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Econ_Friendly

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  • Application Season
    2015 Fall

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  1. Stated another way, consider the mathematics of a full time job: 8 hours/day (plus, potentially, some amount of drive time, and some time lost to lunch). 0.5-1 hour minimum for meals/day (even if that is making food, picking food up, etc.) 0.5-1.5 hours drive time (depending on where all you go each day, how far you are from courses, etc.)' 0.5 hour/day for miscelaneous (we have 2 dogs 4 cats, so there's always something that needs done, including laundry for us, etc.). Even at the minimum, that's nearly 10 hours/day gone. If you get 6 hours of sleep, and you don't spend time relaxing, you ARE left with 8 hours a day or so to get stuff done. From my experience, this is far from realistic. My schedule looked like this on an average day: 5:30am-6:30am Wake up, make coffee, take out dogs, help wife get ready to leave. 6:30-7:00 make/eat breakfast 7-10:00 Work 10:00-10:20 get ready 10:20-10:40 drive to campus/park 10:40-11 walk to class 11-2 TA work, with 1 hour break at from 12-1, of which approx. 45 minutes was useful. 2:10 Walk to car 2:10-2:40 drive home (longer drive home b/c more people around campus/leaving and some coming) 2:40-3:15 Take dogs out, get settled back in, have a small snack 3:15-6:00 Work 6:00-7:30 Cook/Eat dinner/and spend a little while after talking to wife. At this point I would have been up for 14.5 hours, completed only around 6 and a half hours of my 8 hour day, not studied at all. If I had to do grocery shopping, do a bunch of clothes, or had a meeting, then I lost more time. I was optimistic before I experienced it. You just lose a LOT of time to nothing.
  2. I am in a seperate discipline (Economics), and I don't know how intense the program is that you'll be going into. That said, I can perhaps offer some anecdotal advice. I began a master's program while working as a consultant (remotely - from my home with the flexibility to attend classes when I need, and only out of town here and there). Because it is consulting, and because I am salary, it was not always 40 hours a week, sometimes it was more. That said, it's been absolutely (and I mean absurdly) miserable for me. I was juggling 6-9 hours of varying intensity (from difficult in-class courses to independent work to research). All of my courses have deserved at least 6 hours/week each of dedication, but all of them could have used 9-12. Because I was too busy, I've felt like all I could do was juggle everything in an effort to moderately cover all my basis. What have been my results? Approx. 3.5 grad gpa. (That might seem great, but in economics most Master's GPA or undergrad students that go for a Ph.D, which is my goal, have at least a 3.7 GPA.) As a result, I've been falling short of my goals, and from my own perspective I completely know that I haven't been getting the practice that I need. I've been supporting my wife and I, so I didn't have the ability to just quit. However, my recommendation for anyone considering pursuing a full-time job while being in graduate school is only do it if you can quit (or seriously ramp-back your hours) if needed. Your schooling should come first, and I can say now-in the position that I am now in-that I would have definitely taken out loans if I had known then what I know now. Hopefully this is helpful to you or others.
  3. My wife received an acceptance a week or so go, if that is helpful at all.
  4. Right about that time. She was pressed for all her deadlines.
  5. My wife heard back from Case Western Yesterday (Accepted)
  6. My wife was admitted yesterday, applied early Jan.
  7. You must be well acquainted with the correct pronunciation of Louisville then: "luuuuuuuuuh-vuuuuuuuhl"
  8. It seems as though there are several possibilities: 1) Mass e-mail from the school, encouraging people to continue to keep the university "in the running" during their decision making process. 2) They extended an offer, and they are encouraging you to consider it strongly. 3) They meant "opportunities," -i.e. plural not singular-and therefore meant that you should keep Kentucky in mind when considering ALL your options. 4) Meant to psychologically make you think that "Kentucky" is the opportunity before you, in the forefront of your options-the best opportunity-and that all the others are behind you... None of these would surprise me. P.s. I grew up in Cincinnati, where there is a general "make fun of Kentucky" attitude (for a whole variety of reasons). (And despite the many fans of the Kentucky basketball team, xavier and UC force us to hate on Kentucky for this reason also.) In all reality, this cryptic of a message could have been sent by any university, no matter the prestige. Last year Penn encouraged individuals with even LOW GRE scores (by Econ standards) to apply, despite knowing full well that they (as a general rule) only admit students that have a 93%+ Quant score. Rather pitiful.
