Recently, I've pretty much only had time for two things: working at the Clark bookstore and looking into grad schools. Because the bookstore is crazy busy the first few weeks or so, I've been working more than twice as much as I'd like to in order to help out. I sincerely hope things start to slow down really soon, because I've been working a lot the past two weeks. While this means I'll have money (which I can then spend on grad school applications), I've had little time to do anything else.
Coincidentally however, this is a perfect time to be busy at the bookstore when it comes to lab work because I'm in the process of growing my transformed diatoms on selective plates, a process that is going to take me at least two weeks before the next step. This next step may come as soon as tomorrow, before another one to two week growth period before I can even start to test my diatoms. But this isn't the topic of this post.
In my spare time when I'm not feeling completely exhausted from my tiring shifts at the bookstore, I've been looking at Ph.D. programs to start after I finish my Masters project here at Clark. This is actually a much scarier topic than I've lead myself to believe, because it doesn't take into account a lot of unknowns, such as whether I'll be able to get into grad school, whether I'll be able to finish my Masters project on time, and whether my girlfriend and I can get into grad schools remotely close to one another. While a lot of this is out of my control at this point and time, it doesn't make me feel better when I think about it. The best I can do at my point is get a first round of applications done as soon as possible so I can apply to my top schools as soon as possible. Applying to Ph.D. programs early is important, because there is only so much money at each school to support students. While I have to work at the bookstore again this weekend for an afternoon and I have some other things to clean up, I hope to have my act together on my first round of schools by early next week, and have contacted my the professors I'd like to work with the most.
It's embarrassing to admit, but I haven't even taken the GREs yet and I won't take them until mid-November, only a few weeks until some applications are due. Depending on how my applications are, I may have to bite the bullet and pay the stupid fee and bump up my exam day. Originally I was worried I was going to be weighed down with applications and lab work too much in order to properly study for the GREs. While that still may be the case, I'm wondering whether taking the GREs earlier would be better, so I can have a complete package application sooner.
That reminds me... I need to contact two more professors about writing me recommendations. Oh boy. This is what happens when my schedule becomes abnormal for two weeks thanks to working at a "real" job--I lose track of things. Along the same vein, it's weird how I feel like I've missed the start of school because I've been stuck at the bookstore the entire first week of school. *sigh* I've even started to panic that I'll miss the best weeks of fall, but I'll make sure that doesn't happen. I'm really hoping the bookstore will start to slow down really soon (as early as the middle of next week), so I can work less and get my act together in lab when the need arises.
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