eklavya

just make something up and throw it in there. this (what you put on the site) isn't going to be the golden ruler to measure your future leaps and progress. but make sure you throw in some big words to scare the undergrad folks.. hehe

ditto happened to me. their dept website was not clear about if i should contact the profs before, or after the application, or if i should contact them at all. it's partially my fault that i wasn't proactive enough, and didn't contact my PoIs. but c'mon. the dept should be very clear about the process too. not like we are oracles or gypsies! - how the hell do we know what the next step is.

anyway, i contacted a couple profs whose research interested me the most, but they weren't taking any students. dead end. they suggested that i transfer my application to a similar program in the same college, but i said no thank you. i also found out, very late, that i wasn't given funding because the head of the dept and the guy who is in charge of allocating funds for new grad students, are not in good speaking terms. i was like WHAAAAAT!? they are playing with our future man!

/end soapbox.

papa midnight

(constantine, anyone?)

you gotta keep one drop one, yo! not drop both!!

continuing from dogbert's:

bucket list

I don't want this to sound like an advertisement, but I found a cool forum that goes into a bit more detail about various cities. The website is http://www.city-data.com/forum. Since most of my schools are in smaller communities, it has been a good resource for me finding out more about them. Feel free to check it out.

Note: I have not been paid by any website to post this (or any of my other forum/blog posts). I'm just trying to be helpful.

ditto happened to me. their dept website was not clear about if i should contact the profs before, or after the application, or if i should contact them at all. it's partially my fault that i wasn't proactive enough, and didn't contact my PoIs. but c'mon. the dept should be very clear about the process too. not like we are oracles or gypsies! - how the hell do we know what the next step is.

anyway, i contacted a couple profs whose research interested me the most, but they weren't taking any students. dead end. they suggested that i transfer my application to a similar program in the same college, but i said no thank you. i also found out, very late, that i wasn't given funding because the head of the dept and the guy who is in charge of allocating funds for new grad students, are not in good speaking terms. i was like WHAAAAAT!? they are playing with our future man!

/end soapbox.

I don't know..I just got this really strong feeling that somebody needed to hear that from an anonymous stranger

I just received my admission to Berkeley. I'd love to go there, but we, in particular my girlfriend, are a bit worried about earthquakes. How do you Californians deal with the possibility of earthquakes? Would anyone consider attending an equally good east-coast school instead of Berkeley to avoid the danger of earthquakes?

Can't believe we don't have a thread dedicated to Chuck Norris!! No wonder life is boring as hell during the waiting period! (Why? Cuz Chuck Norris ain't here to keep us company, y'all!!)

Anyhoo, the obvious question to ponder about, while I/we are stuck in this limbo, is, how would Chuck Norris go through the application and admission process?

1. Chuck Norris doesn't fill out the application forms. He stares at them till they finish up and pay after themselves.
2. Personal statement of Chuck Norris: "Me".
3. Chuck Norris never accepts offers made by any schools because he is tired of being the only smart dawg on campus.
5. If Chuck Norris doesn't get accepted, he simply calls up the admission office and says "No".
6. Chuck Norris got rejected at all schools he applied to. But the adcomms haven't gathered the courage to break the news to him.
7. While on a campus visit, the graduate student who was supposed to pick Chuck Norris up from the airport didn't show up. Enraged, Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked the whole city and dropped it far away in the ocean. People say that's how the Liliput came to be.
8. There are no PoIs for Chuck Norris. There is only CNoI for the POIs.
9. When asked what his career goals are, Chuck Norris answered "To be Chuck Norris".
10. Chuck Norris didn't get into any Eco/Evo program because no professors was willing to buy the idea that the mass extinction of dinosaurs was due to chuck norrisaurus and no meteor.
11. Chuck Norris was instantly hired by the math program because he could divide by zero.
12. Chuck Norris doesn't wait during the whole application process. He goes back to the future and gets his degree.
13. Chuck Norris was let go from the immunology program. Not because he caught the diseases, but because he crushed them with his bare hands after catching them.
14. Chuck Norris once possessed satan. To investigate how, the religion program was created.
15. When applying for physical fitness programs, Chuck Norris was asked how many push ups he could do. He answered "All of them".
16. Chuck Norris was invited for recruiting weekend because, well, Chuck Norris needed to recruit workers.
17. Chuck Norris was once called to the Dean's office because the Dean was in trouble.
18. There is no 'Middle Name' form field in the applications given to Chuck Norris to fill out. Because the schools are smart enough to know that nothing should come between Chuck Norris.
19. Chuck Norris doesn't contact PoIs. He pokes them in facebook.
20. PoIs don't poke back Chuck Norris on facebook. Who in their right mind would finger Chuck Norris?

