[Developer, Graduate School] 12. Graduation at Last!

Finally, my long 2-year graduate school life has come to an end!

The official graduation ceremony was scheduled for the 23rd, but since it was a weekday, some people couldn't attend. Thankfully, they held a simplified ceremony on a Saturday.

Initially, I started due to some insecurity about my educational background (?), but receiving my master's degree brought a sense of accomplishment – the feeling of achieving something in my life. The two years were filled with learning and effort, especially through networking with professionals from various industries.

Of course, the initial period was a bit disappointing because of the pandemic, which led to online classes and limited networking opportunities. However, from the second semester onwards, with the easing of restrictions, I was able to engage in networking through various events and enjoy meaningful moments.

Although I didn't write a full thesis, participating in academic conferences gave me a taste of what writing a short paper is like. I got a general sense of how it's done.

Initially, I was looking for a program that met the following criteria, mainly because I had to balance work and studies, so I ended up choosing Dankook University's Graduate School of Information Convergence Technology and Entrepreneurship.

• Saturday classes (so I could study without worrying about work)
• Affordable tuition (some graduate programs with Saturday classes exist, but their tuition is expensive… affordable programs usually have weekday classes…ㅜ)
  While the ability to graduate in four semesters was a plus, the 40% scholarship for Saturday classes (which effectively meant paying around 3 million won) was an incredibly attractive offer for a regular, livelihood-focused developer like me.

I'm just a newly graduated, novice master's degree holder (?), but I believe that this degree will open doors for me in the future. Though I've graduated, I plan to continue participating in departmental events and maintain strong connections with the people I've met.

I initially planned to write a more detailed post, but laziness got the better of me. Although I did manage to post updates intermittently, I'm incredibly proud and a little sad to finally conclude this chapter of my graduate school journey.

Ending with the same image I posted at the beginning...