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After all my hard work, internships, doing a 4 year degree in 3 years, and juggling family, I'm about to jump off the deep end and think about applying for fall 2011 instead of fall 2010. 
I finally reach my target and then push it back some more lol
The main reason is my daughter - I've been doing this f/t internship at NIH over the summer, and I honestly am having problems with leaving her for so long (she's only 3 1/2). The internship is only 8 weeks in total, and then 10-15 hours/week in the fall, so now I'm thinking to myself - do I really want to rush into grad. school, which will be way more than f/t hours. Also, my daughter has a speech delay due to a whole series of complications when she was an infant, and I'm afraid that she wouldn't do well in a bigger daycare setting for full time hours, right now she is in an in-home daycare with only 4 other kids. Another consideration, too, is that in Maryland the cut-off for kindergarten is September 1st, which hugely messes up my plans b/c when I started preparing for grad. school I assumed she'd be going into kindergarten when I started my first year in fall 2010, but now as it stands she wouldn't start until fall 2011.
Gah. Anyway, I think it's the best decision for my family. It would give me a year to take some graduate classes - my graduating GPA will probably be around 3.5 or 3.6, and my GRE scores aren't anything fantastic (~1200, I haven't taken them yet but I'm consistently scoring in that range), so grad. classes might be a good idea to prove I could do the work. I wish there were more stats on the GRE, b/c I'd total rock that quant. section if there were! My saving grace is my research experience, the researchers I've been contacting have been really interested in the research I've done.
Now I'm wondering if I should contact the researchers who seemed particularly interested in my application (e.g. one researcher I met with a few weeks ago said he'd love to have me in the lab and would be looking for my app.; another is a researcher who has 2 grad. students at the Hopkins lab I was at and knows I was applying for 2010). Do you think I should, or just leave it be and they'll see my application next fall? Any advice for taking a year off, besides the grad. classes? I may or may not have to work p/t next year if I don't apply, it depends what kind of job my husband gets (he's getting out of the military in March and applying for both federal and contracting jobs, which have drastically different salaries), so if I did I assume I could get a job at Hopkins, where I was interning last year.
Sorry for the book, I haven't posted for awhile on here and I've pretty much been coming to the decision to hold off for a year in the past few weeks and just had to let off some steam lol I did a little mourning in the process, I finally see my finish line and now I have to back away from it a little bit - but like I said, it's the best thing for my family, and I can't put myself ahead of my daughter.
I finally reach my target and then push it back some more lolThe main reason is my daughter - I've been doing this f/t internship at NIH over the summer, and I honestly am having problems with leaving her for so long (she's only 3 1/2). The internship is only 8 weeks in total, and then 10-15 hours/week in the fall, so now I'm thinking to myself - do I really want to rush into grad. school, which will be way more than f/t hours. Also, my daughter has a speech delay due to a whole series of complications when she was an infant, and I'm afraid that she wouldn't do well in a bigger daycare setting for full time hours, right now she is in an in-home daycare with only 4 other kids. Another consideration, too, is that in Maryland the cut-off for kindergarten is September 1st, which hugely messes up my plans b/c when I started preparing for grad. school I assumed she'd be going into kindergarten when I started my first year in fall 2010, but now as it stands she wouldn't start until fall 2011.
Gah. Anyway, I think it's the best decision for my family. It would give me a year to take some graduate classes - my graduating GPA will probably be around 3.5 or 3.6, and my GRE scores aren't anything fantastic (~1200, I haven't taken them yet but I'm consistently scoring in that range), so grad. classes might be a good idea to prove I could do the work. I wish there were more stats on the GRE, b/c I'd total rock that quant. section if there were! My saving grace is my research experience, the researchers I've been contacting have been really interested in the research I've done.
Now I'm wondering if I should contact the researchers who seemed particularly interested in my application (e.g. one researcher I met with a few weeks ago said he'd love to have me in the lab and would be looking for my app.; another is a researcher who has 2 grad. students at the Hopkins lab I was at and knows I was applying for 2010). Do you think I should, or just leave it be and they'll see my application next fall? Any advice for taking a year off, besides the grad. classes? I may or may not have to work p/t next year if I don't apply, it depends what kind of job my husband gets (he's getting out of the military in March and applying for both federal and contracting jobs, which have drastically different salaries), so if I did I assume I could get a job at Hopkins, where I was interning last year.
Sorry for the book, I haven't posted for awhile on here and I've pretty much been coming to the decision to hold off for a year in the past few weeks and just had to let off some steam lol I did a little mourning in the process, I finally see my finish line and now I have to back away from it a little bit - but like I said, it's the best thing for my family, and I can't put myself ahead of my daughter.
