So… you’ve got your last semester of undergrad almost completed. It’s a breeze from here on out. Now what? What do you do now? Take the next year off? Work a part-time job? WHAT? Is there no neon flashing sign to tell you what to do next? Of course not. What about applying to grad school? Yeah, it’s a thought in the back of your mind. Maybe get to it later?
In today’s society, you need something other than a bachelor’s degree anyways to get a decent job, at least that’s what they tell you. So HELL yeah you gotta apply for grad school.
**This is my experience about applying for Graduate school. I am in no way shape or form advertising you to go to one particular Graduate program. This is my experience about applying and my experience only**
Good luck. It sucks. I’m not trying to scare you; IT GENUINELY SUCKS. This is the point in time in your life where more stress will come to you and you will cry for no apparent reason. Sure, some people have a perfect 4.0 and 100 hours of observation hours before they even apply, so people like that typically don’t have the stress as us “middle workers” do. No matter what GPA you have, what GRE score you have (oh, that’s another fun one… The GRE), it still sucks. The process sucks, the letters of recommendations suck, the personal statement sucks, everything just sucks.
Why is it that some grad applications are strictly online? CSDCAS. What a pain in the rear end. No, actually, what was more of a pain was the fact that some applications were online, and other applications were paper. A paper application. Are we not in the 20th century? Who still uses paper applications?! Why can’t we all merge into one format, the easiest format of all and save the students a bunch of hassle? I know why. Because Graduate programs have no incentives to make the application process not suck.
Personal Statements. Here is your one chance to make yourself stand out from everyone else. Here is the one chance you get to “explain” yourself without being just a number. I have no problem selling myself to a college on why I am so great and why I love this program, how I got interested in this degree and why I should be chosen over other 1,000 other applicants. Aren’t we all just great? Don’t we all have a personal reason why this subject interests us? Of course we do. I guarantee my reason is better than the other 1,000 other applicants, but guess what? Someone sitting behind a desk reading letters all day gets to decide if I am being sincere or not.
You know, on the subject of personal statements, I understand this is a college’s chance to get to know a candidate, but when colleges add in all these other random questions they want to be answered within this personal statement, I mean COME ON! Now that means we have to have a personal essay along with questions somehow built into this thing. Not to mention, a test in three days over the reading material you haven’t begun to touch, a presentation tomorrow that you have to iron a shirt for, and a clay model of an axon due in two days that you are hoping doesn’t fall apart on your way to school.
By the way--organization is key for this whole process. If you are one of those people who can’t find your head from your ass... you are about to get a big wake up call. Side story- the absolute worse thing that has ever happened to me was that I was trying to send in one of my personal statements via CSDCAS, was uploading the wrong essay for the wrong school. Whelp, there that application goes. $75 down the drain. So long. Farewell. Goodbye. You might as well kiss that acceptance letter good-bye.
I am going to ballpark around two grand. Yup. That is how much money I spent on graduate applications between the application fee, sending in my transcripts, sending in my GRE scores and the amount of alcohol that was consumed during this time period of my life. And most of it was NOT alcohol. I am just saying, I needed more of a chance to get accepted into a program and applying to more places gave me a better opportunity to get accepted. I got accepted after I graduated from my undergrad university. AND… my undergrad university didn’t even offer my program of study as a graduate program... Actually- it gets better. THERE WAS NO GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MY STATE that offered my program of study. Wonderful right? So on top of me applying to god knows how many programs, even if I were to get accepted, I have to pay out of state tuition. My life is a joke and I constantly laugh at how humorous my life is at times.
I am done complaining, griping and bitching about the basics and beginning of grad school. I promise. It gets better and worse- But just a little insight that applying to grad school is not all flowers and rainbows. If you want to go to grad school-YGG! And I hope you have a much more pleasant experience than I did and I hope you only have to apply to one school because you are perfect and have a 4.0 and 100 hours of observation hours and you outshine everyone within 10 years of you. And everyone sends you a shit ton of grants and scholarships. Really. I do.
So-Good luck, enjoy and y’all take care.
