Applying to Grad School (or My Totally Weird Experience Taking the GRE)

So I'm applying to Graduate School! Which is exciting I guess.... I hope I get in, but I'm not sure if I'll go or not. I really want to but a) I'm sort of tired of school and b) I'm not sure how I'll pay for it (I'm applying for a non-thesis program which means there's little to no funding). But part of me really wants to go! So we'll see what happens, but first I have to get in! So first I want to give you a quick run-down of what the application entails. And then I'm going to tell you about the totally weird experience I had taking the GRE (but NO content of the exam, because that violates the rules of the test and can result in bad things, like my scores on the exam being cancelled. It's kinda like the AP tests and all that).

So for my application to grad school (which is pretty standard)  I had to submit:

• The ApplyTexas application (again?!?!?) (if you aren't from Texas, this is the common application that ALL public schools in Texas have to accept and most private schools accept as well).
• An application fee (which was $50)
• Three letters of recommendation! This gave me a bit of pause, because I am introverted and shy, I don't tend to go to my professors' offices and get to know them. I easily thought of one professor (my go-to for letters of recommendation because I had him for two classes and I knew he knew me fairly well), remembered that one of my professors REALLY wanted all of us to go to graduate school (he told me he thought I would get accepted by the program when I asked him [through email of course - shy, remember] - that was so encouraging!), and thought of another professor who I knew knew who I was (the bar was kinda low here). I can not reiterate this enough: TALK TO YOUR PROFESSORS, it helps your grade and you never know when you'll need their letter of recommendation.
• A statement of purpose - this is basically saying why you want to go to grad school, specificially their program, what you can gain from it, and what you have to offer. It's kind of like an elevator pitch. I feel like I could've done way better, but oh well.
• A resume/CV
• My GRE scores (it costs $150 to take this test by the way)

(For more info about what applying to grad school feels like see this buzzfeed article, it's pretty funny and accurate at the same time).

That brings us to My Totally Weird Experience Taking the GRE. So looks like this post might be a little long. Hopefully, you think this is funny/outlandish/entertaining or something.

So to begin with, I was frustrated because when I started looking into taking the GRE, I discovered that I could not take the GRE in San Marcos (where I go to school), but instead, I would have to take it in Austin or San Antonio. I don't have a car, so getting there would be difficult.  Plus it was $150! Believe me, I don't have that lying around. So I talked to my parents and they said that not only would they foot the bill, but my dad would drive me to and from the test (parents of the year, every year [my parents are awesome - this is not sarcastic]). So I sign up and my test is the following Wednesday which happens to be the week that school starts so no time to study for this super important test...oh well, I'll just do the best I can.

So the day of the test comes, dad picks me up from my apartment, we get lunch, and drive like an hour to the other side of San Antonio (I think, I really don't know most of San Antonio very well). And we go to a nearby Barnes and Nobles because we have about an hour til I'm supposed to be there. Then we head to a nearby shopping center where the Prometric Testing Center is "co-located" (pretty sure they made up that word) with a Sylvan Learning Center, but there are two doors so I'm not sure which one to go in. So I go in the Prometric one and walk down this really weird long hallway to another door which informs me that I need to turn off my phone and send my dad away. So he goes back to the car (where he'll wait for a little bit because I was slightly concerned they wouldn't let me test because the name on my driver's license doesn't 100% match the name I registered for the test with - but I couldn't figure out how to change it for the life of me).

The place is dead quiet. And there's like NO ONE there (but I hear voices coming from the back). It kinda looks like a doctor's office. So I go over to the reception desk that says check in here. And I stand there for a minute before a lady comes out and asks for my ID and asks if my phone is off and tells me I need to empty my pockets (which were empty, thankfully). She gives me forms on a clipboard and a key to a locker to put my stuff in but tells me to keep my ID with me at all times and that I'll need to sign the paper and copy the paragraph on the bottom and we can get started when I finish the form.

So I put my purse in the locker and go sit down to do the form. It's mostly just agreeing to rules. Then I accidentally check a box indicating I'm not a US citizen (which I am, whoops!), only I haven't realized it yet. So when I go to turn in the form (to a different girl) she's like "Do you have your papers or passport?" So I get super confused and say "No, just my driver's license." The girl looks at me like I'm crazy and is like, "Are you a US citizen?" I say I am. She tells me I checked a box saying I'm not...I quickly scratch that out and check the correct box which satisfies her.

She takes me back and has me stand on these two footprints. She has me pull out my pockets to show they're empty, then she has me rub my hands side to side in my back pockets to show those are empty too. She has me push up my sleeves as far as I can. She has me pull my pants up so that she can see that there's nothing on my ankles. Then she has me put my feet together and uses one of those paddle things they use at airports and what-not when you make a metal detector go off to make sure I don't have anything hidden on me, I guess. She also has me take off my glasses so that she can make sure there's nothing on the back of them (I have no idea what they were looking for - a disguised google glass, maybe? I'm way too poor for that and I have no connections so...).

Now I sit in front of a guy at a computer (which I notice shows all of the people at the computer stations in the testing room - um, creepy); he takes my driver's license and has me tell him the address I used to register for the test. And the email I used to sign up for the test, which makes me nervous because I have two and I don't remember which I signed up with and I'm wondering if I tell them the wrong one if they'll make me leave. I tell them my school email, which turns out to be correct (thank goodness). Then he takes a terrible picture of me with a webcam (which I later realize will be sent to the school with my score report, thanks guys). He explains a bunch of rules to me, which I'm fairly certain are the same ones I read and agreed to earlier. Then they have me sign in on a sheet they've made just for me, and of course I sign in the wrong spot (ooops! I'm nervous, guys, sorry).

Then the girl takes me into the room with my four sheets of scratch paper and two pencils that they provide and my ID and locker key. She tells me to stand with my back to the wall while she puts the stuff at my station. I sit down and a little over two hours later, I finish. I sit there at the computer for awhile, wondering if I'm allowed to get up and leave or if I have to raise my hand to let them know, because this is the one thing they didn't tell me. Finally, I decide I'll just stand up and see if ninjas jump on me or something (they don't). Sign out, get my purse out of the locker, put the key on the desk (as I was instructed). And I was SO glad to leave!

I wonder if they were supposed to take a blood sample, too?

Good luck if you ever have to take the GRE,

Sharon