abc123xtc Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 As I'm worrying more and more about possibly not getting into graduate school, I'm trying to think of my Plan B. I'm not really sure I have one yet, so I was wondering what everyone else's Plan B is? I would like some ideas or a place to start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisSlumgullionIsSoVapid Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Getting my Masters at a R1 university. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sleepycat Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Applying to get a MA. Although I have no clue if I will need it yet and that is kinda frustrating me a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DustSNK Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 (edited) Well it is a sh*t feeling for shure if it happens. Give your self a few days, maybe a week, to feel like your future is over and all is lost BUT! After that get back on the ball! Personally this happened to me last year. I went from a community college to a uni, rushed to graduate because I was getting to around 24 years old and felt the presure to take a break from learning to work. I didn't get close enough with professors to really learn what grad studies in soc was all about, and I know I did not write essays that sold myself well (and I had a sketchy overall GPA).Soc is a funny field, as it is much more rigiorous and different in style than its undergraduate form. What did I do? I took non-degree graduate classes. As long as you have a BA, you can take up to 12 credits at most any school in the USA (or CAN) that isn't private. It is a GREAT resourse for your future plans if you get rejected. Why? For one you get to not have the stress of being in a program while learning the ins and outs of grad school. You can be very upfront with your professors that you got rejected and want to take it as an opprtunity to train your self for furutre grad work. Also, most if not all programs accept transfer credits so the work you do is not a waste. Also if you can be a non-degree student at a school you want to go to, and you ace your courses and do very good work and become known as a good student, THAT my friend is a leg up on any 4.0 GPA-- 1600 GRE-- privately educated good doer who has been grooming themselves for acceptence to any school! I did this route and have applyed to 6 schools for 2012, unfortunatly the school I went to for non-degree work I'm not applying to because of their focus, but it was a great school with amazing faculty, just not my focus for research. Anyway, best advice is don't give up. Edited January 31, 2012 by DustSNK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sleepycat Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 ^ We seem to be in good company DustSNK. that is what i was planning to do after I got rejected last year, but I lost all motivation after looking at the prices at one school. I think that will be plan C because I can't wait any longer to get started doing something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DustSNK Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 ^ We seem to be in good company DustSNK. that is what i was planning to do after I got rejected last year, but I lost all motivation after looking at the prices at one school. I think that will be plan C because I can't wait any longer to get started doing something. Yeaa it is pricey. I went to a state school where it was around 1100$ a course (3 credits). 4k+ later I am hoping it will show ad coms I mean business, and honeslty it was what I needed to do. I feel I had the focus, drive and skills to start an MA before. But these things were all more defined because of my experince doing grad work for a bit and really made up for my "just need to pass and pull a B or better" approach I had to grades. In one class I had to do a lit review with a professor who shared similar interests in East Asian topics. Shes a really great researcher who was exactly the kinda person I needed to learn from to straighten up a bit for a program. Since I had to pay out of pocket, it really put a new spin on "getting your moneys worth" for me. I tried to meet with her every week for office hourse, asked questions about my research, her research, being a PhD... just anything you can think of. Granted, I know a lot do this as an undergrad. But if you are from a state school with 30k plus students, it is not exactly the enviornment that fosters this kinda connection. You got to get out there and do it your self cause you will be lost in the crowd. All in all the faculty I was able to talk to , and the things I learned were worth the 4k$ (Uhgg what a price). Might I suggest a plan C for ya? Teach in South Korea for a few years. All you need is a BA, and don't mind teaching English. 22-30k a year, free apartment, free airfair, vacation, severence pay, and you get to live in an amazing country which any American can learn a bit from being there. Go to www.parkenglish.com . I did that for a few years and have sent countless people to this agency and all have had good experinces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unamuno Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Last year, l was rejected by all the schools I applied to. I was crushed. However, I spent the summer looking for a job and studying in order to retake the GRE (my last results were over five years old and so I had to retake them). I found an amazingly cushy job which at the same university where I just finished my MA where I have a lot of downtime. This allowed me to be much more effective this time around when applying. It also allowed me to study and save money. During this time I also got an adjunct position at a community college which helped expand my CV. Thinking back on it, I don't know if I would have been prepared last year, even if I had been accepted. So it turns out that, even though the sting of rejection is painful indeed, it was better this way. In fact, I drastically improved my GRE scores thanks to that extra time. Not to mention, it's been nice having time off from taking classes. I hate to repeat worn-out clichés, but sometimes you just have to turn a negative into a positive. DustSNK 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palito Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 I'm now starting to feel the weight of eminant rejection. Does anybody know of any good MA programs that have late and/or rolling admissions? I'm mostly interested in political sociology in the Latin American context as it intersects with issues of development. