GreenePony

Just started two more: Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King. He keeps making allusions to central Texas and it makes me smile- and laugh. There's certainly something in the Waco water (everyone has filters for a reason). Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally - never read it but feel I should Oh- and the instructions for a new pair of 30's trousers. I feel I'll get through this first

I figured it would be something like that, thanks

I was accepted to gwu's mst program so I would have classes at Foggy Bottom campus and a separate building ~30 mn walk east (13th and G, I think?) Right now we're not paying more than 800 for a two bedroom apartment, but I fully expect that sort of price to not be possible in DC or the suburbs. Can anyone comment on the feasibility of this? Could we find something that I can commute to class (walk or metro) from for the two of us, maybe with a dog for less 1000? We may need two bedrooms so one can be an office for my husband since he may be working from home. I'd like a more safer than not neighborhood and we would need to find parking for our car.

After telling an underclassman that I was accepted to a program a common friend was wait-listed to and I statistically didn't fit the average: "Well maybe they're one of those that randomly selects people?"

Yes and no, I moved 1500+ miles away for undergrad but was slightly driven by wanting to get away from an old boyfriend. Grad school (even for a year) seems scarier. On one hand, my husband and I will move so much farther, to another continent, for a year where the closest things to friends we have there are my second cousins in another country that have a different primary language and friend's parents several hours south whom I've met once. On the other hand, there's one of my favorite cities for two years where we are 2-3 hours from my parents, and within 2 hours of friends of each of ours. But I've never lived in a city near that large, I went from a town of <12000 to a city of 120,000 for ug, but DC is what 617996?

I erred on the side of caution, made anything that was the least bit cringe-worthy unsearchable (mostly unrelated stuff, videos from a dance organization I ran where I was woefully unprepared for the performance, horse shows where I was showing a greeny and my equitation went out the window, that sort of thing). Thankfully my married name is very, very common so unless they searched my maiden name they wouldn't find anything. And you can set your privacy settings so public search is off and you can't google your fb profile.

That is just evil.

Packing up (my graduation party is doubling as a packing party), moving wherever, find a job, work on a pet project script, sew a lot. If we have a dog by then, teach it how to do a sic 'em.

Must be a grandma thing, mine thought I was going for a PhD (no, that was your son, like 30 years ago)

Good myth dispelment (I'm in the middle of translating Hebrew poetry, so I'm feeling free to make up words): you don't have to make everyone happy. If people say "I won't come unless you have/do blahblah" they're probably people you don't want there anyway. People said that about alcohol and we went "too bad, so sad"* and they got over it. Kind of harsh but whatever, I felt like crap already (thank you, field school & food poisoning), why deal with drunk family members on top of that? *tactfully *edit* Unless those people are your significant other, or are paying for the whole to-do. Then they have a say, the SO more than the person paying, because you can also do a JoP wedding for cheaper.

I met my husband his first semester of grad school. He did run into trouble when he tried to keep the same level of campus and social involvement that he had in undergrad. If you don't try to do that, you should be fine. Two of my friend (couple, they met in undergrad) are both doing PhDs in Chem at two different universities and are seeming to manage to have a fairly lively weekend social life and knowing those two, are keeping their grades way up on top of their TA/lab positions. A friend from church - with the exceptions of the weeks around finals, the bar and Practice Court- was fairly social in law school. It seems that socializing is best kept on the majority to the weekends and in moderation but is definitely possible. We'll see how I do next year.

It depends on the couple and who they are (and in full disclosure, 6 months later we are still getting compliments on our wedding and how fun it was since we had a 19-piece band and some touches that were really "us"). If you enjoy big parties, go for, if not- meh. My husband is really pleased we went with the full wedding (which was still pretty modest and less than half of a year's tuition). My parents didn't go in debt, we were able to get some friends in we hadn't seen in a while and we got some awesome cake (I love this cake company, seriously, amazing- frozen for 6 months and it still tastes better than friends' cake the day of their wedding). If you buy into the blog-worthy wedding hubub it might seem a bit more overrated, but fitting it to the couple makes it so much better. I want cake now... I feel bad for my friend now. She was waitlisted to a program I was accepted to (despite her have a much higher GPA, and mine being below their average) and hasn't heard something from her "safety" program. She put up with my freakouts this past month but now I don't know how to deal with hers. Advice anyone?

Elopement is such a smart idea. We did the whole full dinner schtick. Would have been happier with a cake and punch reception (cake was the best part anyway) but someone decided to be a self-proclaimed groomzilla And what about trial by fire?

They say that wedding planning can be a real relationship test (pffff), it's really applying to grad school.

Problem solved I was recommended to the grad studies for acceptance from the department.

So I was accepted to a program in the UK but the commission I interned with in the past just posted an opening that would be perfect for me (in the area of museums I love even, with my internship supervisor) the problem is their minimum requirement is a bit above me (already BA with 1 yr experience but I'll graduate in early May and have just shy of a year experience all combined). I was thinking of emailing her (in response to the direct email she sent me and other previous interns with the announcement) saying it sounds interesting, I'm think I'm under qualified but I wanted to let you know I got into such-and-such program and thank you for writing the LoR. Should I even mention the job when I email her thanking her for writing the LoR/updating her on my acceptance? It would be a kind of long shot to be hired anyway since she also posted this on a national list-serv and I know people with MAs and years more experience will apply. (I guess this fits in decision section? if this belongs somewhere else please let me know)

This would be the only thing keeping my husband and I in the US next year. Hopefully they get back with a scholarship today (the only thing that would get me to go there thanks to it being even more expensive than our undergrad and that was painful enough.) *edit* just checked the survey and sometime after 4-ish CST yesterday someone posted that they got in!

