Infinite Monkeys

I think, if you're in relatively good health and are proactive about your preventative care, then the basics are all you'd need (general "you"). Cover the "might happen" stuff, and it should ideally be enough. Me, I have pre-existing medical issues, so I have to have a relatively solid plan that'll cover what's going to keep me running--medication, mostly, but also periodic screenings, access to my specialists, and things like that. UCR's plan is included in my fees, and since it's a group plan, I'm not paying exorbitant extra fees or getting excluded entirely. Sure, I have to use the campus docs as my PCPs, but I do that here at CSUF, and the care was consistently better than through my official PCP (nice gal, but her office staff was rude and inefficient). Look, just cut the prescriptions that I've been on since I was 10, and life will continue on as usual. I'm all for school plans--we're grad students and we're our universities' cheap labor. It's in their best interests to keep us alive and relatively functional.

I know! I figured you were around here somewhere. I'm here more often now that I'm not waiting for results. Before that, there was just a little too much anxiety. How're you doing out there? All settled in? Oooh yes. Religion gets the same suspicion with my extended family; they'd be okay if I were going into the clergy or something, but the fact that I'm open to studying other religions definitely makes the conservative/rural/Cold War relatives a little nervous. I think some of them think I'll just randomly convert or something. The fact that an ex-boyfriend sent me a hand-painted hijab while he was in the Middle East absolutely did not help. Thanks! I've got my fingers crossed that it'll still be valuable five or six years from now. Even now, my undergrad/MA institution has started offering classes in rock music as literature, vampire lit, and things like that, so maybe it'll bleed into our religious studies department in time. Woot for employment!

When I first told my mother I was going to apply for PhD programs, she damn near wrecked the car. Memo to self: save significant revelations for times other than merging onto the freeway. lol I would too. I'm all for televising the process; it's the only way most folks are going to see it's not Ivory Tower pretensions, it's long hours of dealing with courses we're taking, courses we're teaching, and scrambling to get hired in something when all is said and done. I'm hoping that one of my areas of interest will help me connect better with my family. Religion and pop culture might help us to meet halfway. And to your previous post: the nasty snobbishness I received in the MA wasn't a matter of my background but my research focus at the time. Just about everyone else was working in Composition & Rhetoric, and there was a small but nasty contingent that really thought I was a lesser student because I worked almost exclusively in American lit and religion. That's all the snobbery I had to deal with, and in the end, that area (with pop culture) might end up paying off for me.

I had a random growth spurt partway through undergrad (abnormal for most, but very normal for my freaky family) and had a similar problem. Suddenly, full-length sleeves are a good 2 inches too short, and all my pants were juuuuust too short to be reasonable by the time I got to the MA program. I recently did a closet purging, and some of the skirts I found in the depths have become way too short to be business appropriate. I think I have one left that might be serviceable, and it's the only one I bought after I gained height and weight. Oh well. Time to surf the clearance racks and major sales. I'll see what the norm is at orientation, and I might ask around closer to then, since I have a kind-of acquaintance or two there already. I don't want to have to do "all-out" if I don't really have to; I do it enough for work right now when I have to impress the donors. And I hear you on the whole "not a morning person" thing. I earnestly hope and pray that the classes I'll be TA-ing in the winter quarter aren't morning courses. I can be presentable, but don't count on coherent before 9 am.

