shadowclaw

Thanks for all of your input! I just wanted to make sure I wasn't overreacting to this. I don't really need to have a talk with my assistant TA since the term is over and I will have a different person next term. However, if it happens again with someone else, I'll feel a lot better about saying something!

@Pitangus I feel for you! That's incredibly rough that he has a good job and doesn't want to move... maybe an amazing opportunity will pop up somewhere else that he won't be able to resist? I feel like this is also a really crappy time to be graduating with any type of environmentally-related degree with budget cuts looming for federally agencies, and I imagine state agencies are going to start feeling the pain, too, as federal funding stops trickling down to them. Good luck to you, though! I hope when you've passed the defense hurdle that doors swing open. @Need Coffee in an IV My husband loves to vent, and he definitely sees the disappointment on my face! Sometimes he'll say something and I'll look a bit sad, and he'll be like, "We're still moving, right? You're not trying to stay here, right? You know I'll lose my mind, right?" I sometimes wonder if moving to a different apartment might brighten his mood. We're in the middle of a small city that quite frankly is ugly and we're less than a five minute drive from the mall and a bunch of stores and restaurants. He's lived in the country his entire life and the city is not jiving too well with him. I also spent most of my life in the country, but I did spend several years in the 'burbs, so I'm better acclimated to living with neighbors close by and businesses a short drive away. However, life would be way better if we could live in the rural area between this city and the city my school is in (it's about a 20 minute drive away). Even living in my school's city would be better, especially the areas furthest from the school which have a much better atmosphere. I occasionally browse Craigslist to see what's out there, and I happened to see a listing for the perfect place... two bedroom house with a fenced yard in the country and actually closer to school and with cheaper rent. Too bad I still have like 6 months left on my lease Hopefully there will be something decent available around that time. When it came time to renew my lease last fall, there was nothing suitable and we really couldn't afford to go month-to-month on the rent (it's $250 higher that way). We really should move for financial reasons... this apartment costs too much and has amenities we don't use, like the fireplace, community swimming pool, and garage (well, we do use the garage for some storage, so I guess it's not a total waste). Plus we're paying all of this money and the apartment is kind of crappy. The previous tenant put huge gouges in the wood floors and left weird red stains on the carpets, the garage floor has a massive crack, the stone wall around the yard is literally crumbling apart and rats come out of it when it rains, and there are no outdoor outlets. The rain gutters were also messed up and water just poured out the sides of them in front of the door and they looked like they might fall off the house, but a year and a half after moving in and requesting the fix, we finally got new ones last week.

My husband is soooooo cranky about living in the PNW right now. This winter has been rainier than usual and I think we've seen the sun four times since October, so that may have something to do with it. However, he quite literally complains to me six out of seven days each week (sometimes all seven) about how much he hates our city, the weather, the state, his job, etc. Sometimes he just says that he can't wait for me to graduate so we can go back east, other times he goes into a long rant about why this place sucks. I feel bad for making him come out here, but at the same time, when I was applying to schools, this was the one place he said he was actually excited about and hoped I'd get into! The worst part is that I'm not sure I actually want to go back east. I like the west and people tend to be more aligned with my personal values than they were back home. Granted, there are some places in New England I wouldn't mind living in, but my husband's hope is to move back to the area we grew up in and honestly that's just not going to happen. The economy and job market there is terrible, and the likelihood of getting a decent-paying job (or any job) in my field is slim. He knows this, but he still talks about moving home all the time.

Hi everyone, I'm curious what everyone thinks about this. I TA science labs, and they are set up so that every TA has two sections - one in which they are the lead and are responsible for delivering lectures, grading, etc. and one in which they are the assist and mainly just help answering questions and checking in-class work for completion/understanding. Last week, my assistant TA had his fiance come meet him in my lead lab partway through the class period. I initially noticed her when she was talking to a student, so I thought maybe she was a student's friend who walked by and popped into the classroom to say hi. However, she didn't leave and my assist noticed that I caught onto her presence and came up to me to tell me who she was and asked if I minded that she stopped by. I said I didn't, even though I was a little annoyed that he didn't ask me beforehand. This week, she came again, this time at the beginning of lab (and again, no one asked me if I was ok with this). We spent a big chunk of the lab time doing student presentations, and almost the entire time students were presenting, those two were cuddled up in the corner (although they were paying attention to the presentations). Bringing your significant other to lab feels a bit unprofessional to me, and snuggling during lab feels extremely unprofessional to me. I haven't said anything about it since the term is now over, but I feel like it was really rude to bring her without asking and that students should not have seen them cuddling (not sure if any actually did, but still). What's everyone's opinion on this?

