Neist

My pre-graduate school work was pretty vanilla, but productive. Did some language training and read a lot. I wish I read a little bit more, but I probably went through 20 books. That's not terrible.

Well, hopefully it's closer to 6. Good luck with them! My first day of classes went well. Reading is going to be easy (at least for me). Little nervous about TA'ing, but I know I'll love it when I get into the swing. It's just a new experience and all.

Wait, you expect to have time for games? I certainly don't think I will! Edit: Classes start tomorrow! And my first obligation is my TA course. I'm nervous.

@hippyscientist That's so exciting! Make sure you let us know how it goes.

Some food at orientations here have been good, and some have been bad. The department one was pretty decent. They fed us Panera Bread.

That sounds horrible. I just finished budgeting 3 years in advance. Assuming nothing catastrophic occurs, my entire program will only cost me between ~$7000-$16000 (sans reading materials). I couldn't calculate it precisely before this point because I hadn't seen the exact fees for a typical semester (I couldn't ask current students, because I'm in an oddball dual program), and it's going to cost me a bit extra than a normal student because my stipend is supporting a family of three. I think I can live with that. It's not great, but I can live with that.

I concur with @ushistorian311. Funding is rough in a lot of schools currently. I don't even think the U. of OK funded any history MA students this cycle, unless they managed to dig up funds after the initial wave of acceptances. Oklahoma had a $1.3 billion budget shortfall this year, and education took a heavy hit. I'm sure there are states that are equally as affected. People should just apply where they want to. And what's the worst that could happen? If you get accepted, even with funding, and later decide to decline the offer, all you have lost is an application fee. I had seriously considered applying to Madison's life sciences communication program, and I would have if there weren't about a half dozen other programs I found to be a better fit over it. I tend to comment in weird sub-forums that have nothing to do with me. I hope you don't mind! I was an art history minor. Maybe that halfway counts?

I've stumbled into a corner of the forums that I cannot directly relate, but I can speak of the GRE more generally. Generally, schools use the GRE as a gate-keeping mechanism to arbitrarily reduce a gigantic pile of applicants. For these schools, GRE scores are simply a metric which facilitate heuristic strategies, and how reliant a program will rely on these strategies will vary widely. It's an over simplification, but one can probably suppose that more competitive programs will more heavily rely on heuristics (because they get a lot more applicants and have much lower yields). I'm sure people have gotten into economics PhD programs with lower quant scores, but I'm guessing that it's going to probably be either in a program that does not require or consider GRE scores or is much less competitive. Now, as to what those programs are, I have no idea. I'm a history person. Sorry! But, like I stated, this is a corner of the forums I probably shouldn't have wandered into, so take my comments with a measure of cynicism.

@sjoh197 He should take care of himself anyway. It'll be good for him. @janetjanejune I've been a little nervous that I'll make bad impressions similarly. I'm a pretty open, forward person, and I think I sometimes weird people out. I'm also overly optimistic and gregarious (which is weird, because I'm an introvert), and I think that adds to the creepy factor. I've accepted that people will either 'get' me or not, and there's not much I can do about it.

I can't answer any of your questions directly, but here's some metrics mined out from US News by Magoosh (it hasn't been updated since 2015). http://magoosh.com/gre/2013/gre-scores-for-education-programs/ If their analysis is correct, I don't think your GRE should hold you back.

@yourruth I think it'll be okay, but the acceptance of scores is generally discipline-specific and sometimes program specific. In history (which is really the only discipline I can speak of confidently), it's unlikely that programs will care if your quantitative score is the middle to low 150s. My program is quite well-regarded in my sub-discipline, and I still managed to get accepted with competitive funding with a 151 quantitative score. Could a 151-152 hurt your chances? Maybe. It's hard to say. However, I would have been pretty confident applying to whatever program I would have liked if I had 170 verbal and 151 quantitative (the opposite of your score).

Personally, I would not do it. And I would suggest that you not do it as well, especially if you have even the slightest bit of hesitation. Run the math of how fast interest accrues at $100k+, and it's quickly apparent all professions except for the most lucrative would have substantial difficulties repaying a loan of that size. Also, if you have to take that much out in loans, you might be forced to take out private loans, and those loans are especially terrible. My two cents.

Those tiny robot videos really need yakety sax playing in the background.

Remember, learning cannot happen unless one accepts that they are ignorant and will often fail.

You guys have awesome jobs. My job will be... reading? Grading papers? In other news, I got my office today. It's as remarkable as one would expect a humanities discipline GA office would be. On the bright side, my training is officially done. I completed my ethics training last week, and today was the final day of TA training. I'm excited! I expected to be nervous, but I'm pretty pumped! I can't wait.

