I agree with this. There’s also a subset of people who are focused and capable of doing the work, but they just absolutely hate it, often because they’re in an unsupportive advisor-advisee relationship.</p>
<p>
And the skillset required to do it successfully is very different from the skillset required to complete an undergraduate degree successfully. The lack of structure is really tough for a lot of people – it’s been tough for me.</p>
<p>Grad school is often not all that fun, like when you’re in lab at 7:44 AM on a Saturday morning. (Not that I would complain about something like that.)</p>
<p>My dad did his PhD and the only thing he ever told me about the process was that finishing depends on:</p>
<p>a) Enjoying your research
b) Realizing that at times the research you enjoyed you will also hate.</p>
<p>It seems to be a bit of a love hate thing. In essence though, I don’t think most people can finish a PhD unless they enjoy their research from the outset but also have a knowledge of the fact that some moments during the course of their PhD they will absolutely feel like throwing their work into the garbage and enrolling in law school or something.</p>
<p>I want to get an M.S. or Meng in Industrial engineering with a specialization in operations research and decisions analysis. For undergrad I am double major in math and economics. It is my understanding from research that differential equations is a very important math class to take and do well in for engineering. I got a C, but later on I got an A in non linear systems which deals with systems of differential equations (instead of solving one you have to solve many at the same time.) Does doing well in a class that builds off a class that I did poorly in make up for an earlier bad grade? Or do I have to retake diff eqs?</p>
<p>“I don’t understand what the rationale for leaving a PhD early would be. I can’t imagine leaving a PhD prematurely unless I had something really promising lined up or was ignorant enough to think that a PhD wouldn’t be an asset later in my career.”</p>
<p>Are you in a Ph.D program? If you aren’t, that’s probably why you don’t understand a rationale for leaving a Ph.D program is and why you can’t imagine doing so. I’m in a great program in my field and I absolutely love it. However, I think (not seriously) about dropping out at least once a week! I panicked until I was told by higher-up Ph.D students that this is relatively normal, to a point. Graduate school is difficult and doctoral programs require a singular dedication. You have to be able to sustain interest in a field for 5+ years, including one big project for 1-2+ years. Some people lose interest. Others realize that for them, the investment of time and money isn’t worth the outcomes at the end. Still others leave to have families or develop themselves personally. Some people realize that they really don’t even like doing research and they don’t want to be in academia. There are a myriad of reasons for leaving Ph.D programs and not all of them are bad, nor do they mean that they just can’t do it. It just means that they’d rather be investing their time and money in some other way.</p>
<p>Euler321: Not necessarily. One bad grade will not kill your graduate school application – plenty of students in master’s and Ph.D programs right now got Cs or lower in some classes, even ones that are important to their field. I, for one, failed social psychology the first time around – and I’m in a social psychology graduate program right now. (What’s more, I didn’t retake the class until first semester senior year, so my new program never saw the replaced, better grade for the class.) I do think that the fact that the rest of my major and my transcript was pretty tight helped me out. I wouldn’t retake the class, necessarily, unless you feel like you didn’t learn the material well enough to do well in an engineering curriculum.</p>
<p>Juillet, I am not currently in a PhD program but have been working in a lab for seven years. I have significant exposure to grad students, many have started and completed a PhD while I have been working. I am not naive about the challenges and adversity associated with a PhD. That doesn’t change my views that a PhD is worth it and dropping out is unfathomable. If you are unable to work in a field for 5+ years or on a single projects for a couple of years, you really won’t succeed as a professional, in any field. What do you think that people end up doing after they drop out of a PhD program? I bet they spend more than 5 years doing it.</p>
<p>Hi, I’ve been browsing through and have been very impressed by the thoughtful replies. Especially those by the professors who are giving their valuable time to us prospective students. I have a two part question:</p>