Good advice, but not entirely practical in a small college town. I already park in one of the least desirable locations on campus because it is far from academic buildings. Everything is permitted, so I can't park in a more expensive lot without first purchasing a daily permit for it and printing it at home. There is also no valet parking anywhere for probably a 30 mile radius. Now, there are a few metered placed around the perimeter of campus, plus free two hour parking extending about half a mile into the residential part of town. However, these spots are always filled because they either offer quick access to buildings or they're free. The gravel lot is my only real alternative, and to be quite honest, I usually forget it's there because it's new.

@angesradieux I totally understand your disappointment with family members who like to take but don't give too often. My parents and I have experienced a lot of this from my sister and niece. My sister separated from her husband within a year of having her daughter. My parents and I played a big role raising my niece when my sister moved back home for a little while and also for the 8 years she spent in college. My niece was at our house all the time for probably the first 12 years of her life. I even drove her to school half an hour away in the morning during my first two years of college, which was extraordinarily inconvenient (at least gas was cheap then) and meant I couldn't schedule morning classes because that would make me a jerk because my sister's morning clinicals were apparently more important than my education. You'd think that because of those many years of free child care and sacrifices, they'd be happy to do things for my parents now and then. My mom is eternally asking my niece to visit and she only lives 15 minutes away, but she will only show up on holidays and only if dinner time doesn't conflict with her boyfriend's family's schedule. She didn't even come to Christmas dinner this year. My mom also asked my sister if she could host Christmas eve dinner since my mom is getting old and cooking two dinners back to back is hard. My sister did it once and said it was too much for her to do. So now I just cook one of the meals. My parents also love to decorate for the holidays but it's a lot of work for them now. I'm 3000 miles away and can't help, and neither my niece or sister will help them, even if my parents offer them money. Smh.

@Skyride Season and @Sleam Oregon (and Corvallis) is a great place to live. It IS quite rainy in the winter, though! The upside is that there's rarely any snow on the valley floor (making getting around in winter easier) yet snow is a relatively short drive away. Summers are full of sunshine and are very rain-free (I think it rained twice last summer). The coast is about an hour away from Corvallis, forest hiking is just a few minutes away, and you can even get to the desert in about 3 hours. Finding housing in town can be challenging at times. There are always lots of places for rent, but if you have any specific requirements (e.g., garage, pet-friendly, washer/dryer hookups), it can get expensive and difficult to get. I don't know what Michigan prices are like, but you can find 1 and 2 bedroom apartments (no pets) for $500-$600. Once you add pets to the equation, that price range changes to closer to $1000, although there are definitely pet-friendly apartments around $800, but they aren't always available. A solution to this is to live outside of Corvallis. Philomath is a good choice because there's regular bus service into Corvallis and it's right next door. All Corvallis Transit buses are free, by the way. The lowest prices I've seen are in Albany and Lebanon, but they are each about 10 miles from Corvallis. This wouldn't work well for you, Skyride, although there is a bus between Albany and Corvallis. However, it only runs until 6 pm and depending on where you are in Albany, you'll have to take an Albany bus to either the Amtrak station or community college to catch the bus to Corvallis (Albany buses are also free to OSU students). Sleam, this might be a good option for you if you're willing to drive. There are a number of pet-friendly 2 bedroom apartments in both Albany and Lebanon between $700-800, and you might be able to find cheaper ones if you search Craigslist daily. I live in Albany, and it takes me about 20 minutes to leave my apartment and get into a parking spot at OSU, so it's not a long drive at all. However, I'd also like to point out that Albany isn't nearly as nice as Corvallis, but it is next to I-5, which is great for trips to Portland and elsewhere. Personally, I would use Craigslist to find an apartment over something like Realtor.com or Zillow. They mostly only give you the big apartment complexes (which are fine) and you miss out on the little guys who only have a few units. Something else about finding an apartment in this area... many landlords are wary of renting to someone not already living in this region. I came from the east coast, and was turned down by several people because they "felt uncomfortable renting to someone who currently lives so far away." I assume they were concerned that I wouldn't actually come. Also, one of the rental companies that manage a lot of the properties in Corvallis will not let you apply for an apartment until you've gone to see it first. That works if you come for a visit and can tour several apartments (or just show up and stay in a hotel until you find something).

