Contingency Plans

I am very sorry that this has taken so long to update. I got seriously sidetracked and I never got around to updating this. I do have a post about Claremont in the works but this post is more important and it is important that I update you all on this before I tell you about my impressions of Claremont.

So plan A has been what you have been reading about up until now. Just a refresher, Plan A is take GRE, apply to schools, get into schools, go to school. Unfortunately Plan A did not work out. You will hear more about it later but the short version of the story is that Claremont is really expensive and I can't afford to go right now. The good news is that I can defer my acceptance until the fall of 2013, which is good and it plays into Plans B, and C.

So, Plan B is what comes next. Plan B consists of taking more math, which I currently am doing (differential equations at UW(again you will hear more about this)), retaking the GRE for a third time (oh joy), reapplying to some graduate schools, maybe not as reaching so high this time, and getting accepted with more funding than what I received at Claremont.

That may still not work out so I have also come up with a Plan C just in case. Plan C is for if I do not get accepted with better funding somewhere else. Plan C is to attend Claremont for a year and then transfer somewhere else in order to receive better funding, or stay at Claremont if they are able to make it more affordable.

So that is where I am at. I will give you more updates and start doing this more regularly again. Once again I apologize for the hiatus. It's good being back

Running in place,

Kit

To Do List:

1. Pass Diff EQs
2. Study for GRE
3. Do better on GRE 

Your Reward:

Missed Connections

Disclaimer: While most of you know that I have been accepted, this is not going to be that blog post. That would be going out of order. So for those of you who want to read about that, you will have to wait until the next blog post. Sorry, but if you want to read that one, you're going to have to wait and you can leave now. Without any further ado: "Missed Connections."

Amid all of the madness that I wrote about last week, I received another email which only added to the madness. I was staying up late and watching television, usually that means "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report." While I was watching I got an email from the University of Washington. My heart started thumping, again, and then I opened it and it only started going faster.
The email was asking if I was still interested in the University of Washington or if I had other offers that dominated the potential offer from them when they make the decision. The only problem was that the email was addressed to somebody named Ibrahim...

I was still optimistic though. I thought that maybe I was in the right list and that they sent me Ibrahim's email and he got mine. So, I wrote back saying that I was still interested and I signed my name.

A couple of days later I got a response notifying me that there was an email mix up, but I was invited to meet the graduate program director (the author of these emails). I figured that I should take advantage of this and schedule a meeting with him. I sent a reply saying as much and got one back the same day asking if the following day at 3 pm was okay. I then told him that it was. This meant that I would have top find someone to cove both of my practices that day. Fortunately, I was able to.

The next day drove to Seattle to the UW campus. I found the building and his office no problem, and I was there with plenty of time for our 3 pm meeting. I went into the main office so that I could have them take me to his office though so that I could be officially announced instead of bargain in on the professor.

I shook his hand and sat down, and then the meeting started.Things started off well. He asked me why I wanted to pursue a PhD. And then things went downhill...

After that he told me that UW this year will probably only admit a class of 11-15 people and that I was behind on my math, and if I were admitted I would have a really hard time catching up with the rest of the students who had more math. I tried telling him that if I were given the chance that I wouldn't disappoint at which point I was told that everybody else was just as hardworking as me but that to get into a program like UW I would have needed to take more math while I was in school. At this point I was able to read the writing on the wall... I wasn't going to get in. I was then told to explore other other options besides a PhD in economics; that maybe I could find what I wanted in a policy school or health services, so I could use some economic tools and thinking but not need all of the math that I am apparently lacking.

I asked what I would need to do to get accepted into a PhD program and he said more math and when I asked what type of math he said just more math. We then discussed other avenues which would help me get accepted into a PhD. He mentioned again more math. Or maybe finding a good MA program like at the one at the University of Denver. But he warned me that I needed to be careful about master's programs because they may not be serious. Another option was to attend a not so good PhD program and then do really well there and look to transfer to a school where I would want to get my degree.

This meeting was not at all what I had wanted. The professor was very nice though, in fact, this was the nicest rejection I had ever received for anything. He also offered some advice and he said that I could email him if I needed more advice or help with anything in the future for my educational journey.

I was really disappointed. I had not gotten any good news yet and while it hasn't been made official yet this was another school that I didn't get into. At  my record for getting into schools is only getting worse. I'm 0-7. I was thinking that I wasn't going to get in anywhere.

Stay tuned for another blog which includes the good news.

Kit

To Do List:

1. Figure stuff out
2. Blog

Your Reward:

March Madness

Ahh March. Winter comes to an end, things start to look more springy, it stays lighter longer, and the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament is on TV. Oh yeah... and I start to get notifications from graduate schools.

At the beginning of March I started to receive emails letting me know that a decision has been made about my application, kinda like the last one that I told you guys about. An email to tell me to click the link and log in and read the letter they had posted there.
First came Penn. I didn't get into Pennsylvania but that was pretty much expected. I figured that since I didn't get into UCSB, that getting into sn Ivy League school was out of the question. It hurt but note as much as the first rejection did.