ostrich egg

what a misfortune! i really feel for you. those people should be ashamed for their downgrading and inhumane act. is the department not willing to settle this by negotiations? i mean, it's clearly their fault that this tragedy has happened! i hope things can be worked out here. but if things don't look, i still hope you will be able to pick pieces up and move on. but man, what a terrible thing to have happened!

on another thought, probably getting a lawyer and suing them is the next best move.

No. It may be because you're new to being a TA. It's not your job to decide how the papers should be graded, it's your job to grade them how the professor in charge of the course told you too. In general, I tend to grade writing on par with my peers.


You shouldn't be grading from a student's perspective. You aren't a student for the purposes of this, you are a graduate student. Go with what the professor says, seriously.

What's best, when it's your first time grading is to read 2-4 papers side-by-side with the professor and see what s/he comments on, how s/he uses the rubric, and the grade s/he assigns to those papers. Then, use that to guide you in your own grading.

Yep.

Can't believe we don't have a thread dedicated to Chuck Norris!! No wonder life is boring as hell during the waiting period! (Why? Cuz Chuck Norris ain't here to keep us company, y'all!!)

Anyhoo, the obvious question to ponder about, while I/we are stuck in this limbo, is, how would Chuck Norris go through the application and admission process?

1. Chuck Norris doesn't fill out the application forms. He stares at them till they finish up and pay after themselves.
2. Personal statement of Chuck Norris: "Me".
3. Chuck Norris never accepts offers made by any schools because he is tired of being the only smart dawg on campus.
5. If Chuck Norris doesn't get accepted, he simply calls up the admission office and says "No".
6. Chuck Norris got rejected at all schools he applied to. But the adcomms haven't gathered the courage to break the news to him.
7. While on a campus visit, the graduate student who was supposed to pick Chuck Norris up from the airport didn't show up. Enraged, Chuck Norris roundhouse kicked the whole city and dropped it far away in the ocean. People say that's how the Liliput came to be.
8. There are no PoIs for Chuck Norris. There is only CNoI for the POIs.
9. When asked what his career goals are, Chuck Norris answered "To be Chuck Norris".
10. Chuck Norris didn't get into any Eco/Evo program because no professors was willing to buy the idea that the mass extinction of dinosaurs was due to chuck norrisaurus and no meteor.
11. Chuck Norris was instantly hired by the math program because he could divide by zero.
12. Chuck Norris doesn't wait during the whole application process. He goes back to the future and gets his degree.
13. Chuck Norris was let go from the immunology program. Not because he caught the diseases, but because he crushed them with his bare hands after catching them.
14. Chuck Norris once possessed satan. To investigate how, the religion program was created.
15. When applying for physical fitness programs, Chuck Norris was asked how many push ups he could do. He answered "All of them".
16. Chuck Norris was invited for recruiting weekend because, well, Chuck Norris needed to recruit workers.
17. Chuck Norris was once called to the Dean's office because the Dean was in trouble.
18. There is no 'Middle Name' form field in the applications given to Chuck Norris to fill out. Because the schools are smart enough to know that nothing should come between Chuck Norris.
19. Chuck Norris doesn't contact PoIs. He pokes them in facebook.
20. PoIs don't poke back Chuck Norris on facebook. Who in their right mind would finger Chuck Norris?

hells yeahs! it's februarys. decisions musts comes this weeks.
but sometime i think - what are the adcomms waiting for? blood sacrifice from us?

We are a group of students, who are trying to find a better way to share knowledge among people.
To launch our test platform, we need empirical data on graduate school student's behavior data.

