Cello, just remember you are getting off the ship. You did what you could, but at the end it's not yours, or your fault, or your "credit". Gotta just breathe and let the woman immolate. Get marshmallows.
Ah the joys of graphic design work. I do not miss such things.
It would appear I have Internet at this new position. Excellent, it has been quite a while. Of course I don't intend to be on here much because this position is always "on" when it comes to available work.
It almost sounds like she's trying to make you take the fall for something too. The whole "don't have permission" thing screams that she is trying to fuck you over.
She's too stupid to play 3-dimensional chess like that. She's more of a Connect 4 kind of woman. This more comes down to her laziness and believing she has "the best words", because she's a textbook malignant narcissist.
Is that website live right now or is the whole thing still on a dev server or whatever?
The website went live last week after I finished all my updates, so yeah. I'm just... not going to do any SEO or Google AdWords or anything that would legitimately draw in views. I was originally going to spend today motivating myself to do a PowerPoint that matched up with the copy I wrote but instead am electing to loiter here and leave early at 3 to play Zelda because fuck it.
Once my Dremel shows up tomorrow I can at least throw myself into some internal prototype research and that will be fun (it will basically involve chopping up some old nylon so the electrical engineer can throw sensors in), but til then, Zelda's gonna be my priority.
It almost sounds like she's trying to make you take the fall for something too. The whole "don't have permission" thing screams that she is trying to fuck you over.
She's too stupid to play 3-dimensional chess like that. She's more of a Connect 4 kind of woman. This more comes down to her laziness and believing she has "the best words", because she's a textbook malignant narcissist.
Is that website live right now or is the whole thing still on a dev server or whatever?
The website went live last week after I finished all my updates, so yeah. I'm just... not going to do any SEO or Google AdWords or anything that would legitimately draw in views. I was originally going to spend today motivating myself to do a PowerPoint that matched up with the copy I wrote but instead am electing to loiter here and leave early at 3 to play Zelda because fuck it.
Once my Dremel shows up tomorrow I can at least throw myself into some internal prototype research and that will be fun (it will basically involve chopping up some old nylon so the electrical engineer can throw sensors in), but til then, Zelda's gonna be my priority.
Drawing off topic from your shitty boss, but you have a Switch? Can I convince you to bring it to the bar so I can see it? :P
It almost sounds like she's trying to make you take the fall for something too. The whole "don't have permission" thing screams that she is trying to fuck you over.
She's too stupid to play 3-dimensional chess like that. She's more of a Connect 4 kind of woman. This more comes down to her laziness and believing she has "the best words", because she's a textbook malignant narcissist.
Is that website live right now or is the whole thing still on a dev server or whatever?
The website went live last week after I finished all my updates, so yeah. I'm just... not going to do any SEO or Google AdWords or anything that would legitimately draw in views. I was originally going to spend today motivating myself to do a PowerPoint that matched up with the copy I wrote but instead am electing to loiter here and leave early at 3 to play Zelda because fuck it.
Once my Dremel shows up tomorrow I can at least throw myself into some internal prototype research and that will be fun (it will basically involve chopping up some old nylon so the electrical engineer can throw sensors in), but til then, Zelda's gonna be my priority.
Drawing off topic from your shitty boss, but you have a Switch? Can I convince you to bring it to the bar so I can see it? :P
I do! That could probably happen! I only have Zelda, though.
So as you may recall, the boss requested that I write copy for the website. I actually like writing, and I've read up on how to write good copy in the past in order to create better resumes, cover letters, and have better penmanship in general. And since she can't even pretend to write well, considering she spells dinner "diner", it seemed like she probably wouldn't be able to pick at my work the way she tries to about mechanical engineering tasks. So it was generally a nicer two weeks as I did some simple work that seemed effective and perhaps even helpful with drawing in new business. Some sentences proved to be a challenge but I worked through it and was actually really happy with the results.
I took screenshots of my work last week having finished writing for each page and being proud of how I managed to make the most of it, but knowing that she might make a small change here and there.
No such fucking luck.
I come in today and she has fucked with everything. She broke the YouTube links to all but one banner - each page with the exception of the Work and Contact pages had moving banners representing the work we did. Half the headers on pages you click from the Navigation bar don't match the names on the Navigation bar. She wrote over everything on the page about the team/our capabilities - I had created three sections on the team makeup, what our specializations are, and past and future projects and industries we'd worked in - and straight up copy-pasted from the previous company's site (who are still in business in another market!) and supplemental materials. It makes no sense now, and I don't think prospective customers will even be able to guess at what we actually do. She replaced the images of actual work we have done with stock photography that I sincerely doubt she got royalty-free/public domain and they are not even connected to the captions. Like, a stock photo of the underside of a glass stairway, with people's fucking footprints on it as they stand there, as a representation of "engineering and interaction design". Fucking what.
On the Work page she changed the header title again, and put a project we had not received permission to disclose on top of the text I had written to introduce the projects beneath it - replacing that sentence with some extraordinarily poor grammar - and changed sentences in the introduction to those projects individually. She added captions for each so there is now so much text on the page, and she changed some of the simple wording to stuff that will make no sense to anyone without context. So essentially there is no flow in the page now, we have a project listed there that the company could be upset with us for posting, and copy that I wrote (rather well!) based off of the press releases and content that the client had released, but without actual permission to display it (the boss had said we were denied permission to do so, but without forwarding said actual permission, and knowing She Lies Often I doubt she even sent the message without proof. She probably did not out of laziness, and had wanted me to replace all of the writing with copy-pasted text from a review of the exhibit by a media outlet, but I instead elected to just pull the entire project from the site and unlink it because I have ethics.)
It is, in short, a fucking disaster, and while before I was debating putting my name on the blog posts to show I had some experience doing writing for nontechnical audiences, I don't think I want to even have my name vaguely attached to this dreck.
I don't think your name should be attached to it. Nothing about that content contains contributions you made or in any way represents the work you did.
It almost sounds like she's trying to make you take the fall for something too. The whole "don't have permission" thing screams that she is trying to fuck you over.
She's too stupid to play 3-dimensional chess like that. She's more of a Connect 4 kind of woman. This more comes down to her laziness and believing she has "the best words", because she's a textbook malignant narcissist.
Is that website live right now or is the whole thing still on a dev server or whatever?
The website went live last week after I finished all my updates, so yeah. I'm just... not going to do any SEO or Google AdWords or anything that would legitimately draw in views. I was originally going to spend today motivating myself to do a PowerPoint that matched up with the copy I wrote but instead am electing to loiter here and leave early at 3 to play Zelda because fuck it.
Once my Dremel shows up tomorrow I can at least throw myself into some internal prototype research and that will be fun (it will basically involve chopping up some old nylon so the electrical engineer can throw sensors in), but til then, Zelda's gonna be my priority.
