Grad school--final decision

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If I pursue graduate studies, and based on the admission requirements for all the universities in the cities I was considering, it appears that Cal State-Northridge is head and shoulders above the rest. I would likely start in 2011 or 2012, to allow time to get California residency.

As far as financial stability, you're probably going to warn me that L.A. is expensive, but given the average salary for GIS professionals and urban planners (plus I have 5 years of experience already), I can easily afford a 1 or 2-bedroom apartment in the San Fernando Valley area. Even then, I would be going to school part-time, and CSU Northridge is very accommodating of full-time employees who can only go to school part-time.

The best part: because of my 3.18 GPA, I am exempt from having to take the GRE exam!! !

Should I decide not to pursue graduate studies, I would likely stay in Texas, either in Houston or San Antonio.

I think it's awesome that you made a decision AND have a plan of attack, and the last thing I want is to be discouraging, but I would be careful about moving out there before getting accepted. I got rejected from 2 schools in the Cal State system with an almost-identical undergrad GPA (3.17) and 75-80 percentile on my GREs.

BUT

The silver lining is that Cal State might give you financial aid even if you get rejected, so you could take classes and hope that your performance in them would earn you admission in the future. I got such an offer from at least one (if not both) of the schools that rejected me in CSU.

And as far as admissions go, at one school I was so close to getting accepted that they told me if I wanted to attend in the future, I didn't even need to reapply--I could just contact them and give them the word, and they'd get out my old application and get it rolling. I mention this only because I didn't want to sound like it's impossible to get admitted with a 3.1 GPA. It definitely is possible. Good luck dude.

I heard that if one had a 3.0 GPA, the GRE wasn't even required.

Congratulations dude. Because of my undergrad. GPA being 2.8-ish (whereas my cum is 3.1), I ended up in a decent program but at a kind of ok school in a crap city (UMichigan-Flint).

For certain programs, the GRE tends to be necessary, but others don't need it. One reason I picked UM's MSHE program was that I wouldn't have to drop another $250 on retaking the GRE. It's basically your SAT/ACT, but longer and with slightly more advanced math. Not hard really, but that's 5 hours (give or take) of your life you'll never get back. If your admissions counselor at CSU said you don't need the GRE, I'm sure you don't need it.

Would you be happy in LA? Some of my friends moved out there, and depending upon where they lived, HATED it. Have you visited for a couple weeks and really spent some time there? It sucks to live someplace you totally hate just for the sake of school.

It sounds like you have a pretty good idea of your plan.

What exactly do you mean by this:
"based on the admission requirements for all the universities in the cities I was considering, it appears that Cal State-Northridge is head and shoulders above the rest"

Is it easier to get in there? Is it a better program? I guess I just don't "get" the meaning of this statement. Not sure what you can tell about a school by the admission requirements. Do you just mean that you're most likely to get in here?

I had a 3.93 cumulative undergrad and I still was required to take the GRE for the programs I wanted into - so make sure! I managed a perfect score on the logic and reasoning portion. I had to get tutored for the math, because that's how I roll I guess. Some of that math I hadn't seen since high school and we weren't good friends then, Math and I. I did adequately on the verbal but I was disappointed, I thought I would do better. I really hate standardized testing in all it's forms.

Personal Opinion Time: I think L.A. is an utterly horrible place. The climate likely wouldn't be a problem if you are in Texas now, but the people can make you insane. Obviously it's huge, so there are choices in where you live but in general my impressions of the place are very negative. Each time I go there, the sweet sweet relief is when I LEAVE. If liveability is on your list at all, you may want to check it out first.

Interesting degree program. Now is the time to go to grad school, while the economy is still completely sucking, and when you come out the other side, you'll have it made.

You may be right, but that doesn't mean they will admit you outright. Obviously it depends on the program, but for me one of them in CSU I didn't need GREs (although I submitted them anyway) but had to pay my way to fly there for a 4 hour group interview just for consideration, and got wait-listed and ultimately rejected (just for reference, this was at San Diego State).

Geography is the program I am considering.

Congratulations, Tim. Good luck in the future; personally, my vote is to stay in school considering you're able to build your work experience at the same time.


M.

That was the plan.