Ok, Smarty McSmarty-pants.

I am looking at going back to school to get my Master's degree and want to talk to those of you out there who are either considering the same, have done the same or are currently doing the same.

How hard was the GRE?

Did you find it difficult to get into your school of choice?

How much time did you have to spend studying/how many classes at a time did you take/were you working while going to school?

It's been nearly 3 (going on 4) years since I got my BS and I have decided that since my current job prospects are rapidly vanishing with the staleness of my degree, I need to get myself nice and deep in debt to find a good-paying and satisfying job.

So any advice for a fellow smarty-pants?
Well, smart-ass is more like it but you all know that already

~spidey

How hard was the GRE?

Spidey, are you certain that you'll even be required to take the GRE? At my graduate school, students who had an undergraduate grade average of 3.0 or higher weren't required to take the GRE. I couldn't tell you how hard the GRE was, because I didn't have to take it.

Did you find it difficult to get into your school of choice?

No, but the daily commute was hard. I had to drive to the next county over from where I was living, to attend classes.

How much time did you have to spend studying/how many classes at a time did you take/were you working while going to school?

I took only two to three classes per semester (at night), as I was also working full-time. I remember spending a lot of time studying, and also putting in a lot of time on my thesis.

Cheers on your back-to-school plans!

-- Nephele

I am still working on getting my Bachelor's degree but I have heard that it better to go straight into a Master's program after getting the Bachelor's degree. Is this a foolhardy act or something worth considering? I already know that I am going to be debt no matter what I choose but has anyone gone into Grad school immediately after getting their undergrad degree? Congrats Spidey, I am sure you will do famously when you start!

Unfortunately the school I am trying to get into (University of Colorado) requires it. I also have to get three Letters of Recommendation and give them my resume. Good thing I work for a school district. I can get some legit looking letters. Lol.


Thanks. I am hoping I can graduate at the same time my SO does. He's getting his BA and should be out of there in 2 years so I am going to push to get my MA within the same time frame.

~spidey

I am going to the University of Phoenix.

No GRE was needed to get in. Not sure if it was because my GPA had always been between 3.4-3.6 or because they simply didn't care...

As for school of choice, I never really looked around but I will be looking after my BA for my Masters. I want to go to a normal College to finish it all up and go in the direction I want.

Currently I am taking 1 class which meets once a week for five weeks, then its a new class, etc...So 1 revolving 5 week courses until you finish. It is tedious as hell, but I actually am learning a lot. It's a lot of self learning as well as auditory and participating in class. You are in class once a night for four hours.

The time I spend studying depends on the subject and how much I know about it and how many APA citations the instructor requires.

I, too, found myself unable to get a decent job after finishing my first degree a couple of years ago. So, after a year of failed attempts to find a decent job, I went back to universtity. A full-time two year programme. And that's tough if you have been out of the student mode for a while, and have to pay for tuition, books etc by working as well.

How hard was the GRE?
This is the entrance requirements? Where I live, we have different education system, so I cannot answer this.

Did you find it difficult to get into your school of choice?
No. But I took how easily I would get accepted into the decision of choosing schools. Granted, if it wasn't a university of good reputation, I would have taken quality of education over easy acceptance. After all, I was trying to get a degree that would qualify me better on the job market, not equally bad or worse as I had been.

How much time did you have to spend studying/how many classes at a time did you take/were you working while going to school?
I was in a full-time university course, which had classes for 16-20 hours a week and which required an additional 20+ hours of studying, doing assignments, papers etc. To pay for tuition, rent etc, I worked 28-32 hours in school weeks (the last three or four months 24), and 36-40 in weeks without classes. I could do that, because I had another degree from which I had a lot of skills in studying, understanding theories, writing papers etc, so I could skip some classes and study a bit less than others. Nonetheless, it IS a busy existence. You are always on the go: either to class or to your job, and there is always a chapter to read, exam to study for, or paper to write. You are never completely free. Near the end, when I was also planning a cross country move to a new job, I was complety fried. But... I did get a better job.

For me, it was worth the effort. But it was hard.

I hope you'll get into the school of your choice, and will find the curriculum stimulating (which will help with the studying), but most of all that your hard work will pay off!!! Best of luck!

I'll share what I'm going through right this moment and give updates whenever I hear stuff.

