shadowclaw

The beard movement will pass, as most fashions do, and will one day reappear again. I remember reading an article that suggested we have reached the peak of the beard fad. The reasoning was that beards became popular because they were initially rare (and the novelty made them cool). Now that we are pretty saturated with beards, the novelty will wear off and some other rare fashion choice will catch on.

I also don't like the term bae, although honestly, I've only ever seen random Facebook posts making fun of it. I also don't like a lot of overused phrases that aren't really used correctly. Like when people were saying everything was epic. No, your sandwich is not epic. Yolo was kind of annoying, too, not because it was overused, but because I heard a lot of teens saying "you only yolo once."

Your department might also already have power point poster templates made up with the school logo and at the correct dimensions for their printer. You can also find a variety of templates on the internet that you can personalize.

Now that I have an acceptance to a PhD program, I thought I'd share my story from start to finish so you all can have some hope
 
I started my undergraduate career in 2003 at a very good university majoring in computer science. While my first semester went well, by the end of the second I started having some real issues with social anxiety, depression, and personal relationships and my GPA dropped below a 3.0. Things only got worse my second year, and I flat out failed everything because I stopped going to class (and as a result was dismissed from the school). So I went to much smaller, less known school that decided to give me a shot and tried to get my associates in IT. I got a 4.0 during both semesters I was there, partially because I had some friends there to help me through my problems and partially because I handled my anxiety better. However, I decided to give computer science a try again, so I had to transfer to a different school, since this one didn't offer it. At school # 3, I ended up double majoring in computer science and computer forensics. I did very well my first semester, but my second semester was mediocre, because I was getting A's in some classes and F's in others (basically I flunked classes with attendance policies). I switched my major to English because I thought I might be more likely to suffer through my anxiety symptoms and go to class if I was taking courses I was more interested in. It didn't work, and I continued to fail classes that had attendance policies. During my fourth semester, I withdrew. I went back to college # 2 and enrolled in a B.S. program in IT this time, but I still couldn't make it work. I failed everything yet again and was suspended. So I did a semester online at school # 4, which was a terrible idea because I had zero motivation to do the work when it was 100% online. After that debacle, I went back to school # 3 and tried computer forensics again. The only thing I passed was an archaeology course I took as an elective (which I absolutely loved!) and I ended up changing my major to anthropology at the end of the semester. The next semester actually went great, but I decided I wasn't going to be able to make a career out of archaeology, at least not with all of the crap in my academic history, which my advisor at the time told me would prevent me from getting into graduate school. 
 
So I went back to school # 2 (by this time it was 2010) and decided to go into a completely new direction that I had zero coursework in - biology! Since I had been suspended the previous semester I was there, I had to do a student success program, which involved weekly meetings with someone in the student success center and I had to go to the library for a certain number of hours every week to study and have a librarian sign off on it. I was also required to get tutoring in at least one subject, but I managed to get out of that because I was getting A's on all of my tests. So the success program actually did help keep me on track, and my professors were actually quite supportive of me (which I didn't really have before). Plus I really enjoyed my science classes, which were basically all I was taking because most of my gen ed requirements had long been satisfied. By the time I finished, my GPA at school # 2 was 3.59 and my major GPA was about 3.89. GPA for school # 1 was 1.79, # 3 was 2.28, and # 4 was 0.00. Across the board, my GPA was 2.80.
 
I initially applied to PhD programs my senior year (and my overall GPA was about 2.65 at this point, and my GPA at school # 2 was 3.52) and was rejected from all of them. I don't even think they looked beyond my overall GPA. My GRE scores were also V160, Q155, AW4.5. I did, however, get accepted to 3 masters programs. Two were unfunded, and one was partially funded (and a very good school). I went with one of the unfunded options, because it was close to enough to home to commute, it was cheaper than the partially funded program, and the thesis project was awesome. The graduate coordinator told me that it was my LOR's that got me in, because they were very hesitant with my horrid undergraduate performance. I did well in my classes, worked on a few projects other than my thesis that led to conference presentations, did some pretty awesome work on my thesis, and submitted a manuscript to a journal.
 
By the time this application season rolled around, I had a lot of research experience under my belt, plus the conferences and submitted paper. I also won several awards along the way, including the outstanding graduate award for my major at my undergraduate school. My masters GPA was 3.72 at application time, and I picked out three really good writers for my LOR's (graduate PI, undergraduate advisor/PI, and an undergraduate professor that I did a lot of work with). I was rejected pretty fast by three really good programs and got waitlisted at two others. However, I finally got accepted at Oregon State University.
 
