What on earth am I thinking?

[Justin A.]

My son is to be born May 15th. I'm starting college up again on May 11th. She's starting classes ON May 15th (online though). What the hell are we thinking? I'm looking at at 8 more years of school before I can start turning a half-decent paycheck again, she's got about a year. Are we nuts? Maybe. Am I excited about it all? Absolutely. Am I terrified? I think I'd be stupid not to be. I know I haven't been posting around here alot lately, but wish us luck!

[Ernie00]

Hey Justin,

Congrats, we just got our first born in September. We are both working so school wasn't an issue and the Quebec gov program is amazing. My wife was paid at 90% of her salary at home during the 9 months she was pregnant and she has close to year off from work paid. I also got 3 months off at 70% of my salary, can't really complain there.

Maybe you can take a reduce course load the first year ? You'll see you'll want to be there as much as possible the first 4-5 months things changes so fast it's crazy. We were looking at pictures and videos from September and we can't believe how small he was only a few months ago.

Enjoy !

We went riding in NH this winter. Attitash, Wildcat and Cranmore. It was a lot of fun !

[rhaskins]

You going to Med School? 8 years? What?

I gots me 2 post graduate degrees and a total of 9.5 years of University, broken up in chunks, and worked full time during my last 2 degrees.

Can't have too much of that there education tho.

What's the 8 years gonna get you for a degree/profession? BTW, aint any of my degrees in English lit.

Rick

[Justin A.]

You going to Med School? 8 years? What?

I gots me 2 post graduate degrees and a total of 9.5 years of University, broken up in chunks, and worked full time during my last 2 degrees.

Can't have too much of that there education tho.

What's the 8 years gonna get you for a degree/profession? BTW, aint any of my degrees in English lit.

Rick

Med school indeed. I'm restarting my academic career next month with a Lib. Arts program to get my GPA up to where it needs to be to transfer to a real school where I'm planning on majoring in BioChemistry with a possible Physics (Optics) minor. Then off to med school, I'm going to try like hell for either Dartmouth or Tufts . All the while having a kiddo that wants to help me with everything and generally trying to be at least a halfway decent father.

Maybe you can take a reduce course load the first year ? You'll see you'll want to be there as much as possible the first 4-5 months things changes so fast it's crazy. We were looking at pictures and videos from September and we can't believe how small he was only a few months ago.

I'm taking the maximum course load over the summer (2 sessions of 2 classes each), then probably 3-4 courses this fall. Unfortunately I need to bust my hump through these first few classes to be able to transfer to UNH come the spring semester, but they're only a few days a week so I should hopefully have some baby time. I'll be trying to take it at least somewhat easy once I get to UNH, I really don't want to miss my kid's life. I think that's what scares me more than anything.

[rhaskins]

Ya gotta watch out, my last 2 years of undergraduate was a "total immersion" deal, I had a study team and we worked on classes & class work 6 days a week as our job. It worked out as far as grades were concerned. Did I mention my divorce in my senor year of college? Bad things can happen if you get too focused.

Rick