Determination....

I know you may not believe it, but I've actually set some goals for myself. Actually wrote them down and everything.

Very doable goals.

Here's the story: I just found out last night that I most likely won't be able to even apply for the graduate program at the University of Miami. Turns out that they want a total of 2 10-15 page research papers, one in English, the other in Spanish. And you can't send a couple smaller papers to replace one. Now, I could probably work up one of my Spanish papers from SUU and make it pretty decent, competitive, even. However, I just can't see it being possible to write TWO good research papers before January 15th.

So here are my goals. I will compile a list of 5 universities that I will apply to for a Master's degree. This list will be finished by the 12th of July. That's a week from Sunday. I figure that will give me plenty of time to sift through all the universities in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska and find the one's that I think will fit me best. I've made it easier by defining the geographic region I would like to live in to go to school: the Pacific Northwest. I'm going to look at the University of Utah, but if I like others better, I'll go with them. This may mean that I apply to six schools by January, but that's okay.

My second goal is to sign up to take the GRE again. I will have signed up for a date, paid for the test, and purchased a study book by the end of July. My goal test date is near the end of September/beginning of October. And I'm going to take the test in Las Vegas. Yes, there are probably closer test centers, but I'm going to toss in a celebration vacation while I'm at it.

Why take the GRE again? I think I can score better. And I scored well the last time: 690 overall. I want to break 700. Also, if I remember right, to get scores sent to schools after taking the test, there is a charge. However, if you take the test, you get to send your scores to 5 schools, and the cost is included in the cost to take the test. And there's a good chance I will better my score. Why?

Because I'm determined to.