Well, I took the GRE on Friday the 29th. To be quite honest, it didn't go as well as I had hoped. My verbal score went up from last year, but not by a huge amount, and my math score actually went down (which was quite disappointing). Since it's on the computer, it automatically gives you the raw score when you are finished with the math and verbal, but it takes 2-3 weeks for the writing sections to be scored. I felt like my essays were far better this year now that I have a better understanding of what they are looking for in these essays, so hopefully those scores went up. I'm also hoping that my percentile scores went up from last year.
I certainly felt more prepared than I did last year, but it was also more important to me this year. I don't know. Regardless, it's behind me and I really doubt it will be the make-it-or-break-it part of my application.
Today, I am spending some time with puppies on my lap, reading up on the professor I'm going to meet with tomorrow. I'll definitely post another update about that tomorrow night... maybe Tuesday night. Wish me luck!
31 October 2010
21 October 2010
GRE Merriment
This title is actually fairly sarcastic. "Merriment" does not classify my mood with the GRE right now. I've spent every night this week studying for the GRE, and I can't tell if I feel more prepared or less prepared. I'm definitely psyching myself out with the practice questions. I feel like there is so much I don't know, but in reality, I could be doing better than I think. It's something I was talking about in a staff meeting in regards to my students. Students have a fantastic way of psyching themselves out, thinking that nothing they do is good enough, which is why they start to fall behind. I think I'm eating my words right now. I'm not immune to this, as much as I would like to believe that I am!
However, I do find that I have weird little tricks to help me learn new vocab words. My current favorite is putting a "GRE Word of the Day" up on Facebook. Just by posting it and seeing it every time I open Facebook helps to reiterate the definition. Plus it's kind of fun, which always helps make things stick in my head.
I'm also using my timeless technique of flashcards. I'm such a fan of flashcards. I keep telling my students that it is one of the best ways to learn because you can take it everywhere!
Last night I worked on math. I like math. I enjoy algebra and geometry is kind of fun. But I hate fractions and decimals and patterns. I've never been good with these. I had a really terrible 4th grade teacher, so when it comes to certain fundamental skills, I have none. I don't know how to solve decimal problems to save my life. And I have the weirdest multiplication technique ever. Ask me sometime and I'll show you. Therefore learning these skills right now is killing me. Tonight I plan to spend a good 5 hours in the library, brushing up on my math. Woo-hoo.
However, I do find that I have weird little tricks to help me learn new vocab words. My current favorite is putting a "GRE Word of the Day" up on Facebook. Just by posting it and seeing it every time I open Facebook helps to reiterate the definition. Plus it's kind of fun, which always helps make things stick in my head.
I'm also using my timeless technique of flashcards. I'm such a fan of flashcards. I keep telling my students that it is one of the best ways to learn because you can take it everywhere!
Last night I worked on math. I like math. I enjoy algebra and geometry is kind of fun. But I hate fractions and decimals and patterns. I've never been good with these. I had a really terrible 4th grade teacher, so when it comes to certain fundamental skills, I have none. I don't know how to solve decimal problems to save my life. And I have the weirdest multiplication technique ever. Ask me sometime and I'll show you. Therefore learning these skills right now is killing me. Tonight I plan to spend a good 5 hours in the library, brushing up on my math. Woo-hoo.
18 October 2010
Good Stuff!
GRE Word of the Day:
erudite (adj)--having or showing great knowledge in learning
True story, I just picked that word out of a list from my study book, not knowing the definition. And I have to say, it is quite appropriate for studying!
Oh, there is lots of good stuff going on right now!
FIRST: I have a meeting with Dr. Alejandro Acevedo from Western Washington on November 1st! He received my information that I sent him last Friday, and he responded saying that my application is not as strong as others, but he liked my ideas for research projects! That's really exciting. So between now and then I will be reading some of his articles of recent research, and I will be spending time articulating what exactly I would like to research so that this meeting can go well. Yay for Bellingham!
SECOND: My Saturday night adventure at the Killer Whale Tales fundraiser was amazing. I got to meet the director, Jeff Hogan, who is just awesome. He is incredibly nice, remembered my name every time he saw me, and introduced me to two current graduate students at the University of Washington. Also, thanks to my amazing parents, I get to have a meeting with him. This fundraiser was an auction, so they bought me one of the items, which was to pick out one of Jeff's pictures for him to professionally print for me. He has a library of about 27,000 pictures! Plus, I get to pick his brain about how to get plugged into the killer whale world (for lack of a better term) and how to get into a career that I would actually want to do.
