GeoDUDE!

I think there are 3 primary modes of long distance communcation: phone, email, and regular mail. I suggest one of the 1st two, as its the fastest and will get you your desired response faster.

buffalo fan is not biased.

It depends on what kind of programming you want to do. Python and R are fine languages, but neither of them are really good for numerical analysis which a lot of advanced statistics require. They can do these things, but are incredibly slow. It really depends on how much data you are working with. I think python is a much better language than R. Python is a lower level language than R (meaning it has less built in packages) which will force you to learn responsible programming practices. That being said, both are incredibly slow. For example, I wrote a code in 2010 in python (at the time the only language I knew well) that took 40 minutes file to process. I had to process ~ 270 files, so it took a while, but still faster than excel because I could prepare 1 file while the other was processing. in 2013 I rewrote it in matlab, and it takes 6 minutes to process. The difference between matlab vs R and Python is that matlab has had decades of optimization behind it. R and Python, as scientific tools, will probably catch up, and they are a lot closer than most people think, but when working with hundreds of thousands of points of data and more both Python and R are not really equipped to do these things efficiently. But even matlab has its limitations. if you are working with millions of data points, Matlab will take forever. A lower level language like C or C++ will be necessary. This might be more information than you want, but I think it is important to think about what kind of researcher you want to be, what kinds of things you could see yourself working on, and learn the right tools for that. I personally think matlab is the most flexible option out there, It lets you work efficiently with reasonable size data but it is just as easy to learn as Python or R. The upside of Python is it is more similar to C++ in coding practices than Matlab or R, and the upside of R is that it is free and is as easy to learn as matlab. And thats really why people use R. Its free, reasonably powerful, and much easier to learn than a traditional programming language. Matlab, minus the free part, was what R was 20-30 years ago. It was the nonscientists alternative to fortran.

This happened 2 years in a row in my dept, they basically have to use extra dept funds to fund all the TAs. It also means that the following years less people get accepted, at least for us. but even the best depts rarely get 100% of acceptances to matriculate, most departments are probably at the 60% level with the better ones reaching 70-80% on average.

It depends on the department, but even departments that do n+x still might offer people spots.

If you like pandemic, I actually think Forbidden Island is a bit better (less alpha gamer potential) and it gets super difficult at the harder levels

I'm a bit of a boardgame geek, my favorite for a while now has been powergrid. Eurostyle games are my favorite.

The CGS resolution to have April 15th as a deadline is not legally binding. It is voluntary and schools who have signed it are not bound to it. Think of it like the UN.

People turn down every school. I think the schools that have good yield from their acceptances get about 70-80% of their applicants on average. Schools that accept a huge amount of applicants tend to have lower yields as well.

If he knows about it (like you say), why do you want to let him know what he already does?

Does it really matter what your degree says?

Relax and speak about yourself and research interests. If you can think of interesting questions to ask, that is always good. Its no big deal. This isn't some exam

The name of the degree is not important. I have a masters in geology, and havent really taken a "geology" course and my thesis was all numerical modeling

least debt

Evidence of acceptance, or recognition of advice is almost impossible to see online. Also, real advice, for a life changing event, doesn't often get actualized immediately by anyone. What do you expect to happen, have her say "You are all right, let me completely uphend my life because of strangers". How is that any evidence of said self-assement work? The storage of advice in this thread (good and bad) is reason enough to have this thread, and maybe if there is good advice in this thread (which there is much less than most here might think, in my opinion), it's here. I think the best advice in this thread is Do not get 3 masters degrees if you have to pay for any of them(I wouldn't pay for any graduate degree, but I digress). If you want a PhD, and got good grades in your masters programs, you need to figure out what else is weak in your application (like maybe GRE) and the best places to apply that you can get in. If you need some time before you start this process, teaching might be a good thing, but if you already have an advanced degree, you should not need to get another to be a high school teacher. All you need to do is get a credential, or in even some states, pass a test. Also, if you have TA experience, you can probably get a job at a private school. Things you should be working on, if you want to teach, is developing a teaching philosophy. That is something you can do right away. Teaching is something difficult, which is why I think you want to get another masters degree. You realize that there are good ways and bad ways of teaching, but what you may not realize is that you have been in many classes. Its time to think about what those classes did, what you liked about them, what you didn't and start developing your own teaching method. If you can do that, and do it well, not only will it help you get a teaching job, but it will probably help you think about your graduate applications better. Invalid or not, my guess is that the GRE is not your biggest problem, but the abrasive (and insecure) nature of your writing that many here in this thread have a problem with. This is why I think people think you are rejecting their advice (which you aren't). What is abundantly clear is that people have got caught up in their own stuff, and we all need to do some self reflection.

It means he wants an immediate decision.

Youngcharile, There was someone who came into chat all the time, with pretty much the same story as you, with the exception that she got into graduate school (though, unfortunately we suspect that is a lie for many reasons). Why I bring this up, is that this person seemed ultimately miserable because no one in chat told her what she wanted to hear. I don't think you are necessarily reacted this way, but I encourage you to be at least thoughtful of what people have to say. And anxiety can be overcome, I have personally seen people be successful in academia with much harder disabilities. There is field geologist in my department who has been blind since 3, and he won a MacAurther award. I'm not sure anything is impossible at this point, because that is something that I would have thought would be if I never saw it.

You should be fine. Masters work doesn't even have to be publishable. I think its an interesting work if it was common thought that there was a relationship between two things and it turns out there is not. It probably isn't the sexiest of papers, but its work that needs to be done, and thats a really good masters work imo.

They share a lot. I don't think that is something they share, and I doubt they really have time for that. For example, in my department, the faculty run the admissions ( which I think most departments are like that) and don't really have time to keep tabs on particular students that also applied to other UCs. Also, who knows if they applied to other UCs? Sure if they listed it on their application, but in all honestly, what would they do with this information?

The UCs are not in cahoots with eachother and often compete for students just like any other schools.

Pretty much comcast.

Haven't had any trouble or heard of people losing their funding because of budget cuts. That being said I'm in STEM, and at one of the better departments on my campus. Guaranteed funding is guaranteed to the point that if you are completing program requirements and your supervisor is satisfied then they can't cut you, sorta. I sorta think of it like basketball, lets say they hired you to score 15 ppg, and if you are scoring 15 ppg or more they guarantee your funding. That means they can't cut you even if someone who scores 25 ppg all the time comes a long and wants to join. If they do, you do have the ability to litigate. That being said, there are plenty of ways an advisor can get rid of you guaranteed or not.

Its also important to note how many subdisciplines your field has. For example, lets say you are in geophysics and see a job posting. They say, we are looking for a solid earth geophysicist. Thats a pretty common posting, as specific job postings (down to subdicipline) usually means that they already have someone in mind for the job. That job could hire from exploration geophysics, geodynamics, planetary sciences, earthquake seismology and mineral physics. Thats 5 different subfields, and all those people are qualified to teach the courses they probably want and all those subfields might have a different "top 5". That makes the competition even tougher than one would originally think, so going to the higher ranked school, all things being equal, helps.

Yes. If the university regaurds TA/RA/GA as employees, and you were in fact, terminated because of your performance in these tasks, that is fired. If you say were just a PhD student, and your advisor decides to drop you because of performance, that is getting kicked out of a program, not a job.

I think you have to do it tastefully, but It is a valid concern, and you need to know how the department supports its students. Frankly, you have to be honest and candid with your department/advisor if you want to succeed in graduate school regardless.