Advice on going back to school sought

In My Humble Opinion
1

So, I’ve been taking stock of my life and decided that I really need to go back to school and earn a masters’ degree, and possibly continue on and do a PhD. I’ve got personal and professional reasons, a spouse who thinks those reasons make sense, and a bunch of grad student (and former grad students who’ve finished) friends and co-workers who think that I’d do well.

I’ve been telling people, just to make sure I really do this.

Now, I just need to figure out how to make this happen.

I have a Bachelor of Mathematics with a major in Combinatorics and Optimization and a minor in Pure Math. I was about two courses away from a joint Computer Science major as well. My marks, well, some of them suck. I failed a couple courses early on, and my last semester has a 60%-90% range. I know this isn’t exactly what will get schools to want me, and I will need to do something to show that I’m in a different place now with respect to my studies. I’d like to study combinatorics or theory of computation, so I guess I could be a math or CS grad student depending on where I go.

I graduated in 1999, and I’ve been working doing some embedded software work (design, implementation, testing and safety analysis) since then. Many of my co-workers have PhDs, and one of my former bosses even is a part-time professor. I think I’ll be able to get some pretty good references from them.

My current plan is to take 2-3 courses at one of the local universities and do as well as I can, study and take the Math and CS GREs, get a few good references, and apply to places which will take the time off, the references and the GREs into consideration sometime next year.

So, any thoughts about how feasible this plan is? Anything else I should do? Any ideas about where I should go? I’m considering just about anywhere in Canada, the US, or the EU at this point. How well would I have to do on the GREs and future courses to make up for my less than stellar undergraduate career? Is it more a realistic idea to drop my work to part-time or zero and take a something resembling a full load of classes and do well? Any other things I should consider?

Thanks for any responses

2

When I dropped out of my bachelor program I was 20 and poor and having lots of other problems with life… I completely failed my whole last semester!

A number of years later I applied at a different school as a transfer student. I simply spoke to the admissions office and on their advice wrote them a letter explaining why I felt I would do better this time :slight_smile:

If they took me after all that then you should do better. Sounds like you already have a good plan and your work experience will also help you.

You’d definitely finish quicker and have more time to study if you aren’t working but grad classes are expensive so see how feasible that is for you.

Good Luck!!!

3

I’ll contribute a pearl of wisdom from the tales of Been There, Done That.

I completed my bachelor’s degree in 1995. In 1999 I went back to school for my master’s degree (completed it a year ago). I went to a school where most of the students – and at least half the faculty – had day jobs. From my experience, learn this:

It is easier to be a full-time student with a part-time job than to be a full-time worker with a part-time school.

Having said that, I note that part-time grad school is doable. How well do you handle stress?

Also, ask about tuition payment / reimbursement programs. If your employer will pay for your degree, that helps a lot.

4

I second all the advice above. Also, you may want to look at just skipping your masters and going straight to work on your PhD. It would save you 2 years time if you were a full-time student, so you can see how much that would add up. I don’t really know what the disadvantages are, but that is what I plan on doing. (I will graduate with my associates next spring)

Good luck!

5

I’m in a very similar situation - incredibly similar… so I’m watching this thread.

In the meantime, good luck!

6

Can’t do that in Canada, you can sometimes be admitted to a PhD after a year of coursework on your Masters’, but the requirement for admission is generally a Masters’.

Thanks though.

7

I did this a year ago.

I got my bachelor’s in 1995, and while I thought at that time that I’d like to go back to school someday, I ended up in the work world. I kept getting promoted and ended up as an internal auditor.

About a year ago, while heading towards a complete breakdown from stress, my boss told me that I needed to make a decision as to whether or not the field I was in was one I wanted to be in. It was a fast decision. I took the GREs, applied to grad school for Library and Information Science, and I’ve finished my first year, with summer classes starting next week and a year to go (and depending on when my sister in law’s graduation is next year, I could be the first one in the family with a master’s. If hers is before me, then she gets that distinction.)

My undergraduate overall GPA was a 2.8 (3.0 within the major). I did very well on the GREs with only 10 days of prep work (660V, 620Q, 730A - the slip was sitting here on my desk from a cleaning of my wallet yesterday, so I thought I’d throw those out there).

Talk to the school you’d like to attend - look at those that are well thought of in the field, and contact the department directly. Find out about assistantships - I did not do my homework in that area, and if I’d looked closer, I could have saved myself tuition costs last year, though not fees. I have one for next year that covers my out of state tuition and pays a monthly stipend that will cover my rent - I’ll still have some in loans, but less than if I didn’t have it.

I work part time at a student position in the library and will continue that along with the assistantship, so I’ll be working about 20 hours a week. I can’t imagine trying to work full time and go to school full time, but part time work and full time school is doable, and I feel like I’m making real progress toward the degree, something that I wouldn’t feel like I was doing if I was a part time student. Also, as a full time student you may be eligible for more financial aid than if you’re a part time student.

It’s worth it - I enjoy being a student again, even with the stresses of bills and rent and all the things I didn’t have to worry about as an undergrad dependent on her parents.

8

Scuba_Ben - Hmm, they do have tuition reimbursement here, but I’m not 100% sure it’s a good idea for me to take it. My minor little academic ambitions aren’t readily applicable to where I work, so I might have to study something not as good a fit with my interests, which would set me up for failure.

I’m not sure if I should keep working while I go back to school or not, as I’m not sure how I’d handle the time pressure. My husband works, but I make somewhat more and our expenses won’t go down much if I go back to school.

Hmm, make one decision, have a dozen others to ponder.

Tanookie - Good for you on going back, so many people I know who left during undergrad still haven’t done so. Hopefully the fact I did graduate with my honours degree will help. My only real excuse for my undergrad performance is that I was young and full of myself, that my parents were giving me continual grief about my path in life, and that I really didn’t know what I wanted to do once I finished school.

OK, some more concrete questions if anyone has suggestions:

For the GREs, can anyone tell me how many questions I’d have to get right (or what sort of raw score I’d need) to be considered a candidate at various universities?

What is the best way to go about getting a reference, take classes and get to know the professors, or ask a part-time or former academic who I know from my working life?

How many schools should I apply to in order to keep my sanity?

Other random rambling: I’m considering using going back to school as my excuse to travel…anyone have a university they love that might take me? :slight_smile:

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Thanks Lsura. Maybe I’d better sign up for the next math GRE sitting and hit the books soon…