crayolacat

I'm in a somewhat similar position. A PhD in what I am interested in (*cough*, philosophy) leads to a career with a salary about 50% of my current salary (in clinical research, hi!, PM me if you want to talk about the CR options). So... I applied to three highly ranked programs. If I get in, I'm thinking of it like a calling from God or something similar- an opportunity. But the financials are very bad indeed. Long term, if I get in, I would like to see myself as a adjunct (good thing, since that's the most likely outcome) and also consulting in my current field and maybe having the best of all worlds. At this point, I'm almost hoping I don't get in. I feel like I had to try to shut off that voice in my head that was saying why not try. Now I can say I did try, it didn't work out (if that's the case) and get on with the rest of my (very awesome) life and career. And not be poor, which this process has reminded me is also very awesome.

The issue with the philosophy results is that it is a pretty small world, so we know which ones are fake. And maybe about half of them are fake. Something to keep in mind if you think the results posted in your field mean anything. As for the "I'm perfect, how could I not get in" people, I have a theory about them, but I'll keep it to myself. :-X

I have no idea. I feel like my field is very "academicy" and turns up their noses at anyone who has been doing anything else, but that could just be the other applicants, who are generally very young and have that attitude in spades.

Part of the reading I've been reading mine is that I also have every paper since elementary school, and I've been scanning them (and every other scrap of paper in my house) into Evernote (Best. Thing. Ever.) and throwing them away.

Since I went to school in the dark ages I don't have that problem. ;-) Everything was on paper. Most of my classmates had to go to the computer lab to type their papers... I was one of about 5 people in my dorm that had their own computer. Ah, the old days...

I just looked at my papers after being out of college for 15 years and they are truly horrible. What really interested me was how much effort my professors put into trying to help me. They regularly wrote responses of a page or more, and as far as I can recall I never read them.

Oh yes, I'll be taking the job! 1) Each of the three PhD programs to which I applied have a 2% acceptance rate, so it's not all that likely, 2) My current job has gone down the crapper and I have to get out to save my sanity and I'd rather do that with an income than not. The only thing my current job had going for me was enough good will that I could have told them about an acceptance and they would have kept me through the summer. New job I would have to be all sneaky-like and give two-weeks notice.

Heh, good story. I have no idea what to wear these days, even if I were interviewing for my job. We're somewhere between business casual and too d**n casual, I know that. And good example of a horrific resume.

I used to be an employment specialist for a church... I recommend the Knock Em Dead books. And also, please please please don't make your resume ugly. In my current job I have to review CVs (not for job selection, just to see if people have the qualifications for a certain certification) and 99.9% of them are ugly as sin. Looking at prof's CVs online, same thing. Also, buy a copy of the Merriam-Webster Secretarial Handbook (most people can get through college without ever learning how to format a letter, etc.) and the Chicago Manual of Style if you don't already have it and consult both for your business correspondence. Spend some time on your LinkedIn profile and get some recommendations if you can and good links. LinkedIn is the lazy way for employers to see if you are who you say you are, because you are less likely to lie in front of the whole world than in a resume. I would also say don't apply through Monster, etc. if you can help it. Figure out the company and go apply to them directly on their website. I think it makes you look more serious about the company than just someone who was trolling Monster. If they have a text-only resume eater, format another version of your resume that looks pretty in text-only, but then bring your truly pretty resume to the interview. "Here, I think this is easier to read." They will agree and appreciate it. One thing I did at one point in my career was just drove around the area where businesses like the one I wanted to work at were located and wrote down names from signs. It can be easy to miss small businesses in general web searches. Also, don't be afraid to take a job very low in an organization if you have no practical experience. I read so much about new college graduates throwing away perfectly good jobs that are "beneath them". In my industry, new grads are hired into a position that is basically secretary. Yes, they are sitting next to people with AA degrees or less, the difference is that it is a training opportunity for the new grads to learn the business and they will move up if they will just sit there long enough to learn something. Just ask at the interview what the progression opportunties are, and then ask for specific examples (how many people were promoted out of this position in the last two years?) so you know they aren't just blowing smoke. Lastly, send a thank you letter after every interview, preferably hand-written on paper. I used to find the post office that served that particular business (search on usps.gov) and drove my thank you letter there so they would get it the next morning. One job I got, I was told that they had actually selected another candidate and then changed their mind because of the thank you letter. BTW, my personal story is that I graduated with a degree in philosophy and no work experience. I read database design books at night while working as a secretary by day, wrote a database that computerized a very complex human contact system the business where I working used, moved into data management of scientific studies, scratched and clawed, and now hold a management position in a science company and am about to finish an MS that my employer paid for. I know so many people who never would have taken that secretary job (and so many people who walked in the front door and turned up their nose at the secretary, one intern from the college where I had graduated told me I seemed smart enough that I could go get a college degree if I really tried, heh), but it was just Point A of my journey. I have now saved enough money and overpaid my mortgage so that I can afford to go graduate school full time and keep my modest little house, if I can get in. If I don't get in, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing.

