Thursday, August 11, 2011

From Books to Betty

A quick glance at a photo of some high school girlfriends on my desk at work made me realize it recently - of the five of us, four are married and three have children. Two have moved a good car ride away, and two are living in the 'burbs. Geez. Where has time gone?

It's no secret that my friends have long been getting married and now are having babies. The newest addition to this equation, though, is that more and more of my friends are now heading back to school. Wait, I thought I finally got out of that place?

Maybe it's because I was at Ma Tech for a solid five years (I promise that's the average!) that grad school did not immediately jump onto my immediate radar. I have loved being a young working gal for a few years now, making and saving money and growing in my skills. Or perhaps (ok, it does) it has something to do with the fact that I hate studying; I'd much rather wing things, and something tells me I won't be able to get away with as much of that the second time around :)

If my schools looked like the schools of Gossip Girl, I may have wanted to spend even more time with my undergrad!

Either way, heading back to school may not have been on the top of my priority list, but it's been slowly creeping into the back of my mind over the past year or so. The S.O. is officially starting a Master's program (yay him!), and a few of our friends are well into MBA programs of their own. I'm not quite sure what I would study if and when I begin back into upper education, but I do know that I have a lot of interest in a lot of areas. I find myself reading a lot of articles and websites just to stay current in a few of them.

As a result, this site grabbed my attention via a Twitter friend today - the key word being FREE!

Open Culture - The best free cultural and educational media on the web

How neat! In my free time (har har who even has that??), I can head to these iTunes and YouTube lessons to learn more about things like ...

Philosophy in Film and Other Media iTunes – YouTube – Web Site – Irving Singer, MIT
History of New York City: A Social History - iTunesYouTubeWeb Site – Daniel Walkowitz, NYU
Journalistic EthicsYouTube – Jim Newton, UCLA
Modern Poetry - YouTube – iTunes – Download Course – Langdon Hammer, Yale
Ancient Wisdom and Modern Love - iTunes VideoWeb Video – Prof. David O’Connor, Notre Dame
iPhone Application Development (Winter 2010)iTunes – Stanford
Human HappinessiTunes – Dacher Keltner, UC Berkeley
Entrepreneurship and Business PlanningiTunesFeed – Mark Juliano, Carnegie Mellon


Are you a lifetime student, just looking to learn for fun? Or are you/will you be exploring upper education more seriously with an advanced degree? Either way, do any of the classes on that site peak your interest, too?

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4 comments:

Jana A said...

I've pondered going back to school (with my handy dandy horticulture degree) and doing something with counseling. But then I think, "But jana, you'll have to study and when do you think you'll do that?" So uh, no. I'll continue to just be a sounding board for anybody who needs to bend an ear. And not get paid for it. *sigh*

Joyce Bone said...

You should definitely do it Kat. It's fun in a weird, sick, twisted way. lol. I am the oldest in my class but that's cool, I can actually add real world experience to the conversation. Plus the connections you make are amazing. You won't regret doing it but you might regret not doing it!

Joyce Bone
Aging MBA student
COM (Chief Operating Mom)

Unknown said...

Jana - me too with the studying ... though I think it's worth it in the end for the $ ;)

Unknown said...

Joyce - you are definitely an inspiration! It was so great to meet you IRL this month. Best of luck finishing out those courses!!