So you can do it if you put the work in. You might have to do a masters degree to get there (and do it unfunded), but if you can prove that you can be a successful graduate student (and get some professors to sing your praises in LOR's), you can get into a PhD program.

I saw this one today and thought of this thread-
 
Oregon State University, Mechanical Engineering PhD, 20 Mar 2015:
 
"If it's a joke it's not funny at all! This is ridiculous. I had everything that they wanted and a lot more. Are they playing dice to get these results?"

Lucky!  My parents will pay for my phone once I'm in school, and my mom will give me $10 a week to eat out with friends, and my dad will give me $20 a week to tell him how research is going, and I think that is pretty cool.  My parents gave me 3 months of free rent after I graduated, and after that I had to pay them rent to live in their house.

Now that I have an acceptance to a PhD program, I thought I'd share my story from start to finish so you all can have some hope
 
I started my undergraduate career in 2003 at a very good university majoring in computer science. While my first semester went well, by the end of the second I started having some real issues with social anxiety, depression, and personal relationships and my GPA dropped below a 3.0. Things only got worse my second year, and I flat out failed everything because I stopped going to class (and as a result was dismissed from the school). So I went to much smaller, less known school that decided to give me a shot and tried to get my associates in IT. I got a 4.0 during both semesters I was there, partially because I had some friends there to help me through my problems and partially because I handled my anxiety better. However, I decided to give computer science a try again, so I had to transfer to a different school, since this one didn't offer it. At school # 3, I ended up double majoring in computer science and computer forensics. I did very well my first semester, but my second semester was mediocre, because I was getting A's in some classes and F's in others (basically I flunked classes with attendance policies). I switched my major to English because I thought I might be more likely to suffer through my anxiety symptoms and go to class if I was taking courses I was more interested in. It didn't work, and I continued to fail classes that had attendance policies. During my fourth semester, I withdrew. I went back to college # 2 and enrolled in a B.S. program in IT this time, but I still couldn't make it work. I failed everything yet again and was suspended. So I did a semester online at school # 4, which was a terrible idea because I had zero motivation to do the work when it was 100% online. After that debacle, I went back to school # 3 and tried computer forensics again. The only thing I passed was an archaeology course I took as an elective (which I absolutely loved!) and I ended up changing my major to anthropology at the end of the semester. The next semester actually went great, but I decided I wasn't going to be able to make a career out of archaeology, at least not with all of the crap in my academic history, which my advisor at the time told me would prevent me from getting into graduate school. 
 
So I went back to school # 2 (by this time it was 2010) and decided to go into a completely new direction that I had zero coursework in - biology! Since I had been suspended the previous semester I was there, I had to do a student success program, which involved weekly meetings with someone in the student success center and I had to go to the library for a certain number of hours every week to study and have a librarian sign off on it. I was also required to get tutoring in at least one subject, but I managed to get out of that because I was getting A's on all of my tests. So the success program actually did help keep me on track, and my professors were actually quite supportive of me (which I didn't really have before). Plus I really enjoyed my science classes, which were basically all I was taking because most of my gen ed requirements had long been satisfied. By the time I finished, my GPA at school # 2 was 3.59 and my major GPA was about 3.89. GPA for school # 1 was 1.79, # 3 was 2.28, and # 4 was 0.00. Across the board, my GPA was 2.80.
 
I initially applied to PhD programs my senior year (and my overall GPA was about 2.65 at this point, and my GPA at school # 2 was 3.52) and was rejected from all of them. I don't even think they looked beyond my overall GPA. My GRE scores were also V160, Q155, AW4.5. I did, however, get accepted to 3 masters programs. Two were unfunded, and one was partially funded (and a very good school). I went with one of the unfunded options, because it was close to enough to home to commute, it was cheaper than the partially funded program, and the thesis project was awesome. The graduate coordinator told me that it was my LOR's that got me in, because they were very hesitant with my horrid undergraduate performance. I did well in my classes, worked on a few projects other than my thesis that led to conference presentations, did some pretty awesome work on my thesis, and submitted a manuscript to a journal.
 
By the time this application season rolled around, I had a lot of research experience under my belt, plus the conferences and submitted paper. I also won several awards along the way, including the outstanding graduate award for my major at my undergraduate school. My masters GPA was 3.72 at application time, and I picked out three really good writers for my LOR's (graduate PI, undergraduate advisor/PI, and an undergraduate professor that I did a lot of work with). I was rejected pretty fast by three really good programs and got waitlisted at two others. However, I finally got accepted at Oregon State University.
 
