prolixity

These are sweet links. I've been stalking professors all evening.. highest I've found so far is $21 million.

This is precisely the reason I didn't apply to Yale. I went to a graduate fair, passed out my CV to some lucky booth attendants, and when I walked up to Yale's table, I was met with icy-cold glares of elitism. These were the worst graduate recruiters I've ever met.. I'm not even sure why Yale had a booth, because the only message their recruiters conveyed was, "you're not worthy of us". So sorry Yale, I'm stuck choosing between Harvard and Stanford. Looks like you're number three.. yet again.

Depending on at which school you're attending, the quality of the undergraduate population will vary quite a bit, as will the quality of the grad student population.. I hope you read what you've written again from an outsider's perspective and realise how elitist and douchey you sound. As an undergraduate in a high performing research laboratory taking graduate level physics and chemistry courses, I experienced this elitism from the first-year graduate students every year and it was quite satisfying to stomp on their faces come exam time. Just because you've gone through an additional selection process doesn't mean you walk on clouds and are a higher authority on a topic than one of your pupils. There will always be undergraduates, college dropouts, and high school dropouts who are more qualified than you are in some subject material. I understand that your cohort's behaviour serves to solidify your sense of kinship and shared experience, but it's kind of petty and antithetical to the basis of academic intellectualism to criticise a population based on hierarchical orderings of goodness. Perhaps you should all discuss your latest poetry stanzas regarding the flowers of Spring or whatever it is you do instead of practise ego-inflating elitism at the expense of others. You dig? I will admit though, that the student you mention is completely out of line, though I don't know what his age has to do with it. It sounds almost as if you have disdain for him for being older than you and for being in an allegedly inferior social position at the same time.

Um, at the risk of sounding like an unenlightened bumpkin, I've always understood gender to be a naturalized trait, with relatively few exceptions resultant from chromosomal abnormalities. I understand some would like biological gender to be a choice, and I don't fault them for feeling out of place; however, there's really nothing y'alls can do to change up them there chromosomes. Certainly, one can argue about different methods of defining gender, but the fact remains: biological gender is defined at the genetic level and not through the modification of superficial structures and organs. The dichotomous nature of gender isn't up for debate, though the gender identity definitely is. But what is Facebook asking? Biological gender or gender identity? Perhaps we should lobby Facebook to provide fields for both?

California is a big state. The fee increase will only shift the population demographics toward a higher socio-economic class.. these fee increases will have zero effect on number of students (this is dependent on university policy). Yes, the lower SES students will no longer enroll at the UC, but wasn't President Yudoff brought in to gentrify the UC in the first place? The only difference you'll see in campus life is that students will be protesting with Armani and Burberry scarves wrapped around their face instead of target scarves. That's all.

Lol, but it is! ..Or at least it was until people started viewing the elements of our language literally. I'm personally partial toward the "universal he" or "thon".

I have a huge problem with "their" as a possessive determiner, and I wanted to get some of you humanities-types' opinions on it. When I click to see someone's profile, I always see something like the following: prolixity has not set their status. Why not just use the gender-neutral "his"? I've noticed quite a bit more of this in the public sphere.. what is the contemporary consensus on possessive determiners?

The UCs have separate budgets and endowments. There is absolutely zero risk of the UCs collapsing. It is much more likely that the UCs will be transformed into elite institutions only accessible to the wealthy than any sort of failure.

back diffusion

UC won't make any offers it can't honor. The recent salary cuts only affected full-salary individuals, not half-salary grad students (ie, only people making >$40something/year). They'll cut enrollment before they stop paying grad stipends.

Honestly, I'd just worry about myself and not others. It seems kind of petty to care whether or not another classmate got into the same school.

double post

No, I have yet to deny several offers (I'm not trying to be smug, but the serious issue is that there are tons of people with open offers that they will deny, so if you haven't been rejected outright yet, there is still hope).

Just to set the record straight, what you described as semi-formal is actually referred to as "dressy casual" or "business casual" (ie, sport coat and slacks/trousers). Semi formal implies that tuxedos are not required, but a dark suit is.. Formal requires tuxedos and black ties.