Drawing off topic from your shitty boss, but you have a Switch? Can I convince you to bring it to the bar so I can see it? :P
I do! That could probably happen! I only have Zelda, though.
Mostly I just want to check it out over all. I ended up cancelling my pre-order because I don't want to be an early adopter, plus I should be working on professional skills with my spare time. Of course, I'm still playing video games, just not Zelda. :X
So as you may recall, the boss requested that I write copy for the website. I actually like writing, and I've read up on how to write good copy in the past in order to create better resumes, cover letters, and have better penmanship in general. And since she can't even pretend to write well, considering she spells dinner "diner", it seemed like she probably wouldn't be able to pick at my work the way she tries to about mechanical engineering tasks. So it was generally a nicer two weeks as I did some simple work that seemed effective and perhaps even helpful with drawing in new business. Some sentences proved to be a challenge but I worked through it and was actually really happy with the results.
I took screenshots of my work last week having finished writing for each page and being proud of how I managed to make the most of it, but knowing that she might make a small change here and there.
No such fucking luck.
I come in today and she has fucked with everything. She broke the YouTube links to all but one banner - each page with the exception of the Work and Contact pages had moving banners representing the work we did. Half the headers on pages you click from the Navigation bar don't match the names on the Navigation bar. She wrote over everything on the page about the team/our capabilities - I had created three sections on the team makeup, what our specializations are, and past and future projects and industries we'd worked in - and straight up copy-pasted from the previous company's site (who are still in business in another market!) and supplemental materials. It makes no sense now, and I don't think prospective customers will even be able to guess at what we actually do. She replaced the images of actual work we have done with stock photography that I sincerely doubt she got royalty-free/public domain and they are not even connected to the captions. Like, a stock photo of the underside of a glass stairway, with people's fucking footprints on it as they stand there, as a representation of "engineering and interaction design". Fucking what.
On the Work page she changed the header title again, and put a project we had not received permission to disclose on top of the text I had written to introduce the projects beneath it - replacing that sentence with some extraordinarily poor grammar - and changed sentences in the introduction to those projects individually. She added captions for each so there is now so much text on the page, and she changed some of the simple wording to stuff that will make no sense to anyone without context. So essentially there is no flow in the page now, we have a project listed there that the company could be upset with us for posting, and copy that I wrote (rather well!) based off of the press releases and content that the client had released, but without actual permission to display it (the boss had said we were denied permission to do so, but without forwarding said actual permission, and knowing She Lies Often I doubt she even sent the message without proof. She probably did not out of laziness, and had wanted me to replace all of the writing with copy-pasted text from a review of the exhibit by a media outlet, but I instead elected to just pull the entire project from the site and unlink it because I have ethics.)
It is, in short, a fucking disaster, and while before I was debating putting my name on the blog posts to show I had some experience doing writing for nontechnical audiences, I don't think I want to even have my name vaguely attached to this dreck.
I don't think your name should be attached to it. Nothing about that content contains contributions you made or in any way represents the work you did.
Yuuuup, absolutely right at this point. I might copy out the blog posts and actual copy to keep as a portfolio piece at least.
Speaking of the blog posts, she now wants the ones I wrote to be, and I quote "about shorter or expand". She wants the blog posts to either be shorter or longer. She won't say which.
Can we just average them out and keep them the way they are
It almost sounds like she's trying to make you take the fall for something too. The whole "don't have permission" thing screams that she is trying to fuck you over.
She's too stupid to play 3-dimensional chess like that. She's more of a Connect 4 kind of woman. This more comes down to her laziness and believing she has "the best words", because she's a textbook malignant narcissist.
Is that website live right now or is the whole thing still on a dev server or whatever?
The website went live last week after I finished all my updates, so yeah. I'm just... not going to do any SEO or Google AdWords or anything that would legitimately draw in views. I was originally going to spend today motivating myself to do a PowerPoint that matched up with the copy I wrote but instead am electing to loiter here and leave early at 3 to play Zelda because fuck it.
Once my Dremel shows up tomorrow I can at least throw myself into some internal prototype research and that will be fun (it will basically involve chopping up some old nylon so the electrical engineer can throw sensors in), but til then, Zelda's gonna be my priority.
Amazing. Just say something was causing the site to crash and whoops we had to roll it back to our backup.
Today's my first real day to sit down and put some time into Zelda, I just got done at Kakariko Village, but even then some idiot went and got Logan tickets for later today.
It's me, the idiot was me. I got them before Zelda came out and wasn't thinking about it.I also failed to plan any time off for this so that Zelda thread is a minefield.
Still waiting to get my formal job offer so I can quit this place. But i've been starting to hand off tasks to other people.
Last week I was out for two days so everyone panicked and freaked out and over a bunch of none issues and I can now assume the network will be literally on fire a week after I leave.
Somehow they have managed to screw up the automatic backup schedule for one of the most important servers on the network, and I have no idea how that's even possible.
They also managed to miss an actual major issue that was taking up all the bandwidth for the one unlucky school that is still connected via T1.
The new job place can not call me soon enough.
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The Escape Goatincorrigible ruminantthey/themRegistered Userregular
Anyone here in the Charlotte NC area? I'm going to be in town for business next week and it looks like I'll have two evenings and a morning free. Is there anything I should check out or eat as a tourist (aside from the fact that it's probably 50 degrees warmer down there?)
This got me looking around on Google maps because I haven't really left the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area since I got here, and it's really weird to me that it takes almost exactly as long to get to Charlotte as it does to Richmond.
I don't have much advice to give as someone to new NC, unfortunately. Maybe hit up mellow mushroom, which is a pretty cool pizza place focused on the southeast?
Me, to my director: hey if we do this thing we should use board Y, because it's lighter and will be more streamlined.
Director: but you've already got this running on Z, right? And we have a few of those lying around? We shouldn't make more work then we have to, let's just use Z
My colleague, roped into the project a month later: hey I was poking around the web and I found board Y, we should totally use those instead of Z!
She just sent me a message saying we should see what we can do with images and base it entirely off a completely different company's template
After having completed a full website that she liked before
She wants an entirely new one
I cannot even deal with this
Take this and carry it forward with you. This is what those marketing/design things always look like. That's why the really experienced professionals have a workflow to get people's buy-in and commitment as part of the process.
Also why I will tell people to fuck right off if I'm asked to design a company website ever again.
Hmm, been looking into grad school. Anyone here have any experience with it? I have a 2.8 GPS from my undergrad but the school wants a 3.0. Will that 0.2 really fuck me? Damn it younger me, I hate you so much everyday.
