See Blue

Graduate School a teany tiny Huge deal. I originally thought the biggest thing about graduate school was making sure you could get in. that as long as I got in everything would be fine. There was actually a lot of doubt about weather I would get in or not. My health was such that I was in the hospital for up to three months every year of my undergraduate existance. my grades were good I graduated with a 3.35 but its not a 4.0. At the same time I didnt have a whole lot of feild specific experinces i did volunteer work and that kind of thing but I didnt have any internships or anything like that. So I applied to the Univeristy of Kentucky almost positive that I wasnt going to make the cut. I also applied to IUPUI as a fall back school.

The first response I got was a rejection from IUPUI this was confidence shaking because my mother is a director of graduate programs for another school in that univeristy system. So I have spent most of my waking hours since i got the rejection trying to figure out a plan B in case UK didnt want me. This was really a rough experince because to reapply to other graduate schools would mean doing something anything with my life for a year until applicaton time rolled around again. All the while trying to make sure that whatever i did increased my chances of getting in to wherever i decided to apply to as my second string

To make matters worse the UK college of social work was drastically behind on thier acceptance process this year, app deadlines were in April and I didnt receive my notification until 6/4. the space in between was agony. When i first opened the letters (one from the school of social work and one from the graduate school) and saw the we are pleased to inform you..... there was screaming and jumping up and down and that night included several bottles of champane and dancing

but later the next morning I freaked out well as much as a person with a slamming hangover can panic. I havent been a student for a year now and how diffrent are the classes going to be would i be able to suceed .....ad nauesum

so far I have coped with my anxiety by trying to do some research.. I went to the public library to see if there were any strategy books for graduate school students and so on. but there wasnt any. so now im scouring the internet and will put the links to what i find here

the moral of this post...... Joy and Terror are only a breath apart.

helpful links:
http://gradschool.about.com/cs/studytips1/a/newworld.htm - some basic information on how to modify your study habits in order to be successful on the graduate level talks about the diffrent kind of learning you will be asked to do as well as how much professors really expect of you.
http://gradschool.about.com/cs/transitions/a/howgraddiff.htm - a break down of the diffrences between undergraduate culture and the graduate school way of life.