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth.Vegan Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Terminal MA funded or unfunded. If it is at a top ranked program e.g. Columbia or MAPPS, I don't care about funding. If it is a somewhat lower ranked program like Boston College or New School I would hope for at least partial funding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sociologyplease Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Funded M.A. I applied to one as a "back up" during the application process and with more and more people getting interview invites and acceptances to my other options, I'm thinking a(nother) M.A. is looking almost like Plan A at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abc123xtc Posted January 31, 2012 Author Share Posted January 31, 2012 Well, I was mostly hoping for suggestions that were non-academia related. I was hoping for something else to focus on if I find myself unable to "break in" to the field. I find myself drawn to documentary filmmaking, so I can still educate people (but obviously in a different way). Education is really important to me, but I don't want to teach at the k-12 level (I don't really like children). I also know that documentary filmmaking is a far stretch, so I was trying to come up with other ways to do something similar that may or may not require a postgraduate degree. Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sociologyplease Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 I'm not sure what your interests are- but a lot of direct service jobs result in education- educational presentations to varying audiences, for example. Non-profit orgs in an area of interest to you (violence against women, LGBTQ competency, sex education, immigration rights, anti-racism action, etc.) might be a good place to volunteer/land a job. A lot of my friends have jobs where they go to schools, conferences, and companies doing presentations on a topic they are super passionate about and I'm think they are pretty lucky! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abc123xtc Posted January 31, 2012 Author Share Posted January 31, 2012 I guess I'm not really sure how to get started in that? Most entry level nonprofit jobs in the Seattle area have you do canvassing, which I absolutely loathe. I'm really into sex workers rights, anti-racism and sexism work, and queer homeless youth. I'd love to do something useful but actually get paid for it. :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth.Vegan Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 I guess I'm not really sure how to get started in that? Most entry level nonprofit jobs in the Seattle area have you do canvassing, which I absolutely loathe. I'm really into sex workers rights, anti-racism and sexism work, and queer homeless youth. I'd love to do something useful but actually get paid for it. :/ That's why I chose academia in the first place! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abc123xtc Posted January 31, 2012 Author Share Posted January 31, 2012 That's why I chose academia in the first place! Me too, actually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supernovasky Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 My plan B? Hike the Appalachian Trail. Isidore 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acooper Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 dye my hair blond, put silicone on my breast and apply to playboy`s mansion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abc123xtc Posted January 31, 2012 Author Share Posted January 31, 2012 I'm actually thinking of packing up, spending every penny I have on moving to NYC, and see what happens. If I can't go to graduate school, I want an adventure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbirch Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 My plan B? Hike the Appalachian Trail. Can I come? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth.Vegan Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 (edited) I'm actually thinking of packing up, spending every penny I have on moving to NYC, and see what happens. If I can't go to graduate school, I want an adventure. I transfered to Hawaii to finish my undergrad, that was my adventure. Now I just want to get into a good grad school that will have decent job placement. I am not a rankings snob by any sense of the means, I don't need job placement in some super prestigious school, I just want tenure track. Any school will do, somewhere like Evergreen or Reed would be ideal though. Edited January 31, 2012 by xdarthveganx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abc123xtc Posted January 31, 2012 Author Share Posted January 31, 2012 I stayed in state for my undergrad, so I never got my adventure unfortunately. :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth.Vegan Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 (edited) I stayed in state for my undergrad, so I never got my adventure unfortunately. :/ Yeah. I had 30 credits and 3.2 GPA in community college (Portland). I wasn't going to be able to transfer to Stanford or anything, but I had plenty of options. I chose Hawai'i because I wanted to get away for a while. That said, once I set my sights on a T25 grad school, my adventure was over. I work so damn much I went to the beach maybe twice in the past 3 months. But hey, now I have a 3.94, I'm working as a research assistant, finishing an honors thesis, and applying for research internships. The hard work has paid off so far, but I definitely had to sacrifice my adventure for it. Edited January 31, 2012 by xdarthveganx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supernovasky Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Can I come? Sure! I'm serious about this. I'm trying to make a lot of money this month. If I don't get accepted, I'll hope to have enough saved to hike the entire AT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DustSNK Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 (edited) I'm actually thinking of packing up, spending every penny I have on moving to NYC, and see what happens. If I can't go to graduate school, I want an adventure. I'm actually thinking of packing up, spending every penny I have on moving to NYC, and see what happens. If I can't go to graduate school, I want an adventure. Get out of America!!!! Going to NYC will not be an adventure, you'll just be surounded by others (a lot of them) from around the country who are doing the same thing. At this point it has become a very clear cut ,packaged lifestyle doing the NYC move. But if you just want a change of pace then it would be perfect for ya (and expencive), I'm happy to have moved from around there a few years back but I miss it. If you want a real adventure, where ya dont know exactly what will happen, go work aborad. Lots of places need people to teach ENglish and all you need is an BA degree in anything. Edited January 31, 2012 by DustSNK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DustSNK Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 I'm now starting to feel the weight of eminant rejection. Does anybody know of any good MA programs that have late and/or rolling admissions? I'm mostly interested in political sociology in the Latin American context as it intersects with issues of development. Honeslty if you want this route.... you NEEED to study at Uni of Texas with Javier Ayero. He does pure political sociology on latin america. I learned from him for a year at SUNY Stony Brook and he got snatched up by U of T. He has done lots of good work, written books, and is a great thinker. Esp if you are into critical theory he would be the best mentor you can find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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