Apparently my silence is driving my grandmother crazy. According to my dad she has been obsessively checking my Facebook because she's convinced I won't tell her where I'm going (because I don't know yet, Grandma!) It's just compounding her fear that the family will never be together again (never mind that fact her parents and her husband were immigrants and left their own families, and my brother saying he will move back to the area after college.)

1. Is getting a museums studies degree necessary to work in the museum field? A degree (preferably MA/MS) in MST isn't necessary, however most job announcements require a related degree like Anthro, Art History, History, American Studies, etc depending on the museum's mission. More often that not, anything but a house museum (and maybe even that) will want a Masters for any position (conservation and exhibit design being whole other areas I know little about, though my friend with exhibit design aspirations is getting her MA too) 2. Will getting a museums studies degree put me ahead in the search for a job? If not, is it worth the time and money to be right back where I started? It will give you experience in the different areas of museums if you go to a generalist program (most are now). Even my minor gave me experience in education, administration and collections on top of specific knowledge like Material Culture. Most require internships which not only get you experience which get you ahead in the job market but help you narrow down what area of museums you want to work in. 3. Would it be smarter to get a degree in history rather than museum studies? Not necessarily, going into academia? Sure. Going into a museum? Figure out what kind of museum you want to work for. Most history museums in the US are going to focus on US history. If you want to work in an art museum look into an art history program. My MST professors come from a variety of backgrounds : museum director: Fine Arts (BFA), Museum Science (MA), Fine Arts (PhD) director of program: Government (BA), American Civ (MA), American Civ (PhD) professor: History (BA), MLIS (library science, believe focus on conservation), History (PhD) professor: Museum Studies (BA), Museum Studies (MA) professor: ? (BA), museum admin/American History (MS) My mentor (head of collections for a state museum/agency): American Studies (BA/MA) 4. Given my ramblings above, am I suited for a museum post or would I be better suited in academia with research and teaching? I would say academia. Like I said above, most American history museums tend to focus on US history (there are exceptions of course). If you want to go abroad you might have more luck in an area you are interested in. Do you want to work in a museum or do you want to just focus on your interests and see museums as a means to an end? Since you are more unsure, history may be better for you to leave you more options. See if you can sit in on a Museum Studies Course at a local university (for some reason these keep popping up despite the job market being terrible and not near enough spots for those that have the training) or read an intro book - 100 years of Museums and Museum in Motion were both on my assigned list when I started. Remember your career doesn't have to fit all of your interests. If you looked at all my research interests I would never fit anywhere, however I am picking one or two areas and planning on doing my thesis on that before settling down in a history museum's collections department where a generalist would be right at home. A degree certainly does not put you on the same footing as someone without a degree + debt. Museums are looking for people with training and experience. The programs give you that. The market is flooded with people with training so museums can pick and choose from the cream, you want to be the most prepared you can be. A MST degree is fairly limiting. I've heard it explained that MST isn't like other programs (history, anthro, etc) because it is a more professional degree than academic. You are being trained for a specific field - like how CompSci is, my husband- a programmer- would have a very hard time finding a job in another field because he was trained for a specific career, he can teach or he can program. Now that he has experience in programming he can also work in some business positions but that more has to do with his experience than his education. Hope that helps. Reading over, it reads kind of depressing but a lot of that has to do with the job market. It's just flooded (you have much better career options in compsci, and much better pay checks.) If you really want to go into museums- go for it!

Re: leggings v. sweats I tend to connect "pink" sort of sweats to girls who either think they look cute or don't bother to change to go to class, athletic sweats to the actual athletic teams, and leggings to the sorority girls who want us all to think they spend a lot of time at the gym. Those that actual run either have the decency to shower and change before coming to class or wear the actual running leggings that look different than the fashion leggings. It makes me almost wish we went back to the clothing rules that were in place 15-20 years ago where we had to be more dressed up (5 years ago PJs weren't allowed outside dorms, I had a friend told to go back and change by the BPD because he had lounge pants on).

Could you ask for an extension? I was told the same thing but thought that the other decisions might take longer so I emailed them, told them that I understand that many students apply and they didn't have to give me an extension but could they please? They extended my deadline "indefinitely" and were the most accommodating postgrad admissions office ever. The only delay in it was the school being 6 hours ahead of me .

My packet came almost 2 weeks later (marked priority but USPS hates my complex so...) but they are the most accommodating admissions office ever. They gave me an "indefinitely" extended deadline. Which is seems I won't need afterall.

Rejection from my dream program, rest of the decisions coming out this week makes me even more depressed. They sent out invites Monday, and will send rejections Thursday. I think my meh GPA is what killed it (just under 3.3). My scores were pretty decent (5.5 in writing), my letters should have been good, I had research experience but nothing published. Really depressing as this would have been the perfect situation and the only program I applied to that gave considerable funding (meaning more than 1/4-1/2 tuition). In a perfect world I could go to the program I was accepted to finish that MA, then apply for next year but that can't happen since the graduation date of 1 is after the start date of dream program. And there would be ~10 months where we would be in limbo if I applied again for Fall'14. I'm supposed to call to let my family know but I'm not sure I can without crying again. *edit* I've now eaten 1/4 pan of baked oatmeal. I feel slightly better. Might be all the sugar I dumped in.