coyabean
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Posts posted by coyabean
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I got responses to almost every thank you email I sent -- and a pretty quick admit, I might add! -- to the folks I interviewed with. So I think it does matter.
I would suggest not sending a blanket form letter type note. I tried to reference something I discussed or observed specific to the person I was emailing.
But, yeah, gratitude is never a bad idea.
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I agree that:
1. wine vs. liquor by gender is...disconcerting
2. liquor, at all, is a bit much -- how do you know the person isn't in recovery? devout? will think you are trying to poison them to take their spot?
3. A CD is wayyyy too John Hughes for me. People still have CDs even?
I think a nice, sincere thank you note or email is sufficient BUT if I were to give a gift I love the bookmark idea. Also maybe a small bag of coffee or tea or something so milquetoast as to be impossible to offend. Or, while you are there pay attention to them and see if there is a small thing they seem to like. If it's not sincere -- whether a note or a gift -- and doesn't show some thoughtfulness I say you are safer not saying or giving it.
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what has been seen cannot be unseen.
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I must respectfully disagree with this. Personally, I can't imagine spending 5+ years of my life in a locale that didn't make me happy. Sure, your focus will be on school, but you should still be concerned with your quality of life outside the classroom/lab/library. Would you be happier in a big city or a small town? Do you want access to certain things, like the great outdoors (beaches/lakes/mountains/hiking trails in the woods) or cultural stuff (theatre, museums, etc.)? Do you hate the cold (or the heat)? Do you want to be able to get by without a car? What kind of social scene are you looking for (e.g., are you single, do you have kids, etc.)? This stuff matters--maybe not more than academics, but it still counts for something.
I have to agree although I think this may be an age thing (in my case; not yours!) or, at the very least, a consideration more important to people in mature stages of life. If you are in a relationship or hope to have a social or civic life while in school -- which I don't think is ridiculous, btw -- then your location could matter. I think you just might want to be as flexible as you can with location while balancing your emotional needs. That line is defined entirely by you.
On the original question fit for me is a hippie-dippy concept of "feeling". It's like finding the right house, the right car or the right mate -- you know it when you know it.
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The ILA interviews were scheduled for this past week.
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I would think that there are more professors who would get annoyed at a student attaching a whole bunch of stuff to an e-mail (i.e. transcripts, etc.), calling, etc. than there are profs who would enjoy this approach.
Also, the "peaked" thing really bothered me for some reason....
Well, I think it's this amazing phenomenon I've witnessed wherein profs immediately forget what it is like to be a student. If they had not forgotten they would not demand perfection while displaying such imperfection.
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I'll second all of the above and suggest this is one of the questions you should ask of current grad students when it comes to decision time. They will tell you the real deal about cost, access and quality. Everyone offers something called health insurance but the plans vary widely. You may also want to ask about dental and vision. Some schools I've talked to so far have it and others don't.
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I'm sorry but I think you should be a bit forgiving of students if you are a prof and you write this:
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I find as a prof that runs a medium size lab at a R! university, I don't even glance at any application unless the student has 1)contacted me by email to set up a phone call (also included should be transcripts attached) and 2)called me and peaked my interest in them.
Also included should be transcripts attached?
And, it's PIQUED!!!
I think this should be cross posted in forums just to make some of us feel better about minor issues in the statement and/or app. They are far from perfect, too.
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Also keep in mind that public schools usually have kind of charter or legal mandate to serve the state's student body. For some schools its a set percentage of how many can be out of state -- well, for UG anyway. I know for a fact though that the UNC system has some guidelines at the grad level too.
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As I said earlier, the fact that you and your family had nothing to do with the actual oppression, has nothing to do with whether or not you benefit from passing as "white". There are millions of different ways that a white person in US society, even today, benefits from being white. If you read the article I mentioned earlier it gives an amazingly long list. From stereotypes, to insurance policies, to the attraction to "likeness in category", etc. racism/white privilege are ingrained in US society at the moment. A lot of people (not saying you) seem to think that having equal rights and a "black" (although depending on who you talk to, he's not) president erases the effects of hundreds of years of racist policies and it simply doesn't. Where you live, how much your house is worth, whether or not your parents had education/good education, how much money they made, your family's accrued wealth, is still very relevant to "race" in the US. The civil rights movement was not that long ago - there are plenty of us here that probably have parents and grandparents that lived in a VERY different world. It takes a lot of time and effort to separate ourselves, and recover from those sorts of divides. It is not the sort of thing that just goes away because we want it to, or because you or I did not participate in the oppression of minorities (I am also white and only 2nd generation American).
Wow...this post took far too long to write, and is really off topic..but oh well!
I applaud your stamina and patience.
I just want to say that people always talk about AA as a response to (long ago) slavery like there aren't still people alive who were the victims of state sanctioned apartheid from just 40 years ago. And I'm being conservative with that time frame. Jim Crow anyone?
