GRE Assumption

[undecided]

I am scheduled to take the GRE General Exam at the end of this month because I plan on applying to grad school after I manage to save enough to pay TESC's enrollment fee and all those testing fees.

Am I correct in assuming that admissions committees may look more closely at my GREs since I won't have a GPA for the last 60 hours of undergraduate? My B&M grades are spotty and from over 20 years ago. I went to college very young and was either on or off. Eventually, I got a job and dropped out.

ETS's PowerPrep exams predict scores of between 750-800 on both sections. Should I be content with that, or really obsess over this for the next week and try to get that elusive "perfect score?" 750 is good, but 800 would make me do a little happy dance.

I'll always have the chance to take it again later, because my general plan is to finish my BA in Social Sciences hopefully by March, then do WGU's MA in Teaching, while taking advantage of the enrollment fee being paid at TESC to pick up a second BA in Natural Science/ Math, then apply to several graduate programs for entry in Fall 13. That way, if I don't get funded (which is the only way I can go, really - as I've got two sophomores who'll be going to college in Fall 14), I will have my teaching credentials to fall back on.

The only reason I'm taking it so soon is that they're offering the exam half off before October 1st since it's the first norming of the revised test. I guess they have to lure people to take an untested test somehow.

Any thoughts? My thinking was that I could mitigate any uncertainty stemming from my lack of GPA by knocking the GRE out of the park.

[Yenisei]

A lot of graduate programs will exempt you from taking the GRE if you have a master's degree from a regionally accredited school. Check the admissions requirements of the programs you are interested in.

You will not have enough time to work on the TESC Nat Sci/Math degree while enrolled in a grad program. I don't understand why you want two bachelor's degrees and two graduate degrees- what is the endgame here for you?

[undecided]

The MA in Teaching through WGU is online and self-paced. The other graduate programs are B&M and the PhD programs are master-to-phD. The MAT is only to get teacher certification as my state requires a masters degree. I have about 6 hours a day to devote to the online programs and the majority of what I would need for the second BA is just math, which is easy enough to knock out through online courses.

What's the end game? That's a good question!

There is what I would most like to do, which is study as many subjects as possible as deeply as I can because that's just something that I LOVE to do; and there is the most pragmatic thing to do, which is to knock out the BASS and move on to the MAT online and teach high school social studies. I have taught piano privately for many years (my first attempt at a BA was in Music) and I tutor math. I truly love teaching but I don't know if I can deal with the climate of public schools. As someone who has been self employed for most of my life, I don't think I'll be able to deal with having my income based on seniority instead of merit. I'm used to making more money when I work harder or am better than the competition. Unfortunately, teacher pay is based on how long you can go without quitting instead of how good you are at your job. All that said, the teaching credentials would at least make me employable if I either cannot get into a dreamy, challenging graduate program; or if I can't find a job with a masters or PhD in one of the uber-specialized programs that strike my fancy.

Ideally, I'd like to work as a consultant for companies that produce online educational content. So the masters in teaching coupled with a masters in usabilty engineering (Human Computer Interaction) would seem to be good preparation. I don't think there is a PhD program in HCI locally - only the masters, which is why I would end up with two masters degrees. Cognitive Science is only Masters to PhD and would draw upon my experience in philosophy and psychology but is something of a pipe dream since I don't know what kind of job I would get with something like that.

There's no really good reason for getting a second bachelor's degree other than it would be rather cheap and not too difficult. Besides, getting another degree out of it would make me feel better about paying 3 grand to TESC for not teaching me.

So I guess the short answer is that the MAT is something to do between having my BA conferred (since WGU starts every month) and applying to fall only start date graduate programs. I can pay monthly out of pocket and it leads to certification. I won't apply to grad school until NEXT January for entry in fall of 2013. That gives me 18 months to complete the MAT. My husband did his from Walden in less time than that teaching full time.

If I had several lifetimes and all the money in the world, I'd earn degree after degree in everything from philosophy to mechanical engineering.

[Yenisei]

While I can understand your reasoning on the Nat Sci/Math, it's an extraneous degree for you and don't forget that courses at the master's level are a significant step up in terms or the amount of reading and writing you have to do. You will have to earn at least 24 new credits to earn the Nat Sci degree which were initiated or tested after your first bachelor's was conferred, and I would not underestimate UL online math courses (I am taking some UL math right now myself). I think doing the Nat Sci degree will be a distraction, and one best avoided in your case.

I'd also caution you from taking on so much because of potential burnout.

[undecided]

I think you're right. There's really no GOOD reason for me to do the math except for personal fulfillment. Besides, the angle that I take with math is more on the phil/logic side and i could incorporate those things into a cognitive science graduate program.

Thanks. Sometimes I need someone to re-ground me.

[irnbru]

I think you're right. There's really no GOOD reason for me to do the math except for personal fulfillment. Besides, the angle that I take with math is more on the phil/logic side and i could incorporate those things into a cognitive science graduate program.

Thanks. Sometimes I need someone to re-ground me.

Hey undecided.

The advice about concentrating on knocking out a first degree quickly in order to sit back and enjoy other subjects is probably really, really worth listening to

The biggest advantage of the serialised, distance-learning track taken by most people on this board is two-fold. On the one hand we can quickly focus on achieving passing credit in general subjects. On the other hand, for those graded prerequisites which matter for grad school or which we might have a background in or are harder, we can spend as much time as we need to really specialise without other academic distractions.

Then, eventually, one day, we can study something else for fun or specialisation Getting that first degree is the primary tick in the box which permits the springboard to nearly everything else and distractions or unnecessary difficulties should probably be avoided. Good luck!