Thursday, October 22, 2009

GRE & Grad School Future

I think that Morgan and i are looking more and more at going on straight from Winona and getting into a Ph.D. program somewhere. I was going to apply to the University of Illinois, but due to the widespread corruption in the system that has been recently exposed in that university system (but it's Illinois - I shouldn't be too surprised), we are shifting our search elsewhere. I have recently taken the GRE (both general and subject) and am pleased to announce that overal, my scores are good enough to get me in almost anywhere. Granted, my math was low (52nd percentile), but all of my programs look to make sure that the cumulative GRE score is over 1100 (I cleared that easily), and their main focus is on the analytic and verbal sections. I received a 5.5 out of 6 for the analytic putting me in the 88th percentile, and I received a score on the verbal section that put me in the 94th percentile. I do have to say it was a good feeling to see that I am in the top 6% of individuals who have taken the test at least in the verbal section. So, I am now garnering some good letters of recommendation in the hope that I will be accepted into a program by next fall. If not, it's off to find a teaching job for a year in order to try again. Anyone know of some good schools?

4 comments:

Suzette said...

Derek,
That's great! What do you want to focus on in your PhD?

Unknown said...

We live in Austin Texas, and the University of Texas is a great school, especially for graduate studies. I have lots of friends from Idaho that have come down here for grad school, and they've all loved it. What is your focus for study?

Lori said...

Great job! You've always been extremely talented in literature and your verbal score really comes as no surprise to me. I think you'll make an awesome english/literature professor (if that is why you are getting a PhD). It will be easier to get it done while you're still in the school mode. Good Luck! If you end up looking at any schools in KS, let me know. I need more friends here...

Meagan said...

University of Kansas! Right here in Lawrence AND we have a realtor in our ward who rents town houses to LDS couples for a really good price! We'd LOVE to have some more friends in the area!