Ideally, my career path would lead me to an organization like Killer Whale Tales. I would love to work as a naturalist and educator, teaching people about whales, the Pacific Northwest ecology, and conservation. I think I like this idea best because I would still get to be a semi-student, keeping up with all of the latest research, but I also get to interact with people.
THIRD: I am now looking into the School of Marine Affairs at University of Washington. The two ladies I talked to at the KWT fundraiser were students through that program and both of them really like it, so I'm considering this as an option as well.
One of the most important things that I've learned, which was always lingering in the back of my mind, is that volunteer experience is probably going to be the deciding factor in getting into a program I want. This won't necessarily be because I need volunteer experience as a pre-requisite to admission, but because volunteering will establish the contacts and networking web that I need. This means that if I don't get into grad school this year, I will probably still quit Concordia and move up north to Seattle or Bellingham. I will probably end up working some place like Starbucks (ahem, Tara, that would be great!) where I could make enough money to pay rent, but focus a lot of my free time in volunteering.
Decisions to be made later! For now, back to studying GRE words.
erudite (adj)--having or showing great knowledge in learning
True story, I just picked that word out of a list from my study book, not knowing the definition. And I have to say, it is quite appropriate for studying!
Oh, there is lots of good stuff going on right now!
FIRST: I have a meeting with Dr. Alejandro Acevedo from Western Washington on November 1st! He received my information that I sent him last Friday, and he responded saying that my application is not as strong as others, but he liked my ideas for research projects! That's really exciting. So between now and then I will be reading some of his articles of recent research, and I will be spending time articulating what exactly I would like to research so that this meeting can go well. Yay for Bellingham!
SECOND: My Saturday night adventure at the Killer Whale Tales fundraiser was amazing. I got to meet the director, Jeff Hogan, who is just awesome. He is incredibly nice, remembered my name every time he saw me, and introduced me to two current graduate students at the University of Washington. Also, thanks to my amazing parents, I get to have a meeting with him. This fundraiser was an auction, so they bought me one of the items, which was to pick out one of Jeff's pictures for him to professionally print for me. He has a library of about 27,000 pictures! Plus, I get to pick his brain about how to get plugged into the killer whale world (for lack of a better term) and how to get into a career that I would actually want to do.
Ideally, my career path would lead me to an organization like Killer Whale Tales. I would love to work as a naturalist and educator, teaching people about whales, the Pacific Northwest ecology, and conservation. I think I like this idea best because I would still get to be a semi-student, keeping up with all of the latest research, but I also get to interact with people.
THIRD: I am now looking into the School of Marine Affairs at University of Washington. The two ladies I talked to at the KWT fundraiser were students through that program and both of them really like it, so I'm considering this as an option as well.
One of the most important things that I've learned, which was always lingering in the back of my mind, is that volunteer experience is probably going to be the deciding factor in getting into a program I want. This won't necessarily be because I need volunteer experience as a pre-requisite to admission, but because volunteering will establish the contacts and networking web that I need. This means that if I don't get into grad school this year, I will probably still quit Concordia and move up north to Seattle or Bellingham. I will probably end up working some place like Starbucks (ahem, Tara, that would be great!) where I could make enough money to pay rent, but focus a lot of my free time in volunteering.
Decisions to be made later! For now, back to studying GRE words.
15 October 2010
Update
Newest update: I have registered for the GRE. I'm going to be retaking it on October 29th. That means it is definitely time to get my butt in gear and study for it!
Also, I just sent my information to Dr. Shawn Rowe (OSU guy) and Dr. Alejandra Acevedo (WWU) guy. This info includes my transcripts, GRE scores (embarrassing), references, resume, and a 2-page introduction of my career goals and research interests. Shout out to Holly Goodrich for helping me edit that! I really appreciate it!!
Hopefully I will get a reply back from one (if not both) of those professors.
A little off-topic, but still really exciting! This weekend I am going to a fundraiser for Killer Whale Tales with my parents! I'm so excited for this. Killer Whale Tales is a non-profit organization that goes to schools around Washington educating kids about killer whales, salmon, and their environment. Just looking at this website, it looks like my dream job. When I was at Concordia, I worked with the Audubon Society for my senior practicum, and I got to go to elementary schools in the Portland area with an environmental educator from Audubon to teach kids about Pacific NW animals. We brought in birds skeletons and wings and animal pelts and just talked about the different ecosystems. It was AWESOME. So if I were to ever work with KWT, I would get to do the same thing, but for WHALES! Hence, dream job.