  9. Thanks! Application season is too damn stressful! I told my wife she'd be OK, but the proof was in the pudding for her. She's really excited about ASU, so I just hope I don't let her down by not getting into U of A. She loves the PAC focus - it's what she's tried to devote her undergrad to (or rather, steer it in the direction of, since there's no focus like that here). We'd be thrilled in Tuscon was a little cooler. I don't know much about the 'desert southwest.' I've been to AZ a few times over my life, but nothing since I was 15, and nothing that was eventful. All we know is that Tuscon looks a little expensive in some areas. We're hoping to buy a house rather than rent. We have 2 dogs and 4 cats, so renting is extremely difficult. Plus we know we'll be there for at least 5 years if we go. Thanks City. Do you happen to know much about Tuscon? I actually have a buddy that lives out in Phoenix right now, but he doesn't seem to know much about Tuscon.
  10. Thanks - I would welcome this as well. Anything to get more of a consensus. This seemed likely for most "areas," but some just seem "so specialized," like healthcare, that I wasn't sure. Licensee is certainly extremely important, and something I forgot about when considering this question.
  11. For something like this, I think that the best answer is "honesty is the best policy." What I mean by this is that if your condition greatly affected your performance, you should probably include at least a sentence or 2. This is most important for individuals that were "diagnosed" during their undergraduate career, where it can be seen that there was a drop prior to a "fix." Understandably, adcoms are cautious of such comments. Some people (I am in no way suggesting that you are one of these people) will use such circumstances to garner sympathy and make excuses. As a result, it is most beneficial to mention it when you can show a triumphant conquering of such circumstances. Although I did not suffer a 'condition,' my wife's life and I was disrupted by an extremely tragic event close to our family, that irrevocably changed the rest of our undergraduate career, especially the 2 semester that this event spanned. Although I never recovered as an undergrad, I continued to persevere. Rather than hilgihting this as a terrible event, and try to explain away my problems, I highlighted it in my SoP as making me a stronger student and Husband. I tried to further show this through my increased performance during master's/Ph.D level graduate work at a different university (before applying to Ph. D programs). Hope this helps.
  12. Can you elaborate on the Title IV stipend? I'm not aware of what this program is. Is this a national "program" that universities/departments adopt, or is this a California thing?
  13. I am within a different field, but if it makes you feel any better I applied to approximately 16 programs - all were due Dec 1 through Jan 1. I've been rejected by 3, accepted by my lowest program (safety of safety's), implicitly rejected by 5 others, and only have a few left. Anxiety is terrible during application season! But keep up the hope.
  14. Perhaps I asked the wrong question, since the post on "do you (think) you want a PH.D" indicated that ranking is not so critical for the MSW. Another question, perhaps that is more crucial, is: "How Important is specialization?" Can you only get certain SW jobs with a certain specialization, or does it just place you in a more advanced "pool" when applying for a job where your specialization is relevant? Stated, perhaps, a different way: Are there any SW jobs that you are effectively "opting out of" by not having a specific specialization? For example, can you be a health care social worker without having a specialization in this? Or is everything highly based on placement?
  15. My wife applied and was accepted to the ASU program (Tuscon). I applied to U of Arizona for my program (seperate discipline). Pending my acceptance, that's where we're planning to go. My wife is crazy about the ASU program. She was also concerned about the potential size of the Tuscon program, but as far as she could tell it didn't seem to be that much different than the phoenix program - nothing specified on the webpage that "these courses are only offered in Phoenix," any any statements like that.
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