I am really, really pissed off right now. There are a number of fellowships offered by the graduate school in which each program eligible for it can nominate one student for it. There is one fellowship in particular that I was interested in that is for STEM graduate students, and while it isn't the most lucrative fellowship, I would be set for next year if I received it. Most departments sent out an email about this fellowship and others back in December asking faculty to nominate students. My advisor got this email through her home department (I'm in an interdisciplinary program and don't have a true home department) and asked me if I met the requirements, etc. and I said yes. However, the head of my program hadn't sent out the nomination requests yet. I sent the head an email inquiring about it, and she replied back that she didn't send out an email yet because she was expecting more applications over the holiday and wanted to give those students an opportunity to compete for fellowships. However, she would be sending out the request and if more than one student was nominated by the faculty, she would put together a committee to review each student's fellowship application package (statement, CV, letters of recommendation, transcript) and decide who ranked the highest. Fast forward to now. I had been thinking about the fellowship and knew the due date was approaching sometime in February, but I wasn't sure exactly when nominations were due to the graduate school. I wrote my statement, spruced up my CV, and had my co-advisors write me letters. Everything was ready and we were just waited for that email request so we could send my materials along. The day before the deadline (and technically less than 24 hours before the deadline), I get an email from the head saying that an incoming student was nominated by their advisor and she was going to submit that student as the nomination for the fellowship, but if I was interested in a specific other fellowship, she would nominate me for that (the other fellowship wasn't even a true fellowship - it was more like a cash bonus and you would have to have another source of funding because it was so small). To top that off, I got a second email that was a group email saying that multiple students were interested in this other fellowship, so if we want to be considered, let her know before the end of the day so she could decide who among us would be nominated. While I am pissed that I'm missing out on a potential fellowship, what I'm really pissed off about is that my program head basically lied to me in the original email. There was no committee to review the nomination packages like she claimed there'd be. There was no objectivity of any sort. I know exactly what happened. She's obsessed with growing our program and has been focusing the program's financial resources towards new students. So since a new applicant was nominated by a faculty member, she probably decided just to nominate them for the fellowship so that if they won, they would almost certainly decide to come here. Plus since she waits until the last minute for everything, she probably didn't have time for a committee to review everything. It's also not the first time that she's gone back on her word. The graduate school offers travel awards and every term one student per program can receive funding. There's a window each term for requests to come in, and my program head has promised to notify us every term when requests are due to her and that she'll objectively decide on who gets funding. The one time I requested funding, she told me that the week before someone sent her a request and she didn't think anyone else wanted money, so she already submitted their request to the graduate school (even though the request window was still open). It really makes me wish I could move into a different program... I probably could, but seeing as I'm almost halfway through...