So I think I'm going to get offered a new job next week (already had two interviews, just have to be reviewed and possibly interviewed by the final decider)... I couldn't wait to apply because sticking with my current job was going to cause me to jab my eye out with a stick. Anyway, that should mean that about 0.5 seconds after I sign on the dotted line a school acceptance will come in, yes?

I am an older applicant, and my SO is established in his career here. We actually both own homes here. Our plan is that I will go away to school and he will stay here. I did not in any way limit my application sphere because of him. If we make it we make it, and if we don't we don't.

It really depends on what each residency gets you, deciding what you are going to do. This is NOT a decision to be taken lightly. Where you vote is one thing that is used as evidence of where you "domocile". If you have a good reason to keep your current residency, you can even if you collect a paycheck in another state, but you have to keep all your ducks in a row- vote there, always write it down as your permanent address, accrue evidence that you plan to return, etc.

scream, call my bf, tell my job that things need to change or this is their two weeks notice (after FIFTEEN YEARS in the salt mines, I have enough savings for the summer and then some), then post to FB.

Well, my job just took a horrific turn when the person who tries to micro-manage me as a co-worker got promoted to be my boss. Two resumes out the door, even though I'm also waiting to hear about grad school. The programs I applied to give me somewhere between a 2-6% chance of landing a spot and I need a 100% of working for this witch as short of a time as possible.

I had no interest in grad school at 21. I was in a terrible financial situation and also didn't know whether I could make it in the real world. All my effort went into that, I studied relevant business skills every night after work between anxiety attacks and clawed my way into a really awesome career. And here I am, good bank and ready to do this if I get the opportunity.

The process has made me SO ready to leave my (very good) job. I can't stand anything about it any more. But same boat: I don't want to burn any bridges with applications I would have to take back. I'm waiting until 15 March to submit my resume anywhere, but I am SO VERY READY TO GO!!! Also, what I would really like to do is go independent, but that's making promises to clients that I wouldn't keep if I went another round of applications next year, so I feel like I have to look for another job for a company for this year at least.

BTW, on the "from whom", all of my applicates stated that if you had not been a full-time student for 5+ years (it's been fifteen for me, oh ya) recommendations did not need to be from profs. The downside? Part of the reason I applied to very few programs is that there was no way my business contacts would put up with the standard-sized recommendation process.

I'm mid-30s and if I get in I would be so much better at this in uncountable ways than I would have been at 21. At 21, I should have been simply ordered not to think for at least five years! Anyway, one my choice schools, a tippy-top school in my field, has a current graduate student that I figure must be in his 50s- he got his BA in the early 1970s.

I agree. I don't see a reason for a LinkedIn profile to say that one is looking for work. But thanks for the new thing to obsess over... my LinkedIn views!

I use Circa notebooks from Levenger.com. The paper can get pricy, but you can also just get the punch and punch regular three-hole paper or plain copy paper. I have notebooks in all the sizes (you can put smaller paper in larger books and mix and max and re-arrange and just go crazy. I scan them into Evernote.com and mark them "scanned" and then shred and recycle the paper whenever the pages no longer have immediate utility. The beauty of this is that you can write your notes, but you can also always get your notes (I can even get them on my Smartphone if I don't have my computer around, so it is very, very, very portable). I also use 3x5 cards and have one of those 3x5 wallet organizers (mine is from Levenger, but I've seen them at Staples). They can also be punched to fit into a Circa project, and then later they get Evernote'ed and shredded too. The 3x5s I can even photograph with my phone to get them into Evernote. BTW, I *love* my scanner and I did some serious research to select it, so I'll mention that it is a Cannon P-150. I also bought a wand scanner (aka stick scanner), but it's too fiddly with the image card and I don't use it. If there were one that had a USB cord it would be better for me.

Oh dear... Thanks forg giving me an idea about a new kind of obsessiveness I did not previously have.

Keeping it secret makes me feel like it won't happen. So I've treated it like a behavior change commitment and told people. My life WILL be changing people! Will so, will so, will so!!

In this crowd what I feel is unique about me is that I am OLD, LOL. I've lived plan B (never applied to graduate school before) and now I'm trying for that elusive plan A. Hmmm... I have two house rabbits. They live in my bedroom and use a litterbox. If you want to see my previous rabbit being rabbit-y I put up a video:

I went for three. It looks like us lower number people tend to be older and more focused on what we want. If I don't get in, I don't know if I'll apply again. This process has been far more gutwrenching than I expected, and as a nonstudent asking my professional contacts to involve themselves in the obnoxious LOR process is only something I can ask so much. I think I will be very, very, very sad if I get shut out, and I try to remember that my consolation prize will be continued $$$$ in my awesome career and living in my house which I love with my boyfriend nearby. Nonetheless, I would be crushed. My career isn't actually what I want.

I have a pile of apartment options for each school to which I've applied. Flight costs and vacation plans ready to go so I can get the jump on apartment shopping the minute I get an acceptance. My boyfriend thinks it's a little odd that I'm staying up late at night picking apartments for cities I don't even know I'm going to live in... How about you? Are you doing anything potentially constructive to focus the crazy?