Maleficent999

I'm attending for sociology our departments are very close (even housed in the same building) so I'm sure I'll see you around!

When you sort the excel sheet, do you use the sort tool with keywords or manually sort them yourself? Thanks for sharing! Now I feel like I can actually do something productive this summer before school starts!

I have sexual dreams about this one professor from undergrad sometimes. We still keep in touch so I think it is just an intellectual crush because in person I'm not physically attracted to him at all. I wake up from these dreams feeling aroused and very confused. I try not to think about it too deeply.

You're the type of person I secretly wanted to date in high school. If you look at my current SO, it allllllll makes sense. Thankfully, he's not a slacker anymore but that punk thing is still there. Sometimes I wonder if this relationship will serve to "get it out of my system."

I was the smart, nerdy type until high school when I turned into the drama club, nerdy type and my grades were just kind of average because I spent so much time doing theatre. I definitely wasn't considered "popular" though. I was probably kind of invisible.

This is actually kind of brilliant. For my undergraduate thesis I did this using notecards that I then sorted by "camp" or "group of thought" but it never occurred to me to do it in excel and for that I feel kind of silly. To be honest, this makes me feel less stressed just thinking about doing this.

If you just ask the grad school what exactly they mean by honors (you don't even have to give your name if you call them) you might be saving yourself the stress and money of trying to retake the course. You might be fine with your current grade. Just call and ask. Stress later if it turns out your grade does kill your offer.

I'm excited to be moving forward with my life after this year of stagnation (apps), but I'm also a bit nervous about classes. To echo everyone else, I've got some imposter syndrome and I'm wondering if I duped the adcomm into thinking I was worthy when I'm not. School is something I'm good at and even when I think I'm going to fail something I usually do pretty well, but I know I can't fall back on that in grad school. However, I should note that I've never just done school. I've been working since I was 14 so I think now that school will be my job, I'll be able to really throw myself into it the way I always wanted to. I am trying to enjoy my last summer before I feel like I'm constantly drowning in stress.

Ok great, thanks! I'll check with my lender.

Now that's an interesting idea. Did you get a student discount? The website says up to $200 off computers but I don't know if iPads qualify.

This was actually my first thought. I have a nice TV in my living room currently I'll probably use in my bedroom and the one currently in my room I could use as a monitor. My biggest qualm with laptops is their propensity to overheat. I have cooling pads but those make laptops even bulkier for carrying around. Additionally, I don't like how much higher the pads make laptops sit because it makes the edges of the laptop dig into it wrists when I'm typing. I know that sounds nitpicky, I just don't like the idea of relying on a laptop as my main tech power for 8 years when I've had so many issues with laptops in the past. Albeit, my MacBook has lasted a long time and although it overheats, it hasn't completely fried itself like other brands I had before. I also really like the idea of a touchscreen, which is why I like the iPad for reading. In the end, like most decisions, it's going to come down to how much money I have to spend come September. Thanks for all the insight, guys!

Food for thought...hmmmm

Ahhh perfect! So I can pick your brain. In your experience so far, do you think then that it could be do-able to get an iMac for at-home heavy processing like SPSS and writing papers and then have an iPad for toting around? A professor of mine in undergrad used her iPad for lecturing so I know they work for presentations and that kind of thing. I also prefer to work from home so I'm not worried about trying to write papers in the library on my iPad. And anyway, that's what Dropbox is for if I absolutely need to. Otherwise I'll probably just get a MacBook Pro and be done with it. I haven't had a desktop in years but I'm really wanting one these days. Lol

Did you have to fill out paperwork to defer or did it happen once your new school registered you as a student? Also, did it defer once classes started or when you signed up for classes?

If I go the Mac route, I'd have trouble deciding whether to get an iMac for at home and an iPad for in class and at school or just a laptop for both at home and school. I want an iPad for reading articles and that sort of thing but it seems silly to have a laptop AND an iPad. I'm just not sure how I'll feel about trying to take notes on an iPad. Does anyone have experience using two easily transported devices? Do you find you just use your laptop because it's easier? That's the draw of the hybrid for me. I could have the best of both worlds if only the technology was more reliable. I haven't read many convincing reviews of things like the HP Split x2.

Similar question: does anyone have suggestions for laptops? My 2008 MacBook is on it's last legs. I've been looking at laptop/tablet hybrids but I haven't found one I like yet.

#knewit congrats!

Since I'll largely be biking to school, I'm pretty sure a backpack will be my best bet unless I get one of those neat messenger bag attachment things for the back of my bike.

I just finished the leasing process on an apartment in Davis with a girl from my cohort. I feel pretty confident about the location. I don't know much about houses but feel free to pm me if you'd be ok with a 2-3 bedroom apartment.

Haha yeah, I was surprised I got into Davis because I was so frustrated with the app. I'm pretty sure there was latent anger that seeped through. Maybe they read it as passion about my topic. My main point is that the "fit" is the most important section, so my advice if you're dealing with length limits would be to start with that section and cut from other places if you have to. I wish I had done this instead of wanting to include stuff that was probably far less important.

My biggest issue was that each school had a different page or word limit. For instance, one school had a page limit of 3 and UC Davis had a CHARACTER limit that ended up being less than a page single-spaced. If every school were the same it would've been fine but having to drastically cut some sections or, as I said, running out of space toward the end was something I would've spent more time remedying and working out could I go back in time.

I'll agree with the above poster. Spend time personalizing your SOP. Thankfully, things turned out well for me but if I could change anything about my application process it would be to have spent more time really configuring each SOP to fit the school. I fell victim to the page or word count blunders where I got to the portion to show how well I fit and ended up running out of space so it wasn't as detailed as it should've been. I'd advise to start each SOP with that section and then build the rest of it around it depending on how much space you have left.

I'll be attending UC Davis in the Fall. Feel free to message me any questions now or later on in your app process.

Maybe its the conspiracy theorist in me, but does anyone else ever wonder who exactly these people are who keep posting that presitge is the only thing that matters and that the rest of us outside the top 20 (going to a school ranked 31, myself) are wasting our time? We can't verify these people's identities through GC. Part of me wonders if some of these posts come from people outside the top 20 who are trying to dissuade the rest of us and thin out the competition. Yes, we know ranking matters but I don't think many of us are willing to throw our future career out the window because some unverifiable authority on the Internet tells us to.

I'm pretty sure you can defer for as long as you're a full-time student.