Crucial BBQ

Grad school is my backup plan and life goes on.

I was informed of waitlist through an email from the program director.

Eh, my roommate stories range from the totally hilarious to the absolutely insane. For what it is worth, and call it agism if you like, I will never live with another early 20-something again. When you get to my age you will know exactly what I am talking about I had a roommate who was schizophrenic. I knew him prior to his moving in and it was not something that he kept a secret. As long as he was taking his meds he was fairly normal --to the point where it seemed as if his schizophrenia itself was made up-- but when he was off meds things got weird, fast. One time his prescription ran out and he just disappeared. He called a few months later to let everyone know he was okay. Turns out that he got on a Greyhound and went to some random State for who knows what reason. He did have some paranoias, but nothing extreme. For example, he just knew that people were teasing him, even though nobody was. Sometimes he would claim that people were taking advantage of him even though they weren't, but that was about as extreme as things would get while he was on meds. Otherwise he seemed to have a good grasp on what was going on inside his head, what was real and what was not, able to work a normal job and so on (he once said that instead of having a psychotic episode, because of the medication he got a ringing in his ears instead). I lived alone for a year. The first few days were lonely and strange. I mean, it was quiet. You get used to the background noise and for the first time I did not hear the faucet running, toilets flushing, someone watching TV in another room, opening/closing of the fridge, and so on. By the end of the second week I absolutely loved it. I realized there is a difference between being alone and being lonely. You also get to have things how you want: decorating, furniture arrangement, and the like. There are no arguments over who drank your beer or passive-aggressive notes left to remind "you" not to eat their food, even if it were they who ate it while they were drunk from drinking your beer.

What you are about to read was written solely for perspective, not to be contrary. I moved from "sunny" California to Minnesota and then later on to Maine and Massachusetts (Boston). For my first winter in Minnesota I picked up a pair of waterproof, lined, snow boots and found that they made my feet way to hot (Minnesota gets a heckofalot colder than Boston). Swamp foot in your boots is way uncomfortable. I found that my feet were drier and still warm enough when I just wore my skateboarding shoes with thick socks. Unless you are actually trudging through snow your feet will stay dry, anyways. I also found that skate shoes gave better traction. Hiking shoes work well, too. The only boots I have found to work, at least for being in the city, are Merrell hiking/wilderness boots. They are not necessarily designed for the winter, which is why I like them, and offer great traction. In my opinion snow boots are awesome if one is actually going to be trudging through snow and/or hanging out on the side of a mountain all day. Chances of that happening while you are walking around campus/town are slim. From a Californian, if you already have the boots, sure wear them; if not, then invest in a nice pair of thick socks or lightweight winter athletic socks (thick socks might require you to go up in shoe size). *Also, pathways/sidewalks--even if groomed--can become smoothed over and icy. You will get way better traction if you can walk alongside the path or along the edges of the sidewalk. An inch or two of snow, even if compacted, will provide better grip than ice any day of the week (unless it is fresh powder covering ice). If you happen to be exiting a vehicle, especially if in a parking lot, test the ground with a foot first before exiting--you might not notice the ice otherwise. If you exit the vehicle in a "normal" fashion you might be exiting too fast, which might cause you to slip. Trust me, cracking your body against the corner of the door does not feel good. Once again this only based on my own experience. Most people I knew/know just wore regular shoes, too.

When I was a junior I took a Writing for Biology course, a course where our final grade came from only two papers. Shortly after I turned in my first paper I was called into the prof's office where I was met with one very angry person. Right off the bat I was accused of plagiarism, which completely caught me off guard. I was told that the matter was going to be turned over to the Dean and that was that. I pleaded with her, to the point near tears. I told her the entire paper was in my own words to which she replied that they may be my own words but not my own ideas. I told her that I was under the belief that "common knowledge" did not require citation, which she agreed that may be so but what I had done was paraphrased --which requires citation. We went back and forth with this with her finally agreeing to not push this matter onto the Dean, I will take a D on the paper, and lesson learned. I put such an effort to craft what I thought was a very handsome paper for the first assignment that I would be damned if I did so again for this prof. So with my next paper, I completely made it up. From start to finish, 100% BS. It was also the worst paper I have ever written. Ever. It was so sloppy that a sixth grader could have drafted a better paper. I was embarrassed to turn it in but considering I left that meeting full of vinegar over a paper I put my heart into, I was still running full-on spite (first and only time, by the way. I just take serious pride with my writing abilities; with my papers generally being described as amongst the best in the class). The prof was right about one thing: there are no original ideas. I searched and searched the Internet until I had found enough citations to make my paper legit. I had so many citations that the Literature Referenced section was longer than the actual paper, by a long shot. If the prof wanted a paper full of citations, then she sure got one. I am not sure if the OP is in the same situation, but if so, I have talked about this experience with a few profs. Everyone agreed that it is always better to over cite than to under. I ended up with a B as my final grade in the course. Go figure.