Hmm, been looking into grad school. Anyone here have any experience with it? I have a 2.8 GPS from my undergrad but the school wants a 3.0. Will that 0.2 really fuck me? Damn it younger me, I hate you so much everyday.
Masters or PhD, and what field? Depending on the school, the GPA is only a screener, or a suggestion. But it depends a looot on what field you want to get into and what sort of program it is. I can talk at length about biomedical focused PhDs!
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EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
Hmm, been looking into grad school. Anyone here have any experience with it? I have a 2.8 GPS from my undergrad but the school wants a 3.0. Will that 0.2 really fuck me? Damn it younger me, I hate you so much everyday.
It wont help, but you can get around it ina variety of ways. I used to do grad admissions, if you want to chat feel free to send me a pm.
JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
Depends on how competitive the program is. A 0.2 discrepancy wouldn't have kept me out of my MLIS program, because it's a small program and there are more prestigious library schools all over the place. It definitely would have kept my wife out of the petroleum engineering program, because it's one of the most highly-regarded programs in the country and it draws applicants from all over the world.
I'd get in touch with someone in the Office of Graduate Admissions to try and get a feel for how firm the requirements are for your particular program. In most cases, a high GRE score will outweigh a low GPA, especially if the former is recent and the latter is from some time ago. And the GRE isn't that much more difficult than the ACT, and can certainly be studied for.
She just sent me a message saying we should see what we can do with images and base it entirely off a completely different company's template
After having completed a full website that she liked before
She wants an entirely new one
I cannot even deal with this
Take this and carry it forward with you. This is what those marketing/design things always look like. That's why the really experienced professionals have a workflow to get people's buy-in and commitment as part of the process.
Also why I will tell people to fuck right off if I'm asked to design a company website ever again.
Oh yes, I'm not surprised that this happens in general. It's just inherently frustrating because this is not my job, but the idiotic decisions she is making could make it so the rest of us don't have jobs. She can't put her ego aside for just two minutes and make decisions that could actually benefit her damned company.
Its weird but this school doesn't actually require a GRE, though I might ask if I can take it and submit the result to compensate for a lower GPA
As a person who had a low GPA. Take the GRE. Rock it. Put it on your form whether they want it or not. I got in on explaining "yes, I fucked up this semester, then showed steady improvement, rocked the GRE, and did tech work where I ran independent projects, that resulted in these figures in these publications." If you can make the story about how you worked hard and showed intelligence and humility, most programs will give you a pass. Then it's all about your other qualifications and interviews. Good rec letters can be a big deal too, but I don't know how true that is for cyber security. Biology can be VERY "who you know"
Its weird but this school doesn't actually require a GRE, though I might ask if I can take it and submit the result to compensate for a lower GPA
As a person who had a low GPA. Take the GRE. Rock it. Put it on your form whether they want it or not. I got in on explaining "yes, I fucked up this semester, then showed steady improvement, rocked the GRE, and did tech work where I ran independent projects, that resulted in these figures in these publications." If you can make the story about how you worked hard and showed intelligence and humility, most programs will give you a pass. Then it's all about your other qualifications and interviews. Good rec letters can be a big deal too, but I don't know how true that is for cyber security. Biology can be VERY "who you know"
I was slightly below the minimum 2.5 for my grad school as well because of younger self just not giving a shit. I went hard core in the GRE and knocked it out of the park, and I made damn sure to work in not only my work experience, but also how I learned what it truly meant to work hard and try while emphasizing that I had commited to working hard. I got into what is actually a fairly competitive school in my field (ranked like 8th nationally for my program with a lot of international appeal evidently. I was unaware of this at the time.)
Worst case scenario they tell you no and you are right back to where you are now. Give it a shot and hope for the best. In my experience proffessors have an extremely dim view of almost all undergrads so they should be pretty open to admitting you were terrible combined with a good story of self growth.
There are particular disadvantages to staying with the parents, including the hour commute and tyranny of pants, but I am going to miss the home-cooked leftovers for lunches. At least until I find an apartment with a good kitchen.
Some dude came in on crutches just super bleeding out of his foot the other day
Walked into the front, grabbed some plastic bags, walked out, leaving a trail of big bloody footprints.
That was fun to clean
Did you know old people do not give a shit and will do anything to leave when they are done shopping? Because they were DETERMINED to walk through all that blood
Still unsure of what to make of it
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WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
Steroid injections on Thursday, doc says stay home till Friday. Work wasn't too happy, but hey, they wanted me to have this visit today.
Secretary of State has sent out a memo to all state employees stating that he is aware of Proposition 64 and the matter is still under debate with them, but for the time being marijuana is still considered illegal by federal standards so we can't have any.
Which is of absolutely no surprise.
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EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
edited March 2017
~updated 3/6/2017 with some accreditation and online stuff~
So since we are going there in the thread, here are some tips for @Bucketman that might apply to someone else:
======================-Things Graduate Schools Look At In General*-====================== Why should I listen to you?: Good question! Full bias report: I am an academic staffperson working at a major public university for just about ten years. About a third of that was specifically running graduate applications for a set of five programs at the certificate, masters, and PhD level. Over half of that was in undergraduate success advising. I have a masters in Educational Leadership, a few graduate certificates in unrelated disciplines I've done in fields I didn't study in my undergrad, and am credentialed as a CDF (Career Development Facilitator). This is sort of my bread and butter! That said, I am not the advisor running your graduate program, you ALWAYS want to speak with them before sending in your application to learn what they are looking for, what information they value the most, and to learn about what they can provide you (after all, education is a two way street. Your faculty should be able to tell you why you should choose to listen to them rather than at other schools).
The reason for applications: This is the most important thing to think about before you begin. Why are there applications in the first place? Generally speaking, graduate education runs into the following problems:
Schools lose money (almost*) universally on graduate student education. The class sizes are too small and the returns (even at grad tuition) are too low to justify losing the research faculty in teaching, making keeping class sizes and cohorts small essential to operation.
Graduate education is almost* always highly specialized and requires expensive operations from the university in terms of software, research, laboratories, electronic resources, and more. Access to these is very limited due to the costs, making courses small.
Quality of education needs to be high to justify the former being valuable, which means they are wanting their best faculty teaching graduate courses (and, by accreditation in most* places you need to be a well published, doctorate level, senior tenured faculty member to teach graduate level coursework).
Small class sizes also lead to better outcomes and (politically speaking) are the only form of class a high-level tenured professor will be willing to teach in most cases.
Because of the class sizes, loss of money per student, and general problems in operation graduate education causes to the bottom line, persistence (students who are admitted and immediately complete the degree) are the primary form of academic assessment used to gauge graduate program success.
In addition to persistence, graduate schools are looking for applicants which will enhance the program's prestige. Namely by going on and being successful in the field. What success is can vary by field, but in most cases employment, research publication, and advancing the field of study are what is desired.
