January 26, 2007

Hello! My name is Melissa!

Hello!  My name is Melissa Wheatley.  As you can see, I am not your  
traditional college student.  I began my college career right out of  
high school and finished my first two years.  After that I took time  
off to have my family and chose to stay home with my four children  
until my youngest was old enough to attend the Childcare Center at IU  
Southeast.  This gave me time also to grow and to figure out what I  
wanted to do with my life!

After 12 years of baby talk, bottles, diapers, and little  
socialization I jumped back in with both feet when I decided to come  
back to college in 2004.  I became actively involved on campus and  
have worked very hard to overcome a mediocre GPA from my first  
attempt at college.  I am working so hard because I want to get into  
a PhD program in Clinical Neuropsychology that only allows 5 students  
in per year out of a few hundred applicants.  Talk about a daunting  
task!!!!

In order to build my resume for graduate school since I had nothing  
other than “mommy” for my resume I became actively involved on  
campus.  I am the President of the Psi Chi National Honor’s Society  
at IU Southeast, I have served as a student leader at new student  
orientations for the past two years, I serve on the Orientation  
Coordinating Committee, I serve on the Intersnhip Advisory Board, I  
am now doing marketing (radio spots, blogs, etc) for IU Southeast, I  
have worked as a research assistant on campus to Dr Wille for the  
past two years, I have presented psychological research at 3 national  
conferences (including the American Psychological Association  
national conference in New Orleans last summer), I’ve done an  
internship at St Elizabeth’s Regional Maternity Center, and I’ve done  
an internship in a developmental neuropsychology lab at U of L.

Whew!!  I am about worn out!  I’m now a senior and the spring  
semester is my last before graduation.  So far all of the hard work  
seems to have paid off though.  Graduate school applications aren’t  
even due yet and I’ve been on interviews at Vanderbilt University in  
Nashville, Tennessee, and at University of Louisville.  These next  
several months are going to be so nerve wracking to say the least!!!  
I won’t find anything out until February or March during which if I’m  
lucky I will be called back for interviews with admissions committee  
members.  Then we are talking about waiting an additional month after  
that for final word on acceptance, then I will be faced with  
uprooting my children from their friends and schools, selling my  
house, and my husband transferring his job…oy!  It should be  
interesting and I’m so happy to be able to share my experience with  
all of you!

Maybe I can make it through better by using this forum to vent about  
my last semester of classes and also the anxieties of graduate school  
acceptance not to mention dealing with four children who REALLY don’t  
like the idea of moving!