Queercents

Not surprisingly, the competition in the grad school market this year has been brutal. From what I’ve read on The Grad Cafe and other related forums, It’s not unusual for applicants to be rejected from every school they’ve applied to. Ouch.

This year’s odds of acceptance–and the odds of receiving a substantial funding package–may be even tougher due to program budget cuts, resulting in smaller incoming cohorts and less funding to spread around.

Not to worry! For those caught in this conundrum, there are options that don’t involve gloom and doom. Here are a few courses of action for the stymied applicant, beyond the few consolation pints of ice cream.

Remix and refresh
Whatever you did this time around when you applied, try something a little different next time. If you’ve got your heart set on re-applying next season, get feedback from knowledgeable professors and mentors. Take a good hard look at all of your application materials and consider reconfiguring and reshaping the way you’ve “marketed” yourself. As soul-sucking and gross as that sounds, much of the application process is about how you look on paper, so perhaps there’s something you can improve or rearrange in order to increase your appeal to programs. Read the rest of this entry »

So you’ve been accepted to a graduate school program!  Congratulations!  Now what?

Decisions.  For some, the right school seems obvious–after a bit of consideration they know just where to go.  For others, it’s an agonizing and sometimes heart-wrenching process (not to be too dramatic!)  No matter your decision-making style, and regardless of how many or how few programs you’ve been accepted to, the following advice can helpful in making a confident choice.

• Find out about departmental open houses.  Many departments will have an official day or two designated for prospective students to come visit.  These are really beneficial, because you’ll not only get a feel for the department, but also meet several other admits who are in your same boat and could end up being friends and members of your cohort.  Even if this isn’t the case, try to schedule a campus visit and find out if the department can provide reimbursement for your travel.  I had some good luck in this area, and most folks that I talk to have been fully reimbursed for travel (and sometimes meals/lodging.)  Much of this will depend on your own schedule and obligations, but as with any major decision, I strongly suggest at least scoping out the terrain before you jump in headfirst.
• Meet up with current grad students.  Get the 411–some may be willing to let you crash on their couches if you’re in town for the weekend.  Grad students are also a fount of information on the best places near campus to live, work, and play (and the undergrad-filled places to avoid!) Read the rest of this entry »

January is a rough month for me.  Despite my attempts to budget more keenly each year, the effects of holiday spending always take their toll.  The impossibility of living up to all of my lofty new year’s resolutions becomes glaringly obvious right around mid-month.  The period between stipend checks seems to drag on for eternity as I turn to pickle sandwiches and vegan mac ‘n cheese as my staple diet.  And if you’re living in hostile winter climes like me and don’t enjoy trudging through snow drifts to class, the bitter cold tends to put a damper on everything in general.

But, enough complaining about my disdain for January–it’s over, and we made it.  I’m relieved to see the back of January, and enthusiastic to forge ahead into the coming months.  I’ll share a few pieces of advice to help get through those deep-winter doldrums and stay sane when you find yourself buried in a pile of schoolwork and barely enough cash to scrape by. Read the rest of this entry »

Your applications are in, transcripts have been sent, GRE’s taken, and a pile of money has disappeared from your accounts as if by magic.  Despite the temporary debt, breathe a sigh of relief–now all you have to do is wait.

Yes, wait.  And be patient, because graduate admissions committees often don’t make decisions until late February through March.  I once received an acceptance letter on April 1st–just two weeks before I had to make my binding decision on which school to attend.  So, if you’re stressing, do all in your power to get your mind off those letters and concentrate on what’s presently at hand–if you’re entering your last semester as an undergraduate, hone in on schoolwork.  If you have a part-time or full-time job, try to stay occupied in the spaces between checking your e-mail obsessively and dashing to the mailbox for any letters of note.  (If you’re really anxious, consider checking out websites like WhoGotIn, a rolling list of who got accepted/rejected where, and when they received notification.)

So what do you do that fateful day when a letter does arrive?  My next few posts will deal specifically with this difficult process. Read the rest of this entry »

The holiday season is starting to wind down, and for those with a little festive spirit left in us, New Year’s Eve is creeping up.  As we all take stock of the year and think about the one to come, I’d like to share some of my various holiday experiences and tips, especially helpful for those of us on modest student budgets.

1.  FareCast for cheap plane fares
Flying home for the holidays?  Or flying as far away from home as possible to some tropic climate for a holiday getaway?  (A luxury I wish I could afford!)  Either way, I’m a devout follower of FareCast and I always use it when I’m gearing up to travel home from school for holiday breaks.  I came across the flight fare tracker courtesy of Lifehacker and haven’t looked back.  After entering your destinations and travel dates, FareCast tracks your desired trip and gathers data from most major airlines, giving frequently updated fare prices and predictions of whether the fares will rise or drop in coming days.  It’s equally helpful in finding both last-minute fare deals and planning trips in advance.

2. “Fun Wine” for cold-weather get-togethers
Throwing a holiday party, or just attending one?  One of my favorite wintery provisions is mulled wine, or “fun wine” as my friends and I like to call it.  And it’s incredibly cost-effective while also providing plenty for the whole party. Read the rest of this entry »

While on your quest for the perfect graduate school “match,” you’ll likely want to consider what I refer to as the “queerness quotient.”  This not only refers to the level of gay-friendliness of the campus in question, but also includes whether queer-centered groups, associations, support services, and legislation exist within the school’s infrastructure.

