katerific

A pamphlet, you say? Presenting! a preview! Front side Back side

Whether I get rejected or accepted, my reaction will involve two activities: crying and drinking. edit: I mean, not necessarily at the same time. Well, maybe for rejections. Yeah....

I never get fortunes any more! I think all the Chinese restaurants I visit do "wisdom" cookie crap or something lame like that. y'knawmsayin'?

I always assumed that professors like the mental break. I don't think it's necessarily procrastination, either (although I do know at least one professor who will go looking for conversations in order to procrastinate.... haha). Most of the time I go to talk to professors seeking advice, and they all really love giving advice, it seems, so that works out great for us. It did surprise me to see that a lot of professors I know really seem to genuinely care about the students. But when you think about it, they probably get a lot of warm fuzzy feelings seeing their students succeed and thrive (with the help of the professor's input, that is). I also know a professor who LOOOOOVES gossip, and by golly will he take time to get the dirt on everyone.

what I heard from a professor: a short, succinct statement shows to them that you can communicate your interests, research, and enthusiasm without going on and on, which is a very useful skill in science. Professors also don't like reading really long things, as it takes up their valuable time for research and cracking the grad student whip. If you do want to add some more personality/flair/detail or create better flow using another sentence or two (or three), I don't think it would hurt, as long as you don't introduce anything new and use them to enhance what you already have.

Wednesday night: I had a dream that I checked the website for my top choice and saw that they not only posted decisions, but commentary! Faculty members wrote a one-sentence review of the application and its components (although I didn't know who said what). On another part of the site, they put up a page of names of people accepted, rejected, and "other cases." Oh, their names and THEIR PICTURES. There were more accepted than anything else, and I was in the "other cases" category. Turns out, they listed 7 people there, and that was "the bottom three" category. We were the worst of the accepted, but only 3 of the 7 would actually make it. We had to duke it out intellectually for the spots! Thursday: In this dream, another professor from another university who I don't even know told me that I wasn't a good fit for any of the labs I applied for. W-what? This is not looking so good. Crossing my fingers for better dreams about like puppies and rainbows and acceptance letters...

Why thank you Mo and Alya and the other person who +1'ed my post. I try my best to keep things light, because if I were all serious business, I would be way. too. stressed. out.

I thought of another regret: becoming so ridiculously attached to specific schools! Like, it's good in the sense that it made me work very hard to perfect my applications, but at the same time.... by being this emotionally invested, I run the risk of being devastated and living out the rest of the semester locked up in my room, in the fetal position, crying. While eating ice cream. With Doritos. And I would TOTALLY regret that, which might lead to other regrets, and that'd make this thirty regret pile up. Like NASCAR, except sadder.

No. All the grads who take undergraduate courses in my geology dept are taking upper division geology/biology/etc courses, not anything like american government. I do know international students who have to take english classes, but even then, those english classes are specifically designed for international graduate students (who hope to TA, in particular). I do know graduate students who take lower division classes not related to geology, but they do that for fun, not because they're required.

That is quite bizarre. Honestly, if she's completing LORs for 15 students (10 schools each), it seems like it'd be pretty easy to overlook one... As long as the other prof was okay with writing you a letter, then it sounds like things should work out. If it's too late to ask the other professor, then definitely check with the departments you're applying to, and then explain to this one professor that they honestly didn't get it (and don't make it sound like you're placing the blame on her... it could have been a simple mistake!). Good luck!

I only applied for a PhD. No MA or MS programs. I want to go in to academia, and I'd prefer to dive straight into a PhD program.

Best idea ever. Although if the Caribbean is a bit out of the way for most people, we could always go to $3 happy hour down the street at La Barca....

I was hoping people would look more objectively at themselves with this thread... I mean, that's what I tried to do! It's more helpful for future generations or whatever. Or do people prefer the "drown your sorrows" vibe? Another fantastic thing I did that I absolutely DO NOT regret: - buying this bag of Heath bars to celebrate finishing apps/cope with the waiting process. Okay, maybe I'll end up regretting this. I know it's wrong.... but it feels so right.

