<p>Zonie - what type of grad program are you interested in? Some of what you are being told – such as the bit about grad students being accepted by the profs in the department – sounds nothing at all like the process my kids followed to apply to graduate programs. They sent in applications, they dealt with admissions departments, they are in structured programs, not studying under specific programs. So there is a big difference between pursuing, say, a master’s degree in chemistry as opposed to an MSW. So what’s the degree you hope to get?</p>
<p>I would add to Calmom’s question, “what’s the degree, and what do you ultimately want to do with it”?</p>
<p>^for clarifications: Zonie, I spoke about academic grad programs, not professional grad programs.</p>
<p>Zonie…</p>
<p>since you say that you are being kicked out after this trip, where are you then going and what will you be doing?</p>
<p>What are your plans for after the trip?</p>
<p>Not sure on either.</p>
<p>Putting my degree to work and applying for work across the country, or at least move near the college’s I have in mind.</p>
<p>Why do you want to go to grad school? What do you want to study? How does it fit into your career plans? Given your GPA, it’s not clear that you are interested in applying yourself to academic endeavors–that’s how it will look to grad school admissions folks. If you land in a university town/city where you want to study, take some upper level courses in the department where you are seeking admission and do really well. Get to know the professors who are teaching the upper level courses. Also prep for the GRE. Good luck.</p>
<p>Good luck getting a job with your average college gpa and so-so attitude. I can’t imagine you are well prepared for any grad program- unless your major gpa is very high but offset by every other course. You scope out the programs, not the campus for grad work. Will you even get good recommendations? For grad school or a job? What advice does your academic advisor have? I can’t believe you are asking these questions this late in your college career.</p>
<p>I don’t see how being prepared for a grad program in my situation was paramount at the moment.</p>
<p>Seeing, as locally, I had no access to such things in the first place. Aside from the internet, and what my parents often get up to on the subject. Left me with nothing but stress on the subject.</p>
<p>@wis75 - I bet there are a lot of kids that graduate from college and don’t know what they are going to do next.
Its just they usually aren’t on CC asking questions.</p>
<p>@Zonie2013 - Do you currently have any student loans that you are going to have to start paying back now that you have graduated? Is that one of the reason’s you are looking at grad schools? </p>
<p>Zonie: Ok, let’s not focus on the past. The fact remains that right now, it doesn’t sound like you have a viable plan for the future.</p>
<p>If you want an MA in history, that’s almost certainly not going to be a funded degree. In addition, if you want to teach, getting an MA in history probably isn’t enough - you’d need a teaching certificate that would require additional education coursework. There may be some schools that offer MA degrees in history specifically tailored for people intended to teach history, but it isn’t clear whether or not you’ve done your homework and begun looking into those kinds of programs, or whether they even exist at the schools you are talking about. Otherwise, a terminal MA in history (terminal meaning that you aren’t intending to go onto the PhD level) really isn’t a practical degree, and won’t leave you with any more job options than you have right now. It is not remotely worth going into debt for.</p>
<p>In the meantime, we’d be able to help you a little more if we knew something about your immediate financial situation. If you move to Mississippi or Tennessee and don’t find a job right away, do you have enough money to live on for a certain period of time? Is that period a week, or a few months? If you get a low-paying job, will you have enough time or money to take classes in the interim? In a broader sense, other than history teacher, what kinds of jobs might you see yourself doing, and do you have the qualifications to start applying to them?</p>
<p>Rather than visiting graduate programs, I would advise you to make an appointment with the career office at the college you’re graduating from.</p>
<p>I visited colleges these last two weeks.</p>
<p>They actually had programs, with funding, that I liked.</p>
<p>What did you visit? Who did you meet? What did you discuss? What did you like about each program?
Once you are clear about these, you can start thinking of making a list of programs and setting a path for yourself to get there within 3-5 years.
In the meanwhile, where are you going to live? Did you find a job in one of these towns? Did you check whether you could take advanced undergraduate classes (1 per semester, say) at the university while you worked?</p>
<p>I visited two college campuses. Met with the staff, and graduate students of the programs I looked at. And they actually told me things that I liked. Aside from the hard work I’d have to do it’s still a close knit group. I’m going to do the GRE this summer.</p>
<p>I’m going to be taking the GRE later this month. However I’ve been considering the upper level courses.</p>