What to expect when you’re going to grad school

You’ve gotten your Baccalaureate degree and are looking to move on to higher degrees. That’s great, but be aware that it’s a lot more work than one would expect. To get into College, you may recall, you took a test or two, filled out a lot of forms, and sent them your Grades. Graduate school is, in fact, no different aside from a few key things.

1) You need letters of recommendation. Most schools request three. I wouldn’t send more than four unless you’re looking against something hard like grades below a 3.0 or you really did superb work with more than three undergraduate instructors.

Get these in ADVANCE of the deadline. Professors can be absent minded. I had one of mine forget about me entirely and I had to email him once or twice to remind him to mail the letters. Do not, of course HOUND your professors. This is a timing matter. If you want to apply and the deadline is next week? You’re probably not going to get the materials together. Period.

2) Timing. Graduate schools are not going anywhere. I promise, no really. If you miss your deadline, just contact the school or look online to find the next deadline. There’s no rush, and it’s best to make sure you put your best foot forward.

3) the GRE TEFOIL etc… these tests are expensive and rather limited. You can take the GRE 6 times a year and up to once a month. I’ll be honest, I took it twice and may have to take it again. Okay? It’ll be fine.

Studying is actually not so bad. I would make sure that you don’t over study, if you clog your brain then you’re going to basically implode. Also don’t cram the night before. This test is set so that you basically cannot cram and short term memory it. The English is shockingly enough the hardest part.

The breakdown for the General GRE is Maths, Vocabulary, and Writing

Writing will be two essays, usually on a given topic or a choice of two topics. The key here is to not throw 10 dollar words around, particularly if you don’t know how to spell them. What they are looking for is strength of argument, grammar, and the basic flow and pace of your composition.

Vocabulary is a bit backwards. It’s word association “Beer:Mouth is to…” and then you get a list. Also antonyms, NOT synonyms. Be careful on this one. The words are from left field, and sometimes you’ve never heard them before. You’re going to get caught going “bwa” at least once. Don’t worry, breathe, and pace yourself. There will also be sections where you answer questions based on your reading comprehension. The paragraphs are numbered and remember to not over-think.

Maths is rather basic. You’re not doing extreme equations and sometimes the framing of the question is what scares you. You want to make sure that you go back and study geometry, algebra, and things like FOIL method. You’ll probably see a lot of fractions, do not let things like differential equation framing scare you. It’s not asking for that, it’s asking for something a little more basic, trust me.

3) Research your school. When you fill out the online application you’re going to be asked what faculty you’re interested in working with. See, this is more like a job application than anything else you’ve done for school. You’re going to want to research the department that you’re interested in, find out who you want to work with and why. It wouldn’t hurt to at least know their most recent work. They want to see if YOU fit with the culture of their university. Also YOU want to make sure that YOU fit with that school.

4) Do YOU want to go there? It’s not about going to Harvard, or Case Western Reserve, or MIT. It’s about if YOU are an “MIT” for example. If your whole family goes to University X but your personality and your desires feel more comfortable with University Y, go to University Y. Not being comfortable, not doing what you REALLY want to do will put you out of school faster than grades.

This really astounds me. “Oh I want to research” or “Oh I wanna be an Engineer” are not reasons to pick a school. Engineering in particular is a huge field of study. A degree in any of the disciplines can branch out into HIGHLY specialized careers. “I want to do research” is the biggest cop-out that students give. What do you want to research? Where? What exactly is your end goal? If you don’t know the answer maybe you should wait and that brings me to my final point.

5) Life is not a race!! Can I repeat that? Life is not a race. It doesn’t seem to fail, at about 20-24 people are graduating, moving on, and then they think the following:

OMG LIFE IS GOING TO END AT 25 AND EVERYTHING THAT I EVER HAVE TO DO IN LIFE I HAVE TO HAVE DONE BY THEN BECAUSE I AM DONE LIFE IS DONE AT 25!!! OMG WHAT THE HELL OH MY GOD I HAVE BEEN OUT OF SCHOOL FOR THREE MINUTES AND I AM NOT MAKING 400k A YEAR I AM A FAILURE.

