Graduation and Beyond

It's been a while since I've last written. Thankfully, my readership consists of only 7 people so I'm not disappointing too many fans. Just to let you know, I have spent my time trying to decide what to do with the rest of my life. And taking naps.

I have two months of school left. Only two months. Possibly for the rest of my life. What will I do next? My routine for the past 18 and a half years has been wake up, go to school, come home. Now that routine has to change to wake up, unknown, come home. What will I fill that unknown time with? I have narrowed it down to three options: 1. Get a job, 2. Go to grad school, 3. Watch Dr. Phil everyday to learn how to analyze the lives of people around me.

Last night, I started to work on option #2. I began my research by looking at the University of Texas at Arlington Graduate School of Computer Science and Engineering website. It looked pretty good. I can be a full time student and graduate in 2 years with a Masters. They have a software engineering track too.

I need to apply by October 22 in order to be considered for the spring semester. October 22! Today is October 5! I have two weeks to complete the application, pay my remaining tuition bill so that registrar's office will send a transcript, request that the registrar's office send two copies of my transcript to UTA, sign up for the GRE, learn what is tested on the GRE, review all material from every course taken at college to study for GRE, re-request that my transcript by sent since the registrar's office lost the first request, do more studying, take the GRE, and still allow 10-15 days for the test scores to be processed and sent to UTA. Why didn’t I do this in September??

Not only that, there is an essay question on the application to the school:
Describe in no more than 200 words your main academic interests, strengths and limitations at this time; explain why you wish to study for this degree in this particular field, and why you have chosen the University of Texas at Arlington; specify what you hope to accomplish during your program here.

This is my first draft for the essay:

My main academic interest is software engineering. I enjoy writing programs and making them as clean and tidy as possible. My other interest is to get through classes doing as little work as possible. If I could study as much as I did in high school, that would be great.

I have many strengths in the field of computer science. First, my undergraduate degree focused on theory of computer science rather than application. I can talk about programming for hours without having any idea of how to apply this knowledge in real life. Perfect for grad school! Furthermore, I am a nice person. What a great strength to possess in this mad, mad, mad, mad world.

One of my weaknesses, which I will conveniently turn into a strength, is that I always complete my work on time. I understand that in the software engineering world completing work on time, and sometimes before deadlines, is practically unheard of and will really throw customers off. In order to fix this problem that I have, I will try to add unneeded and unasked for features to my programs. The delays caused by adding these unnecessary features will surely make any program be completed way past the deadline.

Shoot! That's already 204 words, and I haven't even begun to explain that I chose UTA to be close to my boyfriend.

I guess I better go pay my tuition bill.