Graduate School

I finished up the GRE this past weekend, and the preliminary results look good. After having paid for the GRE, however, the capital necessary to finance the application process is lacking. Seriously, this shit is bookoo expensive. As such, plans include:

1) Decrease the number of schools to which I'm applying. Shame, since I had researched several

2) Call the schools this week and beg them to waive the application fee

if not 2, then 3) Don't apply, but move to favorite graduate school area, take a class next year, and solicit myself in person for one year.


Option three actually doesn't look too bad from my vantage point, since having a year of not-school would likely increase my motivation going in. Not that I have major motivational problems at the moment, I just figure that it would have this effect. Option three is bad, however, in that I know I'll forget a lot of information in that year, and would be playing catch-up for the first semester rather than coming in fresh.

Seriously, how do people find the money for this? It's ridiculous that the "standard" bill shelled out (advice says to pick ~5 schools), including the GRE, is approximately 500-1000 dollars (depending on how many schools you apply to) just to hear "Yes" or "No" back from the school.