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inertialdummy

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  • Application Season
    2016 Fall
  • Program
    Physics

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  1. I see, I thought I was expected to know this on my own. I'll have a meeting with my advisor and rest of the faculty on friday on the week of enrollment, so I'll ask him there.
  2. Piggyback: On the contrary my advisor told me that I'll be starting with research as soon as possible. I have talked to one of my friends who is completing his phd this year, he cautioned me against the course load and how hard they will be before anything else. Then again my university is a small private research university so we have 2 must 2 elective courses opened for grad students, which leaves me 1 must and 1 elective for now ( I need to complete a pre for the other, and other elective is not related to my topic). Now, I am very confused in terms of what to focus on. I am reading a lot of advice online, all say don't focus on getting A's. Well, I was by no means a stellar student in terms of courses but I aced everything related to a project or an independent work (I mean really, honestly independent). So, I feel like I should be careful about getting A's a bit more during grad school since my undergrad cgpa is haunting me. But then again my strong point is research, and investing in that more could be a better strategy. Well, I don't know what to do these days.
  3. Hello, I am starting MSc in Physics this September. Since I am changing fields I am expected to take 3 or 4 senior level undergraduate courses prior to graduate level courses. My program requires me to take 7 grad level courses in addition to seminar, academic writing and TAship classes. I will be starting with my research right away. However I am not given an extra semester for preparatory courses, I am expected to graduate in 2 years sharp. Also my scholarship is dependent on my gpa so I cannot behave worry free about my courses. So, how should I go about handling my course load?
  4. Here schools accept applications either during April or during late May/early June. Edit: Also this school responded real fast, I applied another school which will announce results next week, and I did not applied to my home university, which announces results early August.
  5. My time management style evolves around the work load really. After years of trying to keep journals and structured monthly plans I finally gave up and decided to focus on the day. First things first, I create a weekly calendar of the academic year to put all the important deadlines: holidays, final dates etc. This gives me some perspective on which weeks I'll be pretty busy (that I may need to spare my sunday for work too) and when I'll have some free time. After this I plan my current day. By planning I mean I set daily goals ( read paper A, finish 3 chapters, solve at lest 20 examples so on), and while doing so I keep the deadlines in that weekly calendar in my mind. My prioritizing scheme depends on my panic level really. If I feel too anxious, I go with urgent tasks (such as studying for an exam), otherwise I fell comfortable enough and I go with tough tasks (learning new stuff, solving extra examples). I use 50/50 app on my iPhone (it is free) to time my studies and breaks since having a wristwatch gives me anxiety too. After all this planning all I need to do is just stick with it. Good luck with your studies!
  6. Hello, Here is a tiny summary of what I did so far. June : Pretty busy! Finals! MSc applications, interviews, job applications, interviews, could not afford TOEFL so needed to take proficiency tests July : Graduation! Acceptance letter arrives! Started getting familiar with tech stack, started skimming textbooks, collecting some nice papers for later reading. Apart from work, read novels, watch movies, play games.
  7. Thank you for your response. Although I disagree with you, I appreciate you take time to respond.
  8. Thank you very much for your answer. I guess it does look like what I am afraid it would look like to a total outsider. I felt like I must make it clear that I am not in US nor in EU, so the system is very different here in terms of undergraduate research. It was not an RAship by no means. Both were voluntary, and PI accepted you if he likes so. In both cases PIs were aware of my situation beforehand yet accepted me, so I felt offended because the things I honestly talked openly beforehand became the deal breaker. And I did get advise from various people before making my decisions. In the later case everybody advised me to leave, including 2 phd friends from eth and boston if that makes any difference for you. And I am in no financial position to leave the job, i had to take 1 course to graduate and rest was to be given to lab. Comparing it to other friend who is employed full time and taking 4 courses now I think I was doing good. I got offended the most since PI accepted other case with totally open arms, which still surprises a lot of people. Other friend, appearently, is not working in the lab since there is no time for it, nor dismissed altogether. I am not convinced that this is the way to do research. It is a full time job, that you should plan and work dedicately. So, well maybe I am having misconception about this whole graduate school thing or it is just local culture. Many friends abroad claim that I would be a precious thing if I was in their lab, but maybe they are just trying to make me feel ok. Anyway, thanks again. ?
