<p>I am seriouslly looking at their Masters in Public Administration program. It is a 1 year program and seems perfect for me. Here is my situation:</p>
<p>I attended Oswego State College in New York, earning my BA in Biology in 1993. GPA=3.2</p>
<p>I Attended the University of South Florida (Tampa) and earmed my MA in Chemistry in 1999. GPA=3.4</p>
<p>I took the GRE's in 1993, so those scores are obsolete, but I am sure I can crack a 700 on verbal and math with proper studying.</p>
<p>I am employed as a chemist for a flavors and fragrances company, where I have performed as a better than average employee.</p>
<p>I am willing to give up a well paying job to go back to school, as I am not married, nor am I wealthy. </p>
<p>Finally, I am a single daddy, raising my 2 and a half year old daughter solo for the past 2 years. Is it worth mentioning this to the admissions committee? Would this just seem like pandering? </p>
<p>Assuming a 700 + on each section of the GRE, do I have a good chance of gaining admissions to an elite school? </p>
<p>Would my science background be looked at as positive, negative or as neither way?</p>
<p>Any information or tips you can give me woulf be greatly appreciated. Sorry for typos, I have a 2 year old attached to my arm.</p>
<p>As someone who has been a single mom in the past, I would NOT mention your parental status. Many adcoms will look at this as a barrier to proper focus in your program, i.s. "If something comes up with his daughter he's outta here." I've mentioned my kids during job iterviews when appropriate, but if you look through enough forums, articles, etc., the reigning attitude in academia is that kids get inthe way. I've even seen people trumpeting the fact that they don't want to have children as a reason why they are great for grad school.</p>
<p>Personally, I think it's stupid, but I'd hate to see your chances hurt. After you get in, talk about her ad nauseum :)</p>
<p>if someone ever seriouslly told me that the pursuit of intellectual knowledge was more important than being a good parent, it would take much, much restraint not to spit in their eye LOL. Some people just don't get what it's all about. Boy, I am glad that I do :). Thanks for the insight!</p>
<p>i'm a brown student and very familiar w/ the MPA program
1. your science background is great and will make you stand out
2. being a single father is also part of who you are and is worth mentioning...there are situations where it would not be best to mention this but MPA admissions are not one of them
3. with a good essay, recommendation letters, and strong GRE's I think you have a great chance</p>
<p>tomslawsky said: "if someone ever seriouslly told me that the pursuit of intellectual knowledge was more important than being a good parent, it would take much, much restraint not to spit in their eye LOL."</p>
<p>I do think that it's dangerous to make those sorts of cut-and-dry statements, when there's much theory to the contrary. As Marie Cury said, "Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas." I, frankly, tend to side more with Marie Curie than tomslawsky, on this topic.</p>
<p>Tell me your thoughts, though please don't flame me and/or spit in my eye.</p>
<p>I was joking, sheesh, lighten up. If you were truly born in 1990, I would venture a guess that when you are 30, your perspectives on life will change dramatically. By the way, she had at least 1 child:</p>
<p>"She also received, jointly with her husband, the Davy Medal of the Royal Society in 1903 and, in 1921, President Harding of the United States, on behalf of the women of America, presented her with one gram of radium in recognition of her service to science.</p>
<p>Theory to the contrary? No, I'm petty sure there's not. I'd love to see the special think tank information you have on all the intellectuals saving the world because they have no children and can therefore do better work.</p>
<p>I can tell you that I became a hell of a lot more productive once I had kids. And while I won't necessarily volunteer information abut my parental status or plans to adcoms to protect myself from small-minded people obsessed with the idea that one cannot be both a good intellectual and a good parent, that doesn't imply that I agree with him. The impulse to defend your children when you have them is strong, and I would even claim it's stronger when you're a single parent because of a lot of different factors.</p>
<p>BTW, tomslawsky, my daughter's about the same age as yours. She'll be 3 in 2 weeks :)</p>
<p>I'm in a graduate program in the sciences, and most of our faculty don't have families. Out of the 5 assistant profs, only 1 is married. He got married during his PhD program, and both he and his wife have never spent a whole lot of time together (he's a professor at our university, while his wife is a PhD student at another). Even out of the associate profs, very few are married and living together. There are more married profs than not, but the majority of couples live separately because of jobs and such (a large number are actually both professors). At the full professor level, most of the faculty are married and have children.</p>
<p>Although the ages of the graduate students here vary, most are single. Some are married, but do not have children. Very few are married and have children.</p>
<p>When I was in grad school for chemistry, it seemed that the profs who seemed happiest with life in general had both wives and children. Go figure.</p>
