Or should I wait until next fall?
As most of you know, my plan was to head to Africa, not take a causal
year off before grad school. While it wasn’t what I had intended, having time
off was kind of a blessing in disguise. It allowed me to take a month in
Europe, visit friends in DC multiple times, go to Arizona for two weeks, and
just generally lead a pretty low key existence.
I got my acceptance email and I panicked. Do I want to do this yet? If I
took another year I could visit Natalie in Panama, or Lauren in
California, or go back to Europe and explore some more with Hannah. I could take more time to travel and volunteer, all without having the
ridiculous amount of student loan payments that grad school will add to my
plate.
Then there is the questioning of financing. While BU is a great program,
it isn’t cheap. I know as a grad student I won't have any problem finding
someone to give me a loan, but how will I ever pay them back? Should I work
full time and go to school part time to try to spread out the payments? What if
I just took the loans, hammered school out in 3 semesters and then started
paying? What if I took a year off to save some more? The last thought is just
laughable because if I’m not in school, I’m going to be travelling, not saving.
As you can see, I have a lot to think about and mull over. I’m stressing
myself in circles, which really isn’t much of a surprise. I’m waiting for my
financial aid packet, and for the accepted students day on campus at the end of
April before I make any official decisions.
