I am a part-time student in MSPP’s Organizational Psychology & Leadership graduate program. The part-time program works really well for me with my full-time career and mobile, active lifestyle. I began in the program in August 2013 and anticipate graduating with a Master of Arts Degree in Organizational Psychology in August 2015.
Essentially, I have six weeks on, and six weeks off from class. Throughout the year I have six weeks to stay nose-to-the-grindstone in coursework, and six weeks to work on long-term projects toward achieving my MA (e.g. my capstone and field projects) at my own pace and as my schedule permits. During the weeks in which I am not enrolled in a class, I like to travel and find that I appreciate my time much more. This more relaxed part-time schedule allows me to feel that I am maintaining work-life balance. And that matters.
I offer the deepest respect to and applaud the many full-time students in my cohort who are nearing graduation after beginning coursework just this past August. They have worked extremely hard to achieve their Master’s degrees in one year, and this is a monumental accomplishment. MSPP holds its students to high standards and packs a great deal of rich learning material and experiences into its curriculum.
There are two different types of student status in this program purely (on-line or blended on-line and class) and two different types of scheduling (part-time or full-time). Whatever a student chooses, we are all able to connect via group projects, on-line office hours, discussion posts, and e-mail. I have found that each student has her/his unique perspective on how they make their selected status/schedule work and to what degree they are able to manage personal and family life.
I know me pretty well, and know that I would surely perish if I tried to take on this level of achievement in a one-year time span. Many students can and successfully have, however, and that is what is great about MSPP’s Organizational Psychology program. Dr. Gregory and his Org Psych program faculty offer students this opportunity to identify within themselves what they are capable of doing and to then apply to either the full-time or part-time program options. I believe this reflects a great deal of consideration and adult learning insight on these curriculum developers’ behalf; they create opportunities for anyone in any stage of adult learning to attain a graduate level education.
I would love to answer any questions you may have about completing graduate school while working a full-time job and simultaneously retaining some semblance of [self-diagnosed] sanity.
“I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.”
― Edgar Allan Poe