A helpful resource for finding an LGBT-friendly campus is the Campus Climate Index.  It includes a searchable database of 177 campuses in the U.S., ranked by a 5-star scoring system.  A school’s score is determined not by users of the website, but by a research panel that takes into account factors such as LGBT policy inclusion, support and institutional commitment, student and academic life, and other aspects of campus climate.

The service is free and you’re not required to create an account, but it does ask for your name and e-mail address before accessing the search features.  You can sift and sort by a campus’s LGBT-friendliness score, name of the college or university, city/state, size, and locale–even save results of your search into your “bookbag.”  More detailed search options are also available, allowing you to filter by type of institution (liberal arts college, public, private, religious affiliation, etc.) as well as by region in the U.S.  In addition to the search function, be sure to check out the background information on the organization running the site, the FAQ’s, and the Resources sections, which are all wonderfully helpful in doing more intensive “homework” on a campus’s inclusiveness. Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps the most difficult decision in the graduate school application process is the part that’s supposed to be the most exhilarating: those late winter/early spring months when the response letters from graduate schools start to trickle in and that big decision on where to attend must be made.  Going to the mailbox several times a day—even stalking the mailperson—might become an awkward reality.

Though that part of your process may seem like it’s on the distant horizon, trust me, once the applications are out of your hands and you can breathe a sigh of relief, the time flies by, and soon enough you’ll have a nice little pile of decision letters to sift through.  You can make the best of this period between deadlines and decisions by doing some further research on the schools on your list: get in touch with current students to get the real scoop on what the program is like.

I’ve learned from faculty and students alike that the best way for prospective students to get the “real deal” on a program is to meet up with current students enrolled in the program.  From my experience, I agree wholeheartedly.  Current students will often give you the most unfiltered, honest input and have valuable advice having gone through the application and admission process themselves.  Many program websites have a list of their graduate students and their e-mail address, sometimes with a little “blurb” on their scholarly interests.  When I was inquiring about my current program, I selected five or six students from the list with similar interests to mine and sent them all the same e-mail. Read the rest of this entry »

Ah, the Graduate Record Examination: would a standardized test by any another name smell as… tedious? I know that there are folks who actually enjoy spending hours on a Saturday morning deciphering antonyms, trudging through dense reading passages, and solving for the square root of x plus y. However, I am not one of these people. Standardized testing and I had a fraught relationship, and yet, I survived.

The GRE is an unavoidable hurdle on the way to admission to many graduate programs in the sciences and humanities. But it doesn’t have to be a massive roadblock. It’s vital to keep in mind that while many schools call for your GRE scores, other aspects such as grades, writing samples, statement of purpose, and solid letters of recommendation are of great importance too. While these aspects of your application are very much in your control, your scores on a standardized test should probably not occupy too much space and stress in your mind as to become unhealthy or overtake your preparation of other application materials. Certainly this varies from person to person and school to school, so use your discretion when deciding how much or how little to prepare for the test.

Be sure to check with the program you’re interested in and find out about what types of tests are required for acceptance—and if available, minimum or average scores of admitted students. Once you’re sure you’ve got to take it, check with the Educational Testing Service’s (ETS) website to find test dates and locations near you. Read the rest of this entry »

As the weather cools down, costume shops and haunted houses become high-traffic areas, and this year’s installment of the Saw franchise arrives in theatres, I can’t help but recall–with a shudder–my experiences during this season one year ago.  While I was finishing up my semester and pulling together my Edie Sedgwick costume for Dallas’s annual Halloween Block Party, I was also mired deep in the horror-show: The Dreaded Graduate School Application Process.  (Cue chilling music from a Wes Craven movie.)

But it doesn’t have to be as scary as it may sound.  I’d like to share the path that led me to graduate studies, and provide some advice for those who are contemplating a degree–or multiple degrees–beyond the bachelor’s.

When I began college, I was fairly certain of what I wanted to accomplish.  My plans did not involve graduate school.  In fact, I’d plotted out my semesters strategically so that I could graduate one year early, avoid a year’s worth of loans, and enter the job market as swiftly and smoothly as possible.  Looking back, I’m amazed by how anxious I was to expedite the college process.  As a student, I focused on getting practical experience that would help me along my uncertain career path in film production.

But somewhere along the end of my sophomore year, I had a change of heart.  I was given the opportunity to be a teaching assistant for an interdisciplinary humanities class.  I loved the experience, and until then, had never considered my role in college as first and foremost a learner, much less contemplated the prospect of being a teacher myself.  College became less a tedious prerequisite to the “real world,” and more a place where I could be exposed to new ideas and ways of thinking.  I picked up a double-major in English and took several courses in Women’s Studies that profoundly changed my outlook. Read the rest of this entry »

Remember my call for writers about a week ago? Well, I learned something… apparently; short term commitment is the clincher for queers. I had a handful of people write in with some really fantastic series ideas.

First up is Rachel Gollay. She’s a full-time grad student (surviving on a small stipend!) and has offered to write a series about navigating the finances with graduate school. From the application process, to accepting an offer (should you accept the school that offers more funding or a school with a high-ranking reputation?), to the process of loan deferral and prospect of taking on more debt… Rachel will cover these money topics from her seat at the front of the class. You can learn more about her by reading her complete bio. And when she’s not studying, grading papers, or procrastinating, she can be found writing and performing her own music, cooking vegan cuisine, and obsessively reordering her Netflix queue. Please welcome her to Queercents.

More new series to come… so stick around. We have some fresh faces that plan to dazzle you with their newfound brevity.