DrPepper-olic

terminal degrees

I am in a similar situation, even though I work in academia. I was hired in the fall so it didn't make sense to ask for recommendations (still doesn't) when I have very little work experience. (And my former professors were very happy to oblige.) I like my job, and if I'm not accepted, I'd like to keep working here. Another problem arises from my not applying to this school, or to my alma mater, so letting people know I was applying to schools far away might also hurt their feelings. (People around here are pretty loyal to the region. Which is exactly why I need to move.) Still I wasn't overly stealthy about the fact that I had taken the GRE. My husband is uber afraid that people in his office will be offended if (when!) he leaves. I think he's going to use me as his excuse when he steps down. And, to tell the truth, I will probably use him as an excuse for why I step down. (After all, he can't get a job in his actual field here.) It stinks not having someone to talk to about the application process, in person, during the day. My husband listens enough, but I'd like to have other supporters, so he doesn't get sick of it. I think that this site is pretty helpful, and no one on Grad Cafe can look at me funny if I talk about how badly I want to move to a city. (And boy do I!)

60 minutes

broken hearted

They do alert you if you're rejected. Sometimes it's quick, like ripping off a band-aid. Sometimes it's passive aggressive, like being dumped by someone who's blaming you for your shortcomings. No news is just no news, unfortunately/fortunately. Schools appear to have their own time lines.

freshman 15

spare ribs

I remember reading this the other day. Brilliant. I just got my first reject, and the image literally popped in my mind. Yay!!

This week, eating Girl Scout cookies in front of the computer has slowed down the email-refresh-repeat cycle. Not by much. And I look like Cookie Monster. (I thought going to the gym would stop the insanity, but my iPhone is an enabler!)

I know your struggle too! I kept up a long-distance relationship for three years, and we got married in August, after I had finished my MA. He already had student loans from law school, so we had to take that debt into account when figuring out what we should do. Ultimately, it was best for us to live apart for a few years, spending many weekends together, than for us to face lots of debt. In that time, the economy got pretty shaky, so I think we made a wise decision for us. We've only got as much debt as it would cost to buy a used car now, and none of that is from me. Another plus to living apart while I was in grad school was the downtime I had to study. It made me that much better as a student, since I had to study hard during the week in order to spend my weekends with him. Over that time, he was also a part-time grad student (since he's a university employee, it helped him defer loan payments). We sometimes had study weekends, or we would just be apart when midterms, exams, and term papers were due. I hope that you and your SO can sit down to plot out the future costs together. I would recommend going to a website like www.mint.com, where you can set up your financial situation, and see how it pans out over time. You could enter an in-town, in-state, and out-of-state scenario. For the in-town example, you two already own a house together, and moving away will bring in a new cost of living. The six-figure debt of sticking around, however, would probably outweigh that in the short run, but only you know what you want to do about it over time. I think it's helpful to calculate the cost of different scenarios. You can just estimate the costs of living, or enter the same costs of living for everywhere, just to see how the varying debt will impact your future. Best of luck!

game theory

glory be! (said with a Southern accent for effect)

YES!

Thanks newms! You know, I spent a lot of time fighting for my right to finish my education. Some professors at my original institution were nay-sayers about my return to graduate studies since I had that f, and I was adding 2 part-time jobs into the mix. I earned a lot of self-respect while proving them wrong, and I fell in love with my field in the process. (My husband knows, and he's OK welcoming academics into our marriage...) My insecurities are certainly coming out. I would be willing to go through an oral qualifying exam if I had to, to convince the adcoms that I'm worth it. (I would also duke it out, American Gladiator-style if need be.) I think if I do go through the whole process again, I will at least have a pub or two by then.

Thanks! I read that post, too. I think it's helpful...But it still makes me feel like I'll slip through the cracks.