I've gotta decide something, and since the two schools I've whittled it down to are offering the same stipend, the same degree, and about the same level of prestige.. well, I need a way to figure out where to go. Unfortunately the professors with whom I'll be working tend to collaborate, so I'll be doing the same work at both universities and will probably spend a certain amount of time at both, no matter where I choose to study... But I've figured out a way: Which doctoral gown is more bad-ass? or

Harvard has an interdisciplinary Chemical Physics program.. Most schools aren't going to limit you to just faculty in the chemistry department.. especially if they have a sizeable physics dept.. Colorado Boulder has interdisciplinary cooperation, as does Madison.. there's quite a few, but this is just off the top of my head, besides Berk, Stanford, and MIT as you mentioned.

I was accepted to two UC's. They both offered mid-20's as stipend. Wisconsin offered lower twenties. 2 Private schools are offering about $30K for the same degree.. but of course, are in more expensive cities.

In all honesty, I think you're stressing the GREs WAY too much. I got into #1 ranked schools in my field (chemical physics/physical chemistry) with 730Q and 650V and mediocre Subject GREs. I couldn't imagine that the GRE requirements for German studies/Comp Sci/Whatever have a higher cutoff than Physics at Harvard or Stanford.. seriously.

27 quarter hours right now, and I have no time to think about anything.. it's fantastic. My wife doesn't even see me anymore. I have three midterms on Tuesday (one of my classes is a pre-req for another class I'm taking by exception, so I only need to study for the more difficult one) and I have to have a research poster completed by Monday morning! I've always been a crisis-mode motivated worker though, so this isn't too bad. Because my good friend Jack Daniels is my constant study partner, the weekends tend to fly by; however, he and I live by the mantra, "If you can do your homework wasted, you can totally ace the test sober." It works. To answer your question, there's no way in hell I'll miss UC Irvine... this city has no soul. Unlike other UCs, which are cultural centers for their respective regions, UCI is unfortunately placed right in between LA and SD.. so instead of reinforcing culture, the two gigantic cultural singularities on either side are sucking away any semblance of social life like.. well.. like the poor stars stuck between two black holes. yeah I went there. My professors have been quite influential, and I'll miss some of them dearly (others.. not so much) but it's time to move on. I wouldn't say that I've outgrown my digs, as UCI is a major player in my field and I could stay here and continue to learn a ton, but.. sometimes a person's gotta move on.

During the early stages of the application season, I severely underestimated my competitiveness and encouraged my wife to apply to PhD programs at my safety schools (she has two masters degrees).. now that I've been accepted at two of the premiere chemistry universities in the world, I'm in this awkward situation of "Do I go to these places where we both have a chance, or do we focus on my career first?" I'm leaning toward focusing on myself, if only because statistics state that 4.1% of males who graduate from this university hold TT positions at top 10 chemistry universities. I'm certain that I can provide for all of her emotional/intellectual/material needs once I've completed this program. She said she'd follow me wherever I end up. This makes me smile, because I have these secret plans of teaching in Slovenia, Croatia, or Bosnia. We'll see how serious she was about that statement.. in six years.

In a calculated move to both prevent the emergence of Gunner Syndrome (GS) in myself and also to level the playing field a bit for the other students, I graciously took a vow of non-note-taking after my sophomore year. Regardless of my self-handicapping attempt, the other students are still performing at a very disappointing level of competition.

As an exceptionally immature 28 year-old (well, I have discipline and time management skills, but I enjoy pre-printing random haikus and then sticking the paper back in the printer tray), I've never really been concerned about fitting in. Plus, graduate school is a self-selection of sorts.. the only people who make it through the filter are VERY serious about their jobs.

I toured UC Davis and was thoroughly impressed by their facilities and their faculty. It was on par with what we have here at UC Irvine.. and some of the professors have some AWESOME projects going on. Professors Guo, Larsen, Osterloh, and Land all had some awesome stuff going on, especially in regards to your interest in solar/nano

Wow, I am shocked. The guy must have a stellar research record.

I'm sure there is more going on there than you're privy to. Regardless of his value to his PI, I'm sure he got his ass handed to him, but perhaps not publicly.