Like A Mad Woman

This weekend we had our master's comprehensive exam. I can't say anything about the exam until it is completed and turned in (tomorrow) because it is not allowed. Let me say, though, it has been hard work! I spent Friday and the entire weekend reading and writing. There were probably less than five instances where I actually got up! I ordered pizza, and bought all the snacks I could ever want. Luckily, my husband went to Vermont to go skiing and I had some serious alone time with all my books and articles! It is hard to believe that comps are (pretty much) under my belt now! The program is flying by. I am connecting with people and applying to jobs. It is so exciting to not know where I will be in a couple months. Right now, I am connecting with admissions professionals to learn as much as I can before entering a full-time position in May.

We have two web chats this week that I am putting together so that you can chat with current students! One is our speed chat for students coming directly from undergrad. and it will run from 12:30 - 1:30 pm EST. RSVP here! The other is the "New to Philly" web chat for all of you that are considering moving here! It will run Thursday, the 1st from 7 - 8 EST.RSVP here!

After comps are done, I want to do something fun with the cohort! ooh, and since I will have a little more time I should do another assistantship profile.

Also-my best friend is getting married on March 23rd and I just found out last week! She was my maid of honor last August, and I am hers. I felt so awful about taking time off of work and school to go to Seattle, but as Alyssa (my supervisor) said, sometimes life has to come first. Admissions is always busy and no matter what time of year I wanted to do anything it would interrupt with something. After she said that, I felt better about everything. I look forward to seeing my best friend get married!

 The love statue was rainbow instead of red this morning! I LOVE it!

Assistantship Profile Numero Deux & More

Assistantship Profiles Continue!

I hope you liked hearing about Danny's assistantship last week. I enjoyed putting it together and must admit that I am a little over-eager to share the second assistantship profile. This one is with Meryem. She's a full time master's student in the higher education program who attended Messiah College, graduated in 2010, worked in admissions there and then came here to Penn to be a full time student in the Higher Education master's program! Her assistantship is at the Graduate Student Center! She plans orientations for students across the different graduate schools at Penn. She also staffs the desk at the Graduate Student Center, one of the most important resources for Penn graduate students! It is a study and social hub for graduate students with free coffee, a lot of online resources and, --well, now I should defer to the expert, Meryem!

 

In Other News . . .

I also want to let everyone know that we are having an accepted students web chat. It is themed around career changers and students with families, but all are welcome. The chat will run 8 - 9 pm (EST) on Thursday February 23rd. Please join us! I will be there! :) RSVP here.

Are You Telling Me That You Built a Time Machine... Out of a DeLorean?

Lindsey is a pop culture whiz kid. She knows everything there is to know about actors, their awards and she comes with all the best movie recommendations. I, on the other hand, know very little about movies. I tend to find a favorite film (Forrest Gump by  a long shot) and watch it several times rather than branching out. After all, a bad movie is two hours (sometimes more) of your life that you never get back. I don't want to risk wasting time on a bad film. Naturally, Lindsey became highly upset when I admitted I had never seen Back to the Future.

Our shared office space at admissions is pretty small, so I knew I had to see the movie. So, yesterday night I got a copy and watched the movie with my husband. It was a great movie. It is a snapshot of the very edge of creative storytelling circa 1985! Time travel! Fascinating! I won't spoil the story, but I will say that beyond not being a waste of time it is actually a really good film. I have heard mixed things about its sequels though.

My idea now is to go to the movies, to keep up so that in the future I am not seen as pop-culturally deficient! A couple weeks ago, I saw A Dangerous Method at Ritz 5 in the Old City neighborhood. From where I live, it is pretty easy to get out that way. I just have to walk up to Market, hop on the subway for about 5-6 minutes, hop off and walk a couple blocks. From what I can tell, a lot of the movie theaters in Philadelphia are on the east side of the city. There are at least three over there.

