I Did Something On My "To-Do" List! Yay!

Have finished the Ph.D. applications for the Canadian schools I�m applying to. (Which cost me about $600 to do.) Indiana is now out of the question as I scheduled my GRE exam too late for them to take me into consideration. (Translation: I lose BOTH the application fee and most of the cost of the GRE test). Fucking American standardised tests. Especially when a lot of American universities are in the process of fazing them out. (Also, why take the bloody test when their own fucking website says that �It�s not that important to our admissions decisions but it�s still a requirement.�)

I keep reminding myself that things happen for a reason.

Part of me is a wee bit disappointed � I mean, if my statement of interest was to be accepted anywhere it would have been there. There�s also the Ph.D. minor in human sexuality that I won�t be getting. But this also means that I won�t be paying $20,000 in tuition. I also won�t be moving into the Mid-West. And, as much as I hate to say it, getting a generalised doctorate (English/Sociology compared to Gender Studies) may end up being beneficial when I start looking for a job.

Speaking of my statement of interest: I have a dreadful feeling that it�s a little too interdisciplinary for any program to accept me. (I know, I know. The power of positive thinking and all that.) The theory is mostly Gender and Cultural Studies stuff � too Humanities for most Social Sciences programs. The methodology is perhaps a little too much Sociology for most Humanities programs.

Fuck.

One of my referees thought that my proposal was a bloody brilliant idea and it has the criteria that �desirable� applications have so that the interdisciplinary thing isn�t something to worry about. It�s now (comic book scholarship dealing with cross-gender identification), it�s uber-sexy (pornography!), and it�s not something that other people are really looking at. (Compared to my first Ph.D. idea: looking at discourses of terrorism. Thanks Mare-Bear for that.)

Let�s just cross our fingers that the admissions offices think so too. (Oh, and as do the funding people.)

If I don�t get in it�s not the end of the world � I can always extend my thesis to another year and apply again next year. I don�t really want to do this but it makes more sense than going out and getting a job. It�s cheaper for one (I have a high student loan load that I�ll have to start paying it off when I�m no longer a student) and I don�t have any marketable skills. (Also, several people have warned me that when people take time off between degrees they never actually go back to get the other degree. Though I doubt that this happens to everyone, I could see myself discovering I like the money aspect of having a career and never go back.