What I've Learned So Far in Grad School

[sanantone]

Thank you, corpsole2, for this inspiring share. Sometimes it's easy to forget that within this community of extraordinary education "hackers" exists the potential to change trajectories as you have. I'm inspired and grateful for the reminder.

I want to say something, as well, about HES. I recommended HES to my niece who had not performed to her potential in college. She took the opportunity at Harvard Extwnsion School seriously, working and living with her parents, saving everything for a year and moving to Boston. It's a different way than we generally consider here but it was a phenomenal opportunity. Through her Biology program she did stem cell research and ultimately assisted in running a lab for one of the top researchers in that field. She also ran for and was elected to the Harvard graduate student government along with students from the Business, Law and Medical schools because Extension is one of the grad schools. And finally, upon graduation she got the kind of job that would never have considered her before all these experiences and accomplishments so while it's not the way many of us can or will use our Big Three degrees, it IS possible and, just like this thread about a world-class experience at Hopkins, it's achievable... not for everyone, but for some.

I think young people should definitely take advantage of family support when they have it. People who have family support are very fortunate. Some people either don't have living parents or don't have the option to live with their parents. I fell into the latter category and later into the former. Fortunately for my younger sister, she was able to live with me while she went to a traditional public university, saved a lot on rent, and didn't have much debt upon graduation. I had to be the breadwinner and support both of us on less than $24,000 per year along with the little bit of money she made from her part-time job, but I'm glad that I was able to give my younger sister that opportunity.  

Unfortunately, I now make a whole lot more than she does even though I earned my bachelor's and master's online at Podunk State Universities, but things don't always turn out as planned.