What I've Learned About Applying to Grad School

I thought I'd describe my foray into grad school applications - the frustrations, what I would have done differently, and how I got to where I am right now. Maybe it will help someone applying to a similar program, because I definitely went into it without knowing anything.

First off, I guess I should mention that I applied to school counseling programs at seven different schools-

• The University of Southern Maine (USM) in Gorham, ME
• The University of Vermont (UVM) in Burlington, VT
• UMass Amherst, in Amherst, MA
• Boston University (BU), in Boston, MA
• Syracuse University*, in Syracuse, NY
  *I cancelled my Syracuse application pretty quickly, once I realized that there was
  no chance of living there.
  
• The University Maryland at College Park, in College Park, MD
• Marymount University, in Arlington, VA
  

Each had different requirements, programs, number of credits, tuition, etc. I ended up making a spreadsheet to keep them all separated. I had also planned on applying to the University of Denver and the University of Colorado Denver, but dropped those from the list when I knew I wouldn't be in Denver. That and the fact that UColorado wanted me to pay to be fingerprinted - apparently a state requirement. Between the fingerprinting and the application fee, they were asking for upwards of $100. That was a no-go.

I guess one of the main things I'd say is that you shouldn't hesitate to contact them. On several separate occasions, I had to take it upon myself to find out information that they weren't going to bother telling me. For instance-

• I had actually gotten through to the second (interview) round with Maryland, but they had been sending all my email to abschoen@HAMEELTEN.edu and I had never heard back from them (wtf!?) I had to fight with them on the phone for an hour to convince them that I had in fact applied to their program, and they needed to find my application and figure out what the hell was going on. Then - tada! - it turns out that I not only had applied, but was being asked to interview! Funny how Maryland is supposed to be the best counseling school in the country, but has given me the most grief...
  
• I just found out today that BU won't be making their decisions for at least a month, so going there is completely out of the question. I've already interviewed with and heard back from everyone else.
• Syracuse, Amherst, and Maryland were missing parts of my application after the due date, and had just considered my applications "incomplete". I hadn't realized that one of my recommendations had gotten held up in the mail, and would have been screwed had I not tried to call them.

On that note, I should also mention that there is typically no good way to find out if your application is complete. The schools rarely (if at all) update their websites. You should probably just contact them to make sure... also, good luck getting the proper contact information, as it seems to rarely be posted correctly. Most of the schools have websites that are incredibly confusing and difficult to navigate, and often have outdated or simply wrong information. Don't be surprised if you find a program's website giving two different application dates, number of credits, or cost of tuition for the same program.

Anyway, I realize this has gone much longer than most people are willing to read... I think my main advice for now is to check and double check your information as much as possible, because these schools aren't going out of their ways to help you out.

The Tangled Webs We Weave

I had an interesting conversation with Brit a little while ago about careers, and how things are different for our generation compared to those before. For our parents, your education led to a career, which was a straight shot and unlikely to change after that. There were doctors and teachers and lawyers and accountants, and paths were unlikely to weave or overlap. For the baby boomer generation, it's a big deal to change careers, and doing so is almost looked down upon as a frivolous or impulsive decision - something that may happen with a mid-life crisis. To them, jobs all look like parallel train tracks. Once you get on a track, you have one destination, and it's hard as hell to change lines or divert your course. They simply don't cross - lawyers don't just decide to become doctors, and people don't go from teaching to accounting. To do so would mean having to metaphorically derail. Sure, there are some exceptions, but it just doesn't happen for the most part.

I'm realizing that our generation is different, and our parents are concerned about it. Nowadays, there are many more shades of gray in jobs - for instance, Brit's current job straddles the line between politics and journalism, and I'm looking toward a career that combines psychology and education. And not only do these jobs combine different aspects, but they require us to bounce between different careers in the beginning, which seems to scare the shit out of our parents. They see it as instability or indecisiveness, but in reality, it may just be a strategic move. It wouldn't be at all unusual for me to take a job in teaching before I began work in counseling, and Brit is keeping her options open by considering future jobs in sports information directing or being involved with communications in a school.

The fact is, we now have to look at jobs as more of complex, intertwining branches on a tree. To continue with the analogy for a second (bear with me), we now have the opportunity to grow, rather than chugging along on the same train tracks (pun intended). It's now ok to jump from one branch to another, and doing so will not derail your life, so to speak. It's becoming expected for our generation to do this in order to work our way up the ladder. I mean, look at Michael Bennet - he was the superintendent for Denver public schools, and was just chosen to replace Ken Salazar in the senate. That's a pretty big change of pace, and one that seems to be becoming more accepted.

