avflinsch

photo walk

hot seat

I am in the Rutgers program - pretty decent so far, but it is in the middle of a transitional phase from MLIS to MI (Master of Information), so some things have not quite settled down yet. If I had known about it ahead of time, I would have waited and applied to the MI program once it became available, as my specialty lies more in the data science/analytics area anyway.

clean sweep

If you can find it - Great Lakes Brewing 'Harry Porter & the Bourbon Soaked Vanilla Bean'

50 states & probably about 100+ variations on how, when and where one can purchase alcohol.

tuition waiver

Send both, many schools take the 'best of' for each category.

Modern Times

It would be up to the program you applied to, but under the circumstances I would think it would be acceptable, and shouldn't have any negative impact on your application.

state university

fall in

The best place to live is wherever the jobs are. That being said, I really loved living in Boston many years ago, before returning to academia.

inner tube

Absolutely agree with this. I have always seen email as being very different from traditional written correspondence, emails should be short and to the point.

trivial pursuit

Send both sets, the school may just take the 'best of' for each test (I know that Rutgers does it this way). This way your stats would look like Q:161, V:148, and at least a 3.5 AMA.

split pea

I never considered alcohol to be unprofessional. Personally, if I knew them well enough to know that they drink beer, I would get them a larger (22oz) bottle or two of a style that they like, but from a special release from a brewery that they may not be familiar with. And homemade cookies are always a good idea.. (Beer Geek & Cookie Monster)

I worked at a large consulting firm before coming into the academic world, the real policy of not giving references is more of a CYA policy at most companies so that a former employee does not complain that they gave a bad reference. The end result is that most places will only verify employment dates, and approximate salary. Do you know if any of your former managers or colleagues that are now employed at a different company? If you were in good standing with them, they should probably give you a good reference. Networking sites like LinkedIn are good for that sort of thing.

crew cut

I think the issue with #3 is when the shift subtly goes from 'voluntary, non-assessed' to 'expected' Look at it this way - Many of us older students are coming back to school for a possible career change or advancement. We may have significant responsibilities outside of school - working full time, families, volunteer work, home duties, mortgages etc... In my case - working full time, school 2/3 time, main support for a family of 5 which includes me, a disabled spouse, a special needs child, and 2 grown children (one of whom is in grad school full time, the other still trying to find his niche in life) WE DON'T HAVE ANY TIME FOR ADDITIONAL UNEXPECTED STUFF! sorry for shouting there --

Is there a single prof out here that doesn't procrastinate over everything?

Need more details before this question can be answered - Do you need specialized software of any kind? If so, then whatever specialized software you need will determine the operating system Mac/Windows/Linux, it the software you need is just not available for foo-OS, then foo-OS needs to be eliminated from your choices. If your department absolutely insists on using obscureWare-II for something, then you need to make sure that your new computer can run obscureWare-II. Do you want a laptop/desktop/both? Are graphics important? Is speed important? Is portability important?

1&2 - no 3 - yes 4 - If they did they might lighten up a bit. Some do after class, and it might be fun to go once in a while, but with an hour drive home after a class that ends at 9pm, it would be too much for me.