Neist

Wow, that sounds interesting! That's the type of class I would have loved to take as an undergrad. Don't have the spare hours in graduate school I reckon, but it sounds interesting!

I'm not sure about English departments, but in my history classes I've never, ever felt any hostility towards me because I use a laptop to take notes. I've been doing so for over three years now. However, I do make a point to usually maintain a lot of eye contact. I dictate my notes as I think them, without looking at the screen. There's time to make them pretty afterwards.

I admit that it doesn't sound that bad today me, but I've worked some pretty horrible schedules in the past. There was one point in my life when I worked two jobs for 70 hours a week, and I was taking a full course load on top if those jobs. Yay for scarring histories that alleviate normally horrendous expectations!

If you don't see the cat often, you should name it Schrödinger.

I thought about the book sale, and it makes sense. We're a college town, and the only used book stores we have here heavily limit what they buy. They usually only buy what they sell, and that's not usually costly, academic press books. The books get donated to the library and/or other charitable organizations, and we reap the benefits. In regards to an 80 hour work week, I imagine humanities graduate students have vastly different experiences than STEM graduate students. Most of my work is going to be reading, and I generally enjoy what I read. In that sense, my hobby is my task. However, if I had to work a lab for hours and hours on end, I think I'd have a different opinion. I'd definitely want to take breaks. If you count my reading time, I probably already log 80+ hours a week, or at least close to it.

So, I mentioned a while back that I was going to buy The College Cube. I thought I'd give a quick initial impression, if anyone is interested in something similar. It's quite sturdy! Or, at least it's far more study than I would have expected for $47. I'm not sure if I'd load it up with textbooks, but I'll probably load it up with my history books, both in the cubbies and the top. I'm really happy I bought it. There is a quirk I should mention, though. If you look at the picture, there's a horizontal shelf in one of the cubicle spots. The shelf that was included for that spot was about an inch too narrow, so it couldn't be used. I don't care, as I'm using it as a bookshelf anyway, but it's worth mentioning. Also, someone on Amazon had the holes for that shelf misaligned, so the shelf sat at a tilt (I'm way too OCD to have endured that....).

I'm really glad I'm not moving (going to a program at the same school). When I was weighing my options, moving was going to cost at least a thousand dollars. So expensive.

Well, I've been working 40 hours a week for years now, so some of my enthusiasm is simply because it'll be refreshing. I'm also feeling a little burnt out, but the only thing I have to do after next Thursday is grade some papers. Just one more week.

I'm not going into a PhD program, but I look forward to the work load! Getting to spend 80 hours a week exclusively on what I love? Sounds fantastic! I'm such a nerd.

Okay, so I went back to the public library book sale because it was half price day (the final day of sales). I bought 8 more books. I couldn't help myself. When one finds mint, academic press hard bound books on topics you'd read for fun, one buys those books, especially when they are a dollar each. I'm going to do a happy dance now. I would have never thought that I'd come across good history of science books at a random public library book sale.

Nah, it's not sad. I think a lot of people haven't! I'd bet they haven't at least. Random fact about me that I'm unsure if I've shared on these boards: I'm a formally trained pastry chef. Crumpets are delicious! And they are really easy to make, too. Although, I might prefer fresh English muffins a little bit more (although I realize that they are somewhat of a US invention). Mmm.

The first sentence tricked me! I went to a book sale at a local public library, and I bought a couple books. I didn't expect to find anything interesting, but they actually had a lot of really decent history books. I figured it was going to be a lot of reject titles, but I bought several practically new, academic press hard bounds for pennies (figuratively)! What luck!

Yeah. TA'ing eats up far more time than one thinks it would. If I could avoid it for a bit, I would.

I have not had a baby/child while in graduate school, but I have experienced being a father to a newborn while working full-time and going to school full-time. My experiences don't directly parallel, but I'll try to give my perspective. But first, a few questions: Do you or your spouse currently have a stable income and insurance where you're at currently? If you move, will you be without insurance to take care of delivery and pediatric care of the baby? If you have insurance through the school, does it include maternity coverage? Will the school allow you to defer for a year? Will or can your spouse stay home and help take care of the baby while you're in graduate school? If the answers to these is yes, then I'd defer for a year, have the baby, then attend next year. However, if there's not a financial disincentive to moving (e.g., lack of insurance or a necessity for your husband to work), it's probably doable, albeit rough. A newborn is very time consuming, and you'll be exhausted taking care of one. Could you manage school while taking care of a newborn? Probably, but would you want to take care of a newborn during your first year of your program? That's the real question. You'll probably be operating on very little sleep for the first year, or at least the first six months. Just my two cents, and my advice shouldn't be regarded as gospel. It's just what I'd consider before deciding.

