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acoustic_alchemy

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  • Gender
    Not Telling
  • Location
    Michigan
  • Application Season
    2013 Fall
  • Program
    Materials Science, Chemistry

acoustic_alchemy's Achievements

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  1. Hi all! I've finished a first draft for IIT's Chemistry MS program. If you're interested in reviewing it or trading SOPs, I'll PM it to you. Thanks for any help
  2. Ugh, I am going absolutely bonkers waiting. I've yet to hear from five schools, and the longer I wait, the more resigned I am to the fact that whatever I'm going to hear isn't good news. I feel like I can't make alternative plans- applying to MS or post-bac programs, moving out and working as a lab tech, etc. etc.- until I hear back. But the longer I wait, the smaller the window becomes to actually go and implement Plans C-Z...::aaaaahhhh::: It's like my own personal purgatory! ::lolsob::
  3. I would have applied to more schools, especially more "safety" (if there is such a thing in graduate applications) and MS programs in my field. Finances were tight after sending off GRE scores and application fees, but hindsight is 20/20. If I could go back even earlier, I wish I sought counseling back in sophomore year, so that the mental breakdown in my junior and senior years wouldn't have happened and tanked my GPA
  4. Add another stress-drinker here; I've never been a big coffee fan until this app season. First it was instant, then espresso...and then I tried Turkish coffee, and never looked back since @.@
  5. I've been knitting and learning how to cook Indian and other Asian food; they occupy my nervous hands and I can make something beautiful/tasty out of it. ::yum:: Also started working as a kitchen aide at a local nursing home; the shifts have me pretty exhausted by the end, so I'm too tired to obsess (well, more than usual) about acceptance results.
  6. I've been pretty good at science (especially chemistry) by the time I was a freshman at college, but it was volunteering as an undergraduate research assistant and presenting my work that made me think, I want to do this for the rest of my life. I loved the process, from finding an interesting problem, to mapping out and performing experiments, to collecting data, and going in surprising directions. Frankly, the lab is where I felt most at home through all of college. I don't really have teaching experience other than short presentations with elementary schoolchildren, but it's rewarding to see that "click" within people as they realize that this science stuff matters to everyday life, and it's so freaking cool! This kind of realization is to me especially important at the collegiate level because the curriculum is most suited for teaching how to use the scientific method and critical thinking in the context of chemistry. Even if none of my students become scientists in the "pure" sense, a deep understanding of how to interrogate the world and communicate to other people about those findings is important to future doctors, nurses, politicians, teachers...heck, everybody, in my view. /soapbox I'm gunning for the PhD partly because it's the most direct path toward becoming an independent researcher in my field, partly because I might as well dream big or go home
  7. Ugh, this so much. If I hear it one more time, worlds will end >< Family also tends to swing between "oh, you're so smart, you're a shoo-in everywhere!" to "wellll...you should take [random course or hot temp job of the month], as a plan B [or C, or D...]". It's the 180 degree turn in the same damn conversation that puts me on edge
  8. One other thing; make sure that your SOP is in the right format (PDF vs. Word document vs. txt file). Rather obvious, but because one of my SOPs was the wrong file type, it didn't attach. Had to send it over via email. creating unnecessary inconvenience m(
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