Loric

I'm pretty sure you can put both options on the FAFSA, so you can see how the money/aid is different between the two options as well.

So I was looking over the data for completion rates for masters degrees. Within the "optimal" timeframe, only 41% of students have graduated with the degree they were seeking. That optimal timeframe is the 2 years of the avg program. At 4 years out - double the time - it looks a little better at 66% completion, but that still leaves 1/3 of applicants/accepted students as having shelled out a serious amount of time, money, stress, etc.. for what turned out to be a fruitless pursuit. For the record, this data refers to STEM program masters students.. apparently MBA's have a nicer 86% completion rate at 4 years. I suppose the question is, are 1/3 of the student body just making a mistake by entering grad school at all? I've posed the "Why not just get a job?" question before on these forums.. with unenthusiastic results... but the study found: The factor most likely to lead to the inability of a student to earn a master’s degree was interference from employment, cited by 40 percent of respondents. When asked about their future plans, 62 percent of students who had stopped out or dropped out of their programs said they intended to continue working in their current jobs. Just something I've been mulling over lately and thought was worth discussing.

Completion rate in STEM fields is only 66% So wanting out or wanting to change is not out of the norm.

I kindly request, that for the sake of other posters, you do not post in any other forum in which English is the primary mode of communication, because you have insistently shown a lack of knowledge and understanding of the English language. Your incorrect interpretation of the language and wrong use of terminology could lead others to believe that is how the English language is meant to be used and put these incorrect and false uses into their applications - which would certainly hurt them in their chances of acceptance at any school anywhere which uses the English language.

It's not a claim. Do you not understand english?

And i still don't agree - I didn't offer it as advice or tell anyone I was right and not to be questioned. You have fabricated this idea that people could be hurt in their applications because you only want people who agree with you and parrot what you say to play in your sandbox. This thread was created with malice to try and exclude other posters from posting in "your" forum for entirely false reasons.

What advice did i give? Saying something a million times with no basis does not make it true.

So i said "i think" and made an honest statement and that's giving bad advice..?

Except that I studied epistemology and aesthetics under one of the biggest names in the field. You assume I'm wrong and know nothing because you want me to be wrong. You have no basis for believing that other than it being what you WANT to believe.

If I did something wrong, you can find and cite the text and post. I did not give bad advice. You are asking me to stop doing something I did not do. This is unfair.

I am being accused of doing something I didn't do. This is patently unfair.

Cite an exact example. You are making things up to fit your opinion.

Long story short: You don't want to hear anyone else's opinion if it's not an echo chamber telling you that you're right all the time always. You are asking others on the forum to respect that insane demand. You are claiming "bad advice" is being given but can state ZERO instances where bad advice was given. You're made up a false statement to try and win your petty right to ignorance by claiming to be doing the right thing. Your behavior is ridiculous.

You aren't accepted anywhere - so neither are you "qualified." I have been admitted to a graduate program - multiple in fact. You have not. So you have no right to sit there and say I have no clue about academia while you claim to know everything, as someone who has not been admitted anywhere ever.

And for the record, I have been told by people in philosophy on this forum that its a lottery and there's nothing an applicant can really do to overcome the total chance aspect of the process. Hence, we can't change the outcome. And -I- have been the one telling them it's a bad approach and that they should try hard and that the people who get admitted have the best applications and qualifications. Just so we're clear on what I did or did not say.

Which i never gave, thank you very much. I asked questions and disagreed with their opinions on a few matters but never "gave" any advice. "They" said that most people who apply wont get in, and so my retort is "so what does it matter if the advice is bad?" It's a valid question. I think most of the advice they are giving themselves (as not admitted people, thus they dont know the best route) is bad in the first place. They just want no one else to play with their ball, so now they're asking you to take it away from the other kids so they can take it home.

Exactly what bad information did i give? All i ever said was that i felt the WS was overrated in the rank of the overall application and that "fit" is important (and people in philosophy agreed.)

I already clarified, but that's what they said about the matter - it's not something I came up with.

Again.. but why does it matter? Most of you aren't getting in anywhere anyways.(to clarify, that's been stated by people in philosophy on these forums, i didnt just throw it out there as an insult.)

