doctormelody

Hey, people from elsewhere, how long did it take you to adjust to the city/PA in general? I moved here in August from VA and I am so homesick, lol. I miss the pretty scenery, milder weather, and my family. I just applied to Pitt for Social Work (which was the whole reason that we moved) and I'm kind of terrified of the idea of 2 and 1/2 more years here. Pittsburgh's not so bad really aside from the cold but I absolutely hate PA and I'm finding it really hard to adjust, culturally. Any advice, or just words of wisdom? I'm really sad right now.

I think your chances are very good! Write a decent personal statement and you should be set. I don't know the admissions statistics for all of those schools but you are a strong candidate imho and I'd be gobsmacked if you didn't receive admission offers from at least a few of the schools you mentioned above.

Hi, all. I apologize for creating so many threads but I figured this one might be applicable to others as well. My problem is this: the only school that I have applied to this cycle and one which I will definitely attend if I am admitted, has a pesky statistics requirement that I somehow didn't notice when I was doing research on the school. (I know I should have assumed that this would be the case - believe me, I am beating myself up about this enough already.) Anyway, this wouldn't be too much of a problem except that I recently moved states and so if I were to take a statistics course at a community college here the tuition would be astronomical (upwards of $1000). I am wondering if anyone here has ever found themselves in a similar position? Do I just have to eat the expense? I'm super mad at myself because if I had noticed this last spring I could have taken the class at a community college before I moved and I would not be having this problem. At an info session I recently attended, the director of admissions and financial aid specified that one can be admitted provisionally without having taken a statistics course (thank God). I am wondering if they might be similarly flexible on WHEN I take the class? If I could take it during the fall semester that would help me so much, as I would qualify for in-state tuition then. I guess the only way to know for sure is to ask the school, but I'd rather wait until I am actually admitted before I start bugging them about bending the rules, lol. Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone had any advice on cheaper alternatives (if such alternatives even exist).

My professor submitted her recommendation!!! Currently grinning from ear-to-ear. Hopefully my application will be listed as complete tomorrow; when I emailed to ask about a transcript glitch they told me they were just waiting on the recommendation! Ah, and she sent me a nice email too, so I know she’s not mad. I’m so indescribably relieved!!!!

Gotcha.

Thank you so much! Best of luck to you as well!

Yeah, I really hope that doesn’t happen to you guys!

This is actually super comforting! I mostly wanted to know that I wasn’t alone. I’m not a free spirit either by any means, although I certainly had such aspirations when I was younger. Then I realized how much being poor actually sucks, haha. I remember the scene you’re talking about in The Bell Jar, and I relate as well. At some point, though, we do have to choose. There’s no avoiding that. Thank you so much for your reply, it made me feel a lot better.

That's fair. I think possibly I overreacted due to exhaustion. I apologize. I don't know that I'm necessarily *opposed* to creating new knowledge, I just hate writing papers. Honestly, I feel like my distaste for research may be more of a reflection of the fact that I was never trained how to research properly than me just hating it inherently - the structure of my program was very much like, short papers with only one source required (the text that we were reading) for the first two years and then a long-distance seminar which was supposed to teach us research methods but did not and then a thesis senior year. Some people managed to make the most of it, but I definitely wasn't one of them. I like data and I like interacting with new ideas - I'm just not sure how to make that into effective academic writing.

Okay, I guess I misunderstood. I think I looked into that program a while back and it sounded amazing but obviously the cost was a factor. I’m sorry if my words were overly harsh, I’m overtired and incredibly stressed at the moment. Thank you for trying to help.

Okay. I guess I am not communicating myself clearly enough. I understand that you can't be some kind of dilettante academic. I understand that I would have to do specific research in one of the fields I listed above. I dislike ASPECTS of academia, such as the elitism and what seems like a constant pressure to publish. There are also aspects that I really love, such as classroom discussion. I think I would really enjoy teaching. I'm really struggling here because I don't want to be rude towards anyone and I know that you are just trying to help, but I don't appreciate being spoken to as if I am a child. I took a big leap putting this out there and I was mainly trying to see if there's anyone else on here that shares my feelings. Again, I don't want to be rude, but I don't feel like I need some kind of basic explanation as to what grad school is? It feels like you both are telling me that it's ALREADY too late because I didn't discover my passion during my terrible undergrad experience, which is sort of contrary to the message I feel you are actually trying to send.

