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Ennue

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About Ennue

  • Birthday 06/02/1988

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    the Netherlands
  • Interests
    Reading, hiking, scuba diving, music, gaming
  • Program
    Psychology

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  1. teethwax, you definitely made sense. You explained things perfectly yes still stayed respectful of talkinghead. Perfect.
  2. The last two sentences stand out for me in your post. You've only finished your first semester, so you must have thought you were losing your passion before you started. What's going on there? Are you maybe viewing your opinion more negatively now than before you got the grades back? These things happen, your program believes in you (because they accepted you), so work with them to fix this. Grad school is hard work, and you can't always see the rewards clearly, but you're learning a lot! If this really isn't what you want to do I would suggest trying for at least one more semester, and in the mean time figure out what it is that you want to do. Good luck!
  3. You've probably already seen this, but it always makes me awww:
  4. Who told you to take these courses? I.e., why are you taking the epi course? If it's a program requirement and your whole cohort is taking the class I'd be hesitant to drop it. If it's one of several possible courses, you were the one who picked it, and it's acceptable to be taking 11 credits, I'd feel more comfortable dropping it. In any case you should be discussing this with your program manager and possibly your almost-PI to figure out what the expectations are and how you can meet them best.
  5. Yes, I also suffer from anxiety/depression and as someone else said, I think a lot of grad students do. If you are already having trouble with the application process I am not sure that graduate school (at least a PhD program) would be right for you. Of course that's a very personal thing, but the application process is only the beginning - after that it gets much worse (with regards to pressure to perform a lot of good work, organize your time, and rejections of applications for all sorts of things). Clearly I am speaking from my personal experience of getting depressed during grad school, but it's worth thinking about. Applying is only the beginning, if it makes you this unhappy then perhaps you should try something else. Good luck.
  6. Also more expensive, but I have a breadmaker which I love. It's great to be able to make yummy bread with nuts and seeds, or olives, or whatever. As for small luxuries, I'm planning to buy an electric kettle and a teapot for my office so I can stay warm with tea all winter!
  7. It depends on the university I think. Getting an SSN can take a while, but at my university it's enough to initially have the receipt showing that you applied for one, afaik. Then as soon as you get the actual SSN you have to show it to payroll. I think you have to get the paperwork sorted before your appointment starts, which is one week before classes starts. However, I think arriving about a month before classes start is a good idea in general, there will be introduction activities and that way you could get used to the lay of the land before starting classes!
  8. From what I understood it is state dependent - afaik California has rules that make it very expensive for universities there to waive international student's tuition. I can tell from experience that the University of Minnesota is very international student friendly, I'm treated no differently than US students. From what I understood public universities tend to be better for this than private universities, but I see you've heard differently, so now I don't know! Good luck!
  9. Ooh, embarrassing story coming up! Okay, so as I said I'd been crushing on him for months, we'd been hanging out in the office and outside on campus activities, and I really really wanted to go out with him. I'd been gathering my courage (among other things with help from the awesome Captain Awkward - http://captainawkward.com/2011/01/14/reader-question-3-a-shy-guy-caught-my-eye/) and I was planning to ask him out on a Tuesday. So I hung around after class, waiting for his officemate to leave (the three of us were just chatting). And waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Finally, almost THREE HOURS after class ended I gave up and went home - it was almost 8 pm by then! Apparently officemate's wife was supposed to pick him up but got delayed at work. So I went home, and thought 'now or never', so I sent my crush a facebook message. Yes, really. Basically I said that I didn't want to make things awkward, but I had to ask, and if he wanted to go grab a drink or dinner with me sometime, 'as in, date-type stuff'. He replied... 2.5 hours later, because he wasn't checking Facebook. He said that he'd been thinking of asking me out , but was either too much of a coward or too hung up on awkwardness, so he hadn't (yet). And then we made plans to hang out and it was awesome and I am so, so happy that I got up the courage, even if it was through facebook like a coward!