I did it, you did it or you WILL do it. There is no law that says you have to be done with school at X age. There is no law that says if you’re living at home by X age that you will never move out and turn into a goblin. I promise, I mean, I haven’t looked at every law everywhere, but I have this on pretty good authority.

Take your time with this. There is nothing worse than waking up at any age and realizing you rushed into something and now you’re stuck. Take your time, research your universities of choice, talk to grad students in the programs you want. Talk to professors, talk talk talk.

Now this isn’t to say sit there and never move. But DO sit down and think up a reasonable time frame. “Okay, I don’t know exactly what I want to do. I can work for this long and research. If I still don’t know when that time rolls around, maybe I need to take some Graduate Non Degree classes, maybe I need to sit with someone, do some research, job shadow.” It’s important to have a plan. People think more about haircuts sometimes than they think about college and that’s just insane. So DO game plan, set a time frame and do it. Just don’t freak if you’re not a massive success moving the planet before you’re 30.

There you have it. Good luck and keep it moving, guys.

ThinkGeek :: Plush Sushi

ThinkGeek :: Plush Sushi

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Been a while

I’m very happy to report that everything is going well for me. I attained a 3.75 for this semester (missing the 4.0 with Engineering Theories, but oh well). I was fairly well encouraged with my goals by a professor at my university of choice. My hiatus from school due to finances has actually come at a good time. I will use the down time to study for the GREs and to beef up my knowledge on areas of my schooling that I feel are weak.

My job continues to be fulfilling, despite the stress that the flu season is bringing my small office. I’m still going to apply for other positions elsewhere, but I love what I’m doing now. That in and of itself may just make this whole killing myself worth it.

2.5 in English to a 3.75 in Engineering. Proof positive it can be done.

Taking a hiatus from school

Well, it’s down to the last year and a half of classes. I’ve started following the advice of a financial planner (my retirement’s looking good now, even though it’s about 40 years away). They advice, of course, that you pay with cash and do not go into debt. I had started dabbling in this when I was still employed with the collections agency, however, I got serious about it in July. Altogether I’ve liquidated about 1400 dollars in debt (credit cards, all of it). There’s really no reason that I should be taking out a student loan again. I’m going to take time off from October 25th till March 1st. In this time I will be able to work enough to save plenty of money to continue on for a year of classes (I’ll also have plenty of time to work on scholarships, playing piano, myself…).

I’ve realized that I’m 27 years old and I’m not going to be finishing school anytime soon. I’m young, in great health and I feel better about myself than I have in years. So what’s another year or two, really?

Sitting in Physics…

…and all I can worry about is money. I’m going to have to see if the grandparents will cosign a loan for me at this rate. Amazing how someone with no credit card debt, a housepayment that is never late and a carpayment that is never late is refused because of “lack of credit”.

You know, since I can pay you.

Back to scholarship searches for the time being. I have another grad school interview on the 8th. For those of you that are reading, it’s been roughly a year, I’d say, from my last one. This time my GPA is much higher and my courses are harder. I think I may be able to transition to graduate school in the winter. If I cannot, I will see if the grandparents will cosign a student loan for me. I’m hoping they will. If not, I think I may just sell my car, get a cheap beater and use my car payments instead… maybe. There are always options at least.

Okay, physics time.

Still Trucking

Well, I am still trucking. I’m actually sitting very pretty with grades AND money right now. The key words in that, however, are “right now”. The problem that I am looking at, however, is that this is taking a great deal of my time and energy. I worked 56 hours last week and I’m going to be seeing probably 44 this week. (of course that’s about 20 hours of OT, so I’m not complaining there). There is talk of the scheduling changing and discussions include stopping us from having as much OT. This means that my OT money is going to be spent properly, to get out of my debt, despite my wishes to buy myself an eee or an external monitor.

