katerific

At my undergrad institution, the graduate students have pretty good social lives, and while I was there, I hung out with them a lot. Going to lunch, goofing off in the lounge, doing labwork (can totally be a social interaction), etc. As a grad student, it's been hard moving across the country and making friends, but now I will hang out with people at least once a week (which is great for me, because I appreciate alone time, too). Since my lab is mostly post-docs, I've actually befriended a lot of post-docs since I end up going to post-doc association social events. Also, I will goof off with my office mates throughout the day (an occasional distraction keeps us sane). That's totally a social interaction, right?

I'm taking a week to go home for Christmas (starting this Thursday), but my advisor actually expects me to get a lot of work/research done prior to classes starting in mid-Jan. So I'll be a busy bee upon my return! But when I'm home I'll probably be catching up on reading articles and journals....

story of my life edit: I would love an alarm clock that flies up and repeatedly hits me in the face or something, because man, I take my sleeping seriously.

Note: I actually have no idea how this works, but here's my impression. I don't know how it compares to other fields, but I think most of the places I applied to said they'd be able to support students for at least 3 years (either as TAs or RAs or both). I got the sense that it was pretty advisor-dependent in that some potential advisors had hella grants and others... not so much. Also, the UC system is a bit stressed right now in terms of money. The two places I got in to also stated that they could guarantee five years of support (and they told me they don't admit people if they can't do that.) I only need to TA one semester, and every other semester I'm an RA (this would have been the same case at the other school I got accepted in to). I should also note that even though these two schools aren't as "prestigious" as other schools I applied to, they by far were the best about being upfront about the money situation, and also were more confident pre-admission about being able to fund students. But anyway, that's just my own experience, YMMV. edit: also, one great thing about the earth sciences is that it's very interdisciplinary, which is great for applying for lots of different grants. I've known people who have applied to NSF, DOD, a number of small environmental agencies, etc, for smaller grants that can help them along the way. edit2: I apologize if this isn't very coherent... I'm still recovering from AGU.

I forgot how much my liver hates AGU.

I'm going. Last year (when I was applying) I met a few profs. I recommend emailing them ASAP to see if you can meet with them. It's okay to just go up to them when you see them, but oftentimes they'll be distracted with other hotshots. Make sure to tell them your name, school, etc, and give them a brief overview of your background. Also make sure to indicate what sorts of things you're interested, and ask about their labs and such. If you just walk up to them, prepare to be very concise (~5 min max). People are pretty laid back at AGU, so don't stress about it--I think the most important part is that you convey your interest and excitement. Other random advice: take a notebook. Plan out your schedule beforehand, and prioritize. Bring running shoes so that you can easily dart between Moscone West (talks) and South (posters). (okay, that last part was a joke, but it's not a BAD idea...) The underlined author should definitely be there. If they don't plan on it, they should have withdrawn their abstract (it's very bad form to say you'll present when you won't). I do know professors who register on-site. My advice is to email them, saying, "Hi prof so and so, I'm a prospective grad student, and I saw on the AGU site that you're presenting on x topic. I am excited to hear about this kind of stuff, and I would be very interested in meeting with you. You dig?" Obviously phrase it better, but yeah. okay that was my late night ramble hopefully it helps whee

I'm not presenting. Even though I do love presenting, it's nice to not have to worry about giving a poster or talk.... I usually hit up sessions in PP, OS, MGC, GEC, etc.

I'm going to AGU. I don't know about Unlikey's advisor, but I know that a lot of people don't like AGU because it's too big and often difficult to network. You have 20k people in all these different fields--very overwhelming and hard to catch all the people you want to meet and see the talks you want to go to. On the other hand, at really small conferences, it's easier to introduce yourself to people. That said, I still love AGU because it's fun and I always learn a lot.

I'm a complete conference junkie* (I love them), so I'm willing to fork up SOME money to go to REALLY good ones. I mean, for me, it's really good academically and intellectually (with all the talks and posters), socially (hanging out with friends in the evenings), and professionally (networking, meeting other researchers, drinking with other scientists, etc). That said, I still try my best to get my school to pay, and if they don't, I try to find the absolute cheapest deals on flights/hotels etc. If the conference registration is expensive... well, there are some options. I once attended a (v. small) conference that was $500 for the week (with no daily rates), but I only wanted to attend two days. I emailed one of the professors about a daily rate, or undergrad rate, or something, and he told me just to show up. And so I did. I may have also snuck into a conference before, but I don't necessarily encourage that. * note: definitely keep this in mind as you read my post, seeing as how I'm a bit cray cray. oh, but to answer your question about what goes on during a conference: nothing but really intense science 8am-5pm, if not longer. With bigger conferences, you have the option of going to talks or posters, but with really small ones, they may have a set schedule of talks-posters-talks. There should be socializing in the evening, too. After 4 days, you are totally mentally exhausted. It's fantastic.

