Off-Offer Snapshot

Greetings, readers! I’m Stephanie, and I just finished my first year in BGSU’s College Student Personnel program. I, an off-offer, work at Bluffton University in the charming village of Bluffton, OH about 40 miles south of Bowling Green, OH. According to BGSU terminology, being an off-offer means that you attend classes at BGSU while both living and working at a different university. Off-offer life real talk: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Ok, not the worst of times, but I’ve found that there are two sides to the off-offer experience, and I’d like to share those with you. Overall, though, this type of internship is definitely one of the more unique features of BGSU’s program, and it’s a valuable experience if you choose to take advantage of it.

When I began my master’s program search, I had just graduated from a small liberal arts university. I was fairly convinced that I wanted to join a small cohort so that I could find close friends as I did in undergrad. While I have been able to work with wonderful professionals and fantastic students at Bluffton, it has taken some extra work to develop relationships with my fellow cohort members. Taking summer classes with the off-offer cohort definitely helped us all get to know each other well, especially since some of us lived in Bowling Green and were able to explore it thoroughly during the summer. (I highly recommend this experience, by the way; semester classes seem like a breeze after intense summer classes, and nothing brings classmates closer together than sorting out all the student development theories at twice the normal speed!) This past year, I also made a conscious effort to attend cohort events, go out for dinner with my advising class, couchsurf with BGSU interns, and organize gatherings myself. Although it certainly does take some work, this has helped me slowly build the connections I wanted to find during my graduate school experience.

On the positive side, one of the most valuable things I gained from the off-offer experience relates to how I define myself as a professional and how I find my place on a campus. Because I’m so immersed in my working environment—and because I’m given so much autonomy in my position—I feel that I can truly perceive of myself as a young professional. While I schedule in time for studying during the week, I spend much of my time in my office, working around my residence halls, and functioning as an almost-full-time professional. Since I don’t take classes at Bluffton, my students don’t always realize that I myself am still in school. I think that has helped me cultivate my professional image and figure out where I fit into Bluffton’s culture. When I am at Bluffton, I focus on developing my professional identity and on improving my skills through applying classroom knowledge. When I go up to BGSU, I can step away from work for a day and focus on feeling like a student. I really believe that being an off-offer is a great way to get a jump start on your professional development.

A typical (ha!) week in the life of an off-offer might look somewhat like this.

Sunday: Relax, call your family/friends, try not to check your work email, and maybe attend a student org/RHA/Greek organization meeting. Glance over your planner to see whether major homework is due (got a few days left until class still, no worries yet). Good chance of having to respond to an incident or crisis (most of the off-offers have some sort of residence life component to their jobs…great for the resume, poor for the ‘ole sleep schedule).

Monday & Tuesday: Another busy work week! Meetings with supervisors, emails, meetings with students, meetings with student life staff, emails, meetings with your student staff, office hours, workshops, emails, possibly more crisis response. Maybe squeeze in some practicum hours, that extra student org advisor position you took on, a workout, an intramural game, time with your partner, or a TV show.

Wednesday: Repeat of Monday & Tuesday, except also realize that you have reading and/or a paper due tomorrow. Scramble to finish this. Inevitably get called to help manage an incident, or stumble upon a policy violation that you need to address.

Thursday: Class day. Time to see (and potentially vent to/cry with) other people who know exactly what you’re going through—yay! Sing along to musicals or listen to self-help books/trashy novels/NPR on the drive to class. Give yourself extra time to warm up your car in the winter (I always forgot about that extra step…no wonder I never got to class early). If you’re lucky, the semis and/or trains won’t hold up traffic too badly this morning. If you’ve been ignoring that pesky check engine light, this is the perfect day to take it to a mechanic after class (special shout out to Jason Seibert, owner of Seibert Automotive and Christy Lunceford’s partner—his mechanical skills and affordable prices have saved all of us many times!).

Friday: Finish up remaining office hours/practicum hours. Good chance of working until 5pm or later, despite impending weekend. If feeling really adventurous, head up to Bowling Green for a mixer, game night, or concert. If you’re on-call, or if this is one of the weekends when you program events, no such luck; you’re probably just excited at the chance to get to bed early.

Saturday: No official office hours…but never you worry, there are plenty of things to keep you busy. Recover from the week, do some homework, run errands, and fill up on gas so you’re not stranded on the way to BGSU next week. (Oh, and laundry! Laundry is very important. Except for the 3 weeks out of every month when it’s not.)

Sunday: Begin the cycle again. I always want a longer weekend, but then I remember every week just how wonderful my students, co-workers, and cohort members are.

Ultimately, this experience has been absolutely wonderful. The position offers me the chance to develop the skills I want, the university is a good fit for me, and my co-workers and students have made me feel right at home. Despite not having the cohort experience that I originally planned, I realize that ultimately graduate school should prepare me for my career—and the off-offer position does just that. If you’re a prospective student, I encourage you to explore this option and see whether an off-offer position could be a good fit for you! If you’d like to chat more about this experience, don’t hesitate to reach out! If you’re an on-onner/on-offer, please don’t be offended that off-offers usually have more allegiance to our internship universities than to BGSU, or that we can’t always stay around for social events J We love y’all! I hope that gives a helpful snapshot of the off-offer experience. Cheers! 

-Stephanie Baugh