The idea is to go to the fundraiser and hopefully talk with the director, Jeff Hogan, about what I would need to do to get a job there. Wish me luck on that one!
Also, I just sent my information to Dr. Shawn Rowe (OSU guy) and Dr. Alejandra Acevedo (WWU) guy. This info includes my transcripts, GRE scores (embarrassing), references, resume, and a 2-page introduction of my career goals and research interests. Shout out to Holly Goodrich for helping me edit that! I really appreciate it!!
Hopefully I will get a reply back from one (if not both) of those professors.
A little off-topic, but still really exciting! This weekend I am going to a fundraiser for Killer Whale Tales with my parents! I'm so excited for this. Killer Whale Tales is a non-profit organization that goes to schools around Washington educating kids about killer whales, salmon, and their environment. Just looking at this website, it looks like my dream job. When I was at Concordia, I worked with the Audubon Society for my senior practicum, and I got to go to elementary schools in the Portland area with an environmental educator from Audubon to teach kids about Pacific NW animals. We brought in birds skeletons and wings and animal pelts and just talked about the different ecosystems. It was AWESOME. So if I were to ever work with KWT, I would get to do the same thing, but for WHALES! Hence, dream job.
The idea is to go to the fundraiser and hopefully talk with the director, Jeff Hogan, about what I would need to do to get a job there. Wish me luck on that one!
05 October 2010
GRE Scores
I took the GRE last year, sort of on a whim. In fact, my whole grad school process last year was on a whim. I decided about mid-October that I would apply for grad school and see what happens, not quite realizing the amount of work it takes to get into a program. So I registered for the GRE 2 days in advance and did moderately well on it.
"GRE" stands for "Graduate Record Examinations." It is basically the graduate level SAT, designed to torture you and make you jump through yet another hoop. It's scored like the SAT, with a verbal and quantitative section measured on a 200 to 800 scale. There is also the Analytical Writing section, measured on a 0 to 6 scale (in half-point increments). It gives you your score and your percentile ranking.
My scores from last year were:
Verbal: 540, in the 72nd percentile
Quant: 600, in the 48th percentile
Writing: 4.0, in the 41st percentile
These met the minimum for the program I applied to last year, but they aren't great. I went into the exam without studying, and only moderately prepared, so I scored moderately well. The percentile scores are reflective of the percentage of people who scored below me. So being in the 72nd percentile is reasonable, but being in the 48th or 41st percentile is a bit embarrassing for me. I could do so much better on those sections.
Therefore, I have decided to retake the GRE. I still need to register for it, but I will definitely be retaking it AND studying for it this time around. I already bought the Kaplan study guide, and it will be my constant companion.
"GRE" stands for "Graduate Record Examinations." It is basically the graduate level SAT, designed to torture you and make you jump through yet another hoop. It's scored like the SAT, with a verbal and quantitative section measured on a 200 to 800 scale. There is also the Analytical Writing section, measured on a 0 to 6 scale (in half-point increments). It gives you your score and your percentile ranking.
My scores from last year were:
Verbal: 540, in the 72nd percentile
Quant: 600, in the 48th percentile
Writing: 4.0, in the 41st percentile
These met the minimum for the program I applied to last year, but they aren't great. I went into the exam without studying, and only moderately prepared, so I scored moderately well. The percentile scores are reflective of the percentage of people who scored below me. So being in the 72nd percentile is reasonable, but being in the 48th or 41st percentile is a bit embarrassing for me. I could do so much better on those sections.
Therefore, I have decided to retake the GRE. I still need to register for it, but I will definitely be retaking it AND studying for it this time around. I already bought the Kaplan study guide, and it will be my constant companion.
Application!
I started my OSU application today. I went online to check out due dates and whatnot, and ended up signing in to OSU's admission page and started my application. I need to figure out if I qualify as an Oregon resident or not. I've lived here 5 out of the last 6 years pretty continuously (with the small exception of living in Redmond for a summer and living in Vancouver for a year), but I have never obtained an Oregon driver's license. By the time I start grad school I will have paid income taxes (which are obscene) for 6 years, but I still don't have an OR driver's license. Stupid residency requirements. Looks like I'll be spending some time searching the DMV and OSU webpages to see what actually qualifies me as an OR resident. I don't think it matters either way because I should be able to get funding that will cover most, if not all, of my tuition, but it's still annoying.
