St Andrews Lynx

Diet-wise there are plenty of cookbooks on the market with names like "Simple Recipes for Students". Any halfway decent bookstore should sell them. They contain a lot of recipes that (i) only require cheap, simple ingredients (ii) take less than 40 min to prepare and don't require fancy culinary techniques (iii) are healthy and help you get a balanced diet. Laundry? Cleaning tips? Etc? If Google can't help...then I don't know what can...

Starting over from scratch in a new place country was the best thing I ever did. I was 20 when I moved from the UK to Philadelphia: I knew no one there, I'd never lived in a different country, much less in a different country on my own. The amount of change I underwent was pretty impressive. I wasn't tied to anything or anyone's expectations: I took up completely new hobbies, befriended completely different types of people. Altogether it was awesome. How do you make new friends? Well...you take risks. This might mean turning up to a Meetup event where you know no one, or going to a party by yourself. You have a conversation topic already primed: "I just moved to the area from __ to study/work.", people will be interested and ask you more. I went to a Meetup hiking event barely 5 days after I arrived in the USA - I'm still friends with folk I met on that hike, almost 4 years later. At the same time you need to recognise that friendships don't form overnight. Don't expect to have new best friends by the end of the first week - it will probably take the best part of 6 months to find a good group of friends. If you are a new face, people will sometimes be reluctant or slow to accept you into their social circle - show that you're genuinely interested in them as an individual, that you enjoy their company and take initiative ("want to grab coffee?"). Sometimes you will go to a party or event and not really hit off with anyone. Or you go to a social gathering but realise that you don't really feel like socialising that night. That's normal - whether you try again with that group of people (or not) is entirely up to you. Lastly, what you do within the first couple of weeks in a new place will quickly become habit for the rest of your time there, so choose your activities wisely. Don't spend your first 3 weeks hiding in the apartment, because that's you setting yourself into an anti-social habit. Force yourself to go to the gym, explore new neighbourhoods, go out to cool social events.

(Congratulations!) Trust me, academia never sleeps. Even on Christmas Eve most of the admin staff were in for at least a half day, if the faculty weren't physically present I bet they were still "working remotely". It doesn't help that the weather in this part of the world feels more Spring Break than Christmas Break.

You sir, are a troll.

I don't think most faculty would spend more than an hour actually writing a LOR. These things only take up ~1-1.5 sides of A4 paper and tend to follow certain well-defined conventions. Think about it this way - a professor could spend 3 hours writing an LOR, but that doesn't guarantee that it would be strong. Similarly, a professor could write a letter in 30 minutes but if they are well-known in their field and say that you are one of the Top 5 students they've ever seen, then it could be a really strong letter. Stop worrying and go enjoy Christmas!

I can't be the only one thinking that they'd make a great couple. They've actually got a fair amount in common...

You want to get an MSW in Social Work. You have mentioned an interest in counselling. The first thing you do when a forum member says "X has happened - I need advice." is to respond with "I can't believe you were so irresponsible as to let X happen!" ...Does anybody else notice a problem here? Pinkster, if you want to last 5 minutes in a Social Work program, you need to accept a couple of things. When people tell you "X has happened (note the past tense) and I need help dealing with X" it is completely useless to berate them about how stupid they were for allowing X to happen. They can't turn back the clock. They can't undo what has already happened. For that reason alone it is horrible to condemn instead of assist them. In the course of your Social Work job, you will come across clients who have made TERRIBLE lifestyle decisions. This post is actually an example of the best-case scenario - somebody does everything right (use contraceptives, is in a steady relationship) and Thing X has happened anyway. In the course of your Social Work job you are going to come across clients who have consciously made a series AWFUL decisions: they've done everything wrong, their lifestyle choices have been ill-informed to the point where you have to suspend your disbelief that they actually did *that*. Their choices are based on principles you fundamentally disagree with from the core of your being. THESE PEOPLE NONETHELESS ARE COMING TO YOU FOR CONSTRUCTIVE, NON-JUDGEMENTAL ADVICE. If you cannot put aside your narrow-minded prejudices, inability to empathise or tone of moral superiority then you shouldn't be a Social Worker. Full stop. ...I can't believe I even had to write this.

Ask your group mates to proofread a chapter or segment each, definitely.

...Yes, but just because you personally have not become pregnant after using contraception, it does not automatically follow that anyone who gets (unexpectedly) pregnant while using contraception is (i) stupid (ii) reckless (iii) using their contraception incorrectly.

