pears

The Big Bang Theory. All of my hate.

Congrats!! I'm out of upvotes, but I'm sending internet high-fives your way!

Decided on Chicago. MA at half tuition. I couldn't wait any longer, plus it's really where I wanted to go all along. 

I just accepted Chicago's offer. It's where I want to go. With all this talk about fit and funding. I was solely waiting on Tulane in hopes of funding. 

Didn't he kill her and bury her in the backyard? I can't wait for season 4. The best by far was season 2. 

Yay, casual racism! Keeping it classy around here. :-/

The Big Bang Theory. All of my hate.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH I GOT IN TO VANDERBILT!!!!!!!!!!!
 
(self-edited enthusiastic and multicultural expletives). 

Good morning everyone!
 
I've been lurking for some time but finally decided to make an account. 
 
 
 
In response to ecologaia: I have visited Chapel Hill many times. It's a beautiful area! I actually live ~3 hours away from there, but it's the go-to area for the college students in NC for vacationing. You're going to love it.
 
 
 
As for admissions status: I haven't read this entire thread yet, so maybe someone already posted my results from these universities. But for my MA:
 
1. Purdue University: Admissions Denied. It looks like there was funding complications that prevented them from taking too many students in. I see that one lucky Ph.D. student got in, though! Congrats!
 
2. SIU Carbondale: Admissions Accepted! I've already accepted their admissions offer. I will be studying Biological Anthropology and focusing on Primatology there. 
 
3. CWU: It appears that I have been waitlisted... but seeing that many have already accepted admissions here, it's assumed that it will be a no. This was a back-up university. 
 
4. California State University Northridge: This was another back-up school and they take applications late (deadline is today, actually). I'm not worried about the results of this or CWU.
 
If I do get an offer from CWU or CSUN I will be declining. Hopefully if that's the case it will help someone out. 
 
 
My focus is Primatology, specifically the great apes (gorillas > orangs > chimpanzees > bonobos > gibbons/siamangs). It's nice to meet all of you!

Hi everyone. I am MA student in economics. My goal is to enter PhD program after graduation. Currently i am trying to develop a theoretical model in my independent study course. From the very start of collaborating with my advisor I have problems with him. He cancelled our meetings several times, once just "forgot" to come. During our short discussions he is condescending to me despite the fact that he wrote a recommendation letter for my PhD application: now i am starting to realize that it was not a good decision to ask him about that. But going back to our work: he ignores my letters where i am asking for meetings to discuss the model: to build a theoretical framework is not that easy without an advisor. Our rare meetings just have slowed down my research. And finally, after he has ignored another my letter where asked him to meet, i wrote him again and asked whether he wanted to work with me at all. He answered that he was not going to meet with me on a regular basis as i am a Master student and not his PhD student so he can listen to me only "from time to time". Furthermore, he said that if i am not satisfied with such a style of work i should "find someone else".  I am frustrated. Only few professors work in a field i am doing research in. One professor declined to be my advisor because his wife hadn't allowed to take extra obligations. And now this professor lacks attention to my research because of my master's status. Is that a discrimination against masters' students? The choice of professors familiar with my topic is getting smaller and smaller, basically only one professor is left to ask help from.  

PhD students are more important. Get over it please.

The Big Bang Theory. All of my hate.

The Big Bang Theory. All of my hate.

The Big Bang Theory. All of my hate.

The Kardashians

Mayonnaise

I use this app called MyFitnessPal and it's pretty useful, I use it to keep a log for everything I eat on a daily basis, except diet coke, gum, tea, black coffee, and water lol 

Just found out that my SO was admitted to Brown's medical school this morning! After my positive experience there last week and his excitement about the med school, it's all but a given that we'll both be in Providence in the fall. SO excited to have things falling into place - this has been a wild ride! Thanks to everybody for their ongoing support throughout the whole process and best of luck to everybody else who still have big decisions to make - I have positive thoughts for all!

Couldn't agree more! I swear by that book. If it can't give you the answer you're looking for, it will probably lead you to it.

If you can get your hands on one of these:
 
http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Archaeological-Theories-Alexander-Bentley/dp/0759100330/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394736204&sr=8-1&keywords=handbook+of+archaeological+theory
 
I would suggest perusing through that, paying close attention to authors/co-authors whereabouts (and references, of course).

If you're in or near a city, try googling "(city's name)" + "makerspace": makerspaces are wonderful! They provide software, "hardware" (tools), a workspace, & knowledgeable staff that can help you from the initial design steps through the finishing touches of a project. My local one apparently offers a 3D printer, a lathe, a laser scanner, a vinyl cutter… among many other things. Your projects will be limited by what they can offer, but joining a makerspace is well worth the money. I've mostly managed to get myself into situations where I either have to learn how to make something, or I'm surrounded by people who are super knowledgeable & friendly. So, besides makerspaces... work for the Forest Service or as an outdoor trip guide? 