It wouldn't be because I don't know what else to do. It would be because I genuinely enjoy learning. Maybe I didn't make it clear enough that what I enjoyed about my gen ed classes in undergrad was the content, which spanned from world literature to philosophy and religious studies. My program was not the right fit for me, and I deeply regret that I didn't delve deeper into one of those disciplines when I was in undergrad. I know you are trying to be helpful, and I appreciate that, but it sounds like you are essentially telling me to settle for an unfulfilling life because I do not enjoy some aspects of academia. I get that some people find fulfillment in places other than their career, such as in their family lives/hobbies/etc, but I don't see that being me. I can't do something I don't believe in forever. I've watched that destroy my dad for too long. Maybe I am worrying too much and I will find fulfillment as a social worker, in which case, great! Case closed. I have to say though, I find your comment about this no longer being grade school somewhat condescending. I understand that there is no age limit for graduate schooling; what I am concerned about is that if I am, say, 35-40 and decide that I am no longer fulfilled by whatever career I have decided to pursue, the fact that I took so long to discover my true "passion," as it were, would not be looked upon favorably by an admissions committee (for instance, if I decided to go back for a second master's). I mean, who gets a PhD at age 45-50? I feel like that's not a thing. I'm not naive. I know what graduate school is and what it isn't. However, as I said in my original post, I only have one life, and I feel like it would be sad to not pursue subjects I am interested in just because I think the academy as an institution is an elitist piece of garbage. I anticipate people saying that I could just study those same subjects on my own or take community college courses, but I think it's obvious that there's a difference between having a full-time job and reading for pleasure or auditing a night class and taking advanced courses in a subject. But please, if I'm wrong, feel free to enlighten me on what grad school actually is.

Hello all. So let me start by saying that I know the content of this post may seem childish to some, and that there might be a better place for it, but for now, I'm just posting it in this general forum because it doesn't seem to fit neatly anywhere else. I feel stupid even asking this, but I'm just gonna go for it: does anyone else worry that they've chosen the wrong path constantly? I'm currently in the process of applying to school for Social Work and out of nowhere I just got hit with this panic over whether this is actually what I want to do with my life. I've never ever been the kind of person that knew what they wanted to do, not because I'm not interested in anything, but because I'm interested in so many things! This led to me choosing a rather broad interdisciplinary program for my undergrad major and sticking with it even when I started to have doubts. I think I would have benefitted from taking some time off before or during college to figure out what I was most interested in, but I couldn't due to financial constraints and ended up with a BA that is more or less totally useless. It is what it is and I know I can't change the past, but I was feeling really confident in my choice of Social Work after three years of deliberation on the subject and now all of a sudden I'm doubting myself hardcore. I did briefly consider going to graduate school for history, mostly because my dad was pushing it on me. He really wanted me to become an academic because he never got the chance and for a while I thought that was what I wanted as well. I just couldn't settle on a field, which I know sounds moronic - the only reason to pursue a PhD, imho, is because you're fiercely passionate about a subject. Anyway, thankfully I dodged that bullet. For a while I was seriously interested in Religious Studies and Philosophy, which I did take some courses in during my undergrad, although they weren't designated as such. I realized pretty quickly, however, how much of an uphill battle it would be to get into a master's program for either of those given my irrelevant degree. This alone might not have deterred me, but the dismal job prospects outside of academia for both of those fields certainly did, as did the incredibly competitive nature of Philosophy grad programs. I also considered English and Psychology (I have a lot of interests, don't judge me!) before realizing that it would basically be the same situation for either of those fields, albeit maybe with the potential to teach AP classes in a high school if the whole PhD thing didn't work out. Here's the thing, and this is maybe gonna get me crucified on here but it's honestly the truth: I absolutely hate academia. I hate the competitiveness of it, the silly airs that people put on, the drama and the infighting. I even hate writing papers. When I wanted to be a professor it was because I wanted to teach. I love learning and I love discussing ideas with people, but I'm not terribly good at research and I knew that without any interest in being a hotshot with a ton of publications to my name my chances of getting tenure would essentially be nil. I KNOW all of the reasons why not, and yet. There's a part of me that just misses it, so much. I'm probably among the few people in the world whose favorite classes at college were honestly what most people would refer to as Gen Eds. My first few semesters at college I did really well. My professors loved me. I frequently had the experience of being in a class and feeling like it was essentially just a conversation between me and the professor, which I recognize is totally obnoxious for the other students and I would never do today but I was just so excited about the ideas I was engaging with that I could never shut up. My peers, by contrast, hated most of our core curriculum and couldn't wait to be done with the (admittedly rather involved) requirements. By the time I got to my junior year, I started to suspect that I was in the wrong program, but there was no way for me to change my major at that point and still graduate in four years, and taking longer than that wasn't an option, financially. I became gradually more depressed as I watched my peers enjoy their specializations and minors while I was still stuck in the past. My senior year, I had to write a thesis, but my heart wasn't in it and it ended up being 10 or 15 pages shorter than it was supposed to be. Basically, it's a miracle I graduated at all, let alone with a 3.5. This is getting really long, and I don't know that I have a question so much as I just wonder if anyone else feels this way. I think I might just be one of those people that's always going to have lingering doubts that I chose the wrong path in life, and maybe I just need to make my peace with that. I think I will enjoy Social Work and find it meaningful. It's not that I'm not interested in it. It's just that you only get one life, and I think I'm always gonna regret the paths I didn't take, that I didn't have time to do everything. Also, I'm scared that if I did change my mind and want to pursue an academic career in a different field someday, it might be too late. I'm already 25, which I feel is late to start a master's, and I'm obviously want to work in the field for a few years after my MSW before I consider any more schooling. I'm not interested in a Social Work Phd, and in fact am not even really sure what's involved in one. I'm doing this because I want to help people and I felt it was time for me to get started on some sort of career as opposed to just holding down a mess of different retail jobs for the majority of my 20's. Am I alone in feeling this way? Why is this so hard? I feel like such a loser because I'm 25 and I still don't know FOR SURE what I want to do with the rest of my life. I know that many people have multiple careers these days, but I've never really heard a story of someone transitioning into academia later in life. It seems like a young person's game, for obvious reasons. I'm gonna stop now because I've already written a novella but if anyone has any words of wisdom or just solidarity to express, I would really really appreciate it.

