Ashford University

Tomorrow I officially start at Ashford University. It is about one hundred years old, starting as a Catholic girls school in Iowa, it is now a typical little-known University. Wisely, the jumped on the wagon of doing online education, and are in competition with large online schools like Phoenix, and Kaplan, although much cheaper.

I was hoping to finish my Bachelor's Degree before I had children, yet with one year to go I had Avilynne. Of course, I prefer Avilynne to a piece of paper which said I went to school, I sorely have still wanted to finish it. I often try to figure out my motives, which I believe is a large mix of things. American culture says its wise to get a degree, yet as I don't currently need one (and won't likely in the future), and its anything but convenient at this point of my life, it is very hard to justify. As to not go into a long monologue of why I am still pursuing my degree, I'll just leave it at that I am still pursuing it. I know I will regret it in life if I do not continue to try doing so. And in doing so, I have gained much respect for the women (and even men) who go back to school and take up the challenge to complete a degree as an adult. I do not think everyone should, but I do respect those who go to the extreme work it is to do so at a later age in life, as there are so many more challenges to overcome.

A year ago I discovered Ashford after spending hours online researching and talking on the phone with a myriad of enrollment counselors from many a school. My main qualification was that they would have a degree I was actually interested in, at least in many ways similar to what I was studying at George Mason. That, and that they would accept pretty much all my credits, which would be a very rare find as I am a senior. It turned out that I would actually have to do less courses with Ashford than I would at GMU, and it would end up being cheaper and quicker (if I did it all at once). It will take me a little more than a year to complete my degree if I took a 6 week class regularly (about 8-12 hours of work a week). I don't plan on doing that, as my class schedule will be based upon how busy I am with my kids and everything else in life, as well as how much we can afford for me to take a class at a time. Even though I probably won't finish by next Spring, at least I actually might finish, and hopefully so within a few years, if not less! My degree has changed from a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology (concentrating on cultural and public anthro) to Bachelor of Art in Social Sciences (with a concentration in anthropology). Anyways, I am excited and I thought you'd all like to know.