  10. Before I came to grad school I had set the rule for myself that I wouldn't date within the department. However, as fuzzy said, romance can creep up on you, which is what happened for me, and I've now been dating another student in my program for 8.5 months. Some tips: - Take it slow... Very slow. I started crushing on my boyfriend my second month here. We didn't start dating until my fifth month here, and I still consider that kind of quick. Take the time to get to know the other person, to figure out if you're really compatible, if there could be a future for you. Dating within the department can work if you're both looking for a long term relationship, but if one of you is just looking for a short fling it could create too much drama. - My boyfriend and I share very few classes, because he's a few years ahead of me in the program. I think that's worked to our benefit - sharing all your classes could be too intense. - On the other hand, make sure that no situation will arise where one of you is TA for the other, or if that can happen in the future that there's a way to work around it (i.e. flexibility in coursework, etc) - Don't overshare with colleagues. I have to watch myself with this, I'm a very talkative person! But try not to talk about your relationship on campus until you've been dating for a bit and know that it might go somewhere. And I admit, I actually enjoyed the sneaking around for our first month or two - Don't share with professors. It is none of their business - so don't make it into their business. We didn't share our relationships status with faculty at all until this summer, and we definitely won't share drama with them. It's good to not share personal drama with professors anyway, but it might take more work to keep things private when all your offices are on the same floor - put in that work. Finally, with regards to this: I asked him out. It's 2012. Just saying.
  11. 21 when I started my Master's degree, 23 when I started my PhD program. I think older students are generally more motivated - they know what they're doing it for, rather than it being a 'natural progression' through higher education (I say generally, and keep in mind I'm a younger student too - don't mean to offend anyone, just observing). The only concern with starting late would be children, if you want to have them and don't have them before starting grad school. I almost think cajunmama's method of first having children and raising them to a certain degree of independence before pursuing grad school is ideal!
  12. I studied content, not questions. It's unlikely that the questions in the prep books will be repeated exactly on your exam.
  13. In that case you should definitely retake it, or you won't even make the first cut. You should probably try to improve every section, but yes, particularly reading. Did you not have enough time to read? Or did you have trouble picking out the important points of the text? Either way, try to read a lot of English to get used to it. You were allowed pen and paper, right? Write down the main points of a text for yourself. Work on general reading comprehension - how are texts laid out, where can you usually find the main points, etc. Many of the GRE prep books deal with these questions too, and those texts are more difficult than the TOEFL texts, so you would feel comfortable during the TOEFL because it will be easier than you're used to. Try to immerse yourself in English before you take the test (I spent a weekend with a friend and we only spoke English). To be blunt though: I found the TOEFL very easy. Especially the reading section was very basic. If you have this much trouble maybe you should do a language immersion program in an English speaking country before you start studying in English?
  14. Are you a good standardized test taker? If so, I'd say take the test. I had a M.S. and applied to a school with a Psychology GRE recommendation, and I took the test (I wanted to do everything I could to try to get in). I got a good score and ended up getting a scholarship for my first year - I'm sure my score on this test was a factor in that. On the other hand, if you're not sure you'll get a good score or if you don't have time to study: check websites and email schools. So, you haven't finalized or started your list. You'll still have some idea of where you want to apply, right? Figure it out for the ones that are most important to you. If none of them require it, I don't think you'll need to take it. It's usually required for people with less psychology background. Unless your M.S. isn't in psychology, in which case I say: definitely take it. Good luck!
  15. What do the university websites say? Mine says you need a minimum of 79, so you'd be above that, with a minimum score of 21 on the Writing section and 19 on the Reading section. If your speaking is low you may need to do an extra test / follow an extra course before you'd be allowed to work as a TA. Also, do you think you'd do better next time? Were you sick, or did the test surprise you in some way, or did you panick? If not, if this is a fairly good estimate of what you'd get next time (if a bit higher because you'd be more used to it) I don't think taking it again would be useful. So, take it again if: * You think you'd do much better * You need a higher score to make the cut-off
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