dat_nerd

Thanks for the comments! I just finished the 8 hour exam today, and I'm actually feeling alright about it. I did a couple of practice exams beforehand to help me practice my time management, and it really paid off. And it makes for a new personal record -- 18 pages in 8 hours. Thanks guys for the encouragement!

Thanks guys I really appreciate it. I tried out a new strategy for writing that really helped. If I can get the bare-bones of the whole exam written within the first 4 hours, I can use the rest of that time to reword, edit, and polish my answers. Thankfully I'm feeling a bit better about the whole thing.

Hi all, I have the written portion of my qualifying exam in 5 days. It's an open book, open internet, take-home exam, but it lasts for 8 hours and many students struggle to finish it all on time. I've studied hard for a while now, but I can't seem to keep the anxiety away I know the material, but I worry about sitting down at the start of the day and not being in the mindset to write, or taking too long on several of the questions, or losing my focus during the middle of the day. Any advice?

It is like couch surfing, except that you pay and you usually get more space. Sometimes you rent a room in someone's house or apartment, other times you can rent out a whole apartment or house. The first time I used it, it was actually a friend who brought up the idea. Four of us rented an apartment for a conference, and it was well worth it. Second time I used it, I was traveling alone in another country and was a little nervous. I rented a room in a lady's house just down the street from the conference, and really enjoyed getting to meet someone local. I plan on doing something similar the next time I'm traveling someplace with expensive hotels.

I've liked using AirBnB instead of hotels. It's cheaper and a great experience when staying with a local.

Uh why are we doing this?

^ Definitely agree. I started grad school in my teens and after the first semester or so, I don't feel like I was treated any differently based on it. Don't bring it up incessantly. Don't assume that it makes you (or your cohorts) any different because of the age difference. The same quality of work will be expected of you, and as long as you are on par with that, nobody else will bring it up either. It does get a bit more complicated if you're under 21 obviously, but otherwise don't let the age difference affect who you socialize with.

Overall, I think this email looks good. If you haven't gotten replies, do realize that professors are giving exams, grading end-of-semester projects, getting ready for winter break, and receiving tons of emails from other applicants. Most of the replies I received were canned anyways, but I did receive a few more personalized responses. My only critique is that you directly state that you want to join the professor's lab, but without having met them or emailed them in the past. Some professors prefer to vett their students before accepting them into their lab. Some schools have a formalized advisor selection process in which you would be required to work with other professors first. Others may be interested in talking with you but cannot accept any additional students that year. Another way of asking is to state that you are interested in X,Y,Z research that they and their lab is doing, that you would like to hear more about their recent projects, and ask if they plan on accepting new students next year. That way, they can respond without making a commitment, while also letting you gauge the response.

I like to take the time to cook a nice dinner, watch some mindless TV, go for a run (if I'm feeling up for it), and then go to bed early. There's not much that going to bed early can't fix.

The top-5 schools do note on their application website that they are looking for GRE scores in the 90th percentile. However, I don't know how much weight this truly holds, and I would imagine your publication record to hold much more weight than the GRE. At this point, I think your effort would be better spent on other parts of the application, rather than focusing on earning a couple more points on the GRE.

Keep in mind that people mature at different rates. While maturity often corresponds to age, that isn't always the case.

What about taking a year off as a research intern, or gaining research experience in some other way? Not only will it vastly improve your likelihood of getting into a program, but it'll give you an idea of whether you'll even like research before you commit to 5-6 years of it. It'd also help to know what you're wanting to get out of a PhD program. Do you have a particular research interest in mind? Not so! I graduated from an unranked CS program without having written any publishable material, and still got into several top-10 schools. It can be done! What helped me was having recommendations from two professors I did research work with, a strong SOP, and communication with professors I was interested in working with.

I can see it being ethical if you fully disclose the overall results, and then talk about the working datasets in the context of why the experiment worked in those dataset, but not in the others. Was there something about those datasets that caused the experiment to work? Likewise, what was it about the other datasets that did not result positively?

Last year, I took three weeks off and felt that was WAY too much. This year, it's one week for Thanksgiving, one week for Christmas and New Year's so I can go visit family.

What is this "healthy cookie" you speak of, and how I find or make them?

Deadlines, meetings, and events go on Google Calendar To-do lists go on todoist.com Everything else goes in a notebook that I take everywhere with me… contains research progress, notes to self, meeting minutes, and random doodles.

I try to keep TV-watching to only while I'm working out. If I want to watch TV, it's on my phone while I'm on the treadmill or elliptical machine. Makes for great motivation

I'm surprised nobody has recommended Amazon yet… I bought a memory-foam mattress as well as other small furniture items. Since the memory-foam was rolled-up, shipping wasn't too expensive, and there were plenty of reviews to read beforehand.

What size is the studio? I recently moved into a 400 sq ft studio. Sadly, I couldn't find much furniture that was suited for a small apartment and inexpensive. I found that every piece of furniture needed to have at least two purposes, otherwise the space felt too crowded. Another option you may want to consider is building your own furniture as a DIY project. I decided to use this as a chance to learn how to build my own furniture and ended up building: - a console desk that converts into a dining table - a platform bed frame that doubles as storage and a bookcase - a paneled room divider - a set of chairs that stack and double as storage when not in use It did take a while to build everything… but it was definitely worth it! (not to mention cost-effective)

*High-five* I was homeschooled until a couple years before college, and I'll always be grateful for it. Keep up the great work!

Oh and another note: I always try to go one level up on the dress code to offset the "unprofessional" hair color. If it's a casual academic event, I'll go business casual. If it's business casual, I'll go a bit closer to business formal.

I think it depends on how you wear it. I've kept my hair bright red for the past few years, and I usually style it spiked up. For conferences though, I'll wear it a bit more toned-down. I was originally worried about whether to keep it for grad school. At first, I thought it'd be unprofessional, but I've actually found that it does help me professionally. First, people will recognize and remember you pretty easily . Second, I found that it forced me to be bold, which is important in an environment where you need to learn to defend your own ideas. Anyways, that's my two cents. If you do decide to dye your hair, I hope you'll post a photo of it!

Congratulations on your decision! Just out of curiosity, what research area are you interested in? Now go celebrate!!

Yes Icydubloon, I most certainly read the whole thread. I only wanted to clarify the differences between undergraduate name-brand and CS graduate program rankings. Like you, I am here to offer my advice to the OP, and I appreciate your input and advice as well.