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Verizon wireless, and other cell phone carriers, offer discounts to students. The discount for students at UCSB is 15%. Here's the website with the details for verizon... http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/employee/emaildomainauthentication.jsp

If you are interested in applying to schools in southern california, Cal State Northridge (CSUN) offers funding for minority / financially disadvantaged students. The program is called MBRS-RISE for graduate students, and it is funded by the NIH. You receive a monthly stipend, tuition remission, money for supplies, and money to travel to conferences. It's a pretty awesome deal. I was an MBRS-RISE scholar as an MA student in general experimental psych. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

Tassimo all the way! I love Tim Horton's coffee and lattes; Gevalia's Signature Crema is also delicious!

I was told to avoid using contractions. A few still managed to sneak in, though.

I will be starting my PhD program September 22. If I were at home, all I would do is refresh Jezebel.com, facebook, science daily, etc. I started working in my PI's lab; it's a pretty big lab and there are a few senior graduate students, a post-doc, and two lab managers. They are here very early (7 am) and stay late (often to 5-6 pm). I am trying to model my behavior after theirs, showing up at 8 am (gasp!) but leaving at around 3 pm. I want to make sure I make a good impression on the current grad students, post doc, and lab managers. Shame is a great motivator for me! If you force yourself to work for a few hours, block websites, and work in a place where people are also working, you'll guilt trip yourself into being productive. Also, having clear physical and psychological spaces for work vs. play is a good idea. Lab is mostly for work, a little bit of play (goofing around with labmates), but home is my netflix sanctuary! I'll be reading this for more tips!

I would first try to find someone else to talk to. Maybe you can talk to a more senior graduate student at your university, and see how they handled their financial aid? Also, talk to anyone else in your department who can help you with this issue. Don't sit down and give up, be proactive! Expending your energy trying to get the problem solved will do you much better than dwelling on the problem. Much luck to you, and I hope this is resolved efficiently and in your favor! <3

I had a very professional relationship with my MA advisor, and it was fine. Sometimes I yearned for a bit more inspiration or positive feedback, but received very little of it. However, I did see my mentor interact in a more positive manner with other mentees. So, as another poster mentioned, every mentor's relationship changes with each individual mentee's needs. Maybe my MA advisor and I didn't mesh well together, or maybe she thought I had different needs. I tried talking to her about this more than a few times and it ended up going nowhere. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and work through it. Grad school definitely teaches you how to interact with different types of people, just as any other job during this stage in your life would teach you. If you end up with an advisor that doesn't suit your needs and you can't change, try to reframe your negative experience as a learning experience. Soak up as much knowledge as you can and be very kind to yourself.

I just graduated from CSUN with an MA in GE psychology. Everyone just wears whatever they want. I tried wearing nice blouses with jeans and cute flats. Some people just jean and t-shirt it everyday. Some girls dress it up in slacks and fancy shirts. It's WAYYYY hot in Northridge, I'd be more concerned about the heat. Just try to hit a mid-level range for the first few days of class until you see what people in your cohort and in the surrounding CSUN community wear.

I also second (or third, or fourth!) the leave of absence decision. I can definitely identify with feeling overwhelmed and uninspired even though you're at the top of your class. I felt this way during my first year as a graduate student, was having serious doubts about my intellectual abilities, suffering from depression, etc. I thought about quitting my program plenty of times, I was too ashamed to even think about a leave of absence. The problem for me was spending too much time doing coursework, and not enough time being a normal human. I have since made clear 'spaces' that are for work and those that are for 'play.' I work long, hard hours in the lab, but when I go home, it's all about relaxing and connecting with myself. I watch tv. I cook. I take my dog on walks. At school it's all about research. My suggestions are: 1) make enough time for interests OUTSIDE of academia 2) make friends OUTSIDE of academia - sometimes the competition becomes too fierce, and you need normal people to keep you sane and grounded. 3) establish clear boundaries (physical and psychological) between work and play. This will make you work a lot more efficiently, and will make you look forward to your 'play' time. 4) Take breaks every once in a while. I never took the leave of absence, just employed some of the guidelines written above. I am about to graduate from my MA program, and have been one of the most successful applicants in my cohort. Keep your head up! You can do it!

Thanks for the support everyone! I will post back in a year or so to let you know how I like it. Brenda is amazing!!! I wish everyone else luck in their graduate careers. Also, if you are doing research on prejudice / discrimination / stereotyping / stigma, friend me!

I remember using this for GRE practice. I received a 5 on the essay portion of the GRE, and what I can tell you from that experience is: you need to write more. A whole lot more. Go back to elementary school rules and use those. Seriously. 5 sentences per paragraph (minimum), 4 paragraphs minimum. Also, the ETS has a essay grading service on their website.

I'll be working with Brenda Major!

First of all, relax. You have no idea how this conversation will go, or if you will even like her as much in person as you do on paper. As long as you know her research fairly well and express your interest in it / how your interests will complement her research, you will be fine. Most professors want to ensure that their students are comfortable working with them and she will not want to quiz you on everything she has written. I have found that professors just want to meet students who are genuinely interested in research and are not too naive about what pursuing a Ph.D. entails. You will do great!

I was not admitted to any programs the first time I applied. I opted for an MA in General Experimental Psychology instead and it made all the difference. I feel a lot more prepared to enter a Ph.D. program. If you're in the field of psychology, I would highly recommend applying to MA programs or looking for lab manager positions with professors you'd be interested in working with. Being in the MA program really helped me figure out what I wanted to do exactly, and this level of maturity definitely came across during the application / interview process. When I interviewed alongside those coming straight outta undergrad, I felt much more comfortable talking about different lines of literature in my field as well as confident in the things I had to say. One of the most important qualities in a graduate student (and successful academic) is perseverance. Keep going. Sometimes online programs aren't as legit as on campus programs, but again, this may depend on the field that you are in. Good luck!

I'll be heading to SB this June. I am a socal native, so it should only be an hour and a half drive. I'm starting the program in Social Psych! Very excited! Also, a tip from current SB students - avoid renting from the Meridian Group; they're apparently terrible!