pears

when i moved to SF, i only had one good friend here (plus a few other acquaintances)- meetup is pretty cool! you can go to things to meet new friends who have the same interests, and it takes the edge off because you know they're there to make friends, too.

biotechie: agreed! some good lookin' charts and graphs are definitely going to come out of this poll if we get enough responses. mmmm, color-coding.

dream weaver

go (k)art

killer tomato!

tomato paste

egg drop

daaaang, spacezep! like a boss.

school B, if you have a stipend and/or can afford living there. spread your wings and fly!

three strikes

no way! that's awesome.. and totally explains why my aunt and grandma love BB&B so much! i'm admittedly a collector of posters, books, plants, and trinkets, so i suspect i'll be buying more than a lifetime's supply of wooden crates, funky vases, fairy lights, herbs, and strange lamps soon.

blargh. the only thing i'll be spending money on is rent, plane tickets, and loans! definitely looking forward to decorating a room when i've figured out where i'm living, though!

cold front

i made charts. then i had some beer, and made more charts. then i reviewed the charts, and sent the charts to other people who know me well. then i talked to them, students, professors, and my dog (on skype- yes, really! she's a fuzzy oracle of truthiness), marinated on what was said (and read between the lines), and compared charts one last time while having more beer. my "i just knew" moment came after i compared my course options (i made fake schedules for my 4-6 semesters for the two programs i was choosing between), prices (turns out i hadn't dug deeply enough), and how students and professors spoke about classes, their peers, and the respective cities. it was cheaper, in a city that was more my speed and catered to my personal interests a lot more, and as close to a 100% perfect fit as i could ever find for a terminal MA program in terms of classes, professors, and resources. i had to step back, look at everything in depth repeatedly over the course of a couple weeks, mull it over nonstop for a couple days, and hear some reassurance from the most important people in my life before the "click" happened... but man, what a click!

although i'm neither married nor a parent, i've spent a good amount of time away from home, starting with 2 months of sleepaway camp from ages 8 until 15, all the way through bouncing around the world during my late high school and undergrad years. i loved it, but my mom and i have always been close, so being apart was hard. we would play games by letter, e.g., each drawing one line or one shape onto something at a time, and mailing it back and forth to create hilarious, strange things (usually friendly monster-critters!) together. as i got older, we kept in touch as much as possible by phone, skype, etc., but we still writer letters and send "surprise" packages to each other. i think having tangible mail to look forward to, share, and enjoy is really nice.

archaeology -> indiana jones there has to be something that involves less looting, less racism, less sexism, and more science.. maybe if wes anderson did a version of indiana jones and tomb raider put together, but with real science, and ridiculous amounts of old western style revolvers instead of a bullwhip and various large weapons? i would totally rock a spaghetti western outfit. quickest trowel draw in the west!

i got my acceptance to a cal state program about a week ago, but they asked that i notify them of my decision before 3/28 so they could work off the waitlist. the date i received that acceptance seemed relatively early compared to past years, for both my department and the school in general; they were spread out through early april. i doubt it's the same between schools or programs, but, in short, i'd say you've got a couple of weeks to go before you have to worry.

hey there! when i was still an undergrad, i did the same thing as dexterchi: i kept mental sidenotes when i was writing my capstone about whose work i was citing the most often, whose research i enjoyed, lab and school names that popped up, and so on. from there, i narrowed it down to places with terminal MA options (since that's the right move for me, at least for now). i also talked with co-workers, classmates, friends, et al. to see if they knew of any programs or professors that had a lot of overlap with my interests. i shifted from meso to the north american west (mostly pac nw, but also great basin, california in general) so i kept an ongoing, ever-changing list. once i narrowed it down to a few, i started sending out emails and checking out course catalogs. i considered factors like personality mesh, short-term research projects (aka what i could be a TA/RA for), etc. after i'd finished applying. out of curiosity, what's your field of interest?

i wrote an email, as my advisor-to-be is in a different time zone and we both have funky work hours. that said, the program and my field of work/study tend to be really, really informal; i'm already on a first-name-and-casual-quick-emails basis with a few professors there. if there's an online form, i would follow up with a cordial email or phonecall. the exact wording depends on the formality of the department and your field.

dangit, i've reached my quota of upvotes.. again.. but congrats, phdreams!

QFT- took the words right out of my mouth (hands?). i studied my butt off for the GREs and crushed them, polished up my writing sample and SoP until they were irritatingly shiny, asked professors and supervisors with whom i had strong personal connections (i.e., first-name basis, chatting "just to say hi," would share some beers with them over dinner) for LoRs, and have been working all year at various jobs directly related to what i want to do (on top of internships that i did while i was an undergrad- in all, i'll have 2 years of directly related experience after this summer). i got one rejection- i fared really well. you can make up for bad numbers with better numbers elsewhere and great writing.

if they told you they're going to give you more information next week, then wait until next week. that's that. waitlist acceptances, timing, etc. all depend on the school, the program itself, funding, numbers of rejected/accepted offers... too many factors change every round to find a real trend.

i'm in a totally different field of study, but if i were you, i'd go for the full funding, and kick serious butt at wake without major financial woes- plus, under the assumption you're american/stateside, that takes some of the load off your back of moving abroad, settling into housing abroad, higher costs of living, etc. are there phd programs that would allow you to go to paris, especially ones with better funding?

same position! i graduated last may ('12), and i've been doing lots of field and lab work since then, but not a lot of reading or writing. i'm honestly more concerned about the reading part; i get distracted very easily, and i'm a lot better at writing because it keeps me on my toes and thinking both "big" and "little" picture. obviously, my critical reading and discussing skills improved a lot towards the end of my undergrad career, but now that i've been out of school for a couple of semesters, i'm worried about being rusty! i've actually thought about going back and re-reading some textbooks, or asking ahead of times which ones i'll need to purchase (if the editions are up to date) just to get ahead and back in the swing of things.