Okay. So I'm looking out over my senior year, and I came to a realization.

If I want any chance of getting into grad school, I've GOT to get my grades up.

My grades have been slowly going in the right direction- from an absolutely abbysmal 2.134 GPA for fall 2007(depression sucks), my accumulative GPA is now standing at a 2.42 after spring 2009 and summer 2009, thanks to a 2.867 and a 2.6something for those semesters. Still mediocre, but at least going in the right direction. My major GPA is better- standing at a 2.875, I'm almost at a 3. When I get my major GPA to a 3.0, I'll have a much better chance of getting into grad school. I won't be getting into William and Mary, but I'll live.

Right now, there is exactly one school that I know would take me- Millersville University in Pennsylvania. They require a 2.75 history gpa, so I could make it in now. There's another school that I can get into if I get my acculmulative GPA up to a 2.75- it's called Shippensburg University, also in P.A., and it actually seems like a program that could be good for me- applied history masters. It's a broader program, and would allow me a bit of flexibility in what I want to do.

Getting my history GPA to a 3.0, I'd also be able to get into Salisbury University, which has a concentrated history program that I like, as well as Delaware State University, which has a museum program that I think I'd be interested in.

So, the goal right now is to just keep bringing the grades up, especially when it comes to my history courses. I need to get at least an A or two in history. I'm planning on taking winter session. My goal is, by the end of winter semester, to have a 2.8 acculmulative GPA, and a 3.0+ GPA in history. If I get there, I'll be much more comfortable about beginning to apply to graduate schools. (Of course, there's also the GRE's, which I plan to take in Feburary.)

But there's another option- take another semester and graduate in fall 2010 instead of spring 2010, so I could just work on getting the GPA up, as well as maybe do some independent study with one of the history professors. That's another option- but there's a bit of a caveat. I only have four more history classes I need to take- two more 300 level history classes, 1 400 level, and Western Civ 2. That's it. After that, I could take history classes, but they'd just be for show and wouldn't actually count for credit. So if I do that, I'd prolly have to get a minor.

It's all pretty confusing. I'm thinking about sitting down with my history adivisor and see what he thinks. I mean, if I went to undergrad during the 2010-2011 school year, it'd be a sixth year in the chronological sense, but because of the fact that I took a year off in 2008, I would only be a 5th year senior, meaning I'd still be covered by finanicial aid. (It looks like they'll cover up to a 5th year of undergrad.)

What do you guys think?