johndiligent

I have several possible plan B's and I'll figure out which one I go with depending on the rejection feedback, though all will coincide with re-application.

8th? I'm amazed! I didn't think I posted very much at all.

MARCH IS IT, most likely. For me anyway.

The way the study was represented in the media was criticised by a med school on my local news for giving a false impression of the numbers. Yes, 90% of a woman's eggs are lost by age 30, but a woman typically starts out with 300,000+ eggs. After 90% are lost, that still leaves you with at least 30,000 eggs.

The only reason I lust over a Kindle is for pdf's. The sheer amount of PDF reading I have to do in the run of a day has convinced me that there would be nothing more beautiful than laying back and reading my PDF articles on a Kindle. I haven't investigated the prospect with a great deal of voracity, mostly because I don't have the money for one, but I think about it in a Wouldn't It Be Lovely kind of way. As it stands, any article deserving of more than a cursory skim gets printed off. In addition to not being particularly economical for me, since my printer is some kind of insatiable ink-swallowing blackhole, it also causes me to lose considerable cred as an environmental advocate. That said, I LOVE being able to make angry notes and slashes and underlines and MARGIN NOTES OF EXCITED EMPHASIS when reading and I'm not sure if the Kindle is really geared for that kind of text mark-up. Ideally, what I'd like is a Kindle designed by academics for academics. Barring that, an iPad.

I like the waiting. There's a certain freedom of infinite possibilities in the waiting that I've come to relish.

My errant writer submitted a LOR today! OH EMMM GEEE!

I think the right time to have children is when the individual(s) concerned is/are ready to have children. There are far too many factors at play to boil it down to a question of whether during the PhD or after the PhD is more convenient. It's really going to be a vastly different scenario for everyone involved. I think, if a PhD student really wants kids now, it can be made to work. But if the same student can't handle having children right now, then it's better to wait until things are more stable. I'd hate people to feel like there's a ticking clock involved, because there are a multitude of options for those who can't have conceive the usual way and I'd bet there will be even more options developed in the next decade.

I don't think you need to worry too much about 1.5-spacing if it doesn't specifically say to double-space. HOWEVER, 2 pages is really quite long so there's probably something you can cut. For my schools, two pages was the absolute longest specification I was given. Some of them wanted a statement of intent of no more than 250 words. 250 WORDS! It might as well have been a *^$%#@! Twitter post! If I did a 250 word one, you can do a two-pager without creative formatting, I'm sure of it.

The best plan is don't publish anything on the internet (including photos, videos, blog posts) you wouldn't want printed on the front page of a newspaper. It really is that accessible.

I doubt they read this, but who knows? Employers and professors have impressed me in the past with the extent to which they're willing to Google.

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one going mad.

I have an oregano plant named Seamus O'Regano?

My boyfriend's father was found dead in the earthquake in Haiti after being missing for several days (the waiting was far worse than when it was official), so that's added a lot of emotion and stress in the past week.

Dear ANY School, Please. Just please. Your pal, John

Haha, ditto!

Because too many students go off to grad school as is, there aren't enough academic jobs for even half of PhD graduates but most importantly because academia is tough and soul-crushing. I think profs should actively discourage every potential grad school applicant who comes through their door. If the student shrugs off the criticism and decides to apply anyway, great. The ones who can't deal with the criticism shouldn't be going anyway. I'm not saying that your prof was right (to tell students to apply to only low-ranked schools doesn't make a lick of sense). But in response to the general topic of professors who discourage students, not only do I think it's acceptable, I think it's irresponsible for a professor NOT to do so.

Haha, I checked mine last week and none of my schools notified before MARCH. I've got a ways to go.

The best moment happened when I contacted a potential advisor and he replied with a beautiful, detailed letter asking me not to apply, and if I did apply, not to attend, because his institution wasn't as good as my thesis idea. I loved that because it was honestly helpful (I didn't waste any application fees on the school) and he was really encouraging despite the fact that he knew I wouldn't be headed there.

Maybe it's my field, but I'd distrust any professor who didn't at least initially try to discourage a student from applying to grad school, no matter how strong the applicant.

I would have done but he had to go teach and I had to catch a bus. At least I've been able to ask him point blank whether he still plans on doing them or not.

Kloppenborg's been very helpful to me throughout the application process. (Though I'm in the same boat as you are as far as Q goes. And I'm a nerdy fan of Goodacre's.)

LORs. By far.

I went and saw my errant LOR writer in the flesh yesterday (not close, it was a long journey by bus which is why I hadn't gone earlier). He's vowed to do them today. We'll see.

I'm just worried about getting in. I don't have anything to leave behind, really. I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in academia almost seven years ago. It's been a long and difficult road since four and a half years ago I sustained a serious head injury that left me with the cognitive functioning of a six-year old. I had to re-learn almost everything over again, but I've never actually changed my mind about what I want to do for a living. If I'm accepted, then it's the next step in my life. If I'm not accepted, then I face putting off my life for yet another year and doing the whole damned thing over again. And again. And again.