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Catria

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Status Updates posted by Catria

  1. Sometimes I wish I could just trade in my ability to do research for perfect grades in any course for the rest of my life...

  2. The pains of my grad school experience are just too much for me to bear anymore... I'm leaving at semester's end

  3. Although US News is amusing at best, at what frequency are US News rankings updated for PhD programs? (If the answer is field-dependent, physics)

    1. .letmeinplz//

      .letmeinplz//

      Depends on the subject, it tells you what year on the top of the page of rankings though (like Computer Science, Ranked in 2014). 

      Also, amusing? USNews mirrors most international ratings and schools obviously put enough stock into it to post USNews rankings on the program page.

    2. Catria

      Catria

      Physics is also a subject ranked in 2014. Only my question is: when will it be ranked next?

    3. .letmeinplz//

      .letmeinplz//

      Usually November I believe, but it doesn't matter as the rankings don't change drastically throughout each year (a professor at CMU wrote about getting into PhD CS, he said when speaking about USNews ranks... "Note that the top 4 schools in this list have been fixed since the time I applied for graduate school, over 20 years ago.") . 

  4. Now submitted my thesis!

    1. fuzzylogician

      fuzzylogician

      Yay, congrats!

    2. Catria

      Catria

      Tunneling decay of false kinks in 1+1 dimensions...

    3. Threeboysmom
  5. I changed my blog's name: it's now called Minnesota for a Reason

  6. Won divisional prize at CAP Congress for best poster!

  7. Who is better placed to advertise a PhD program, a current student or a professor?

    1. MidwesternAloha
    2. Catria

      Catria

      Perhaps this plan is too crazy to be true but it basically means to capitalize on the political context of basic research in Western Europe (and, if Harper is reelected, Quebec as well)...

  8. The primary question is: what would cuts to science funding push students to do: undertake graduate studies abroad or leave science altogether?

  9. Luckily it only took 3.5 days to do the first round of edits on my masters thesis...

  10. Man... the final stages of my masters are painful

  11. Rejected by WUSTL off the waitlist on the deadline day...

    1. Show previous comments  1 more
    2. FinallyAccepted

      FinallyAccepted

      Bummer. Sorry :( Do you have other prospects?

    3. Catria

      Catria

      Now I am 100% sure I will go to Minnesota...

    4. FinallyAccepted

      FinallyAccepted

      Well, at least you don't have to go through this fun application process again. (This was my 2nd time doing it because I didn't get in anywhere last year.) So there's always that.

  12. I am worried that my choice of a destination may prove questionable to the people I leave behind at home, even though the program I will attend is still a respectable one for my field

    1. Show previous comments  12 more
    2. victorydance

      victorydance

      Anyone who doesn't understand that anyone with the ability to attend a top 20 university in the US for their Ph.D. is better off doing that than studying at a Canadian university isn't worth your time. U of Minnesota isn't Princeton or Stanford but you will undeniably get better training there, and have a better shot at the academic market, than if you attend any Canadian university.

    3. MathCat

      MathCat

      You can get as good training at the top Canadian programs as the ~20-30 ranked programs in the US (at least in math), but the academic job prospects are better with a PhD from the US, for sure.

    4. Catria

      Catria

      The impression I have: go to any of the following for physics and you may pass it off as normal: Harvard, MIT, Caltech, Cornell, UChicago, Princeton, Berkeley, UCSB, UIUC (for CM), Yale (for HEP-EX), UCLA, Columbia, Michigan, UPenn - other schools have regional reputations (Minnesota, NWU are best known in the Prairies, Washington in AB and BC)

  13. Just committed to Minnesota!

    1. Vene

      Vene

      Watch Fargo to prepare for Twin Cities living.

    2. GeoDUDE!

      GeoDUDE!

      both the movie and the show

    3. Catria

      Catria

      Kapusta said that Minnesota had no trouble getting physics PhD applications from the Prairies (plus Lakehead) but they had trouble recruiting from the other Canadian regions (they usually get 0-1 application from non-Prairie schools and 2-3 from Prairie schools)...

  14. On my last visit, some quantum computing guy asked why there never were any applications to that school from my undergrad prior to this cycle...

  15. Looks like I'm going to attend Minnesota...

    1. .letmeinplz//

      .letmeinplz//

      Good luck! Buy a coat though...

    2. Catria

      Catria

      Got rejected from UPenn and losing hope for Columbia; as for the coat, my current school is in a similarly cold area

  16. Looks like my safeties all rejected me...

    1. ERR_Alpha

      ERR_Alpha

      This happened to me last year also... just goes to show there are no "safeties"!

    2. Catria

      Catria

      The weird thing was that my acceptances were sandwiched between rejections (as seen through the lens of USNWR for my field)

  17. Now co-advising an undergraduate capstone thesis...

    1. autumn

      autumn

      That sounds kind of fun, actually. What is the topic?

    2. Catria

      Catria

      That said, the undergraduate capstone thesis I'm co-advising is a continuation of that undergraduate summer internship; the topic is still related to some theoretical particle cosmology problem I'm also working on.

  18. Got rejections high and low... with a Minnesota offer somewhere between my rejections

  19. Now I wonder whether I will get in anywhere I applied to on my List of Happiness...

  20. Rejected from the school closest to home on my list...

    1. MidwesternAloha
    2. Catria

      Catria

      Dartmouth; I wonder whether I fell prey to a department that took into account likelihood of attendance...

  21. 2 waitlists in 2 days... I have explanations for both of them though

    1. Catria

      Catria

      WUSTL, CMU... both were transparent about funding; CMU would pay $2,375/month, while WUSTL would pay $21,000/9 months and summer funding at similar rates, so I know for sure that money won't be the deciding factor

  22. Here's a second offer!

    1. MidwesternAloha

      MidwesternAloha

      Awesome! Now the decision is yours!

    2. Catria

      Catria

      Still have 7 apps pending; can't decline Notre Dame too quickly

  23. Even though one school with clear, cheap real estate opportunities rejected me, I still have 3 such schools left to hear from!

    1. Catria

      Catria

      Make that 4; Philly also affords such opportunities so I would still be able to carry this out at UPenn

  24. I won't be able to carry out this cheap real estate plan personally :(

    1. Catria

      Catria

      I got rejected from Michigan, that's why...

  25. Bye-bye top-10 schools, now that Princeton and UChicago rejected me...

    1. Eternal Student

      Eternal Student

      I am sorry :(

      I know that the institution matters. Sometimes, it matters a lot! But you can be successful regardless of where you go. Don't give up! :)

    2. Catria

      Catria

      I'm lucky that physics is not a field where the institution matters that much... not as much as in, say, English.

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