Academic/Economic Decisions

So I know I've strayed away from the original topic of this blog - my graduate career - but that's the fragmented way I work. Get used to it. But today I return with an update.

While most of my friends have or are graduating with their Master's degrees and either getting promoted at work or moving on to PhD programs, I continue to struggle along to finish my damn thesis. No motivation other than just wanting it to be DONE! It looked like August was to be my golden month. Finally. I could apply to be an adjunct instructor at one or multiple of the schools in town and prepare for my PhD applications in the fall. Then Monday morning happened.

Working on my project, no big deal - really quite a simple and mundane one of the type they usually give new undergrads. The iPod was playing in my ears and time was passing quickly. Then #2 boss comes and asks me to go with her to #1 boss' office. Both wonderful people whom I chat with regularly, but I've never been summoned to see them both in a closed-office meeting before. My mind started reeling - what have I done? I swear, I only check Facebook on my breaks! Am I about to be laid off? They can't do that to a student appointment, can they? Especially one of their more experienced ones? Of course, that means I cost more money than undergrads and we are facing possible budget problems here... Am I conforming to the dress code today? Boss #1 doesn't like it when we wear sandals to work... The other student-workers watch warily as I walk away.

By this time we've arrived at Boss #1's office and have all taken our seats. I initiate the short social banter required, asking Boss #1 how his visiting lecture at a Midwestern university earlier this week had gone. Soon, though, the conversation transitions "well, Dirt Worshipper, we brought you in here today to offer you an opportunity.." Great, sounds like a pyramid scheme.

But no, as I listen to them lay out their plan, it slowly sinks in that I'm being offered a promotion! The catch - I'll be promoted, provided I delay graduation until December so that I can still work on a student appointment. Oh crap. Not again. A full 3 1/2 years to complete a freakin' master's? So I delay graduation. Giving me a few extra months to work on my thesis, therefore hopefully not making my life a hellish existence as this summer was lining up to be. In return, I get a promotion in rank, almost 5 extra dollars an hour, quicker accumulation of leave, new job title, and completely new duties to learn. (Unfortunately, my new job would be to learn and cover the duties of a dearly-loved co-worker who is undergoing cancer treatment.) The new position is open-ended, expected to continue to September, but possibly extended depending on when said co-worker is able to return. I am given a week to decide, but they want to know ASAP.

Crap. Can I swallow my pride and delay graduation AGAIN? When I might have actually made it this time? If I accept, I'm being promoted without a degree when my friend/co-workers had to complete their degrees before being promoted to the same level? Is this going to cause bad blood? Can I handle the increased work hours that this will require?

On the otherhand, I wasn't looking forward to being unemployed in three and a half months. Thanks to a paperwork snafu earlier in the spring, there was no possibility of my staying on past graduation. Then I would have had to look for a job. Even an adjunct position would have to be supplemented by other job(s) to make ends meet. This would be guaranteed employment at a living wage until December, covering a time when I'm going to have the costs of new GREs and those horrendously expensive application fees for potential new programs. And, now that someone had voiced doubt I would finish by August anyway, I began to wonder myself.

All this whirled through my head for two days. Then I thought crap. Is this really a decision at all?? Barring any reasonable and convincing objections from my advisor tommorow, take the money and run!