I follow Kristine Kathryn Rusch online as a “working author”. While I have read some of her books, as well as those by her husband, Dean Wesley Smith, I am far more interested in her nonfiction posts about a career in the writing business, emerging themes, etc. One thing I really enjoy about her blog and feeds is that, in her 60s, she is taking courses at the university for fun. Not because she needs a degree, but rather as a commitment to lifelong learning and a desire to learn about specific topics.

So, with some possible WFA options for retirement, including up to $17K in tuition for formal education, I’ve been wondering whether to take some courses if that is the retirement/separation route I take from my current job.

Do I need a formal education option?

I have a mixed view of formal educational institutions ever since I finished my Master’s. As a quick recap, I did my four-year undergrad at Trent University in Administration and Policy Studies — the equivalent of a commerce degree, with political studies and economics thrown in. Then I went to the University of Victoria for a year of law school, followed by a law co-op and a semester of public administration courses, and then a public administration co-op in Ottawa that has never ended! I did 8m co-op, formally, and then I just…stayed.

I eventually took some courses at Carleton, then some more, and then finished my Master’s in the School of Public Policy and Administration in 2004.

If you’re doing the math, I took my first grad courses in ’91 and finished my actual and different degree in ’04. A thirteen-year program to get a Master’s. I regularly joked that it was the “tenure track” equivalent of being a professional student. I also told Ph.D. friends that if I ever talked about doing a doctorate, I was to be shot immediately.

Yet as I was finishing up my Master’s, I had a small niggly thought about law. I started my law degree in ’91, an LL.B. now J.D. in Canada, and while I promised myself I would finish my public administration degree, I did feel a bit of a twinge of something in not finishing my law degree. Not regret exactly, as I don’t regret not becoming a lawyer nor even of not finishing law school. More that I felt that I missed out on some learning related to law itself. I briefly considered maybe finishing my law degree part-time, if I could, or maybe a separate Master’s in legal studies or something equivalent. But I chose “no” relatively quickly. Primarily, I didn’t need the degree. And I was tired too.

But over the next ten years, that “itch” changed somewhat, evolved if you will. I realized that it was not just that I didn’t need the credential. I also didn’t need the full school infrastructure just to learn. I did two courses through Coursera, including a pretty interesting one about the nature of games. Another was about meta-literacy. I could have done either one or both as a formal course with tuition and credit, but it was just learning for me, and free curation of the material was readily available. There are 1000s of courses on Coursera and elsewhere, plus options like The Great Courses. I’m slowly doing a psych course, and have worked through parts of a photography course. It’s hard to stay committed to them when working full-time and other parts of life intervene, but that’s more about time management than a failure of the material/course.

Yet, even though I don’t NEED a formal degree program, if I were given free tuition for some courses, maybe I might do something formal?

Creative writing options

Obviously, from my posts, I intend to write a lot in my retirement. An obvious option might be an MFA program with a focus on creative writing. There are about 8 MFA programs and 6 MA programs that are decently ranked in Canada. The downside, however, for most MFAs is a residency requirement. Of the 14 programs I found, 11 assume that you’ll be on campus full-time, most are 1-2 years, and none are in Ottawa.

UBC lists their residency component as optional, 2 years long, with a cost of about $1900 per term/5700 per year. King’s College and Dalhousie University have an online option with a low-residency requirement, also 2 years, and a cost of about $9400 per year

The UBC distance education MFA is focused specifically on creative writing. It is 36 credits in total, with 24 credits for creative writing coursework, another 6 credits for electives or coursework, and a thesis worth 6 credits. Most of the courses are 3 credits each, so basically easier to view it as 10 courses (8 in program and up to 2 electives) plus a thesis counting as a double-course. The courses include poetry (I like it more when it is treated as lyrics, not poems per se); new media (might be okay); writing for children (not high on my list); creative non-fiction (yes and no); drama for screen (yes); fiction (yes!); television (yes); speculative fiction (sure); career support (meh, not really what I’m looking for from them); and teaching creative writing (?). It’s not bad, and online is attractive. For distance, they charge per credit, not per term, which means more expensive and I have up to 5 years (probably $2100 per course); unfortunately, if the $$ is from my education support measures upon leaving the government, I would have to do it in two years. The final thesis details are a bit scant in places, but it seems to be a full-length product (easy peasy).