So, if you are the Graduate Director for a graduate program your goal is pretty simple: You are looking to get the most applications possible to your program, then select the students most likely to be a good return on your investment (namely by completing the program and going on to add to the field and (thus) your program's prestige). You want to have some way of determining this from applications. So what do they look at:
Undergraduate GPAs (Plural): The benchmark for student success. Let's face it, the easiest way to tell behavior is by... past behavior. Graduate schools will look at your overall GPA, and often your major GPA, transfer GPAs, breakdown of GPA by school, and frequently “field” GPAs calculated uniquely to their program (for a computer science program they might look at your math, engineering, and computer sciences GPA along with your compositions scores, for examples). 3.0 GPA (B average) is usually the minimum for consideration for many programs, though depending on the program the functional cut-off GPA is frequently much, much higher due to the volume of candidates.
If your GPAs are under a 3.0, you likely cannot be admitted under regular admissions status. Luckily, that is what probational status is for. Essentially most* public universities allow for somewhere between 10% and 25% of their accepted applicants to be admitted from within a probationary status. Usually this is exclusively for Undergraduate GPA issues, but can occasionally be for other missing or lower elements in the application. To be admitted in probationary status you have to be so stellar in everything else that they are wanting to ignore your previous education.
GRE Scores: The big test. This is essentially proving your determination, when it comes right down to it. Most schools love to see and report big, impressive numbers here. But functionally speaking, the GRE isn’t so much of a measure of functional knowledge. Instead, it is a measure of determination to study for something incredibly hard over months of time for little direct benefit.
In other words, it’s your test run for your thesis hours.
Doing well on your GRE Score will greatly impact how your Undergrad GPA weighs on your application. If you show top-of-the-line GRE scores then your lower undergrad GPA will often be mitigated- but not entirely. You will want to address this discrepancy in your personal statement otherwise it will look like you are smart, intelligent, but not willing to have staying power.
Having a low or mediocre GRE score also won’t sink your application necessarily, but frequently minimum scores are a thing for high-volume schools (even if they aren’t published). Each time you take the exam is reported, so if you take it twice and have big upgrades, no worries. You clearly show the ability to grow and improve. Taking it three, or four, or eight times with no major growth shows… well that you hit your head against things without figuring them out. Not a great sign. The best sign is always to do stellar on first attempt as it shows preparation, skill, and effort.
Final note: be sure as to what GRE they want. There is a general, subject area, and sometimes field specific GRE tests offered through ETS.
Oh, and you can find help resources through the official website: ETS.org Personal Statement: Your personal statement is where you show off your writing skills, ability to reason and synthesize, and develop your actual purpose for applying to the program. This is a very, very critical piece and shouldn’t be underestimated. This is where you explain those problems with your application (As you can see here, my undergraduate GPA is low from my misspent youth, but by stellar GRE score reflects my new work ethic and shows I am ready to complete this program and move on to bigger and better things, blah blah).
Like any personal statement, you want to consider:
-What specifically are you looking for and why?
-Who are you asking to help you find it?
Take some time to really consider these options. Are you seeking employment (if so, in what field? To do what, specifically? How will this degree help?)? Perhaps you are looking to get admitted to another, higher level graduate or professional school (if so, what specific school or schools? Why those schools? How does this program prepare you for your PhD or research? Why that program?). You also need to know your audience. Who is reading your applications? What are they looking for? Have you spoken to their graduate director? If so, what did they say? What is unique about that program that will help you (in specifics!). If the program has a specific research focus or technology no one else has or just faculty well published or established in your field: say that! Research into the school also show you can research in your field.
For the rest of the personal statement, it is usually a great idea to first answer each of these in a few sentences:
• Who are you?
• What do you do?
• What are you looking for?
• What makes you stand out?
• How will supporting you benefit the audience (the graduate program)?
• What will you do with their support?
• How are you qualified to obtain what you are looking for?
• What examples of previous, relevant work can you show?
• Why are you seeking what you are looking for with this audience?
If you come up with three sentences to each of these, you are pretty much ready for horrific, painful editing of your personal statement. Remember: they are looking for evidence of skill, persistence, and return on investment. Show you will complete the program and go on to do something valuable with it.
And it never hurts to get it checked by a friend or family with strong composition skills. Good writing matters. Resume/CV: The resume also matters, especially in programs more oriented towards employment rather than research (more on this later). If they call for a resume, you are likely in the clear. Everyone has a resume, and good resume design guides are a dime a dozen online. Go look them up.
Alternatively, if they ask for a CV (Curriculum Vitae), that is a very different beast. Your CV is an academic resume, and in research oriented fields it is a must. You are detailing out all that research, lab experience, credentialing, service to institutions, and more you did from undergraduate onwards. I could write a whole thing this length again just on the CV, but I won’t. So there.
Also, the internet has a lot of stuff on this as well, google is your friend here. Don’t copy paste though, that’s plagiarism and you will go to a special level of hell. Rec Letters: The biggest thing on your application, the truly most impressive thing, are your letters of recommendation. Ideally from faculty familiar with your ability to do work in that particular field, these are mysterious and problematic since you never quite know what the faculty member says as they go in sealed envelopes (or increasingly through direct upload links) from the faculty member.
Unless, like many faculty, your professor is lazy and tells you to write one for yourself that they will read, edit, and upload. In which case good fucking luck. This is the worst thing ever and almost always you will offend the professor or screw yourself over by being too humble. There is no way to know.
Anyhow, in most cases you want your senior-level coursework faculty to write these from your undergrad. Of course, undergrad was a very long time ago so your faculty might not remember you (perhaps, making assumptions here). Ask anyway, most have a template and give you the benefit of the doubt. Some won’t (these faculty are jerks and are to be shunned). But you are at their mercy in this.
If you are changing fields, this can be particularly frustrating. An English major going into Statistics might have some trouble finding a relevant faculty member to reference. This is a great time for a non-degree course to come into play (more on this later).
If the field is particularly work oriented (education, programming, public admin, business, urban planning, etc.) often professional references from those working with you in that field can be a great alternative. People like admitting students already immersed in the field as it makes for a more valuable classroom experience for your fellow students. Other: Every program is different! Portfolios, specialty tests, interviews, and more can occur. Prepare accordingly!
======================-What Else Should I know?-======================
Non-Degree Courses and You: But Enc, I have a terrible undergraduate GPA, no letters of recommendation, at least 6 months before I plan on applying to graduate school (the deadline, not the start of the semester, more on this later), and/or am changing fields from English to Applied Chemical Analysis (or vice versa), what the hell do I do now!?