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Anyways, I do consider the ramifications of what I say, and if you don't agree with it then that's really just your problem. This is my opinion. I don't really agree with affirmative action. I'm not doing anything to stop it, and I recognize that it significantly improves the quality of many people's lives. However, I think it is fundamentally unfair and that it reinforces racism, giving younger generations a new reason to be racist. Despite this not being its intention, in creates the misconception that black people (other minorities too, but generally they're left out of the discussion) are somehow intellectually inferior and need to be given some kind of head start or handicap in order to succeed. Just because that isn't the truth doesn't mean there aren't millions of otherwise racially indifferent white people out there who are starting to think this way. I've experienced something similar to this because I'm a non-ugly young female who gets high grades. In high school, the boys in one of my classes tried hard on their essays and tests but I always got higher grades than they did. They would pester me for my grades, and when I told them they'd say "Ugh, I'm so jealous of you, since being a girl you just get handed these higher grades, while we guys hand in work that's just as good and get B's instead of A's." They were convinced that the old male teacher had a soft spot for his female students. Even when I won the departmental award, my male classmates claimed that I didn't deserve it. The whole ordeal made me feel very sorry for qualified college students from minority backgrounds whose qualifications and accomplishments aren't taken seriously because of affirmative action.
I swear this will be my only foray into this.
I do not have any visceral reaction to your beliefs. Let's start there.
But I do feel it necessary to clarify a few things. Affirmative Action is not about reducing racism. The fact that racism persists cannot be attributed to AA. There is, for example, no way of knowing or even measuring the causation of racists beliefs. So, to suggest that one is more inclined to be racist due to AA is faulty. How can you determine that they would be less racist without it? History certainly does not bear that. Also, racism is not considered an A to B proposition. There is no once incident that activates the racism. More likely is that there will be racists even if there is no AA -- again, see: history and human nature. So why scrap a program with proven benefits when racism will exist either way?
To extend your example: do you really think that by you earning a lesser a grade that the boys in your class would instantly become less sexist? The trick is to thrive despite the -ism, not to cater to it.
- rising_star and socnerd
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Just thought I'd mention that our area is snowed in. Duke is on a limited schedule today and probably a late start tomorrow. Expect delays.
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Wow. How did I miss this?!
Well, thanks. I have been quiet lately because my negativity has gotten me down, and I refuse to spread that around!
I really just try to give back some of the kindness extended to me. Rising_star has been awesome. I've had folks respond to my messages with wonderfully detailed comments that no one could expect of someone in the midst of their own process (I'm looking at you vanishingpoint!). I continue to be amazed by how generous some people are.
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It's so sad that people have to speak to each other this way. I think I may sign off from this forum completely. Seriously, derogatory remarks about someone's discipline? I would've thought that those posting on a graduate school board would have greater maturity.
What academy are you joining where discussing the strengths and weaknesses of disciplines and their respective methodologies will not happen? By all means, sign off. But discussing my issues with sociology AND anthropology is well within bounds of an intelligent conversation.
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Man I love questions like this! And what do people mean by "card" anyway? Like it is just something that is pulled out when we need it? Like it doesn't effect our lives at all? You should make a great sociologist!
S/he wouldn't be the first or the last in the discipline. It's actually one of the things about the discipline of which I am NOT a fan. Not that anthro is any better but sociology strikes me as critical without being self-critical when it comes to issues of race or any of the -isms.
It's just an expression, but thanks for the cattiness!
Really? A common expression? I have, honestly, never heard of the "affirmative action card" so I wonder if I have missed a cultural or scholarly evolution?
- iceman, deleteuser_184321, dant.gwyrdd and 8 others
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This won't end well.
LOL
ditto
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As they were trying to coerce me into pursuing an English PhD all of the profs in my dept stressed that the expectation at most solid programs WITH FUNDING was above 90th percentile on the verbal. I think YMMV just because departments and their priorities differ greatly. Some departments need TAs and warm bodies to read and if you are willing to do that then they are willing to be flexible. You have more options in English than some other depts. Call and ask. All the schools I contacted were pretty upfront about their GRE expectations.
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You may also want to take a look at University of South Florida. They have a stated interest in activism and quite a few outreach initiatives and collaborations to support that.
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eta: wrong post
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I have an interview next week and this was very helpful, especially the details that some eschew as "minor", i.e. clothes, social aspects.
ETS raised the price!
in GRE/GMAT/etc
Posted
I am in favor of some grassroots organizing against ETS. My issue is the financial threshold for obtaining higher education. Their waiver is bull crap -- at my school I couldn't get it because I was one credit hour shy of some arbitrary minimum -- and even if the test is free or reduced the score reports add up AND you have very little opportunity to have consumer grievances addressed.
And if it would make the guy above feel any better I'm also prepared to join ranks against cable company monopolies, too!