These are great questions, I would suggest to also bring them to current students in the lab/program. While I have not been interviewed formally I have spoke at-lenght with POIs and grad students of respective programs. Professors and PIs are going to answer these questions from the perspective of an academic and most likely will toot their own horns. Sometimes they are in the same boat but on a different page than the students. *Perhaps it is different for interviewing students but I have found that profs tend to be black and white with questions of fundings. They either have it or they don't. If they don't, they expect you to figure out how to get it.

I spent four years between Maine and Massachusetts. I cannot stand the Patriots and the Red Sox, but mostly because the two have some of the most obnoxious fans out of any pro sports teams. So, I am not fan of the Patriots. I am also not a fan of the Seahawks, they are number two on my list of most disliked teams. I would have rather have watched a Super Bowl between the Cardinals and the Dolphins (did you google to see if the Cardinals were an NFL team ). Or the Chargers. With that, anyone who denies that the Patriots have not been one of the best teams in the NFL in the last 15 years or that Brady is not one of the best QBs is in need of a lobotomy. I mean, I hate Kobe Bryant but at least I acknowledge that he is one of the all-time best in the NBA. I do agree that Brady should not have been the MVP. I mean, that interception at the goal line won them the game. *and no, I am not suggesting that you need a lobotomy.

Smog gets worse with increasing temps so if you visit over winter or spring just keep that in mind.

I dunno but unlike the impression given in the Bio Profile thread, not every program in STEM interviews.

Well, Merced is constantly in the top 10 (usually top 5) for air pollution (out of the entire U.S.), so the really bad air quality is one. Growing up I never noticed but one of the first things that hit me about living in Kansas was just how clean the air was. Now, whenever I go back home I can see the brown in the air. The entire Central Valley has really bad air quality. Allergies; California has an extremely diverse fauna. If you currently do not have allergies, you will. The area is really dry with no frills weather. This means little rain and when ever it does finally sprinkle people freak out as if Armageddon was going down. This also means a lot of dust. The culture of the entire Central Valley can best be described as cowboy/rancher/farmer. Rodeos and wannabe NASCAR are really big deals. So is County Western music and tractors. They tend to be more Conservative and religious but one great thing about California is that most adhere to the belief that talking about religion or politics makes for rather boring subject matter-practically everyone avoids it. Not that there is anything wrong with any of this, just that cowboy boots and denim are "always in style" Merced is also small. I believe the total population is around 80K. Not a deal breaker by any means as long as you do not expect the amenities of a large city. It's basically a farming community. It gets really hot in the summer, you can expect 100˚ F + days. Very few people understand what a humid day feels like; nothing like the Midwest, but with temps over a hundred combined with dust and smog, well, it is rather miserable. The good thing is that unlike humidity, you can escape the heat. It really is cooler in the shade. One really interesting thing is that it can be 106˚ F during the day and then 70˚ F by 9 pm. That is temp drop of nearly 40˚ F over the course of a few hours and you can feel it. Shorts and sweat during the day, hoodies and sweaters at night. My main qualm is the air quality. The rest are just a matter of taste.

I am from Sacramento. I don't know about UCM but no one in their right mind would move to Merced--and this is coming from someone who moved from California to Kansas and then to Maine for no real reason other than to do so. The irony, if you will, is that I considered UCM for grad school and will still consider it for Ph.D. if I only get into Master's programs this time around. Their Environmental Systems Graduate Group is pretty good. The best part about Merced and really the entire State outside of San Diego/LA/Bay Area, which is about 4/5s the State, is that it does not fit into anyones' preconceived ideas or fantasies about California (kind of like how Hollister the town is ~100 miles from the beach, but Hollister the street is not). mb712, at least Nebraska has clean air and interesting weather.

I was rejected from all programs last year. When the final rejection came in I emailed or cold-called the respective program directors or POIs and asked which parts of my application were delinquent. Every one of them gave me straight-forward, honest, answers including advice on what I could do to improve my chances based on what they have seen other rejected-to-admitted students do in the past. My GPA is low by grad admissions standards, but higher than yours. The GPA alone was not a factor in any rejection and only one program mentioned my GPA specifically; the rest only cited certain grades in certain courses. My GF works at NIH. Yes, the program you are speaking of is only for recent graduates but I do believe they have other programs as well. They bring in people all time, many with only BS, for short assignments and projects.