Today was another reminder that social anxiety never really goes away. I came to school at the usual time for my morning class, but instead of there being lots of open parking spots in the lot I'm permitted for (like there usually is), every single spot was filled. About 12 other vehicles were searching the lot like vultures. I get so annoyed when this happens. The school hosts various conferences and meetings, and they always let the public park in my lot, including buses which will take up 4+ parking spaces because they park sideways. In my year and a half here, they have only made an announcement about one of these events once. Today was not that day. Anyway, after driving around the lot for 5 - 10 minutes, I decided to head over to the crappy gravel parking lot which anyone with any permit can park in. It's far away from everything, but there were spots. There's a bus stop right by the lot, but the bus went by as I was parking. So I walk to my usual parking lot to catch a bus there, but I just miss it. So eventually a bus comes and it's exactly when class starts. I'm hoping the bus will get up to my building quickly, but no. There were people at every stop along the way and it took forever. So when I finally get to the building, I'm already 10 minutes late. Up until this point, I was fine with walking in late. But then I thought about the layout of the room and how everyone sits towards the back and close to the door. If I went in, I'd essentially have to ask everyone in one of the rows to move their chairs in so I can get to the other side of the room. It would be a huge distraction. After thinking about this, I suddenly felt a wave of anxiety wash over me. I resisted the urge to vomit, but I just stood there outside the building staring at it, trying to reason with my brain that being late is better than not being there at all, that a few seconds of making people move wasn't so horrible, that other people are often late to class and no one says anything to them. But no, my brain was having none of it. So after about 5 minutes of standing there like a weirdo, I turned and headed for the library. Sigh. I feel quite bad about myself now. I'm supposed to have this under control. Granted, I didn't vomit or cry and I don't have the shakes, but I still let it get the best of me.

Some short-term goals: Get out into the field in the next few weeks to get a good grasp of what my future field sites are going to look like Get my PhD project details nailed down and have a study design completed by mid-March Identify and get permission/permits for field sites by mid-May Find the last member of my committee Buy new tires and get some other services done on my vehicle ASAP Write up an abstract to submit for the upcoming ESA meeting by mid-February Apply for some fellowships and grants Some long-term goals Do more real cooking (less crap like fishsticks in oven, more creating meals from scratch) Eat better Get into shape/Lose some weight (more focused on the fitness) Drink more water Clean the apartment more often More camping I know everyone makes resolutions about losing weight, eating well, etc. and then falls off the wagon after a month or so. However, most of my long-term goals revolve around this theme. I gained a hefty amount of weight in undergrad, but I was able to lose a lot of it towards the end because I ended up being pretty active. Grad school has made finding time for fitness a challenge and my husband's love of fast food and other garbage has had a terrible influence on me, so I've porked up. It's rather disgraceful since I'm a field biologist... I should be lean! My hiking ability has gone down the tubes as well. A few years ago I could do a 12 mile hike on a moderate trail with an overnight pack no problem. Now hiking half a mile up an incline with nothing on my back is like "oh my god! Can't breathe!" and I'm ready to crumple into a ball. I really need to get into shape for the summer field season, and I need to stop eating trash.

This happens even to extremely seasoned professors. I took a math class in undergrad that had some very specific policies regarding takehome exams and dropping the lowest exam score. It was a spring semester course and we were in a region that typically had several snow days or at least delays. So that we could actually finish everything in the course but still leave room for questions and whatnot during class (as well as provide flexibility for snow days), she gave us two or three takehome exams and our lowest in-class exam score would be dropped (since we should do well on the takehomes due to it being open book and having access to the internet). This was in the syllabus. However, in the event that we got a lot of snow, she would substitute more takehome exams for our in-class exams and if we had more than X number of takehome exams, no exams scores would be dropped. This was also in the syllabus, and all of it was explained to us on the first day. Wouldn't you know, it snowed a lot that semester and we had a lot of takehome exams, and we got past that magic number. When the professor reminded everyone when passing back the last takehome (which was also the last exam since we had a freak ice storm at the end of the term) that no scores would be dropped, the class freaked out. Like students were actually yelling at the professor angrily. She relented and said she'd still drop the lowest in-class exam, but that wasn't good enough. Students actually yelled at her even more saying that they didn't even try on this last exam because the lowest score was supposed to be dropped. The professor didn't yield, and probably 90% of the students went to the Dean to complain.