Background: In May, I will graduate from the University of Texas at Austin with two BS degrees, one in Cell/Molecular Biology, the other in Biochemistry. For sciences, masters degrees aren't super common (and we'd want an MS instead of MA for the thesis component, but most I find offer MA only). As such, I have applied to ten PhD programs, each along the lines of molecular biology or microbiology.

Schools applied to: UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, UT Austin, UT Southwestern, Baylor College of Medicine, Rockefeller, U Penn, and Pitt. (Those schools are basically the top)

GRE:

I did not study for the GRE at all. My programs only required the general GRE, but some will require subject GREs. I've been told you MUST study for the subject ones as they are very tough. I'd recommend refreshing on stuff for the general GRE. I took the new version that just came out. It's embarrassing, but I forgot things like what the median of a set of numbers is (hey, I emptied that knowledge and filled it with derivatives! lol). The math is pretty basic algebra stuff, but do refresh on it to be safe. The verbal stuff is easy if you have a good vocab (I don't really, so I got burned there). The two essays are easy in my opinion as long as you can make a clear argument and back it up. I didn't feel pressed for time during any of the sections. If you have any other questions, just ask!

Difficulty in getting into program:

I haven't heard back from any of my programs yet, and I'm really freaking out. My GRE scores weren't all that great, but I hear a lot that the scores don't matter that much (not really a good test to determine if you can succeed in grad school or not). My GPA isn't the best (currently a 3.4, but since I'm applying to the top schools, I'm competing against people with 4.0s). I've been hearing it's a very good idea to get in touch with professors you want to work for after you apply, but I'm not sure the best way to do this and if it really is a good idea or not. So yeah, I'm stressed out right now. I really want to get interviews to some of my schools, but we'll see.

Time studying and such:

I think this will vary from program to program, school to school, etc. I have a close friend who graduated on time (I'm staying an extra year) and is now in grad school at Pitt. She is studying Molecular Biology. She seems fairly busy with classes and rotations, but she still gets on Facebook from time to time. Looking at the grad students who work in my lab, they work about 50 hours a week (10 hours can be spent outside of lab thinking about the work, why life is so great, etc). They're older students though (done with the course requirements), so I'm not sure if the lab hours are fewer during the first couple of years.

Hope this helps some! If you have any questions, just let me know!

The value of a masters degree definitely depends on what your undergraduate degree is in. For example, engineers basically don't need one while someone who majored in psychology can't do anything without a masters degree (and some sort of a license.)

The GRE wasn't too hard. I would definitely pick up a GRE practice book and some GRE vocab cards though. The vocab cards really helped me out since they dedicate a large portion of the test to what amounts to a vocabulary quiz.

The quantitative section is tricky. Not hard, not easy, just tricky. The math they use is really simple, basic algebra, maybe a little trig but no calculus. That said, they design every question to be a trick. It may be something obvious as giving you perimeter and asking for area or basic unit conversions; or it could be something tougher to spot.

Some graduate schools require the GMAT instead of the GRE, but that's mostly for business, accounting, and finance.

I studied the vocab for about 2-3 months leading up to it. Just an hour here and there during lunch breaks or lay-offs between classes. The quantitative section I studied using the practice book and free sample tests (HUGE BONUS) for about 1½ months leading up to the test.

I was taking 12-16 units (3 to 4 classes) and working approximately 20 hours a week during this.

I"m also applying for grad school, and I'm sticking with the school I am getting my bachelor's degree in (graduating in May woohoo). They told me I needed to take the GRE because of my cumulative GPA, but that for qualifying for the program itself they look at the last four semesters. Now, has anyone taken the new GRE? My mother took the old one last summer, and the word is that the new one is very different, but I can't get the lowdown on exactly what that means.

How did you all juggle families and grad school? I'll have my kid by then, and I'm concerned about juggling work and school and family....

How hard was the GRE?

I didn't find the questions on the test to be very hard. I did find it difficult to do it while timed, but I just find timed tests like that stressful.

Did you find it difficult to get into your school of choice?

Because a ton of people are going back to school due to the economy, there is a lot of competition. I applied to PhD programs, and the one I got into had 150 applying for 5 spots. I believe Master's programs are a little less competitive, but I'm not sure.