Start my applications six months early? You most joking...

I've heard it's a lot more complicated to apply to college in the states (I'm pretty sure there's an admissions essay, not to mention the infamous SAT's) but in Canada, to get into university, you just send them a copy of your high school transcript, pay a fee, and then pretty much wait and see what happens.  So while high school itself was hard, I don't have any really negative memories associated with applying to any university.

Not so with Graduate school.

I found this link for a university in Ontario that had such a helpful "so you want to go to graduate school? great! here's what you need to do" type checklist and helpful application guide.  I was really grateful for this since there's no one really to hold your hand at this point and the step-by-step instructions were really helpful.  However, I rolled my eyes when they were talking about doing some of these steps up to a year before the applications were due.  Considering I had found this page in October of my last year of university, I was obviously already behind schedule for the January deadlines.  What I decidedly ignored, though, was their suggestion to start my proposal for each individual school three months in advanced in order to have a chance to perfect it, have it reviewed by several different professors, etc.  At this point I was working on my SSHRC application and also falling behind in my classes, not to mention suffering from a two-week long migraine, so I put the applications to the back of my mind.  After all, they're due mid-January which means that I'll have all of winter break to work on them...

I didn't get the SSHRC grant; UVic didn't even send my application to Ottawa since I didn't have a 7.0 GPA scale (UVic uses a 9-point scale) or an A- average.  I had a 6.8.  So the weeks that I had spent on that application were wasted since the board who decides the grants never even saw my file.  I was extremely pissed off about that since I had worked and spoken with several different professors in my department who had helped numerous students with these applications and not once did any of them mention the minimum GPA required by UVic before they'd even send on the application.  My friend, who found herself in the same situation, was equally outraged.

So after it all, when December came around, I was tired from my long semester, still in some pain from all of the medical issues I had had all fall, and the last thing I wanted to do on my precious days off from working at the mall (during the Holidays = chaos) was work on my grad school applications.  It wasn't until I realized that I had left myself less than three weeks to write them and I finally found a list explaining each step and what I had to send to each school that I began to panic.  I even had a moment of "who even cares?   Maybe I just won't GO to grad school" before I quickly realized that being tired was no reason to delay my education by an entire year.

At least by this point (I think I finally started around December 29) I had narrowed it down to four schools: UBC, U of T, York, and McMaster.  I decided not to apply to UVic (where my undergrad was from) and try somewhere different.  My first choice was UBC - I had bookmarked the page explaining the requirements to get into the school my first year at UVic.  McMaster had a professor whose research area was closest to what I wanted to concentrate on, while U of T was more of a 'I wonder if I can get in' moments.  In reality, the department was far too heavily based on literature (which I hate) so I'm not entirely sure why I wanted to apply in the first place.

Things I didn't know about Graduate school applications (or maybe I did know, just didn't realize what it would entail).

• Each application costs about $75-100.  So I was potentially spending $300 on these applications. Which I had not been saving for.  Luckily my parents offered to pay for the transcripts otherwise I would have been screwed.
• They all required one or two copies of each of my transcripts.  Normally not a problem, except at this point I had attended three different universities.  And yes, they required ALL post-secondary transcripts.  And as I mentioned, I had left these applications really late and decided to work on them DURING my holiday break.  Which means that all university offices were also on break.  Which means that these schools had no one in the registrar's office to print and mail out official transcripts.  Crap.  So in order to have the transcripts in to the schools by the deadline of January 15 (when all the offices opened on the 5) I had to rush the transcripts, meaning they all cost at least $15 each (5 transcripts total) from 3 different schools... then I had to pay to courier them to get them to the schools all across Canada on time.  UVic was easiest - their website allowed me to do a rush print and then courier them all from the website and pay with my credit card.  Sending to the four schools required - done!  Dalhousie was a little more complicated, I had previously ordered transcripts online from them (for free, which is why I love Dalhousie) but when I went to go order them again... I found out that they don't do rush transcripts online and that if I were to do it online, it would take 5-10 business days to get there.  I had left something like 6.  Not something I wanted to test.  So I looked up how to get the rush ones - I either had to go in in person to the registrar's office (Not an option, since Halifax is a little far from Victoria) or fax in my request form and have it in by 3pm to get it out the next day.  This was realized at 9 am on a Friday, as I said, in Victoria which is actually 4 hours behind Halifax.  Needless to say I booked it to campus and faxed those forms with about 5 minutes to spare.  Then there was my term abroad in Rome... that one I ended up sending a pdf copy of the signed form to the office and spending about 25 euros per transcript to courier them back to North America.  So the transcripts at the end of the day almost cost as much as the application fee.  Lesson learned - order them EARLY.
• Reference letters need to be requested.  Nicely.  In advance.  And not a few days before you need them.  And it's a good idea for your professors to know what you're applying for, what you plan to research, where you want to go, who you want to study under... I didn't know any of this when I approached my supervisor asking if he would write one.  He said of course, with no hesitation, but then asked me all of these details and I sat there stunned.  I couldn't remember any of this off the top of my head.  I had definitely dropped the ball on this part, but I honestly did not know that these letters were going to be any more complicated than "Kat is one of my favorite students, pick her."
• Some schools require 3 reference letters, some require 2.  I only had 2 professors that I felt comfortable asking, so I had to beg around for the 3rd.  I spoke to my supervisor about it and he suggested a third professor, whom I approached, and he agreed to and I got him the requisite envelope and everything.  Only the next day (with only about 24 hours left before they had to be in) I got an e-mail from him saying he didn't feel comfortable being one of my references.  Which really irritated me and I started to panic and once more think that no school was worth all of this stress, but luckily one of my friends essentially snapped me out of it and had me go to the head of the department for one, which he happily did.
• Some need them mailed in by snail mail (for which you need to provide the professors with pre-addressed envelopes and stamps - again something I found out at the last minute) while others are sent a link to fill it in online.  UBC was an odd mix of the two - I had to go online and find a PDF copy of a reference form, and either printed it out or e-mailed it to the professor (depending on their preference) along with the envelope in which to mail it in.
• Letters of proposal are BRUTAL.  And cruel.  And annoying.  And awful.  And terrible.  And my least favorite part of the application.  You have to sell yourself in two pages (which I found really difficult because it felt like bragging which essentially it is) and tell them what you have been doing that makes you different from all of the others while convincing them that your idea, what you will spend your two years studying, is worth it for them and how you will add to their department.  I pulled a few really late nights trying to word these to sound professional yet still slightly humble if I could.  The first time the graduate advisor in my department sent back a draft she had looked over she had changed almost every sentence.  Apparently I'm not so good and talking myself up.
• Each transcript required a sample of my writing - not surprising since a huge part of being a classicist is writing papers, articles, books, etc.  The thing I found annoying and surprising was that some of the schools wanted a copy of my paper with the mark and professor's comments attached.  I didn't want to send my original copy of my papers off to these schools.  Luckily the one that I eventually used had been submitted online and she had sent her comments back in the little bubbles in the actually word document, so I attached that into the online application.
• Some schools want the reading lists, which for classics means you need to list the works from the ancient world that you have read in the original language.  This distressed me since my experience in Latin and Greek was limited at best.  UBC though wanted a list of all the books I had read in my courses that would be relevant to my work at UBC so that made me feel a little more optimistic since I felt I could sell my experience with the English translations.
• Finally, certain schools (again only UBC for me) wanted me to write what I considered my experience to be, and what I thought I could offer them.  This surprised me since I didn't think I'd have to sell myself to the school any more than I already had in my proposal.

