So, I’m going into my last semester of undergrad and I’m starting to freak out. I went to the dentist on Tuesday (cavity free!) and realized that it would be my last time I went while covered under my dad’s insurance. That was a scary realization, but it also led me to thinking more about post-college life.
After graduation, I’m getting a job and spending some time discerning my vocation (Catholic code for deciding if I really want to be a nun, something I’ve been thinking about for a while). I will also be moving out of my parents’ house for good, most likely. If I realize the nun thing isn’t actually for me, I’ll eventually end up in grad school studying math, not sure what field yet.
I’m sure there are other dopers in my shoes, with only a semester left of being a college student. How are you feeling about it? What are your post-graduation plans? Any idea how four years flew by so quickly?
Last semester here too, but considering that I’ve been living on my own, working full time, and paying all my own bills since I was 18, I’m really not that stressed out. Relieved is more like it. And the time (::cough:: all 7 years of it) hasn’t gone by nearly fast enough for me. Post-graduation plans include playing a lot of video games in all of my new-found free time.
Don’t go to grad school in math unless you really are passionate about math and have a pretty good idea that this is what you’d like to spend the rest of your life doing. Don’t go to grad school because you think it will be like a few more years of undergrad (it won’t) or because staying in school is less scary than the “real world” (being in grad school is a lot like being in the “real world”, but you work longer hours and get paid less). Do yourself a huge favor and don’t just go to grad school because you can’t think of anything else to do.
Time has been passing faster lately. I’ve noticed it too
Now might be a good time, if you haven’t done it already, to ask your profs to draft some letters of recommendation that they could send to grad schools, assuming you end up applying. It’s better to ask them to do it now, when you can drop by their offices and bug them about it, then to do it later. Remember, after you graduate they’ll have a bunch of students who’re still there bugging them about the same thing.
And if you don’t end up going to grad school, your profs can probably tweak the letter into a professional reference. The important thing is that they jot down all the good stuff about you, so that they don’t forget about it.
Also - if you’re taking the GRE (or you join the dark side and take the LSAT), you should really take a prep course.
I’m currently going to grad school. Mechanical engineering - explosives. I just completed my first official semester, and am loving it. It took me six years to get my undergrad, but I had taken several grad-level classes during the last year. Like you, I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do, and was about to fall off my parents insurance, also. I scored a job, full time, at a place that would pay for (and in fact, require me to get) an MS.
When I was at your point, I had no clue what I was going to do. I was pretty sure I was going to grad school, and had already talked my bosses at the explosives testing place I worked to pay for my grad school. But, I pretty much trippled (quadrupled by now) my salary, while doubling my cost of living, by taking my current job. Hopefully I’ll get into the weapons design division soon.
The years flew by so fast because I was living it up on the weekends, and studying my ass off during the week. No time to ever thing, “Wow, time sure is going by slow today.”
Or, go in 1/2 drunk and hungover like I did. It’ll hurt your weaker subjects more than your stronger, which is why I only scored about a 550 or so on the verbal. Something like 750 on the math, but I’m pretty well versed in calc, and the highest the GRE goes is trig.
On another note, I took the FE (fundamentals of engineering) test WITHOUT A CALCULATOR! Stupid hungover me forgot to grab it on the way out, and had to buy one at Target for the afternoon session.
I graduated last December. I had a few thousand dollars saved up, and my standard of living consisted of living in a studio apartment and playing World of Warcraft for 3 months. Let me tell you, it was great. Hey, I worked 30 hours a week and had 19 credits a semester year round for 3 1/2 years, I was enjoying my time off!
Now, I am a proud member of the “oh god why can’t I go back to college” work force. My advice: plan on going to grad school in the near future, but take a semester off if you can afford it. It might be the last time in your life you can get away with it, so live it up!
Oh, and don’t stress out about the lack of insurance thing. There’s 20 million of us in the U.S. doing it, it isn’t that bad. Just make it a point to take your vitamin C and not get sick.
I’m going into my last semester of nursing school, and it’s pretty exciting. I’m sure I’ll have a job lined up before I graduate. As soon as possible, my partner and I are going to buy a house together across the border in Maryland, since Virginia is so politically unfriendly to same-sex couples these days. Theres a long list of other stuff I’ll want to buy once I have an income again – basic stuff I’ve done without like new sneakers.
I’ll probaby take a year or two off from school and just work, before going back for a nurse practitioner degree.
Seconded. In fact, you might want to check whether your school has something like mine did - a credential file. Professors can forward letters there, to be held and forwarded to grad schools later. This is very helpful in cases like mine - my undergrad advisor ended up getting cancer and being in chemo and therefore not really in shape to write half a billion recommendations. Professors also move on to other schools and become harder to find, though this is less of an issue in the days of Google.
Also, heavily seconding the idea of not going to grad school until you are absolutely positive you’ve found a field you want to be in for the rest of your life, and even have a decent idea of who might want to give you a job afterward, preferably at a salary you will be able to live on.
Remember, after you graduate they’ll have a bunch of students who’re still there bugging them about the same thing.