pea-jay

Destination unknown

I've apparently found myself on one of my prospective university's lecture series mail list. Not relevant to me considering I am more than 3000 miles away, buuuut I dont want to unsubscribe lest it look like I am not interested in the school...

Right wing

I wouldnt say planned out, but goals are nice. Don't want to close out opportunities. On the other hand there isnt any reason why I wouldnt be happy 20 years from now working in a totally unrelated profession so long as I got there by my own choice.

old man

All right so how does it work in my scenario? I am hoping to get a Masters in Public Administration, something essential for moving upward in my career and a guaranteed lift in income. I plan on working for 20 years or so before trying to get into a PHD program and teach (as an adjunct professor) at the university level. Will I have to redo a masters?

Free Parking

user fee

British humour. It's funny when I "get it" but sometimes it goes whizzing right over my head. Reminds me of the times when I was visiting Liverpool and went out drinking with a few local folks and a pair of Scotsmen. I had a great time but after the third pint I couldnt understand a f**king thing.

Red Dawn

Couple responses here: 1. The last time I checked ETS, the paper version of the GRE was being given in parts of China. 2. One testing outfit was offering to rent or sell a GRE test pacing watch. It is designed to give you the time PLUS an approximation of what question you should be on. It is CAT-sensitive and gives more time upfront. It may freak you out more or be useful for keeping you on task. Part of what led to my on the GRE was getting stuck on a problem for like five minutes and forgetting to pay attention to the clock.

Christmas Tree

I couldn't help but voting. Okay, so I am not a prospective PSCI grad student but it was my UG minor and has played a role in my employment and campaign work (I've worked 3 local govt campaigns now). I've seriously considered this program in the past but think I have a better shot in the MPA/MPP arena now.

CUNY is $125, $135 for the "convenience" of filing a portion of your app electronically. (the other part, including the check has to be mailed)

Republic Airways

Right! I spent at least 10 minutes on the first 6-8 questions to make ABSOLUTELY SURE they were right. And that was the key to success. Only worked on the verbal section tho.

A good attitude is always a great start. Your tone can come across in your SOP essay and positive is always for the best. In the grand scheme of things, take the GRE with a grain of salt as a measurement of your ability. True success on that test comes with rote memorization of rules, shortcuts you've never heard of before (or will use again) and a personality that functions well with high-stress fast paced environments. I took the GRE in 96 and 09, three practice tests and an online course in 2009 and my math score never went up or down more than 20 points. The verbal did improve. Princeton review did have some pretty cool and easily memorized rules to attack the verbal section. Even then, my increase was only 80 points. As writer, i'd focus more on the verbal anyway and say F*** worrying about the math. Besides, when you retake the test multiple times, your older scores are averaged, not thrown out.

coin slot

While I wouldn't have brought ADD up on the app by itself, I think it IS needed in this situation, especially if the OP's program has no timed/analytical portions similar to the GRE. The fact that the OP took the test on a few occasions and still got the same score requires some addressing. But not for everyone. I kept quiet on this despite scoring in the 25% percentile on the math (I just couldnt keep the rules straight despite weeks of practice). But I also had was applying to program that didnt stress this, I got As in my previous grad school math work and had a good grad GPA, excellent GRE verbal and work history to balance out. But to make it all work I wind up budgeting twice as much time as it should take to get things done and strive for zero distraction environments. I have total noise blocking headphones and a white-noise generator and wear them whether working at home or yes, even in the office. No one complains. One reason the verbal section went so well is ETS test center had noise blocking headphones available, no questions asked. I consider these things reasonable accomodations. It's also important to differentiate between programs and what they consider "Reasonable accommodations". Extra time on exams may be moot for a program that has no exams. It may be a deal killer on one that has time-sensitive lab work. ADD is a tricky thing. I generally don't consider it an ailment. It's just a differently operating brain that is unfortunately not well suited for certain environments. I've learned what those are and how to deal with them or avoid them. I chose a line of study that I know fits into my style of learning and recognize as interesting other professions might be, they are utterly poor fits for the way my brain works. You need to find your niche and if you have, explain why you, your learning style and what you have to offer are a good match for their program. Applying to schools that place a lower ranking on the GRE is also a help. Good luck

Whether it's looking at those full gloss university brochures or observing the student body mix first hand, I sometimes get the feeling that some balancing *has* to be going on, even if it is unofficial, unwritten or even unconscious. There is no way the gender/ethnicity/nationality of the applicant pool matches the ultimate student body for some of these programs. Not saying it's bad or good, just yet another thing to contend with.

My wife is practically counting down till when we can leave here. She'd leave for NYC *NOW* if given the chance. It's my kids that I'm more concerned about. Although they've lived in small towns for their entire lives, we frequently go to large cities like SF, Chicago, DC or NYC.

West Hollywood

Until I blocked all MafiaWars updates, I would get annoyed at that application's use of "THEIR" instead of the obviously set gender value that 99.99% of facebook users have correctly set. I mean how hard would it be to code a HIS or HER mafia based on the fb user profile. As for this forum, statistically speaking more Grad School applicants are female, so I kinda presume those unset gender profiles with gender-neutral ID's would be female. Not that any of this matters on an online forum. I could have set my age back to 24, found an attractive girl's picture and created the user account Vixxxen and most of you would not be the wiser.

That's exactly the way I did it. Found a local affiliate of a national company and had them do a quote. It was quick and professional. Their reputation checked out so we hired them. They were early on both the pick up (a small problem) and drop off times (not a problem) and their movers were professionals and didnt break anything. Best experience and sooo worth the $100 bucks more than the do-it-yourself U-Haul price I got.