All my paperwork is in to my program and the school, so I'm in a holding pattern until late August. Classes don't start until late September, so I'm not doing anything intensely academic until late August when I can get my hands on the reading lists. Right now, my reading is being spent on fun reading--murder mysteries and books that have languished on my "I gotta read this at some point" shelf. Right now I should be reading a book on Henrietta Lacks that I promised to loan my previous adviser, but it's a little heavy to read too much at once. Enter the old, reliable murder mysteries by my old, reliable favorites. Yay! I am having random surges of Impostor Syndrome, but my various faculty members in my undergrad/MA school are really supportive, and if they think I can do it, then I might have a shot, right? I think I have a good idea on what I need to go out and buy. It's just a matter of doing it. I do need a little more in the way of clothing (while holy jeans might be appropriate for the program, I'm pretty sure my holey jeans won't be), and I will need kitchen utensils and some furniture and such. My grandmother said I could have what she doesn't use in the way of pots and pans, and my folks packed up the old coffee maker for me. My current desk can't make the trip, so I'll get a new desk and chair at Ikea, along with a coffee table and something to sit a TV on. I'm finishing up projects at my current job, with the hope we'll have a replacement for my position by mid-August. If we don't, I'll pretty much have to continue doing it by email until we do find someone. It's a great job, but it's not a field most of the MA English students in my school's program want to go into (popular: comp/rhetoric, unpopular: writing/editing). I'm also going to be spending August on freelance writing, storing up articles like a paranoid squirrel hoards nuts. Extra money coming in = good thing. What does worry me, and what I'm currently working on resolving, is a whole host of medical issues. Whatever's causing my mobility problems needs to be fixed before I leave town or at least to a point where I can manage on my own until I can get a new set of doctors out there. Poke, prod, and evaluate me now, so I can get down to the business of studying later, okay?

...in reading the thread so far, I'm getting the sneaking suspicion that I have to seriously reconsider some of my fashion choices. I tend to dress comfortably but conservatively, with jeans or khaki pants paired with sweaters or blouses layered over shells, all accented with a scarf or something like that. I keep it basic, but I'm wondering if I should be dressier? I've never been a fashion plate, and fashion's never interested me much; I like looking nice or put-together, but it's first and foremost a comfort thing. I do fancy, business-type stuff for conferences and the like, but day-to-day is definitely low-key. Sephora is good as long as you stick with their house brand. Otherwise, I stay with whatever I can get in a drugstore. Um...Abby in NCIS? If I had the money, that is. I'd need to add some significant pieces to strike that general look completely, but that's what I aim for. Not quite that goth-y, but I'm definitely far removed from pink and pastels and business skirts, and I like wearing darker colors (a relic from a long period spent in theatre).

I'm not first-gen college; my mother had, as of when I went through undergrad, an ASN, and her family has one MA and a smattering of BA/BS degrees. But I'm definitely the first to go into a PhD program. All the men in my family tend to be law enforcement or military, and all the women are nurses or homemakers. We've been working class (sometimes verging on middle) all the way back to the 1600s. I don't think that I had issues in fitting in with my BA or MA classmates, since the CSU system tends to draw people of similar background to my own. English is a pretty open discipline at those levels, I think. Religious studies (my other undergrad major) was roughly the same, although the student age range was much larger. I think I had a similar experience to Victorian Tess, and, like her, I anticipate my PhD Religious Studies program will be similar as well: good school, not an Ivy, but solid, and very likely to draw a wide spectrum of students to it. (Victorian Tess, if you are who I think you are, hi! If not, um, hi anyway?) Blending with peers and faculty at school and at conferences hasn't been too bad. The hard part has been fitting in with my family. They're very focused on education, but at the same time, they can't decide how they feel about this. On one hand, they brag about me getting into a program to anyone and everyone they meet, but at the same time, I get a lot of crap for it. I've heard "when are you ever going to get a real job?" "are you ever going to be done with school?" and "so now you've got a degree in not one but two useless subjects" and so on. There's a lot of comparison of my goals with those of my younger brother, who finished college right on time and went directly into his general field. He has a *real* job. I'm a writer and editor and therefore am not working a *real* job as I wait for my program to start. I feel, like other posters, that I'm getting to be a fair hand at speaking multiple languages: home, work, and school. I code-switch like crazy, and while it's a pain to do, it keeps everyone happy. I love my family, and I've found over the years that it's just easier to not talk about what I do when I'm with the family. It keeps everyone from getting angry, it keeps me from feeling like I'm on the fringes, and all told, it just makes life easier.

I was told that, starting winter quarter, I'd be responsible for TA-ing three sections for one prof. I guess this is a normal load for the new folks, from what I've been told. Not taking our own classes by ourselves but doing the standard TA gig. Frankly, it's a nice change of pace to only be working for/with one faculty member; last semester I was grading for three, and the semesters before that could be anywhere from four to six. The workload will pick up significantly, but I'm looking forward to only answering to or grading for one person rather than everyone.

