Why don't you find a prep test online and try? There were options for it when I studied for GMAT, so I assume you can find them for GRE as well.
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Applying for graduate school is exhausting and soul-crushing
- Thread starter Pikachu
- Start date
Why don't you find a prep test online and try? There were options for it when I studied for GMAT, so I assume you can find them for GRE as well.
this is all anecdotal to my field (mathematics then data analytics) but some answers:
1) I had 4-5 programs in mind but I only seriously applied to one and I got it. I personally feel like grad programs are different than undergrad ones—it feels more appropriate to want one specific program because programs vary pretty wildly between schools.
2) as people said definitely take the gre. you're going to have to study for sure, but I did not find it to be insanely harder than the SAT/ACT quite frankly. at least at a conceptual level. I'm guessing it's more rigorously graded and there's more time crunch and volume...it's hard mode. similar stuff but hard mode. if you don't take it it's going to make things a hell of a lot more difficult.
3) getting letters fucking sucks. my least favorite thing. I fucking hate it. god. doing it for every job and school and any other random ass thing. the worst. but you have to do it. I didn't keep in touch with professors either but I feel like everybody should have a handful that they got on with a little better than the others. even if you think they won't remember you, reach out to one of those. academics are perfectly amenable to assisting others in entering academics. unless you were thoroughly anonymous (or actively annoying) there's a decent chance they will help you out.
4) I was about as mixed up as you before applying. I had reached my wit's end with my career path at the time and knew I wanted to switch over to something related to mathematics, which I'd studied before. I didn't know what for sure. research led me to a handful of programs that had common themes but were very different. I attended info sessions or did further research on each. picked the one that best balanced being genuinely intriguing, having solid career opportunities, and fitting my existing experience. applied to that one and got it. all after reaching that point I had a crisis of confidence—did I even give a shit about this subject. I've stuck with it and enjoyed it a lot. you'll always have a little doubt right? that you could be doing something else? That's just being alive. as long as you find it sincerely enriching (semi-often, at least) and you can live a comfortable life on it, you can keep going.
1) I had 4-5 programs in mind but I only seriously applied to one and I got it. I personally feel like grad programs are different than undergrad ones—it feels more appropriate to want one specific program because programs vary pretty wildly between schools.
2) as people said definitely take the gre. you're going to have to study for sure, but I did not find it to be insanely harder than the SAT/ACT quite frankly. at least at a conceptual level. I'm guessing it's more rigorously graded and there's more time crunch and volume...it's hard mode. similar stuff but hard mode. if you don't take it it's going to make things a hell of a lot more difficult.
3) getting letters fucking sucks. my least favorite thing. I fucking hate it. god. doing it for every job and school and any other random ass thing. the worst. but you have to do it. I didn't keep in touch with professors either but I feel like everybody should have a handful that they got on with a little better than the others. even if you think they won't remember you, reach out to one of those. academics are perfectly amenable to assisting others in entering academics. unless you were thoroughly anonymous (or actively annoying) there's a decent chance they will help you out.
4) I was about as mixed up as you before applying. I had reached my wit's end with my career path at the time and knew I wanted to switch over to something related to mathematics, which I'd studied before. I didn't know what for sure. research led me to a handful of programs that had common themes but were very different. I attended info sessions or did further research on each. picked the one that best balanced being genuinely intriguing, having solid career opportunities, and fitting my existing experience. applied to that one and got it. all after reaching that point I had a crisis of confidence—did I even give a shit about this subject. I've stuck with it and enjoyed it a lot. you'll always have a little doubt right? that you could be doing something else? That's just being alive. as long as you find it sincerely enriching (semi-often, at least) and you can live a comfortable life on it, you can keep going.
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I have books already from friends lol
I just feel like, surely the next few years grad schools are gonna be f*cked in terms of getting people to apply, surely GRE is not so important anymore
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Here's the thing. My current job. It's the job I'm going to keep forever if I can't get the dream job. It's the next best thing. There's a huge gap between the two, but still. A program like this would also serve the purpose of helping me figure out if it's still my dream, or if I'm happy here.
