Do you prefer dork or nerd?

Are you kidding me? I LOVE school! Love it so much I want a PhD.  Love it so much I want to do research and read and write all the time.  And maybe teach also.  I love it.  I just finished a master’s in the spring of ’12, and I was working full-time while I was going, so I was pretty fucking tired when it was done.  I was all geared up by the fall, though, and applied to eight PhD programs in social work for this fall.

I didn’t get into any of them. Even my alma mater, and I was sure I would at least get an interview.

That was disappointing.  But now, almost September, I’m preparing to submit applications again.  I have since TAed for a semester and won a national contest with my thesis research. I’m also conducting research with a former professor and hope to get it accepted into a journal before I submit my applications this fall (but I don’t think that will happen.)  I’ve also focused my research interests a little bit, and will be applying to different programs – sociology instead of social work. I’m more interested in the social systems and forces that give context to human behavior, particularly those that reinforce inequality.  I’m hoping that I’ll be more on base time time and get in.

I love the energy of the place, the challenge.  Particularly at the graduate level – it isn’t easy, and people are doing it because they’re passionate about their studies.