I have a deal to work out with my mortgage (on the 11th) meeting with a financial planner (also on the 11th) and a doctor’s appointment (On you guessed it, the 11th). I’ve also filled out hardship apps for school. I need to drop off another paycheck stub for them, but things are moving along properly. I have a lot of balls in play right now and I know ONE of them will hit the mark and I’ll be able to keep this going. I’m so elated to report that I got 100% on my midterm and sofar all of the labs have come back error free. I can do this.

I’m just horribly tired. It’ll be worth it one day.

Oh the funding

It’s really quite annoying when one sees the end of the tunnel, looks it in the face and says “You’re mine” only to have that moment be shaken because of finances. I’m hardly wealthy. I took quite the cut to even DO this with myself. Affording school has become a hassle and something I may not be able to do next semester. This means I’ll have to save for it. It means I’ll be long and LONGER to graduate.

But I’m going to do it. Come hell or high water, I will see grad school.

They call me crazy…

and it’s quite possibly true. Another collections agency was contacting me for the past month and a half or so. I cut their wooing short today. Their offer was very attractive and when I waffled it got better. I never made OMG MONIES, but the base rate was a good 12k more a year than I made at my previous job. I’m possibly posting this out of some twisted need for validation, as it’s not monetarily the smartest thing that I have ever done in my short life.

So why did I do it, do you ask?

School means more to me than the paycheck. I know that I’ll double the rate they give me once I graduate, provided my work (hello, what the job I have now is for) and my grades (Did I mention I got an A in my ECET course? Cause I totally did) are on point. I’m getting by fine with the job I have now. No, it won’t give me the toys and eating out that I am used to, but seriously, how much does that REALLY matter? This is the first time in my life I’ve had the luxury to do this, to take the lower rung because I want it. And it goes against everything that was put into me, but I feel so happy, so much like I did the right thing.

Yeah, I’ll be kicking myself when I’m tired of rice next month, I’ll probably complain. But in the end, I know that it’s all for my goal and it’s worth it. All in all, that makes me feel pretty darn good about myself. Following one’s dreams sometimes means beans and rice and not getting the adorable mini eee or swag at conventions. Maybe this is sort of what zen feels like…

A work update – Because it has to do with school

I work as a biomed technical assistant now. It’s a great resume booster for college applications and that’s what I want it for. It doesn’t pay what my old job does, but I’m doing well with it. And I can take courses when I want to. It’s pretty much a dream come true. It’ll keep everything running till I graduate or find another job that will help with school.  Grad school is not a large worry anymore. My last two exams in my engineering course were 100%s. Nothing like that to make a girl feel like she can take on the world. I’ve started doing things for myself too, cooking, trying (and failing) to sew, and reading.

Here are some fun facts about the BioMedical Field

If you think you don’t want to know what the orange gunk is on the stomach pump, you really don’t want to know.

Don’t ask how the stain got on the bottom of the mattress, just move it

It’s nice to be thankful for having the ability to move on your own accord.

This does not mean that you enjoy running back to your shop when the client accidentally ordered the wrong part for a repair

Yes, in fact “poke it till it works” IS a valid test process

That’s all for now, everyone enjoy your day.

Updates

Well, my student loans are running quite dry. Thankfully I have everything that I need to get into graduate school when that happens. I’m calmer now, more focused than ever. I’ve scored 100% on both of the exams that I took in my latest ECET course. It’s so exhilarating to feel so much control over what I am doing.

To make matters even better, I’ve taken a new job as a biomedical technician. It’s directly in my field and it’s on demand. On demand sounded bad at first, but then I realize I get training in my field, overtime, courses, and well… it’s my field. It is the hands on experience that makes someone valuable in any field of study, and this helps.

Everything feels clear and secure and I’m just working hard. I’m trying to get scholarships because I’d like more undergrad courses before I make the flying leap to graduate school. But if it comes down to it, I can handle the coursework. Me doing well in school has never really been an issue.

Fingers crossed on scholarships. I’ll be spending a great deal of time applying for everything I can think of very shortly… maybe this weekend while I’m helping at the neighborhood yard sale.