LUCIE, when having the right stamps matters

“I ruined my health writing my masters thesis. When I handed in the 300 pages, I was dead inside. 

At the end of September, I could barely walk from the exhaustion

I had to sleep day and night for three weeks to compensate and slowly get back on my feet. But all the work paid off. My teachers love me. They thanked me for the research work I did this year. My masters’ tutor even gave me the book his own mentor gave him back in the days as a legacy. 

But even with all of that, I’m not sure to be able to get into research as I intend to. Since I don’t have the Chartes school stamp on my academic resume my teachers told me they couldn’t guarantee I’d be accepted into a Doctorate degree. One of the only options remaining to lock a position would be for me to take the agrégation*. But it would take another year with a high and intense workload, and frankly, I’m not ready. I don’t want to go down the same path I did for my masters thesis. Not now. 

So, before deciding if I’ll go for the agrégation or not, I’m taking a year off. The goal is to teach students to test the waters and see whether or not I chose the right way. If yes, I’ll keep on with the plan. If not, we’ll see. But for now, the school year has started and even though the public services claim to be running out of teachers, I’m still not getting a contract. I didn’t want to wait so I’m going freelance. It’s not the career start I envisioned but it will do for now.

In the mean time, my teachers are trying to get my masters a price to help me enter a Doctorate degree. I can’t believe how hard it is!

All of this just because I didn’t go to the right university

I can still remember the day I was denied. As of today, I’m still frustrated.

The moment I got my results, I knew my academic future wouldn’t be the one I expected