Neist

I'm sure you'll be fine. Northwestern is a great program! Congrats!

I would do the same. A gift in hand is better than the hope of a better gift.

For good insurance, it could easily be that much per month.

My interpretation would be that they subsidize the rest of the fee, which is probably considerably more than $479. Just a guess though. Might shoot them an email.

Eh, the professional artists I've known often have equally as humble methods.

I realize it might be apt qualify this statement by stating I listen to audio books at x1.5 speed. At x1 speed, I'm pretty sure anyone could do most anything and listen, with practice. I started increasing my listening speed when I met a blind law student who listened to his books at something crazy like x2.5 speed.

I have to be either doing something somewhat thoughtless to listen well, but I've gotten better at it. If I want to attempt an academic or dense work, I take long walks and listen. I walk a lot via commute.

I've actually considered switching to text-to-speech for books that are available via e-book. I'm very nearsighted, and I readily welcome anything that reduces my "eye time." Besides, I work full-time and with audio books I can typically finish 2 extra books a week. Listening to books is far more efficient if one's developed good listening skills, I think.

Audible just released their "channels" to subscribers, and I noticed that two of them are dedicated to learning French and Spanish. I don't think there's German, but it's another resource, and I thought I'd mention it. No idea if they are any good. The channels released today, so I haven't had the chance to dig into the Spanish one to see how it is.

I have a secret to admit. I listen to most of my books. I've led a very audio-enriched last decade or so. I own 80 audio books and I've estimated that I've listened to nearly 20,000 podcasts. Besides my audiobooks, I listen to Imaginary Worlds, Radio Lab, 99% Invisible, Welcome to Night Vale, Alice Isn't Dead, Moby Dick Big Read, Lore, This American Life, Mortified, Sword and Scale, The Specialist, The Black Tapes, The Intern, Tanis, Limetown, The Message, Serial, Criminal, Memory Palace, and New Books in Science, Technology, and Society. I used to subscribe to at least this twice many podcasts, but my standards have risen high enough that I only listen to podcasts that I really like. As far as history podcasts go, I'd suggest Memory Palace. The podcasts are short, but well-made and interesting. Have you listened to Hardcore History? They were a little too involved for me, but they are okay.

I am. I know it's not ideal, but it's probably the best program in the US for what I want to study. And it's a dual degree and the library half is rarely funded anywhere. I think I'll be okay. It was too good of an opportunity, and I can always get a PhD elsewhere. I'm sure you're capable of it. I believe in you! Congratulations!

Congrats! I'm so happy for you!

I work at OU and go there as a student, and I've lived in Norman for 10 years. I don't know about roaches. I've never had a roach problem anywhere. Sometimes we get beetle problems depending on the time of the year, but never roaches. Likewise, I doubt you'll have much of a rodent problem unless you have an especially untidy neighbor. The only rodents I ever experienced were in houses, not apartments. Old houses tend to get mice from time to time. I'd suggest either looking into Kraettli Apartments or Sycamore Cottages. The latter are very small efficiency apartments (http://www.elite2900.com/sc.html) that are owned by a reliable, responsible company. I lived in their apartments for probably five years and never had an issue. It looks like the going rate is about 470 per month, and when I lived there, that included all utilities but electric. No internet/cable was provided with the price. The former are university-owned apartments, but they are about 670 for an unfurnished two bedroom that includes basic cable, all utilities, and internet. You'll probably be hard-pressed to find any single apartment that cheap in Norman, regardless of its size. You could go cheaper with roommates, but that doesn't sound like what you're interested in. Considering they are twice the size of the cottages and you don't have to worry about fluctuating utility bills in the summer thanks to air conditioning (which can be well above 100F in its peak), it's a pretty good deal. I currently live in Kraettli, and I doubt I'd want to live anywhere else in Norman at the moment. They are older apartments, but well-maintained by the university. Most of your neighbors are quiet, international students and their families. They are also very close to campus. I would avoid at all costs apartments that are designed specifically targeted at college students. You know, the kind with private rooms and bathrooms and share living areas? The ones in this area tend to be badly managed and poorly built, and it's especially true with cheaper options. Also, if you do decide to go with Kraettli, get on their waiting list now. These apartments have significant waiting lists thanks to their affordability, especially come August; the waiting list is based on priority of who's been on the list the longest, but also when a person wants to move in, so it's easier to move in during February than August, for example. I guess it might matter a bit, but what sort of budget were you looking at? Cheap-ish, stipend-capable rent? And feel free to PM me if you have any more detailed questions about specific areas of town or apartment complexes you find. I'll help in whatever way I can.