The most important part of doctoral study and preparedness for doctoral study is research experience. If you have good research experience relevant to your field of study then that will probably counter the lower GPA. Depending on your field of interest it is entirely possible that you can find a job that involves research & writing without going into academia. In the physical and social sciences, there are certainly non-academic research-based jobs to be found. Plus - you can work off your debt at the same time. So even if you don't get accepted into a PhD program, I don't think it will be the end of the world or your professional goals...

Register only for the minimum amount of classes that is required. Personally, if there are more classes that interested me I'd just audit them.

Sometimes antibiotics can interfere with the effectiveness of a contraceptive pill. You can put on a condom but it still might get ripped or come off. Here are some statistics about the effectiveness of different kinds of birth control (I'm a scientist, I like to back up my arguments with um, facts) http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth-control/birth-control-effectiveness-chart-22710.htm Even if you are taking a contraceptive pill you still have nearly a 10% chance of getting pregnant, and that's assuming you remember to take a pill every day, and that you aren't taking other medication that could nullify the contraceptive's effectiveness...

Good on you - in-person connections are an awesome thing to have!

You're welcome. I gave you an up-vote as a token of my appreciation.

...Is that a tiny touch of envy I sense here, Pinkster? To the OP: congratulations! I don't see how it would be too detrimental to your thesis defense - depending on your field you might be able to work/research from home (writing up can certainly be done at home), so you could take some responsibility for the childcare. The effect it has on your future career & training I guess is entirely up to you - after your girlfriend has the child you might decide that a 9-5 job with a steady income is more important than another advanced degree. Or that your combined salaries are enough to support the family and med school is an option you still want to pursue.

Final exam done this evening! My biggest source of stress this semester was getting into my top choice research group - grades I'm not really worried about as long as they average out to a B or above. One grade has come back...and its fine. The other two I think will be fine as well. Coursework. Research. Teaching. I reckon I can only properly be stressed about one of those things at a time.

The Grad Program Administrator will know about how grades work. They are your best bet for accurate information. Pop into the office and talk to them.

...I can't see it *not* happening in grad school. I think there is an additional pressure on women in grad school not to be seen as more concerned with their appearance than their studies - that you can't be serious about research if you wear designer clothes. But then again, if you're a woman in grad school who doesn't care about their appearance at all...well, other women negatively judge you on ill-fitting clothes and lacklustre attire, too.

Visiting a spa & sauna for a couple of hours on the weekend is an excellent way I've found to relieve grad school stress. Your body releases endorphins in the hot sauna, so I leave feeling very relaxed. Of course, it isn't the cheapest way to de-stress...but for a trip every couple of months it works out fine.

Fortunately I've had mid-terms for both my courses, so I know that I'm successfully keeping afloat, at least. I do want to do well in my courses...but at the same time as long as my GPA is over the required value needed to stay in the program in good standing, I'm not going to worry over the difference between an A and a B grade. I'm hoping to sort out some kind of written Personal Development Plan once I'm formally admitted into a research group. It's something that I did in industry and found incredibly useful. I imagine that it will be a slightly unexpected thing to request in an academic setting...but I think it will help me and my PI get aligned, and keep my progress in check.

I'm not sure how much of a role the Dept head plays in allocating TA/RA ships. The way things work in our Dept is that the PIs let the admin side know who they are intending to support on RAships, and the admin then put the rest on TAships. Basically, RAs are paid for out of the PIs money - TAs are paid for by the Dept. You do not know that this is a case of favouritism - especially since RAships are usually looked upon as more desirable & coveted than TAships - so I would not mention or allude to such a thing. It would go down really badly. I think if you really wanted to TA then you should first explain to your PIs that you wish to be supported on an RAship. Then look at class schedules way in advance (when do the classes taught by TAs meet? when are going to be in class/otherwise busy?) to ensure that timetabling conflicts are avoided. Talk to the admin staff early and often about your desires - they can't put you down as a TA if they don't know/forget that you want to be a TA.

Man, I know flakey grad students that would pull a stunt like that. That said: learning how to mentor less-experienced scientists is an important part of the grad school experience. If you go into industry as an entry-level scientist, then you will often be assigned interns & students as a way of assessing your "management ability" and testing to see if you could handle a promotion. And unfortunately in industry you'll get interns & students who (i) are keen but have no clue (ii) have little motivation (iii) didn't understand what they were letting themselves in for. Calmly explaining your expectations to the undergrad when they next appear I hope will make things more straightforward for both of you.

There's a lot of tough-talking but good advice on 'The Professor Is In''s blog: http://theprofessorisin.com/pearlsofwisdom/ She's written about conference interviews, what to wear and how to prepare various job application documents. Good luck.

I think it just means "be in possession of" - so you don't have to have formally accepted it.