Please help us via participating the survey on following link.
https://spreadsheets5.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEZnNGdJV19Zd3RxUTVCdlRkT0tHQkE6MA

Thank you so much for your time and concern!

A friend just showed me this hilarious Lady Gaga parody video! For my fellow bio grad students this is especially funny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl4L4M8m4d0

The University of Houston's economics Phd program made me an offer of admission. AFTER I HAD ALREADY MOVED TO HOUSTON AND JUST A FEW DAYS BEFORE CLASSES WERE TO START IN FALL 2009 IT REVOKED THE OFFER OF ADMISSION. I COULD NOT START IN FALL 2009 BECAUSE IT REVOKED THE OFFER OF ADMISSION BUT I HAD ALREADY MOVED TO HOUSTON AND PASSED UP OTHER OFFERS.

THE CLAIM WAS THAT THE DEPARTMENT HAD MISUNDERSTOOD THAT I HAD ATTENDED JOHNS HOPKINS ADVANCED STUDIES M.A. IN APPLIED ECONOMICS AS THE DOCTORAL TRACK ECONOMICS PHD COURSES. THE MISTAKE WAS COMPLETELY THE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS SINCE I DID NOT MISREPRESENT MYSELF IN THE ADMISSIONS PROCESS. THEY DIDN'T CARE IF THE MISTAKE WAS THEIRS AND THAT I HAD ALREADY MOVED TO HOUSTON.

I am not starting an argument with you. You can justify your graduate school decisions any way you wish. For me, I need to get over my aversion to snow very quickly, because in my specific field and area of interest, the action is where the snow is, and its more important for me to be with the faculty and advisors that are the movers and shakers in my field, than to be somewhere without snow. Seriously, it's 4-5 years. Perhaps I have a different perspective because I am over 30 and have varied life experiences. Four to five years is a drop in the bucket for me. As your signature says, YMMV....

And just like with shopping at Target, I'm done!

Things like these - small/big typos, choice of words, forgetting to switch department/program names between different SoPs, etc - are common. There is no way any one is going to be 100% satisfied with their applications. We all make mistakes, and the adcomms know that. They won't come to a decision based on a trivial error. Chill out. You'll be fine.

Hi guys!

Woah, just wanted to share with you that I just realized that (surprisingly) I'm getting a bit excited! Haha, ok this might sound strange but it was sometime during November when I decided to apply :-) At first I wasn't too serious about so I just Googled a bit and saw that people apply to about 6-8 schools on average so I applied to 6 in the first place and later on to two others as well. However, I just realized that I'm actually a bit excited now to know what they are thinking about my application.
Either they will love or hate my SoP because it was only one alinea :-) Also, I'm not some genius either, but I'm just curious what they think about me, I wish I could be there when they read my application.

Anyway I'm having lots of fun her and can't wait until the rejection letters start pouring in

I just wanted to share this with you!

- D.

I beg to differ. Please don't think I am being ignorant or arrogant as I present my opinion.

I am not willing to buy that idea that non-science majors have dominated the list 'because they are still important'. For one, I have always thought they were important. I mean, as important a doctor/engineer/scientist is to the society, a teacher/writer/historian is the same, if not more. Second, I think a lot of confounding variables have to accounted for in order to understand the list. Such as, perhaps the humanities majors have dominated the list because most people (choose to) study those majors? And/or, comparatively, many people from the humanities hover around in this board (again, because most people are in such majors)? And could it be that people from science/professional majors have less time than other majors, because of their course load? Or perhaps they just choose not to join these kind of forums? Further, may be they don't know about this and similar forums? Many reasons here. The point is, non-science majors could have been represented more either due to their still-existing-importance (as you are saying), or because of unexplained factors/trends that shift these statistics. And thinking that you guys don't get respect is a fear you have from within. Any educated person always respect another human being - regardless of class, rank and education. Please don't self-depreciate yourself... like I said above, you guys are as important contributors to the balance of our society as we are.

shouldn't that ^ be her and not his?

ETA: i see now - dude wrote a letter by himself using his pen and brain (=HIS, right?) for her.

'lets piss on the pile of application files'