pears

anxiousanthro: did you have an interview/hear anything else from them? sounds like it could be good news to me..!

immensely. so glad i'm not the only one who's weirded out by those kinds of results postings.. it also really ticks me off when people flaunt their "accomplishments" in the details section, despite getting waitlisted or rejected, then make some sideways comment that implies the program made the wrong choice, or they (the applicant) are incapable of being a less-than-perfect fit. not to sound like a jerk.. but what's the point of bragging about your gpa, number of pubs, etc. when it has little to do with the fact that you weren't accepted? to stroke your own ego? to downplay the school's decision? talk about intense entitlement. woof.

big city

the fact that i could inspire something so wonderful & grumpycattish makes me so happy! so happy i could smile, or.. give a sideways "meh" glance. update: of course, as soon as i relax and stop mulling over app statuses so much, my app to my top choice has a super cryptic status change. all of my materials were in and processed by 1/8 (12/22, save for one LoR), and after some serious interdepartmental lag, it finally showed up as complete 1/23. now it's been updated to "completed 2013-02-08," the proof of payment is in hilariously tiny font, and now there's a new section at the end that says "note from admissions," with no note after the "note" subfield. WHAT DOES THIS EVEN MEAN. brb hyperventilating and overanalyzing in a corner for the rest of the night oh god please let this be a good sign panic panic panic

it's strangely comforting to know that everyone's getting antsy about this week, too- i hope we all get to see some results on or by friday, especially good ones! at this point, for me, it's more about just having a clear answer that puts an end to the waiting than getting an acceptance.

besides the occasional stress dreams about rejections, forgotten apps, and other school snafus, i had a dream this morning about eating po'e (basically the most delicious thing ever- tahitian fruit pudding with coconut cream) in a field. then, a helicopter flew by. my brain willingly allowed me to literally watch myself in a dream, just eating po'e.. for hours.. i think i'm finally losing it.

safe journey

spoken like a true grad-to-be, hah! frustrating days: intense lifting or running, then a slow swim good days: vinyasa yoga, blasting deadmau5 and swedish house mafia days that end with "y": drinking a nice cold beer

these are almost the exact reasons why my (ex-hippie, ex-80s party-going) parents were both stoked when i mentioned that i really like berkeley's phd program, haha!

you are full of so many awesome nuggets of wisdom and truthiness! sending general love and positive vibes to all you folks out there. today was a tough day for me at work and personally, and even though grad school things are usually a stressor for me, all of the positive posts on here put a smile on my face when i need it the most. thanks guys!

Caspian sea

hopefully, i'll get a job working with the BLM, NPS, or USFS as an archaeo field tech so i can really make some dough for rent and loans! if not, i'll throw some apps in the pile for CRM summer gigs (especially ones that offer per diem for housing), and if those fail, then i've got an application for an internship with the NMAI/smithsonian repatriation department sent out that would be super cool, too. being an archaeologist is friggin' sweet sometimes. seriously. i think about places in the US with beautiful scenery and an interesting (pre)history, apply for a bunch of summer jobs there, and hope for the best. pretty much a dream situation if you're a 20-something with a serious case of wanderlust. not a lot of "job security" in the usual sense, and nobody gets into it for the money, but turning my childhood dreams into reality makes me happy. i never have to work a day in my life

WOO PLATYSAURUS! CONGRATS!

although i can't speak from personal experience -- my field of work and study is a social science that used to be a bit of a boys club, but is almost 1:1 these days -- i wanted to echo teagirl's sentiments. one of my best friends from college is a young woman who works in chemical engineering. she's very much a type A personality/optimistic extrovert and a bit of a "girly-girl" (if you believe in that sort of stereotype; think skirts and dresses, kitten heels, pearl earrings, hair ribbons, etc.). she's tired of school, despite being a stellar student with lots of research experience, so she immediately went headlong into the workforce after we graduated. she has no intention of going back to grad school. our alma mater is a pretty left-leaning place, so she never experienced any sexism or discrimination of any kind- as long as you worked your buns off and were personable, your peers and profs would give you due respect, whether you were cool and collected or a bubbly source of positive vibes. i heard the same thing about our grad programs: in sum, academic life seemed to be mostly very fair and mostly very rewarding in all STEM fields at all levels for all types of students. unfortunately, she's finding that a relatively liberal "feel-good" undergrad experience that values collaboration and fairness has left her emotionally ill-prepared for the working world. sadly, her first job has been something of a nightmare: she's working for a very small private company with little guidance or support, under an immediate supervisor who is borderline verbally abusive and non-immediate supervisors who couldn't care less, on pigeonholed projects that she doesn't find very rewarding to do. they're selling her short, probably because she's a young woman (there's only one other woman in the company, who is also very young). she constantly feels like she has to prove herself, but her immediate supervisor is only a source of negativity (much of it unwarranted, or simply for the sake of stepping on toes), and often claims her work or ideas as his own, because she has no opportunities to meet directly with the higher-ups. fortunately, it seems like she had a very successful interview with a much larger company with many more female employees (many of whom said they had much more positive experiences in larger companies than smaller ones), so i suspect she'll be moving on soon. they've lost more than 10% of their employees in the past half-year.. you can probably guess why. basically, she's pretty courageous for standing up for herself and trying to improve her current situation as best she can (i play therapist a lot, but hey, that's what best friends are for!), but it's wearing one of the most stubbornly positive people i know very thin. i think she'll be a lot happier when she moves to a bigger company with more rewarding projects and better systems for keeping healthy power and gender balances in place, and, from what i've heard (again, this is all secondhand, so don't take this as seriously as a seasoned student or professional's word!), academia can be rewarding, too, as long as you're in a place that values equality and fairness, but that can take a long time to suss out, unless you have some serious in-depth conversations before joining a program. it's such a huge bummer that this sort of thing is a serious concern still, but at least people are moving in a positive direction, for the most part!