<p>Cslaw: Almost all the profs I have had, tenured and not, are married with children. It's the norm, at least in the humanities.</p>
<p>Tomslawsky: My daughter is in the middle of potty training now, so it's been an adventure. She gets so busy with her imaginary world that she forgets. We're still working on a schedule, but she's enamoured with her new Dora panties.</p>
<p>I was lucky, we were done by 2 and a half. I was so glad to be out of that stage but I still get annoyed as people just cannot believe that a DADDY could potty train his daughter..arrgh. Where are you going to grad school? History, right?</p>
<p>Yeah - I'm doing my MA where my husband is for his med residency, and after he's done, it's my turn to go wherever I choose for my PhD. I'm in early medieval European history.</p>
<p>My ancient Roman History Prof at Oswego (Dr. Nicholas) was Briliant! She took organic chem at a local college when she was in High School and eventually earned her PhD at Brown. She knew the authors of some of the books we read for the class. That class gave me an appreciation of just how interesting and hard, I might add history can be. No multiple choice tests in her class, all "blue book" and a 15 page term paper. She was fluent in Latin and hebru. Anyway, good luck with your school, it sounds as if you'll do fine. I am sort of an "amature History buff myself and am just finishing "The Road to Serfdom" Great book if you ever get the chance :). Good luck with the lill' one, they are so great at this age!</p>
<p>I hate to be the pariah (well, only a little), but I can sorta see why adcoms might be hesitant to accept single parents.</p>
<p>And it has nothing to do with small-mindedness or hating parenthood. It's about reducing risk. Between a single, unmarried 25-year-old applicant and a 30-year-old applicant with a child, who is less likely to have outside obligations or sudden emergencies?</p>
<p>When you consider that many of these departments have very limited funding to offer graduates, you can sort of see why they are so keen on not taking chances. I hate to say it, but something tells me that many departments have taken that chance in the past (e.g. taking single parents on-board) and been burned.</p>
<p>Now, please don't get upset and explain to me how you're different, and how dare I assume that you'd be willing to up and quit in the middle of your course. I think that the fact that you're willing to give up a decent job for your graduate education shows that you have a requisite level of desire to finish the work. But I do think that looking at it from their perspective will help you to understand why they would have developed/have this sort of paradigm (if I may be so bold) where children are concerned. It may also help you to frame any sot of answers that may come up in ways that help you to look attractive to them (in an academic way, not physically. But I do say, those pants ARE pretty nice on you. Rawr.)</p>
<p>I really don't think it's a hatred or disdain or negative view of children per se. In fact, many of my professors had children. I think it's an overzealous love of the work that they do, combined with real hard economic limitations. So please, think of the eggheads. :p</p>
<p>Actually, single parents are less of a risk, and that's why I refer to smallmindedness or ignorance. people make the assumption that a single parent or a parent in general is going to drop everything as soon as their child sniffles. In actuality, parents are more likely to be able to juggle responsibilities and meet goals, as ultimately the well-being of their family depends upon it. A parent does not have the luxury of wasting time. They are also less likely to get involved in the petty stuff that infiltrates grad school, and are less likely to be overcome by stress as they have a built in outlet. Interestingly enough, when my husband was applying to med schools, UChicago tries hard to choose people who do plenty of other things outside of school and doesn't freak out about parents, assuming that those people who have a life outside of school are more likely to make it through the rigors of med school. However, their undergrad is known (however true or not) as The Place Where Fun Comes To Die, and the academic grad program is not quite so enlightened.</p>
<p>Of course, it's necessary for those parents to have some sort of support structure, in the form of reliable babysitters and the like. But I would argue that it's necessary for anyone to have a support system while in grad school - observe the high rate of depression and nervous breakdowns in grad school. Perhaps we all need to watch Sesame Street a bit more often (Three! Three beautiful financial aid offers! Wah wah wah wah wah!).</p>
<p>When I was an undergrad, I juggled my son, who was a toddler, full-time school, and full-time work. And I am far from unusual - single parents who are academics have all found themselves in similar positions and come through with flying colors.</p>
<p>Personally, I think it's harbored resentment - these people feel they "gave up" everything for the ivory tower, and they don't like being reminded that they actually didn't have to. I'd also point out that your arguments are the same arguments that used to keep women out of the workplace, especially in upper-level positions, and we all now know that argument is patently ridiculous. Academia, in this sense, is a bit behind the times.</p>