The answer, my friend, is Non-Degree Seeking Courses. Sometimes (but certainly not always, check with your faculty in the programs you are looking at), students choose to enroll as a non-degree seeking student to take one or two graduate level courses without being part of a program. The benefits here can be many:
-Gives you a chance to sample the field.
-Gives you a chance to correct your undergrad education by getting an A (4.0) on first attempt of a graduate course in the field you are looking to go into (take that past self!)
-Gives you time to be the best student possible in that course to get a letter of recommendation from that faculty member.
-Gives you a chance to prepare for the nightmare hellscape that is your social life while in graduate school.
-Gives you a chance to feel the crushing economic burden as you pay for a graduate course without financial assistance.
-Gives you a chance to learn just how frustrating enrolling last on the night before classes can be in actually getting into a course (and, often, not being able to do so).
So it’s a mixed bag, per se. That said, it can be a solution to a goodly amount of problems. It can prepare you for the field, it can give you a chance to brush up on the basics. Before doing so, always check school policies. Many schools limit or prevent Non-Degree courses from counting towards a master’s or PhD program, so know the policies before you enroll and pay. For example, in my institution you can take 3 courses non-degree and count them towards a degree program, more than that and you have to retake (and re-pay for) one or more of the courses. Graduate Certificate Programs: A graduate certificate is generally a short, graduate level program (usually 4-7 classes) that covers about half of a master’s program and gets you a specific occupational-related skillset. They frequently do not require a GRE and have much lower entry requirements compared to more formal degree programs. Many of them also can be transferred all, or in part as with Non-Degree, into a related Master’s program they are built for. Like Non-Degree there are often problems with these, but in most* cases they are programs designed for working professionals with unrelated undergraduate degrees seeking to change fields and eventually (after completing the program) entering into a higher level degree.
If one exists in your field, at the school you want to go to, and the Non-Degree situation sounds familiar to you. Take a close look. It might be worth it (especially as the faculty teaching these are usually also on the admissions committees for related programs). Different Graduate Programs & Philosophies: Graduate programs come in three flavors, more or less*, with different levels of admittance:
-Vocational Programs: These are your MBA, Nursing, Public Admin, Education, Vocational Engineering, and other job-specific, non-arts masters programs designed to not necessarily prepare you for a doctoral level program but to enter a highly specialized workforce. These programs typically have very stringent admissions requirements, but meeting them often means admittance. Especially at public institutions, they are looking for reasons to take you in these programs as the institutional goal is to flood the marketplace with their majors so that, eventually, their school will be the dominant influence in the field (and, cynically, gain that sweet sweet alumni foundation money).
-High-Rigor Research Programs: These are your sciences, most non-vocational STEM, Humanities, and Social Science programs that eventually lead to a doctoral program. They are often stringent in their application criteria, but in fact are waaaaay more stringent in their actual review process. A Masters in Clinical Psychology might say they need a 3.5 undergrad GPA, but in reality they only accept 3.8 or higher because they have 700 applications for a 20 seat student cohort and it’s a buyer’s market.
-Professional Schools: Wanna be a Lawyer? A Doctor? Some forms of Nurse? Probably too bad if you are reading this post for advice because you probably are behind the game at this point to break in if you aren’t still in your freshman year. Reality for these professions right now are bleak for all but the most on-the-ball from day one.
Application Deadlines and Why they exist: Graduate schools typically accept Fall applications in the Fall of the previous year. At the writing of this post it is March 2017. If I were planning to apply to most programs my schedule would start immediately in preparing for the GRE and ensuring I have my letters of rec prepared no later than August. Then I would apply in September 2017 to meet Fall Priority Deadlines for admission for the Fall 2018 cohort.
Some schools have later application sessions for fall admissions, but don’t be fooled. These are by availability only and have no guarantee that applications haven’t already filled. Also, financial assistance (in graduate school this means being supported with a tuition waiver, GTA or GA position, or fellowship) are only given out to priority applications so you are often hurting your chances.
Most schools have a fall-only admission to keep students in a cohort (a group of students at the same level). Ideally, this means the same 20-40 students will grow with you through the program making for a collaborative working experience. It rarely works so perfectly, but that is the model. Cohort, fall-only programs usually are more desirable from your perspective as a student as the faculty are looking at a quality-of-education based approach to their admissions. Don’t attend a High-rigor Research Program that isn’t cohort-based unless you are desperate (as research opportunities, lab quality, and other important needs are rarely well supported if they aren’t doing student support from day one).
Rolling admission (summer, spring, and fall admissions) usually are from the Vocational Programs field above. Rolling admission in vocational programs makes sense, and is usually fine. You won’t likely be doing a research project that is faculty mentored in these programs anyhow.
How can I go to Graduate School Affordably? Hahahahahahahaha!
Oh, wait. You are serious.
Ok, then. Well the most tried and true method is to be a 4.0, top-scoring GRE student with undergraduate research already published and a solid set of faculty backing you with glowing recommendations. In which case you probably already have been offered a GA position with a tuition waiver and are on the fast track to tenured employment in 7-9 years.
For the rest of us, that means either getting your employer to pay for your schooling (such as by working at the institution, or at a public office that has a tuition support program).
There isn’t much in the way of financial support from federal, state, or private grants for graduate school. Usually it’s about loans. Something to do before you apply to graduate school is to go to a job research index, my favorite is onetonline.org, to research the pay of the jobs you want to get in your area, what the average educational level is in those jobs, and then compare that to your projected student loan cost before applying. OnetOnline also can show you if the field is growing or shrinking, and compare that to national averages.
It’s a pretty cool site, and you want to know the details before you devote 3-7 years and likely $30,000-80,000 on an investment that may or may not pan out.
Then go to that agency and look up the school. Infractions, probation, all that shit is posted. Often including things like Title IX violations and other problems. Find out of the school is accredited, then find out if their online programs are also covered by their accreditation. Often University of Birdname's face to face programs might be accredited while their rather sinister online school might not be. Know before you buy!
Online schools are a mixed bag. Certainly their convenience is useful, but they almost always are self-directed and minimally beneficial compared to their face to face counterparts. A good rule of thumb here is to put yourself into a CEO's position when reviewing the program and ask the all important question: If I had this candidate, and one from a face to face program, as my final applicants, which would I choose?
You lose both skill, opportunities, and especially networking abilities in online programs. You get the credential, but often that is ~maybe~ 50% of the value of your degree. Networking with your fellow students and faculty and taking advantage of the professional development opportunities on the school grounds are way more worthwhile.
Also a good number of public universities offer their graduate courses after 6:00 pm to help with work scheduling, which is nice!
Probably. But this is more than enough for now. Good luck!
