luvalicious

Glad to read you're doing well, unknownscholar. I've also come back to update - so few people come back to talk about "what happens now?" between acceptance and matriculation...and if I knew then the things I have learned since going for my MA I would have been alot more informed If anyone has any questions feel free to message me as well, or post here. Since my last post, I've: Signed a lease for an apartment in Chicago. The most frustrating part was that alot of landlords wouldn't lease an apartment knowing it may sit empty for a month or two, but I got lucky. I ended up only applying to one place, and I got a great deal which I'm pretty happy about - I wasn't relishing stomping the pavement and paying endless application fees. I over-prepared a bit on the paperwork I took with me to apply but in the end I was able to view, apply, and be approved before I left Chicago 4 days later. I also had time to walk around my neighborhood, which is pretty far from the university, and start getting used to the (long) commute - which is another reason I'm glad I'm moving about a month before classes start so that I can really get settled in. Accepted an additional fellowship in addition to my funding deal, which involves a pre-term class and some meetings with advanced grad students. Great opportunities to start networking, meeting people, and getting comfortable being at a new university. I'm looking forward to it, mostly. Grad school can be a very lonely place, with alot of emphasis on individual effort, and I'm a loner as it is. I'm definitely going to work on establishing some relationships during that two-week period. Started preparing in other various ways like: finding out where I can get my blood tested to prove I've been immunized (a state requirement in IL, but something I haven't thought about since my first year of undergrad); looked at some practice language exams (test is in the first few weeks of classes); 75% finalized what classes I'll be taking in the first quarter; chose a mandatory (but included in my funding) health insurance plan; and other boring things. Right now I'm just enjoying my last few weeks with my boyfriend (he'll be staying in MI) and picking my way through various books. I'm still freelancing, more for experience than the money, and I guess in a way I'm trying to prepare my brain for being back in school after a year off working. Whew, that was kinda long. Sorry!

The reality is that in most fields it is pretty difficult to transfer credits and in some cases you may end up starting over. This will vary program by program, so it's important that you talk to the people at the schools you want to go to about whether they accept transfer credits. The flip side to this is that you might do coursework or research that makes you a stronger, more successful candidate - this is sort-of what happened to me in my MA program, so although I am essentially losing some of the time I put into my MA, I'm recouping by finishing that degree and continuing on for my PhD in a stronger program which fits me better. However, given the option I don't believe I would do it this way again. You also need to consider if, should you go into the program you've accepted to, and are not accepted to another one next year, you'd be content to continue (or even to quit). I'm guessing not, since you already seem set against it. In which case, I think that you should just hold off another year and try again.

This is only in reference to UChicago and the GRE, as I'm not in your field, but; I'll be attending there in the fall in a different program, but I'm somewhat familiar with the city and like Philmajor mentioned, you could spend just about your entire life in Hyde Park if you really wanted. In fact, it can feel a bit isolated down there. Also, in regards to wanting to apply to schools that don't require the GRE, I am curious to know whether it is because you don't want to take it or because you have taken it and not done well? If it's the second, I took it twice and didn't do as well as I believe I'm capable, but the rest of my application was good enough that it didn't hurt as much as I feared it might. I only ask because many people think the test scores/GPA are the most important part of the application and sometimes it isn't. I'm not telling you that you have to take it, either, but it may help you get funding. Every program looks for different things in a candidate, but in general the better your letters of recommendations and personal statements are, the better your chances. Hope that help.

I'm not in Polisci (History), but I wanted to chime in anyway because I was in a similar position. I started my MA at a pretty much no-name state university, and both my undergrad thesis and my proposed MA thesis were on kind of untraditional topics (in fact, my BA was on genocide in Asia), but I found that it didn't hurt me because I was able to show how my topic connected to more traditional topics, and then find people who were willing to flex a bit with me. Along with pitching your interests as not being completely disconnected from the "hot topics," you may also want to look for the program that are a bit interdisciplinary, so that you can take courses outside of your primary field that will enhance what you want to do, as opposed to switching fields, if that makes you uncomfortable. Also, ask your contact at UBC if he can recommend any programs to you. I hope that made sense. Just a thought.

This is comparing apples to orange but, my own experience was that I only had three months to meet, hopefully impress and ask for recommendations for a MA fellowship my first year. In one class, I wasn't even particularly active, but I went and told the professor why, and told him my goals, and why the fellowship was important, and I believe that those conversations carried over onto the letters just as much as my class performance. I had this sort of "who, what, why" conversation with all of my recommenders for the fellowship, and I had a similar dialogue when I asked my recommenders (for PhD applications) if they could write letters for me in October (they were all due in December) initially, then followed up and gave them all the information in November. How early you should ask really does depend on the professor - I had one who turned it around within 2 weeks, and another who actually submitted the letter late. I don't know that there is any particular benefit to having your applications in early - maybe there is, someone else can weigh in - if they have a set deadline rather than rolling admissions.

Unless you're paying off debt that you accumulated for school for the term the money is awarded - for example, you put your books on your credit card because the check wasn't there yet, or you put your rent on your credit card and then use the loan to pay it off - then technically you're misusing the money. I wouldn't do it, especially because what you'll actually get out of the federal loans is probably going to be barely enough to live off of as it is... and it may catch up with you later.

