expressionista

I received an email that I was waitlisted for architecture almost exactly 1 month ago. It said they should have final decisions within 2 weeks, and I still haven't heard anything (nor has anyone else, from what I've found online).

I'm kind of in the same boat, although I don't have a job offer (yet). I'm currently an interior designer (but working a non-interior design job for the past year due to geography/family issues), and I've applied for architecture programs. I'm still waiting to hear from my two main ones (was rejected from the one I always knew I'd be rejected from), but I've started re-thinking how much I really want to go back to architecture. I'm free to move now, so I could get an interior design job and remain a designer, spending the next three years working, making money, and getting experience, or I could go to school and increase my debt for the next three years and then start out as an entry-level architect. It's a tough call. I think I'd RATHER be an architect, but I also like being an interior designer, and I don't know if the change is really worth the added expense and time (I'm already 30).

It looks like I may actually hear from 2 schools this week. One says they're sending out all admissions decisions by the end of this week, and the other one actually has an acceptance posted now on the results page (the first result posted for any of the 4 programs I applied to). This is making me even more anxious than I already was. It doesn't help that the one school I feel certain I won't get into is the one that's sending all decisions this week, and the other one is definitely the second most competitive of the four I applied to, so it's highly likely I'll end up with 2 rejections to start things out with. Based on last year's results, I may not hear from my other two (less competitive) programs until April.

Oh man, definitely March 13! May 13 would be horrible! I keep mixing up March and May (like, this is probably the 10th time I've done it in writing already this month). I think it's because I'm so ready for it to be May already.

One of the schools I applied to has said several times (on their website, in mass emails, in personal emails, etc.) that they will send admissions decisions by March 13, which is next Saturday, but they're also on spring break all week. Based on previous years' admissions results, it looks like they will actually stick to this deadline, so I guess that means someone is working this week.

I took pre-calculus a month or two before I took my GRE, and I found it helpful. I hadn't taken a math class in 12 years, so it was most helpful for me just to get back into the mode of like factoring equations, dealing with exponents, etc (all things I had done before, but just hadn't practiced in ages). I wouldn't have taken it just for the purpose of GRE prep, but it did help me with that.

My sister got around 1100 on her GRE and didn't get in to any programs the year she applied (I think she applied to 4 and was waitlisted at 1 and totally rejected at 3). She was a communication sciences and disorders majors with around a 3.0 gpa, and she had a year of graduate education classes with like a 3.9 gpa in those. While I think you could be fine with your score and GPA combo, Speech Language Pathology programs are really quite difficult to get into, so I do think the higher the better. Because it's a professional program, it's also not really the same as a lot of the programs people on this board apply to (phds, humanities, etc.) where "fit" and the statement of purpose are sooooo important.

I agree with most of what Medievalmaniac said about Raleigh, although I don't necessarily think it has a higher cost of living than Norfolk. Well, maybe compared to Norfolk it's high, but most people seem to think Raleigh's cost of living is very low (I see it on a lot of low cost of living lists). 3 years ago, I paid $585 a month for a nice one bedroom apartment. I could have paid less in an older development. I love Raleigh, and I've also applied to NCSU. It can be a very spread out area because it has grown so much in the past 30 years so the suburbs have really grown outward in all directions, but the NC State area is in the old part of the city ("inside the beltline"), which is more compact. I love all of the pretty trees in Raleigh (this sounds kind of silly, but they really do just have tons of beautiful trees there), and I really like its size- not as big as Atlanta or the DC area, but big enough to still have plenty of good restaurants and shopping. It's a great area for college and graduate students too because there are so many colleges and universities in the area. If you end up going to school there and/or have any more questions, feel free to send me a message.

I've never lived in Norfolk, only visited (several times though), so I'm totally not an expert and haven't seen everything it has to offer, but I'm personally not a big fan of it. I feel like the military presence is very strong, and in general, I just don't think it's a very pretty city. I like a few small neighborhoods or individual streets (places I think previous posters have mentioned), but I feel like the city overall has an industrial/military feel. I see you've been accepted to NCSU and are applying to UCSD- I've lived in both of those cities, and I like them both about five million times more than Norfolk. That being said, I still like Norfolk more than plenty of other cities too. No offense to Norfolk fans, but I just wanted to give my alternate opinion.

St. Elmo's Fire is actually set around Georgetown. I love that movie!

Some programs just don't do interviews, so no, this does not mean you're being rejected. Generally speaking, science programs tend to do interviews, but in the humanities, interviews are uncommon.

I don't consider Raleigh a pain to drive in at all. I've lived in Raleigh, southern California, and northern VA, and of those three, Raleigh is by faaaaar the easiest city to drive in (least traffic, easiest directions, etc.). I'd say the biggest issue with driving in Raleigh is that there is truly a disproportionate number of really bad drivers in that area. Also, no one uses their turn signal. It does have a good bus system, but it's also a sprawling southeastern city, so it wasn't exactly made for people without cars. If you went to NC State and lived near campus, you could get around fine on public transportation though.

Some of the negative ones annoy me while I find others perfectly understandable. I think it's just the tone being disappointment vs bitterness and entitlement. This is my favorite result today: Ball State University Proctology, PhD (F10) Accepted via E-mail on 11 Feb 2010 A 11 Feb 2010 Yay! Bottoms up!

My plan B is to stay at my current job for a few months while living with my parents (I'm currently in the process of selling my house so I don't have a mortgage holding me down) so I can save some money while searching like crazy for a new job that is actually in or related to my degree and interests. This would also help give me related experience if I decide to re-apply next year. I'd quite possibly end up moving to one of the more urban areas in VA or NC. That doesn't really thrill me because I love my current small town, but if it's necessary to get a better job, I'll definitely do it.

I know at a school where I just interviewed, if you're in state and receive an assistantship, they reduce your tuition by half. If you're out of state, they reduce you from out of state to full in state tuition. So the out-of-state student would still pay more than the in-state, but the in-state student's discount is actually smaller, which makes them cheaper to the university.