Hello! Welcome to my blog. I've never done a blog before, so this is a whole new experience for me.

I'm a doctoral student in the School of Social Work at UMB, and I'm in the process of completing my final three classes (2 this semester and 1 next semester) while also narrowing down my dissertation topic. Normally a doc student takes 6 core classes the first year, 2 research classes and 4 electives the second year, and then 1 more elective and dissertation credits after that. However, I did my first year at a difference school and transferred to UMB for my second year. So, to make a long story short, that means I ended up doing my electives my first year at the other school, my core classes during my second year (which was my first year at UMB), and now I'm finishing the required second year UMB research classes even though I'm technically a third year student. That doesn't make sense to a lot of people, but it's working out, so that's what counts.

I'm very much enjoying my time at UMB, and I have no regrets whatsoever about transferring. I have to drive at least 2 1/2 hours to get here (longer depending on traffic), but honestly, I would drive twice as far if I had to just to come here. (And I don't like to drive, so that says a lot!) I'm from Lancaster County, PA, so it's quite a culture shock to leave my house in the morning where I see farms and horse-and-buggies out my window and come to downtown Baltimore. However, I quickly learned how I need to present myself when walking in Baltimore and when I take the light rail (public transportation) in Baltimore as compared to when I'm in Lancaster County, and I've gotten used to it.

Thank you for reading my first blog. I will soon post again and give more information about my classes and the life of an adult student. Ann :)