Golden Monkey

Got my first rejection today (CMU.) It was a real long shot anyway. As if by fate, my new business cards showed up today in the mail too (beautiful, if I do say so myself.) I think the message is, "don't quit your day job."

Yes, but mine is splattered all over the place--to my linkedin profile, to my current program, to my Vimeo account, which is also in groups, etc., etc. Since I've been working for 20 years, mine includes a lot of industry work, and it's also a professional blog (which I'm told is a very effective self-promotion tactic.) If this PhD thing doesn't work out, it's also my homepage in an attempt to scare up a new job or more work. I'm sure that more hits are generated by my participation in Linkedin professional groups than anything else. I also included it on all of my CVs, but I honestly don't know if a single adcomm has bothered to look at it at all. But I would stop looking at the webstats if I were you. It doesn't help things at all. I was reading last year's results here, and one very bitter person who had been rejected by my #1 pick was really griping that he knew they hadn't looked at his site, because he had examined his logs carefully. I really don't want to get to that level of obsession and figure it is best to not know. I figure that adcomms are not required to look at your work at all if they don't want to.

I think it is best not to look at your web stats. I started looking at mine, and it weirds me out a bit. 667 views to my CV, but only 44 views to my home page?

Yeah, I applied to two that say up front that they're "fully funded" and two that didn't say much of anything. Obviously, the first two are a lot harder to get into.

Yep. Getting accepted without funding is the same thing as being rejected for me.

Yeah, that's what I did too. Aim so high that if I got in, I wouldn't have any choice but to go, regardless of the long-term financial impact.

This is one of the advantages (or disadvantages) of having a really common name. When I google myself, I get some self-help guru with the tagline of "invest in yourself and make it happen."

Did you research average salaries in your field with and without a PhD to figure this out? I figure that by spending 4 years in a PhD program, I'd be denying myself somewhere around $60-70k of retirement contributions in the near future, not counting compounding and stock market fluctuations. But this doesn't take into account that a PhD should make for a higher income for the last 17-18 years before retirement. I guess if it turned out I came out ahead at all, even by a little bit, it would definitely be worth pursuing. But I haven't heard back from anyone either, so I'm getting ahead of myself.

Heh, for ONCE, I am seeing the bright side of being overqualified and underpaid at my current job. A meager stipend might actually be a step up for me, if not in income, then at least in mindset.

I'm wondering how the occupation of "Graduate Student" looks to mortgage companies? #1 on my list has a ridiculous cost of living, which would mean that I would stay a renter, but numbers 2-4 have relatively low costs of living, which would mean that I could possibly buy instead of rent. I just don't know whether or not the banks would loan to a full-time graduate student.

I've actually been preparing myself extensively for Plan B, so much so that I'd almost welcome Plan A falling through, in some weird way. I updated my short-form resume (as opposed to my long-winded CV,) updated my portfolio and linkedin profile, ordered new business cards, and bought two updated job search books. I'm completely prepared to relocate, as I'm pretty indifferent about living in this area. I could take it or leave it. I guess one of the benefits of being older than most applicants is that I'm pretty accustomed to Plan As not panning out.

I always think that "why don't you do into consulting?" suggestion is hilarious. For me, the terms "consultant" or "freelance" have always been euphemisms for "unemployed." Yes, going back to working for job shops with no benefits, not knowing when I'll get paid next and working on completely unpaid "on spec" jobs... that sounds like a great option.

This is something I'm thinking about right now too, especially the fact that working on a PhD would mean that many years less I was contributing towards retirement. In my current position, I'm making next to nothing (I am back to the same pay scale I was in the early-mid 90s,) but the benefits are great. I don't have the other cons to deal with, namely family, but I do wonder if putting myself behind as far as retirement benefits go is the smartest thing in the world. I sometimes wonder if it wouldn't be smarter to just wait for a better job market and look for a higher-paying job. In the end, I applied to two ridiculously competitive programs with astronomically high rejection rates, and two programs with questionable funding. I figure that if I got into either of the first two, I'd pretty much have to go, and my mind would be made up for me. But then again, if I make the wrong decision, no one is affected but me, so it's probably a lot easier for me.

Well geez, I always thought wallowing in self pity WAS the reward for all the hard work?

Well, ha, I'm almost exactly 4 years older than you (also a June birthday,) and also applied to HCC. Georgia Tech has undoubtedly put both of our applications in the "old person" pile.

I can comment on New York. Look outside of Manhattan. Most of the students I know live in Brooklyn, with a few in Queens. I live in New Jersey, but it only takes me 15 minutes to get to midtown Manhattan.

Yes, I've been doing that on hotpads (link.) Tempe, Atlanta, and Pittsburgh are pretty good. Boston... not so much.

Ordered a proof of my business card design today. Also, I talked to an ex-coworker who said there's work back in L.A. for a former employer. Unfortunately, it's in L.A.

No kidding? I guess we must have it pretty easy then. Whenever I work overtime, I get comp days off, and the job itself is really easy. It's just that it also pays really badly.

If this is any indication: 20 years ago with a BSME from Washington University in St. Louis, I had a 2.9 GPA and truly dismal GRE scores. I got into Biomedical/Bioengineering programs at UC San Diego and USC. I got rejected from Ohio State and... somewhere else, I forgot where. I didn't end up going.

3 resume updates and a linkedin profile update later, I guess I'm just waiting to pull the trigger on the job search in a month or so. Oh well, it's as good a time as any to catch up on my job search books. I figure I'd rather do this now than wait.

Flip side, sorry to be a Debbie Downer: This is one thing I wonder about: going back to school, even at a fully-funded program undoubtedly means barely making enough to live on (well, I'm already doing that,) but almost more importantly it means sacrificing benefits like 401k and health insurance. I sometimes wonder at my age if it makes more sense to just try to find a better-paying job so that I can keep contributing to my 401k, keep being covered by health insurance, etc. If I finished a Phd at the age of 47 or 48, would I really be better off professionally, or would I have just denied myself 4 years of saving for retirement, exacerbated by the fact that I had to pay for my own health insurance? Though I'm in a situation where I have no dependents, so at least if I did something stupid, no one is affected but me.