And now the disclaimer:
*Most means most I am familiar with, which includes the big state-wide systems of Florida, California, Texas, and SUNY. Every school, even ones in these states, are precious snowflakes with their own horrific system of bureaucratic policies. Know them. Or know people who work at them. Office Staff at universities can be a graduate student’s best friend, get to know them and they will help you find opportunities that you would miss in terms of employment, funding, and course availability.
Posts
It would appear I have Internet at this new position. Excellent, it has been quite a while. Of course I don't intend to be on here much because this position is always "on" when it comes to available work.
She's too stupid to play 3-dimensional chess like that. She's more of a Connect 4 kind of woman. This more comes down to her laziness and believing she has "the best words", because she's a textbook malignant narcissist.
The website went live last week after I finished all my updates, so yeah. I'm just... not going to do any SEO or Google AdWords or anything that would legitimately draw in views. I was originally going to spend today motivating myself to do a PowerPoint that matched up with the copy I wrote but instead am electing to loiter here and leave early at 3 to play Zelda because fuck it.
Once my Dremel shows up tomorrow I can at least throw myself into some internal prototype research and that will be fun (it will basically involve chopping up some old nylon so the electrical engineer can throw sensors in), but til then, Zelda's gonna be my priority.
3DS Friend Code: 0216-0898-6512
Switch Friend Code: SW-7437-1538-7786
carry on
Drawing off topic from your shitty boss, but you have a Switch? Can I convince you to bring it to the bar so I can see it? :P
I do! That could probably happen! I only have Zelda, though.
3DS Friend Code: 0216-0898-6512
Switch Friend Code: SW-7437-1538-7786
I don't think your name should be attached to it. Nothing about that content contains contributions you made or in any way represents the work you did.
Mostly I just want to check it out over all. I ended up cancelling my pre-order because I don't want to be an early adopter, plus I should be working on professional skills with my spare time. Of course, I'm still playing video games, just not Zelda. :X
Yuuuup, absolutely right at this point. I might copy out the blog posts and actual copy to keep as a portfolio piece at least.
Speaking of the blog posts, she now wants the ones I wrote to be, and I quote "about shorter or expand". She wants the blog posts to either be shorter or longer. She won't say which.
Can we just average them out and keep them the way they are
3DS Friend Code: 0216-0898-6512
Switch Friend Code: SW-7437-1538-7786
Amazing. Just say something was causing the site to crash and whoops we had to roll it back to our backup.
Today's my first real day to sit down and put some time into Zelda, I just got done at Kakariko Village, but even then some idiot went and got Logan tickets for later today.
Steam
Last week I was out for two days so everyone panicked and freaked out and over a bunch of none issues and I can now assume the network will be literally on fire a week after I leave.
Somehow they have managed to screw up the automatic backup schedule for one of the most important servers on the network, and I have no idea how that's even possible.
They also managed to miss an actual major issue that was taking up all the bandwidth for the one unlucky school that is still connected via T1.
The new job place can not call me soon enough.
This got me looking around on Google maps because I haven't really left the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area since I got here, and it's really weird to me that it takes almost exactly as long to get to Charlotte as it does to Richmond.
I don't have much advice to give as someone to new NC, unfortunately. Maybe hit up mellow mushroom, which is a pretty cool pizza place focused on the southeast?
After having completed a full website that she liked before
She wants an entirely new one
I cannot even deal with this
3DS Friend Code: 0216-0898-6512
Switch Friend Code: SW-7437-1538-7786
Director: but you've already got this running on Z, right? And we have a few of those lying around? We shouldn't make more work then we have to, let's just use Z
My colleague, roped into the project a month later: hey I was poking around the web and I found board Y, we should totally use those instead of Z!
Take this and carry it forward with you. This is what those marketing/design things always look like. That's why the really experienced professionals have a workflow to get people's buy-in and commitment as part of the process.
Also why I will tell people to fuck right off if I'm asked to design a company website ever again.
Masters or PhD, and what field? Depending on the school, the GPA is only a screener, or a suggestion. But it depends a looot on what field you want to get into and what sort of program it is. I can talk at length about biomedical focused PhDs!
It wont help, but you can get around it ina variety of ways. I used to do grad admissions, if you want to chat feel free to send me a pm.
I'd get in touch with someone in the Office of Graduate Admissions to try and get a feel for how firm the requirements are for your particular program. In most cases, a high GRE score will outweigh a low GPA, especially if the former is recent and the latter is from some time ago. And the GRE isn't that much more difficult than the ACT, and can certainly be studied for.
pretty happy about this
Oh yes, I'm not surprised that this happens in general. It's just inherently frustrating because this is not my job, but the idiotic decisions she is making could make it so the rest of us don't have jobs. She can't put her ego aside for just two minutes and make decisions that could actually benefit her damned company.
3DS Friend Code: 0216-0898-6512
Switch Friend Code: SW-7437-1538-7786
Depending on which floor you're on, our break rooms have pool, ping pong and foosball tables
I should find some time to actually grab a co-worker and play
A draft letter of resignation is now sitting in my inbox.
I start my new job on the 20th.
And now time to sit back and watch it burn all on its own.
As a person who had a low GPA. Take the GRE. Rock it. Put it on your form whether they want it or not. I got in on explaining "yes, I fucked up this semester, then showed steady improvement, rocked the GRE, and did tech work where I ran independent projects, that resulted in these figures in these publications." If you can make the story about how you worked hard and showed intelligence and humility, most programs will give you a pass. Then it's all about your other qualifications and interviews. Good rec letters can be a big deal too, but I don't know how true that is for cyber security. Biology can be VERY "who you know"
I was slightly below the minimum 2.5 for my grad school as well because of younger self just not giving a shit. I went hard core in the GRE and knocked it out of the park, and I made damn sure to work in not only my work experience, but also how I learned what it truly meant to work hard and try while emphasizing that I had commited to working hard. I got into what is actually a fairly competitive school in my field (ranked like 8th nationally for my program with a lot of international appeal evidently. I was unaware of this at the time.)
Worst case scenario they tell you no and you are right back to where you are now. Give it a shot and hope for the best. In my experience proffessors have an extremely dim view of almost all undergrads so they should be pretty open to admitting you were terrible combined with a good story of self growth.
Eye is twitching.
Must find more mental islands.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
*not that anyone would anyway
Not that it really takes anything out of it, but both my boss and my bosses boss cried talking about it. Note that these are not the crying sort.
Well shit, that's a hell of a compliment.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
Walked into the front, grabbed some plastic bags, walked out, leaving a trail of big bloody footprints.
That was fun to clean
Did you know old people do not give a shit and will do anything to leave when they are done shopping? Because they were DETERMINED to walk through all that blood
Still unsure of what to make of it
Which is of absolutely no surprise.