Usually I opt for frozen yogurt (Yogurtland, how I miss you *sobs*), but when it comes to ice cream, Americone Dream all the way.

I don't remember what I was doing when I found out my acceptance to my current grad school (which wasn't my first/second/etc choice), but I do remember being rejected by all the other schools. (I should have been more excited about that acceptance, though, because it's really freakin' sweet here.)

I'd probably opt for the hotel, just because I know I'd be able to sleep super well the night before. When I took the GRE. I actually specifically signed up to take it across the country in my home state, just so my dad could drive me. I mean, I was planning on visiting home anyway, but I scheduled my trip home around the GRE, haha. edit: also, good luck!

Technicians are wizards. Always get on their good side. ALWAYS!

u guize. I present:

One piece of advice that I constantly get about moving to a new apartment: NEVER rent (long term, at least) unless you've seen it AND researched the landlord. Based on prior experiences with a bad managing company that I blindly committed to (a bunch of crooks, no joke), I followed that piece of advice. Prior to moving, I scoured craigslist and other rental sites for potential places, came up with a list (based on price, location, etc), and set up appointments to see the place. I drove up with my dad and my brother to my new area of residence and stayed at a motel for two nights while looking at these apartments. My adviser was awesome and set me up with a sublet to stay at for a few days. After the hotel, I stayed there for two or three more nights while looking for/deciding on a place. I had to play a lot of it by ear because each place had a different move-in date. I had planned on finding some more short sublets on craigslist until I could move into a more permanent residence. I was lucky in that the place I liked the most had the earliest date, so I moved in earlier than I expected and didn't have to do that. It is a bit hard to find decent places that allow month-to-month rentals, but I think subletting while searching is a good alternative.

Whenever I sit down to watch TV for a bit, I like to watch junk like Toddlers and Tiaras, Storage Wars, Real Housewives of NJ, etc... they are definitely guilty pleasures, but they're also easy for me to walk away from during a commercial break. As far as shows that I like to see all the way through, I like Adventure Time, Ugly Americans, Venture Bros, etc. I definitely lean towards comedy since it really lets me unwind.

Whoa, supes late on this topic, but I wanted to contribute just in case: I've been using zipcar over the past two years (at my ugrad institution) and recently got my own car (my mom gave me her old car). The entire time, I always wanted my own car. It wasn't because of the price or anything--I mean, gas/insurance/maintenance is covered and all, and these are newer/nice cars and such--but booking can honestly be a pain. I went to a medium-sized school, and there was a decent fleet of maybe like 20 scattered around campus. I would plan my roadtrips, and even errands, way in advance, usually (at least the really important errands). The thing that bugged me the most was that a lot of people don't treat the cars right, even though they should, and people are lazy about reporting other people. Now, I have an 8 year old car, and it's alright. I do miss driving ~cool~ cars, but I guess my situation is pretty different, since I didn't have to buy my car. In general, I thought zipcar was a good alternative to owning a car, even though it could be frustrating. Two things I really liked, though: (1) you can zip in any city that has zip, and (2) I got the opportunity to drive around in different models, colors, etc, at any time. (Okay, that may sound really lame to some people, but whatever.) But to answer your original question: it is possible, just be a careful planner. Would I recommend zipcar? Sure, at least until you get a feel of what the town is like, maybe. My old uni/city was VERY much a car-tropolis, so that added to my frustration (since zipcar was ALWAYS in demand). At my new uni, I think I could see myself getting around better with biking, walking, bus, and zipcar (even though I do have a car). Also, food for thought: if your hubcaps end up flying off or something, it's like, 34 to replace them. That's a yearly membership at zipcar! And yes, two of my hubcaps flew off on my roadtrip to my new university. :c

For like, the past three years (all undergrad), my best friends have been grad students in my field. I mean, we all did research, and we all liked to drink, so it made sense. Yup.

The one thing that I really hate about my program is that it's in a region where soda fountains have Pepsi instead of Coke. Thems fightin' words in the South.

AGU has a nice directory of universities that have programs in specific areas. This is a good place to start (especially early on), I'd say. AGU also has Eos, a newspaper with job listings as such. Usually they're for people already with PhDs, I believe, but you also get ads for PhD positions and lab assistants. I did the same thing that waddle did, essentially, although it may be daunting if you don't know what to search for in those journals. In that case (or in any case, really), I'd recommend looking at AGU journals. These are more specialized, so you can name a topic you generally like (like geophysics, for example) and browse away. My professors also recommended a number of people and universities, of course.

I, uh.... we.... what. wow. I also really love your username, bearface.

Man, you guys. I'm ridiculously flattered that you all like that so much. I just compiled what everyone was saying into a nice little printable format