ak48

Braindead. Windows 7 is great. I didn’t realize how useful that ”snap” window function was until I used a system without it.

The US is such a big place that driving behavior varies wildly from city to city even within the same state. Freeway driving is, counter-intuitively much easier than local driving. NYC is notoriously bad for driving due to traffic, both car and pedestrian as well as the blatant disregard for traffic laws. Downtown LA can also get bad but outside major cities it shouldn’t be too bad. California was fairly easy when I took it. However,this varies wildly from city to city, even person to person (is your proctor lenient or strict? it makes a huge difference).

Is that right? I think in the US we gotta pay taxes on fellowship income.

I was considering one because of the price, but I didn't buy one.I know it may seem that WIFI's everywhere, but I'm willing to bet there will be times when you don't have access to internet. Maybe there's no signal or an tech problem. On weekends you might take it somewhere. Just the idea of not having access to my computer (even basic word files) without internet was absurd to me. Everyone's needs are different though

don't buy a chromebook. you need to have access to internet at all times to use it.

great advice, thanks!

The mathematical possibility of obtaining an overall 3.9 GPA indicates your grades weren't that affected.

Why is this bothering you? I'd imagine anybody you'd be dealing with for a career would be relatively appreciative of higher education. Assholes rude enough to dismiss your education in your face will find a flaw with you one way or another, so screw them. Also, just because somebody has "less formal education than you" doesn't mean s/he is stupid. Sometimes PhD people have been studying one thing for so long they lose perspective, so don't dismiss other people's views so easily. Louis CK just had a bit in his new HBO special Oh My God about how the 50 year old garbage man is infinitely smarter than the 23 year old with 3 PhD's.

I'm interested also, going West to East Coast. LA to Washington's probably a doable drive though.

Why did you want to do a PhD in the first place? You mentioned enjoying the masters but "recapturing the glory of past years" isn't a sufficiently good justification. It sounds like you aren't in the Engineering/Sciences, so the "why PhD" question is more pressing I think, especially if you're sinking a lot of money into it. From what you are saying I don't see any reason why you are doing the PhD.

My laptop broke a few months back and I was looking to buy a Macbook pro, until I saw the sticker price. I ended up buying a Samsung Chronos laptop Series 7. (Series 3 is cheapest, 9 is the priceiest). The design is very similar to a Macbook Pro, and I can see why Apple is angry with Samsung for copying. Series 7 would be overkill for your described needs, but you can probably check out the 3 or 5. Lots of newer laptops come with Windows 8, which is a little annoying to somebody who really liked Windows 7. But underneath the awful start screen and lack of start menu, it's the same operating system.

I think for graduate school applications your 2nd university will be the more important since that's where you'll get your degree, but you'll be asked to provide both transcripts. I wonder how your 2nd university (the one you transfer to after community college) handles your CC grades. Does it simply label them as credits? Or does it incorporate it into the GPA? From my experience, universities tend to take other schools' grades as credits, not grades.

Go paper with textbooks. You can "mark up" digital copies but I found it cumbersome enough that it prevents me from using it. What's more, navigating paper books is so easy. There are lots of times when I need to quickly flip 2-3 pages back and with digital copies it's inconvenient and I lose my train of thought pressing "back" 3 times or typing in the page number.

I'm not sure how to find which specific grants a professor has received unless it's explicitly stated on their group website. For the second question, just look at what the lab research is, and what topics the published papers are.

finally got my check today

Family's in California, I'll be PhD'ing it on the East Coast. I'll go home for Christmas, perhaps a summer, but 2 times/year max unless some big event (wedding/death) occurs.

US telecom is pretty much the same, with Verizon, AT&T and Sprint dominating the main market, while the rest scrounge for the poorer folks. It appears cheaper than canada by a lot though. There's a company called "Page Plus" that contracts with Verizon to use Verizon's network, while charging as a no-contract monthly plan. It's 55/month for unlimited talk/text + 2GB data, and about 45 for the same plan with 200 MB instead. Data shouldn't be an issue since you should be using school wifi and 200MB is more than enough.

the fact that he took you to his house and showed you around the place does suggest some personal motives, but obviously you'd know better than me.

Don't email, call him by phone (or better yet, stop by his office in person). emails can be overlooked

To my closest advisor I sent a long email thanking him for everything he's done for me since I met him. We are close so I don't think I was wasting his time. The other 2, I also wrote a significant email to them updating my progress. In my situation, I'd think "JustChill's" wording would be a little rude. I was fairly close with my recommenders and think they'd deserve a more personal touch.

I'd say this is a fairly unusual (in a great way) occurrence. Obivously, the point of the meeting is for both of you to evaluate each other, but I doubt that the PI will "grill" you. Be prepared to talk about your research, your future goals, but I'd also try to tell him what I do outside of school, what hobbies are, what kind of person you are, etc.

I know this topic has been debated ad infinitum, but this is one (humanities) graduate student who talks about the difficultly of giving advice to potential students on the question: Should I attend graduate school? tldr: finding the definitive answer to "should I go to grad school" kinda requires knowledge of the meaning of life http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/04/graduate-school-advice-impossible-decision.html

also, are you engineering? your profile suggests a writing topic

I am generally the type to go for the funding (especially if it's fully funded), unless the unfunded option is really fantastic.

here is a brief primer http://www.trishtech.com/internet/redirect_block_sites_using_hosts_file.php Here are windows instructions but for unix-systems (OS X, Linux) it's even easier (/etc/hosts) so go into c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts and open it with notepad then add a line: 127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com save file, then exit. now whenever you go to facebook.com, it should take you to a blank page. to undo this, simply remove that line or add a # to the front to comment it out.