Ashly Brady

I’d like to preface this with, I’m a firm believer that college is NOT necessary and there is nothing wrong with choosing a different route. I fully support someone deciding college isn’t for them. College is not for everyone and there are so many other ways for people to achieve their goals without a college degree. With that being said college is what made since for me.

My college experience was a little different than, the “traditional” college experience. I started off at Chemeketa Community College, where I got my transfer degree (a general education assoicates degree). While attending Chemeketa I played basketball, worked a part-time job, and lived in my very first apartment with roommates.

I was forturante enough to get my first two years of college paid for through a basketball scholarship and the Oregon Promise; a grant that covered tutition for in-state students attending a Oregon Community College. Despite having school paid for I did have to take out federal student loans to afford housing because Salem was too far to commute from Portland everyday and working part time was not enough to cover my living expenses. I wasn’t too mad about taking out the loan because it was only $7,000 for the two years, which is cheap compared to how much some schools cost for just one year alone.

During my first week at Chemeketa we were required as student athletes to meet with our academic advisor to create a two year plan, they also encouraged students going for a general education degree to pick an area of focus so they could take classes that would count towards their 4 year degree, if that was something they wanted to pursue afterwards.

At the time I had my eyes set on athletic training/sports medicine. To ensure I’d set myself up for success when I moved on to a 4 year college, the goal was to take as many science classes as I could, while at Chemeketa. The first science class I took was a chemistry class. Well, I learned very quickly, my study habits lacked and I was not grasping the concepts at all. Something I’ve always had a hard time with is memorizing and alot of science class require memorizing information. I ended up getting a poor but passing grade and decided to hold off on science classes until the following school year. At this time I was also loading up on sociology and psychology classes because I was enjoy them and found human behavior interesting.

Fast forward to the fall of my second year, I signed up to take a human anatomy series. I was a bit nervous as I knew, that despite my enjoyment for science, when it came down to studying it, it was not in my relm of things I was good at. I tried to pump myself up and approach studying differently but again it wasn’t working so I powered through the class the best I could and ended up with a D, which again is poor but passing. I wasn’t sure if it was going to affect my eligibility to play or not, thankfully it didn’t but I was on academic probation for the next term. Academic probation sounds scary but really it’s just a warning and you’re required to do more study hours.

Once I realized science classes were not my jam, I decided I should probably rethink what I wanted to get my bachelors in. Since the social science classes were the classes I were succeeding in and really enjoyed, I decided I’d look into psychology. Being a psychologist or therapist was something I consider after doing some research since I enjoy helping and understanding others, so that’s what I decided to focus on. I said goodbye to science and hello to social science.

Going into my last term at Chemeketa, I had all online classes and so did my roommate. We both were already visiting our homes as much as we could throughout the school year, that we decided to break our lease a couple months early. It was nice to finish up school while not having to worry about as much bills. I was able to work full time because basketball no longer took up most of my days and with the exception of deadlines, all my classes were on my own time.

Once I graduated with my associates, I applied to Portland State University and start in the fall following my last term at Chemeketa. I was succeeding in my classes and manging the school, work, life balance pretty well. However, that didn’t last for the winter and spring terms that year. Over winter break I lost my oldest brother due to complications with his diabetes. The grief of losing my brother was mentally draining and I went through the motions at school, which caused my GPA to drop once again. It didn’t drop significantly but it still wasn’t ideal that my GPA lowered. I had thought about taking summer classes to help get my GPA back up but decided it would be best to give myself a break and wait until the fall . During all this comotion, I had also made the decision to move to Arizona and was all moved in to my apartment by the end of summer before my second year at PSU started.

While I was in Arizona, I made sure all my classes were online so I could still attend PSU and not have to transfer to a college in Arizona. It was far too expensive for me to transfer to a college in Arizona and I liked taking classes online. As I was getting closer to finishing my degree and starting to take the upper level classes, I realized it was nearly impossible to get into any online psychology class and I needed to take one more statistics class but they didn’t offer those online, only in person. I reached out to my academic advisor because I was concerned and she informed me that a psychology degree was not technically an online degree and it would be challening for me to complete my degree while being fully online since classes always filled up and I didn’t have prioity class registration. I was a little defeated but I decided to take a look at the list of online majors I could take. I found social science which is as close as I was going to get and I didn’t need anymore math classes. I switched my major as quick as I could and I ended up graduating on time like I planned. I got my degree in social science with a minor in psychology. Even though I did graduate on time, I had to do an extra term and ended up taking 20 credits so I could meet all the university graduation requirements.

Towards the end of my bachelors program, I realized I didn’t want to be a psychologist/therapist anymore. I felt the efforts to become a therapist wasn’t properly reflected in the compensation, money is not everything to me but being able to live a comfortable life is and I took that into consideration. So, back to google I went, in search of finding some inspiration towards a career path and that’s when I learned about industrial and organizational psychology (IOP). I found understanding human behavior in the workplace and how to improve workspaces for employees to improve overall productvity to be interesting and had a desire to learn more about it. My desire to learn more about IOP influenced me to seek a masters degree in psychology with an emphasis in IOP, which is what I am currently working towards.

There were a couple of schools that offered a masters in IOP but I had narrowed it down to two school and did a lot of comparison between the two. I ended up going with Grand Canyon University (GCU) because I liked their program, it was affordable, and the GRE wasn’t required.

I waited until I moved back home last summer to start my degree. I also had just started my first big girl job the same time and what I failed to realize was how mentally exhausting my job was and how that would affect my ability to do well in my classes. I’m half way through the program now and did not do well in two of my classes (didn’t fail but got C’s). My motivation for school had gone down and I was turning assignments in late. My teachers were pleased with my work but couldn’t give me full credit because I failed to be timely, which is completely fair. I know in undergraduate they tell you C’s get degrees but they don’t get master degrees. When you are in a masters programn you have to maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher and I dropped just below that with those two C’s. As a result I was forced to take a 15 week break from my program. I worked with my academic advisor to come up with a plan and I was reinstated. I’ll be able to return to my program at the end of September.

Although being put on suspension was not ideal for me and I struggled with it for a bit, I am actaully thankful for this forced break. This break has shown me I need to improve my time management and find a better balance between all the different parts of my life. It has also shown me that I need to change up my study habits and not rely so much on my old bad habits of procrasination and half ass reading. Being able to have a summer break has been good for me too and allowed me to have a reset before getting back into my program. I am projected to finish by summer of next year, which I can’t wait for.

As you can see my college journey has been anything but traditional or easy and I’ve had highs and lows throughout. I am not and will never be a top student in my classes and although I’ve struggled in some classes, been put on probation a few times or whatever I still always find my way to the finish line.

The college experience looks different for everyone and there is not one way to do it, trust the process and do what feels right for you. All of things I’ve faced throughout this journey have influenced the growth I see in myself today and I’m sure whatever journey you’re on will do the same for you.

Anywho I am ready to push through this last half of my program so I can be done and never have to attend college again!