<p>I wouldn’t ordinarily start this thread, but [in</a> another thread, FiFi5000 requested that I talk about how I got into graduate school](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16739414-post3.html]in”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16739414-post3.html) and I didn’t want to hijack that thread in another direction. So, yeah.</p>
<p>I was a nontrad undergrad. Went to a local community college in the Bay Area, took seven years to finish my two-year degree. Transferred to a small, isolated state flagship (Alaska)… spent a year there, transferred again to another small, isolated state flagship (Idaho). Graduated in 2010 with a degree in journalism, into a horrifically bad journalism job market.</p>
<p>The outdoors have always been a passion of mine, so to avoid moving home with the parents, I accepted a full-time internship with the recreation staff of the Forest Service Alaska Regional Office that winter. Part of that internship included the opportunity to work as a park ranger/interpreter, and I started thinking about the synergy between journalists and interpreters… surprisingly, there are many. My supervisor encouraged me to think about going back to graduate school to study interpretation (and, not coincidentally, become eligible for student hire again).</p>
<p>First and foremost, I developed a strong research concept and a refined list of programs. I wrote an SOP proposing to study how new media technologies such as Twitter and Facebook might be applied to resource interpretation, and I contacted professors at major programs in the field to ascertain a) their interest in that direction of research and b) their ability to accept new students. I only applied to programs where I got at least an initial impression of interest in that research. I wasn’t expecting any professor to commit to anything, but several were quite open in saying that they were interested in what I bought to the table - and others were quite open in saying they weren’t interested.</p>
<p>That helped me refine and tailor my applications, and I ended up applying to eight schools: Missouri, Indiana, SUNY-College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Ball State, Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Maine, Clemson and Idaho. These might not sound like “impressive” names, but between them, they represent most of the world’s strongest programs in my particular field. This is another object lesson: the “big-name” undergrad schools aren’t necessarily the best schools for your graduate work, and 40,000-student state flagships might just be the right school for your graduate work. You can’t rely on USNWR rankings, you have to drill down into departments and subfields. Graduate education is intensely personal and finding the right professor is key.</p>
<p>To offset my spotty academic record, I procured strong professional letters of recommendation from my Forest Service supervisors, and wrote a supplemental letter to the SOP, acknowledging responsibility for those grades and explaining how I believed they were not entirely representative of my ability to succeed in graduate work.</p>
<p>I was accepted to every school except for UWSP. I narrowed my list to four, and made visits to Missouri, Indiana, SUNY-ESF and Maine. Both Maine and Indiana offered me one year of funding, and having been smitten by the professor at IU (and, not incidentally, by life in B-Town), I accepted admission at Indiana University Bloomington. My supervisor in the Forest Service offered me a slot in the agency’s student-to-career program, contingent on completing my degree within two years.</p>
<p>This is not where the story ends. Because after the first semester at IU, I lost my assistantship and almost flunked out. I underestimated an intro class that I thought was lame, I thought I could waltz through it and paid for it with a big fat F on my graduate transcript. I can sit here and rationalize and make excuses, but ultimately I own the responsibility for that. Losing my assistantship screwed my advisor’s research plan and screwed myself out of a semester’s worth of tuition. It was a harsh way to learn a necessary lesson: you can’t skate through graduate classes. Professors see through that attitude, target that attitude and nail that attitude to the wall.</p>
<p>Attitude and work ethic thus readjusted, I earned nothing lower than a B+ the rest of my program and finished with a 3.4. My research went more or less according to plan and my advisor accepted the second draft of my thesis, which is now pending publication in a peer-reviewed journal. In late August, I joined the Tongass National Forest partnerships and public affairs staff in Ketchikan, Alaska.</p>
deans list until this semester where I got a 4.0 and made presidents list, solid letters of rec, good sop, and my writing sample is one I won an award for and is directly related to the field which I am applying. I have a 3.85 cumulative (from this school) and 3.8 major GPA.</p>