Tez92

I would like to preface this by saying I am a first generation college student, so the whole grad school thing is a bit new to most people in my family. (I love them immensely and know that they ultimately mean well)

Aunt: What are you planning to do after you graduate?
Me: I plan on going to school for a masters.
Aunt: So wait, you are going back to school?
Me: Pretty much!
Aunt: If you are going BACK to school, what's the point of graduating from the one you are at?
Me: "......" {lost for words}

I'm curious about the religious experience among gay, black men. I am curious as to how their lived experiences problematize christian theology and other religious ideologies. Also, I'm curious as to how the church as a social institution can facilitate positive and negative effects on black, gay men.
My current undergraduate research in studying how gay, young black men interprete scripture and how that interpretation influences their sexual orientation.

It's Monday everyone. My new favorite day of the week.

It's Monday everyone. My new favorite day of the week.

It's Monday everyone. My new favorite day of the week.

It's Monday everyone. My new favorite day of the week.

It's Monday everyone. My new favorite day of the week.

It's Monday everyone. My new favorite day of the week.

It's Monday everyone. My new favorite day of the week.

It's Monday everyone. My new favorite day of the week.

I would like to preface this by saying I am a first generation college student, so the whole grad school thing is a bit new to most people in my family. (I love them immensely and know that they ultimately mean well)

Aunt: What are you planning to do after you graduate?
Me: I plan on going to school for a masters.
Aunt: So wait, you are going back to school?
Me: Pretty much!
Aunt: If you are going BACK to school, what's the point of graduating from the one you are at?
Me: "......" {lost for words}

"Why did you apply to schools that are so far away and cold? You could just go to UT Austin."
"You want to study monkeys? And then what.. be a zoo keeper?"

Or my favorite from my 28 yr old neighbor just the other day--
Her: I want to apply to graduate school!
Me: That's great! For what?
Her: Oh, I don't know. But I want to live in Arizona so I guess I will go to Arizona state university.
Me: Wait, you don't know what you want to do? What was your undergrad degree?
Her: Psychology, but I don't know if I will like that. I really want to study the body.
Me: Um, ok so you mean you would like to be an MD?
Her: What? I don't know but I like Biology....
Me: I tell you what, why don't you start looking at graduate programs in Arizona and see what makes you happy.
(I'll help her along as much as I can, but I never met someone so full of excitement who had no idea what she should be excited about.)

Real convo I had when I first started my PhD (paraphrased):

Them: So, what do you do for a living?
Me: I'm a PhD student here at the University in Department XYZ.
Them: Oh, cool. So, you're going to be a doctor?
Me: Yeah.
Them: Then you can do surgery, or whatever?
Me: No. Actually, I'm in a non-medical field, so I'll still be called Dr. Awesome, but my area is XYZ.
Them: Oh. [lonnnnng pause while they think]. But, you COULD be a real doctor if you wanted to, right?
Me: I *will* be a real doctor, just not a medical doctor.
Them: But don't you want your own practice or something?
Me: Still not that kind of doctor... I'm going to teach XYZ as a professor, which is a non-medical field.
Them: Why would you teach, when you could work at a hospital or clinic or something and make more $$?
Me: [needing to end this useless convo]... Yeah... good point... I'll consider that...

[NOT ALL PHD's ARE MEDICAL YOU IDIOT!!!]

<headdesk>

"Have you ever tried to take a look at GradCafe?"
(Then you find yourself insanely checking the forums 24x7...hehehehe)

Tez, I just finished my MTS at Boston University STH and I would give a similar positive review of BU as Josh has of Vanderbilt. The faculty and support staff are tremendous and value you as a person who happens to be a student. They are always available and personable. Now, the downside would come from the cost of living in Boston compared to Nashville. But, it's a great city!
 
Feel free to message me if you have any questions in the future. Good luck!

This is excellent advice! I'm going to start brainstorming short-term goals now...thanks!
 