I think that especially with the recession, our parents are freaked out about our decisions to change things up. After all, they look at this as being frivolous and picky in a time of serious financial hardship. But the thing is, we're going to be ok. We've got good educations under our belts, and even if they aren't exactly related to what we end up pursuing, it's alright. As Brit said to me yesterday, she may have gotten her degree in journalism and just started out, but it the boat is sinking, it's time to get off. We're all learning to roll with the punches in a changing job market and economy. And it might not always be a bad thing. After all, Brit was let go from her last job, but hit the ground running (or sprinting, some may say), getting a new, and perhaps better, job 10 days later.

So I guess my point is, don't look at changing career paths as indecision or immaturity - look at it as growth and change for the better. There are becoming more and more ways to get to where you want to go, giving us the opportunity to have lots of different experiences that may make us more well rounded and all-around more prepared for what life may throw at us.

[Thanks to James Cridland and Jus' fi for the railroad and tree pictures (respectively).]

Wall Street

The economic crisis almost doesn't bother me.

In a way, I am in a very fortunate position. I'm lucky because I have no student loans that could hold me down. I'm also lucky because I own no property that could otherwise drag me down. I am certain that I have lost a lot of money in my investments, but I've found that the best way to maintain my morale is to not look at those investments. I figure I wasn't going to touch them for another six to seven years anyway, and by then the stock market will have recovered. Right?

I live off of $40 a week in groceries and another $30 a week in other expenses. So really, when I see the stock market falling 700 points, all I really think is, "Finally, everyone else is being brought down to my level."

But everyone is afraid right now. And I won't lie. I'm afraid too. But really, the only thing that scares the hell out of me is that the economy is going to collapse and Amanda and I will be trapped on opposite sides of the country. An imploding economic sector, I can deal with. But that thought is truly scary.

Road Signs

I really like road signs. They’re supposed to be official government endorsed information devices, but sometimes I think they’re too serious for their own good. Weird and ironic phrases slip through and the warnings can be ridiculous.
Some of them are unintentionally hilarious because they try so hard to be grave. I find it amazing.

I can compare it to a particularly strange situation in high school with my vice principal. It was the Spring of my senior year, and I was hanging out in the cafeteria while a bunch of kids were screwing around with a vending machine.

Eventually everyone realized that the pranksters had managed to put something into the device, and were watching the food rotate and laughing hysterically. Cookies, soda, chips, and a purple glittery dildo circled in the machine. Eventually, the vice principal showed up, and not being able to pin down the culprit, angrily yelled at all of us (while clutching the sparkly sex toy in his fist). “That's why there is no student commons. Because there are dildos in the vending machines!” He chucked the phallus into the trashcan and stomped out of the cafeteria.

It made the entire situation ten times better. He was so stern, and was ready to threaten us with anything to make everyone behave.

I find road signs that way. They try to be so serious, and completely miss the levity of the situation. In Badlands National Park in South Dakota we passed a simple sign that said, “WARNING: PLAGUE IN PRAIRIE DOG COLONIES”.

What? But it was for real. Others I’ve seen in the last few weeks include depictions of stick figures running away from tsunamis, being flung from their bikes, getting gored by buffalo, falling into geysers, and having toll gates smashed on their heads.

I also like unusual animal crossings (like Elk, Moose, Bison, etc.) and runaway truck ramps/roads (particularly if there’s a runaway truck on it). Something about all these signs amuses me to no end. They transcend every language, and their imagery often translates something very different: RUN FROM HUGE WAVES, DANCE WITH BUFFALO, and PARK BIKE IN RUT FOR FUN RIDE!

Some day my friends will all be sitting at home with their antiques, coin collections, and knitting, but I will still be driving around, looking for strange signs to photograph.

Hats

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Oregon delegation at the Republican National Convention has been accusing the Texas delegation of being extremely obnoxious with their hats.

Personally, I think they are just biased against hats. They made fun of my hat too.

But other allegations included the Texans bringing their alternate delegates and guests down, causing them to expand beyond their designated space on the convention floor.

I can believe that would be annoying. These hats probably need more space than the average Texan. They are that big and obnoxious.

As I write, the hats are streaming into the Minneapolis airport. It makes me feel for my crew who have to connect through Dallas. Allow me to replay a conversation from this morning:

Trey: Yep, there's a Texas delegate.
Justin: There's another one over there.
::silence as the terminal is flooded with big hats::
Trey: Man, we are fucked.