A Little Clarification

For any who are curious as to precisely what I'm going to be up to after I finish my undergraduate education in August here's a general rundown. I'm looking to go into industry (ie. get a job) for about 2 or 3 years, then go back to grad school in order to get a master's degree. Since a master's degree will soon be essentially required for licensure as a civil engineer, I suppose that I will have plenty of motivation to go back when the time comes. I'm doing this mostly so that I can get in-state tuition at one of the graduate schools of my choice, since I will, in no case, be able to pay $27,000 for even a single semester.

A graduate school, much like a woman, must have a few basic things in order for me to be interested. In my case, a school would need to be in a state that's not too far out in left field, have a good graduate program for civil engineering, offer a certain curriculum of classes and research opportunities, and be reasonably priced for in-staters. Other qualities which are attractive in grad schools include, good sports-viewing opportunities, an intense rivalry with a nearby school, and a cool mascot and/or fight song. I've come up with 11 schools that I would like to attend, currently in order, but subject to change:

1. Georgia Institute of Technology
2. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
3. Texas A&M University
4. Purdue University
5. North Carolina State University
6. University of Washington
7. University of Arizona
8. University of Notre Dame
9. Oregon State University
10. University of Colorado-Boulder
11. Utah State University

Now, number 8, Notre Dame probably has you ready to type "WTF?!" in the comments section of this blag post, but there's a very good reason it's in the running. Anyone who studies civil engineering at Notre Dame automatically gets a research/teaching assistantship, and with it, a full tuition waiver (of about $22,000/semester) and a living stipend of up to $18,000 a year, which is currently more than I make in a year, by the way. This just makes Notre Dame too good of a deal to totally write off.


When I apply for grad school, I'll probably apply to three places: One in the state where I live, Notre Dame, and BYU. For example, if I lived in North Carolina at the time, I would apply to North Carolina State, Notre Dame, and BYU. In this case Notre Dame and BYU would essentially be my backup plans unless they offered me something exciting after I applied.

At this point I've applied for at least 20 jobs, mostly in Georgia, Virginia, Texas, Indiana, and North Carolina. I've heard back from probably about 8 or 10 of these companies/organizations with bad news for me. So far I haven't gotten any callbacks or interviews. Though, I'm convinced that this is currently as a result of my August 2010 graduation date, more than it is my qualifications. I'm also figuring, at this point, that my networking connections in Denver would help me to find something in that area, but that would be a tertiary option. As a last ditch resort, I might just end up submitting applications to Dick's Sporting Goods, Foot Locker, and the like. Let's just hope and pray that it doesn't come to that.