 
Yeah, 15! And that was whittled down from a list of 20 schools that I had at the start of the season. Sometimes I still wish I had applied to more though.

I was just telling someone that a play-by-play page would be PERFECT!!!

Thank you greatly. I am still waiting to hear back. I came and did a campus tour last October. Vanderbilt I certainly my top choice.

I shared this in another forum and think it will be very relevant to this discussion. 
 
Anxiety and worrying are very normal experiences for most people regarding the application process. You are not alone. As much as we want to act like it's not there, it is. It does have the potential to be unhealthy, but it can be chanelled into other arenas. During this period of waiting, I challenge you to find a hobby, read a few books, hit the gym, set a short term goal, ect. Do something to preoccupy yourself while you wait. The only catch is to have a short term goal attached to it. Set the goal to be met around the time you expect to receive communication from the grad programs. Do your best to meet the goal. Once the goal is met you have something you will be proud of. Regardless of the institutions' decisions you will know that you can achieve what you set your mind to. So if you are denied (I pray you are not) you can look back and say, I was able to meet this goal I can meet another one.  

I shared this in another forum and think it will be very relevant to this discussion. 
 
Anxiety and worrying are very normal experiences for most people regarding the application process. You are not alone. As much as we want to act like it's not there, it is. It does have the potential to be unhealthy, but it can be chanelled into other arenas. During this period of waiting, I challenge you to find a hobby, read a few books, hit the gym, set a short term goal, ect. Do something to preoccupy yourself while you wait. The only catch is to have a short term goal attached to it. Set the goal to be met around the time you expect to receive communication from the grad programs. Do your best to meet the goal. Once the goal is met you have something you will be proud of. Regardless of the institutions' decisions you will know that you can achieve what you set your mind to. So if you are denied (I pray you are not) you can look back and say, I was able to meet this goal I can meet another one.  

I think they should reward early app submissions with an early response. I can't imagine waiting until mid-February. It's like medieval torture, but worse.

The waiting game has started to drive me mad even though it's still early... I have my email and phone with me everywhere just in case I hear anything and have obsessively been checking the results page.

Otherwise I've been reading for fun (a lot), I've started to run again, and oddly I've been reading journal articles in my field and discussing them with a friend (a current grad student in my area). Thankfully I have one semester of undergrad left as I'll then have something to focus on but it hasn't started back yet!

Strangely the suggestion to read hasn't been a bad one and their justification was it gives you a little bit of perceived control even when this process (and the wait specifically) takes away so much control.

Still anxiously waiting... Hope we hear soon!

Happy January 7th! Orthodox Christmas where I'm from, for what it's worth

The anxiety is the worst part. I was never an anxious person before the waiting. Something productive to do would be to start composing thanks you notes to those who wrote you a LOR and if you planned on purchasing a small gift for them (starbucks gift card or something more personal) you can spend your time doing that.
 
The boomed. programs typically hear back sooner because the applicant pool is relatively large and they have to accommodate for about 3 different interview weekends so they have to plan early. Also because of the push for STEM education recently, a lot of those students are reaching graduate school age and those programs are busting at the seams. So I wouldn't feel like this is an accurate reflection of all programs.
 
Take time to read. I read a bunch of random stuff on how wine was made, how gin is made, how coffee is made, I read all about apple orchards in upstate new york and vermont and all about hiking new places, etc. Things I had always been interested in I read about. To keep me sane, but I was also genuinely interested in it for a long time and wanted to know more. 
 
Good luck!

Honestly, I think this is a huge issue for all applicants and people in academia more generally. Mental health is largely absent from conversations about scholarly competition and risk, and it is stigmatized in programs and when people are on the job market. We should all try to be conscious of these issues as we move forward!

One of the most wonderful things I heard from a POI was that we ought to be kind to ourselves and to factor happiness into the decisions we make about graduate school.  It would be nice to emphasize that kindness--self care, specifically--is more important than ever while we await admissions decisions.