I am quietly going nuts in my broom closet of an office. People are starting to hear back from the schools I applied to, and I'm a little worried. I figured I wouldn't be a first choice applicant because all of my degrees come from a lesser known school, although my particular department has some well-known (notorious) professors in my field. I am starting to fear now, especially after reading all the threads below, that my GRE score wasn't enough to make me a second or third choice applicant. Here's the deal: My GPA for the last two years is 3.81. Ironically, that's also my one of my major GPAs. (The other, Spanish, is 3.72.) My overall GPA is 3.38. In 2005, I had extenuating circumstances, didn't withdraw from classes to take care of them, and wound up with a couple of flags on my transcript. Unfortunately, I took a semester of graduate classes that year, so I have a flag on that transcript too. (Thus my MA GPA is a 3.5 from Whoare U.) It blows because I otherwise have stellar grades and have scored the highest of my classmates on almost every exam given in my graduate programs. I hope/pray that my LORs reflected this excellence. (I am certain that one did. I ended up rotating LORs from 6 different profs in my department, to lower the work load. I had profs who sat on my defense committee, who taught me since undergrad, and who have mentored me recently.) I am starting to fear that my transcripts are screaming, "Don't take her." I even tried to preempt this my committing 2 months of my life to studying for the GRE. (Every lunch hour, every break, every evening, it was me and the Kaplan strategy books.) I got a 800Q, which seems to be the necessary condition for acceptance to most programs in my field. I got a 1560 overall (and 4.5 aw...not terrible, considering). (I will confess, I danced around a bit with the proctors at the test site.) I hoped that this score, paired with my stellar performance for the past 2 years, would overshadow my bad year. Now I fear that my score only got me through the initial stage of looking at applications. Now I have to wait in application limbo. Application purgatory. Yes, I was sure to include a specific paragraph or two in my PSs about how I fit with each department. Yes, I used confident wording (as women are sometimes criticized for). No, my best fit schools haven't rejected me yet. But they are Ivy's. And I really doubt that they take people who have failed classes in their past. Especially after reading all the threads stating that GREs don't matter much. Will I never be able to move out of rural America? Is there no hope for people with a spotted past? Am I destined to pursue higher education only as a hobby from now on? Please, someone, post an example of how GRE scores can help your application get through. I mean, Zach Morris got into Stanford, and he almost failed high school...

fire sale

two fish

big bang

starving artist

unisex cologne

Oh, I am a super nerd.... Chuck Norris decided to major in mathematics, He required that N be replaced by Norris in all proofs. As a result: (a) Cauchy sequences no longer require an n > N, but are now examined as n > Norris. Because nothing is greater than Chuck Norris, Cauchy sequences cease to exist. ( b ) "n in N" is now "n in Norris", where Norris is the set of all numbers which support Chuck Norris's proofs. The "Friedman Rule" of n% inflation was taken over by Chuck Norris over a decade ago. He'll lower inflation again when he feels like it. In the long run, everyone is dead. Not because they were still waiting for prices to adjust, but because Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked them. Chuck Norris is a risk-loving rational actor. Unfortunately, the outcome of all of Chuck Norris's behavior is certain: he wins. Chuck Norris knows the population parameters. Chuck Norris doesn't send thank you notes. He only receives them.

Hey johnjhan, don't freak out. I have only received feedback from 1 of 16 schools. That school was the "smallest" program I applied to so they didn't have as many applications to sift through. Yes, people are starting to post results on the site, but the adcoms do, in fact, have until April 15 to get feedback from the first round of acceptances they've sent out. (I, for one, refuse to concede defeat until I receive a rejection letter or it's April 16, even for the reach schools.) Keep in mind that rejections are being posted for those schools too. If you haven't heard anything, that means they didn't reject you yet. That's certainly fueling my hope. (Also, I remind myself that I did wait until the deadline day to click "submit" because I wanted to make sure I did all I could for my SoPs. I think that probably played a role in when the graduate schools sent my packet to the respective adcoms. Maybe this is a factor for you as well?)

no money