This week I was yanked out of my blissful ignorance with the start of classes at Berkeley. All of a sudden I realized that I had to start applying to grad school relatively soon. Have I done anything to prepare in the last 3-4 months? NO! So now I'm looking at all the crap these schools want from me and hoo boy am I going to be running around in circles for a while.
What I love the best is that there charging me to try to get in to their schools and pay them even more later. I hate that. So I'm going to have to pay $40-50 per school (I'm applying to 3) and then pay all the lovely places I've previously attended money to send each school two transcripts. I even have to drag my ass to College Park, a place I really want to return to, because UCSD wants to make sure that I complete the requirement for "sensitvity to second language acquisition." And they say what you do in High School doesn't matter. The stupid language requirement matters.
I'm just frustrated with all the hoops they make you jump through. It's almost like they want to continue to have a teacher shortage. One example is the fact that I have apply to both the Graduate Division and the School of Education for each school. Don't you think they could make this process just a little bit simpler for me and everyone else? The beaucracy at these schools is amazing.
I'm almost done with all the tests I had to take at least. I only have one left, I'd be done with that one too if I had remembered the test was on Saturday and not Sunday. I think I was test dead at that point and my brain convinced me it was Sunday instead of Saturday so it wouldn't have to think.
Another requirement I have to complete soon is volunteering in the school so they can see this is what I really want to do. I get to take my two weeks of vacation to do this. OH boy fun!
And after that I just have to write a statement of purpose. How I hate them. does anyone ever say anything sincere in them? I doubt it. Here's what UCSD says I should write about:
1. Your reasons for choosing education as a career and for applying to the Teacher Education Program at UCSD. (Lack of anything better to do and you have a program where it's sunny)
2. Your experience working with students from various cultural backgrounds in the public schools and any related experience you feel is appropriate. (None as I have been volunteering at a school where the kids come from middle class mainly white families.)
3. Your community service experiences, especially those in culturally diverse settings. (what community service? The last time I did that was in Girl Scouts with again middle class white girls.)
You see how screwed I am? VERY VERY SCREWED.
Posted by nuala at August 31, 2002 12:22 PM