All the applications had to be in by the middle of december - beginning of January. We slaved away. What no one tells you about grad school is that the application process is pretty much a full time job. So while Alex was studying and going to school full time, and while I was going to work full time and then some, we had to take turns getting applications done. I would sit on the couch and fill out as much of the application as I could while he was at school late. He would fill in the missing pieces later. We wrote his statement of purpose together. It was a team effort, and it was a good thing we were patient with each other!
Just before the applications were due, Alex and some friends went to a grad school fair on campus. Alex had recently decided that instead of just going for the masters, he was also going to get a PhD, because what he really loved was the research opportunities in Mechanical Engineering. At the grad fair, there was only one school there for Engineering. BYU. So... that was a hard no. (No offense, cougars. No offense meant.) However, Purdue was there for the Business school, and Purdue also happens to be the #6 school in the nation for Mechanical Engineering. Alex and his friends thought it was worth a shot to go talk to the representative.
Turns out, it was definitely worth a shot. The representative there had brought some engineering information just in case, and was happy to talk to them! He was good friends with one of the Engineering professors, and recommended that Alex and his friends email the professor and ask for more information. In another turn of events, the representative happened to be LDS, and the professor he was talking about was also LDS! So besides information about the school, he gave great information about living in the community, and the great people we would find in Indiana to be our family away from home.
When Alex told me about all this at home, it definitely comforted me. I haven't lived outside of Utah, and leaving my family makes me all sorts of sad. (Especially with a baby on the way!) We both had a really good feeling about Purdue, but we were still going to apply everywhere else and just see what happened. It seemed like no matter what we did, our choice to apply for schools out of state was validated daily.
We knew we were on the right track.
Just before the applications were due, Alex and some friends went to a grad school fair on campus. Alex had recently decided that instead of just going for the masters, he was also going to get a PhD, because what he really loved was the research opportunities in Mechanical Engineering. At the grad fair, there was only one school there for Engineering. BYU. So... that was a hard no. (No offense, cougars. No offense meant.) However, Purdue was there for the Business school, and Purdue also happens to be the #6 school in the nation for Mechanical Engineering. Alex and his friends thought it was worth a shot to go talk to the representative.
Turns out, it was definitely worth a shot. The representative there had brought some engineering information just in case, and was happy to talk to them! He was good friends with one of the Engineering professors, and recommended that Alex and his friends email the professor and ask for more information. In another turn of events, the representative happened to be LDS, and the professor he was talking about was also LDS! So besides information about the school, he gave great information about living in the community, and the great people we would find in Indiana to be our family away from home.
When Alex told me about all this at home, it definitely comforted me. I haven't lived outside of Utah, and leaving my family makes me all sorts of sad. (Especially with a baby on the way!) We both had a really good feeling about Purdue, but we were still going to apply everywhere else and just see what happened. It seemed like no matter what we did, our choice to apply for schools out of state was validated daily.
We knew we were on the right track.
purdue's beautiful campus!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Tell me your thoughts on the subject.