It's definitely NOT a firable offense everywhere. It's definitely OK at my school. It's OK at every other school I've been to. There is also no rule against professor-student relationships either.
 
At my school, the policy is that the TA is suggested (not required, I think) to inform the professor of the course about the potential conflict of interest due to the personal relationship. The TA and professor (and if necessary, the department) will then figure out how to preserve academic integrity. Usually, for large classes, this means that the TA will never mark an assignment of an undergrad that they are involved with. For small classes (with only 1 TA) this might mean the professor grades the undergrad-in-question's assignment, or the department will switch the TA to a different course.
 
In my opinion, I think the TA only needs to inform the professor that a personal relationship exists. The TA should not be forced to reveal which undergrad it is unless it is necessary to preserve academic integrity (as in above paragraph). 
 
I do not think the school or program has any right to prevent professors, graduate students, and undergraduate students from dating each other (also undergrad are also TAs in many places). The only right the school has is to prevent instances where a TA/prof unfairly grades a student because of a personal relationship. In the best case, the TA would never grade their SO's work, but if that is unavoidable, the school has not right to assume that because the personal relationship exists, that there will be something inappropriate happening. The school would have to prove that the TA is guilty of doing something wrong!
 
To answer the OP's questions:
 
1. Is it common? I would not say it's common in the sense that most graduate students will have a relationship with an undergrad. However, I think it is not rare at all. I think most graduate students will know of at least one graduate-undergraduate relationship. I know of at least 4 (including professor-student ones).
 
2. What kind of trouble can a grad student get into if it's not reported? Depends on the school's policy for not following their policy! But do you know for a fact that this isn't already reported privately? (Not questioning you, just clarifying). I think by default, the TA can really only get in trouble if the school can prove misconduct. I don't know what kind of penalties exist for something like not reporting a relationship (I don't think it should be high). 
 
3. Does this stuff ever get caught? I don't know how to answer this because I don't know of any of these kind of relationships that were not "kosher" (i.e. they were all reported when necessary and/or did not require reporting).
 
Finally, to everyone -- If you think it's creepy, then that's your own personal view. You don't have a right to judge them (even though as humans we tend to judge anyways). I'd advise to stay out of other people's personal lives (unless they are sharing all this with you). The only exception is if you know for a fact that academic dishonesty is occurring, then you should talk to someone!

I'd agree with the above statements that it isn't necessarily creepy. If the undergrad is a freshman and underage (I was a 17-year-old freshman, it happens) and the TA is 37 then yes, it's creepy and illegal. But otherwise who are we to judge? My mom is 15 years older than my stepdad and they've been married almost 20 years. It works for some people.

Canis, 
 
I would say that you should go with whichever school feels better. The environment you describe at Memorial sounds great. I can't speak with any knowledge of any of the programs you mentioned, but It seems that the students would be an ideal source of information. It sounds as though Memorial would make you happier! Just my 1/2 a cent.

Hmm, that's a really interesting question actually. My focus is in mortuary archaeology, so I'm an arch/bioarch fence-sitter of sorts. Admittedly, I have a big ol' soft spot for theory: learning about theories, debating theories, critiquing them, & so forth. It's amazing how much overlap with philosophy (of science, among other things) there can be.
 
My two first thoughts were Michelle Hegmon, who's at ASU, & Ian Hodder, who's at Stanford. Hegmon coined the idea of "processual-plus" theory, that is, the blending of processual & post-processual theory that seems to be en vogue in American archaeology. I'm interested to see where the whole processual-plus perspective goes, & there are many thoughtful critiques & criticisms of it out there, namely from scholars who lean in the feminist and Marxist direction — that is, theories that make a point of examining something specific in its own right (women/gender, economics/social struggle) & are also politically charged. Hodder is very much a post-processualist, so I'm not sure he's quite on the cutting edge of theory anymore, but he is a theoretical heavy-hitter f'sho. I now Barb Voss is also at Stanford, & she does some cool theoretically-bent work on ethnogenesis & gender in archaeology. Not sure what the rest of the Stanford faculty is like.
 
Pretty good timing, actually: I had a reading-based discussion in a seminar today about the role of ontology in anthropology, which seems to be a very new niche of interest, but a super interesting one (to me, at least!). Martin Holbraad, who's at UCL, came up often, as did Severin Fowles, who's at Columbia through Barnard College. Columbia's faculty has lots of familiar names for me that rang a "theory!" bell in my brain, but I think most are cultural in focus. Hmm. Otherwise, the other names that came up belong to people who are in Denmark, Brasil, & other places where language may be a barrier. The link that clicking Holbraad's name leads to may offer other people, too!
 
Theory is so, so broad, even in archaeology alone.. it just depends on what kind of theory you're interested in, I guess. Not sure how helpful I was, but, as I said, I love all kinds of theory chitchat, so I'm interested to see what other names & programs pop up!