*timidly raises hand* I actually do have cards, but they're not business cards like you're all thinking of business cards. Mine aren't the standard, embossed-on-fancy-paper cards; they're mini-cards from MOO.com, a company that turns out a lot of fun products. I have my name, emails, and what I do (writing, editing, and tutoring) listed on the back, and on the front, it's got a patterned design in an assortment of colors, with the words "Literature Geek" in white script (which is how people have known me for the 3-5 years). They're serious enough to represent me to anyone, but different enough that people keep them. Poco_puffs, that might be the kind of product for you, if you're looking for less formal but with contact information. Totally customizable and available in both mini and regular business card sizes. (Not advertising--just pointing out a company with a service that seems to work well for me.) It helps when I go to conferences or various places I could get proofreading/editing/tutoring work, since a lot of people do exchange cards in both the business and academic worlds. For most of my time in the MA program, a lot of the work I did was word of mouth--faculty would send their students to me for tutoring or whatnot, and my cards made it a lot easier for the profs: "Here, this is Monkeys' contact info; work with her or flunk the class." Contacts I made at conferences would offer me their cards, then assume I had one or could scribble out my name and email in a couple of seconds. The card made life easier, and people remember me for them. I don't push them on people, but if I'm in a situation where it's appropriate, I offer it. I'm kind of sad I have to change them, though. No longer a literature geek.

I anticipate it not being too terribly different from how I dressed for classes in my MA program: jeans or khakis, t-shirt or long-sleeved shirts in good condition, and running shoes. But then again, I was actively tutoring throughout, and it was a matter of both looking a little more "together" than the students and dressing a little more like an authority figure, which some of the students (re-entry students, our contingent of nuns) kind of expected. When I covered a class for someone or had to proctor a test, usually the above with the addition of a blazer. It's how my project advisor dressed, so I figured I was fine. (My other advisor was a suit-and-tie type most of the time, but some of the time, he also dressed like that.) I imagine that I'll have to pull out my "oh crap we have a board meeting all hands on deck" outfits for the big stuff, though. Dress pants, nice blouse, polished business shoes, the whole nine yards. But unless my department chair says otherwise, I'm not giving up my running shoes. They're in good condition, they have some measure of style, and they help keep the joint pain at bay. Better to be in less pain than to be biting freshman heads off because I can't walk without howling.

Hope I'm not too late to the party! 1. Stats BA double-major in English & Religious Studies, 3.97MA English, 3.96My thesis was heavily focused on a religious studies-focused explication of a pop culture novelI took extra religious studies classes and worked for our RS department while doing my MA work680V, 480Q, 6.0 (I'm a strong writer, but I have math issues) Accepted at Claremont (Interfield PhD in English & Religion), U Denver/Iliff School of Theology (Joint PhD, Theology, Philosophy, and Cultural Theory), and UC Riverside (PhD, Religious Studies)Rejected from Princeton (PhD, Religion in America), Ohio State (PhD, Comparative Studies), and Yale (PhD, American Religious History) 3. Waitlisted/Other [*]Waitlisted at UCSB (MA/PhD, Religion in America)[*]Removed from applicant pool at UC Riverside (PhD, English--I'd already been admitted and accepted the offer at UCR, so they pulled me) I really think I got in where I did on the strength of my writing and the oddity of my area of interest, because it sure wasn't my test scores. I also had some strong letters of recommendation, thankfully. I had folks writing for me from two different departments. I think that may have helped as well; when faculty I talked to heard I had a grounding in both fields, they seemed more interested in me as an applicant. If you have the option to take a minor, or even a double major in a closely related field, I'd say it's worth the time and effort.

