ERR_Alpha

If it's really 20k and not 2k then holy crap, that's a lot of money. Penn State offered me an extra 7k for the first year. It definitely helped make my decision easier. 7k let me pay off my car and establish a savings account, which really minimizes my stress level.

Question answered, ignore post

I've lived in the northeast my whole life and my 2009 Corolla has been fine every winter. Granted- I don't drive when I don't have to, I don't live anywhere with lake effect snow, and I have some pretty expensive snow tires. Your first winter is likely going to be rough driving. It's a learning curve. Learning how your car handles in snow and ice is ...interesting. Once I mastered it I was fine, as my dad says, it's the other idiots on the road you have to watch out for. My car made it home 15 miles with six inches of snow on the ground and more falling. It wasnt enjoyable by any means, but it was doable. Granted, if I had unlimited money, I would get myself a RAV4 in a heart beat. I hate being stuck inside when it's snowing. But for financial purposes, little cars make sense. Especially for long trips home. (The gas mileage makes up for the winter performance in my mind)

Didn't even realize that was a profs name. Good lord.

NYU Anthropology (cultural), PhD (F15) Rejected via E-mail on 23 Feb 2015 23 Feb 2015 low IQ faculty. So not a bummer at all. THEN WHY DID YOU EVEN APPLY

Wow. I enjoy a good Michigan joke but that was intense hatred. And horrible grammar... Also lol @ all of the Michigan Econ rejects writing go bucks or go other big 10 teams

Most of your questions are entirely based on personal opinion. Which has more professors you're interested in? What area would you be happier in? I work in a PSU chemistry lab but there is no simple answer to this question.

People put considerable time and effort into giving advice, whether you think they did or not. They took time to type something they thought you would find helpful. Calling them out for not saying what you want makes people less likely to give you constructive advice. How would you feel if you took the time to read 6 pages, gave your thoughts, and then OP basically told you it was useless?? It's similar to lab stuff. You slave over some data, hand it to your PI, and then they go "haha, this is awful!" It's not a good feeling and makes the person less likely to put that much time in again. You've also named some professors by name, so you could reasonably be identified by someone. What you post on the Internet can and will come back to haunt you. Being rude to people on the Internet is the same as in real life. /end rant

Just an FYI, when you ask for advice on the Internet, you open yourself up to helpful and not so helpful suggestions. Pointing out the ones you don't find helpful makes you seem extremely rude. If you only want advice from certain people, ask them. Don't post an open thread.

My place

Dark horse

I can speak for my school (not Caltech)- switching is incredibly department dependent. Our bio umbrella program is very accepting of transfers as long as they have an advisor- whereas chemistry is next to impossible and basically forces students to reapply. So I would be extremely careful - make sure you apply to programs that are a good fit.

Princeton University Electrical Engineering, PhD (F15) Rejected via E-mail on 18 Feb 2015 I 18 Feb 2015 report spam Such a dramatic story! I got my rejection while eating pizza! Noooooooooooooo!!!! The struggle is real, man.

HAHA this is great! I grew up in Rensselaer county... most of the RPI students also say it wrong.

The one that seems creepily aware of what was about to happen got me the most... "Too many admits this year, don't believe it"

Graduate school in a nutshell...

They don't call it Gun Wavin' New Haven for nothing... Haha. I was born near there and my parents left ASAP. Although I know plenty of people who live there without issue. You just have to be more careful.

I'm a big fan of this also. I print my weekly schedule out and put it in a binder, and fill in the spaces between classes and teaching with what I would like to accomplish. If I feel I don't do enough of those things during the week, I'll come in on the weekend, but if I get everything done, I reward myself. It's a balancing act because I always (always!) feel like I could be doing more! Especially since once I'm home, I don't get much done.

Some PIs really foster a competitive atmosphere amongst their lab members. If someone kept getting data and you didn't, and your PI was a jerk, you may be so inclined.

I applied to Yale but I also had several people in the field tell me to save Yale and other ivy leagues for a post-doc. Apparently (this is all hearsay) some labs there are much more focused on their post-docs than training graduate students.

I love in a ~760 square foot apartment with my SO. When he goes away for weekends, the apartment feels absolutely massive to me. Personally, if I ever lived alone, a studio would be plenty. I'm not home a whole lot, and I only really cook dinner / do work / watch tv while I'm home. There would be no need for two separate rooms for a bed and a couch if I didn't have an SO who stays up late watching tv. Some studios are also rather large, I would say square footage is more important than rooms. Also something to think about- do you ever plan on having people over? It's not important to us, but it may be something to consider if you like to entertain.

People do this to me all of the time at the bus stop. I'll be standing fairly close to the stop with plenty of space around me, but then someone wants to be directly at the damn sign and breathing down my neck. I moved away from someone today and he rolled his eyes at me.

Sometimes I have "meltdowns" (adult temper tantrums) and they make me feel better. My boyfriend is pretty supportive when I go meltdown mode to just wrap me in my cocoon of blankets and to not speak words. It's actually fairly therapeutic.

I swear I'm in a 24 hour bad luck phase. Last night I burned myself pretty badly pan searing steaks. This morning I was running for the bus and the driver just went on by me then I almost fell on my way into lab. Sigh. I can only hope this bad luck doesn't reach my cells that should reach their OD around 5 today...

Also granted this was for a Gender and Women's Studies program but still... Rejected for having conflicting values with Liberty University. Maybe it was my two abortions I discussed in my personal statement?