I'm feeling both annoyed and grateful right now about a lab meeting I can't attend this upcoming term. One of the labs in my research area decided to have an open invitation to lab meetings for anyone interested in our area of research. I went last term. Each week we'd read a background paper and then someone would present proposed research, preliminary results, etc. and ask us questions as well as take questions from us. It was basically so everyone could get feedback and help with research from a diverse group of people. It wasn't a lot of work, but it did eat up a few hours of my time each week. When it came time to present my stuff, half the people didn't show up, nobody answered any of the questions I had for them, and they hardly had anything to say. It was a pretty useless session for me. We did a poll for everyone's availability to schedule the meeting for next term, and it came down to either excluding me or the wife of one of the lab's postdocs (and she wasn't a student... she was enrolled elsewhere and was finishing her degree remotely). As you can guess, the professor chose to pick a time that was good for his postdoc's wife. So I'm feeling really annoyed that the professor isn't putting enrolled students first, especially since our school has an annoying policy for the summer term that if you use any of the faculty's time or resources during the summer, you have to register for credits, which for many students would mean paying out of pocket (not that it's really enforced). On the other hand, I didn't really want to put in the effort of reading all those papers and giving other people feedback only to have them slack off when it was my turn.

This reminds me of a manager I had back in the day. It was when tiny phones were the big thing (flip phone era). Even with a ridiculously small phone, it still popped out of her pocket and into the toilet... and she flushed it. She didn't realize it had fallen in until it was being sucked down the hole.

Arg! Pockets! I've been thinking of sewing in bigger pockets. It would be nice if my cell phone wouldn't pop out every time I stood up.

I think I've been looking at this thread's title since I started my graduate education. Every time I see it, I think "hell no." I gained a lot of weight during undergrad, but then lost a lot of weight towards the end through dieting and just being more active. Got to grad school, gained it all back plus some. I didn't eat a lot during the week, but I definitely binged on crap on the weekends. My activity level also severely tanked. My undergrad school had hiking trails that I'd walk daily and I worked as a waitress running around 40+ hours per week. My masters school had no trails or anything like that, plus was a good 80 minute car ride from home 3 - 5 days per week. I spent a lot of time sitting in my car and even more time in the library or wherever reading. I never sat so much in my life as I did during those two years. Now that I'm doing my PhD, I'm definitely not in my car that much, but I do spend a lot of time reading and doing computer work. Unfortunately, my workload has made me turn to crappy processed food, which isn't helping me drop the pounds. I bought an exercise bike to use while reading at home, so hopefully that will help. I just need to improve my diet, which is hard since my husband loves eating garbage and gets upset when I cook healthy meals, and I really don't have time to cook two different meals.

@Need Coffee in an IV one of the biggest blowouts with my mom was about my wedding. We were engaged for a while and originally were planning a big traditional wedding, but we both hated the idea (we're very introverted and quiet, although I've gotten louder). So we wanted to elope but felt bad about leaving our parents out of it, so we ended up going on a cruise with our parents and getting married at one of the stops. Really ended up being way cheaper than a traditional wedding, too. My siblings didn't come for a variety of reasons. One brother was in jail, one couldn't afford to take time off of work, one really didn't give a hoot, and my sister refused to find someone else to petsit for her (I used to petsit for her while she went on vacations to Europe with her daughter). I also invited my four closest friends, but two had babies and didn't want to bring them or leave them at home. The other two were available, but didn't have the $1000 for the flight and cruise ticket. These two are also my very best friends and honestly were far closer to me than any of my siblings. So I offered to help them out and pay whatever part of the cost they didn't have. I unwisely told this to my mom and she freaked. She was so offended that I wanted to spend part of my tax return so friends could go while my siblings sat at home. Really it wasn't all of my siblings - it was my sister and niece that she was pissed about not being there, and it was their own stubbornness that prevented it, not financial constraints. She didn't speak to me for several days and told my dad she wasn't going if my friends were. Eventually she made peace with it after we had a weird conversation where she went on and on about how wrong it was for me to pay for them to come to my wedding when they wouldn't be able to afford to buy me a nice wedding present, while I made a pretty rational argument for my side. Come to think of it, she gets pretty offended anytime someone treats their friends like family. My parents are old and are finally retiring in a few months. We traditionally hosted dinner for the big holidays. However, it's become a bit of a burden on my mom, my sister won't help her, and I'm not there anymore except for Christmas. Plus many family members that used to come to everything have families now and do their own thing for most holidays. My oldest brother invites them to everything at his house, but they hate going because he also invites his friends. She refuses to go over on Christmas eve because he not only invites his friends to the dinner, but gives them gifts! She is actually offended that he cares enough about his friends to give them small presents. This was way more information than anybody needs to know, but I'm in a mood! I love my mom dearly, but sometimes she just gets me going.

