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median

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  • Location
    San Diego, CA
  • Application Season
    2017 Fall
  • Program
    Still in research/decision mode

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  1. I did my undergrad in philosophy and quickly learned how competitive teaching at the college level has become (overwhelming adjunct faculty, etc). Originally I wanted to teach philosophy at the college level and I have been studying for the GRE (as hard as it is for me b/c I don't remember so much of the math!). I am still in self debate mode but I have now turned my attention to online Masters degrees in Education (emphasis in science or social science) since with my current financial situation it's not practical for me to move and/or drive an hour each way to school (I have student loan debt and credit cards, etc). I have been checking out the USC Rossier school online but have read some bad reviews and it is one of the most expensive. With that said, I'd like to get some thoughts and/or new information regarding choices. •What online M. Ed programs are good (if any)? Are any worth it? If possible, I would like to avoid having to take the GRE (since it's been many years since I did all that math and studying is going to be uber time consuming - but I suppose I would do it if I felt like I needed to in order to achieve my desired outcome of getting a good job teaching K-12 somewhere). Any other thoughts/advice would be amazing. Thanks all!
  2. I've read some bad reviews from students doing work in their MAT program here: http://www.studentsreview.com/CA/USC_g.html Any thoughts? I have been thinking of applying for a MAT program (online) somewhere but not sure where at this point. What's good?
  3. I just wanted to say thanks for your encouragement (granted it was indirect) regarding the GRE. I have decided to apply for the Masters of Education program at the University of Southern California (no GRE required b/c they too do not find it accurate or helpful in determining grad outcomes). Feel free to message me with any other tips! All the best to you!

  4. Thank you all so much for the awesome advice and thoughts. I am SO appreciative that I found The Grad Cafe. The big elephant in the room that I have been struggling with for a long time now was the huge surprise I received when I was doing my undergrad and began asking questions regarding doing graduate work in philosophy and working toward seeking a professorship/college teaching career. To my dismay, I have been told by many staff that "there are no jobs in philosophy", "It's very competitive and hard to get in", and that "even if you did get a job you'd get stuck doing adjunct forever b/c 70+% of college teachers are now adjunct due to budget cuts". As you can imagine, I was crushed. Now some have said, "But you don't know the future! Follow your dreams anyways and something will come up for you." The problem is they don't realize that I did that "follow your dreams" thing for a very long time, 15+ years in the music business (playing, recording, touring, etc), and it didn't work out. And so naturally I'm afraid to fail again, except this time be much older with less options. I very much love philosophy and would really like to teach at even the JC level but the path to getting there seems really difficult. Just last week I searched for philosophy professor jobs (of all kinds) and could only find about 10 or so nationwide. Now it could be that I just wasn't looking in the right places but given what I have been told by my professors at the University of Illinois, as well as other friends at other schools, I'm hesitant. And that hesitation has now brought me to thinking about switching majors and doing graduate work somewhere else, except with that thought change has also come a lot of confusion, frustration, and sadness (at times, not all the time). The thing I find to be correct is the idea that I need to have an end goal in mind, but what is so frustrating is that I did have goals in mind and was working toward them (at least twice) only to find out they are not feasible. But maybe I'm wrong about the philosophy teaching stuff and need to be corrected? Maybe I'm thinking about it wrong? I'm actually find with studying for the GRE and taking it, and I'm fine with pushing toward going to school in person as opposed to online, it's just that I need a reasonable goal to work toward that I am actually passionate and driven about. Right now that is philosophy. Your thoughts?
  5. I'm not opposed to taking the GRE. I just need time to prepare, since doing poorly on it might mean not getting into a good school (at least that's the thought currently).
  6. This is my first post. I found The Grad Cafe by searching Google for topics pertaining to graduate programs that do not require the GRE (to which I was directed to the following topic): And I must say that I was very intrigued. However, given my current difficult situation I am now somewhat more concerned and/or perplexed as to how deep this rabbit hole I currently seem to be in is going. But before anyone gets too confused by my own confusion let me explain my situation (and I apologize in advance for being long winded). I have a BA in philosophy, currently work 2 jobs (7 days/week; it just turned out that way and I can't afford to quit one of them b/c then I wouldn't be able to make ends meet), and I want to go back to school to do some sort of advanced education. Now originally, my goal was to do graduate work in philosophy (this was my plan while in undergrad). However, I did my undergrad online at the University of Illinois and at the time I didn't know that grad school required the GRE, that there are no online philosophy programs, that philosophy professor jobs are few and far between (very competitive), and that if I was accepted into a program somewhere I would likely get stuck in adjunct faculty forever (at least this is my current belief - correct my if you believe I'm off the mark). So I became discouraged. These discoveries lead me to question of changing majors (I currently work part time for a grant funded program at a JC and have thought about counseling or psych). But then that line of thinking opened up an entirely new Pandora's box. Master's degrees often require the applicant to have taken the prerequisite courses in order to even apply (such as switching from philosophy to psychology) and if I have to take pre-reqs it would likely take me 3-4 years just to do so, in order to start applying for Master's programs that are different than my current discipline (since I'm trying to support myself and keep my current $55k debt in good standing while keeping a roof over my head). But in doing some of this research I also discovered that some Masters programs don't require the GRE. In thinking about the potential of applying to one, or more, of these programs I have now opened up yet another Pandora's box (a box inside of a box inside of a box, it seems) b/c I am now faced with the question of where I want to wind up. That is, what major am I going to switch to and why am I switching to that major? What job will I be hoping to get after switching majors? Is that path reasonable? Is that job one that I will be happy with? What majors should I even consider and why? What will that life look like? [I was a small business owner for many years and, in a way, all of this future decision making is super stressful]. Anyways, these are really such huge life questions and I'm not expecting any ground-breaking answers (though that would be nice) but right now I'm faced with not knowing where to turn. I feel like I need help from a counselor of some kind. Someone who knows all the ins-and-outs of online programs and who could guide me in a general direction given my current needs. I should mention that right now I am on an income based repayment plan for my student loans, and I fear that as soon as I do my taxes for 2015 the DOE is going to start sending me a bill every month (this is not to mention the fact that I really need to get out of working these two jobs but feel totally stuck). My ideal situation would be to quit one of my jobs, work the better one part-time while doing an online program somewhere (since I can't really see how doing an in person program would be cost effective for me; How could I afford to move/live etc?). So my questions to the forum are the following: 1. If you can relate in any way what advice do you have? 2. Does the GRE really matter that much in terms of finding a good job? 3. What non-GRE online schools are good, if any? 4. As I don't really know what career I should head toward now, what should I do? I feel like I'm in a very stuck place. I had a career, the economy crashed, I bounced around from low paying job to lowing paying job, and I now need to make an important decision that will set me up for years to come. In short, I'm stressed out! And I don't really know where to turn. If anyone can help I would be immensely grateful. median p.s. - The career options I have been keeping on the table are ones that pertain to philosophy, teaching/education, counseling, social work, or educational counseling. However, I'm still undecided at this point since so many times one cannot know if they really want to have a specific career until they have the facts about what that career looks like from the inside (day to day, etc). I guess in general I just need help finding my way.
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