This is a bit of old news, but for those of you that don't know, I was recently accepted to graduate school at The University of Edinburgh so I will be moving to Scotland come September 7th! I will be part of the MSc in Africa and International Development program which is a 1 year social/political science masters degree taking a critical look at development in Africa from social, cultural, historical, political, etc. perspectives. The course options are quite varied which will allow me to focus on exactly what I am interested in such as Southern Africa, gender and development, and development through emerging entrepreneurship. I will take a total of six courses over two semesters and then have the option of an internship in South Africa, Kenya or Scotland. I will write my dissertation next summer and then graduate (hopefully) in November 2013! I am currently busy preparing by working my way through the extensive pre-program reading list. Coming with my undergraduate degree in Accounting and being the number type person that I am, I am expecting this program to be a bit of a challenge, as it is clearly going to be reading and writing intensive. Even so, I am so excited to be studying topics that I am genuinely interested in and can't understand why I even studied something I wasn't interested in!
The University of Edinburgh was founded back in 1583 and the city itself is even older so I am excited to live and study in a place with so much history and beautiful old buildings. I have already signed up for university, flat style housing but haven't found out yet if I have gotten any of my top choices. With luck, I should be living within walking distance of campus though. The university was recently ranked one of the top twenty universities in the world and has quite a few notable alumni such Alexander Graham Bell and JK Rowling (author of Harry Potter series). While Rowling did end up homeless after school, she proved quite successful in the end so there is hope for me too!