So you can do it if you put the work in. You might have to do a masters degree to get there (and do it unfunded), but if you can prove that you can be a successful graduate student (and get some professors to sing your praises in LOR's), you can get into a PhD program.

Now that I have an acceptance to a PhD program, I thought I'd share my story from start to finish so you all can have some hope
 
I started my undergraduate career in 2003 at a very good university majoring in computer science. While my first semester went well, by the end of the second I started having some real issues with social anxiety, depression, and personal relationships and my GPA dropped below a 3.0. Things only got worse my second year, and I flat out failed everything because I stopped going to class (and as a result was dismissed from the school). So I went to much smaller, less known school that decided to give me a shot and tried to get my associates in IT. I got a 4.0 during both semesters I was there, partially because I had some friends there to help me through my problems and partially because I handled my anxiety better. However, I decided to give computer science a try again, so I had to transfer to a different school, since this one didn't offer it. At school # 3, I ended up double majoring in computer science and computer forensics. I did very well my first semester, but my second semester was mediocre, because I was getting A's in some classes and F's in others (basically I flunked classes with attendance policies). I switched my major to English because I thought I might be more likely to suffer through my anxiety symptoms and go to class if I was taking courses I was more interested in. It didn't work, and I continued to fail classes that had attendance policies. During my fourth semester, I withdrew. I went back to college # 2 and enrolled in a B.S. program in IT this time, but I still couldn't make it work. I failed everything yet again and was suspended. So I did a semester online at school # 4, which was a terrible idea because I had zero motivation to do the work when it was 100% online. After that debacle, I went back to school # 3 and tried computer forensics again. The only thing I passed was an archaeology course I took as an elective (which I absolutely loved!) and I ended up changing my major to anthropology at the end of the semester. The next semester actually went great, but I decided I wasn't going to be able to make a career out of archaeology, at least not with all of the crap in my academic history, which my advisor at the time told me would prevent me from getting into graduate school. 
 
So I went back to school # 2 (by this time it was 2010) and decided to go into a completely new direction that I had zero coursework in - biology! Since I had been suspended the previous semester I was there, I had to do a student success program, which involved weekly meetings with someone in the student success center and I had to go to the library for a certain number of hours every week to study and have a librarian sign off on it. I was also required to get tutoring in at least one subject, but I managed to get out of that because I was getting A's on all of my tests. So the success program actually did help keep me on track, and my professors were actually quite supportive of me (which I didn't really have before). Plus I really enjoyed my science classes, which were basically all I was taking because most of my gen ed requirements had long been satisfied. By the time I finished, my GPA at school # 2 was 3.59 and my major GPA was about 3.89. GPA for school # 1 was 1.79, # 3 was 2.28, and # 4 was 0.00. Across the board, my GPA was 2.80.
 
I initially applied to PhD programs my senior year (and my overall GPA was about 2.65 at this point, and my GPA at school # 2 was 3.52) and was rejected from all of them. I don't even think they looked beyond my overall GPA. My GRE scores were also V160, Q155, AW4.5. I did, however, get accepted to 3 masters programs. Two were unfunded, and one was partially funded (and a very good school). I went with one of the unfunded options, because it was close to enough to home to commute, it was cheaper than the partially funded program, and the thesis project was awesome. The graduate coordinator told me that it was my LOR's that got me in, because they were very hesitant with my horrid undergraduate performance. I did well in my classes, worked on a few projects other than my thesis that led to conference presentations, did some pretty awesome work on my thesis, and submitted a manuscript to a journal.
 
By the time this application season rolled around, I had a lot of research experience under my belt, plus the conferences and submitted paper. I also won several awards along the way, including the outstanding graduate award for my major at my undergraduate school. My masters GPA was 3.72 at application time, and I picked out three really good writers for my LOR's (graduate PI, undergraduate advisor/PI, and an undergraduate professor that I did a lot of work with). I was rejected pretty fast by three really good programs and got waitlisted at two others. However, I finally got accepted at Oregon State University.
 
So you can do it if you put the work in. You might have to do a masters degree to get there (and do it unfunded), but if you can prove that you can be a successful graduate student (and get some professors to sing your praises in LOR's), you can get into a PhD program.

