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Sep. 28th, 2009 03:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brokenrecordRandom thing I totally forgot to mention: so in Cognitive Psych on Friday, we were in groups discussing these articles that we had also discussed on Wednesday, and my group only had one question left to discuss so we finished really early while everyone else was still discussing. So we had a bunch of time just sitting around waiting for everyone else to finish up, and somehow (I have absolutely no idea how, and it totally wasn't me who brought it up. And I had never met or talked to any of the people in my group before) we ended up discussing how much better Harry Potter is than Twilight but how the epilogue of HP kind of sucked and how it was pretty much J. K. Rowling screwing over non-Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione shippers. And I brought up Harry/Hermione, but someone else entirely brought up Harry/Draco, and another person brought up how J. K. Rowling's intention was probably "Haha, now no one can write fanfiction for immediately after book 7!" It's always really weird to me when people in real life know what fanfic is! But I found that really amusing, particularly since one of the people discussing this was a football player. That was pretty much the most fun part of my Friday.
I've been thinking a lot about grad school and what the hell I'm going to do after I graduate.
My problem is I'm interested in like a million different things, and I'm having difficulty deciding. Every time I think I've decided, I change my mind. I mean, right now, I would be interested in pursuing clinical psychology, counseling psychology, social work, being a teacher (elementary, high school, or college, and within that, I'm not sure which subject; I'd be interested in Calculus, English, Psychology, a language, etc), being a translator (either for German or French), being a lawyer, getting involved in politics, and possibly others I'm forgetting. I even occasionally am like "It might be cool to be a nurse" and then I have to remind myself that I have a severe phobia of needles and I can't even watch people get shots or blood taken on fictional television programs without wincing. And as time goes on, I only find more things I want to pursue.
So, I mean, that's where I've been up to now. I've always focused most on clinical psychology since I've been consistently interested in it since I found out what it was when I was 14, and I'm a psychology major, so I might as well put that to good use. The problem is, it's not very likely that I'd get accepted to a good clinical psych program. I have great grades, but that's it. I have zero research experience (although I am doing a research project this semester, so I suppose that would count) and zero work/volunteer/internship experience in the field (...or in any field. Except working at a movie theater). And clinical psych programs are as difficult to get into med school (not exaggerating in the slightest; I've been looking at a bunch, and loads of them are like "We get about 300-500 people applying each year and we have spots for 5.").
But today I had a random idea of going to get a masters in Social Work after undergrad. Social work is something I'd definitely be interested in, and it's definitely a lot easier to get into masters programs than a Clinical Psych PhD/PsyD program. Then I would maybe work a year or two after that as a social worker with a focus on mental health (and I'd probably try to work for at least a year before the masters) and then apply to a PsyD program for Clinical Psych (the difference between PhD and PsyD programs is that PhD programs are focused on research, which I'm definitely not interested in, and PsyD programs are focused more on actually practicing Clinical Psych) if I'm still interested in that. Of course, if I'm totally in love with being a Social Worker and I'm able to support myself, then I might just forego the PsyD entirely. That I don't have to decide this instant.
But I'm still not sure about any of this. I'm going to try to talk to the clinical psych professor we have at school tomorrow (she wasn't in today because of Yom Kippur, I believe) and see what she thinks. I have just had all this swirling around in my head all weekend (and, really for the past 2 years), so I thought it might help to write it down. And it would be nice if people who have already graduated from college could reassure me that it's okay that I haven't decided on anything yet and my future is not totally screwed yet.
In any case, this is all making me really stressed out about my GPA. I have a 4.0 in my major and my minor (math), and a 3.98 overall (stupid A- in that film class I took freshman year!), which obviously is good, but it's pretty much all I have going for me right now considering I have no research (as of yet), no internships or work experience of whatever else. And a lot of schools only consider the 2nd two years of undergrad, so that means I have to continue to do very well. I feel like my GPA is all I have going for me, so I need to work really hard, but... my classes this semester are just so tough! I haven't gotten a single assignment back yet (I've barely turned any in), so I have no idea how I'm going to do, but it's been tough so far. Especially Discrete Math. And I'm considering dropping math as a minor, but if I do, then it would have been really pointless to be taking this class when I could've been taking a much more fun math class or some other class that would have been more interesting. Ugh. I really hope I'm stressing out for nothing and I end up doing fine in every class (which has been the case in basically every semester so far).
