How is your application process going? Have you had to suffer through the GRE yet?
Took 'em twice: once in November of '08, and again in December of '09. I was having an alternately horrible and wonderful semester when I first took them, and literally only studied the week before, I was so busy. My scores were okay, but I took them again and they were much, much better. I've got a list of schools I'll be applying to; now I just have to actually contact some of the professors and see how amazing their programs are. I'm not totally into the idea of being stuck in Vermont or Michigan, but if I learned one thing from having to transfer undergrad, it's to look for a program, not a place.
oh, God, the subject GRE. I still have RAGE about that--why does a test over the entire canon even exist DEAR GOD WHY? Uh, not that that has any relevance to Spanish.)
Thank the baby Jesus. One of the big reasons I decided not to pursue English any further - despite my enormous love for it - was the concentration on British literature. Specifically, pre-modernism British literature. I literally cannot stand it. I had visceral reactions to those classes, and my college - I graduated from Smith, so you'd *think* they'd be a little progressive, right? wrong. - focused nearly exclusively on British lit in all the reqs for the English major. I'm a 20th-century American lit buff. Harlem Renaissance all the way, baby.
The biggest is that I haaaaate teaching.
Oh, jeez, I like it too much, you know? I'm one of those obnoxious people who spontaneously breaks out into lecture. My family puts up with it, but I've learned how to shut up mid-point. Very, very hard to do.
while I adored researching and writing my thesis and most of my papers for coursework, at the same time, it was extremely burnout-inducing--it's not a schedule I could keep up for the rest of my working life, or even for five more years of a doctoral program.
Yeah, I wasn't totally sure at the end of undergrad if I could. But after having had so much free time since, I really can't wait to get back to it. I need to have my free time filled, otherwise I just bore the crap out of myself.
(I wrote a lot about my feelings on grad school here and in the comments, if you're curious.)
I am, actually, quite curious. What I learn about people's opinions of grad school, I tend to find in dribs and drabs. It's rare I get so much at once!
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-05-31 02:05 am (UTC)Took 'em twice: once in November of '08, and again in December of '09. I was having an alternately horrible and wonderful semester when I first took them, and literally only studied the week before, I was so busy. My scores were okay, but I took them again and they were much, much better. I've got a list of schools I'll be applying to; now I just have to actually contact some of the professors and see how amazing their programs are. I'm not totally into the idea of being stuck in Vermont or Michigan, but if I learned one thing from having to transfer undergrad, it's to look for a program, not a place.
oh, God, the subject GRE. I still have RAGE about that--why does a test over the entire canon even exist DEAR GOD WHY? Uh, not that that has any relevance to Spanish.)
Thank the baby Jesus. One of the big reasons I decided not to pursue English any further - despite my enormous love for it - was the concentration on British literature. Specifically, pre-modernism British literature. I literally cannot stand it. I had visceral reactions to those classes, and my college - I graduated from Smith, so you'd *think* they'd be a little progressive, right? wrong. - focused nearly exclusively on British lit in all the reqs for the English major. I'm a 20th-century American lit buff. Harlem Renaissance all the way, baby.
The biggest is that I haaaaate teaching.
Oh, jeez, I like it too much, you know? I'm one of those obnoxious people who spontaneously breaks out into lecture. My family puts up with it, but I've learned how to shut up mid-point. Very, very hard to do.
while I adored researching and writing my thesis and most of my papers for coursework, at the same time, it was extremely burnout-inducing--it's not a schedule I could keep up for the rest of my working life, or even for five more years of a doctoral program.
Yeah, I wasn't totally sure at the end of undergrad if I could. But after having had so much free time since, I really can't wait to get back to it. I need to have my free time filled, otherwise I just bore the crap out of myself.
(I wrote a lot about my feelings on grad school here and in the comments, if you're curious.)
I am, actually, quite curious. What I learn about people's opinions of grad school, I tend to find in dribs and drabs. It's rare I get so much at once!