Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Back to being BUSY!!!!

Well, I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday. I completely finished all revisions to my research proposal and incorporated comments from my committee chairman. It looks like I will be registering for MY LAST CLASS at Embry Riddle in January! I also received the application for graduation form from my advisor, so I am well on track to graduate with my first Master's in May 2008!!

So in the meantime, I have been thinking..WHAT NEXT!? Well, I have been looking at some other graduate schools and am currently eyeballing University of Southern California's Masters in Biomedical Engineering and University of Washington's Masters in Aerospace Engineering. They offer both degrees through a distance learning network and that seemed to have worked out very well for my current Masters. I'm still not decided on what degree track I want to pursue, but I have at least until next February to completely decide. Since I haven't taken the GRE yet, I scheduled it yesterday for March 1, 2008.

So...I will currently be working on studying for the GRE, my final research for graduation, getting SCUBA certified, AND working on my resume for the Astronaut Candidate Program!!

I will also be doing some school presentations in January for Ridley Park High School and Merion Elementary School in Pennsylvania.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

If you have questions about UW's Aeronautics & Astronautics program, just ask. I'm doing the distance learning thing even though I'm local because the class times are inconvenient for me.

Anonymous said...

How did you get into Graduate School without taking the GRE? I thought that was a requirement for all technical degrees. Just Curious.

marcozambi said...

Hei!
Have you found a method to extend daytime to 72 hrs? :D
Keep goin' Damaris!
Greetings from Italy.
Marco

Damaris Sarria Toepel said...

nicole, I may give you a call. I didn't know you were doing that program! We'll chat soon.

Anonymous, Some schools don't require the GRE in their departments. For the specific distance learning program that I enrolled in at Embry Riddle, they did not require the GRE to be taken, but the degree is still from an accredited university. But now the schools I am looking into for an engineering masters do require the test scores.

Marco, thank you. You're the best.

Anonymous said...

You are looking at both a Biomedical and Aerospace Engineering degree. These degrees are vastly different. Have you chosen them for an interest in the subject matter or for the convenience of distance learning? As a former Biomedical Student, I question the distance learning, as I was in my advisors office everyday getting guidance on my neural surgical navigation system project for my dissertation. Best of luck to you I am sure you can do it.

Anonymous said...

As a Husky, I would recommend the UW. I would also recommend that you go there, not take classes online. A large part of the learning experience is the interaction that you have with your classmates and Professors.

Too bad Boeing is not still headquartered in Seattle. They might have been able to work out some sort of work/school program for you. It would be good PR for them!

Good luck! Further education, no matter how it is achieved, is always valuable.

Dr. Jerry

Anonymous said...

I never even knew you could get degree's like that distance ed! WOW, news to me. I may be giving them a look myself but I agree about the importance of class time, it is just that life does not always work out just how we want it, so we do the best we can. Keep it up, I believe you can do it as well!

Anonymous said...

Hey I was just about to add a sectiopn to my website simular to this, i'm 16 and want to be an astronaut. and an entrepreneur as well. my website is www.ronaldarichardson.com, I wanna share some ideas to you about a spaceship that doesn't need a rocket and can still get out of the earth's atmosphere. Please let's ping blogs I wanna talk, it's an honor to speak to someone who is soon to be an astronaut!