Right now, I'm focused on creating checklists and due dates for when all of the different applications are going to be due. OSU is top priority because I like this program the most so far. This is what I have to get done:
1. OSU Application (currently in progress)
2. Submit GRE scores (going to retake it, need to register)
3. Submit transcripts (need to do)
4. Three Letters of Reference (need to talk to my professors again to update LoR from last year)
5. Statement of Intent and Goals (working on 1st draft)
6. Application for Assistantships (emailed Dr. Rowe to see if he has any to offer)
7. Find a major professor (in communication with Dr. Rowe)
I'm also working on trying to contact a professor from WWU, which I mentioned in my last post. In reading his website, I need to prepare the following documents to submit to him as I ask him about the possibility of working with him:
1. Unofficial transcript of undergraduate work
2. Resume
3. Statement of Purpose
4. Unofficial GRE scores
5. Names, addresses, telephones, and email for 3 references
I also still want to spend some time looking into UW. I just spent this last weekend in Seattle with 2 friends and was reminded of how much I love that area. Not that I really needed a reminder of why I love being near home and my family and my puppies, but I forgot how much I like Seattle.
I'm proctoring 3 exams today, which means I get to sit in silence for quite a while. That means time to research, research, and write!
Right now, I'm focused on creating checklists and due dates for when all of the different applications are going to be due. OSU is top priority because I like this program the most so far. This is what I have to get done:
1. OSU Application (currently in progress)
2. Submit GRE scores (going to retake it, need to register)
3. Submit transcripts (need to do)
4. Three Letters of Reference (need to talk to my professors again to update LoR from last year)
5. Statement of Intent and Goals (working on 1st draft)
6. Application for Assistantships (emailed Dr. Rowe to see if he has any to offer)
7. Find a major professor (in communication with Dr. Rowe)
I'm also working on trying to contact a professor from WWU, which I mentioned in my last post. In reading his website, I need to prepare the following documents to submit to him as I ask him about the possibility of working with him:
1. Unofficial transcript of undergraduate work
2. Resume
3. Statement of Purpose
4. Unofficial GRE scores
5. Names, addresses, telephones, and email for 3 references
I also still want to spend some time looking into UW. I just spent this last weekend in Seattle with 2 friends and was reminded of how much I love that area. Not that I really needed a reminder of why I love being near home and my family and my puppies, but I forgot how much I like Seattle.
I'm proctoring 3 exams today, which means I get to sit in silence for quite a while. That means time to research, research, and write!
01 October 2010
Statement of Purpose
Since Dr. Rowe said that one of the strongest components of my application should be my statement of purpose (or personal essay or whatever you chose to call it), I find myself a bit intimidated to start it. I know that it has to be really good and really comprehensive.
I have thought about it though. I've tried to think of what the questions are that I would like to answer while I'm in graduate school, and they all seem to focus on how and why people interact with nature, and how that can influence their values and beliefs. I read an article of Dr. Rowe's (actually one of his grad students) that used Whale Watching Spoken Here, a volunteer whale watching program on the coast, and conducted surveys on visitors to see how interacting with whales and wildlife affected their beliefs and values about conservation. This sounds so exciting to me!
One of the great things about working with Dr. Rowe would be that I could really work on picking my own research topic. He said that he has a lot of partner agencies and internship sites and he works really hard to pull sites and student interests together. So I could potentially work with a whale watching site. Which is what I have always wanted to do. Hence the intimidation.
I plan on working on it more on Sunday. I'm also working on putting together a bio packet about myself to send to a professor, Dr. Alejandro Acevedo-Gutierrez, at Western Washington University who works with marine mammals in the biology department. He's my next target. :)
I have thought about it though. I've tried to think of what the questions are that I would like to answer while I'm in graduate school, and they all seem to focus on how and why people interact with nature, and how that can influence their values and beliefs. I read an article of Dr. Rowe's (actually one of his grad students) that used Whale Watching Spoken Here, a volunteer whale watching program on the coast, and conducted surveys on visitors to see how interacting with whales and wildlife affected their beliefs and values about conservation. This sounds so exciting to me!
One of the great things about working with Dr. Rowe would be that I could really work on picking my own research topic. He said that he has a lot of partner agencies and internship sites and he works really hard to pull sites and student interests together. So I could potentially work with a whale watching site. Which is what I have always wanted to do. Hence the intimidation.
I plan on working on it more on Sunday. I'm also working on putting together a bio packet about myself to send to a professor, Dr. Alejandro Acevedo-Gutierrez, at Western Washington University who works with marine mammals in the biology department. He's my next target. :)
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