Edit: Just to add. It's almost unhealthy, my desire for that other job. Since high school. I chose my college specifically with that job in mind. It wasn't until senior year of undergrad when I started to realize I need to find an actual, attainable job in the meantime while I chased that dream.
The thing about the GRE is that they let you see your score after the test and you get to choose whether or not to send it to the schools. The only thing you have to lose is the test fee and a couple hours of your time.
To me, that made it one of the least stressful aspects of the application, since there is no uncertainty involved. Whereas with the essay or the letters of recommendation you don't have that.
I get that some people suffer from test anxiety issues, so YMMV.
In my experience, grad school was a marathon grind of an insane amount of work that often was stuff I didn't feel like doing. If you're not motivated enough to study for a standardized test for a month or so, grad school might not be for you.
Having said that, if reach out to the school/department and give them the run down. More importantly, I'd also recommend looking at the faculty and reach out to them directly expressing your interest. If a professor is interested in being your mentor, you can probably get away without taking the GRE as long as everything else is order.
Having said that, if reach out to the school/department and give them the run down. More importantly, I'd also recommend looking at the faculty and reach out to them directly expressing your interest. If a professor is interested in being your mentor, you can probably get away without taking the GRE as long as everything else is order.
I'm going back to studying for MSc starting in August. My reasons for going back are that I enjoy studying, want to challenge myself, find the subject very interesting and getting a master's degree will open new doors for me professionally. I kinda see getting master's as the final boss of my academic "career" that started from kindergarten. Right now I am both excited and a bit terrified. As I said I find the subject which is energy technology really interesting, but at the same time I am worried about the countless hours of work ahead of me and how I can handle it all.
It wasn't fun at all, but those acceptances and scholarship made it worth it.
Zoom University here I come, but my salary is going to shoot up afterward.
Also OP, I only applied to one school this year since I only cared about the top university for the program that I wanted to go into. I don't think it's stupid. Just be realistic with your odds and have a plan B.
Zoom University here I come, but my salary is going to shoot up afterward.
Also OP, I only applied to one school this year since I only cared about the top university for the program that I wanted to go into. I don't think it's stupid. Just be realistic with your odds and have a plan B.
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I'm kinda in the same boat, OP. I intend to apply to grad school in the (very) near future. Covid-19 definitely limited my expectations to applier sooner. Considering state-based scholarships are currently on hiauts in my country, I certainly don't want to pay a significant amount of money on online tuition. So, I'm kinda hoping everything will start getting better soon. I also hope they waive the GRE at most programs that I can apply to (I'm interested in either an MPH or MPP).
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Yeah I'm aiming for a Fall 2021 start to hopefully bypass the Zoom degree.
But I gotta say, y'all, the anti-GRE cult online circles I'm exploring really speak to me...
How long is your program? I hope you manage to have at least one semester in-person. It really does suck to spend so much time applying to and picking a particular program only to have some of the reasons for doing so disappear.
2 year minimum with an option to extend for 3. I think there is a chance my 2nd year things could be back to "normal" but I'm not holding my breath.
My program has a strong focus on socializing/networking, and I don't see how that can happen now. Funny enough I'm joining my wife in the program and I was expected to tag along to her Japan study trip earlier this year.. but the trip was canceled for good reasons.
In my incoming cohort, there are a lot of people who are upset that they did not get the option to delay starting school. Overall morale is low, but my main focus is staying healthy and landing a job afterward.
I really dislike the GRE but mostly because it's a way admission programs have to filter out a huge number of applicants. I get it, but I would hope they cared more about the applicant themselves (like, their application letter) rather than the GRE scores. And I get that GRE scores are not the only relevant info for admissions but a bad score can really screw your chances of getting into a great program (or dream school).
