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In the on going saga of my Ph.D. application stuff, I made an appointment to go visit the school on November 1st. One of the grad students is going to take me on a tour and talk about grad life in the department. Then I'll meet with the grad advisor there. Turns out I read her book on feminist philosophy during my undergrad years. Still have her book. Kinda neat. After that I'll sit in on one of the classes. All this to show them I'm serious and don't drool.
GRE-wise I moved the date of the test from Nov 4th to the 22nd. The math section is tripping me up and I want more time to learn it so I can do something other than select answers at random like last time. Bearing in mind that selecting answers at random actually got me into grad school for my masters, this time how much money I'm alloted is at stake. Also, there's a chance they might tell me I need to get my masters with them before I move on the Ph.D. I refuse to do that. So anything I can do to illustrate I'm pretty smart and they'd be lucky to have me is a good thing. So I moved the test.
I decided to hold off on my letter of intent until I visit the school - then I can write that in there. I'll be able to talk about the faculty and what I'd like to do there with a lot more authority. I also thought it would be better to have my GRE scores - then if I flub a section I can explain why I sucked and how it shouldn't matter because I've already successfully completed a graduate degree program at a top 100 school (DU was 88 on the list this year). Plus I can tell them I survived Carl. That's got to count for something.
Who, by the way, has not submitted his recommendation yet. This is fine, he's got a lot of time. I only mention this because my old undergrad prof, who I asked about a week after I asked Carl, has already submitted his. What I love about Brendan is that he not only remembers me, he remembers what classes I took, philosophers I liked and even papers I wrote. He's a wonderful man. We talked for about 20 minutes on the phone. He told me sadly of one of the profs in the department who died. Then we talked about how Bush sucked. He also informed me that the glut of philosophy professors that were hired in the 70s will all start to retire over the next 5-10 years - this means jobs! Woohoo! Lets hope that holds.
Next it's on to editing my writing sample. I'm going to use a chapter of my thesis, though I'm not sure which yet. Maybe I'll look over that today. Then it's more math - Woohoo!
GRE-wise I moved the date of the test from Nov 4th to the 22nd. The math section is tripping me up and I want more time to learn it so I can do something other than select answers at random like last time. Bearing in mind that selecting answers at random actually got me into grad school for my masters, this time how much money I'm alloted is at stake. Also, there's a chance they might tell me I need to get my masters with them before I move on the Ph.D. I refuse to do that. So anything I can do to illustrate I'm pretty smart and they'd be lucky to have me is a good thing. So I moved the test.
I decided to hold off on my letter of intent until I visit the school - then I can write that in there. I'll be able to talk about the faculty and what I'd like to do there with a lot more authority. I also thought it would be better to have my GRE scores - then if I flub a section I can explain why I sucked and how it shouldn't matter because I've already successfully completed a graduate degree program at a top 100 school (DU was 88 on the list this year). Plus I can tell them I survived Carl. That's got to count for something.
Who, by the way, has not submitted his recommendation yet. This is fine, he's got a lot of time. I only mention this because my old undergrad prof, who I asked about a week after I asked Carl, has already submitted his. What I love about Brendan is that he not only remembers me, he remembers what classes I took, philosophers I liked and even papers I wrote. He's a wonderful man. We talked for about 20 minutes on the phone. He told me sadly of one of the profs in the department who died. Then we talked about how Bush sucked. He also informed me that the glut of philosophy professors that were hired in the 70s will all start to retire over the next 5-10 years - this means jobs! Woohoo! Lets hope that holds.
Next it's on to editing my writing sample. I'm going to use a chapter of my thesis, though I'm not sure which yet. Maybe I'll look over that today. Then it's more math - Woohoo!