A week later things really started coming in fast. I received UCLA and Oregon on the same day.
UCLA didn't accept me either. Again I wasn't too shocked but I wanted to get in and prove some doubters wrong. They also notified me twice. Once in a regular email from the economics graduate studies director and another like the others.

I had been feeling optimistic about Oregon since it was the second lowest rank according to U.S. News and World Report. But I didn't get in there either. At this point I had 5 schools to go, but I was starting to feel discouraged and running worst case scenarios through my head.

A couple days later I heard back from Georgetown. Another rejection. And then a day after I heard from Northwestern; again a no go.

With there left, UW, Claremont, and UNC, I am starting to feel less confident about my chances. I was before, but now I am really tring to figure out what I am to do if I don't get in anywhere. I don't know the answer to that yet...

Hopefully something comes about with these last three schools and I get to write about something else. Until then I have some new schools to root against in the big dance.

Stressfully,
Kit

To Do List:

1. Get Accepted
2. Blog

Your Reward:

 

And Then There Were Eight

I recently heard back from one of the schools that I applied to. Everything is done by email now as my uncle (who has his doctorate in economics) told me. So it was a normal day and I was checking something or more likely playing a game, on my phone and I received a notification on my phone that I had a new email. Making sure that it wasn't something coaching related, which most of my emails are, I looked to see what it was. It wasn't soccer related, but it was from UCSB to notify me that there had been a decision made on my application! They didn't tell me in the email what the decision was just that there was one and that I needed to log in to my application to view the decision. Reading this caused my heart to start pounding in my chest and I became extremely nervous and anxious. I wanted to look right away and not find out at the same time.

I was with my girlfriend when this happened. I think we were watching a TV show on her computer, and as I was reading this email I apparently became very quiet and my facial expression must have changed because she kept asking me what it was that I was reading. I told her what I just read and that I needed to log in to find out. She instantly gave me the computer so that I could. With my heart pounding ever harder, I logged into my application and opened the decision letter.

I didn't get in.

I instantly fell quiet again as we both read the letter over. I hadn't realized how much being declined admittance would hurt. When applying to undergraduate schools I had a 100% acceptance rate ( I only applied to two schools but I got into both nonetheless). While I knew that I most likely wasn't going to get into all 9 of the schools I applied, I had been feeling confident about UCSB. UCSB wasn't even the best school that I had applied to so I was feeling bad about that too and my prospects for some of the other school to which I had applied. So, the combination of it being my first time being rejected, the confidence I had felt, and which school it was that rejected me made the rejection notice sting... a lot.

This experience got me thinking down the line. If I can't get into UCSB, where can I get into? What happens if I don't get in anywhere? What do I do then? Do I try again? And spend all of that money again? Do I try to retake the GREs to improve my score? This may be a bit premature and a bit fatalists since I still have eight schools to hear back from but I couldn't help thinking it at the time.

Waiting... for good news,
Kit

To Do List

1. Rebuild bank account
2. Get accepted
3. Blog

Your Reward:

Again thanks Jodi Beggs from ediwm.com

Application Update

I am now all applied to all of the schools since I finished both Claremont and Oregon this month. Those schools went in terms of getting the applications out. I didn't have any problems with recommendors this time since they got them in really early, before I had even started actually. I did have one problem actually... only with the Claremont application though.

As I'm sure you know, Washington* got hit by a snow storm which closed down schools, and shut down roads, including PLU and I-5 (I still see places with snow). Here, where I live, in Olympia, we got 15 inches while ten miles away out in the county they got 28 inches. Then we got freezing rain which caused all sorts of problems like trees falling and knocking out power closing schools and roads for even longer. Things were local schools were closed for over a week and PLU was closed for almost a week. This normally would be a problem but this happened in the middle of January and the Claremont application was due on the first of February. I could have waited but I wanted to avoid paying to fedex it there. Good news is that they got to both schools in time and to the right place.

I had another problem with the Oregon application. It was also easily taken care of. As I was going through I noticed that the economics department at U of O wanted my CV mailed to them and there was no place for it to be uploaded. Mail was the only option. So I dropped it into the nearest mailbox right away and hoped it would get there. Then, Monday I had decided to call the department to see if I had sent my official transcripts to the correct place (to the department not admissions) and the nice lady who I talked to said that I could email my CV in so that way they would be there on time until the hard copy arrived.

Now I have nothing more to do but wait and pray that somebody accepts me. Maybe I'll write more posts more often now... hopefully.

Waiting...,
Kit

*The real Washington, the state not D.C.

To Do List

1. Rebuild my bank account
2. Get accepted
3. Blog

Your Reward:

 

Courtesy of T Rex is Trying.

Early Birthday Present

Today is my birthday! Yay! Wahoo! Yippee! I'm now 23 aww....

