ProfMoriarty

CUNY for urban studies. University of Manchester, too! (I don't see any UK or EU schools in your list, but you may want to have a look as there is a wealth of urban programes you might be interested in)

I got my offer for the DPhil programme at Oxford today It was the only one I applied to… basically an "all or nothing" kind of thing, so I'm accepting the offer. I did my master's here as well, and I am happy to answer questions or offer any insight to those of you thinking about coming!

Good luck!

Meanwhile at Oxford... classes don't start 'till next Monday! But I have had a good time in this beautiful city

Lamy fountain pens

If you are this deeply unsatisfied with your grad school experience, then perhaps you shouldn't pursue a postgraduate degree.

I feel like an impostor because I was rejected by every programme I applied to except for the #1 program in the world for my field :| However, they sent us some readings we have to get done for the induction weekend and for one specific one they said "it's important to read this, even though it's a difficult read" (paraphrasing) and... it was a very easy text. This really put the feelings of impostor-ness into perspective!

Why don't you d/l them instead?

Check out http://www.channel4.com/programmes/jamies-15-minute-meals

Sorry to hear about that! I had a health impasse myself - 1 month away from starting, I fell off my bike and dislocated my elbow. XD

This seems particularly helpful! http://samanthalgrace.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/notetaking-rubric-for-comps-and-everything-else/

I plan on wearing what I wore during undergrad: jeans and simple tops (ranging from sweaters, to blouses, to tank tops with cardigans). I'm chronically cold so I always have sweaters/jackets on me and scarves.

I'm not saying I'm going to never ever again open up the books/articles I've read! What I expect is to know where to look for information I've already read without having to re-read entire texts... I figured if I took notes I could search later, then I'd have both a better grasp of the texts, and a source to which to turn later in order to quickly go straight to the source. I'm really impressed by themmases approach! I don't have the discipline to keep such a complete and complex database.

During undergrad I would not do any note-taking while I read, just highlighting; when I was reading and writing for my thesis I copied exact phrases that were important to the topic I was researching, but obviously I knew what I was looking for. For grad school (and because of my Uni's teaching/learning system), I want to be able to look back at everything I've read and have a good, or at least decent, grasp of what each text is about without having to re-read it. I want to develop a good reading strategy to implement during my course... I've tried reading and taking notes as I go (and underlining key points), which was very inefficient since it took me twice as long to finish a chapter/section. I have also tried reading and underlining, and doing the note-taking at the end of the section. This is an OK strategy, but I'm struggling with making the notes short and concise, and not longer than the chapter itself! All the notes I've taken (by hand) are scanned into Evernote so I can search them with the handwritting-recognition feature. I find this convenient. What strategies do you guys use?

Oh dear, I most certainly feel that way. I'm convinced the only reason I was accepted is because they want my money...