Reality Check...

[eiblyn]

So I realized something vitally important to my future today. I am not ready for a PhD program. Hook, line and sinker that's the bottom line. I'm feeling a tightness in my chest that I highly suspect is anxiety waiting to just rain down all over my world. Part of me is very terrified...but the logical part of me is already planning to get into a Master's program. It was just really abrupt today to be forced to that conclusion. My GPA may get me into a Master's program...but it won't get me into a PhD program. I really was not enthused by either of the history departments I talked to in the last two days. But we'll plan for the PhD when we get there. For now, I need to explore my Master's options and determine where I go from here.

Comments

[benet.livejournal.com]

I hear you on that. When I started grad school, I had the option of going into a great program in Finland; but it was a Ph.D. program and I wanted to get my feet wet with the master's degree first. Which was good, since at least I have that after my name, and if I'd gone to Finland I never would've met sweetmusic_27.

[eiblyn.livejournal.com]

It'd be nice if it weren't so fucking terrifying though. And I really wish my GPA were higher. A 3.28 is pretty much just scoffed at by people who don't know Berea. I had both of the people I met with from PhD programs pretty much tell me without telling me that I wouldn't get into their programs. Which seems ridiculous to me because they are basing a lot of that on the fact that they've never heard of my school and I have a low GPA. I have to completely ream the GRE for them to even consider me a serious student. And that's ridiculous...

[benet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's ridiculous. But, you know, grad school admissions are something that faculty members have input on: if you could make contact with a potential advisor, they might be able to advocate for you in the admissions process and point out that you went to a demanding school and your GPA should be weighed accordingly; and of course that you're a serious student with a lot of current skills and a lot of potential. At a good school - the kind you'd want to go to - graduate admission should be a collegial decision that faculty have substantial input on, not a simple mechanical filter.

Hope this helps, and isn't just "oh God more hoops to jump through".

[eiblyn.livejournal.com]

Realistically, the bitchier of the two women really looked at me differently when I told her I'm a major with two minors and that I have two papers in review. I'm hoping it all balances out in the end. Thanks for your advice. Some part of me is wondering if maybe my compsci advisor isn't right in suggesting I go into robotics. She thinks I'd be great for Human-Robot Interaction.