• Life Advice & Visual Arts Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    🌌 Share Your Dreams! 🌌
    📸 15 Years of Photo Contests 📸
  • LAVA Moderator: Shinji Ikari

Grad School/ Masters

Dtergent

Dtergent

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Apr 12, 2000
Messages
7,502
Location
Where it's balmy
Hello, please tell me about your experience with Graduate Education and what you think are important things to consider? What did you take up, and how did you pay your way through? Were you working a "serious" job at the same time? Etc? Any other details. Thanks.

I'm trying to decide if/when I will go back to school, and what to do

I got an offer last year, but it was for a business school, and that's really not what I want. I don't want my parents to pay for the rest of my education, and all the money I have can fit into a film roll canister. I'll have to work doubly hard, or get a scholarship based on my work so far.
 
Last edited:
pick something you want to do, and get loans. i've never understood the "i don't have money for school" mentality.
 
If you love what you're doing then you should do it but I think it's gonna be a dedication that will consume you if you really want to accomplish it. I notice your avatar says party, but that'll be happening a lot less.
 
Okay, I've edited the nonsense babbling out of my first post.

I am SO willing to immerse myself for a couple of years in research, which I love. It will actually be a break for me.

I reckon I've got enough institution-building and national environmental work under my belt for a scholarship of some kind or another. I've done so much on-the-ground things and I really can't wait to do some fulltime brainwork again. fruitfly, I'm looking into UCBerkeley's Environmental Management program, do you know if it's any good?
 
I'm not planning to get a scholarship from the school, but there are several foundations that have offered the organization I work with education grants for its officers (me). I have the advantage of being from the "third world" you know ;)
 
word.

start looking early, explore all the options, be persistent, and push people. getting funding can be a complete bitch if you're doing something non-essential - i know, i've just tried and failed. i'm borrowing money because there's no other way i can do post-grad, but it's cool, i don't mind at all. if it's what you want to do then you probably won't mind either :)
 
I am a current grad student in the UC Berkeley Sociology department.
One potential pitfall is that international students are NEVER eligible for in-state tuition (I personally think this policy is asinine). I would hunt around for grants, within department and without, like a madwoman.

ebola
 
Yep I read about that. Yep I think it's asinine as well.

But seriously... over the last maybe 3 years I've had a few open scholarships offered to me by foundations that I was stupid enough to turn down.

Maybe I'm being complacent about getting one now, but I can't help thinking I can still get.
 
I recently got a Master's in English and French Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors, based at a London university. It was a great course, though it was stressful since the workload was high and I was still working weekends to pay for the tuition. I wasn't able to qualify for any grants because it's not considered an essential subject like maths or science.

I was in my late 30s when I took the course and it hasn't yet landed me a job in the field, but I'm still really glad I enrolled in the programme. It was a growing experience and I met some fascinating people. I also learned more about myself.

I know it was expensive but I think an opportunity to grow and learn can only be a good thing, even when it's not completely practical. What I studied concerned the finer points of life rather than the fundamentals. But it's so easy to overlook beautiful art and architecture; and yet, it has enriched my life culturally in ways I could never express.

It's so easy to just stay in a rut and take drugs, stay in bed all day, etc. if you're lucky enough to enjoy the freedom to do that. I'm married to an exceptionally easygoing bloke who lets me do whatever I want.

But life is teaching me that staying in a rut is the easy way out. It's much better to choose to take on new challenges and keep learning and growing as a person. It may involve sacrifice but in the long term, it can only lead to good things, even if they're intangible...
 
Last edited:
Mona Lisa, speaking of practicality, it's good that you pursue that course even if it's "not practical" (that is relative anyway).

I would love to pursue my other passions that are "non-essential"... but "practicality" and general dissatisfaction with society have pushed me towards sustainable development. My boyfriend wants to be an artist and I want to be able to earn enough so he doesn't have to take a crap job, even during the beginnings of his career or whatever.

But to be able to pursue any of the things that I REALLY gets me super excited (agriculture, photography, and culinary arts) and to connect them with sustainable development would be great. But the management side is what my country's civil society lacks sorely. I don't love it but am good at it. So I guess that's a good enough reason.
 
speaking of practicality, it's good that you pursue that course even if it's "not practical" (that is relative anyway).
Click to expand...

speaking as a medieval historian about to embark on an MPhil dissertation dealing with dreams and phenomenal intervention in relation to heresy in the High Middle Ages,

i wholeheartedly agree =D.
 
^LOL! Medieval historian! You pwn us all in terms of perceived relevance and practicality.

I used to subscribe to Medieval History Magazine then it closed down.
 
Dtergent said:
^LOL! Medieval historian! You pwn us all in terms of perceived relevance and practicality.
Click to expand...

hehehe :D i'm training to become a eurocentric irrelevance!

have you ever seen the simpsons episode where lisa is trying to find a future career, and stumbles upon paleontology?

'Don't do it!' says a tired old man, 'I've spent 30 years brushing the teeth of dead monsters...'

that's kind of how i feel about medievalism. except that not-so-secretly of course i find it thrilling and relevant and highly important ;)
 
A lot of schools will give you free grad tuition, sometimes including housing and a stipend if you work for them while you are there. Of course you may still need loans to actually eat during those 2 years.

I am toying with the idea of grad school in that I'd love to get into a masters program where I could focus on something I find really interesting but I really don't see myself turning down the rather lucrative jobs I can get since I already have significant work experience in my field and the degree kind of just expands the field a bit. I'd probably opt for a Masters in Information Assurance/Security but there are not a whole lot of well developed programs yet. If a company will help pay for it or I end up waiting around for 18 months for a security clearance then I may go for it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top