rising_star

I take notes on loose-leaf college-rule notebook paper, which I keep in manila file folders with printed-out readings and the course syllabus. Sometimes I organize these into 3-ring binders but lately it's been a whole lot of manila folders in my 2-drawer filing cabinet. My system works well for me, but it is a bit on the disorganized side.

I never sent any sort of CV in my emails. I always focused on their research, my research, and whether or not it would be a good fit. I generally asked people if they were accepting students, about their advising style, and about current and future research plans. I also talked about my own interests and background briefly. If they want to see a CV, they will ask you.


You could easily write the following in your SOP: "I am particularly interested in working with Dr. X and Dr. Y, both of whom I have been in contact with regarding my interest in the program". Or something like that.

I've played a bit with a demo iPad and while it's fast and exciting, I prefer my netbook. I can actually take notes, write papers, and surf the web with it, for just 1 lb more.

Your school can put you in touch with private lenders but the big names out there are Sallie Mae and Citibank as far as I know. You may also see if your local/national bank offers student or personal loans.

But, on a more serious note, what are you going to do with a journalism degree and $47K in debt?

Okay, it wouldn't be an LOR. What it would be is someone agreeing to be your advisor. Ask the person via email if they might be interested and, if s/he says yes, include a sentence saying this in your SOP.

Okay, it wouldn't be an LOR. What it would be is someone agreeing to be your advisor. Ask the person via email if they might be interested and, if s/he says yes, include a sentence saying this in your SOP.

My program is semi-business casual because of TA responsibilities ect. I have noticed several interesting phenomenon’s during my earlier grad visits, conferences, and in the grad program/university I selected.

1- Just because the profs dress casual doesn’t mean this is necessarily accepted for grad students. A few friends who have attained positions/tenure/ or retired have mentioned this- in some programs a faculty dress changes once tenure is achieved! Also, that while first impressions count the ones after count even more! Ex- are you consistently dressed appropriately professional? This reflects your ability to organize and maintain momentum- especially when your research and course work are making you crazy and you’ve had way too much coffee !!

These same individuals strongly suggest that grad students (especially those with funding) in less formal attired programs dress one step up- because you never know who is watching or visiting campus that might be a key person to connect with- if you are wearing jeans, a Hawaiian tourist shirt and sandals will this same person take you and your research seriously???

Also- there is a HUGE gender discrepancy folks- especially for TAs! In my experience and from talking with other TAs and professors students (and some faculty for that matter) treat women instructors differently than men- I have noticed that male grad students can come to the office/courses/TA sections dressed in jeans and a polo- and are treated no differently by their students. However, women who wear similar casual attire or even dress it up a bit with khakis and jewelry are in fact ‘demoted’. In other words women still have to work harder to gain respect, even and in some instances more so from their female colleagues. I wore my new blue jeans and a nice dress top into work on a Thursday of TA classes and my own seminar only to be given a look of mild distain while the two male TAs (also in jeans but with frayed bottoms and certainly not new, and t-shirts) didn’t even get a glance by any of the department professors in the room and later the elevator!!

So- what am I venting on about here?

1- Attire and presentation matters!! And regardless of equality in the workplace- gender does play a role! So before we wear jeans ect into the office consider how we are representing ourselves, and our work.

2. I think grad school is a professional job with certain dress requirements- it is sad to say this but change comes slowly and let’s face the facts…regardless of our work….we are the underlings and laborers of our departments! Our attire is but one more tool to ensure we are taken seriously and also shows that we take our work seriously, and are committed to our research and academic careers. If we don’t do this on a daily basis- who then is really to blame if we don’t get the Fulbright, or asked to be a research assistant on that notable professor’s incredibly funded and exciting research project, or asked to join a mixed panel at a conference with travel funding included? Or why the application for research funding is rejected? (Who would you want to physically represent your department at research institutions and conferences?; someone looking like their on vacation or about to pull off some serious research?)

After all this I should admit to being seen on campus in my fishing gear on the way to the river that runs next to my campus… off course this was the last day of classes!!! Hopefully no one can prove it!!

