red_crayons

I'm pretty sure I'll know about one of my programs next week, for better or worse. I'll update as appropriate (results search, etc) once I hear. I don't want to speak too soon, but I know there are other people waiting on this program, too...

Yes, absolutely. I forgot to mention that if you apply to medical school, the options are: medical school, move back in with parents and consider self a failure. You'll notice "government work", "industry" and "work in a different field" aren't on there. There as a lot of pressure to do things in a certain way at my undergrad.

While I agree with you personally, not everyone thinks this way. I mean, people pay to get an MFA. To them, paying off a debt for 10 or 30 years is worth a year spent with a really fabulous, famous author that they admire. That's totally their call, IMHO. Also, someone who goes into lots of debt attending grad school is probably still going to make cultural or scientific contributions to their field, university, and society. There are lots of reasons for school, and for debt. It's not always fair to judge, and it's not really my business to worry about how much another student is paying to go to school, either. It's an issue at the macro level if lots (millions) of people default on their student loans, yes, but that's a structural problem that is politically (at the national, state, university, and community levels) impossible to solve right now.

I told one boss when I was applying, and the other last week. I would leave the first job soon, anyway. It's not a great fit for me anymore, and I've developed other skills/connections that give me the option to leave. I told my supervisor at my other job because a. she is friends with one of my recommenders and b. she is also friends with the prof on the adcom who seems to be trying to get me in to one program. Soooo it would've been a huge violation of trust to keep it a secret much longer.

I would think that this story makes up for the score, especially in anthropology...?

Yes, probably. Or, it's like that at my very competitive undergrad, if you're in math or life sciences. The list goes: grad school, Teach for America, Peace Corps, Masters of Education.

"Can you rewrite your statement for xyz department? It was perfect for abc department - I loved it! - but you'll have a better chance at getting into the xyz pot of money. Can you get it to me by Monday?" I am buying this professor the most expensive bottle of wine I can find in this town if he gets me in to school here.

I keep dreaming that I get in, which makes me feel like my brain is mocking me. Rejection will be SO much worse after all these visions of acceptance.

I liked your post. The things they teach in b-school classes are useful, sometimes. That's why I also plan to apply to jobs in my area of interest, too. And lots of them, because it is competitive, so I have at least one or two other options to compare with grad school offers. What you said really doesn't apply to a lot of the humanities, though. But there are other reasons people go into the humanities that outweigh the financial possibilities.

True story. Thanks for bringing it up. One of the big plusses to the academic life, though, is that you have a lot more control over your time. I struggle with this immensely now that I'm working. Feeling trapped by other peoples' arbitrary ideas about when I need to be in the office leads to a lot of panic attacks and puts me in situations that lead to frequent physical illness (which then negatively impacts my work!). I would like to work 30 hours a week so that I could feel a little more in control of things, but you have to take what you can get these days. As an academic, if I'm feeling sick every morning from being pregnant, I don't have to be at my office at 9, if I plan things right. If I don't get a wink of sleep, I teach my 1 or 2 classes or go to a faculty meeting and go home to sleep. I move class to another day. I call up my colleagues to reschedule whatever nominally important project meeting I may have. I skip a conference when I get the flu, since I'm probably going for my own edification and the free booze anyway. I send my boyfriend to the library to get me a pile of books so I can do research for a paper at home (which I know I can do - studying while ill is my specialty!). It really comes down to the fact that in academia I probably won't have someone writing a bad review that gets me fired at the end of the year because I had a hard time sitting my butt in my chair every morning at 8:30 am. Of course, that can vary by school/program/discipline, but I think this is a fair assessment, generally speaking. There are expectations of end results in academia - teaching, publishing, presenting - and often long hours, but there is unparalleled freedom in how you allocate the time needed to reach those results. This is maybe something people who have stayed in academics since undergrad don't fully appreciate. I'm not trying to be smug, but I didn't realize that until about 2.5 years into working, when I finally had to make the jump from 30 to 40 hour workweeks. I jumped at the chance to work from 8-noon and then 4-8pm this semester because even though I am at work for almost 12 hours total, I can go to the gym and actually sit down for lunch in the middle. It's long, I'm getting paid the same amount, but I feel so much more positive because I have some freedom with my day! THAT is why having a baby during grad school is so incredibly appealing to me.

Yeah, I wonder about both of these things, too. More and more as time passes...

Where are you going with such low living expenses?!? If that's accurate, I'm jealous. I spend $60+ on medications (mostly OTC) and cleaning supplies alone per month, which seem to be necessities, and that's almost 1/10 of your total budgeted expenses. Can't imagine what it would be like to live on that amount! Not to be a Debbie Downer... I am genuinely curious to hear how/where/if that can work!

