The search continues
As I know everyone is very interested in things like how the search for grad school is going, I figured I’d blog through my thoughts about the whole thing to keep people up to date.
First, I have to take the GRE in September or October. I need to get signed up for it but you have to have money before you can shore those things up and I don’t right now so to hell with it. I’ll take it at some point and hopefully do well on it and then everything will be fine and I can start really truly applying for grad schools. I’ve been trying to get better at the math section again and it’s going really well. The book I bought seems to help and I like to have the opportunity to do math things because I’ve always really liked math but been unable to take the classes due to a lack of time in my schedule and it being relatively unimportant to my growth as a student. So i also need to start working on verbal but I hate flash cards and vocab and all such things so that’s not something i want to do.
So I have a lot of lists that float around in my head about grad school and those things right now. Here’s my Top 5 if we were going straight masters degree:
- Wisconsin-Madison
- UCLA
- Minneapolis
- Northwestern
- Texas-Austin
The only changes to the list if I look at it more longterm is that Minneapolis has a really sweet dual Ph.D. program in African History and Women’s Studies that the more I think about the more I get excited about. I think that if I decided I wanted to knock out a Ph.D. right away Minneapolis would for sure elevate itself above the other options. And with Texas being a safety school I’m pretty sure that if I got into and through any of my top 4 programs then I’d be a shoe-in for a Ph.D. at one of the other schools too.
Of course, it’s also important that we factor in realities of living… so i’ve shopped around via facebook marketplace to look at what a one or two-bedroom apartment would run us. If I factor in cost of living from cheapest to most expensive the list looks something like this:
- Madison
- Minneapolis
- Austin
- Chicago
- Los Angeles
If I look at it from where I think I’d be most happiest living the list looks like this:
- Minneapolis
- Madison
- Chicago
- Los Angeles
- Austin
If we end up in Madison, we’re a morning drive from Dudley and Shaw which would make us a good meeting point for all three boys. If we end up in Minneapolis, then Kyle has Dudley to play with. Knowing how sort of nervous I get about moving to new places and not knowing anyone, I think that Minneapolis looks increasingly popular on the list. Because of that I was canoodling about on their website today and decided that I should check out what research is happening there. It looks like they have a prof who does work on pre and colonial Great Lakes countries like Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi. That’s basically what I’m looking to research. So here’s to Minneapolis probably being my top choice for a variety of reasons.
In other news, I should have a car by Friday. I’m so happy about that. Kyle’s dad found me a 1994 grand prix with 87 thousand miles on it. So that’s sweet. And it’s in really good condition. It’s nice to have Kyle’s dad look for the car cos I know that he’ll put me in something that will get me to carbondale as much as possible so I can date his boy 🙂 happy. I’m so excited about being able to see him and things. Even if I’m not excited about him going.
Also, i ran into Naylor at Travis and Trista’s wedding yesterday and she mentioned needing an asst. coach who can travel with her debaters and later with her forensics kids. I mentioned that I was really hoping to get a job doing something similar this year and she said she’d definitely call me. So I look forward to that. Hooray!