King’s College in Halifax has a two-year program, much of it online with two annual “residencies” — online (January for six days) and in person (June for nine days). The MFA for KC is a more guided mentorship with one class in a semester on structure and fiction plus mentoring, then another class in the next term plus the mentoring, etc. Everybody follows the same curriculum with a goal to writing a book, as opposed to the UBC “multiple types of writing” approach.

Oh, wait, the Dalhousie one? It’s offered jointly with King’s College. Same program. Oops.

I was curious, though…are there any BFA programs? Well, yes, there are. But none are offered as online only, and most are offered more as adjuncts to other programs (as minors, for example).

Now, I **could** consider doing something purely online as an MFA from other universities in the US, but the tuition money from my retirement would not apply to those institutions, so that’s out.

What about courses just at Algonquin?

The college is only a few blocks from my house, so I went through their course catalogue to see what interests me. Whether online or in person, it would be relatively easy to do.

In their Advanced Technology faculty, they have a 1-year program in AI software development, but I suspect that I would find it too structured for me. That’s hard to describe, but I mean that the college’s curated approach would not likely match the parts of AI that interest me. Possible, but not a high-demand option. They have options for computer programming, with some stuff that is both mobile and web-linked, but honestly, I feel like I’d rather just learn on my own online. There are tons of materials available, and I could pick and choose what interests me. I have two apps that I want to build, and they’re on my to do list for “sometime”. But again, not sure I would want to do 1-2 years online learning programming (one of them includes COBOL????) or two years doing mobile application design and development. Their web development and internet app courses are a bit more flexible and offered online.

They have a Creative Media and Communications faculty too, which includes a very simple creative writing program. It’s offered online and part-time, but basically is a simple set of five to six courses in total. Could be fun, although I don’t know that I would get much out of it. They have a much more rigorous Film and Media Production program, 42 weeks on campus…I don’t know if I would enjoy all of it, but well, there ARE some interesting elements. They also have a Social Media program, online, part-time, and heavily focused on marketing. Not really my jam. But that could be the point.

I confess I was surprised to find anything of interest to me under the Culinary, Hospitality and Tourism faculty. But there it was…baking and pastry arts! A one-year hands-on program. I don’t care too much about the pastry learning, but a year of baking? Hmm…although, sure, I could do a lot of baking on my own with recipe books and YouTube channels.

I am really disappointed though with the Public Safety and Legal Studies faculty. I was sure that they had a “private investigators” option that I was interested in. I read about it a few years ago. If they did have it, it’s gone now. The only thing available is Police Foundations, which could help my writing career. But it’s full-time, online, and has a LOT of courses that do not interest me at all.

My feeling is that if I’m looking at various college courses, there are other ones in Ontario (and elsewhere), many are offered online, and my search might have been a bit narrow to start only with Algonquin.

The weird side of Algonquin, though, was that they also have their “general education electives”. A few years ago, they culled some public offerings that were pushed annually, sort of “Adult Learning” for fun. But there is still a long list that is offered on the website as courses you can take along with your regular program. Or all on their own. If I weed the list down, here are the ones that surprised me:

• Theme 1: Arts in Society
  • GED5005 Greek Mythology
  • GEN1957 Science Fiction
• Theme 2: Civic Life
  • GED2200 Free Speech and the Challenge of Social Media
  • GED5301 Death, Dying, and Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID)
• Theme 3: Social and Cultural Understanding
  • GED5006 World Religions
• Theme 4: Personal Understanding
  • FIN2300 Introduction to Personal Finance
• Theme 5: Science and Technology
  • GED5003 The Science of Play
  • AST2000 Introduction to Astronomy
• Degree Breadth electives
  • PSY2100 Introductory Psychology
  • ENL4016 World Literature
  • ENL4100 Creative Writing
  • ENL4200 New Worlds and Alternative Realities: Speculative Fiction
  • PHY4000 Black Holes, Big Bangs, and the Cosmos

So where does that leave me?

I still need to pursue more info on the PI side of things, as I’d love to learn some of the skills to aid in my writing. Plus, I have done NO searching into photography programs. And maybe I should look into online legal studies or even physics. Hmm…I guess I’m not as far along as I thought. It’s good to have options.

What I really need is for the government to pay for me to learn how to kayak. 🙂