cacao to cacao

bubble toes

*a scenario involving a musical chair tournament. our applications on the bottom of each chair. or *a scenario involving a tournament of flip-cup. winner gets 1st dibs at funding their student.

never used to check my spam folder until i saw this thread... now i check it as often as i check everything else. some of the spam i've been getting is totally gross! HAHA *delete forever and of cours,e nothing useful in that folder thus far..

uh, i busted my arse the past couple years with MA coursework, my thesis, and networking the whole way through... people can think whatever they want about me posting my PHD acceptances. getting in is a significant achievement. i'm going to post about it-- whether they like it or not. ppl can ACT bitter n say "oh u're bragging" but... really deep down inside I know they're really happy for you too.

get an internship in DC that forces you to network with similar organizations of interest. doesn't matter if it's a nonprofit, foundation, bipartisan, or a consulting firm. networking in DC is one productive way to spend an "extra year" on before reapplying and attending grad school. you'd be surprised how many orgs/people will be looking out and waiting for you once you graduate.

i agree with a previous post - imma get me a wardrobe overhaul! nothing's hotter than a 1st year phD student with awesome fashion sense

seriously freaking out that i haven't gotten official word from anywhere. is it bad i've already started hunting down housing options? I even figured out where i'm gonna live with 18000 stipend versus a 27000 stipend. also have calculated commuting times if I lived off-campus. day-dreaming of that feeling walking across campus, chin up high, completely satisfied being immersed in research I love.. self-torture continues.

i've come to think of january through march as a bell curve... it's still a bit early. as far as interviews, none of my programs include interviews as part of the admission process. so i made sure to interview/"have a nice long chat" with potential advisers (one via telephone, the other in-person) before i turned in my applications. one said she'd love to work with me and that i should definitely be hearing from her in January (this was back in November). the other potential adviser was already suggesting projects he wants me to work on.. so i dunno, we'll see. at this point if they call yo uand want an "interview" it's probably because they want to see if 1. you're legit, 2. you're a good match with the department's (or their own) research.

what kind of work experience do you have? that would be a better indicator of your career prospects than what program you decided on. just curious which programs and schools you decided on applying to? moreso interested in which programs you chose (education policy versus public policy) if you went with education policy you could end up doing research in a bunch of places...like at local or state-level research orgs/think-tanks, private foundations, education policy nonprofits, child & youth advocacy nonprofits.. if you went with public policy you could end up working directly with local governments... like for the city or state govt. probably may end up at the mayor's, governor's, state representative's office. probably will have more opportunities in consulting..