By Becky La, SAA 2020
You’ve spent hours researching potential highereducation/student affairs graduate programs, carefully crafting your personalstatements/statements of purpose, painstakingly revising your resume, andconstantly reminding your mentors/supervisors/faculty members to PLEASE submittheir letters of recommendation by the application deadline. And then, congratulations—you’vefinally submitted your graduate school applications! Before you know it, you’rereceiving acceptance letters and making arrangements to attend previewweekends, preparing for graduate assistantship interviews. Perhaps a couple ofwhirlwind weekends later—where you may have run into the same people atmultiple schools—you’re finally done with your grad prix circuit, and you now haveto weigh your options and make the right decision. But how does one go about makingsuch a choice?
Working full-time for two years as an Assistant ResidentDirector at UCLA shortly after I graduated from there confirmed my interest instudent affairs, and I felt ready to take the next step in my education journeyby applying to graduate school. After speaking with multiple colleagues,mentors, and supervisors, I decided to apply to seven graduate programs andeventually narrowed my choices down to two schools—one of them being MichiganState. I knew I could not go wrong with either institution, but this toughdecision really made me think about what I wanted and needed out of my graduateschool experience. With that in mind, here are some factors, outside of the academicprogram and graduate assistantship offers, I thought about as I made mygraduate school decision:
Moving Away from Home: How comfortable are you with moving away, and is moving away from home an option for you?
I knew I wanted an out-of-stategraduate school experience when I was getting ready for my application process.At the same time, I felt an enormous sense of guilt over wanting to move awayfrom California, as I knew my parents were increasingly relying on me to betheir cultural broker to translate documents, speak on their behalf, andoverall be physically there for them as they enter their late 60s and early70s. Was I selfishly abandoning family obligations by wanting to move away? Howcould I fathom leaving them when I knew how quickly my family’s situation waschanging? I had to have some very transparent, honest conversation with myparents about our family situation in order to understand what was happening,which ultimately allowed me to feel at ease choosing to leave California for mymaster’s degree.
Many people who supported andguided me throughout the graduate school application process emphasized theimportance of moving away from home in order to get a different experience. Thepressure to “make the right career move” by leaving your home state to learn,grow, and develop is real. However, not everyone has the privilege or feasibleopportunity to move away from home depending on one’s life circumstances,wants, and needs. You do NOT have to move away to go to graduate school for anew experience if that is ultimately not what you want and not what you can dogiven the other roles in your life. Not leaving home does not mean you are preventingyourself from seeking new experiences—no matter how near or far you are awayfrom home, graduate school will be a time for you to grow and develop as aperson and a student affairs professional.
The Environment: Where are you willing to live for the next 1-2 years?
As I was navigating my graduate school search, many mentors,supervisors, and colleagues told me that you can live anywhere for two years. WhileI was on my grad prix journey, however, I quickly learned you can’t just live anywhere.I had clear wants and needs in terms of how I wanted to live my life while ingraduate school, so there are really important things to consider in yourenvironment, beyond the borders of the university. Having lived in Los Angelesfor 6 years, I knew I wanted to live in a place that had a slower pace of lifefrom what I was used to in order for me to better focus on my studies. At thesame time, I also wanted to make sure the place I was living in had thefollowing qualities:
- Food I Need Is there a nearby Asiansupermarket so I can buy specific ingredients to make my favorite homecookedmeals? Are there any restaurants that serve food that remind me of home (e.g.,boba, ph?)? Where is the nearest supermarket, and how accessible is it if I’mtraveling from campus?
- Affordable Cost of Living: Although Ilive on campus as an Assistant Community Director, I still wanted to know if Icould afford to live by myself in the surrounding area. What is the averagecost of rent for private apartments close to the university? How much does gascost? What is the city’s/county’s sales tax? How much would it cost for me tomove to this new location? Overall, could I afford to live in the area andpay for tuition?
- Access to a Nearby Airport: Willtraveling back and forth from school and home be fairly affordable? Knowing Iwill be traveling back and forth from wherever I ended up to visit family inCalifornia, I wanted to make sure the university I attended was close to anairport—whether by charter bus, Uber/Lyft, or via personal car.
Committing to graduate school does not mean you are justcommitting to your academic program and graduate assistantship. I knew I wantedto make a major life change by deciding to leave my home state to pursue mymaster’s degree, which meant not only committing to my academicprogram/graduate assistantship, but also to my new surroundings both inside andoutside the classroom—and I had to be just as comfortable with that commitmentto living in a new place as I was with my graduate program.
To any admitted student reading this post: You will meetmany amazing people during your graduate school journey, which might make itvery difficult to turn down the programs you are choosing from. By saying “no”to one program, perhaps you may equate your decision to decline as saying “no”to those people, as opposed to the school/program itself. The institution willalways be there with or without us, but the people within it humanizes theprogram. Even if you might not attend the same program as some of theseindividuals, you’ll be in the same field with them, and there will always beopportunities to virtually support each other as you continue your highereducation/student affairs journey.