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I have several thoughts on this which I have been incubating for some time, but I hesitated to say anything before because you seemed so sure you could handle what you were setting yourself up to do. So anyway: I think trying to do two courses at once is too much to take on. I recognise that the Open University one can be manipulated to fit in with a job or other full-time occupation, but I think that only works when you have enough headspace to manage your work and your intellectual studies. If you are doing two academic courses I would be concerned that you will damage your full-time MA by trying to keep up with the other one (not to mention extraneous demands on your time like, er, spending hours reading X Men threads on Barbelith... ad just relaxing); and, since you're after a PhD, the full-time one is more important. I can't see why you'd need an MA in Eng Lit to go into teaching after your doctorate anyway... My advice would be to scrap the Open University one, to be honest. I can totally see and respect your desire to keep learning (and it must be frustrating being stuck in the period of time before you can really get going on it) but do be aware that you could burn yourself out and end up not achieving your primary goal (i.e. the doctorate), or not doing as well as you hope - and as you seem to be a high achiever I think that would be a very hard knock for you. If you need to work to support yourself then obviously that's another thing to take into consideration: as an academic historian said to me when I was in the process of applying, you will need to devote about 60% of your time to your MA, and to be able to support yourself you need to devote about 60% of your time to a job... these are things to bear in mind (and something I have been thinking about as the horrors of ARHB funding prey on my enfeebled brane).
What I'm saying is, don't overload yourself in the desire to make yourself better.
As to living independently: I would be very wary of moving away from your primary support network at a time when you're going to be under a great deal of stress (however enjoyable) anyway. After all - what use is independence if you're lonely and miserable and ill? And, you know, it's obvious from your posts on the board how much you love your dogs, and that kind of thing can be a great prop in times of duress. So I'd be inclined to suggest that you stay at home for a while and see how you go. Incidentally, I don't think there's anything scary about living with your parents at the age of 22/3. You're bound to make acquaintances and friends through your course and your department, I think, and living at home is no bar to that.
But what you really need to do is figure out what your priorities are and go for the top ones, chop the others things out as necessary and don't try and do everything at once - it would be awful if you set yourself unrealistic targets and then ended up blaming yourself for not meeting them - and it's a very easy thing to do. So be careful... |
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] and between 3 and 5 [again, I find ‘4’ a useful label 