Anyways, on a lighter note, I've seen this meme going around, and I think it'd be fun to do! Comment with any of my fandoms (you can list any that are in my info, and if you think you remember me talking about another fandom recently that isn't in there (especially if it's a new fandom since I haven't updated my info in a few months), you could ask that, too), and I'll tell you, for that fandom, my:
- OTP
- Runner-up
- Honorable mention(s)
- Crack pairing(s)
- Ship everyone else seems to like, but I don't
Now I should really start studying for my German test and try to get some work done before Wind Ensemble.
I've been thinking a lot about grad school and what the hell I'm going to do after I graduate.
My problem is I'm interested in like a million different things, and I'm having difficulty deciding. Every time I think I've decided, I change my mind. I mean, right now, I would be interested in pursuing clinical psychology, counseling psychology, social work, being a teacher (elementary, high school, or college, and within that, I'm not sure which subject; I'd be interested in Calculus, English, Psychology, a language, etc), being a translator (either for German or French), being a lawyer, getting involved in politics, and possibly others I'm forgetting. I even occasionally am like "It might be cool to be a nurse" and then I have to remind myself that I have a severe phobia of needles and I can't even watch people get shots or blood taken on fictional television programs without wincing. And as time goes on, I only find more things I want to pursue.
So, I mean, that's where I've been up to now. I've always focused most on clinical psychology since I've been consistently interested in it since I found out what it was when I was 14, and I'm a psychology major, so I might as well put that to good use. The problem is, it's not very likely that I'd get accepted to a good clinical psych program. I have great grades, but that's it. I have zero research experience (although I am doing a research project this semester, so I suppose that would count) and zero work/volunteer/internship experience in the field (...or in any field. Except working at a movie theater). And clinical psych programs are as difficult to get into med school (not exaggerating in the slightest; I've been looking at a bunch, and loads of them are like "We get about 300-500 people applying each year and we have spots for 5.").
But today I had a random idea of going to get a masters in Social Work after undergrad. Social work is something I'd definitely be interested in, and it's definitely a lot easier to get into masters programs than a Clinical Psych PhD/PsyD program. Then I would maybe work a year or two after that as a social worker with a focus on mental health (and I'd probably try to work for at least a year before the masters) and then apply to a PsyD program for Clinical Psych (the difference between PhD and PsyD programs is that PhD programs are focused on research, which I'm definitely not interested in, and PsyD programs are focused more on actually practicing Clinical Psych) if I'm still interested in that. Of course, if I'm totally in love with being a Social Worker and I'm able to support myself, then I might just forego the PsyD entirely. That I don't have to decide this instant.
But I'm still not sure about any of this. I'm going to try to talk to the clinical psych professor we have at school tomorrow (she wasn't in today because of Yom Kippur, I believe) and see what she thinks. I have just had all this swirling around in my head all weekend (and, really for the past 2 years), so I thought it might help to write it down. And it would be nice if people who have already graduated from college could reassure me that it's okay that I haven't decided on anything yet and my future is not totally screwed yet.
In any case, this is all making me really stressed out about my GPA. I have a 4.0 in my major and my minor (math), and a 3.98 overall (stupid A- in that film class I took freshman year!), which obviously is good, but it's pretty much all I have going for me right now considering I have no research (as of yet), no internships or work experience of whatever else. And a lot of schools only consider the 2nd two years of undergrad, so that means I have to continue to do very well. I feel like my GPA is all I have going for me, so I need to work really hard, but... my classes this semester are just so tough! I haven't gotten a single assignment back yet (I've barely turned any in), so I have no idea how I'm going to do, but it's been tough so far. Especially Discrete Math. And I'm considering dropping math as a minor, but if I do, then it would have been really pointless to be taking this class when I could've been taking a much more fun math class or some other class that would have been more interesting. Ugh. I really hope I'm stressing out for nothing and I end up doing fine in every class (which has been the case in basically every semester so far).
Anyways, on a lighter note, I've seen this meme going around, and I think it'd be fun to do! Comment with any of my fandoms (you can list any that are in my info, and if you think you remember me talking about another fandom recently that isn't in there (especially if it's a new fandom since I haven't updated my info in a few months), you could ask that, too), and I'll tell you, for that fandom, my:
- OTP
- Runner-up
- Honorable mention(s)
- Crack pairing(s)
- Ship everyone else seems to like, but I don't
Now I should really start studying for my German test and try to get some work done before Wind Ensemble.