    Now that's out of the way we can get down to business. Yesterday, my birthday eve if you will, I was walking out the door to go coach my team (you didn't know I was coaching? well I am) I flipped through the mail on the table just to see if there was anything there for me, and I found there, on the table, three bills for my student loans (yikes), which I felt I could leave for when I got home later. But also on the table was letter for me from ETS and the GRE. They were my scores. And they weren't supposed to be here until today. I got them a whole day early! So needless to say I opened the envelope right then even though it meant I was going to be pressed for time.

So here are the results:
    Verbal Reasoning: 163 (93rd percentile)
    Quantitative Reasoning: 157 (77th percentile)
    Analytical Writing: 5.0 (87th percentile)

     So basically I did really well. My scores in the verbal part jumped up the most, followed by writing and then math moved up a little bit. I feel really good about the verbal and the writing but I was hoping for more from the math side of things since that's more important to econ programs.

      I felt more confident today about my scores because I got an email from Harvard Business Economics PhD program (more birthday presents). So I think they may have jumped onto my list now. To be honest I am quite giddy about it, that Harvard might be interested in me.

Officially an older bachelor,
Kit

 To Do List:

1. Write my CV
2. Write my personal statement
3. Apply

No reward today. You guys can give me gifts.

Putting the Wheels in Motion

     I have actually started applying to schools. I don't yet have my curriculum vitae (CV) or my personal statement finished yet but I figured it doesn't hurt to start applying to schools anyways. So far it has only been filling out information like my name, address, and social security number. Just the basics. That way I can just plug in everything else (my letters of recommendation, my personal statement, and my credit card number).

     This is taking me back to the fall of my senior year of high school when I had to apply to undergrad schools. But as my boss would say it is, "the same thing but different." This time I am employing the bird shot approach. You know, the one where you apply to tons of schools and hope that one accepts you. Last time I applied to just two and got into both thank you very much (100% acceptance rate BABY!). I'm doubting I will be as successful this time around though. But that's okay just as long as I make it into one (with funding). It's going to be way more expensive though. I think last time I was applying for schools I didn't have to pay anything, since applying online was somewhat new and they were trying to discourage paper applications. Now I must apply online, there is no paper option, and I have to pay a minimum of $50 per application. And since I'm applying to a lot, I'm going to be even poorer. I will have to pay a at least $500 for all of my applications.

     I am also in the process of finishing my personal statement and my CV. I hope to have those done by the end of the week. So it looks like I will have a busy week ahead of me.

Officially a bachelor,
Kit

To do list:

1. Finish my CV
2. Finish my personal statement
3. apply to more schools
4. get letters of recommendation

your reward:

Good School Hunting

     I know I have been talking a long time now about how I need to do all of this research to find which schools I would like to attend and to which schools I would like to apply. This whole time that researching schools has been on my to do list I have been looking but with no real direction. Now I finally have something to report back on.
 
     Looking for a grad school is different than looking for an undergrad institution. With undergrad schools you have a good idea of what schools are good and where you want to go. But having a good undergrad program does not guarantee that that school is a good graduate school, let alone a good econ graduate program.  Then to make matters even more difficult, a good econ program may not have the concentration you want, or if they do may not be very good at that concentration. So this is why my search has been slow, drawn out, and not very obvious to all of you who read this regularly (all 4 of you).

   On my own I was able to find some schools that I am interested in and schools which have good labor economics programs (If I haven't mentioned it before, that's the area of concentration I intend of studying in grad school) and sometimes I was able to find some schools which were both. I accomplished this mainly by googling "econ grad school rankings." Through this I found that Northwestern, UC Santa Barbara, Georgetown, and Washington are all good schools. They even have good labor programs but that was more by coincidence when I first found these schools. But these schools might turn out to be too good.

     The next problem I had was that I didn't know (still don't really know) what schools I can get into. Grad schools don't have a set minimum requirement that you have to meet in order to be accepted to the program (well they do but they don't like to tell you what it is. instead they prefer to say here are our averages but it all depends on the person). When I was applying for undergraduate schools I had a better idea of what grades I needed in school and what scores I needed on the SAT and what types of extracurriculars I need in order to be accepted. There aren't really as many guidelines out there for getting into grad schools.

     Guidance is something that I have desperately been needing, so I made a trip back up to PLU during to talk to my capstone adviser. I asked him about what would be some schools that would be good for me. Specifically, what schools can I get into and find funding? We talked and said that the schools I was looking at were good and then he gave me a list of 8 schools to look at and which would be good for labor. He told me to look into Cornell, which apparently has a guy who anytime  media people want to know something about the labor market they talk to him. UNC and Duke are also good schools but I have reservations about them because I don't know if I could go there due to my basketball prejudices. I was also told to look into Penn, Mississippi State, Oregon, USC, and SUNY Stony Brook. I then went home to research them further.

     I can see myself at all of these schools. I have even come around to the idea of attending UNC despite how I feel about their athletics, and I might even set aside my prejudices and give Duke a serious look. What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments.

To Do List

1. Write personal statement
2. Write my CV
3. Apply to schools

Your Reward:
   A correlation VS causation comic