rising_star

1) What MIT says about admissions is what MIT does. It has no bearing on what other top schools do in their admissions processes. It would behoove you to investigate more than one program, particularly since you seem on the fence about computer science vs physics. 2) Getting a second undergrad degree won't wipe out your GPA from the first one. When a school asks for your undergrad GPA, you will have to calculate it based on both degrees you earned. 3) If you're worried about a lack of research experience, I don't think doing a second BS in two years is going to fix that. You're going to have to spend all of your time on coursework, and its associated labs and homework. If you want research experience, then get a job or volunteer gig that will let you get some. But don't think that doing a second degree alone will be enough to get you the research experience you admit you lack. Way to offend everyone from Florida. Just a FYI, there is plenty of serious research--by undergrads, grads, and professors--that happens in Florida. There is also a great deal of intelligence in the state, even if it may be lacking in its political leadership. Denigrating whole states won't get you very far in life, just so you know. It's very likely that you could've gotten involved in research at FAU and taken advantage of the opportunities available there. There are plenty of people on this forum that have gone to "fourth-tier" institutions as undergraduates and have gotten into top-ranked graduate programs in a variety of fields. It's not our fault if you didn't get better grades or pursue research, either through summer REUs or by being an undergrad research assistant. Look inward, not outward. Think seriously about what it is that you need to do to make yourself an attractive candidate. Speak to graduate program directors at a variety of institutions you would be happy at. Know what your end goal is (it needs to be more than just the degree or you won't finish). Do informational interviews with people who have the job you want to have and find out what they recommend for you to get there.

I'm a member of a couple of campus organizations. One is our department's graduate student association. Many departments have these and no one outside the department is ever in them. I'm also a member of an activity-oriented group. When I started my MA, I went to the campus activities fair and put my name and email on a bunch of different lists. I never went to a single event I found out about that way. I participate in formal and informal get-togethers. People in my department and other friends will host small dinner parties, or drinking events organized around a particular event (birthdays, celebratory events, sports event, festival in town, etc.). Or we'll meet up at a bar for happy hour or late night drinks. I'm also involved in a few community organizations. I foster dogs through and volunteer with a local animal rescue group, though I don' t really talk to those folks other than on Saturdays. The campus activity group I'm in has an associated community group that I also belong to and participate with. I'm probably going to get involved with another community group this fall.

OP, if it's about money and you are applying this fall, I would keep in mind that many top universities (Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, etc.) have very generous financial aid programs and policies. Otherwise, what everyone else said is true.

My question would be how much debt are you going to get into to complete this second undergraduate degree? If you're already a resident of Florida, you might be better off going to FSU or UF. If you're already in-state in Maryland, then that's a moot point. But, if your question is whether there are other things you could do besides get a second BS, then the answer is yes. You could acquire research experience and solid letters of recommendation through that experience. Those things are often given more weight than grades are in the admissions process.

Kick ass at your coursework. Start on your MS thesis as early as possible so that you'll finish in your 4th semester and be able to present on the research at conferences (1-3) during your second year.

No, more of a sense that you aren't an effective advisor if your students take forever to graduate or if you've had students but never graduated any. Mentorship is part of the job, and advisors are expected to have students that get grants and publish, at least in the social sciences. If you don't, then it's not just you that looks bad, but also your advisor.

Hi Napoleon, Our policy is that we do not delete threads. Cheers, rising_star Forum Administrator

timuralp, you must be the rare graduate student that never has a crisis of faith about what it is we do. I envy that, I really do. But most people? They question what they're doing, whether it's worth slaving away for years at poverty-level wages, if that f*$^ing experiment will ever just work, etc. For those people, having an advisor that can give the occasional pep talk is extremely useful. FWIW, my advisor will give pep talks but only when you request and usually combined with a healthy dose of ass kicking. As in, what you're doing matters, you're going to do great, everything will go well BUT you need to take your comps and write some grants. Well, if your advisor doesn't get tenure s/he will be looking for a new job, which means you're either looking for a new advisor or moving to a new university.

Postbib, Would you be interested/able to secure a summer FLAS or a Critical Language Scholarship through the Dept of State to study Arabic and/or Hebrew over the summer? Alternately, are you sure you can't do an independent study with an Arabic instructor at SMU to learn MSA?

If they [the bad grades] were early in your academic career and not in the field you intend to study in graduate school, I wouldn't even bother talking about the few bad grades you received.

If you're a big gamer, you should see if you can keep working at GameStop for like one day a month to keep your discount. One of my friends was in a boat fairly similar to yours and has been doing the one Saturday a month thing for a couple of years.

I think you're confused. Stafford loans are Federal Direct loans. They can either be subsidized or unsubsidized.

