I got my Master’s degree in Computer Science in May of 2007. Luke was born about three weeks after graduation. Liam was born fourteen and a half months after that. Liam is nearly a year old now, and it’s time to go back to school and get my PhD.
I had planned on taking it easy the first semester and just taking one class. However, I was asked to teach a class, which comes with a partial tuition waiver, so I’m going to take advantage of that. I’ll be taking Dr. Rice’s Computer Audio course, ENGR596, as well as an independent study course. I’m not sure what the independent study course will be just yet, but hopefully it’ll help me decide on a topic for my dissertation.
The class I’m teaching is CSci103, which I have always described as the “this is a mouse” course. In the past I’ve always taught courses for sophomore or higher Computer Science majors with a few MIS majors thrown in (CSci223 twice and CSci323 once). They tend to take the class somewhat seriously. This time I’ll be teaching mostly freshmen, most with “non-demanding” majors. It will certainly be different.
In addition to teaching a class and taking two classes, I’ll be studying for comprehensive exams (to be taken in a year or so) as well as researching and trying to get published so I can get hired as a professor when I’m finished. It’s fair to say my hobbies and my family will be neglected to some degree.
When will I be finished? I’m going to say four years, which will have me graduating in the Spring of 2013. I could finish a little sooner (or a lot later), but I think that’s a realistic timeframe if I keep on task.