Yeah... We'll be in touch, I'm sure. How cool would it be if we both got in?!? I would love to know someone in that area already. I really want to find out about acceptances so I can start obsessing over the city info threads, and give my $0.02 on where I'm living now to people who may be coming here next year. I like this place, and even if I don't get to stay, I want to help other people have a good experience here!

I haven't posted here yet, and I probably should. I'm applying to science journalism/communications/writing Master's programs. And, science and technology studies PhD program at a school I already know well, where the department is closely linked to the communications department, and some of the faculty stress community involvement and actual on-the-ground public communication of science as a necessary part of graduate student life. I was a biology major, with a minor in French and a second almost-minor in linguistics. I like talking and thinking about science more than doing it, so this seems like a logical move. As far as what I want to write about, that's a long story. Food and agriculture, mostly. I grew up in a community of organic farmers. I worked in a lab researching organic cultural techniques. I DON'T like Michael Pollan-style organic advocacy, because he's perpetuating the "supermarket pastoral" myth that he villainizes in his writing. But it's important that someone's gotten the media and public to pay attention to non-"conventional" agriculture. I'm interested in trying to be more honest to the public about how the research process affects what people know about food, the relationship between food and health, and how people market these things. I'd like to drive home the idea that correlation does not equal causation when it comes to health, but that's so tricky, it's a tough distinction for most people... My elevator speech.

Wow, good luck, guys. There are some sad stories here, and I really hope that things work out for the best for EVERYONE. I've been trying to figure out some health mysteries for the past 6-7 months. Some things have developed over the course of a few years, and while none of them are dire, together they're starting to impact my life. Of course, SOME of the impact is from spending way too much time going to doctors trying to pinpoint what's going on. A lot of the stress lately is coming from unhelpful doctors, trying out treatments, etc, that cause days of side effects and/or mood swings. I've made the decision this week to stop a lot of the doctor visits, at least until I know where I'll be next year. Knowing what school I'll be at will give me an idea of what insurance coverage I'll have and what my money situation will be, which will help me decide what kind of medical treatment makes sense. It will also give me more time to do things I KNOW make me feel better, both physically and emotionally. This pales in comparison to what some people are dealing with, so again: good luck, all!!

Yeah, my boyfriend is pretty over it, too. Then he whines about how his favorite MFA blog is gone this year, and I get to laugh at him.

I applied to two programs at one school. It's really vague how it works. All I know is that the person I want to work with is in both, and we talked at length about why I'm applying to each department. The school has been totally silent on whether they even received my app (they have, which I know because of Certified Mail), let alone where it is. I'm just sort of hoping he'll get my application where it needs to go...?

I'm realizing as I read this that the disciplines that people come from are perhaps coloring their opinions. I was a biology major as an undergrad. I went to a school where professors told you that you could only use a life sciences degree to a. become a professor b. become a doctor or c. "go into industry" if you got really, REALLY desperate. Through various work experiences, I realized there are TONS of other opportunities to get stimulating and secure work with a life sciences PhD: working for the government (EPA, USDA, NRCS, defense), as an independent consultant, as a salaried science consultant for all kinds of businesses (banks, television studios, pest management, marketing firms, cosmetics), teaching informally (community agriculture, museums), working with grants MANAGEMENT (where you get to decide priorities for research at a level that COUNTS!!!), on and on. Or, you could get a law degree and work in environmental law. There are SO many options they don't tell you about at universities because they are (naturally, logically, with-good-intentions) trying to indoctrinate you into their way of life! For me, realizing all the things that are out there helped me decide to go to grad school. I realized that my particular undergrad advisor had a very narrow view of things; he practically invented his field and had a tenure-track job at a prestigious department when he was 23 or something. All he knew was how to be a professor. He discouraged me from grad school completely. In retrospect, I could have taken any kind of life sciences PhD and used it in such a way that I could have found employment outside of academia. Or, my advisor could have talked with me about the courses I was taking outside of science and helped me reach some of the conclusions I later reached on my own. I'm not bitter; I'm just imagining an alternate outcome. If, however, I was in the humanities, or possibly the social sciences, becoming a professor COULD have been my only option, if I wanted to use my graduate training in any substantial way. I see a lot of folks with "history" or "sociology" as their interests on this thread. In those fields, it's true that there are a lot of PhDs being given out and no jobs where they can be used. In those fields, it is TOTALLY foreseeable, and possibly appropriate (from a PRAGMATIC point of view), that professors discourage students from spending time, money and energy getting a degree which won't get them anywhere. Of course, the caveat to THAT is that some people just want to learn something cool. Getting a 5 year stipend to learn about history sounds great! If someone can pull that off - get in, go to classes, finish the dissertation - and not get caught up in expectations of getting a high paying job at the other end, GOOD FOR THEM! The moral of my (mid-conference, slightly tipsy) post is that we should keep in mind that the context can change the meaning of the particulars. Depending on your field and what you expect to gain from graduate education, it may or may not make sense for a professor to bring you down to earth, or to encourage you to do something which others might find silly.