That would be so intensely weird to me. Seriously, if another grad student gave me a business card, that would be just stunning and bizarre, and something to laugh over at happy hour. I think that's a horrible idea, frankly. I've never seen anyone do it, or heard anyone talk about it, or seen it raised on any website or forum. I think it would get you the wrong kind of attention, and for what? to save 15 seconds of writing your name down.

Just strange, don't do it.

Just make sure the bag breaths, so the mouse don't sufficate...

Your work is more important than wardrobe quite honestly. Prada purses and armani suits don't get publications.

Maybe not, but it made me laugh...at a memory.

UnlikelyDad had a good friend in college with this same attitude. All he wanted was a dumb, easily-led girl with a big smile and big boobs. He was appalled when UnlikelyDad started dating me because I am not naturally sunny, and I'm not particularly well-endowed. When UnlikelyDad said he liked my brains his friend rolled his eyes.

Fast forward ten years. UnlikelyDad and his friend now lived at opposite ends of the country and hadn't seen each other for years when, out of the blue, this guy calls to talk because he is lonely. At some point UnlikelyDad asks if he has a steady girlfriend. Answer: no, he dates, but all the girls are too stupid to have a conversation (or a long-term relationship) with. To which UnlikelyDad replies: "That's why I snagged a smart one while I could."

So the poster may live to regret his rash words.

I'm assuming you're talking about Chinese history. What period have you been doing research in? What's your background in Classical Chinese? I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but a strong grasp of even the elementary Classical Chinese structures can really help your ability to read Modern Chinese.

I had a similarly frustrating experience in my last year of undergrad, when I decided to do a research project that heavily relied on Chinese language primary texts. I wasn't really prepared linguistically for the challenge, and had to look up almost every word. Fortunately one of my professors convinced me to go do an advanced language program in China, where we studied a lot of the basic constructions you can find in texts from different periods and different disciplines. I read those same texts at the end of the program, and I could easily go through them without a dictionary.

So basically, I would recommend you attend an advanced language program in China or Taiwan.

However, if that's not an option for you, then I would try to use your language tutor to your best advantage. Looking up and memorizing EVERY word or construction is not going to help you. Some of those words that you spent hours memorizing won't ever show up again, or at least not for a long time. I would have your language tutor read ahead in your materials and pick out the important and frequently used constructions. Before you read the text, study these constructions. Then, when you go to read the text, skim it first without a dictionary and see how much you can understand. Then read it once through again without a dictionary, underlining the words you don't understand. However, try to underline only the words that you can't guess the meaning. Then, use the dictionary to look up the underlined words (an electronic dictionary will save you a lot of time in this part). Read it through again. By this point, you should be able to understand what the text is saying, even if you still don't fully understand every word of every sentence. After that, I would have your language tutor look through your underlined words and pick out some of the very important ones for you to memorize.

This kind of a method should help a bit. But learning to read a language is the same as most other skills in life: you get better with practice. The more you read, the faster you'll be able to read. That's why Chinese history professors don't need to hire translators to do their research; they've just read these kinds of documents so often that they can just do it by themselves relatively easily. I know it's hard, but 加油! You can do it! Just keep working at it.

Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions or need more advice.

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 am going to be the voice of dissent. Follow the rules. Follow the rules. Follow the rules. Some schools are sticklers about this and others are not but the fact is you cannot know which is which. And what a horrible way to be eliminated -- on a technicality.

There is absolutely no way in which that implies consent to read the letter. What you did was a breach. Given that, there's nothing you can or should say to the person that wrote the letter. Let it go.

See this post:

When you accept a financial aid offer, it is for the noted academic year and typically valid for fall and spring (summer is a separate request). You cannot change the amount once you accept it and you cannot dictate how much to take in the fall versus the spring. It is evenly applied to both semesters. Any requests for aid for subsequent years is generally considered independent of previous years in that if you don't accept the full amount this year, you cannot request more than the offered amount the following year.

I'm sure it's clear as mud.

Wake Forest. An MA program is what you make of it.

