New Year, New Student

A new year is always a fresh start! While things do not always turn out as originally planned, it is important to always move forward.

Back in August, I arranged my application. It took three months to get a feedback from the Admissions Office and I heard of my acceptance to the Graduate Certificate program at the end of November. I had mulled over whether I should continue or not. What are my plans and what I hope to achieve with this new venture?

Six weeks after I received the e-mail, I finally decided to go for it. I am going to be a student again!

I’m a student again

I will be taking up area studies, which some of my contemporaries see as delving deeper from the holistic graduate degree I had finished about four years back. I have several research topics in mind but it is more a question of being wise on which one to take. I have to be very, very strategic how I approach this program, considering that it will done on a different set-up.

Being an Isko in this setup will certainly have its challenges.

First, it will be a stark departure from the traditional classroom setting I was used to. I will be forced to make sure I follow a rigorous study plan to comply with the requirements. It is still UP, anyway. In my almost a decade stay for both my bachelor’s and master’s degree, spoonfeeding was never in style.

Second, I have to brush up on a lot of things if I really want to do this correctly. When I look back on my ‘style’ while finishing my master’s, I wish I could have done some things differently. So, studying again will demand some re-calibration of my study approach. I am happy that at least I was able to do an assessment and change some things accordingly.

At the end of the day, a lot of things will be new to me as a student online. I will definitely have a lot of growing pains in the coming weeks. Not to mention that the tuition is greater. However, I’m still more excited overall. Plus, I have an excuse to regularly drop by UP Diliman, which I miss most dearly!