Need honest ADVICE/OPINIONS

[english79]

I'm so torn! I was accepted into the Penn State Workforce Education & Development PhD program, I deferred my admission because I wasn't financially or mentally prepared to begin my doctoral work. I currently have a position at a university in NJ that will pay for my degree, if I get a degree from here. The only thing is that the PhD programs at my University don't seem very appealing & i'd have to re-take the GRE's and i'm not happy about that part. I'm about 4 hours from University Park, I used to work there & I really miss it. If I got full funding for PSU that would be great but I don't want to go back to being broke like when I was working for PSU. I'm 30, no kids & i'm the main support for my disabled parent and she supports my choice to go back to PSU but it'll be tough on her to relocate with me. Financially, i'm not struggling but i'm not living it up either.

My questions to you are:

If you were me, would you just suck it up & continue to work?

Would you attend PSU part-time, take weekend & online classes?(I'd have to deal with out of state tuition...ugh)

Are there any other things that I should be considering?

Please feel free to PM me!

THanks

English

[joro]

For me, I always put my parents before myself so I would make my decision based off that.

[kent shakespeare]

f I were you, I'd make it clear that you need full funding to go to Penn. Otherwise, I'd stay at your school and do your PhD there. It might not be optimal or even exciting, but it seems to meet your financial needs - and your mom's.

[english79]

Just wanted to post an update. I had surgery on 3/1, while in the hospital I got a call. The dept Chair telling me that I got full academic funding(tuition, Assistantship, stipend and insurance), i'd have to take out loans to supplement my income. I'm so happy that I could flip, the only downside is that the stipend is only about 15k per year and my Doctor said that I should go part time in the fall or wait until spring/fall 2011 to begin. He thinks that if I wait he'd be able to provide me with better care over the next couple of months. I'm hoping that my dept will understand this but again decisions. decisions. Any thoughts on how I should approach this situation?

[joro]

Just email asking if you could defer enrollment for a semester or year.