Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Master of Arts in History: Complete

Well, after 3 years, I've finally completed my part-time pursuit of a Master of Arts in History. As I noted before, my MA Thesis is complete. Since that post, I successfully passed (with distinction) my 1 hour, Comprehensive oral exam (3 Professors vs. me) on American History. As a non-traditional student, I took a truly non-traditional approach. I majored in American History and minored in Medieval History and was allowed to write my thesis on a Medieval topic. I think that--because I wasn't as "boxed in" as many typical graduate students--I was able to convince the program director to follow this course. The fact that I also took a couple supplementary American classes also helped. So, in a sense, I had a double major of American and Medieval History. Most of all, I had fun. I'll graduate magna cum laude in May with an MA in American History, an ability to translate Latin and as a member of Phi Alpha Theta. OK, enough self-congratulation, but this is a long way from where I started my college career (with markedly less inspiring academic results--let's just say I survived)! Someday I hope to go for a PhD, but with two young children and a full-time career as an engineer, that'll simply have to wait. Meanwhile, I'll keep doing scholarly work and work toward publication. And I'll also keep blogging.

8 comments:

Marc said...

Thanks Sharon!!!

Anonymous said...

Hurrah! That sounds like a fantastic course of study ....

Caleb McDaniel said...

Congrats!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Marc.

Kevin said...

Congratulations! I also finished my M.A. last spring by going part time over a 3-year period while teaching full time. I know how it feels so enjoy it.

Marc said...

Thanks again, everyone.

Nathanael said...

Congratulations! I am impressed that you can balance so many activities.

Marc said...

Thanks Nathanael, though often the balance has been a bit too much on the history and not enough on the family (at least according to my kids!) However, I did manage to inspire my 5 year old enough to state that she knew exactly what history was..."It's the place that Rudolph went". Now that I can do things at my own pace, the balancing act is much easier. (Mostly because I sleep less.)