Grad School and the Military: Guest Post by Dani

I want to welcome Dani to my blog today. When I first read her blog, we instantly bonded over the similarities of our school and dating situations. She works hard and has a great sense of humor about how crazy life can get sometimes and I am thrilled to have her here today! Please show her some love...

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Hello all! Mel was asking for guest bloggers, so I thought I would give it a try.  I’m Dani over at My Heart is in the Army, My Brain is in Grad School.  I’m a long time Army girlfriend and pursuing my clinical Doctorate in Audiology, yay for ears!  When Mel was asking for guest posts, I was at first a little nervous seeing as this would be my first one.  So I hope you enjoy.

I was going to start off this post by talking about graduate school and how wonderful of a life decision it is, but I’ll save that for a time when I’m not as bitter about my workload.  It’s also a whole additional level of stress to throw a military relationship into the mix.  Then on top of it, when it comes time to graduate and find a job there is that sneaky little piece of paper that complicates everything even more.

I’m talking about licensure.  In my field, I have to maintain a state license to practice and some states also require a separate hearing aid dispensing license.  In other fields you have to take and pass school certification if you are going to be working in the school in any capacity.  There are some states that offer reciprocity, but they are few and far between. 

With Mel going into law, she recently mentioned about taking and maintaining the bar in multiple states, which is very expensive to do.  While I don’t have it nearly as difficult as lawyers or some medical professions, I may still have as much as a 6-month dwell time between when I move to a new state and when I can finally practice there in addition to all the costs of reapplying.  I’m currently going through the process of where to apply for my license, so that is why this topic is on my mind.  There are some states with reciprocity agreements, but they only number in the teens.  Then wash, rinse, and repeat the whole process in another 3 years when you are reassigned.  If that reassignment happens to be overseas, that is an entirely different animal.

Many spouses/SOs talk about issues with the licenses and maintaining certification.  My question for those of you who have been through all this red tape is: why aren’t more states doing this?  Those of us in military relationships want to work and do the jobs we have spent so much time studying for, why not fill these positions?  And have any of you benefited from these reciprocity agreements?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and advice!