firstsight

Trufax: my Pandora thought it was totally acceptable to start playing "My Heart Will Go On" when I clicked over onto this topic. It's a shut-out year for me. I LOST it when I heard back from my last school... (I gave in and emailed all of the graduate coordinators for the different programs I had applied to, 'cause I literally couldn't handle it.) I totally get what you mean about that moment when you go, "Oh, so THIS is why people say they can't go through it twice." I'm teetering hardcore on not reapplying next year... I mean, little over six months until NEXT application season. -.- At least Pandora has now moved into What a Girl Wants. Much more acceptable. xD (And I still have no idea what I'm going to do with my life. I hope you guys have better luck than I did!!)

Oh man, data blitz. If it's anything like the IGNITE session I went to at FABA... though I'll admit I think as a whole, behavior analysts tend to be a little wackier than the rest of the psychology crowd. One IGNITE was done entirely in limerick; another entirely sung. And they were both informative, which was the REAL ridiculous part.

UCSD here... well, implicit rejection, since I wasn't invited out to interview! Area: Social. Rationalization: It's not like I really WANTED to live in California... and that probably showed in my SOP. Word: Mrrrpghgrrrgphf. (PS: totes dig the Kushiel reference/username. Loved that series.)

None of mine are outright CJ or Crim programs, but one advisor I applied to studies deviance fairly heavily. Good luck to everyone!

+1 on SOP... you could literally see an evolution of my SOPs, from my early deadline apps (where I felt the need to justify why I should even be considered), through my later-deadline apps (where things were balanced more or less evenly) to my single last remaining application which will be put in the mail tomorrow, where the SOP is basically a focused proposal of research with justifications woven in. I also ran into the issue of little to no relevant research being offered at my current location. Luckily, we're moving out of this area once my degree is finished (so over the summer), and even if I receive a season of rejections, we'll be moving to an area where I should hopefully be able to volunteer at a lab to get more applicable research experience. I toyed with the idea of going back to school for a second degree in biology (or specifically EEB - some of my research interests are informed by an evolutionary perspective), or focus on picking up a programming language. I also want to expand my stats knowledge. My sister in law is a tenured professor of biostatistics at an Ivy, so if a move heads anywhere towards my brother's physical direction, I may shamelessly trade upon that connection to volunteer with a stats group over the next year. We'll see, I suppose. I may just do the classic dignity-injured cat move and walk away from it all. XD

Tons of sympathy on this. I made the mistake of telling my mom that I had applied to a school close to where she lives (we haven't lived in the same area for quite some time), and now it's like -- "Heard anything about it, yet? Have they accepted you yet? You should come out here and we'll go for a visit! I can't wait for when they accept you!" Notably, it's also one of the reachiest schools I have and possibly the one I want to go to the MOST. >.<

I like pepperoni, bacon and pineapple, either on thin crust or DEEP DISH, like serious deep dish, with tons of cheese. And garlic sauce to dip the crust in.

Yeah, access to information and that whole instant gratification thing makes this whole process /worse/ rather than better, I think. I've managed to wean my checking of the application status pages to maybe once a day... hearing back an informal rejection (interview invites apparently went out for one of my more reach-ier schools, nothing in my mailbox!) I think tempered/soured my desire to check obsessive-compulsively. But before that I was wearing out my mouse clicking 'refresh' on all the assorted browser tabs... >.>

Behavioral stuff is fun, and really simple once you get the hang of all the terms! You can really explain any behavior in conditioning terms. Trust me when I say it's not hard. But it doesn't really tell you the depth of it; it's kind of... cold, I guess. Saying "people stop to look at art because it's reinforcing" may be absolutely correct, but /why/ you may stand there marveling for the seventy-billionth time about how gorgeous a Monet is and how peaceful it makes you feel just looking at it... that's something not quite so easily quantifiable, but just as accurate (and important). I think. I'm a little brain-dead from all these damn apps. XD

Establishing Operation: Anxiety due to low-grade experiential neurosis (we don't know the outcome of something; we can't predict, can't prepare, not really) Stimulus: ... Probably a chain of SR responses, actually, but we'll call the stimulus the existence of these forums/site, just for the sake of argument. Response (class): Logging in, refreshing a page, writing a post, reading a post, watching the results page. Consequence: reading other people talking about things you think about, finding information that relates to your situation, talking to other people, bonding over similar circumstances. Reinforcement happens; positive reinforcement (new, novel, social interaction! UBER-REINFORCER WARNING LABEL GOES HERE) /and/ negative reinforcement (escape aversive stimuli such as... feeling alone in the process [social belongingness = uber-reinforcer too] *and* probably avoidance [who cares about doing those pesky dishes?]). As a consequence of the reinforcement, response rates rise, leading to further reinforcement, leading to higher and higher response rates. So it's basically Facebook... on crack. I'm freakin' surprised an applied bx analyst hasn't taken this as a tremendous opportunity to look at group activity from a behavioral standpoint. A whole group of people with high response rates, all basically on variable ratio schedules of reinforcement? And all pure, timestamped data? At least I know what I can do if my PhD plans don't go through. XD

Tolman, was that UCSD CogSci or UCSD Social?

I too had a dream last night. (Probably, like someone said up there, because of this forum!) ... mine was that my fav POI at my fav school called me to tell me about an interview, heard my VM message... it's a little terse, 'cause I'm one of those people who hate having to wade through a three-minute "Oh hi this is So and So, I'm unavailable to come to the phone right now, but if you'll leave me a detailed life story of everything that I ever needed to know about you, a thirty second vignette on your opinion of me versed entirely in haiku, and every contact number that you ever have (but leave those at the end of the message and speak REALLY FAST so I have to go through all of your message TWICE or THREE TIMES to get all the numbers), and I'll call you back within twenty-four hours of me actually acknowledging the fact that you called! WORLD PEACE GUYS! WORLD PEACE!" ... "after the tone, please leave your message".)... where was I? Oh, so heard my short message (This is firstsight, leave me a message!) and decided instantly against wanting to interview me and left me this really snide voicemail about "being properly collegiate in all communications" and "maturing the nature of contact with the outside world before possibly being considered for admission". So uh... thanks for the nightmares, guys. I'm going to go change my VM message now. >.>

Katerific, I think I may be in love with you... just sayin'. Or maybe just with that bird. It looks super-happy. I could use some super-happiness. Though I'd say that Gangnam Style is totally preferable to -- oh, it could totally be grad-ified: I threw an app in the pool, I know it isn't really cool, I may possibly be a fool, and now I'm losing my mind. I'd trade my soul for "approved" All my fears so disproved, Time so slowly does move, and now I've lost my mind. My adcomms were meetin', Stacks of apps, cheesy greetings On SOPs, my POI's tweeting You think you're getting in, really? Hey, I haven't met you, And this is crazy, But here's my application, So admit me, maybe? (Maybe I need to take a break. This obsessive-compulsive email-checking is rotting my brain.)

Oh man, banana bread. I'm more a pistachio-chocolate chip-cranberry zucchini bread person (I don't like smushing bananas - it weirds me out somehow), but... now I'm hungry. XD And sure! We could.. uh.. say we're really inspired by MLK. I'm sure we could figure out what the honorable Dr. King's fav cookie was. Totes plausible.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who trolls the results search cheering at all of the Chemistry peeps acceptances. I love the ones that are all: "Randomly checked my email/mailbox/application status and saw ACCEPTED staring at me, such a great way to start the day/week/year/REST OF MY LIFE." It makes me smile and SO MUCH MORE NERVOUS all at the same time.