At the end of the day, I had an entirely online application for U of T (even the transcripts, they just wanted PDF copies until I was officially accepted), mostly online except for transcripts to McMaster (I could just upload PDFs of my writing sample, proposal, etc.), a much more complicated online application for UBC with online submissions of all my writing, etc., but with mailed-in reference letters, and then everything was paper for York.  York was terrible because I couldn't access any of my online applications without my student number, which they said would e-mail or mail it to me, but it still didn't come in the mail.  And I couldn't get any of my profs to be my references without this online website.  I finally got the letter in the mail on a Friday afternoon (literally two business days before everything was due) so I madly got the three references and all of the other miscellaneous forms, writing samples, yadda yadda that they needed and had it out by Monday.

By the time I had the last application (York) in the mail (express post = $$$) I had spent hundreds of dollars, was really stressed, and was already behind in the new winter semester because I had spent all of my time on these applications.  I was so relieved that they were out of my reach and all I had to do was wait for replies, which wouldn't happen for a few more weeks.  It seemed, for the time being, to be something that didn't have to consume ALL of my attention... though I'm not going to lie, I started checking the status of my applications within a week.  :) 

Who I am, and why you're here

I am currently sitting on the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria for the 3rd time in 3 weeks, bouncing back and forth between the island and the mainland as I try to finally settle into my new home in Vancouver.  The constant back and forth was not the way that I had thought this was going to go, but then again, things never quite go the way that I planned them.  Not to say that my life is overly difficult or anything, I know that.  I am actually quite privileged and lucky with the opportunities I've had.  But  Murphy's Law seems to be more prevalent in my life than I would prefer.  So while now I can look back at each phase and roll my eyes, even laughing at some things, the simple way never seems to happen.

I'm moving to Vancouver in order to attend Graduate School, and this is what my blog will be about.  I know that this is going to be an insane and crazy time in my life, with absolutely nothing working out the way I expect.  This isn't a complaint, by any means, but a way of life for a Graduate Student.  I am friends with a few of them and watched what they went through, and have also heard stories related from professors, online blogs and forums, and family friends.  This will be a recording of my own experience and hopefully I'll be able to pass on some of the things I've learned to others starting on this road as well.

I am the first member of my family, on either side, to go to Graduate School, and only the second to have a university degree after my father.  I remember telling my parents that I was going to go in only my second year of university and the look on their face was a brilliant mix of confusion and dispair.  I know there are tons of people out there who say that Grad school is a waste of time, effort, money, sanity, and ruins your social life and delays your experience in the job market for two years which, when you finally start looking for work, you are overqualified for.  Hardly a flattering or encouraging picture for my future.  But, you see, I don't really have a choice.  I chose a field where you are unable to become employed unless you have, at minimum, a master's and ideally a PhD.  I decided to devote myself to Classics, otherwise known as the study of the ancient Mediterranean world.  Awesome, completely.  I spend my days learning about Roman legions, Greek gods, and of course, the ancients' obsession with sex that makes today's culture look prudish.  While I believe that these things are completely awesome and a great thing to devote my life to, employment is not exactly hopping.  Hence, my decision to enter graduate school six years after I graduated from High School.  While my friends are all getting careers, married, and thinking about having kids, I packed all of my stuff up yet again, moved for the eighth time in six years, and settled into an apartment-style residence complex at UBC.

A friend once told me that she had asked one of her TA's if he regretted working for his Master's, and he answered while broodily staring out the window into the rain "I'm alone, all the time, surrounded by books."  This has resounded with me for the last few years, but instead of making me depressed, it always brings a smile to my face as I remember that all Classics students, inevitably, end up alone in a room full of books for hours on end thinking about guys who have been dead for two thousand years.

So if you're still here at the end of this post with me, bear with me!  I will hopefully keep up to this blog regularly and relate to you my stumbling through Vancouver, UBC, grad school, and entering my mid-twenties where I'm going to be living in this weird nether world of still being a student, but also being an adult.