<p>When your kids applied to grad school did they have any plans set in motion in case they did not get in? Jobs and/or interviews lined up?</p>
<p>My daughter is just applying to grad school this year(she is 06) while virtually all of her friends from college are also currently inor applying to grad schools, most also have worked full time in the interim.</p>
<p>Hi ek: Did any of her friends apply right from undergrad? This is the dilema.</p>
<p>Sax:</p>
<p>Many grad programs inform applicants in early February of their decisions, so there is some time to line up alternatives. Good luck to your child!</p>
<p>sax
if its the humanities area, D’s experience was interviews in Feb, decisions in March.Plenty of time to formulate alternative plans if there is no admittance.</p>
<p>Thanks folks. </p>
<p>Son has already had to turn down his full time position at his internship company as they were recruiting and offering jobs already.They asked him his plans last month.</p>
<p>In the engineering/science world it seems like most job offers go out Dec and early part of the year so I am thinking he could be in trouble. Grad school acceptance rate around 10% in his highly competitive admissions field.</p>
<p>Course he is not worried at all. Just me :)</p>
<p>My D is applying this year in the humanities (1 year after BA). She is currently abroad on a fellowship, and I think plan B is remaining in her current location and applying for another fellowship to support some volunteerism in her field. But I think she’ll get in somewhere. If she doesn’t, I don’t think one more year is going to make any difference! She’ll probably take it as a sign it wasn’t meant to be…so I hope it works out.</p>
<p>That comes in the form of parental nagging to get those grad school apps done here. Warnings that if apps aren’t done in time he can’t go to grad school and will need to find a job. The emails parents have sent… I suspect he would think of jobs in April if need be and then apply for some. He’s the kid who got an app done by midnight CALIFORNIA time four short (amazing how time flies) years ago. Parental stress levels are higher now than then as there is no flagship U safety this time around. Our plans revolve around H’s spring retirement and relocation when this house sells- no returning son contingencies so he needs to have plans. In a way it is nicer that we parents can’t help with the process aside from providing some needed data (his assets) and admonitions/reminders/warnings from a distance. Unlike most parents whose children were 18 when they went off to college, ours was still 16 and the passage to adulthood happened in the middle of college; it is finally hitting me that he is truly an adult now and in charge of his own life. He enjoys and is well suited for academic life.</p>
<p>S1 is in a dream world. He has been told he will be admitted and fully funded at a top grad program even though he has yet to apply. It has come about through getting raves from a person he is working with who is a colleague of a top professor at the grad school. He is undecided because he has been offered a great job in his area and thinks the experience may make graduate school a better experience. I kind of agree with him.</p>
<p>siusplau: your d has obviously been thinking ahead. So if she gets into school she can just turn down the fellowship (if she gets it)?</p>
<p>wis: congrats on your young adult. I would love some…any…input into sons choices but like your son he is now running the show.</p>
<p>idad: THAT IS AWESOME. Congrats to your son! Tough choice to make.</p>
<p>Oh Wis,
My son the same. If an application due dec 11, then he submits on the 11th. I thought he would have learned better since applying to colleges dec 31, but…</p>
<p>Now I worry long distance. I suspect they reach east coast 3 hours late. I think some schools will be dropped for lack of energy. I wonder why they don’t have a common application for part of applications.</p>
<p>Sounds a little like my son too. When I asked if he finished his grad school applications, he said, the first was due Jan. 1st…how silly of me to ask!</p>
<p>He decided to just apply to masters programs in School Psych instead of a few PhD (for now) and will not think about looking for work until the Spring and he knows if he is accepted or not. He is trying to get a perdiem position back for his break though.</p>
<p>D1 is now in a PhD program (in CS). She did all the apps herself (very different from college apps 4 years earlier!!). I think at one point we may have looked at her personal statement. She got several offers and interviews, probably in March? She had no contingency plans.</p>
<p>Graduate school applications are way up already for next fall. The economy has pushed some people who would normally not be grad school material into applying, so the bottom of the barrel is having a population explosion. Qualified people shouldn’t really worry, except that the admissions waters are going to be a lot muddier than usual.</p>
<p>DD has just submitted the last of her applications for Ph.D. programs straight from undergrad (she graduates in May). Most of her applications aren’t due until early January. Interviews are normally late Jan to Feb with offers in March. Didn’t have to nag at all this time because this is something she really wants. It’s exciting to me to see her so passionate about something.</p>
<p>DD has backup plans theoretically in that she knows what she’d likely do as a plan B if she doesn’t get accepted, which for her would be to work at a residential facility for kids with disabilities or apply to Masters programs which have later deadlines. She won’t actually act on Plan B until she gets further in to see where she gets interviews for Ph.D. programs and how that process goes.</p>
<p>For now, she’s at a point where she doesn’t want to talk about it because she wants to know where she’s going. Plan is to keep busy until the interview invites go out!</p>
<p>DS '06, attended the school’s job fairs, dropped off resume. Told them that he’s planning for grad school, but if gschool doesn’t materialize, he’d like to activate Plan B. Get their business card. </p>
<p>Keep in contact with your classmates who took the job route. You may need their referral.</p>
<p>2006 was a good year for engineering graduates. By late 2008 and into 2009 +, the need for engineers nearly evaporated.</p>