GO OBAMA!

Hey all!

So I know not everyone that reads this will be thrilled with the turnout of yesterday's election but I am very excited! :)
I hope everyone voted yesterday! No matter what, it was an historic election that everyone should have been a part of!
It was super easy for me to vote...much easier than I thought it would be. I was in and out in 15 minutes. I had to do a paper ballot due to my address change being so close to election day but that's okay, I still got my vote in!

My week has been very interesting so far. On Monday I had to go meet with the head of the Sociology Dept, Dr Esposito, at school to discuss my plan for the remaining time of my masters. Going into the meeting I really thought that we would discuss my classes and how I could start some independent research. I thought that I would drop down to 2 classes a semester so that I would graduate in Spring 2010 and starting in the fall of 2009 I would start independent research.

Gosh if I had only known what Dr Esposito had in mind for me....

Dr Esposito pretty much told me that if I don't become more involved in the department I'm not going to get into the PhD programs that I want to apply to. Most of the schools that I am applying to are in the list of top 25 programs in the nation. They will be VERY hard to get into, so if I really want to get into one of them I have to do a lot more than I'm doing right now.
So pretty much what she told me I need to do is stop working, take a graduate assistantship starting in January working closely with a professor, in the fall of 2009 try to get a job doing research, retake my GREs, take a class to do better on my GREs, take a full course load (4 classes) and do everything I can to become fully immersed in the department. I won't be able to do independent research due to the fact that I don't have enough, well really any, experience doing research. She said I won't be approved by the department.
So pretty much I left the meeting realizing that I will have to make some major changes to get into a good program.
I didn't start this masters to just waste it. I started this masters, and I'm going into debt because of this masters, so that I can get into a good PhD program.
I have to do whatever it takes to get into a program.

So needless to say my life is going to change come January. I will become a full time student again. I will be working as an assistant to a professor and no longer working full time. I'll be finding a part time job to get by. I won't have to pay for school any longer because grad assistants get a tuition waiver. The loans that I would normally get to pay for classes I will be living on.

Although I'm nervous about having a new apartment and making the decision to stop working, I know this is what I need to do.

Okay time for tv and homemade hot chocolate :)