Well, I haven't even received my materials regarding the enrollment process for history of science courses. We have to be advised before anyone can enroll. My library classes, however, are very self-planned. There's classes I have to take, and they give me a catalog and rotation of courses. It's my job to determine when I want to take what classes over the entire course of my degree. So, my library classes are already planned out way in advance. Years.

Awww. Poutine is pretty yummy! I can't even make poutine here. It's hard to find decent cheese curds. Boo.

So, since posting last I've gone through The Storied Life of A. J. Fickry by Zevin, The Second Machine Age by Brynjolfsson and McAffee, and have started The Pluto Files by Tyson. The first was a nice, palate-cleansing piece of fiction, if not a little bit unremarkable; it was okay. The second I found fairly interesting. I'm not directly interested in economics, but they peripherally touch on a lot of topics that I find quite interesting. It was a good book, if you're into that sort of thing (as I am). The last title is quite interesting. I'm not a huge Tyson fan, but I am interested in taxonomies and classifications. The only real purpose of this book seems to be the justification of a taxonomic stance. I'm always amazed how taxonomies carry so much weight throughout history when they are often little more than clumsy labels. Ah, yes. And I finished Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms. A fantastic book, if one's interested in obscure book topics inspired by an oft-overshadowed Charles Darwin book. As a fan of cultural history, that sounds pretty fun to me! I can't help with you surveys, unfortunately. That area is a little bit outside my boathouse. Perhaps someone else here can?

I'd like to qualify my response with the statement that I'm not an education major, nor am I overly familiar with education graduate programs in general. I get the impression that standardized metrics for entering applicants in education graduate programs is softer than many other disciplines (like psychology or anthropology), although I could certainly be wrong, and I hope that someone visits my post afterwards and corrects. I've formed this impression via multiple articles/reports by various sources, most of which focus on average GRE scores. It probably isn't incredibly wise to exclusively rely on GRE metrics for assumptions; I certainly do not. Even so, they are the only metric I can find. Here's a few links I found interesting on the subject. http://www.kaptest.com/blog/grad-school-insider/2014/11/24/average-gre-scores-top-grad-school-programs/ https://benchprep.com/gre/test/what-is-a-good-gre-score https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_guide_table4.pdf http://magoosh.com/gre/2013/gre-scores-for-education-programs/ https://www.gse.harvard.edu/doctorate/life/who-studies I'm unsure how non-curricular considerations weigh in education programs decisions. As such, I'll leave commenting on that to other posters. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful!

True, but programs tend to adhere to these deadlines because a well-qualified applicant might have funded offers from other programs, and those programs will generally require notice of acceptance by April 15. Whether a program likes it a not, they have to consider an April 15th deadline.

I'm just a lurker in a corner of the boards that hold little relevance to me, but.. Arizona State sounds like a great place! I love how forward thinking they are, and I'd love to have gone there if I could have actually studied what I wanted to there. The school is super huge, though. Have you visited? It's a very big school. It might be the largest campus in the US.

I agree with this. Even if you are not completely debt-adverse, but you definitely do not want to take out private loans. Direct loans are fairly flexible with repayment plans, but private loan vendors can be merciless. I'd rather amputate my foot than take out private loans for school, and I'm not even all that debt-adverse.

I echo this statement. There's a lot of people on these forums, but not so many that you'll necessarily find the exact answer you're looking for. What you're asking requires more than casual knowledge of Pharmacology programs, and that alone would be fairly specific. It sounds like you need to find people who are already in those programs and sound their opinion.

I'm so glad that I live in a place that the risk of harm is nearly non-existent. I have never, ever felt unsafe in the town I live in, day or night.

Some of my favorite historians to read are actually non-native English speakers. There's something about the cadence of their grammar that's better-paced. For example, the American Technological Sublime by David E. Nye is fantastic. I've wanted to read more of his books, actually. Maybe I'll find time in the summer. Maybe. Edit: Oh, wait, he does speak English natively. Oh well! I still love his writing.

The biggest thing I'd consider is financial support. If both programs are equal, I'd probably go to UW. UW is a great program, and it's in the area where you want to live. Also, the networking potential within regional professional organizations might prove invaluable. Pratt's internships sound pretty amazing, but are those internships going to help you get a job in an pacific northwest library? I don't know. That's personally what I'd do, but I don't know if it's what you should do. You have to go where your gut tells you to go. Personally, I'm not sure if I could justify the insane cost of living in NYC unless I wanted to build the connections to get a job there. It's just so expensive. My two cents.