The Roaming Graduate

I can't imagine a more appropriate title for myself right now. Except maybe roaming lothario. I like that one too. Anyway, I haven't been posting as much as I'd like to because my world is pretty much chaos right now, but I did write an article for publication, and as it somewhat pertains to this I'm going to post it and call it an update. That's right... love me.

Hi kids, it’s your faithful former editor back to tell you about the “real” world. The first thing I can tell you about it is that it’s filled with disease. Seriously. I spent my first week out of college moderately sick, only to recover for the weekend and make the mistake of enjoying my newfound degree a little too thoroughly. Needless to say, I spent the next week sicker than the first one. So protect yourselves. Incidentally, a trip to the chiropractor and some acupuncture actually did make me feel better. (I was really just there for the massage.)

But that’s not the focus of TRG; it should be about the perilous next step after your undergraduate studies. And so it shall be. I have this piece of advice for you: If you’d like to go to a graduate school, apply the same time that you applied to Robert Morris College. That’s just how the deadlines work. You can plan ahead for it. Just think of when you would like to go to grad school, and apply twelve to fourteen months ago. I am exaggerating of course, but only by a month or two.

Now that you have the benefit of this wisdom you can pity me that I did not. After recovering from my two weeks of eyeball-aching, morphine-requesting, bucket-befriending illness I idly decided to check on the requirements for attending the University of Illinois to further my academic pursuits. As it turned out, I had about two days to fill out the applications, write three papers, and beg for letters of recommendation. As another piece of advice, it’s best to politely ask for such a letter as far in advance as possible. It never helps their opinion of you if you ask “Would you consider writing a letter of recommendation, oh and could you do it in the next few minutes?” Not all of you are charming enough to pull this off... but I can't imagine what, despite my charm, they wrote about my time management skills.

So the lesson for this week is simple: apply for grad school today. Not interested? Do it anyway. You’re a freshman in college? Then now is the perfect time. You’re illiterate? Well, there’s always Business classes.

- Scott