So since we are going there in the thread, here are some tips for @Bucketman that might apply to someone else:
======================-Things Graduate Schools Look At In General*-======================
Why should I listen to you?: Good question! Full bias report: I am an academic staffperson working at a major public university for just about ten years. About a third of that was specifically running graduate applications for a set of five programs at the certificate, masters, and PhD level. Over half of that was in undergraduate success advising. I have a masters in Educational Leadership, a few graduate certificates in unrelated disciplines I've done in fields I didn't study in my undergrad, and am credentialed as a CDF (Career Development Facilitator). This is sort of my bread and butter! That said, I am not the advisor running your graduate program, you ALWAYS want to speak with them before sending in your application to learn what they are looking for, what information they value the most, and to learn about what they can provide you (after all, education is a two way street. Your faculty should be able to tell you why you should choose to listen to them rather than at other schools).
The reason for applications: This is the most important thing to think about before you begin. Why are there applications in the first place? Generally speaking, graduate education runs into the following problems:
So, if you are the Graduate Director for a graduate program your goal is pretty simple: You are looking to get the most applications possible to your program, then select the students most likely to be a good return on your investment (namely by completing the program and going on to add to the field and (thus) your program's prestige). You want to have some way of determining this from applications. So what do they look at:
======================-Things Graduate Programs Look At-======================
Undergraduate GPAs (Plural): The benchmark for student success. Let's face it, the easiest way to tell behavior is by... past behavior. Graduate schools will look at your overall GPA, and often your major GPA, transfer GPAs, breakdown of GPA by school, and frequently “field” GPAs calculated uniquely to their program (for a computer science program they might look at your math, engineering, and computer sciences GPA along with your compositions scores, for examples). 3.0 GPA (B average) is usually the minimum for consideration for many programs, though depending on the program the functional cut-off GPA is frequently much, much higher due to the volume of candidates.
If your GPAs are under a 3.0, you likely cannot be admitted under regular admissions status. Luckily, that is what probational status is for. Essentially most* public universities allow for somewhere between 10% and 25% of their accepted applicants to be admitted from within a probationary status. Usually this is exclusively for Undergraduate GPA issues, but can occasionally be for other missing or lower elements in the application. To be admitted in probationary status you have to be so stellar in everything else that they are wanting to ignore your previous education.
GRE Scores: The big test. This is essentially proving your determination, when it comes right down to it. Most schools love to see and report big, impressive numbers here. But functionally speaking, the GRE isn’t so much of a measure of functional knowledge. Instead, it is a measure of determination to study for something incredibly hard over months of time for little direct benefit.
In other words, it’s your test run for your thesis hours.
Doing well on your GRE Score will greatly impact how your Undergrad GPA weighs on your application. If you show top-of-the-line GRE scores then your lower undergrad GPA will often be mitigated- but not entirely. You will want to address this discrepancy in your personal statement otherwise it will look like you are smart, intelligent, but not willing to have staying power.
Having a low or mediocre GRE score also won’t sink your application necessarily, but frequently minimum scores are a thing for high-volume schools (even if they aren’t published). Each time you take the exam is reported, so if you take it twice and have big upgrades, no worries. You clearly show the ability to grow and improve. Taking it three, or four, or eight times with no major growth shows… well that you hit your head against things without figuring them out. Not a great sign. The best sign is always to do stellar on first attempt as it shows preparation, skill, and effort.
Final note: be sure as to what GRE they want. There is a general, subject area, and sometimes field specific GRE tests offered through ETS.
Oh, and you can find help resources through the official website: ETS.org
Personal Statement: Your personal statement is where you show off your writing skills, ability to reason and synthesize, and develop your actual purpose for applying to the program. This is a very, very critical piece and shouldn’t be underestimated. This is where you explain those problems with your application (As you can see here, my undergraduate GPA is low from my misspent youth, but by stellar GRE score reflects my new work ethic and shows I am ready to complete this program and move on to bigger and better things, blah blah).
Like any personal statement, you want to consider:
Take some time to really consider these options. Are you seeking employment (if so, in what field? To do what, specifically? How will this degree help?)? Perhaps you are looking to get admitted to another, higher level graduate or professional school (if so, what specific school or schools? Why those schools? How does this program prepare you for your PhD or research? Why that program?). You also need to know your audience. Who is reading your applications? What are they looking for? Have you spoken to their graduate director? If so, what did they say? What is unique about that program that will help you (in specifics!). If the program has a specific research focus or technology no one else has or just faculty well published or established in your field: say that! Research into the school also show you can research in your field.
For the rest of the personal statement, it is usually a great idea to first answer each of these in a few sentences:
If you come up with three sentences to each of these, you are pretty much ready for horrific, painful editing of your personal statement. Remember: they are looking for evidence of skill, persistence, and return on investment. Show you will complete the program and go on to do something valuable with it.
And it never hurts to get it checked by a friend or family with strong composition skills. Good writing matters.
Resume/CV: The resume also matters, especially in programs more oriented towards employment rather than research (more on this later). If they call for a resume, you are likely in the clear. Everyone has a resume, and good resume design guides are a dime a dozen online. Go look them up.
Alternatively, if they ask for a CV (Curriculum Vitae), that is a very different beast. Your CV is an academic resume, and in research oriented fields it is a must. You are detailing out all that research, lab experience, credentialing, service to institutions, and more you did from undergraduate onwards. I could write a whole thing this length again just on the CV, but I won’t. So there.
Also, the internet has a lot of stuff on this as well, google is your friend here. Don’t copy paste though, that’s plagiarism and you will go to a special level of hell.
Rec Letters: The biggest thing on your application, the truly most impressive thing, are your letters of recommendation. Ideally from faculty familiar with your ability to do work in that particular field, these are mysterious and problematic since you never quite know what the faculty member says as they go in sealed envelopes (or increasingly through direct upload links) from the faculty member.
Unless, like many faculty, your professor is lazy and tells you to write one for yourself that they will read, edit, and upload. In which case good fucking luck. This is the worst thing ever and almost always you will offend the professor or screw yourself over by being too humble. There is no way to know.
Anyhow, in most cases you want your senior-level coursework faculty to write these from your undergrad. Of course, undergrad was a very long time ago so your faculty might not remember you (perhaps, making assumptions here). Ask anyway, most have a template and give you the benefit of the doubt. Some won’t (these faculty are jerks and are to be shunned). But you are at their mercy in this.
If you are changing fields, this can be particularly frustrating. An English major going into Statistics might have some trouble finding a relevant faculty member to reference. This is a great time for a non-degree course to come into play (more on this later).
If the field is particularly work oriented (education, programming, public admin, business, urban planning, etc.) often professional references from those working with you in that field can be a great alternative. People like admitting students already immersed in the field as it makes for a more valuable classroom experience for your fellow students.
