XLW

Long but hopefully perspective for fresh out of undergrad students who are trying to figure out what life is like without going straight to gradschool haha. I graduated undergrad in 2014 from an insanely hard university in an extremely difficult major. So all I wanted to do was work and NOT study for a bit, so I did that for 4.5-5 years ish. It was a lot of fun, I made a lot of money traveled all over, did the partying I didn't get to do in undergraduate (due to course rigor), gained a skill unrelated to my major at all but that can always pay the bills, learned to be self sufficient and made a ton of amazing non academic friends. I say this for anyone straight out of undergraduate who might not make it into their grad schools, I honestly loved the years I spent working, it was enjoyable and fruitful and not a waste what so ever IMO. Having said that I applied for the 2019 cycle because I was ready to go back to academic sciences/engineering and try again to do something I was deeply passionate about and made a difference, fully refreshed and more certain of the direction I want to take and the types of projects I want to work on. I am expecting to be denied by most if not all of my schools mostly due to GPA (although my last two years are nearly perfect GPA wise my first two were rough which hurt my overall) and due to the lack of experience/the long break. But I wanted to try and see, you never know! If I don't get in I will probably go back to work in my previous field in a new job, preferably one with a company that promotes positive change in the world even if it doesn't pay as well as my last jobs, and possibly take up my applied physics part time master from my alma mater (I had applied for it a little while ago and was accepted but it was expensive and I had gotten a new job role so I put it off, but I can pick it up anytime and start it, it is online and "for professionals" aka easier, but since my school was a top 10 and it just says applied physics masters on the diploma hey can't complain.)

Sorry I just joined this site and didn't realize i was in poli-sci ignore my previous comment.