Life At Ripon – Rachel Detrie ’15

Chapter 2: Planning for the Next Steps – Grad School, Publication

[Editor’s Note: Rachel Detrie ’15, Clarence Sanon ’15 , and Kaitlyn Welzen ’15 are writing rotating monthly entries for the Ripon College Newsletter chronicling their senior year experiences. We hope you enjoy their perspectives on Life At Ripon!]

Despite the 100 Days celebration that took place during the first week in February, it is hard to fathom that Commencement will be happening so soon. This might be because the past three and a half years have flown by, or because Ripon is currently adorned in a massive amount of cold, unfortunate snow that makes May seem so very distant.

This semester seemed to take off even faster than previous ones. For me, it started with my last Panhellenic Formal Recruitment. A short three years ago, I went through formal recruitment and made one of the best decisions of my life and pledged Alpha Delta Pi. It was heartwarming to welcome seven wonderful women into my sisterhood this year, knowing they will be the future of the sorority that helped shape me into a strong, academically driven adult.

Having completed the requirements for both my sociology and psychology majors, I had a great deal of freedom in deciding what courses to take for my final semester. I am taking a social inequalities course taught by Associate Professor of Sociology Jacqueline Clark. Thus far it has entailed some very intriguing discussions and should be quite an interesting course. Additionally, I am taking psychopathology with Professor of Psychology Timothy Petersik. I have enjoyed courses taught by him in the past and think this one will be particularly fascinating. I have wanted to take this course for the past couple of years, and I am thankful I finally made time for it this semester! My last course is a history class taught by Professor Barbara McGowan that looks at social and cultural American history through film. Though this course is not necessarily applicable to my graduate school and career intentions, I found it appealing and decided to take advantage of one last semester of a liberal arts education.

As I indicated in previous posts, I applied to Clinical Psychology Ph.D. programs as well as Social Psychology Ph.D. programs. The first round of applications was due on December 1, and the last was due on January 15, so as of now I am officially done applying! Though I have not heard back from all of the schools I applied to yet, some of those schools have responded, and I will be interviewing at several locations throughout February. I cannot help but constantly check my email, impatiently waiting to hear back from the rest of the programs. Keep your fingers crossed for me that when I do hear back, it will be good news. Though I really dislike travel, I am excited to visit some of these schools in the next couple months, and, hopefully, I will be attending one next year!

In addition to enjoying my last semester in my sorority, finishing up the last of my undergraduate schoolwork, and figuring out graduate school, I will still be working as a Resident Assistant throughout this final semester. Additionally, I will be trying to complete the research and scholarly articles that I have been working on with Professor Joe Hatcher. Hopefully we will be done collecting data in the next couple of weeks and we can complete the articles before I graduate.

Commencement is right around the corner for me, and it seems like I will have plenty to keep me busy during this last stretch. I hope that I will have some good news about graduate school for you all by my next blog. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me with any questions or advice!

Rachel Detrie ’15

 

Posted February 15, 2015 in Alumni, Student.

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