[geeks] For Dave M - Fscking Suits

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Thu, Mar 07, 2002 at 05:40:30PM -0500, Michael A. Turner wrote:
> 	I'm fighting that same battle on wether I want to go back and get my
> master while I can. Unfortunatly I am unsure I can  do all the other stuff
> required of me to do that. I work full time and go to school full time. All
> well and good, won't change any in getting my master. What worries me is
> that I have been told straight out that getting a masters is at least 50%
> politics. You have to do crap works for the professors in order to move
> forward. I am not sure that I can squeeze that into my schedule and I
> definatly cannot afford to quit working. Still toying with the idea
> though....

Well, I don't know about your place in life.  My plan is to get an either 
a research assistanceship or a TA position with a stipend and full tuition
paid by the school.  I'd strongly prefer research assistanceship to TA.  If
I can't pull that off, then I'd be just trying to find a tolerable company
to work for who would hopefully help me pay for grad school.  I don't think
my chances of finding a fun job without more schooling are good.  We shall
see.  If I have to take the job route, I'll probably try to live frugally
until I can afford to open my own business without having any serious income
for at least a year.

The one piece of advice that people keep telling me is to look for an advisor,
then go to whatever school he works for, as opposed to the more typical path
of picking the school you want to go to, then see who your advisor would be 
there.  I'm also told that the advisor is the main deciding factor for things
like stipends, tuition, research positions, etc.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd