Taking a victory lap: What's your plan B?

[Mathew952]

So, as I surrender my fate to the adcoms, I've decided that it would be good to make a plan B if I don't get in somewhere with funding. I only applied to schools I'm genuinely excited to go to, so if I can simply get in anywhere with funding, I'm packing my bags. However, I know my math situation puts me at a disadvantage (I'm completing basically all of my upper-level courses for my math minor this year). So, my plan B if I don't get the offers I want is to take a summer RAship, or perhaps try for the Fed's summer internship, or take the offers I've gotten to do a bit of policy work for STATE_U's policy center, and then take real analysis and advanced calc (1 and 2 for both) next year. Then I'd have grades for Honors Calc I-III, Prob. Theory, Math Stats, Diff Eq, Linear Algebra, Math for Economists, Grad Econometrics,Basic Concepts, Real and Complex I as well as Advanced Calc I on my transcript for consideration next year, along with even more research, and probably even better letters. Perhaps I'd redo my GRE. I'd probably go somewhere better too. I'm actually exactly indifferent between plans A and B.

 

So, for all of you other anxious applicants, what's your plan B if things don't work out?

 

P.S. It's also a good idea to think about this prior to completing all your applications. As a lot of professors/grad directors I've spoken to will testify, applying somewhere just to "go somewhere" is a terrible idea. Having a plan B means you aren't trapped into thinking that you absolutely must go to a grad program right now, at any cost.

[PhDPlease]

^Both the Fed Board and many of the regional Feds offer full-time RA positions with a tuition benefit, so as another suggestion you might consider the Fed's full-time Research Assistant position rather than just the summer internship as a plan B.