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Lyra Belacqua

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  1. Well, perhaps Kai von Fintel does when he's sitting on the admissions committee, but clearly not everyone agrees even at MIT. They accept at least a few people straight out of undergrad every year.
  2. I played in the wind ensemble at my university during my first year, which turned out to be an unsustainable situation. It was two and a half hours of rehearsal twice a week -- which is a lot of time, first of all, as well as meaning that I had to miss any departmental events that took place on Monday or Wednesday nights (since I was in rehearsal from 7 to 9:30). Each of my concerts -- there were 4 of them -- coincided with a colloquium, conference, or other event. (Plus, the level of playing wasn't as high as I was expecting, based on what I was used to in undergrad…that's something I couldn't have known in advance.) In addition to the large ensembles, the music department here also has a chamber-music organization, so I joined that this year instead. The scheduling is much more flexible, so it suits me better, and I've discovered I like playing chamber music better anyway. I've also been taking lessons the whole time (luckily, people can get scholarships for that at my school -- even grad students). I feel like I need some structure, i.e. something to practise for and work towards, otherwise academic work would take over and I'd gradually stop playing. But things that have a rigid schedule won't work anymore (I couldn't join a lab that I wanted to join until this year because of scheduling, and I didn't know about the conflict until it was entirely too late).
  3. Indeed. My smaller messenger bag is adorable, but there are no separate pockets inside and having to dig around for my wallet and things can get annoying. Yay for compartments!
  4. Those are really pretty! I've been wondering for a while now about replacing my backpack with something better-looking ( ), and one of these looks like a great possibility. (I, too, am a little worried about the asymmetric weight, but the thing about sweating with a backpack is definitely true as well.) I've actually already got a messenger bag or two, but they're smaller and don't have a laptop compartment…
  5. Plus, when you're applying/visiting, your POI is someone who may be your PI in the future, which gives them even more of a potential semantic overlap in that context.
  6. I don't have anything helpful to add, but I'm sort of the same way. I have the same feeling about everything being a reflection of myself, so of course I have to pick the "perfect topic" when the time comes (which almost invariably becomes "a topic that didn't quite suit me after all" by the end of the semester), and the more I like the professor, the harder it is to write ("this one's for John's class, so it has to be absolutely perfect"), and the more ashamed I am of the result. What I have the most trouble with is starting: usually once I've gotten into it a little, I think "why didn't I start this a week ago and spread it out more (in which case I could have written more, and better)?" But then I never do. The Paralysis Analysis thread on the Chronicle forums is sometimes an interesting read. I haven't used Write or Die, but some people in my field who I'm Facebook friends with have mentioned using "Written? Kitten!" (http://writtenkitten.net/), so I might try that next time I have to do a lot of writing. (It gives you a cute kitten picture after every so-and-so-many words you write, so the sheer amount of time you take has no effect: you can feel free to stop for more than 5 seconds.)
  7. My syntax class in undergrad used Andrew Carnie's Syntax: A Generative Introduction, which starts out very basic and covers a range of topics (binding, control, wh-movement, covert movement, …). I was sort of reading Adger's Core Syntax in my spare time (didn't manage to read all of it) the summer before I started grad school, in the 2 weeks or so between moving into town and the start of the semester. It both goes faster and gets more advanced; plus, the framework is explicitly Minimalist from the start, rather than going through X-bar theory and such first (thus, it more closely resembles what you'll see in actual current literature and probably in class). But I think the Carnie is good for gaining basic familiarity with concepts and why those concepts are important for developing a syntactic theory (what's a constituent? what's the difference between unergative and unaccusative verbs? what's the difference between raising and control? if the verb and the object form a constituent, how does VSO word order work?). That's what I thought at the time, at least. I like to use LaTeX for papers (I find it particularly useful for trees, tableaux, and even just numbered examples), but not everyone in my program does or even knows how. I didn't learn it until my first semester of grad school anyway -- I resolved early on to do all my homework in LaTeX, and figured it out as I went along. So that's not something that anyone "must" know by any means, especially before starting grad school. I will probably find myself in the position of needing to learn R at some point (possibly quite soon), but I'm not really worrying about it until the concrete need arises. As far as linguistics topics are concerned, my program (like most others that I'm familiar with) requires first-year students to take introductory courses in syntax, semantics, and phonology that assume no prior background. Beyond that, and since, I'm always thinking "I ought to know more about (some topic)" and hunting around for stuff to read (or reading that famous paper on the topic that everyone cites), or asking my mentors for suggestions of what to read.
