Jennica & Matthew Geddert's Ramblings

Apr 16 A Tough Decision by Jennica

Our trip to Toronto has taken a surprising turn. We were here to do the final check on the top choice of the four schools that accepted me into their Ph.D. program, including (in the order I received acceptance letters) McMaster University in Hamilton (with money), University of Toronto in Toronto (probably with money), McGill Univeristy in Montreal (no money, but cheap tuition), and Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena (some money).

Much to our surprise, as we explored the city and the university, we realized that this wasn’t a good fit. It’s a very prestigious program and it would put me on a tenure track for my career, but our travels have given us some clarity about our priorities. We’re not positive that seven years of study followed by ten to fifteen years of slavish devotion to the pursuit of tenure is a price we want to pay for me to become a professor. Matthew would have to give up his permanent residency in the US for me to study here, and it is a very difficult thing to give up the ability to go home.

Meanwhile, we had thought, based on the financial pages of the Fuller website, that tuition there was out of our league. We recently discovered that the tuition is much lower than we had gathered from their website. The program is shorter, especially because I have to take a minimum level of credits to maintain my visa. Suddenly, Fuller became a viable option and the more we discussed it, the more clear the choice became. By the time we drove home from SueAnne’s wedding last Friday, the decision was made. We’re going to Pasadena, CA.

Matthew headed down to California immediately to start setting things up and job-hunting. I stuck around Toronto to visit my friends here and will visit California soon. I’ll head up to Calgary mid-May for a camping trip with Elissa and Grant and I will move down to Pasadena in late May for summer school.