The reason I didn't apply for more schools is because there's one school with the program I want to be in. Theatrical design was a "make do" substitute analog for the area I actually wanted to go into. The program I want into didn't even begin until a few years after I quit my original MFA. So if other schools were offering it, I'd be applying. They don't and I know I was unhappy in theatrical design trying to kludge together the knowledge/training I need for the industry.

That's where I am today. The mental state where getting accepted and going to the school I want to attend just doesn't seem plausible. I haven't been rejected - as far as I know - but I'm mentally defeated. I had issues getting my application in due to transcript problems, my transcript has problems (grades for a semester i never attended!), and I was never a "great" student in the first place. For god know's what reason I applied for Spring 2014, probably because I didn't realize how admissions typically work being out of school for so long. It's rolling admissions, so there's a shot, but now I have, what? Three months to pack up and relocate assuming I get a decision soon? I'll be lucky to get in, never mind funding. How can I figure out how to pay for everything in 3 months? I'm having issues paying for a minor out-patient surgery I've been putting off since November. And I've kept tabs on people in my intended field/realm who went into this newly formed program. When you do a "which one of these is not like the others" line up with me against the group.. I'm the odd man out. My background, experience, etc.. is totally different. I come from theater, design, and a literary background. They're all graphic and fine artists. I'm kind of amazed I fought as hard as I did to get the application in and completed to a level that it isn't a "bad" application. My portfolio is the best it could be (I think) and my SOP is.. not perfect.. but it's readable, entertaining/interesting, and clearly spells out what I want to do and why I think i'm qualified. I tried to write about how being different will be a good thing and how I'd add to the classroom by offering a new perspective and experience. Now I'm having my doubts that is even true, and instead I'd just be seen as the crazy person because I have a different perspective. Lord knows that's the sort of response I typically get in life for it. My first time in grad school, in an MFA theater design program, I had this terrible experience... I was giving a presentation on a design and my professor stopped me and said curtly "What...?" and I was confused.. and I repeated what I had said about drawing on the constraints of neoplasticism for my design. And she said, again, "What are you talking about..?" and the whole class was just sort of staring at me. I stumbled over the word, "Neo..plast..sti..cism...?" "We don't use -isms here!" she scoffed at me and threw her precision bob back in this way that let you know it was over, beyond argument or appeal. I stood there, lights on me and my little model of my design.. and fidgeted a bit, trying to think of ways to describe a piece based almost entirely on neoplasticism without using the term itself or even alluding to the fundamentals of the movement. That's when the proscenium on the front of my model fell off, because I had been up all night working on the set model and the glue hadn't dried properly in time. I was mortified. "You know, when I was at Yale working with Ming, we'd sometimes see the student work from Harvard.. and they'd have these sad little sloppily constructed model boxes for their sets..." She picked the piece of my box up off the floor and tossed it on the desk. "..and we'd laugh. Obviously they just weren't doing something right over there. They... just didn't get it." And with that my critique was over, and I even knew it back then, so was my career at that school. So I've not had the best luck, so to speak, with coming in from an outside viewpoint and blending in. I know my ideas for the industry I want to go into are sort of radical and uncommon.. but I think they can be progressive and important in the big scheme. I'm just stuck here telling myself not to dream too far though. I know I shouldn't and I should instead fight for what I believe in with every ounce of what I can give, but it just doesn't seem practical or plausible. Like I should have backup plans on top of backup plans for when the inevitable occurs. Either I don't get in, or I get in and end up screwed or trying to hash out funding. I'm really not sure which would be worse.

Every time I scroll past the title of this thread my guy reaction is to reply: "Get over it." As said, it's not a big deal.

Your behavior is beyond the pale.

Step 1: Realize most people can't actually write, even academics. Step 2: Accept the realization of Step 1. No, really, most people can't write. If you measure the success of the written word in the ability to convey an idea between two parties.. they have failed. Step 3: Black Sharpie. Cross out gobble-gook that people use because they think it's how educated folks speak. You can even write on the top REDACTED for fun. Step 4: Take dozen or so remaining words and phrases from the 27-pages of single spaced full-justification text and stitch them together however logical. This is actually what's important. Step 5 (optional) : Send the author a tersely worded letter about their abuse of the language.

Anyone willing to abuse language to such a severe degree is not entitled to any say on the matter.