I wonder if I'd want to go to a school where the professors advising me were more interested in a single numerical score than the research ideas I explain in my SOP/writing sample/personal conversations. That's how I feel about all grades, despite going to a very grade-conscious undergrad school. I learned a LOT in organic chem, despite getting a C. It helped me get a lot of As in upper level biology courses with average effort, while the people who aced chem by cramming were still cramming their way through biochem a year later. However, I know scores and grades matter to a lot of people, and that's fine. I'm not super duper ambitious and aiming to be a star academic (although I'll go that route if it presents itself!), AND I'm probably too cynical for my own good...

Professors gossip. I've overheard adcom conversations in public hallways this month, which was a bit disconcerting. Professors I never met before said things like, "so and so told me about you; you have quite a reputation!" to me when I was a student. Some people are responsible and private, and some talk a lot, and that's kind of how it is.

There are tons of grad couples who came to this university together where I work. They MUST be doing this. People gossip about it all the time. In fact, someone in a program I applied to is married to someone at the same university that I took a class with last spring. There was a wink-wink when we talked about it last spring. Hell, if this school wants a faculty member or administrator, they'll sometimes create a position for their spouse, too. It causes controversy, but there's no sign that it's about to stop. Maybe this is particularly an issue in certain schools, though. I don't know! My boyfriend's decisions will be coming out before mine. But, if he gets waitlisted somewhere that I get in, I plan to lobby hard for him to move up the list.

Finish it! You can do it! I hated my major as an undergrad so much that I put off the classes and was still doing 100-level courses as a senior! But even though I hated the subject at the time (and 4 years feels like FOREVER when you're 18), I've managed to reconcile with the experience. I've put my on-paper qualifications to use to get jobs and apply to graduate programs that I really AM passionate about. I second the "don't burn bridges" thing, too. I found a couple professors I DID really like and clung to them, and still send them emails once a semester. It's paid off: 3 years later, they're busting their butts writing me great, program specific (!!) letters of recommendation and acting as employment references. They knew I wasn't a fan of my major, but I focused on working with them and talking with them about my interests, as well honestly explaining my disappointment with my major. They valued the honesty, they gave me some concrete advice for ways to use my field to my advantage in a slightly different way, and they can talk about me in more depth now when someone asks their opinion about me. I guess I would add, be HONEST with your advisor. It's NOT your #1 topic, fine; but it's a means to an end, and you can find some bright spots in the situation. Ask them about how their interest developed, or if there is some sub-field that bridges the gap between your interest and theirs. They'll value you as a person for being honest and seeking out their perspective, even if you're interests aren't a perfect match. Having faculty (or coworkers, or bosses) respect you is really important when you ask someone to vouch for you later on.

Interesting, I didn't realize that. I thought there was some cut-off at 24 where the FAFSA considered you independent? But maybe that's only relevant if you're still doing undergraduate work. It makes more sense to consider people independent for grad school, though.

Yeah. That's an interesting area because there are a lot of Boston/New York transplants, and a lot of younger people have the standard American dialect, NOT a regional dialect AT ALL. Lots of young people from my area - further up, really rural - have more subtle differences from a standard dialect that I can't totally put my finger on. Some syntax, some phonological things that I don't know enough to describe, but really weird stress patterns. Transplants tend to pick up the stress patterns first, then the syntax, and rarely the phonology changes. I want to know more about how that works! Seriously, though, among older (40+) people, in some areas you can pinpoint the town someone is from from their speech, since so many places were completely isolated until 20-odd years ago. SO COOL. But everyone just thinks they know New England, and it's just kind of like Boston... Not true! Awww, thanks! I took two historical ling (with a Germanic phonetics guy), one socioling (with a prof who wrote an early book on gender and language), syntax, and most of a semantics course as an undergrad, which gave me a really solid grounding. The ling people welcomed me with open arms, I LOVED them! My favorite ling prof lived next door to me, so I got to see her a lot even after I was done with her class. I plan to work linguistic analysis into graduate study on sociology of science/science communications. Since Cornell and MIT are two of the schools I'm considering, I'll have lots of chances to stalk good ling faculty. Great job, guys, you got me to geek out.

Yes. Yes.