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ProfMoriarty

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Everything posted by ProfMoriarty

  1. 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)
  2. 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!
  3. Meanwhile at Oxford... classes don't start 'till next Monday! But I have had a good time in this beautiful city
  4. If you are this deeply unsatisfied with your grad school experience, then perhaps you shouldn't pursue a postgraduate degree.
  5. 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!
  6. Check out http://www.channel4.com/programmes/jamies-15-minute-meals
  7. 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
  8. This seems particularly helpful! http://samanthalgrace.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/notetaking-rubric-for-comps-and-everything-else/
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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?
  12. Oh dear, I most certainly feel that way. I'm convinced the only reason I was accepted is because they want my money...
  13. I read what I can on PDF. If what I need isn't available, then on paper. I want to go as paper-free as possible; it's both convenient and environmentally friendly. I mainly use my iPad to read PDFs because I find it uncomfortable to read on my computer. There are many applications that help me keep organised. I use Mendeley synced with Dropbox, and annotate using PDF Expert
  14. I have a trans-Atlantic move ahead of me. My flight isn't for another month and a half and what I'm most nevous about is whether or not I'm spending sufficient time with my family and SO! I'm so scared of moving and then looking back and thinking "I wish I would have spent more time with so and so..." even though I'm only going to be away fo two years!! As you can tell, homesickness is probably going to be a big issue for me I'm also struggling with compiling a packing list that isn't 90% shoes.......
  15. I haven't started my program, and I'm not going in for a PhD (Master's), but I suppose it's worthile to post here, in case I have a skewed vision of what grad school should be like and I'd appreciate it if someone with the experience corrects me if I'm wrong! Obviously there will be awesome classes and not-so-awesome ones. As for your research, as long as you love what you're doing, it's pretty much a given that you'll enjoy it. But I also think it's important to balance work and play, and I think this is a key component to making grad school (and life, in general) enjoyable. Naturally you'll be dedicating most of your time to your research, but joining clubs, having hobbies and finding time to enjoy something other than school is impotant to keep sane. I was VERY dedidated throughout my undergrad (and I know it's different from grad school, but I think the experience can be translated into gs), and more often than not I would keep from hanging out with people, going out, or distancing myself from my studies because I was so set on doing everything, and doing it perfectly. I was clearly fooling myself because, in the end, I would end up procrastinating and not being able to focus very well because I clearly needed some "off" time every now and then - it was silly to try and force myself to dedicate all of my time to reading and writing. By the time I was half-way through my major I was at the top of my class, sure, but had very little friends, because while everyone else managed to balance school work with down time, I was all about working hard. This takes a toll on your spirit and your work. I'm not saying you should slack off, nor am I saying that your research shouldn't be your #1 priority... but I think part of making the university (ug and postgrad alike) experience enjoyable is to find a balance and acknowledge that writing, publishing and researching isn't all there is to it. In some other thread someone posted about their plans to dedicate 100% of their life to grad school and, honestly, that stuff isn't healthy. Even if you enjoy your research, you're going to become overwhelmed at some point of another (as others have mentioned in this thread), which is why you need to have spaces that allow you to distance yourself from the "serious" stuff from time to time.
  16. French press! (BIG french press) I wish I could take a lifetime's supply of coffee from home, but alas I'm not an eccentric nor rich enough for that...
  17. What's wrong with Zotero? When I wrote my undergrad thesis, I used Zotero for my primary sources. Anyway, maybe you could try Evernote. It works for virtually everything, and you can store your scanned documents on there, annotate them, search using tags, arrange them into stacks and notebooks, etc.
  18. I haven't had much free time myself, but just having the time to read these texts WILL feel like a vacation to me! I'm actually upset I haven't had a free summer precisely to do these kinds of things! Our terms are odd, being only 8-instense-weeks-long. Honestly, October cannot come soon enough. I want to relocate already!
  19. I'm definitely going to get one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Bodum-Brazil-French-Coffee-34-Ounce/dp/B000KEM4TQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406133144&sr=8-1&keywords=french+press I think french press coffee is delicious. I drink A LOT of coffee, and my pocket will benefit from having a way to make it myself (at odd hours, too...).
  20. I'm not due to start my programme until October, but I was recently emailed a summer reading list, the contents of which seem fascinating and have made me more anxious to finish my contract and start preparing for what's to come! Funnily, the email said it's not mandatory to buy and read all the books, but I'm just so excited and so eager to learn that I've already downloaded the ones that were available on PDF, and purchased the ones that weren't (they were astonishingly expensive, even in Kindle format!) How have you guys been preparing? Have you, too, been assigned reading?
  21. Came back to give some life to this forum! When is everyone starting? I'm due to move sometime in late September, and classes start the second week of October
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