oldlady

The drinking question aside, I think it's important to maintain your own boundaries. Be friendly, have fun, go for drinks, whatever -- but do not believe that your advisor is, first and foremost, your friend. Your advisor is, first and foremost, your advisor -- if you screw up (or even, in some cases, express an opposing point of view in public), it doesn't matter how many times you've gone to the well together.

Okay, THAT was hilarious! Thank you, Riotbeard, for sharing. (And congrats, Jae B., on making a decision!)

So sorry for you and your SO. Battling cancer can go on for a really long time; at least, often longer than expected. What happens if you defer for a year and the parent experiences no change by this time next year? It can also become all-consuming for family members and close friends -- this is your SO's journey. If the situation were reversed, would you want your SO to defer? FWIW, you may want to save your putting your life on hold to support your SO until your SO *really* needs it. (See The Mercy Papers by Robin Romm for a first-person account of leaving her own grad program to be with her own dying mother, and the role of her SO.)

FWIW, rather than go to the websites of random schools, go to the sites of a couple of the top schools in your discipline. I've done this and found a few syllabi that have been extremely useful.

I think it's also important to remember that people often look quite impressive on paper -- that's kind of the point of the bio.

class trip

Kappa Alpha Theta alumna

Congratulations!

So I forgot about this forum until today -- it's great to find others who will be attending CUNY schools. I'll be at Baruch's School of Business in the Organizational Behavior department. I live in the suburbs just north of the city and will be commuting in, but I've also lived in the city and am happy to be a resource, if needed. Count me in for coffee -- I always find it really valuable to build a support network within my profession, but outside of my field.

Congratulations on the interview! I had one informal and one formal interview at CUNY. Both were really about preparation and fit -- lots of personality/self-assessment questions (e.g. are you more spontaneous or more of a planner?) that have no real "right" answer, but do beg for examples to support the answer. I was also asked why I wanted to go there, and if I were admitted to NYU (the other place I applied), why I would choose CUNY. The best advice I got on the application process as a whole was to just be myself and let the adcomm really get to know me. There are so many applicants who try to game the process, saying what they think they're "supposed" to say, and it's, apparently, very boring to listen to. IMHO, humility and a bit of humor can carry one a long way...

Last summer, I attended the AMA Summer Educator's Conference and it helped me to make the decision to apply to OB programs instead of marketing programs. Now, I'm strongly considering attending the AOM conference this summer. Anyone else planning to attend summer conferences? If yes, which ones?

Is there any way that you could do both?

case detective

That's hilarious!

I'll be driving my son to various day camps around the county, supervising renovations on my house, and throwing away/recycling a ton of stuff I don't need. I figure that, come September, I won't ever be able to work on my house again, so I better spend some time now! I'll also be attending a conference in Montreal and my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary in San Diego. Oh, and I'll be taking an econometrics course somewhere... But mostly, I will try to savor every moment of free time -- going to the farmer's market and preparing lots of fresh food, reading books for pleasure and going to the movies, planting flowers and enjoying sunsets. I know it will be a struggle to carve out time for myself once I begin my program, and I want to nourish myself as much as possible between now and then... Just writing this makes me realize that I don't need to wait for summer -- I can begin right now!

Getting excited about NYC, pea-jay? bus stop

mess hall

Tank Girl

Back off! (I've always wanted to use that icon...)

Why would you quote that??? What does that even mean???

group dynamics

psycholinguist, you completely crack me up!

music maker

As it is, I'm getting a big kick out of telling my husband that I am going to be a social scientist -- at least, it has the word, "scientist", in it! I'm so glad that my post was a catalyst for you! The ...Henrietta Lacks book was really compelling -- even though it's non-fiction, it almost reads like a novel -- the writing is excellent. (I, too, am interested in ethics, but on the business side -- where there is no end to the examples of unethical behavior!) I think you have a great idea for a course (and perhaps some research???) Best of luck!

Ditto.