You can't know that the class average would have gone down. Other students may have done significantly better on the final than you did, either raising their grade or letting them keep the same grade they had already earned. Agreed. It may not be allowed to change one's syllabus so late in the semester. At the same time, the syllabus may say that it is subject to change. And, at any rate, challenging a prof and the administration on this will make you look like a whiner. Even if you do get the grade changed, you will generate a lot of ill will in your department towards you.

I'm still eligible for Federal PLUS loans in spite of having a tuition waiver and a stipend. I imagine that you will be too, rogue.

It's not as weird as you think, I swear. At my MA university, I used to run into the same two profs in the grocery store all the time. And I seriously see my current advisor riding his bike all the damn time and sometimes he waves... They'll just think you moved during the summer because that's when your other lease was up and/or to get to know the city before school starts. I moved Aug 1 for classes that started the last week in August and no one thought it was weird.

Refurbished doesn't mean that it won't last a long time...

Do you get network drive space at your university or in your department? We do and I can remotely connect to the drive from home whenever I need something from it. Otherwise, I recommend getting a netbook or iPod touch for on-the-fly email checking, using an external HD to backup everything regularly, and, if you are paranoid, backing up either to the cloud or to a second external HD that you keep in a different location.

I typically rent from private landlords but using my stipend letter has never been an issue.

Hahaha, I can't believe I'm back on this list and that the threshold was so low this time. And weirdly enough, the site felt busier to me than April '09 even though it wasn't. Strange. I still want someone to surpass me as the top poster of all time... Anyone up for a challenge?

Tucson beats Ann Arbor on weather almost any time of the year. Plus, won't it be nice not being burdened by loans while in your PhD program?

Yea, I'm still sticking with my original opinion. School #1 seems to be bending over backwards to keep you. Will the Office of the President job grant you an experience like the one you'll get by working in Paris? Edit: I gave this some more thought. I recommend going through all the listings on higheredjobs.com, in the Chronicle of Higher Ed, and on insidehighered.com to see what qualifications employers are looking for in the jobs you want to hold. My guess is that it doesn't matter where the degree is from, provided you have both academic and professional experience. Also, FRANCE!!! You are so lucky.

Agreed with this. We have a 13 week summer vacation and I spend 8-9 of those weeks in the field doing research and another 3 teaching. So, one week left to vacation in the summer. In spite of this, I don't wish that I'd taken off the summer before grad school. I'm not sure what your career goals are but you should maybe ask yourself which opportunity best prepares you for your future career. To be quite honest, I did a summer program before starting my MA and it was useful for a lot of reasons, though very few of those were research related. Monetarily, it was great because I didn't have any employment lined up and was going to have to live at home since I wouldn't have been able to afford rent. I'm going to list some of them: - got me a library card, which I used to start perusing books in the field (I switched disciplines so this was useful) - there were a series of workshops on grad school life and success, including one on how to use EndNote, another general introduction to the campus library services, and opportunities to meet grad students from across campus and learn from them - gave me a chance to get to work with my advisor early on to see if I wanted to change - got me first dibs on office space in the grad student carrels (which led to getting a corner one that was quieter and larger) - gave me a chance to get to know the office staff and get on good terms with them - opportunity to scope out the coffee shop and bar scenes without thousands of college students around (I moved to a college town and this was a nice, gradual introduction to it) - better time finding an apartment. I sublet a place initially for the summer, then was able to look locally for a place to live during the year. Since I was already there, it was easier not only to go see places but also to investigate neighborhoods (you know, driving through in the evening and at night to see what kind of people live there), place a deposit, etc. Hope this helps.

I would hold off on working extra jobs until at least after your first semester. I worked a second job of 8-18 hours per week during the second year of MA and it was manageable in large part because it was a desk job with downtime that I could use to get caught up on schoolwork. Something similar may be easier than trying to do something like event organizing and planning. From one slacker to another, I just want to say that slacking off in graduate school does have its repercussions. I've chosen to slack off when it comes to coursework, in favor of writing applications to fund my summer research, watching reality TV, and hanging out with people. And, though I've gotten those grants and am making adequate progress in the program, there are some that question my commitment... So, be careful of that.

Go to the better program.

I don't think having a drink with one's advisor precludes one from having a professional relationship with him or her. My department has a weekly happy hour, and my advisor is one of four faculty members that attends regularly. By your definition, this would be extreme. I don't see this as a problem but, then again, the first time I met him was standing outside of a bar and he invited my friends and I inside and bought us a round of drinks. That said, I also meet with him in his office and have frank discussions about my research, progress, and plans. The thing is, the professor doesn't just see you as a student but also as an extremely junior colleague. You will be peers and colleagues after you finish, so why not have a friendly relationship while you're in the program?