In the U.S., university means an entire campus of colleges but technically in order to be called a university in the U.S. the institution must at least grant Master's degrees (otherwise, it's just a college). Americans use them interchangeably, though. A bit of confusion: Boston College is technically a university but there is already a Boston University. BC is also technically not in Boston. I could be wrong, but I do believe that in the U.K. "college" is what they call the year between high school and university. Something like the equivalent of a year at a CC after HS in the U.S. or a 5th year of HS. College in the U.K. prepares students for university and I believe the term "grad school" is rather new to the U.K. , so in a way I think you are correct.

I applied to the Hydrological Sciences Graduate Group. Between my two POIs and their labs (who both take on ecology students), they are currently working out funding and fellowships for admitted students. Not sure about other labs or graduate groups.

If they just finished reviewing apps I doubt everyone has received their invites yet, if anyone at all.

I did undergrad in Boston, but not at Harvard or MIT (also because they are in Cambridge ) Here is what I know: they are considered "brother" schools. Students at MIT can and do take courses at Harvard and Harvard students the same at MIT. Harvard is a heckofalot more rigorous than some may believe, but not as tough as MIT. MITs entire academic model is based around training students to think like engineers, regardless of major. Harvard, not so much. MIT has the highest rate of student suicides amongst U.S. universities. Harvard has the second (according to the Boston Globe). At MIT, they say IHTFP (I Hate This Fudging Place). I don't think Harvard has an equivalent. Both will open doors for careers in academia. Harvard has the edge, however, as the Ivies are more known for producing teachers and professors. MIT is better for industry and entrepreneurship. Everyone knows that Boston gets cold in the winter. What I do not think people realize is that Boston/Cambridge gets an insane amount of snow. *to add* Wellesley College is the "sister" school to MIT.

I do not recall ever having such dreams myself, and this is my second time through the process. 1. Definitely! 2. Yup, life goes on. 3. In terms of age amongst Grad Cafe users, I am somewhere in the middle. I already have an established career, hobbies, likes, and in general, a life. Not getting in will not change any of that for me. 4. I sure hope so!

Out of an initial selection of 22 programs I worked the list down to 12. In the end, I will most likely only apply to 5 tops (EEB biology programs have later due dates).

Last year they all came in M-F during the evening. West Coast schools came in later in the evening because of time zones. This is so true in the Biology sub-forum, and you know, because Results said so. "Someone posted in Results they got an interview at X. I thought invites were not going out until later in the month. I didn't get one. Does that mean I'm screwed?" "Yes" "Well, not really. I called my POI at X and he said they did not send out the invites yet" "Crap! I saw that in Results, too! I didn't get one either. My life is over" "lol guys. I called my POI at X this morning. He assures me they did not send out any invites" "He was just being nice. You got rejected" "Yeah, someone posted in Results they were rejected from X. Probably because he didn't get an interview" I have a landline, quite useful with the faxes. Actually, I have one because of my alarm system. It's currently cheaper with the landline than it would be to go wireless/wifi. Plus if power goes out (which has happened 3 times over the last two years, each for roughly 5 days a piece) it still works (both the phone and the alarm).

I was lucky, back when I was vegan the majority of my friends were also vegan or vegetarian, including those I wound up dating. My current GF tells me to cook veg all time yet 9/10 when I do she takes two bites, makes a few positive comments, then barely touches the rest of her plate. She always then claims she is not hungry, had a huge lunch that day (why she thinks I have not caught on by now is beyond me, she uses this exact same excuse each and every time!), then goes for a large bowl of ice cream. The irony is that there are many, many, dishes and food items that are vegetarian or vegan that most meat and potatoes types would not even second guess. Mac and cheese immediately comes to mind. I mean, does your husband expect the noodles to made of steak? Yet, tell them that the dish is vegetarian/vegan and they all of a sudden won't like it.

When you wrote, "...otherwise, if I were you I, wouldn't be worried nor would I...", it was directed at me. This is the part that is confusing. You begin the sentence with a general comment on the situation as it may apply to other members then switch the comment directly towards me half way through. I obviously have no reason to be worried yet, so another point of confusion is where you got that idea. And yes, I have went back to the beginning of our conversation (which began with us both responding to ballwera) and I do not see where you would get that impression. All I wrote was that for me, personally, it was better for me to know earlier than later. Why? Because although I am no means an old dog I am also far removed from being a young pup. I have obligations and responsibilities that make it more of challenge for me to pack up and move out-of-state than, say, it would for a typical 23 year old. So the sooner I know the better it will be for me. I imagine for others simply knowing sooner would provide some piece of mind, but I dunno. "I get that you applied to smaller programs with less evidence seen in results and you are a masters applicant mostly as well as having applied to programs with late deadlines. So under those presumptions...why would anyone be freaking out about not getting an interview in your situation if A. your program doesn't give interviews and B. none of the deadlines had passed yet or just recently? Clearly the people saying "I just want to know I'm officially rejected" have some reason to believe they aren't admitted be it that interviews have been posted and/or they are seeing results in the results search for their program, otherwise if I were you I, wouldn't be worried nor would I be posting about wanting an official rejection since it's so easy to simply reject someone when its not even a situation that would be happening yet."

