Last evening I went to the University of Virginia's information night about their Master's Programs. I was all nervous because I didn't know what to expect. I wasn't sure if I should dress up or not. I decided on my regular summer uniform; cargo shorts and a plaid shirt. The building is only about 10 minutes from where I live and that's with traffic. The bad part is it's right by a Metro station and the parking really sucks. I drove around for 10 minutes looking for parking because I didn't want to pay to park in the garage. I didn't think I'd be there long enough to waste $3.75 on parking. I was able to find a metered space on the street. I only had to feed it 75 cents. No problem. Walked over to the building, found the right room, signed in and sat down. I was the third person there. The others trickled in over the next 15 minutes or so. They had already placed all of the written materials on the tables so there wasn't anything to pick up. While waiting for it to begin, I read through the materials.

After reading the first flyer about what you would need to do to apply, I knew I would not be submitting an application. Maybe I'm too old or something but you have to jump through so many hoops. Take the GRE's (which scares me because I've always been awful at standardized tests), get two letters of recommendation, have every school that you've ever attended send them a transcript (I've taken numerous classes at other institutions but none towards a specific degree), fill out the three page application, write an essay, and submit several forms of identification showing that you actually do live in Virginia and you are a U.S. citizen. While I can easily do all these things, I'm just not sure I want to do all these things. Actually, it's the GRE's that scare me the most. I don't know that I have enough general knowledge in my brain to pass the test. I have no idea what is actually on the GRE's.

Besides my anxiety about jumping through all the hoops, there was one more piece of information I found out after the presentation had begun. The professor outlined the master's program I had selected (she used a prepared PowerPoint presentation that we could have just read for ourselves). Then she took questions. Luckily someone else asked the question I was going to ask. Turns out, if you don't have all your materials and application submitted before the first class begins, you may not be accepted to the program. Plus, this is a Cohort which means the classes are already scheduled and if you miss the first class it may not come around again for two years. And to top it off, the professor said they may not have another Cohort in two years when this one is finished, that they already have 15 students selected, and they are only accepting a total of 28. There were at least 30 people in the room with me. Many of whom I'm sure already had all the stuff in place to apply right now. Suffice it to say I was not too happy with the information I received last night. I was a bit discouraged.

I came home and read through the material some more and made a decision. IF another Cohort is offered in the fall of 2006, I will be ready to apply for that one. I will go ahead and take the GRE's. Once I pass those, I will work on the other paperwork to be submitted with the application. I will then have everything together and ready to submit for the next time around. Between now and then I plan to sign up for some of the courses that are part of the program. Once I'm in the program, I can transfer those classes in and won't have to take them again. Plus, I can use those classes for re-certification. So the plan right now IS to go to grad school but just not beginning this fall.