Location – This wasn’t a huge part of the decision, but it was definitely something I thought about. I was already familiar with Elon from my undergrad search, so that took some of the edge off. Plus, my family is all originally from North Carolina, and we actually lived in a town not far from Elon when I was little. It wasn’t like I’d be coming to a brand new place.

Nature of the Program – This program is loaded with awesome material, cool people and great experiences. I really don’t know where else I could have gotten all of this, let alone in one place. And plus, a Master’s degree in 10 months? Can we say heck yes? It gets stressful at times–okay a lot of the time–because it’s the equivalent of a two-year graduate program squeezed into 10 months, but it’ll be worth it in May. After making it through seven, almost eight months, I can’t imagine doing this for two whole years.

FOMO – No lie, I went straight to grad school because I was afraid that if I didn’t, I’d never go back. It’s hard to pin point exactly which contributed to my decision the most, but this definitely had a lot to do with it. I’d heard that many companies will help pay for their employees’ graduate educations, and that almost convinced me to wait a couple of years. The fear of missing out is so real. And really, 10 months is basically like tacking on a fifth year, right? Surely I could manage that.