I went to grad school because I knew this was the career I wanted to be in. I knew ultimately I wanted to make a change, and if i wanted to be a therapist, getting a masters degree was a requirement for my state. I also LOVED the faculty here undergrad, so it was an easy decision. They actually asked me to apply after doing amazing in the drugs and human behavior class. Now I'm close to having my masters in counseling, and I start my internship in the fall with clients.
It's not stupid to have 1 school in mind - I only applied to 2 schools. The 1 I wanted to get into, and a backup just in case.
I made sure to apply for any schools that did not use GRE. If they used GRE I was immediately not interested.
The work-load was definitely rough. The amount of readings we had per week was insane, coupled that with 2 weekly roleplays we had to do, along with 2 roleplay tapes we would get graded on. It was intense, but for the best - we will all be excellent therapist now.
Yeah, it's super helpful. Whenever you're applying to a job, you're always playing the HR person against their boss. You want to make it so that if they don't go with you, they feel like they won't be able to justify that decision to their boss if it comes up. "Why'd you pick this person over the one with the extra credentials?"
No. I went to the same program as my bachelor's, and I used the chair of the department as a reference (had him for class 3 times as an undergrad). Was super positive.
The thing about admissions is it's a total package. Whatever this school is, they view their process as "X items." You may be able to sub out the GRE for an essay in that list, but if you phone either of them in, the rest of your package better be good.
This is my background exactly lol
Depending on what you're doing, it may be beneficial. For example, in the K-12 education world moving forward, every job interview is going to have the question "so how did you adapt to COVID-19?" People that actually went to school during the height of it themselves are going to have a huge leg up, if it's at all relevant to the field.
Imma be honest. I was working full time and getting my masters and literally those entire two years are a fucking blur. I have some vague hazy memories of working over 40 hours a week Monday thru Friday and then pounding coffee over the weekend as I didn't sleep and read and wrote shit.
Also check the requirements for your school. If the GRE has you nervous you are going to be shitting yourself if they make you do some kind of oral test/defense at the end of the program. That shit had me legit terrified leading up to it.
Also check the requirements for your school. If the GRE has you nervous you are going to be shitting yourself if they make you do some kind of oral test/defense at the end of the program. That shit had me legit terrified leading up to it.
Applying was pretty easy for me but I only applied for one program as I needed a program I could do while working. Its only one class at a time so its not completely unmanageable.
Doing school and work at the same time is another issue though, I feel like I do not much else which is not so bad I guess with the pandemic going on.
Doing school and work at the same time is another issue though, I feel like I do not much else which is not so bad I guess with the pandemic going on.
Close. I dropped out of high school then ended up being academically dismissed from college when I was 19 or so. I just graduated last semester at 30 and am about to start my first semester of law school here in August.
I did very poorly as an undergraduate during my teens and 20s. I failed many classes at multiple schools and was put on academic probation a few times before giving up and entering the workforce. In my early 30s I tried school again - it took two years to finally get my degree. My grades were just under 4.0 during those two years though, and it ended up bringing my total GPA to a low B, I think.
With my undergrad degree, I applied for a masters at a state school. I completed my MA in two years with a 4.0, and now I'll be attending Northwestern in the fall to start my PhD.
So it's definitely possible. If you didn't have a good undergrad career then I think the trick is to go to a less prestigious school first to get a masters and really work hard to impress your professors there. The thing is, the professors at "no-name" schools are still often very connected and active in their field - you can absolutely learn a lot from them, and they can be instrumental in getting you placed into a top-notch phd program.
My wife has an online MBA. I think she had a good experience with it - she was able to easily fit in classes around her schedule and now she has a nice thing to put on her resume that may open some doors for her. On the other hand, she had very little interaction with the professors and her networking possibilities were limited.
I think it depends on why you want the degree. If it's to get specific job skills or professional qualifications then you probably won't have much issue with it and online classes may be the right choice. If you're wanting to go on to work in academia or science however, I really think a super important thing about getting an MA is the personal interaction with professors, so an online degree would not be ideal in those circumstances.
