How to go to graduate school...for free!

I figure a week is long enough to wait before blogging again. Hopefully I've accumulated enough interesting material. Last Saturday, Amanda and I spent the day in Appleton shopping and having fun. I had my hair dyed--it's about 3 shades darker, which some red. I absolutely love it. Some people say I hardly look different; in fact, some people don't notice at all. Other people are shocked, and tell me that I don't even look like the same person. The comments all tend to be positive, however. It seems that most people like it. Not that it matters, because I happen to like it. Ha.

Other than that, I've mostly been working on homework and trying to get ahead. I'm the first person to present my proposal for senior sem. My partner (Melisa, go figure) and I decided that we'd rather go first, so we can start actually conducting research as soon as possible. In theory, this is a great idea. However, even with only 12 credits, I'm swamped with stuff to do!

This weekend, we had a graduate school conference with SSS/McNair in Lake Geneva. The Abbey Resort is wonderful. Honestly, the bed was probably my favorite part. It was so comfortable...I loved sinking into the bed (and pillows). I wish I could take the bed home with me. The sessions about graduate school were also good, I guess. It was a lot of information to take in (and a lot of stuff that I already knew). I enjoyed it--Don Asher was the speaker. He's written a number of best-selling books on how to get into graduate school. Plus he's funny, and knows just what to say in every situation. He definitely knows what he is talking about, and I'm glad that I had this opportunity.

I had a lot of chances to think this weekend. I have a lot to be grateful for. I've had a lot of help here at Ripon, from all of my professors. They've all had helpful tips. Also, it was really great for Kovack-Lesh to give me a job. I mean, I just e-mailed her and asked her for one. I know I'm qualified, but I'm sure she also has a lot of interest from other students. She's also been giving me more responsibilities in lab, and teaching me to work with a variety of software that I might use in graduate school. K-L didn't have to do any of this, but I'm really glad she did.

I'm also really grateful for my family. They've been nothing but encouraging, every step of the way. No one has told me that I can't do what I want, or that I can't afford it. I did learn a whole bunch of tips this weekend, on how to go to graduate school for free. Mom will love it--in fact, I'm pretty sure she'd love all my notes from this weekend. I took, oh, 14 pages of notes. Ridiculous. A lot of it was stuff that I already know, or have already done, but I figured I could share this information with lots of people...like my sorority sisters, my little brother, any friends interested in grad school.

On that note, I'll have to end this little blog session. My bed is calling to me (though not nearly as much as the bed in Lake Geneva did!) and I'm really looking forward to sleeping. Tomorrow I have a long day of reading for senior sem, and working on grad school applications. Bah!