What I think I did right: I had a master spreadsheet with everything: deadlines, addresses, contact information, the program's SPECIFIC name (every school had an ever-so-slightly different name for essentially the same thing), and which faculty members had committed to writing LoRs for that schoolI put my strongest LoR writers on my top choice schools--I love my faculty members here, but some are a little... flighty at times, and I didn't want to risk them having a flighty moment when the LoR needed to go in for the schools I really, really wanted to be at.I kept my class load light during application season--this year's season, I was finished with my required classes; I just needed some "polishing" courses, so I could take a lighter load, which made me a much more sane person than I was during my first attempt (full load of MA courses + applications + thesis proposal & preliminary research + MA exams = near breakdown).I applied to three tiers of schools: the "I don't stand a chance in hell" schools (low odds, but great schools), the "I really want to be here and I have a fair shot" schools (good fit, better odds, less likely to end up in debt to my eyeballs), and the "sure, I'm good with that" (not as great a fit or likely to be miserably expensive, but places I'd be okay with). As it turns out, I got accepted by a school in each category, so if you don't diversify your applications, you'll never know what you can do.I made contact with someone from almost every school on my list, even if it was just an email. In one case, I got to meet the entire department, and I think that's a big reason I ended up where I did; meeting everyone helped me make a good impression ("Hey! Let's give the hyper short kid from CSU Fullerton a shot!") and helped me make my final decision (school where everyone made me feel like I belonged and gave me food vs. school that sent a letter saying "We'll let you in, but we have NO clue how we're going to handle someone in your subfield). What I think know I did wrong: I didn't budget as much as I should have for the applications. It was brutal, and I knew it would be, but I didn't think it'd be as bad as it was. Goodbye, six months of freelance writing earnings.I didn't start early enough. I had my schools narrowed down by August, but I should have started sooner, because that would have let me get a better start on things.I didn't ask for enough input on my personal statements--I had some problems with my earlier drafts that made it into final editions, and it wasn't until after I got the first app out that an LoR writer pointed them out.I got information overload--I had too many people around me weighing in and giving me conflicting advice (not all of it good). It slowed me down and made life far harder than it should have been. My best advice is to listen to the people you know you can trust, and tune the rest of them out, or the mass of words will just heap more stress down upon your shoulders.Good luck to any poor souls taking this on in the coming year! It's a very stressful, very introspective process... if you don't know who you are and what you're doing before you start, you're going to be pretty close to there by the time you finish (or at least be able to fake an answer). And it's a brutal, gut-wrenching (not so) little look at yourself.

Naturalizer is good if you're willing to spend a little more on shoes. They're pretty comfortable but still dressy enough for days where I have to be "business" me for work, and they've lasted a good eight years now (but I don't wear them very often). Mostly, though, I stick with running shoes, which is what my doctor's told me to go with. I have mobility problems, so running shoes correct for some of that and give me a little more range of motion. I'm hoping I can get by with wearing those even while TA-ing, because most other shoes leave me limping and in pain by the end of the day. The Naturalizers aren't so bad, but they still lack the support of my running shoes.

I won't miss: English undergrad "students" who don't like reading.English grad students who think anyone not doing comp & rhetoric is of a lesser species not worth conversing with in a civil manner (Ew...you study literature and religion? Why??)Near-constant proselytizing by on- and off-campus Christian groups (Stop trying to convert me to a religion I already believe in, dangit).Family members constantly on me about how I'm going to be a professional student, I'll never have a "real" job, and how I'm getting degrees in not one but TWO useless subjects.Grading for four or more different faculty members per semester (this semester was light--only three).The bass-ackward policies of this university's insipid, I-radiate-uselessness student government organizations (grrr shorting me on travel reimbursement for NO GOOD REASON two years in a row, among other things--they made it clear that they didn't like dealing with the English Grad Student Association.)The parking. Oh heaven above me, the parking. If you drive, you better get to campus by the crack of dawn to get a space. If you have to walk through the lots or cross any roads, you better learn to duck and weave.The people who let doors slam in my face when they see me struggling with them while on crutches. It's like people major in rudeness here. I will miss: My faculty mentors--one in Comparative Religion and two in English. At this point, they're like family. I think I spent more time with my thesis adviser than I did with most of my family members, come to think of it. Now I have to leave?The coffee place all the English majors and faculty go to. Seriously, we have no fewer than five Starbucks places on campus (one full-service one), but our coffee place is a little tent-thing next to our building that serves fantastic drinks at good prices with people who not only remember you but what you like and dislike.My specialists--do you know how long it took me to find an endocrinologist without issues? Ditto for my orthopedic surgeon.My pets--they're staying here in OC with my folks.My family members (most of the time), but at least I'm not that far away.My friends--sure, we have all sorts of means of contact, but it's not the same as smart-assing your way through poetry class. Last, but by no means least: Sleep. I think I'll miss you most of all.