  9. Just read the edit. I did left one on bad terms and other somewhat at a vague state really. These are a bit long story, so if you do not care to read, it is ok. Vague one happened because the advisors there were not following up how the students were proceeding and not listening what they wanted to study on. At the end of july except me everybody coming for an undergrad research had left the lab . I am a mechanical engineering student, so basically this translates into lets give them some design problems and leave them alone. I was not interested in design at all, I was interested in non-linear control and programming related work, and made it very clear the day I started. The phd student I was to work with, sent me 5 papers and nearly finished design of the test set up and wanted me to contribute. I read the papers at least and after 2 weeks of being left alone on my own without clear goals, I reached out to the advisor and made it clear again this is not what I want to work with. So they changed my project and paired me up with another phd students. I worked with him like 2 to 3 months and quitted. I quitted for two reasons, first is that I saw no benefit for myself. I was not learning anything, at least properly, I was just writing make shift code and advisor was correcting it one way and phd stu. was correcting it the other way and I am being shuffled around in between. Reason two, I had too much courses that term, so basically I ran out of time and decided to focus on my studies and advisor saw that and said that he sees that I am more focused on my studies that I should take my time to finish those first then come. I honestly still think he was kindly letting me go for good. Bad one happened because advisor was a really bad person. I heard some stories from friends about that lab and advisor but did not listened. He seemed attentive, and and invited me to work with him given my background ( I did not even applied, it just come about). I told him that I have low gpa, he said it is no problem, research would benefit me more in this case, once I managed to create some output my bad gpa would not look that bad. I felt encouraged and accepted the job. I took the time and worked with him during my winter holiday instead of relaxing. We were two undergrad students with similar stories, working on the same project. I planned my next term studies according to the lab: I was planning to take 2 courses, work 2 days of part time developer job and rest was research. The other friend was recent graduate with minor to complete and got employed full time. So other one was to take 4 undergrad courses, work 40 hours a week and attend research. I must add, the other was not stellar by any means, I can only add that she was being cute and obedient and often talked her way out of things and was proud with that. After a month of work, we had a meeting with advisor at last. Advisor came and told me directly: that three works at once is not possible, that I should leave my job, that my cgpa was low I should repeat as much course as I can, that it did not mattered whether if I had 200 points IQ or I was dying out of interest for the field that they were not simply accepting people with cgpa below 3, that he cannot help me getting into masters and turned to other and congratulated her. I left the lab. I cried 2 days like a kid. I must make it clear that I have never ever asked anybody about helping me getting into graduate school or anything close to it. I was not even considering him as my future advisor! So, I kind of suffered unnecessarily a lot along the way I became too conscious and panicky. If you read all those thanks in advance, if not, well no problem at all. Thanks again So I would not think they would say anything bad about me, they did not get to know me that long. And I must add I have 5 different great referees that I worked with during courses (which includes projects and research) willing to give me letters. So I am very confident that I am not a problem kid.
  10. Thank you very much for answering . Can I ask another question? This is another reason that I am panicking over this stuff. That is, I am a mechanical engineering student but will be continuing with physics. Long story short, I did tried changing my major to physics but with very reasonable arguments my professor talked me out of it. Along the way I attended engineering related research and realized that I have no interest in graduate school in engineering. Meanwhile I drifted towards compSci and learned programming and now working as a developer. I do not want to be a mechE neither in academia nor in industry. So I see my occupation as a developer and my academic interest as physics. Should I indicate this point in my SoPs ? I will be applying for masters in physics. I do not want to look like that I lack the focus or just soul searching. Again, there are some soul searchers who crowded the scene, so many profs I have talked are very cautious with people like me having a bit diverse interests and do not have stellar grades. ( I am panicking so much, I feel like finally I can get what I want but for some stupid reason or two I will fail. )
  11. Hello, I am a newbie here and I just joined today. I hope this is the right place to ask this question. I applied to an university for research the last summer, advisor invited me to an interview and told me that I have no prior research experience or anything that would prove my worth, that is my CV is practically empty. However this is not the case. I worked in 2 labs, and attended 2 different projects along the way which resulted in nothing. So I excluded them from my CV. I am a senior, I have sub 3.00 cgpa and in a bad financial situation, so I cannot apply anywhere except local schools for graduate school. Meanwhile a lot of people around me applied to various places. And I realized even though many lacked good grades and research they did compensated it with their huge ego. I have watched people making really big deal out of everything they attend. I mean if they just attend a lab tour they mention in it their SoP, CV I mean everywhere! I have been taught not to be greedy and a show off, so I am having real trouble here. I did panicked when the advisor thought I was nothing but a regular student, which is not the case at all! We are talking about regional fames here, so if someone wants me to get a rec letter from them I cannot get it because things did not worked and I left. I can use some marketing skills to make these hidden experiences look great of course, but I am not sure whether it is dishonest or not?
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