The procrastination must end! In reality, I haven't burned through as much books as I would have liked this last month, but I've also been taking classes (foreign language) and prepping for entering my program (orientations and whatnot). However, I have completed the following: $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in American by Edin and Shaefer Adventures in Being Human by Francis Shocked by Casarett I'm also about two-thirds the way through Isaacson's Einstein: His Life and Universe, and I've already signed up for some reading groups in the fall. There's honor's college sponsored reading groups each semester here, and they give you a copy of the book as part of the group. There's ~40 groups a semester, so there's always something interesting to dig into. I signed up for (and will hopefully get into) The Gene: An Intimate History, Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love, and On the Move: A Life. I was really excited about the last title making it onto the list this semester. Oliver Sacks seems like an incredibly interesting person, and I've always wanted to read it.

@rhombusbombus Thanks! I think I need to filter myself, though. I'm a very frank, honest person while at the same time very agreeable and cordial, and I think that I blindside people occasionally with not-generally-expected interactions. I have absolutely no shame, but I don't really like to make others uncomfortable. I recall that you said a while back that your project would be out of preliminary stages close to the beginning of the semester. Still progressing well? Edit: Oh, also, if you're not going to buy a mattress in the immediate "soon", you might consider a heavier, bigger backpacking/camping mattress. Some of the heavier Thermarest ones are quite comfortable, and they have lifetime warranties on them, just in case they ever pop.

Almost a week until classes begin here. I'm not sure how well I'm going to fit into my contingent (because, well, quite frankly I'm really odd ), but I'm not sure that especially bothers me. I just hope I don't make others uncomfortable with my oddness. Time will tell. I'm developing a growing impression that most everyone who attends graduate school is a little odd.

I just finished taking a professional ethics course at my university this week, and this could have easily been one of the case studies. Nutty. I don't think that talking to fellow lab members was necessarily a bad idea. However, I would echo the comments that suggest leaving the lab, if possible, and if you can do it painlessly without airing laundry, I'd consider going that way. I'm really sorry that you have to go through this situation.

@NoirFemme Congrats! That's actually quite a bit of work in itself. In fact, that might have been more collectively time-consuming than actually applying.

You might check to see if there's university-wide graduate student events. I know we have some here. However, I'm in the same boat. Our cohort is only five people (which is actually somewhat large for the program), and I'm slightly concerned that I'm not going to get along very well with all of them; I'm a pretty odd person, and I'm somewhat creepily optimistic, so I sometimes I get the impression that I weird people out. Personally, I think it's going to be healthy and preferable to have friends on both sides, within and outside of the department, if for no other reason because I have to imagine that departmental drama is inevitable, and I'd rather not be completely immersed in it.

Completely random, but... I just stumbled across Bruno Latour's CV. It's 83 pages! That's a small book! Crazy.

I'll bite. I like the quote by Einstein: "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." However, academic and popular prose are vastly different, and each have its place. It's very difficult to communicate an esoteric topic without lengthening the explanation considerably, and once a book hits 1000+ pages, it's rarely still an approachable text. For example, I'm not sure many would argue the academic value or popular success of Rhode's The Making of the Atomic Bomb, but the book is so comprehensive that it's not an excellent read; the scope is so broad that it's difficult to establish a narrative that I believe is necessary in an entertaining book. I love well-written-for-public books on the history of science, and I could list several which are quite frankly outstanding reads, even for academics. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks or anything by James Gleick immediately comes to mind. But the scope of these books are very, very limited. Broader, yet still popular-targeted, monographs I believe have far less success. In this latter group, The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science comes to mind. The book would have been better if it was many, smaller books. At least in my opinion. All that said, I still think The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a wonderful book, but I bridge both worlds.

It's a very cheap grocery store, but of slightly higher quality than a normal cheap grocery store. They typically only carry their own brand of products, and you can't necessarily guarantee that they'll always have the same products when you go. Also, you have to pay a quarter to use their shopping carts (which you get back if you return the carts) and have to bag your own groceries with your own bags. For example, their brand of whole chickens that we cook (which are also hormone free) are around $6 each? Their canned goods (which are unfortunately are not advertised BPA free, but are typically canned in stainless steel cans) are about $.50 a can at my store. @Effloresce You should! At least visit one. I admit though, they aren't for everyone. Speaking of cheap airlines, I've never actually been able to use one. I have been tempted to drive to Dallas to use Spirit, though. Allegiant flies out of Oklahoma City, but only two three or four cities. Never been of much use.

You should look at the ingredients on their products. A lot of their food is vegan, non GMO, and preservative free. I get chicken nuggets there for my daughter (in the shape of DINOSAURS!!!), and they are hormone and preservative free. I agree though that the stores are a bit cramped, but its sort of the Allegiant Air of grocery stores, so one can't expect much.