Haitus Recap: End of Term

Around when I disappeared back in March finals were around the corner. Normally this would be a time of stress, panic, and chaos as I scramble to deal with assignments and papers while I struggle to fit in time to study.

Not this time. I mean, firstly I only have 2 classes. Secondly, these classes don't count towards my GPA because I need to have a minimum of 3 classes a term to qualify for a full course load. So as long as I passed, that's all that mattered.

More time for League of Legends.

For those unaware, last term I was taking the last few prerequisites in an attempt to get into a Business after-degree in the following Fall semester. Economics 101 and 102 were generally dry but I was passing all my assignments and doing above class average on all the exams.

It didn't help that the assignment answers could often be found via a quick Google search, in the exact same question and answer format. I mean seriously, some of these searches yielded results as far back as 2008.

And guess what, they were almost always correct.

Finals comes along and I'm not worried at all. Well, as is my nature, I start cramming half a week in advance because I'm an idiot. You'd think with all the schooling I've had at this point I'd learn to start studying a bit earlier instead of procastinating so much.

You thought wrong.

Still, the exams went fairly well. I was particularly worried about the Econ 102 exam because I only had enough time to check over 1/3rd of my answers. Then as I was getting up I saw the girl behind me scrambling to bubble in her answers.

The student in front of me put down B for the last 30 answers.

Why.

A few weeks pass, and without a doubt I pass. Not a problem. But what's the current problem I'm having?

I won't know if I got accepted into the Business program until August.

Why?

Because the administration is lazy.

Seriously, all my friends who got in didn't get notified until August. And because they make us send in applications in March, you'd think that it wouldn't take half a year to determine if we could get in. In the administration's defense though they were getting so many applicants that they had to raise the minimum GPA from 2.1 to an astounding (wait for it)

2.3.

My GPA is above a 3.0. I think I'll be safe.

An Unexpected Hiccup

On my checklist of things needed to get into Grad school was reference letters, and I needed 3. This wouldn't be a problem. I asked Patt, my Conservation Psychology prof, to write one for me and he was more than happy to. Though this was at the pub and we both had a bit to drink so maybe I'll send an email reminder later.

Next was one of my supervisors for my research project. He too was more than happy to oblige me. That's 2/3. So far so good.

And then I got to the Professor who I'd been doing research under for years. We'll call him Prof Cap.

And he told me no.

Ok, I might be exaggerating a bit here and I haven't given his explanation yet. See, he was than happy to write me one, until I told him I was trying to get into Speech and Language Pathology. Then he looked me in the eye and said, "Damian, I don't think my reference letter is going to help you get in. Your GPA isn't that competitive."

Ouch. Harsh but probably true.

Don't worry, there's more.

He goes on to tell me that he's written more than half a dozen reference letters over the last few years for students trying to get into the program. And only one got in, the one with the ~4.0 GPA. Remember that mine is at ~3.3.

Oh and it gets better. One of the people even did research with a SLP professor for a year and STILL didn't get in. If this isn't enough of an indicator that the SLP department (at least at my University) only cares about marks, I don't know what is. 

I mean, I'm fairly certain that knowing that a student can properly conduct research is a better indicator of a good grad student than, I don't know, an arbitrary number on a piece of paper. Just because you can memorize definitions from a book doesn't mean you can do things in real life.

Fairly certain that the department admins look like this.

That being said, ALL of the students my prof wrote reference letters for were women. Maybe I could stand a chance by being male? You think they'd give me a special exception? Hopefully?

Either way, Prof Cap had two pieces of advice for me. Either start applying to the SLP program at other Universities in hopes that they aren't as competitive, or start looking for a different graduate program to get into. I'm definitely going to start exploring these options, I need to make a back-up plan after finals.

Hmmm....

Oh, side note. Patt is also written at least 2 reference letters for students trying to get into the SLP program. And Prof Cap and I think we know what SLP is so popular/competitive. There's a huge demand for Speech Pathologists and it might have to do with the surge of autism in recent years. And we both think it's the new ADHD.

Autism is a real disorder, but whether or not the huge numbers of people being diagnosed with it are legitimate cases found due to better diagnostic methods, or helicopter parents being helicopter parents has yet to be determined.

Halfway Point

It's about halfway through the term. And I have a general feeling about how well I've done this term:

Aging: ~B
Cognitive: ~B
Conservation: ~A
Social Influence: ~B

This is roughly a B+  or 3.3. That's generally how well I've done in my previous terms. But at the moment there's only one word that rings in my mind.

As I've mentioned before, I'm trying to get into Speech and Langauge Pathology. However, it appears the program has gotten a lot more competitive over the years. If you want to stand a chance, you should have a GPA of 3.7 or an A-.

So as you can see, a 3.3 isn't going to be good enough to get me in. I don't expect myself to get A's in all my courses, but at least an A- so I have a fighting chance.

I have to kick things up a notch.

Bam!

All hope is not lost yet. I still need to write the GRE at the end of the month and I really should start studying for it soon. I also should start looking to work or volunteer with something SLP related. Not only will it give me vital experience, but I could use a second job. Especially next term when my schedule will be even more light.

My only saving grace for my GPA at the moment is apparently they only care about your grades for the last 2 years that you were in school. In other words, with a bit more work my disastrous 3 year grades will suddenly become invalid, like they never existed at all.

Seriously though, if that year even touches the rest of my GPA I'll drop to a B-.

Replace Homer with some bad grades and you get the idea.

My last hope is that a lot of my remaining marks for my courses are in the form of papers and projects. Wish me luck on them, I need all I can get.