Now that I have an acceptance to a PhD program, I thought I'd share my story from start to finish so you all can have some hope
 
I started my undergraduate career in 2003 at a very good university majoring in computer science. While my first semester went well, by the end of the second I started having some real issues with social anxiety, depression, and personal relationships and my GPA dropped below a 3.0. Things only got worse my second year, and I flat out failed everything because I stopped going to class (and as a result was dismissed from the school). So I went to much smaller, less known school that decided to give me a shot and tried to get my associates in IT. I got a 4.0 during both semesters I was there, partially because I had some friends there to help me through my problems and partially because I handled my anxiety better. However, I decided to give computer science a try again, so I had to transfer to a different school, since this one didn't offer it. At school # 3, I ended up double majoring in computer science and computer forensics. I did very well my first semester, but my second semester was mediocre, because I was getting A's in some classes and F's in others (basically I flunked classes with attendance policies). I switched my major to English because I thought I might be more likely to suffer through my anxiety symptoms and go to class if I was taking courses I was more interested in. It didn't work, and I continued to fail classes that had attendance policies. During my fourth semester, I withdrew. I went back to college # 2 and enrolled in a B.S. program in IT this time, but I still couldn't make it work. I failed everything yet again and was suspended. So I did a semester online at school # 4, which was a terrible idea because I had zero motivation to do the work when it was 100% online. After that debacle, I went back to school # 3 and tried computer forensics again. The only thing I passed was an archaeology course I took as an elective (which I absolutely loved!) and I ended up changing my major to anthropology at the end of the semester. The next semester actually went great, but I decided I wasn't going to be able to make a career out of archaeology, at least not with all of the crap in my academic history, which my advisor at the time told me would prevent me from getting into graduate school. 
 
So I went back to school # 2 (by this time it was 2010) and decided to go into a completely new direction that I had zero coursework in - biology! Since I had been suspended the previous semester I was there, I had to do a student success program, which involved weekly meetings with someone in the student success center and I had to go to the library for a certain number of hours every week to study and have a librarian sign off on it. I was also required to get tutoring in at least one subject, but I managed to get out of that because I was getting A's on all of my tests. So the success program actually did help keep me on track, and my professors were actually quite supportive of me (which I didn't really have before). Plus I really enjoyed my science classes, which were basically all I was taking because most of my gen ed requirements had long been satisfied. By the time I finished, my GPA at school # 2 was 3.59 and my major GPA was about 3.89. GPA for school # 1 was 1.79, # 3 was 2.28, and # 4 was 0.00. Across the board, my GPA was 2.80.
 
I initially applied to PhD programs my senior year (and my overall GPA was about 2.65 at this point, and my GPA at school # 2 was 3.52) and was rejected from all of them. I don't even think they looked beyond my overall GPA. My GRE scores were also V160, Q155, AW4.5. I did, however, get accepted to 3 masters programs. Two were unfunded, and one was partially funded (and a very good school). I went with one of the unfunded options, because it was close to enough to home to commute, it was cheaper than the partially funded program, and the thesis project was awesome. The graduate coordinator told me that it was my LOR's that got me in, because they were very hesitant with my horrid undergraduate performance. I did well in my classes, worked on a few projects other than my thesis that led to conference presentations, did some pretty awesome work on my thesis, and submitted a manuscript to a journal.
 
By the time this application season rolled around, I had a lot of research experience under my belt, plus the conferences and submitted paper. I also won several awards along the way, including the outstanding graduate award for my major at my undergraduate school. My masters GPA was 3.72 at application time, and I picked out three really good writers for my LOR's (graduate PI, undergraduate advisor/PI, and an undergraduate professor that I did a lot of work with). I was rejected pretty fast by three really good programs and got waitlisted at two others. However, I finally got accepted at Oregon State University.
 
So you can do it if you put the work in. You might have to do a masters degree to get there (and do it unfunded), but if you can prove that you can be a successful graduate student (and get some professors to sing your praises in LOR's), you can get into a PhD program.

I initially considered the idea of packing up the car, shipping a few items, and buying all new furniture. It seemed like it would be cheaper than $2000. Then I realized how much stuff we actually have that we can't just get rid of... my husband's insulator collection would cost over $600 to ship, and that's probably a conservative estimate. I have an armoire that my grandmother gave me which will take up a lot of space in the car or be expensive to ship. One of the dressers is old but high quality. It would probably cost close to $1000 to buy something comparable, and even replacing both of our dressers with cheaper ones would still cost $500. A queen size bed frame and mattress would run us for at least $500 (if not more), and we'd also need a couch. Plus not all of my books, camping gear, etc. are going to fit in the car. It would be cheaper to ship than rebuy many of those items. Depending on if we decide to keep both cars or not, I would also have to ship my kayak, which I'm sure would be expensive due to its size. My canoe can go on the car roof.

