Back to School #1
By Primal Sneeze ~ August 1st, 2007. Filed under: Back to school.
Annie is off to UCD shortly to do an MA in Film Production. Exactly two years ago today I too made the decision to return to full-time education after a break of 16 years. Annie’s break isn’t nearly a long, she’ll be in another university and she’ll be taking a different course, so I won’t try to offer advice. But it might be interesting to compare our accounts in a year from now.
Why did I do it? A lot of reasons. I figured if I didn’t do it then, I never would. The older I would get, the harder it would be. Later I was to meet students 35 years my senior. This reason didn’t count for much then.
After years of learning by doing, reading and experimenting I had developed a lot of skills and know-how. But without a piece of yellowing parchment in a pretty frame it was difficult to prove this to employers and clients.
I discussed it at length with the dog. He was straight out of the education system himself having just learned how to growl on command and stuff like that, so he provided excellent counsel. Plus he was very accommodating. As long as I got him up and dressed and fed in the mornings he was fine with being on his own most of the day.
How would I do it? This was the first challenge. Money. I had to balance value for money and course quality. I would also need some free time to take on enough small jobs to pay for dog food and beer. The need for time also meant the shorter the commute the better.
Luckily, and I’m not usually lucky, just ask Ladbrokes or Paddy Power, there was a course on offer in the university closest to me. It was a good match content wise and just 25 hours per week. The clincher was it was supported by an EU/Irish Government skills retraining initiative. If your primary degree was not in IT or pharmaceuticals you could take a postgraduate diploma in either and pay only 10% of the fees. I didn’t tell the dog the money we’d be saving. He’d be throwing lavish steak parties for his bitches every night of the week.
If I got a first class post-dip, and I was confident I could, I would be allowed into the second year of a masters programme. It was all too good to be true. It couldn’t get much better. At this rate I’d find Jolene Blalock in my bed some night and she’d be refusing to leave. Ever.
Then it came to the application form and I hit a stumbling block. Two academic references were required. Which lecturers from 16 years ago would remember me? I got on well with many of them. But of these, some were no longer in the land of the living. Others had retired and were untraceable. Two lived nearby but were on holiday and wouldn’t be back until after the deadline. I didn’t have much trust in my old faculty following through on their promise to aid my search.
After two weeks of tearing my hair out and sleepless nights (from worry – Ms. Blalock is running late) I called the university to plead for extra time. I would pay a late application fee if needed.
Oh, that won’t be necessary. Only those coming directly from a degree course need references. You don’t.
But that’s not what the form says!
I know. It’s terrible isn’t it? They’ve been talking about changing it for years now.
This was my introduction to bureaucracy in academia. It was to get worse. Now read Back to School #2.
As a matter of fact I am going through the same experience right now. I’m starting my Master’s later this year at one of your country’s respectable third-level institutions, and I have to say that the amount of confusing bureaucracy you need to wade through to even get to the start (!) is daunting.
Funny thing, the application form I had to fill in had this caption in the photo box: Fix your passport photo here. The photo must not be larger than this box and of high quality. I had some trouble finding a photo that wasn’t of hight quality but I must have gotten it right because they did accept me.
Having just earned a Ph.D., I’m all too well acquainted with the endless forms and paperwork that accompanies graduate education. The best part is that I didn’t get even ONE interview for a teaching post here. I slaved for 5 years and failed to get a job at the end of it. You have no idea how depressing that it.
You think applying to one of these venerable institutions is bad… Try working for them.
Re the passport photos, the admissions office in
DITthe venerable institution that pays for my beer collect them for their own amusement. It seems the box on our forms is for a college stamp, but being the size and shape it is, people naturally assume they need to attach a mugshot. rather than send em back, they tack them to the wall in the office, for decoration.A Chainteoir – Ha! Ha! You got them with the photo. I would have been tempted to send one on the dog to see if they noticed. Best of luck with the masters.
Medbh – Sorry, I mean Dr. Medbh. Yes, I know how depressing that is. I’ll say more on this in Back to School #3 (or 4. Maybe 5).
Rosie – Work for them? Allah forbid I ever have to! Or should that be Onan seeing as they are all wankers? As is shown by their mugshot collection.
I got a reference from my old tutor Peter Prendergast, who is a renowned Welsh landsape painter. A few weeks later he died, which I was pretty sad about.
UCD lost the reference, of course, and I’ll never know what he wrote about me. I just got an email from him saying “I will do my best for you Annie”. I’m pretty pissed off about it, especially because they said it “never arrived”. It must have done because another old tutor sent one too and that “never arrived” either, so he had to do it all again.
On the upside, I am very much looking forward to starting the course. It’ll be great just to be with other students again. I’m going to work 20 times harder than I did on my degree. Going to make the best of it all, despite any shoddy admin.
Annie – I remember well your post about Peter and his influence on you.
Losing documents is an art form with these folks. Maybe Rosie will enlighten us someday as to how it’s done.
You’ll do great on the course and enjoy every minute of it. Being a little older and studying something you love makes a massive difference. I can guarantee that you’ll work 40 times harder and won’t even notice you’re doing so.
By the way, I’ve just heard that even though your references are supposed to be in confidence and you are not to see them, you can still claim to have a look at them under the Freedom of Information Act. I think that’s the first thing I’ll do after registering
A Chainteoir – I was reading similar in the Irish Independent Careers supplement yesterday. Very interesting.