<p>I have a year or two of real world experience and through this have realized how much of a passion I have for reading, writing and teaching. As such, a PhD seems to be the way to go. I was a decent student (a 3.47 or so) and have a good GRE (1430), but don’t have much to show in terms of research. I am thinking about writing a long (30 page) research paper on my areas of interest. Is this a good idea or a waste of time? I am now interested in how history and political context has impacted culture (literature, film, music) and don’t have any writing that I can refer to. If I write a great paper on these topics, I feel that I will can articulate my passion. Will the fact that it wasn’t an assignment hurt or help me? I just want to differentiate myself from what will be a competitive program, as my grades weren’t great.</p>
<p>Also, are cross-disciplinary PhD’s assets on the job market or would it be more judicious to go for a single focus and make it as broad as possible. Like an English degree, but also dipping into history and film. There are good cross-disciplinary programs at Stanford and UC-Berk, but I don’t want to hang all my hope on acceptance at those schools. Thanks for your help and pardon my long message!</p>
<p>There are several interdisciplinary PhD programs and some joint PhD like Histoy and Anthropology. </p>
<p>Grad school is waaaayyy more than just “passion for reading, writing, and teaching.” It’s a different kind of work up here. You need to decide which of the three you enjoy the most. You can do some English literature work in your History PhD, more like visual culture. You can do an English/Comp Lit PhD and use history and film as background. English/Comp Lit and History compelment each other very well. It’s a question of which one would you enjoy much more in terms of courses and the study material for the comprehensive exams.</p>
<p>Research is, at minimum, your senior thesis. If you already wrote one, that’s perfectly fine and you can use it for a writing sample. I wouldn’t go about doing your own research paper without supervision of a faculty member to guide you along how to write a great paper.</p>
<p>Just wondering about applying to dual degree/joint degree programs. I’m interested in an MA in IR or Mid-East/Near Eastern studies, but I’ve also lately been keen on an MBA with a focus in non-profit management. In terms of the application process, in which scenario is it most likely to obtain an MA + MBA:</p>
<p>A) Apply to grad school, get accepted and enroll, apply for b school during/after year 1
B) Apply to b school, get accepted and enroll, apply for grad school during/after year 1
C) Apply to both graduate and business programs at various universities, see which programs offer acceptance, then decide best fit of MA and/or MBA</p>
<p>In terms of my interests/qualifications if that helps in responding, I’m interested in careers in nonprofit organizations, governmental/diplomatic post, or other positions with an international focus. My undergrad background is political science / near eastern studies. The universities I’m exploring currently for MA/MBA programs (in order of preference as of now) are Stanford, UChicago, UMichigan, Berkeley, Northwestern, NYU, Georgetown, Columbia, Yale, Harvard. I am a recent graduate from one of the listed schools, with a 3.5 GPA while playing a Division 1 sport. Won’t apply until fall 2010 to enroll fall 2011, so I can have a solid 3-4 work experience at that point. </p>
<p>Smoking seems more common amongst east asian students. I almost never see any americans smoking, but late at night I always see a bunch of chinese or korean students sitting outside buildings talking and smoking.</p>
<p>I’m applying to grad programs in Near and Middle East Studies, as well as Islamic studies, this Fall. Some of these programs are at Yale, UPenn, Cornell and many of the “top tier” schools; with the exception of a few public schools, most of the programs in these fields are located at the Ivies. With that said, I’m now doubting whether I’ve got what it takes to make the cut. I graduated from a public school (Middle East studies major, minors in History and Philosophy) with a 3.75 GPA (magna cum laude), an honors thesis, 1480 on the GRE, and some good recommendations. However, I started out at a CC and ended up with a 3.2 before I transfered and now I’m worried this might hurt my chances. Is there anyone out there pursuing grad school in the same or related fields with any advice?</p>
<p>hey neareast…i’m applying to essentially the same sorts of programs as you (middle eastern studies, islamic studies, etc). My stats are similar to yours except my CC GPA was like a 3.7 and my GRE scores are 200 points lower…I can’t say that i’ve spoken with people at Yale or Cornell…but in my undergrad I spoke with professors from the near eastern languages/religions at UPenn and they seemed to care a lot about language acquisition and abroad experience more so than GPA (especially from a CC). </p>
<p>UCLA had a graduate fair for people hoping to get graduate degrees in International relations disciplines. I spoke with graduate school reps from other unis like Georgetown and SAIS, and each one had different things that they were looking for in their students. Georgetown told me that they really like to see good recs, work experience/research in the field and that it’s an extra plus if it is done abroad. SAIS told me that they really like to see people with backgrounds in economics, who have studied abroad and have learned a middle eastern language. </p>
<p>What i learned from speaking with the reps from various grad schools was that each one is looking for something completely different in a student. Some looked exclusively at GPA, others liked the recs, but the biggy for most of them was studying abroad/working abroad. All in all, i highly doubt that a poor gpa in a cc will be a turnoff (especially since you improved), but then again, you never really know…this whole process seems completely subjective anyway.</p>
<p>does anyone know if the grades of the courses taken at a community college, i.e. during the summer, will be included in the overall gpa when seen by graduate schools?</p>
<p>i ask this because the grades of courses taken in community colleges do not transfer into the university’s gpa, but for applying to graduate school, it may be different. </p>
<p>some schools have separate areas to fill out your gpas for each school…some ask just for a general overall GPA and a general major GPA..</p>
<p>I have attended 4 undergraduate institutions (2 CCs, UCLA and study abroad), and all the school reps that i asked (where you weren’t able to fill in a GPA for each school) told me to average them all together…be sure when you do this to pay attention to the number of units per class and convert quarter units into semester units etc…</p>
<p>what if i only attended a community college for one summer and got a C? that gpa would just be based on one course then, a 2.0. hopefully it doesnt count then. what schools did you talk to or ask, if you dont mind me asking?</p>
<p>some universities ask for transcripts from all schools attended, while others ask only for the ones you got a degree from…all of the ones i applied for asked for transcripts from ALL schools attended…you see i have UCLA+year abroad school+ 2 CCs, one of which i only took one class at. I still have to send it out and spend the freaking $6.</p>
<p>I would like to know if it is advisable to emphasize personal background on the SOP. Specifically, I would like to know if the admissions consider the “life stories” of the applicants (say a first generation immigrant, first generation college student, as well as part gypsy)?</p>
<p>I also want to know how good of a chance I have at getting into the University of Madison for the history program there. I am aware that they require the submission of a published paper, but I am not exactly sure what this entails. I had a 4.0 GPA during my freshman year at a smaller school in Connecticut before I transferred to the University of Minnesota TC where I entered their honors program. While there my GPA dropped a bit (3.8/.7) due largely to the fact that I took some management courses. However, I already took an internship at a Superior Court, but I am also planning on doing research for a history professor, study abroad, and so on. I am also confident about the GRE.</p>
<p>this is something very important that a lot of applicants seem to miss…</p>
<p>there is a difference between a statement of purpose (a graduate school thing) and a personal statement (an undergraduate thing). A statement of purpose should address why you want to apply to that school in that particular program and how it will help you reach your goals beyond that program, not reiterate stuff that’s in your resume. You can choose to emphasis certain aspects of your resume in your SOP (like how you are an immigrant/1st gen college student which i suppose could tell the committee that you’ve had to overcome more than most) but by no means should they be a huge part of it…remember the word “purpose” illustrates that one is striving toward some sort of anticipated outcome…so it’s more important to emphasize this than reiterating things that they can just look up in other sections of your application…</p>
<p>as for my next statement, i’m not positive on this, but i think that ‘first generation immigrant’ and ‘1st generation college student’ play less of a role in admissions when it comes to graduate school and more to do with the amount of aid offered. i THINK</p>
<p>There might be special fellowships available for first-generation students at the school, and it might help in non-school fellowship awards, but I don’t think it’ll do anything for admissions into a program.</p>