So yeah, if I was 22 and heading across the country, I wouldn't have accrued much stuff yet, nor would I have a husband who also accrued a bunch of stuff. It would easy to just pack up the car and go. But I'm almost 30 and married, and I have a lot of things that have sentimental value, aren't made anymore, or are expensive. It's hard to leave that stuff behind, and what can be replaced would still cost a good chunk of change. Used furniture is actually a great way to go (pretty much all of my furniture is used aside from a walmart desk and entertainment center), but it's not always easy to find everything that you're looking for, and if you don't own a truck (or know somebody with a truck) it's hard to get some furniture home.

Now that I have an acceptance to a PhD program, I thought I'd share my story from start to finish so you all can have some hope
 
I started my undergraduate career in 2003 at a very good university majoring in computer science. While my first semester went well, by the end of the second I started having some real issues with social anxiety, depression, and personal relationships and my GPA dropped below a 3.0. Things only got worse my second year, and I flat out failed everything because I stopped going to class (and as a result was dismissed from the school). So I went to much smaller, less known school that decided to give me a shot and tried to get my associates in IT. I got a 4.0 during both semesters I was there, partially because I had some friends there to help me through my problems and partially because I handled my anxiety better. However, I decided to give computer science a try again, so I had to transfer to a different school, since this one didn't offer it. At school # 3, I ended up double majoring in computer science and computer forensics. I did very well my first semester, but my second semester was mediocre, because I was getting A's in some classes and F's in others (basically I flunked classes with attendance policies). I switched my major to English because I thought I might be more likely to suffer through my anxiety symptoms and go to class if I was taking courses I was more interested in. It didn't work, and I continued to fail classes that had attendance policies. During my fourth semester, I withdrew. I went back to college # 2 and enrolled in a B.S. program in IT this time, but I still couldn't make it work. I failed everything yet again and was suspended. So I did a semester online at school # 4, which was a terrible idea because I had zero motivation to do the work when it was 100% online. After that debacle, I went back to school # 3 and tried computer forensics again. The only thing I passed was an archaeology course I took as an elective (which I absolutely loved!) and I ended up changing my major to anthropology at the end of the semester. The next semester actually went great, but I decided I wasn't going to be able to make a career out of archaeology, at least not with all of the crap in my academic history, which my advisor at the time told me would prevent me from getting into graduate school. 
 
So I went back to school # 2 (by this time it was 2010) and decided to go into a completely new direction that I had zero coursework in - biology! Since I had been suspended the previous semester I was there, I had to do a student success program, which involved weekly meetings with someone in the student success center and I had to go to the library for a certain number of hours every week to study and have a librarian sign off on it. I was also required to get tutoring in at least one subject, but I managed to get out of that because I was getting A's on all of my tests. So the success program actually did help keep me on track, and my professors were actually quite supportive of me (which I didn't really have before). Plus I really enjoyed my science classes, which were basically all I was taking because most of my gen ed requirements had long been satisfied. By the time I finished, my GPA at school # 2 was 3.59 and my major GPA was about 3.89. GPA for school # 1 was 1.79, # 3 was 2.28, and # 4 was 0.00. Across the board, my GPA was 2.80.
 
I initially applied to PhD programs my senior year (and my overall GPA was about 2.65 at this point, and my GPA at school # 2 was 3.52) and was rejected from all of them. I don't even think they looked beyond my overall GPA. My GRE scores were also V160, Q155, AW4.5. I did, however, get accepted to 3 masters programs. Two were unfunded, and one was partially funded (and a very good school). I went with one of the unfunded options, because it was close to enough to home to commute, it was cheaper than the partially funded program, and the thesis project was awesome. The graduate coordinator told me that it was my LOR's that got me in, because they were very hesitant with my horrid undergraduate performance. I did well in my classes, worked on a few projects other than my thesis that led to conference presentations, did some pretty awesome work on my thesis, and submitted a manuscript to a journal.
 
By the time this application season rolled around, I had a lot of research experience under my belt, plus the conferences and submitted paper. I also won several awards along the way, including the outstanding graduate award for my major at my undergraduate school. My masters GPA was 3.72 at application time, and I picked out three really good writers for my LOR's (graduate PI, undergraduate advisor/PI, and an undergraduate professor that I did a lot of work with). I was rejected pretty fast by three really good programs and got waitlisted at two others. However, I finally got accepted at Oregon State University.
 
