Neist

So, I'm studying for the final test of my undergrad. It's for a Spanish class, and it's tonight. It's taken me 14 years to complete my undergrad (the last 10 of which were while working full-time), and I've completed ~210 hours over the course of those years. That's a 7.5 credit hours a semester average. Weird feeling.

I was wondering.

Maybe you should get a good bottle of mezcal, too.

That's great! I'm not sure about anyone else, but today has been rough! I'm bringing out the good mezcal. Maybe I should start a "What are you drinking?" thread. That's not against the rules, is it?

Ever own a Gund brand stuffed animal? As the parent of a three year old, I can attest their snuggliness. Also, looking at their website, they sell these. I need these for my daughter.

So my entire pantry collapsed on me today, glass jars and all. Spent two hours cleaning it up.

I agree! All of my planned backpacking trips are in areas that are quite low in Lyme. There's plenty of other terrible tick-carried diseases, but they tend to be a little less chronic. I probably caught Lyme at one point, but the doctor did the right thing and gave me a course of antibiotics. I say probably because it's pretty difficult to test for in early stages. It often produces false negative test results.

I'm not sure how good they are, but I plan on burning through the free Udacity statistics courses. They are introductory, but that's what I need. I'm hoping to eventually complete their data analytics nanodegree, but that's more than likely going to have to wait until next summer. My research would greatly benefit from data analytic skills, but I really have no need for a dedicated degree, as fun as it would be to get a degree in it.

You know, there used to be a human vaccine? Apparently, it was removed from the market from a lack of a demand, but the efficacy of the vaccine was also questioned. If it worked, it's sort of a shame it never caught on.

Those are pretty nice sleeping bags. They are a little bulk when stuffed, but that's pretty par the course for synthetic bags. It's also pretty light, especially considering that it's a 0 degree synthetic bag. Sounds like a great deal! The great thing about camping equipment is that the markdown for used gear is pretty big.

Pfft. I'm all about the carrel. The carrel. I've only dreamed of my own carrel in champagne wishes and caviar dreams.

I'm not sure if it'd be your thing, and I'm not sure if you'd be up to traveling a bit, but the Great Allegheny Passage and C & O Towpath runs from Pittsburgh to DC, about 400 miles, if memory serves. The former is a rail trail, and the latter is a towpath. You can walk it, but people generally bike pack it, and there's a litany of places that you can rent the gear from if you don't want to purchase it yourself. It's also nice because it's a very clear, groomed trail, which brings me to another recommendation. Take Lyme disease very, very seriously. It's quite bad in the northeast. I'm an outdoorsy person who likes to hike, and even I'm a bit leery about the current epidemic of Lyme disease in that part of the country. For example, they say that 1/10 hikers who hike the Appalachian Trail contract Lyme. http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/maps.html Nasty little ticks...

It's the same here. The rates for faculty/staff at the university I work for are probably only slightly lower than membership fees for a decent, cheap gym.

Congrats!

I'd contact the school. It rarely hurts to ask, especially if you've already been recommended for admission. As per your second line of questions, it depends on the school. It's a school's own prerogative how anal they are about metrics, but generally, graduate college admissions are more lax than program admissions. In most cases, admission by the graduate college is a formality. But, as I said, it depends on the school. I have no experience with UMD, so I cannot comment specifically.

Completely understandable.

I've worked at a law school for 10 years now, and I echo the sentiments here. Your GPA will probably hurt you odds are scholarships, so ace the LSAT, and go to whatever law school throws you the most funding. Prestige is important, but it's more important to go to a law school in the state you want to practice in (for networking opportunities) and go to a law school that offers you the most funding. However, no matter where you go to school at, aim to be the top of your class, if possible. A high class rank can somewhat obviate a degree from a middling program. Remember, study a lot for the LSAT. Law schools really are about the numbers, and your GPA isn't horrible, but it's not helping, either. An amazingly high LSAT score will significantly increase your chances of financial aid.

This might be an overly personal question, but what do you want to do with your PhD? I'm not sure how the world of physics PhDs work. If I was aiming for a career path that did not involve teaching, I'd probably ride the fellowship for as long as I could.

I worked for a large-ish public university for 9 years hiring student workers, and yes, from my understanding, a lot international students typically only qualify for on campus jobs during the school year. I believe there's also a limit to how many hours one can work. although it's probably at or greater than what one's funding or one's graduate program would allow (I think it's around 20-30 hours, I can't recall). As for how easy those jobs are to get, it's hard to say. If you're a PhD candidate in petroleum engineering, it's probably going to be a little more difficult getting a job shelving books in the library. You'll probably appear overqualified. However, if a student is, say, a CS PhD student, it's probably going to be easier getting a job in a computer lab somewhere on campus. My experiences are limited to the university I work for, so I can only comment from said experience. So, my experiences probably aren't universal.

Yeah, that's definitely better. A book every few days is a nice pace, at least for me. And auto/biographies are often enjoyable, so they don't weigh as heavily I think. If I read much faster than that I start to suffer physical fatigue. Even with a book stand, I can't consistently read for much longer than ~9 hours a day. It becomes too exhausting.

Yup, I mainly used Magoosh and Vocabulary.com (I plugged Magoosh words into it and studied via their app on my phone). Was more than sufficient, I found.

I really hope it's 60 books and articles, not 60 books and some articles. The latter would be rough! I read quite a lot, and even I think that's heavy. It'd be around 5 books a week, plus everything else. Either way, it sounds like a very productive summer!

Well, I'd give you some advice, but if memory serves you've TA'd more than any undergrad I've ever heard of. I say go with your gut.

I'm not entering a PhD, but I'm going to do some statistics MOOCs to improve my skill set.

I'm interested in the representational bias of scientists and technical professionals, so I'm not completely far from your interests. I'd probably take the class, too.