  8. The year I was applying and going on visits, I heard from other students in my field (not psychology) that a professor at one school had mentioned the forum to an admitted student when he visited: "so, I understand from your posts on GradCafe that you're deciding between here and (other school)…etc." (This was how I learned that the forum existed, in fact.) Bit of an uncomfortable situation, I should imagine. Someone in my program could probably figure out who I am if they read every single one of my posts, but I'm not that active here anyway, and I haven't said anything particularly sensitive…yet. Given that sensitive stuff does get talked about here ("what's the politest way to deal with situation X with my advisor?"), I wouldn't want to leave behind a permanent record of such things that could be connected to my RL identity by absolutely anyone who reads it. But I'm also the sort of person who's reluctant to post potentially identifying things even on a more "harmless" forum (like a forum for a certain hobby or something), even if it's a community where such things are the norm. (I also picked my username here with anonymity in mind: I was never really a fan of His Dark Materials, so nobody I know will associate it with me.) The professors who think this forum is ridiculous must not have read the Chronicle forums: it's exactly the same there, complete with people devising elaborate pseudonyms for their institutions and departments. (Or if they don't, they teach "Basket Weaving" and their research language is "Etruscan". )
  9. Or (c'): you were doing something of your own. We don't get grades on individual assignments in my program, but I was working my tail off on a fellowship application and a conference abstract (in close succession) recently, so I sort of neglected my classes during that time (I had a paper due for one class around the same time as the fellowship application, so it ended up being pretty much exactly the minimum length; for another class, I have a final project that I didn't touch for those 3 weeks or so and am just getting back into). Professors should understand that your research and career come first. I'd read that too, but I think I've also read that the "self-esteem building" rhetoric of "you can do anything if you put your mind to it" also has a negative effect: once things get difficult, the kids think "there must be something wrong with me, that I'm incapable of trying hard enough!" What I usually do when "I've been doing all the homework but still don't get it" (which I think puts a slightly more positive, or at least less terrible, spin on the situation) is to figure out some very specific question that I can ask (even if that's not the only thing I don't understand), like "I'm trying to understand what the precise difference is between Concept X and Concept Y. I know that X is caused by Z, but in situation Q, I'm having trouble telling them apart." That way, I don't feel like I'm just futilely exclaiming "I don't get it!", even if that's secretly closer to how I really feel. It gets a conversation started in a focused way, which you can then steer to other issues if needed. To the original question: if it's a choice between the two, then "smart and a slacker".
  10. It looks like it won't: http://www.nsfgrfp.org/applicant_resources/frequently_asked_questions#summer2011 Yeah, that's what I figured as well.
  11. In particular, someone I know who got it a couple of years ago showed me her essays, and they all had title/keywords on the page itself. I see that on the application I'm filling out, they give space to put those in the online form. I think I remember hearing that this changed last year?
  12. Nobody sees the ranking except you, I think. I'm pretty sure that its only purpose is if you have more than 3 letter writers: only the top 3 will get read, but if one is missing, they'll go to number 4 or 5.
  13. I called just now; luckily, they said it's fine.
  14. …and of course they're closed for Veterans Day today. I really should have thought of this sooner. (But I think since the website says the transcript can be unofficial, and just has to be legible, I'm expecting them to tell me that's OK.) If all else fails, and I need one that doesn't say VOID, I think I might be able to take a screenshot of each page (if I open it in Adobe Reader, it doesn't say VOID) and turn them back into a PDF. Seems sort of bootleg, but that's sort of what I had to do for my transcript from my current school, which had a different kind of PDF security: if you tried to upload it, it came out blank, so I had to print it out and scan it (which is what the people at the registrar's office advised me to do!).
  15. My undergrad school does give electronic transcripts, but they do something to the file format that produces a watermark that says "VOID VOID VOID" when you print it or upload it to something (like the NSF website). Everything is still perfectly legible, and the NSF does say that you can upload "official or unofficial transcripts"…but I guess I should still call the hotline soon to make sure. Or if anyone else has experienced something similar…? What? I didn't say not to use bold and italics…
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