Well, I'll be a hellofalot older than ya'll.

There is evidence that our brains slow down as we age, but you need to look at this in a different perspective. In general what cognition tests test is not breadth of knowledge but instead speed of recall. Here is the thing, the older one gets the more information they know. New research is suggesting that the more information we know, the slower it is to recall as we have more information to dig through. The classic example is of two jugglers. The younger juggler can keep three balls in the air 95% of time. The older juggler can keep five balls in the air 90% of the time. Which one is the better juggler? Another way to think about it is with you computer. Install a new hard drive and only place a few word documents onto it. Later on, after months of use, when you have hundreds of thousands of files on your drive, searching for those word documents takes slightly longer. Did your computer become stupider? Older people tend to forget names more often. How many names do you think an older person has to remember? Why more than a 20 year old, that's for sure. Authors tend to not create their best works until they are in their 50s. Scientists, while producing more output earlier in life, tend to not produce their best, break-through, research until around age 45 or so. How many Nobel Laureates are under the age of 40? So, what can you do? In my opinion the three best things you can do to improve cognition are: 1. Exercise. Nothing strenuous, a nice 30 minute walk a few times per week would work. 2. Sleep. Even if you are in bed for 8 hours are you truly sleeping for 8 hours? Just because your lights are out for X hours does not mean you are getting X hours of deep sleep. 3. Drink more water. Dehydration is known to cause a decrease in cognitive ability. The thing is, you may not feel thirsty or know you are dehydrated. By the way, coffee/tea, although diuretics, have been proven to not be the cause of dehydration. Other considerations: -This may be a little new-agey for you tastes, but if you can, practicing mindful meditation may help. -Stress reduction. Exercise is great for this. -Here is another one that may sound corny: speak your mind. There is evidence to support the idea that not expressing your emotions leads to decline in ability to form and recall memory. -Stop eating processed foods. There is evidence to support the idea that ingesting certain food additives leads to cognitive decline.

Eating out is the main culprit. Even if you are eating from the dollar menu it quickly adds up. My GF and I were spending over $100 a week just on dining out and then still spending upwards of another $100 per week on groceries. We wasted a lot of food do to spoilage. We do not eat out nearly as often these days and have taken to make it a point to eat the foods we buy. This saving us big bucks for sure. It also depends on your habits. Prior to my current GF I rarely bought snack foods or ate out and the meals I prepared were more simple. I also shopped on a near daily basis and only bought what I immediately needed/wanted. As an example, if I made spaghetti I would cook a modest amount of noodles, crush a tomato and garlic, and mix in olive oil, salt/pepper, with an herb or two. Sometimes I would a can of tuna. The GF on the other hand feels the need to keep the fridge, freezer, and pantry fully stocked at all times. Personally I believe that the more food in the house = the more food one is going to eat, but she does not share this sentiment. I have a suspicion that her grandparents were preppers, her mother is the same way. A lot of food goes to waste with her system and her answer is to attempt to eat more of it, not buy less. Going with the spaghetti example, she will add a pound or more of ground meat to two or more jars of sauce plus added onion, garlic, and so on. She will then cook an entire box of noodles and mind you this is only for two people. Her preference is to eat what is essentially a bowl of sauce with a handful of noodles and will rarely eat the leftovers. Granted, she only ends up consuming what could considered a normal portion size (for an American) but still, a ton goes to waste unless I feel like eating spaghetti for the rest of the week. I have recently taken to freezing the leftover sauce. Now, I have a freezer full of frozen sauce. Personally, I think $40/week is reasonable for one person without having to resort to the Ramen diet (unless, of course, you build your own ramen from scratch. To add: coffee is huge expenditure as well. A buck fifty per cup might not seem like much, but assuming you consume two cups per day (and why on earth would you want to do that! Coffee is your friend ), over the course of the month that comes out to $90/month. Even if you buy the gourmet grounds at say $10/pound, if you brew at home you could save $50+/month alone; even more if you buy a large container of say Folgers, which could realistically last one person an entire month. I have a Korean friend who once informed me that in Korea they use beans as the meat substitute instead of "fake meats" (this was back when I was vegan). A bag of dried beans can be as low as under $1 and goes a lot farther than say a lump of Tofurky.

Typically, yes and usually for reasons of nepotism. Also, considering that in academia one never knows where they will find jobs, or how often they may have to move, it is generally seen as a good "learning experience" to attend graduate school elsewhere. Of course this is not the case across the board; some do attend both undergrad and grad school at the same institution. The more competitive the program the least likely this will happen, though.