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Wow thanks that's the kind of story I needed to hear. I failed most of my classes when I gave college my first attempt. I'm about to graduate next year at the age of 30 with a close to 4.0 gpa and I was a little nervous to start my grad school applications. I wasn't sure how bad my previous grades will come to haunt me.
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Heck yeah thanks for sharing ! I'm on a similar boat. Did terrible when I was 18-21. I'm graduating at the age of 30 next year with very good grades. I have aspirations of grad school ! Your story makes it feel a lot more possible.
The issue is that people can hire someone to write their application letter. There is a lot of shady stuff that goes on with applications.
Admissions would generally rather use your GPA than your GRE score, but there are issues with comparing GPAs between schools, particularly if it is from a lesser known school. Again, people can try to scam you, and it is a lot of work to ask the committee to research the school and confirm the transcript when in the first phase of filtering applicants.
You get to choose whether to submit your scores, though. And you can take the GRE multiple times and select the best scores. So it is kind of hard to end up getting screwed by it if you are organized and willing to put in a little effort. Which is part of what makes it useful as a filter.
No problem! I used to be ashamed of my story until an advisor told me to share it as it may help others so I have ever since.
You'll definitely get into grad school!
Applications will ask for your full academic history, but it's the most recent history that counts. Some applications also give you extra space to discuss issues such as this.
I dropped out of college twice before finally finishing with close to a 4.0 GPA. I only gave an explanation on applications that gave extra room for it since the personal statement is so limited in space. It's hard to know how much the extra explanation actually affected my admission since I got into programs where I talked about it as well as ones were I didn't. These were all top programs in my field with acceptance rates in the single digits.
Which is all to say, you can definitely do this!
Thank you so much to everyone for being so encouraging. It's really tough to remain hopeful when I know I'll be competing with people who had there stuff together with little hiccups in between. I'm hopeful tho ! Thank you Pau.
Nice! It's been fun even when it's tough, and I'm for sure learning a lot. Finally just wrapped my head around gradient boosting after the second or third time being taught it in a course haha. Now that it makes sense it's so neat
this is where I'm at rn and this is too real. This on top of quarantine and I feel like every week simultaneously passes in the blink of an eye and never ends. Though my method has been to give myself one full weekend day and one weekday evening to do my own thing, and work longer on other days. Finding I'd rather stay up til 2 finishing assignments one night a week and have Saturday to myself.
I'm in the low 3's, but I managed to get into every Ivy grad program that I applied to in previous years. I hear similar stories for people with GPAs in the 2's. It's all about explaining your story, but I'd imagine if you went back and somehow raised your GPA (I'm not familiar with this process) then you should be set.
It depends on your program type (sorry if I missed your post explaining which type of program), but I would say the competition will probably be the same (assuming you are applying this Fall for Spring 2021). One of the real worries I have for others is that potential recommenders will be directly or indirectly impacted by COVID. It's hard to ask for a great recommendation when your manager is grieving over a loved ones death or is battling symptoms. So for that reason, I suggest asking people early for recommendations.
I'm betting that things will still be on Zoom in the Spring. We probably won't see a widely available vaccine until early 2021 and we do not know how long it will take for most people to even trust the vaccine because of their justified distrust for the government right now.
My alma mater is supposed to have some in-person instruction in the Fall already. Grad-level classes will be quicker go back to in-person than others since the class sizes are smaller, and classes are more discussion-oriented.
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statements of purpii
how they be?
initial google search suggests that they're purposely without "color"? like, no whimsical story that vaguely alludes to why i'm interested in x topic? or perhaps, extremely truncated into a sentence or two. and the rest business: why this program, what to study, relevant work experience, future plans?
how they be?
initial google search suggests that they're purposely without "color"? like, no whimsical story that vaguely alludes to why i'm interested in x topic? or perhaps, extremely truncated into a sentence or two. and the rest business: why this program, what to study, relevant work experience, future plans?