Yeah, my family can be really touchy sometimes, but usually they keep it reigned in and complain about the offending person after they leave. It was unusual for her to go off at my face like that, but not unprecedented. I don't think all sulfate-free systems are also silicone-free, but I believe ones that do still have silicone reduce the amount because it can build up on your hair and eventually cause it to become dry and unmanageable. So I try to limit my use of silicones so I don't have to use sulfate shampoo too often. It makes my scalp super dry and itchy. Most of the creams and treatments for hair in stores like Wal-Mart have a ton of silicone because it makes hair smooth, shiny, and tangle-free. That's terrible that strangers think it's ok to touch your hair! I mean, I totally understand the desire to touch other people's hair, clothes, dogs, etc. if you're curious about the texture, but that doesn't mean you do it. That's freaking rude! I personally don't mind that she recommended something to me, but her reaction to me was so uncalled for.

That's rough. Once I had some Alfredo pasta on the back seat and the container leaked. My husband (then boyfriend) didn't say anything about it when he took it out. It actually kind of baked solid in the sun so it didn't smell. However, when I found it and tried to clean it, I broke the "scent seal" and it smelled like vomit for a few days. My vent: while visiting my family for the holiday, I went to NYC for the day with my mom. After a day of my hair blowing all over and not brushing it or anything, she tells me that my hair looks dull and that I should take a bottle of hair cream she has home with me and start using it. I politely tell her that those hair products are loaded up with silicone (which makes hair shiny among other things) and that I don't want to use it because I use sulfate-free shampoo which doesn't do a good job washing away silicone and I'll end up with gunky dry hair. She became super offended that I turned down her offer of free hair stuff and essentially told me that I was being a brat and only used sulfate-free products so I could look down on everyone else for using unnatural silicones because I've turned into a west coast hippie. Which is bizarre because she's read my cranky Facebook rants about people who vilify certain products just because they contain difficult-to-pronounce ingredients or man-made compounds. The exchange really soured what was a great day in the city, although I did my best to let it go and enjoy the rest of my visit.

I'm visiting my family on the east coast (go to school on the west coast) for Christmas and I should be having a lovely time. I got here Monday and my husband will be joining me tomorrow, then we're heading back together on Tuesday. The problem is that I'm so worried about my dog. We adopted her in August and she's a rather clingy pup. My husband told me she has spent the last few days staring at the door and acting miserable without me there. Tonight, he dropped her off at the pet hotel. He said she actually seemed excited meeting the staff and other dogs, but I'm so worried that she's going to think she's been abandoned again and be completely depressed until we get back. It pains me to think of her alone in her kennel at night instead of snuggled in the bed with us.

I'd never heard of Google metrics for journals before, only impact factors. Thanks for the link! Looking through the journals in my field and their rankings according to Google, it greatly pleases me that the journal I recently published in has a much higher ranking than a journal I submitted to whose editor was a condescending and perhaps sexist a-hole (impact factor-wise, they are similar). You made my day.

