Considering goals automatically brings you to a consideration of contexts, or the situation/s in which you’re working toward your goals and your degree.  Most students have at least three contexts in which they are pursuing a degree: personal, professional, and academic.

Personal Contexts

What, personally, has motivated you to pursue a degree at this point in time?

• Do you want to complete a degree for personal fulfillment, perhaps completing something you started long ago, when the time was not right?
• Do you want to be an example for your children?
• Do you want to pursue a topic of personal interest?

Professional Contexts

If you intend to use your degree professionally, are you pursuing the degree because you

• notice that only co-workers with degrees are getting promotions?
• feel you need a degree in order to keep your current job?
• are interested in some particular aspect of your job and want to know more about it?
• want to change professions and/or move in a different direction within your current profession?
• are planning for a career in retirement?

Academic Contexts

What are your study interests?

• Do you want to pursue an associate or bachelor’s degree?
• Do you have a particular academic field of interest?
• Is your academic interest related to a personal or professional goal?
• If you had the luxury of not being pragmatic about pursuing a degree and could study anything at all, what would it be?

Articulating the contexts in which you’re pursuing a degree may help you make decisions about the contents and focus of your degree.

The choices you make for your degree depend on the context as well as your goals. You could make very different course choices depending on personal, professional, and/or academic contexts. Consider all relevant contexts, and consider how these contexts might impact your choices.