I went to grad school because I wanted to be closer to my now wife and figured it would help with some kind of career, so I only applied to one school. I winged the GRE's, just did some practice tests as I had never taken a standardized test before and that was it. I'm not even sure how you would study for them, especially the verbal part. Going to a good undergrad school definitely helped and my GRE scores also helped get in and secure some extra money.
The secret of graduate school is if you want to be able to get a job anywhere in that field go to a Ivy or the top schools in the field. However, if you know where you want to live and work the rest of your life, try to find an affordable regional/local school in that area with a program with a decent reputation and just go there. It will save you a ton of money and you'll still be able to find good/great employment and internship opportunities.
Also visit the school, sit in on a class, and try to talk to students about their experience in the program. Some grad programs are janky but hide it well.
Also if you can work in your field in damn near any capacity, that is better than a internship. However, if there are no jobs you can get in the field no matter what..... you got to get a internship. However, it really is best if going to grad school is to further a career and not to change one. That work experience, plus a degree will project you forward faster.
This is my advice as a former AmeriCorps counselor who gave hundreds of recent grads advice on what to do after college, and a few master degrees myself.
Also visit the school, sit in on a class, and try to talk to students about their experience in the program. Some grad programs are janky but hide it well.
Also if you can work in your field in damn near any capacity, that is better than a internship. However, if there are no jobs you can get in the field no matter what..... you got to get a internship. However, it really is best if going to grad school is to further a career and not to change one. That work experience, plus a degree will project you forward faster.
This is my advice as a former AmeriCorps counselor who gave hundreds of recent grads advice on what to do after college, and a few master degrees myself.
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I feel like my uni had some monetary issues and needed more enrolments because I had absolutely no right being accepted into my grad course. No right at all. My undergrad transcript is awful in every sense of the word.
I'm smashing it now though, which is great. But almost a year in and I'm still dumbfounded on (and thankful for) how I was ever given the opportunity
I'm smashing it now though, which is great. But almost a year in and I'm still dumbfounded on (and thankful for) how I was ever given the opportunity
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I've said elsewhere in the thread that I have the job that people who go to this program want. I'm really heavily banking on notion that that is itself attractive to a grad school and will make up for any shortcomings (although, even being humble, I think not taking the GRE is my only "weakness".) My GPA was good enough for lowest latin honors.
You should go on a tour and meet with an admissions counselor one on one. Tell them your situation and express how you want to go to their program to acquire a even more prestigious job in the field. They'll likely weigh that heavily in their decision. At the end of the day they want graduates from their program to have successful careers because that is advertising to other people that their school creates successful professional in that field. You need to take advantage of that and make sure they see you as the professional you are now and the professional you could be.
So, my problem isn't the GRE (which I don't want to take because it is expensive for me but will do it anyways) but rather the fact that I have to get letters of recommendation. How do you get over the concern about asking for somebody to write one? I'm four years out of undergrad, so I don't have much of a connection to my college professors outside of some FB posts here and there, and I cannot ask my bosses to write me letters because my bosses are not the kind of people to do that (even if they appreciate the work I do).
I know my only option is reconnecting to my professors but I dislike how slimy it feels. How do you get over that concern?
I know my only option is reconnecting to my professors but I dislike how slimy it feels. How do you get over that concern?
Correct. I wouldn't get too artsy on it, so to speak. And be specific. You don't want it to look like a mail merge, it needs to look intentional.
Having the same problem though I'm going into senior year undergrad. I stupidly didn't make any connections to my profs (largely due to horrible anxiety) so I don't really have anyone that could write a truly good letter.
Do you speak to your advisor often or are they mostly just there to verify you chose the right classes?
In this situation, single out the classes that you have the highest grades in this past semester and ask your professors what their general feelings about writing recommendation letters are. Ask them what it would take to have them write one for you before you actually request one.