The book piqued my interest to dig into MOOCs a little, and I actually found something that'd be pretty beneficial to my career in the future... The data analytics nanodegree at Udacity looks pretty interesting, I come from a humanities background, and it might provide valuable technical training on the cheap, especially considering most of my interests are digital humanities-esque. Things to think about.

I accepted about a month ago at this point, and I haven't anything other than the paperwork is coming soon. I'm not too concerned with classes filling up because history of science classes are only taken by history of science students, generally, and our department is very small. I doubt we'd hit max class attendance.

Yeah, I'm definitely a morning person, not a night one. After 7-8pm my brain slows down a lot. I can still do things, but it better be somewhat mindless tasks, like making study guides. Congrats! You're English, right? I can't recall. I have a terrible memory.

I don't think there's a huge fear that normal student loan debt forgiveness, such as that which forgives after 20-25 years, is going away. The public service one is that is facing an a bit of opposition, and that's the only one that's all that nice, anyway. Normal loan forgiveness, after the 20-25 years, counts as income. So if you have 100k excused, your income for that year will appear to be insanely elevated. Personal note: I'll be at around 40k in debt after grad school, and I'm not horrendously worried. I should be able to at the very least pay interest, and if I can manage that, I'll have about a 10k lump sum due in additional taxes at the end of 20-25 years, gauged at current 2016 tax rates and potential earnings, which will certainly be different thanks to inflation in 25+ years. That's only about 500 dollars a year for 20 years with an additional monthly payments of around $100-150 on REPAYE and its interest subsidy plan (yay for interest subsidies!).

I don't use chair arms. The chair I use right now is literally a wide stool that I sit cross legged on. Yeah, I'm odd. Also, that Peeramid looks nifty! I guess you have to email them directly to order one? Any idea how much they cost? Congrats! There's something gratifying about plans coalescing. Not especially, but I'm not a physicist either. For me, it's all about the bookshelves. Yay for books!

Good luck! That's the wording they gave me when I was wait-listed, and everything turned out okay. Congratulations! We de-listed folk should start a club.

Finished this today. Fantastically interesting. Maybe it's only interesting because I'm a dork who's interested in dictionaries, bibliographies, and taxonomies, but it was a very entertaining read. Going to dig into College Unbound by Jeffrey Selingo next.

This is so true! Not that my peers aren't dedicated, but they aren't as nerdily obsessed as I am or what I imagine graduate program peers would be. It'll be great to talk to another person about a super dorky book I just read knowing that they might actually think its good conversation.

Eh, I go to Big Lots a lot, and it's not much better. About as cheap as Ikea. Worse selection perhaps.

A little, but my junior and senior capstone courses had only HOS people, too. I mean, the classes were quite small (the only majors I did know were from these classes), but I did interact with some a little. One bright side to this odd situation is that I'm a remarkably independent study. I sort of hope that my advisers will knowingly and approvingly nod to my research decisions and let me continue on. I tend to do my best work when I'm left to my own devices. Since I'm going to be in the same department, I think I'm going to foster improved interaction between graduate and undergraduate students. There's already efforts in place to improve the department's sense of community, but maybe I can help a bit. I remain optimistic, at any rate.

You know, I only rarely see the rest of my peers. Our department is pretty small, and our classes are fairly large; a lot of history of science courses are required for other majors. So, I might be in a class of 40, but the odds are good that I'm the only major in the course. I think there's only about a dozen of us. To be honest, I think I only know perhaps 3-4 of the dozen. I kind of look forward to having some sort of interaction. It's been lonely!

Oklahoma even has a rowing crew, and its small enough that they actively recruit new members. I'm not sure if I want to dedicate myself to something that involved, but it has crossed my mind. Have you considered duathlons? Not sure how common they are, but you could just bypass the whole swimming part.