Mnemosyne9

Regarding apartments, permit me to recommend the Meadowbrook Apartments at 15th (Bob Billings) and Crestline. I've lived here for two years and been very happy with the management, maintenance, and units. I can tell you more if you're interested. (I also lived at Birchwood Gardens at 19th and Tennessee for a year, which was cheaper but decent.)

Yuck! I hate to be such a downer but I am really glad I chose a young program that has no Ph.D. yet, so I could get attention and advising as a Master's student. I feared exactly that, that as a MA student only I would get the dregs left over from Ph.D. students if I went to another program. Good luck, I hope things work out for you, but I'm sure happy to be going to my program!

It means they sent acceptances to their top people in April, and waited to see who would say no and who would say yes. Now they know who's coming, and how many extra slots they have for the people who weren't quite so strong candidates. Consider 2nd round as being basically on the waitlist.

I have only one small story, but it was pretty annoying. My undergrad thesis committee was made up of two lovely people and one professor from the hottest depths of hell. The third member, not my director (A lovely woman who was quite annoyed at hell-prof's behavior) or even really a specialist in the topic of the thesis, chose to make grammatical and syntax corrections at my DEFENSE. No comments or criticisms of my ideas or arguments, just commas and indentations. Yeah. I teach writing as a tutor. For money. I get paid well and often for this work. So I think I can find syntax problems when I see them. So right around the time I'm defending this thesis, I need to get my grad school apps in. (Early December.) So I get his corrections, all of which were basically meaningless, and decide that I can't wait for my apps until he approves all the goddamned commas. So I make copies of the apparently grammatically deficient (but argumentally sound) thesis and send those to grad programs. Satan-professor finds out I sent the thesis to grad schools already and basically says I'll never get into grad school sending that. The thing was 85 pages, I wasn't expecting anyone to read it. I just wanted to show I could do a long project. It also has nothing to do with the field of grad study I'm entering. So I ignored his opinion. Now I am headed to an MA program in a department I love love LOVE, and was in fact accepted to more than one good program. Yay! I also, as if to put icing on the cake, won an award for excellence in coursework in Satan's department a few weeks ago. I was nominated by one of his colleagues. I wish I could have read his mind when he saw my name on the list! It probably wouldn't have been appropriate for polite company.

Not much new for me. I got a little official letter of admission from PSU, but nothing I didn't already know. I have one final exam tomorrow and then I'm all done, and graduation is Sunday. We're not moving until July so I'm pretty relaxed. I think PSU new grad students enroll sometime in June, so I'm just keeping an eye on the mail til then.

But too damn late! I accepted my offer at Portland State a full month ago, and just now I get an email from Toronto saying I was highly recommended by the committee- WTF? If they wanted me so bad, they could have told me a month ago. They've had my application since December for heaven's sake! Originally, I really REALLY wanted to go there, but if this is how they treat MA applicants before they are even students, how will they treat them once they're stuck in the program?! Portland State's soc dept was the friendliest, nicest group of people I could have asked for, and I'm completely happy to be going there. So, if anyone reading this is waiting for word from Toronto's MA program, another slot is now open, good luck!

I'm from there too- you'll have fun, but one bit of advice. Don't stay in Lawrence after age 30. If you do, you'll never leave. Anyway, it's a great place to be a student, so enjoy it!

I recently read this: http://yarinareth.net/Dorothea/gradsch/success.html and found it very useful in making my decision (and really reinforcing my intuitive choice).

Yin- what great news! I went to Portland over the weekend (April 21-24) and visited my new department- everyone was absolutely fantastic, friendly and put me fully at ease. They seem really happy to be there, and the department has no Ph.D. at the moment, only an M.A. program, so there's no "master's students are inferior" problem. Portland itself is gorgeous and I'm really happy with the whole situation. I found out something else too- only about 18 students were admitted to my program, and only 4 got funding offers, including me! I was so surprised and flattered when they told me. It also means we'll have a small cohort and hopefully that will make things a lot easier. I also met with my possible advisor, and talked about maybe doing research on the pharmaceutical industry as regards mental illness (she studies pharma in general, so it fits her work well). I'm so excited!! PS: I STILL have no word from Toronto, but I don't care at all because when I visited Toronto the department was kind of stiff and cold, not friendly like Portland State at all. I am absolutely 100% sure I have made the right choice!

I got tuition + $7000/year for a MA in Sociology.

Wow, Shelly, way to go! I saw that on the results page and I was really hoping it was you. Congratulations, and good luck!

I don't have any big news- I am going to Portland April 21-24 and meeting with department people, touring campus, etc etc. My partner has a job interview in Portland during that weekend as well which is a great boost to our confidence. Still not a peep from Toronto or Penn. I can't believe they think anyone would really wait this long to hear ANYTHING. I'm just counting them as assumed rejections and going on, even though I am supposedly waitlisted at both. It's just so degrading that I worked so hard to get my application right, submit it on time, and be attentive and available, and they just can't be bothered to give a damn about the fact that I need some warning before I will go anywhere. *sigh* I'm just disillusioned with the whole process I think. Ah, well, their loss, Portland State's gain.

Mutts tend to have better genetics than purebreds (ie, longer lives and better health, fewer vet bills) because purebreds are often rather inbred and do not have as wide a variety of genes. A basset and a golden retriever are going to create a puppy with the best of both, but two purebred bassets who may be cousins to begin with will not have as much genetic diversity, so if both have a particular bad gene or two it's a problem. However, this does all depend on the breeder: really high end breeders of show dogs will have a very solid understanding of genetics and will be careful to have enough diversity. It's the less scientific breeders who just breed for looks that will be a problem.

I'm not sure, Marisol- we are visiting in three weeks and are going to be so busy seeing the campus, department, and apartments that sightseeing will be an afterthought. Try the Portland Wikipedia entry, or the livejournal community damnportlanders.

So, who's joining me at Oregon's biggest university? I know there are a few of us, I've seen comments here and there. I'm going to be doing my MA in sociology.