I'm willing to bet money that in this context "service and leadership" means sitting on committees, organizing workshops/conferences, creating events, taking on responsibilities such as proceedings editing, reviewing for major conferences and journals, sharing the burden for any other departmental activity (e.g. being student rep, organizing the departmental colloquium series, etc) and any other activity that contributes to the smooth running of the department. I seriously doubt that getting involved in Fantasy Games Club or even Feed The Poor Club will help.

The "hideous" side of FSU the writer above refers to above, looks like this:




I'll agree that it is NOT the most attractive part of the Florida State Campus. However, I wouldn't consider the writers comments objective regarding Tallahassee, as it seems, based on his or her shared opinions of it, they rarely strayed away from the areas immediately surrounding the university campus and certain other high-traffic shopping districts where the comments shared would apply. It is common knowledge to most people who live in Tallahassee that those are student and/or low income areas. Most of Tallahassee's residential areas are strung out along the city's eastern corridors (where more industrial activities occur in the west). The area is full of great parks, great pubic schools, and great neighborhoods.





As state capital, most of Florida's history is on display, yet unlike other state Capitals, Tallahassee is not full of super-elaborate architecture and grand buildings, the downtown is modern but quaint, there are sidewalks all over, plenty of shade from the huge oaks.

Tallahassee is NOT run down. There are many authentic/organic feeling establishments surrounding the universities that cater to the students which may lead you to think so but I think they look the way they do on purpose. Unlike many other cities I've visited, Tallahassee doesn't have many abandoned buildings, and for the most part the city is doing a fairly good job reusing/redeveloping those that are.




The writer above says Tallahassee is predominantly republican... FALSE. Tallahassee's entire city commission is anchored by Democrats. Further this city and the immediate surrounding area are traditional democratic strongholds in North Florida (see historic Presidential election maps from CNN if you don't believe me). Not that this is something I personally hang my hat on, its just another telling sign that the writer above may not be a credible source for information on this city.

Wake Forest. An MA program is what you make of it.

26?!!!! Sheesh.

I was 31 when I went back to school. My doctor just recently told me how she went back to school to get the science credits she needed to go to medical school after earning a lib arts degree years earlier. She was in her 40s at the time. A good friend is doing something similar -- going back to a CC with a BA to get some science courses so he can go to med school -- at 30.

So, no, you're not too old.

And to answer your GPA question -- or maybe not answer but to provide some context by way of experience -- I applied to grad schools this year with a 2.8 GPA. I got two fully funded offers and 1 non-funded. It's all doable. You'll need to support your app with as much evidence of your ability as possible. For me that meant research, fellowships, publications, stellar LORs (one from an academic "name). And spread your app around. Those of us with, as my mentor called mine, "challenging transcripts" cannot just apply to T14 and wait to be courted. Apply to public and private, masters and PhDs, be flexible about location and anything else you can be flexible about. If you don't smell and have decent social skills try to meet as many people as possible to increase the odds of having a person rooting for you during admissions.

Approach this strategically and you can make it happen.

Wake Forest. An MA program is what you make of it.

I'm so sorry. Hang in there, you are almost over with school.

Make sure you take at least an hour a day doing something for you. Take a bath, go to the gym, watch a stupid movie...it'll help keep your sanity. If you have a trusted professor you might go to them with for some support and advice!

I definitely have to buy books outside my course reading lists and I'm in the social sciences. For example, I like owning the classics in my subdiscipline because I know I'll need to cite them for comps, even though I never had to read them for a course, and that I'll have/get to teach them as an instructor one day.



This can work well if you don't ever need to reference those books again. But, I find that I often have very little time to read books from week to week, end of skimming for seminar, and then returning to the book later if I need it for my research. If the class is totally outside your research area and subfields, then I would just ILL the book. And, here's something I haven't seen mentioned yet: you could share your books with a classmate. Maybe each of you buys half the list or does ILL for half the list then you swap. I've done this a few times in grad school and it's mostly worked out well.



I probably spend about this on books, though less because sometimes I have article-based seminars. I also think the advice above is spot-on with my experience.