I don't think it will make a difference that you're graduating a year early, unless you address it in a personal statement to show how hard-working you are, etc. And in general, the best place to get the statistics are from the program websites themselves, although there usually is no magic number. I personally know very little about history of medicine programs, and what little I know is because it was the field of study of my undergrad advisor (Columbia, but I don't think they have an MA program for that). However, this: is a valid concern, but unfortunately, anything is truly not better than nothing. If in three years you don't have anyone, at least one person, who can write you better than a "formula" letter, you may run into a problem. I looked at your earlier thread and understand that you feel you only have this final year (well, not even a full year) to make an impression on your history professors --and you can do it in a year, if you work hard -- but don't be afraid to ask your advisor or your science professors for recommendations as well. They may not carry as much weight, but they can speak to whether you are capable of doing graduate-level work and what your background is. Also, you might email some of those history professors or talk to them and tell them your goals and see if they have any advice/encouragement. Just my two cents.

My plans, as of today: right now, I'm working as much as I can trying to make money to actually move. Jobs being nonexistent around here, that means alot of freelancing. Good for my resume, but I can't say I'm enjoying it. I did a loan application that should come back this month, and I've looked at classes but few of the times are up yet so there's not much going on there. In June one of my work projects will end and I plan to replace it with some reading. I'm converting my aborted thesis into an article so I'll be doing a work on that and I have another writing project I'll be working on. In July I'll be going back out to Chicago to look at apartments and sign a lease.

Compared to you I haven't done anything! I don't think you're behind at all. I think most of us who are dealing with the lull between accepting an offer and actually being an incoming student feel like we're supposed to be doing all these things right now - doing pretty much anything right now -but from my previous experience/experience of friends there was no "what-to-do-next" package until orientation. About 80% of my information came from that and the first meeting I had with my advisor. As far as networking, and again this is anecdotal, but I decided to apply for a fellowship for which the application was due in November and I asked professors who I'd only had for about a month and a half for recommendations, and they all gave me great recommendations. Everywhere is not cutthroat on the grad level... my previous program had very few competitive students (probably because the program itself wasn't particularly demanding), something which I struggled with. When I visited UChicago we talked about the student atmosphere and observed it firsthand, and everyone seemed fairly supportive but it was also intense.

Nope, but I'm not expecting to hear anything until June/July.

It would probably only look bad if you didn't actually do better. For some programs, the GRE is used to weed out potential applicants from jump; for others, the complete application of all the factors you mentioned go together. So... whether a third attempt is a good idea is up to the requirements of each program and your impression of how much you can improve. I personally don't know anyone who has taken it more than twice, including myself, and I did not improve much the second time -- however, it didn't negatively impact my applications.

Not very novel, but... phone call? snail mail? Although frankly, if they've read your emails (I'm presuming more than one - aka your initial email and then a followup) and they haven't replied, they either aren't interested in you, or are really busy and don't have time for you... both of which suggest that this is not the advisor for you/your work. As a side note -- several people I know in humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences didn't have a particular faculty contact in hand when they entered a program. If having an advisor is necessary for you gain admittance (I don't know where you are in the process, sorry) then that's a slightly different story. And if you are still in school, perhaps you should ask your current professors/advisors for their advise on how you might raise your profile.

I think alot of it depends on the type of relationship you have with your advisor, as well. In general we have a kind of strange relationship; genial but about 80% hands-off - my preference, as I think she'd prefer I'd let her in more (but it stems from my personality and her being on sabbatical at a critical time in my career and my feeling marrooned in the department. Different story though.). I didn't consult with her much on my choices or have her proof my writing samples/SOP, or get any real advice, but I did ask her what she thought of the schools I wanted to apply to. I got two different responses - first, something along the lines of maybe I'm aiming too high and then later, that I should be aiming a bit differently. After some back and forth I rejected all of her suggested alternatives or add-ons and stuck with my original ones. She wasn't insulted, and the good thing was that justifying my choices to her made me really zero in on what was important and strengthened my resolve that these programs were the right ones for me. Of course, when the acceptances started rolling in, she did jump on the "I knew it!" bandwagon despite her earlier skepticism. I guess my advice is somewhere in the middle, then - listen to what they say, but don't follow blindly. Had I applied to where my advisor strongly suggested, I would have applied to the programs that she liked and I didn't. If I were not rejected (always a chance), I would have been less than happy to go into - and frankly unless I'm in it 100%, it's not worth it to me. Then again, the way that I've approached applying for grad school appears profoundly different than most on these boards, so take what I say with a grain of salt too.

I doubt you are going to be fired. She might be a little more cool/formal towards you but worse things have happened/been said.

My (liberal arts college) undergrad GPA was 3.34, and I left my (public university) MA program with a 3.81. I picked the schools I wanted to apply to for a PhD based off of a rubric of things that were important to me (similar to rising_star's and Minnesotan's) and I paid absolutely no attention to any of the ranking, GPA/GRE scores, or other factors that tend to turn people away from applying to certain programs. I got in everywhere I applied (all very good schools rank-wise, which was only marginally important to me despite how things worked out) even though I was hardly coming from stellar schools, and I believe this is because I was a good scholastic fit with each program, I had professors behind me who believed in me, and I demonstrated both my commitment and my capabilities in every part of the application. I know this is really answering more than you asked so, short answer: yes