Wait, but isn't that everyone's favorite activity? They can't hold it against you. All this talk makes me wonder why they'd even bother to google applicants, if they even do... I mean, with all the name twins in the world, and incorrect information floating around the nets, how could that be useful to them? OH, oh, I forgot to tell a funny story related to googling applicants. So my department recently hired a new professor, right? Apparently there's a porn star with the exact same name. He never knew about this until our department chair let him know. So me and some grad students and professors went to a regional symposium, right? and we were all sitting around outside drinking/eating after the talks and posters. I don't even remember how this came up, but our dept chair casually said, "yeah, so when I was googling the prospective hires, I was a bit startled with the results for your name..."

I sense the force is strong with this one. You'll be a fantastic grad student.

To answer OP's question and to expand upon the topic a bit.... The things I truly regret about this process: - Not applying for more outside funding. I have a feeling that one school I applied to might reject me mainly due to the professor's funding situation. - My GPA. It's decent, but... since a major burnout I had in highschool, I REALLY didn't care about grades too much. Don't get me wrong: I have always cared about learning, but since then, I've never really believed that what you learned/know correlates to what grade you got. My major GPA is fantastic since I've always been really dedicated to those classes, but everything else... my GEs? Required language class? Psshh! Unfortunately, it shows in my GPA. I think even a little more effort may have helped my GPA a lot. And I care about my GPA now, of course, since a high/low GPA can convey a number of different things (about my intelligence, work ethic, etc), even if only variable really contributed to my overall GPA. Things that I wonder about: - Retaking the GRE. I took it once and made a decent score, but it could have been a lot better. - This one professor (not the one mentioned above)--I've met him a few times over the past year, but I didn't speak to him after September of this year. Even though in September he kinda laughed and told me, "katerific, you're doing everything perfectly!", a lot of other professors really urged me to contact him again. Out of shyness and out of fear of looking desperate (I've bumped into him a bit), I didn't. - I wish I wasn't so awkward in front of my advisor. He can be a bit intimidating, but I've always tried to be myself around him anyway, and to indicate to him what I don't know and what I do know. I'm honestly unsure about how this panned out and affected his image of me. I would not be surprised if he mentioned in his LOR that I was shy, or bad with communicating or expressing ideas, or just uninspired/lazy with regards to research. He could have, but maybe he didn't. Will any of these matter? Perhaps, but maybe not. Things I did right: - Obsessing over grad school early. Okay, say what you may, but it really helped me discover what I really wanted to do, and to start on applications early. The latter was probably the best thing I did.

A+

I used to think that being facebook friends with my mom was a terrible idea, but then I realized it is FANTASTIC. The "mom filter" has drastically improved the quality of my facebook. When googling my name, you mostly get a bunch of college/HS awards of mine, fortunately. The worst thing that comes up is ONE link to a facebook group about chicken sandwiches.

two possible reactions to my application. no words, only raw emotion: or

Oh, wow, that is quite the distraction! That's so fantastic that you can help them out in such a big way

I don't find it weird at all! I grew up in the south where it RARELY snowed.... and for the past few years I've been living in a region that never gets snow. Ever. I have MANY, MANY friends who are 21+ who have NEVER seen snow in person. There are also those who have seen snow, but never snowfall. I think it's quite common here, actually. Sadly, I have many relatives in Chicago who tell me the same thing about getting tired of snow--after a few days the snow gets annoying, and eventually it gets really dirty, too. (Honestly? I'm applying to schools in the NE and I'm excited about snow!! just not sub-50 degree F weather ) Georgia high-five!!! uhhhhhhhh I think you mean ENRICH and IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF, not this "ruin" you speak of. :P (on a serious note: waddle does have a point. DO NOT BROWSE TVTROPES THE DAYS LEADING UP TO AN EXAM. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.)

I'm from the South, but I flew out of the region the day before Snowpocalypse! I was really disappointed, though, since I NEVER get to see snow. I LOVE those! Although they leave me feeling slightly sad--the math professors at my uni are so bad at teaching, yet I pay to take classes here..... I learned the material a lot better by watching MIT lectures, and they're free! But other than that, they make me really, really happy (it's such a fantastic way to nerd out). Eigen has some great suggestions, but I know it's hard to focus on useful stuff 100% of the time. If you need a mental break, I recommend browsing TVTropes. Google it. Can't explain, just explore. It can be quite a time vampire.