There is one by campus as well, but it is a little pricier than the ones on the other side of town. I absolutely love watching movies at home though. it makes me feel like I am getting good use out of the TV I bought at Best Buy when I moved out here.

Next time, I will have to watch another film that Lindsey is upset with me about. Only this time, it is going to be difficult. it is a musical, Newsies, and that is not my style!

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Questions. I have been getting a lot of really great questions in my email from admitted students. Please keep them coming and know that I am happy to share my experiences and answer questions. I certainly do not know the answer to all the questions I get, but Ioften know how to find someone who does! If you have any questions, email me at rbenson@gse.upenn.edu or drop me a line in the comment box below.

Also, I have officially started the job search. I think it might be a tad early, but I have applied to a few positions so keep your fingers crossed!

What I am Up To Lately

Before we start, I just want to let you know that February is the last month of the Alumni Interview Program.  If you're a prospective masters student and are interested in an alumni interview, fill out the request form and submit your application and we'll try to match you with an alum for an interview.  All your materials must be in by the end of the month to be considered.  The alumni interview component of the application is optional, not all interview requests can be accommodated and applicants will not be disadvantaged for not  requesting or receiving an interview.

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Enrollment!

Enrollment management is my favorite class! Last week, we read an article about small private colleges in Iowa and how their enrollment professionals are managing the declining number of high school students in the Midwest. Some of the colleges have under 1,000 students now, when ideally, they would like to have more than twice that. The article is here if you are interested in taking a look.

Declining numbers of students in the Midwest present a serious challenge to small, religiously affiliated colleges in rural environments with small endowments. A few bad years could run them into the ground. In class, we talked about some possible enrollment management strategies for a college in this precarious position and people in class came up with some pretty interesting solutions. Some said the colleges should perhaps look at merging with other college(s) that share a common value system or mission. Another student said that the colleges should develop exchange programs where students at other colleges in the country could study the re for a semester or vice versa. I thought that the colleges might want to penetrate a new geographic area with more population growth potential. It is tricky business to develop an enrollment strategy when resources are scace and the future is less certain then it has been for some of these colleges. A lot of people would not enjoy working under the pressure and anxiety of these circumstances. but, during the discussion, I realized that I would like to work in a place where there were real challenges like there are at these colleges in Iowa.

Out on the Town

I did not have a lot of time this weekend because I opted to do one of my courses in a weekend format - it is only three weekends a semester, but it takes up 16 hours of my weekend on the weekends in which classes are held. This weekend, we focused on negotiation and persuasion. We learned a lot about our own most comfortable styles for both negotiating and persuading. Some of what I learned was not surprising, but other parts were quite a shock and will be pretty useful moving forward. There are 5 negotiation styles and 6 persuasion channels! 

My negotiation style is collaborating with compromising coming in as a close second. The other styles are competing, avoiding and accommodating. My persuasion style relies heavily on data and rational reasoning, with vision and relationships coming in a tie for second place. I do not rely on authority, politics or incentives as much as some other people do. In learning these things about myself, and perhaps more importantly learning that everyone varies in their dominant style of negotiation and persuasion helped me to see what approaches might be more effective in specific contexts. All in all, the class was really useful and fun!

On Saturday night the cohort met up for dinner at La Chacala Feliz in the Fairmount neighborhood. I skipped the dinner part as I wanted to relax after class, but I met up with the cohort for the after dinner festivities part. We started at Chirsta's house, where we socialized for a bit. Then, we walked out to the Urban Spoon! Then, we got to dancing. I don't know if you know this about me, but you probably should: I am one of the first to get on the dance floor, and before you judge, it has nothing to do with inebriated. Dancing is something I enjoy thoroughly. It was a great time!

This week, I am swamped, so I don’t think I will go out even though I have a pretty open weekend. What I will do instead is study for comprehensive exams, which are coming up the last weekend in February!

Assistantship profile number 2 is filmed! I just need to edit!