January 28, 2022 marked my one year anniversary of paying off my student loans . Reflecting back on choosing to pay off my student loans leaves me with several take a ways that I want to share with you! In September 2020 I decided to become debt free by utilizing the debt snowball method to pay off all my debt. Before this I had struggled to save and really understand basic financial principles. As a first-generation college student, I received a scholarship to attend undergrad for free, but the scholarship did not cover summers. During the summers I took out student loans to cover costs without paying interest rates or how much I was taking out. By the end of undergrad I had amassed a little under $17K. Fast forward to graduate school I received another scholarship that covered my education. At the time I was a teacher in a new very expensive city and I had missed the cutoff to have my paycheck last me throughout the summer. So, I decided to take out a loan for two summers to keep
Spring semester is trucking away, and I just realized
that I didn’t tell you what courses I’m taking! As a second-year doctoral
student in higher education this semester has been very busy. You all know that
I typically take two courses since this is what my university covers, and I am
very happy that I decided to drop my third course before the semester started. The
amount of work that I have had to complete with the two courses that I am
enrolled in would not have been sustainable if I would have added a third
course. Remember guys slow and steady wins the race!
Figure 1: This a thumbnail for my latest YouTube video “What Courses Am I Taking?” where I am holding my Issues in Higher Education book with a surprised look on my face.
This semester my two courses are Issues in Higher
Education and Writing a Literature Review. My Issues in Higher Education course
points out the challenges in higher education today. I typically focus on student
loan debt crisis but there is so much more that we don’t talk about. I will
most definitely talk about things like the time it takes to graduate, minority
graduation rates, and how graduate students are not trained to be teachers.
Figure 2: This is a photo of the Higher Education in America book by Derek Bok.
My Writing a Literature Review course is a lot guys. My first assignment was a bibliographic paper where I listed 26 articles related to my current topic of students on the spectrum in higher education. Each article required several components like related books and the type of research that was down. Currently I am reading through the literature review of four different dissertations and analyzing them to see where they excelled and where they missed the mark. This class already has me dreading my actual literature review!
Figure 3: This is a photo of someone typing on a keyboard.
What courses are you taking this semester? How’s your
semester going so far? Drop down in the comments and let me know! Don’t forget
to head over to my YouTube channel to check out my lates video and sign up for
my email subscription list so you can be the first to know when I send out any
information!
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