So you can do it if you put the work in. You might have to do a masters degree to get there (and do it unfunded), but if you can prove that you can be a successful graduate student (and get some professors to sing your praises in LOR's), you can get into a PhD program.

They measure it from when you begin taking courses and they include "off" time, not just actual months spent in class. So for me, I started my program in the fall 2013 semester, so my 12 month mark was in late August of 2014, making me eligible as of August 1. Since you started in the winter term, if classes started in January of 2014, then you would reach 12 months in January 2015. Thus, you will be ineligible next year, because as of August 1, 2015, you will have completed more than 12 months. However, should you not go for a PhD immediately after your masters, you will become eligible again 2 years after graduating, as long as you don't take any coursework.

Staying up for the grfp is like waiting for christmas morning, but you're old enough to realize that the shiny box waiting for you underneath that sparkly tree is most likely gonna be a 6pack of itchy beige crew socks.

Yeah, I'm working on writing my thesis while periodically checking the cafe. Chances are I'll still be awake at 2:00 my mind will be too busy to fall asleep.
 
I'm really hoping the universe continues to treat me well today. I got an official acceptance to a program I really want to attend, so it would be an awesome conclusion to today if I got it. C'mon, universe!

Yeah, I'm working on writing my thesis while periodically checking the cafe. Chances are I'll still be awake at 2:00 my mind will be too busy to fall asleep.
 
I'm really hoping the universe continues to treat me well today. I got an official acceptance to a program I really want to attend, so it would be an awesome conclusion to today if I got it. C'mon, universe!

Well I had two dreams about this last night.

The first dream was straightforward. I opened the email and saw I was awarded the fellowship.

The second dream was was about an alien conspiracy to abduct the winners. The aliens disabled the NSF servers some how and then linked into them using devices disguised as a grills. They then set up centers for students to come find out the results. If someone was a winner, they fed them a piece of pepperoni from the grill that had a mind control agent in it. While waiting in line, I figured out that the grill was fake and an alien device so I ran out to try and find someone to stop them. However, aliens were everywhere (disguised as humans) and they chased after me so I couldn't blow their cover. Never found out of I got the fellowship, though.

Thanks! I'm super excited about OSU, but I still need to find out about funding. The NSF GRFP notifications are likely going out tonight. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for myself and everyone else on here applying for it.

I noticed in another thread that katsharki was accepted to UNF. Congrats!

Thanks! I'm super excited about OSU, but I still need to find out about funding. The NSF GRFP notifications are likely going out tonight. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for myself and everyone else on here applying for it.

I noticed in another thread that katsharki was accepted to UNF. Congrats!

Woo hoo! I'm officially accepted by Oregon State! I had applied to 2 programs there, so someone in the graduate school emailed me this morning asking if I wanted to be admitted to the program that accepted me (and withdraw my application to the other) or wait to hear from the other one. So I withdrew my second application and she let me know that I was officially admitted! My official letter with details will come this afternoon.

Well I had two dreams about this last night.

The first dream was straightforward. I opened the email and saw I was awarded the fellowship.

The second dream was was about an alien conspiracy to abduct the winners. The aliens disabled the NSF servers some how and then linked into them using devices disguised as a grills. They then set up centers for students to come find out the results. If someone was a winner, they fed them a piece of pepperoni from the grill that had a mind control agent in it. While waiting in line, I figured out that the grill was fake and an alien device so I ran out to try and find someone to stop them. However, aliens were everywhere (disguised as humans) and they chased after me so I couldn't blow their cover. Never found out of I got the fellowship, though.

Looking to procrastinate. I've been having fun looking up my last name and others in my lab group in the award offers and honorable mentions list, you can search all years at once going back to 52'. Someone with my last name and the same initials won in 2006, obviously this is a sign from the gods. I have yet to find any celebrity names. 

Haha I was totally looking up awardees with my last name yesterday. I didn't try with my first and middle initials, though.

Woo hoo! I'm officially accepted by Oregon State! I had applied to 2 programs there, so someone in the graduate school emailed me this morning asking if I wanted to be admitted to the program that accepted me (and withdraw my application to the other) or wait to hear from the other one. So I withdrew my second application and she let me know that I was officially admitted! My official letter with details will come this afternoon.

Woo hoo! I'm officially accepted by Oregon State! I had applied to 2 programs there, so someone in the graduate school emailed me this morning asking if I wanted to be admitted to the program that accepted me (and withdraw my application to the other) or wait to hear from the other one. So I withdrew my second application and she let me know that I was officially admitted! My official letter with details will come this afternoon.