Other: Every program is different! Portfolios, specialty tests, interviews, and more can occur. Prepare accordingly!
======================-What Else Should I know?-======================
Non-Degree Courses and You: But Enc, I have a terrible undergraduate GPA, no letters of recommendation, at least 6 months before I plan on applying to graduate school (the deadline, not the start of the semester, more on this later), and/or am changing fields from English to Applied Chemical Analysis (or vice versa), what the hell do I do now!?
The answer, my friend, is Non-Degree Seeking Courses. Sometimes (but certainly not always, check with your faculty in the programs you are looking at), students choose to enroll as a non-degree seeking student to take one or two graduate level courses without being part of a program. The benefits here can be many:
- -Gives you a chance to sample the field.
- -Gives you a chance to correct your undergrad education by getting an A (4.0) on first attempt of a graduate course in the field you are looking to go into (take that past self!)
- -Gives you time to be the best student possible in that course to get a letter of recommendation from that faculty member.
- -Gives you a chance to prepare for the nightmare hellscape that is your social life while in graduate school.
- -Gives you a chance to feel the crushing economic burden as you pay for a graduate course without financial assistance.
- -Gives you a chance to learn just how frustrating enrolling last on the night before classes can be in actually getting into a course (and, often, not being able to do so).
So it’s a mixed bag, per se. That said, it can be a solution to a goodly amount of problems. It can prepare you for the field, it can give you a chance to brush up on the basics. Before doing so, always check school policies. Many schools limit or prevent Non-Degree courses from counting towards a master’s or PhD program, so know the policies before you enroll and pay. For example, in my institution you can take 3 courses non-degree and count them towards a degree program, more than that and you have to retake (and re-pay for) one or more of the courses.Graduate Certificate Programs: A graduate certificate is generally a short, graduate level program (usually 4-7 classes) that covers about half of a master’s program and gets you a specific occupational-related skillset. They frequently do not require a GRE and have much lower entry requirements compared to more formal degree programs. Many of them also can be transferred all, or in part as with Non-Degree, into a related Master’s program they are built for. Like Non-Degree there are often problems with these, but in most* cases they are programs designed for working professionals with unrelated undergraduate degrees seeking to change fields and eventually (after completing the program) entering into a higher level degree.
If one exists in your field, at the school you want to go to, and the Non-Degree situation sounds familiar to you. Take a close look. It might be worth it (especially as the faculty teaching these are usually also on the admissions committees for related programs).
Different Graduate Programs & Philosophies: Graduate programs come in three flavors, more or less*, with different levels of admittance:
Application Deadlines and Why they exist: Graduate schools typically accept Fall applications in the Fall of the previous year. At the writing of this post it is March 2017. If I were planning to apply to most programs my schedule would start immediately in preparing for the GRE and ensuring I have my letters of rec prepared no later than August. Then I would apply in September 2017 to meet Fall Priority Deadlines for admission for the Fall 2018 cohort.
Some schools have later application sessions for fall admissions, but don’t be fooled. These are by availability only and have no guarantee that applications haven’t already filled. Also, financial assistance (in graduate school this means being supported with a tuition waiver, GTA or GA position, or fellowship) are only given out to priority applications so you are often hurting your chances.
Most schools have a fall-only admission to keep students in a cohort (a group of students at the same level). Ideally, this means the same 20-40 students will grow with you through the program making for a collaborative working experience. It rarely works so perfectly, but that is the model. Cohort, fall-only programs usually are more desirable from your perspective as a student as the faculty are looking at a quality-of-education based approach to their admissions. Don’t attend a High-rigor Research Program that isn’t cohort-based unless you are desperate (as research opportunities, lab quality, and other important needs are rarely well supported if they aren’t doing student support from day one).
Rolling admission (summer, spring, and fall admissions) usually are from the Vocational Programs field above. Rolling admission in vocational programs makes sense, and is usually fine. You won’t likely be doing a research project that is faculty mentored in these programs anyhow.
How can I go to Graduate School Affordably? Hahahahahahahaha!
Oh, wait. You are serious.
Ok, then. Well the most tried and true method is to be a 4.0, top-scoring GRE student with undergraduate research already published and a solid set of faculty backing you with glowing recommendations. In which case you probably already have been offered a GA position with a tuition waiver and are on the fast track to tenured employment in 7-9 years.
For the rest of us, that means either getting your employer to pay for your schooling (such as by working at the institution, or at a public office that has a tuition support program).
There isn’t much in the way of financial support from federal, state, or private grants for graduate school. Usually it’s about loans. Something to do before you apply to graduate school is to go to a job research index, my favorite is onetonline.org, to research the pay of the jobs you want to get in your area, what the average educational level is in those jobs, and then compare that to your projected student loan cost before applying. OnetOnline also can show you if the field is growing or shrinking, and compare that to national averages.
It’s a pretty cool site, and you want to know the details before you devote 3-7 years and likely $30,000-80,000 on an investment that may or may not pan out.
======================-Accreditation & Online Education-======================
Yo, do you know who the accreditation agency is for your school?
FIND OUT: https://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/agencies.aspx
Then go to that agency and look up the school. Infractions, probation, all that shit is posted. Often including things like Title IX violations and other problems. Find out of the school is accredited, then find out if their online programs are also covered by their accreditation. Often University of Birdname's face to face programs might be accredited while their rather sinister online school might not be. Know before you buy!
Online schools are a mixed bag. Certainly their convenience is useful, but they almost always are self-directed and minimally beneficial compared to their face to face counterparts. A good rule of thumb here is to put yourself into a CEO's position when reviewing the program and ask the all important question: If I had this candidate, and one from a face to face program, as my final applicants, which would I choose?
You lose both skill, opportunities, and especially networking abilities in online programs. You get the credential, but often that is ~maybe~ 50% of the value of your degree. Networking with your fellow students and faculty and taking advantage of the professional development opportunities on the school grounds are way more worthwhile.
Also a good number of public universities offer their graduate courses after 6:00 pm to help with work scheduling, which is nice!
======================-Anything else?-======================
Probably. But this is more than enough for now. Good luck!
And now the disclaimer:
*Most means most I am familiar with, which includes the big state-wide systems of Florida, California, Texas, and SUNY. Every school, even ones in these states, are precious snowflakes with their own horrific system of bureaucratic policies. Know them. Or know people who work at them. Office Staff at universities can be a graduate student’s best friend, get to know them and they will help you find opportunities that you would miss in terms of employment, funding, and course availability.
It is at once the searing memory of what I lost and was denied, but what I was blessed to have.
Today's commute was pleasant because of it.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
I feel like that should be stickied or saved somewhere because man, thats a lot of useful information