In the beginning

It's 5:19am on some random Saturday in August and tomorrow, I begin my official GMAT study for my graduate business degree. This is something I've procrastinated for years and I've had more than a few false starts. I received my A.S. in Accounting fro Westchester Community College in 1992 and, due to a case on fundsarelow, I was forced to pass on an accounting degree from Pace and made my way into the workplace. I went back to school at age 36 and received my B.A. in English/Creative Writing from SUNY New Paltz with a 3.64 GPA.

I had originally intended to take two years off before I hit grad school but I put it off semester after semester and went from an MBA to a Masters in Publishing and it looks like I'm back to MBA again. My false starts have led me to an ESD (estimated start date) of Spring 2013.

I went to the bookstores and hit the magazine racks which seem to always seem to have stacks of college magazines with titles such as 'Best Grad Schools,' 'Top Colleges,' and 'Grad School Guide.' I picked up a few and pretty much read them from cover to cover. A few tackled the subject of whether to go to grad school at all. With an economy that's in a perpetual stumble, the time and money spent of advanced degrees can be invested better elsewhere.

I got past the fear of not getting enough out of grad school as I have way to many friends who have are doing quite well. Then I had to reason my way past the online line vs in class degree. On my way to see my brother's family in Massachusetts, I pass and endless slue of billboard with claims of me getting me a degree in one year, online, and without leaving the couch.

The Phoenix online commercials are intriguing and I researched online programs which don't seem to carry weigh with employers. And getting a degree online is like my friends who post on Facebook things like 'having a great time at the Superbowl' which makes me know they're not, because if they were, they wouldn't be on their phone.

With the help of the grad school magazines, the Graduate School Guide, friends, the internet, and a map, I formed a list of schools that could work for me. They were, but were not limited to: NYU, Fordham, Marist, Pace, Suny New Paltz, Cornell, Yale, UConn, Baruch, BU, UMass, IE, Princeton, and Rutgers. I eliminated schools that were not easily accessible and were all about the online.

I had a soft spot for SUNY New Paltz, Rutgers, and NYU. My bachelors came from NP and my dad got his ungrad and grad from Rutgers and NYU respectively. Even though I work near the New Jersey border, Rutgers was geographically not accessible and cost prohibitive as it charges non-New Jersey residents a premium. My narrowed down list consisted of Pace, New Paltz, Marist, Fordham, and NYU.