chicken little

barbecue sauce (mmmm)

yay for acceptances!! (i keep trying to upvote happy posts, but the forum overlords have informed me that i've already met my quota of upvotes for the day. it's 9:30 am. woof.. you're not the boss of me, forum! i do what i want!)

i've been doing something similar: it's been a while since i submitted my apps. during the process of narrowing down a selection of schools, i obviously had a favorite or two. now, however, it's been so long that i sort of forced myself to loosen my emotional grip, so i could make a more objective decision down the road if i got in anywhere, let alone with any sort of funding to consider. now that i've gotten an acceptance, and expect to hear back from a couple more schools within the next week or so, i'm finding that my emotional attachments are coming back, but in totally different ways, e.g., my first acceptance made me like the program a lot more (very affordable, POI seemed more personable, felt like i had a better choice of electives, etc.), and playing the waiting game has made me like other programs less. i am officially a total emotional basket case.

today is my first day of construction monitoring (aka trying to convince a lot of men who are twice my size in every dimension, and seasoned professionals in the use of large machinery, that the very small 22 yo. lady in front of them in comically oversized carhartts is, in fact, in charge of them) for an area that i'm super interested in, and has some potential to be a cool prehistoric spot. so, obviously, instead of reviewing my casework and draft figures, drinking coffee, or sharpening my trowels, i'm scrolling through the forum... update: lucky me! project delayed until tomorrow thanks to some cruddy weather. though, that said, i did get a different big project assigned -- pretty much the closest thing i'll get to a promotion in this job, as i'm not eligible for a real promotion -- so i'm not sure whether i'm grateful to have a distraction from the two-tiered grad school/summer job waiting game, or if it's just another thing that i'm going to cram into my brainhole and stress myself out with more..

ugh, this! what do you even say to that? "invalidating my emotional rollercoaster that's lasted a few weeks too long is totally the best way to say 'congrats' ever! thanks!" a good friend of mine who's almost 5 months along in her first pregnancy (aka, starting to show) hears this line a lot, too. like any good first-time mom, she's always nervous before dr. visits, but whenever things go well, most people say "see! i knew you'd be fine," as if they somehow know better than she herself does about her own pregnancy, or as if a bit of healthy concern is pointless. oy. just say "you're doing great!" or "wow, that's great news!" people! stop digging your own graves!

qft! love the optimism. i, too, tend to lean towards the pessimistic side of things, and i'm very critical of myself. my highs are very high, but even the littlest low puts me out of commission. all optimism and kindness are greatly appreciated- don't think it goes unnoticed! a good omen: i had planned to buy myself a new pair of work pants as a reward for my next bit of good news (i should be hearing back from 2 or 3 places in the next 1-2 weeks). today, i found out that my job would get me a new pair of work pants and a new pair of work boots, because they wanted to ensure i was properly supplied for some monitoring work i'm starting tomorrow. two rewards ahead of time has to mean good news down the road, right?

Sconnie- very true, hah! i wonder what cut of meat i'd be? i've got a funky diet (we'll stick with "vegaquarium" for ease) so i suppose i'd be a tofurkey flank or something..

"processed" just makes me think of cheese, "meats," or other discomfort-inducing food products.

no plan b here either! (though i don't suppose i need one now..) i'm lucky to work in a field that allows me to hop around every few months for work, so that's exactly what i've been doing since i graduated. i love having an excuse to travel! granted, i can't remember the last time i had a net monetary gain of more than a couple hundred bucks at the end of a job, so grad school will make my wallet ache a bit. the experience is worth it- coming out of an MA program with a few years of work under my belt would be fantastic- but now that my current job is going to give me some supervisory experience, i'm about ready to move on. basically, i've been of the "grad school or bust" mentality since square one. having an MA shatters the glass ceiling in archaeology, so it's worth the cost, and now that i'm starting to get a better sense of what my research niches/personal interests are, i'm ready to leave general work experience behind and wade out until i'm waist-deep in the murky waters of personal professional goals and academia instead. (admittedly, i'm super intimidated by it all, but i'm excited, too! and it's nice knowing there are lots of folks who post on here with similar worries.)