I'm curious about where you're getting the idea that it's easy to get into Columbia or Chicago for an unfunded MA? From Columbia's own website: "Our department has a single M.A. program. There is no separate track or set of courses for Free-Standing M.A. students. No fellowship funding is available for Free-Standing M.A. students. Typically about 13 students enter the program each year. For fall of 2012, the department received 200 Free-Standing M.A. applications and accepted 15%. The average GPA of accepted U.S.-trained M.A. applicants was 3.8; only a very few had a GPA of 3.5 or lower, and then only when other aspects of the record stood out. The average verbal GRE of U.S.-trained students was in the 95th percentile." 15% certainly doesn't seem like "guaranteed admission" to me! Honestly though @poboy, I feel for you. It's hard to feel like you've chosen the wrong thing to do with your life. I have an undergrad degree in the humanities, but not in any specific field (my program is very hard to explain) and although it certainly makes me feel nice to have attained that distinction, it hasn't been particularly helpful in the job market, and I know that as far as academia goes, it's a non-starter. When I graduated, I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to pursue a degree in English or Philosophy, and I ultimately decided that the deck would just be too stacked against me, even as someone with a background in the humanities. I'd have to take probably at least 6-10 classes at a community college, which I would have to pay for out-of-pocket, and then apply for an unfunded masters degree, and even then I feel like I wouldn't have a great shot because I'd essentially be competing with people who got their undergrad degree in the field but whose GPA wasn't strong enough to apply directly to a PhD program. I'm not saying it's a pipe dream - if this is your passion, you should absolutely pursue it. You should just be prepared for a long road with (potentially) a lot of setbacks. I wish you all the best for your future, whatever you decide.

Unless it's like last year, in which case you may not hear back until late March.

Oh my God, that's so frustrating! I would probably have a nervous breakdown if someone did that to me... I was definitely close to one last week. And thank you, same to you!

Like I get this BUT ALSO THEY ARE JUST PEOPLE WITH THE PREFIX DR. IN FRONT OF THEIR NAMES. I understand that being polite to the point of obsequiousness is sometimes in your best interest, but that doesn't mean I enjoy it.

I feel this thread in my soul! I don't understand some professors who agree to write students recommendations and then get annoyed about being reminded. I understand procrastination, believe me, I do, but if someone asked me to do something this important (that could shape their future for years to come) I would a) not say yes unless I felt I could actually do so in a timely manner and b) understand if they got a bit ancy, as long as they weren't rude about it. Like, your life is in their hands, pretty much! Idk. I understand that professors are busy, especially at this time of year, but it upsets me that some of them treat students with so little compassion.

There are still 10 days left before the deadline and she's 100% gonna wait until the very last minute to submit it, I can just tell. But thank you! I'm choosing to trust that it will be fine because at this point, there's not much else I can do.

Congratulations!!! That's so exciting. Maybe we will be classmates!

Me: *jots down ideas for hobbies to start in the new year/during grad school because I currently have none besides watching TV and wasting copious amounts of time on the Internet*

Went to an info session where the admissions/financial aid director emphasized that if letters of recommendation were submitted even one day after the deadline, no scholarship money would be awarded. Panicked because I was still waiting on one LOR and my professor hadn't responded to my email or follow-up phone call, so ended up DRIVING TO NEW YORK from out-of-state to talk to her in person. The look on her face when she saw me in her office door was pretty priceless, as was my weak explanation that I just happened to be in the city visiting friends. Definitely an awkward moment but she was just busy and missed the email, and asked me to remind her again as many times as I needed to before the deadline. Still waiting for now.

I submitted my application! Just waiting on that last letter of recommendation now. Any other priority applicants out there?

Is anyone else having trouble with the form cutting off long titles of things? It did this for both the community college where I took a couple classes and (more gratingly) the actual name of my major. Very annoying.

Thank you!! I'm indescribably relieved.