Stuck in my career.
Why I chose to go back to school for My PhD.
I never wanted my Doctorate degree.
Growing up I was never that person who said they wanted to go for their PhD. It was engrained in me that I would go for my Bachelors, that I had no choice in. But I never wanted to go beyond undergrad school; I was always that person who said I am done with school after my Bachelors. I had gone straight to undergrad after HS and it was exhausting. I really thought I would be able to use my degree and start my career but that turned out to not be the case. It was not that I had a degree I could not use but that no one would give me the chance to gain experience. I wanted my career so badly I decided to go back for my master’s to hopefully gain some notice and break into my field. If you can’t do go back to school.
Then I thought my master’s would be it for me. It did get me into my field but then about three years into my career I felt completely stuck. I could not go move up or anywhere in the field beyond my current position and to me that just was not enough. I had to find a way to move forward in my career.
Deciding to look into Doctorate programs.
Looking into a doctorate program I felt was the best chance I had to move forward in my career. It was scary because It had been three years since I had finished my masters. I was not sure If I would get into any school or even do well if I did. I thought it does not hurt to see what the options are and go from there.
I thought to get into a PhD program you need a 4.0 in undergrad and your master’s program. I was a good student, but I was an A and B student, not straight A. I did graduate from my master’s program with a 3.6 GPA and was hopeful that maybe that and my work in the field would set me apart enough to be accepted into a program. In doing my research I was surprised that majority of the programs wanted a person with a 3.5 or higher. I even saw a few programs that would accept someone with a 3.0. This was shocking and encouraging to me; it made me hopeful I could get into a good school and maybe do well in it.
The next step: application.
To me this was a huge deal and at the time I wanted to stay in the field I was in, applied behavior analysis. It made sense to only get a PhD in that then. There are not many schools that have this in a PhD that was online. My alma mater masters program was starting their own PhD in ABA program in 2018 but this unbeknownst to me.
I ended up applying for only one school. I figured if I do not get in then this field is not for me and ill look into other PhD programs; it never occurred to me to research a second masters for some reason.
Being Accepted
When I got the phone call, I was accepted I yelled in the middle of the gym because I was working out. It was funny, but I did not care because I was that excited. It was probably good I was there because my adrenaline was through the roof from being so excited. Then I called my parents and text everyone I knew. It was a day ill never forget. Being in this school completely changed my career for the better. Applying for this program was the best decision I could have made. If I can do it anyone can do it.