You will make it through. I took 4 classes each quarter last year and TAed for two of those quarters (roughly 20 hours per week of work related to the TA position). Why did I do it? The tuition scholarship I had my first term required 12 credits, and all TA positions require 12 credits for some reason. It didn't occur to me to take 2 courses and fill the rest of my credits with thesis credits (which is what is normally done at my school) and my advisor didn't suggest it, either. There were weeks that were really tough, especially when everything was due at once, but I made it. Looking back, I'm rather happy I did it, because I finished probably 2/3 of my coursework. I now have time to finish the remaining coursework over the next few years plus complete a graduate certificate in university-level teaching (and of course do research!). Since I now have the luxury of taking only 1 or 2 courses per term, I decided to stick with just 2 courses this term. When chatting with my program director, I made a comment about thesis credits and she was shocked that I was taking some already. Her reasoning was that since the TA position pays for 12 - 16 credits, I should be taking all of those credits in coursework so that if I go onto an RA position which will only cover X number of credits, I won't have to worry about paying out of pocket for any courses or thesis credits. I guess it's not an unreasonable idea to prepare for potentially crappy tuition remission, but I think expecting people to take 4 classes on top of a high FTE TA position is a little unreasonable. She also discouraged my advisor from letting me do a field season of research this summer and doing my qualifying exams in the fall, just in case I failed (thanks for the confidence boost). It's by no means a university or program policy to do exams before research (in fact, most students in my program do two years of research before taking exams, and some have even procrastinated and did them the same year they defended their dissertation). So I have no idea why she was pushing that. Thankfully, my advisor told her I'd be fine.

I am wondering if your school is involved with CIRTL network. Here's a link to the list: https://www.cirtl.net/p/about-us-institutions It's an NSF-funded network of research universities and has a focus on training graduate students and post-docs for teaching STEM courses. However, the training is certainly applicable outside of STEM. If your school does participate, you can explore the options for coursework and workshops offered to meet the certification requirements. The first certification has a focus on diversity and several adult learning theories - it might be help you both improve your teaching as well as build confidence in your abilities.

I wouldn't worry about the rumors of low test scores. Either they are rumors and students typically do well, or they're not rumors and final grades get scaled up to the A-B range. Some students at my school in different STEM fields have mentioned that some of their courses are like this - students get surprisingly low scores on exams but still get A's and B's. I think it's an issue of professor expectations. A subject may be incredibly difficult, and if students can understand 50% of the information, it's worth an A. In another subject, understanding 50% of the material may be terrible. If you're concerned, I would have a chat with the professor. Perhaps they can give you some insight into their expectations.

If his policies related to the EPA, energy, climate change, etc. actually come to fruitation, the environment is fucked. I think I lost a friend when I pleaded with social media to explain what part of his platform was so damn amazing that it trumps his homophobic, racist, sexist, xenophobic, anti-science, and anti-environmental rhetoric and policies. I legitimately want to know. Instead, the response I got was that this person (who I didn't even know was a trump supporter) uses social media to look at people's pets and babies, not to be judged for their vote and told that their decision will hurt certain groups of people. I am certainly guilty of being judgmental, but for Pete's sake, don't complain about the few times I engage in political banter. Pets and babies are great, but seriously, discussing the future of our country and the potential harm to its minorities is pretty freaking important. I'm sorry if people want to live in some weird bubble where everything is rainbows and sunshine, but I for one want to use the social tools available to me to be informed and communicate.

There's a lot of great advice here and I don't have much to add. However, I'd like to point out that anyone with a legitimate need for a companion animal to help with depression, anxiety, stress, etc. can get a letter from their mental health professional recommending said animal for you to help you manage your disability. Per the fair housing act, landlords have to allow the animal and can't charge you a deposit or pet rent (although if the animal trashed the place, I'm sure the landlord could take money out of your security deposit or take you to court for the damages). In terms of finding a place to live after graduation, I would find it difficult to believe that there are any places where it's impossible to find pet-friendly housing. However, it might cost you a good chunk of change in deposits and/or pet rent. As previously mentioned, it's usually easier to cat-friendly apartments than dog-friendly, and small dogs are typically accommodated more often than big dogs. Also - when considering getting a pet, don't forget to remember that you will need to have money set aside for potential vet bills (or perhaps a credit card). Serious medical conditions are rare, but they happen. I just forked out over $700 for my dog and one of my cats. Dog got a UTI, and the vet visit, labs, medicine, and follow-up visit was $250. My cat got an upper respiratory infection which I made an appointment for, and in the three days I had to wait, the infection got into his eye and made a horrible infected ulcer. Regular vet visit plus an eye stain and medicine for respiratory infection was $100. Visit to ophthalmologist plus two follow-up visits was $250, and antibiotic eye drops were a whopping $155 for a tiny bottle. I even had to go to a regular pharmacy.