Study in blue

[j4]

Seeing hoiho's enthusiasm for his PhD application, and reading marnameow's post about wanting to study again, is really bringing home to me how much I miss studying. I originally wanted to do postgrad work in English, but my tutors talked me out of it (on the grounds that people only stood a chance of getting funding if they got a First, and they didn't think I should count on getting one); so I left, and got a job, and now I'm still in that job, and I feel as though I've achieved precisely nothing in the 3+ years I've been doing it.

The problem is, I don't think I'd know how to study any more. And I certainly wouldn't know how to begin writing about my "current research interests" as I'd have to do if I wanted to apply to do postgrad study -- basically, looking at the application forms and requirements, I need to be doing research in order to start doing research. Which means I should be doing it in my spare time while I'm working ... and I simply don't have the energy. Which, of course, means I'm not capable of doing postgrad study anyway: if I can't make the time/energy to study now, there's no way I could do a postgraduate degree.

I have so many ideas for things I want to write about, but I no longer seem to be able to put them into words. And if I do try to put them into words, the ideas seem to shrink and shrink until they're the kind of ideas that 14-year-olds would scorn to bother with for GCSE coursework.

I wish I could just make myself accept the fact that I'm not an intellectual, and never will be. Yes, I was passable at my schoolwork; that doesn't mean I can compete with adults. ... I wish I could stop thinking altogether.

Comments

[j4.livejournal.com]

You must be looking at different kind of forms from the ones I've got;

Hardly really surprising given that we do completely different subjects!

mine just wanted to know what degrees I done,

Hah. I don't have a list of previous degrees. I have one degree. Maybe that's why they need some other indication of what I've done with my time since leaving university (answer: nothing). The last form I looked at (for an MA in Linguistics at Cambridge) also needed two recent pieces of academic writing -- essays if I was still a student, publications if not.

as soon as they have ascertained that you have Clue.

I guess there's my problem, then.

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

Hardly really surprising given that we do completely different subjects!

I dunno; the form I have in front of me is for postgrad study in all schools of Edinburgh University.

As far as I can see, since you've been working for the short time since graduation, giving them your undergrad work would seem quite reasonable.

If in doubt, the thing to do is to ask the department contact for the degree what you would need to provide, rather than second guessing what they really want.

Is it an MA by research, or by teaching, or a combination?

[j4.livejournal.com]

As far as I can see, since you've been working for the short time since graduation, giving them your undergrad work would seem quite reasonable.

Although that basically says "I've done nothing since graduating".

If in doubt, the thing to do is to ask the department contact for the degree what you would need to provide, rather than second guessing what they really want.

Last time I did that, the person I spoke to said that they supposed if I really had nothing else, then essays from my degree would probably suffice, though my degree was a long time ago, and really they'd prefer something more recent, and couldn't I just write some more essays?

Is it an MA by research, or by teaching, or a combination?

Last one I looked at was a combination.

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

my degree was a long time ago

Jesus. My degree was nearly 20 years ago - where does that leave me?

Last time I did that, the person I spoke to said that they supposed if I really had nothing else, then essays from my degree would probably suffice, though my degree was a long time ago, and really they'd prefer something more recent, and couldn't I just write some more essays?>/CITE>

Sniffy bastards. Is that just Cambridge? as it doesn't sound like the departments I know elsewhere.

[j4.livejournal.com]

My degree was nearly 20 years ago

Yes, but a) you did more than just an undergraduate degree when you were still studying, you've already proved you can study at a postgrad level; and b) you've been working in your field for those 20 years. Even if you haven't been working in exactly the areas that you want to study in, you've been coding, designing code, etc.; you've kept pace with what's happening in the field. The closest I've come to Eng. Lang. & Lit., in the three years since I graduated, is shuffling bits of paper which happen to have poems on them.

Is that just Cambridge?

That was Cambridge; I don't know if it's just Cambridge.