After much wringing of hands and excessive talking about it, I decided that I would wait until summer school to take the class. In the spring, I would be taking my Master's Project (the equivalent of a thesis but with a "product" instead of a research question), and doing an internship at the local community college along with a four unit internship. Even with taking the class in summer school, I would be allowed to walk in the May '08 graduation ceremonies and, as long as I finish the class successfully, I could get hired for the Fall '09 semester.
It was all settled and decided in my mind... until last night. After class, some of us were discussing what to take next semester. The subject of the research class came up. Everyone I know in the program took it in summer school. Everyone I know hated the class. It is a lot of reading and writing (research!) and deals with quantitative versus qualitative research, something about P values and N values and all sorts of stuff. So... my original plan to take the class during a regular semester was to stretch out all the work over 15 weeks instead of doing it in 6 weeks.
So now... I don't know, I'm wondering whether it is better to:
1. Take the class, carry 8 units, pay more money and have a pretty heavy load. The Master's Project is 1 unit, but more than 1 unit worth of work. I will be writing a literature review that will be anywhere from 15 to 50 pages long in addition to refining the project and finalizing all the details. (Guess what? The project involves blogging!!!!) Added to the workload will be approximately 5 to 7 hours per week of an internship at the local communit college working in a reading development class.
OR,
2. Wait until summer school to take the class and just suffer through the six weeks of research and methodology hell.
Part of me is really liking the idea of just being done in May. Completely done. Finito. Another part of me is thinking that I have been struggling with my work load this semester due to the reasons I've been moaning and groaning about for the last few months: sleep issues, poor diet, no exercise, weight gain, yada, yada, yada.
Will I be able to pull it together to manage the heavier workload?
HOWEVER, if I do manage it, I will be finished and not have to spend six weeks, from mid-May to July slaving over a computer, reading research studies until my eyes pop out and writing multiple papers. I'll have from mid-May to August free of school to collapse, relax, hang out with the family, do cartwheels, whatever until it is time to start teaching for the fall semester.
What do you guys think? I put a poll up in the sidebar. It is just for today and part of tomorrow. I meet with my grad advisor tomorrow and I think I will make my final decision after talking to her. So, go vote in my poll and leave me some comments if you need to elaborate on what you think I should do and why.
Thanks! The next few months of my family's life will be affected by the click of your mouse!
11 down, 19 to go
