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wuglife427

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  1. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to HistoryGypsy in Let's Overanalyze Together   
    Oh gosh, yes!  And even though it's totally stupid to do so, I keep comparing my scores with all the ones that are posted ("Oh gosh, this person got a higher verbal score and still got rejected -- I am DOOMED!" and "This person got accepted with that low of a GPA?  My worries are over!")  Sigh.  Human nature . . .  
  2. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to Garyon in FALL 2015 APPLICATONS   
    It is not knowing that kills me.
     
    If the whole process was like "Ok, you have to wait until April 10 to know" I'll be way more relaxed.
  3. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to fuzzylogician in Make a mini joke in SOP?   
    Lets just say that: 
     
    # of people who think they are funny  >>  # of people who are actually funny 
     
    Think you can pull it off? Good luck. I think it's much easier to piss someone off with a bad attempt at a joke than successfully make a good impression, but if you think you can beat the odds, go for it; but in the name of all that is holy, please have multiple people read it before you send it off. 
  4. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to Garyon in FALL 2015 APPLICATONS   
    So, I got my first interview! At Stony Brook!
     
    Actually, I just finished it
     
    I got an email from my POI yesterday night asking for an interview, to which I replied as fast as I could ( SB is in my top 3), so we scheduled a Skype call for today.
    I was so so so nervous. I loved it.  My POI was great: super nice and interesting. We talked a lot about my background and his research projects and the more he talked the more I falled in love with the department (really computational oriented, but with a focus on theoretical stuff and Minimalism which is rare in CL programs).
     
    So I think it went very well, let's hope for the best.
    In case there is somebody else here interested in SB feel free to PM me. He told me that they are planning an open house in march, so they hope to finish up with interviews in the next couple of weeks.
  5. Upvote
    wuglife427 got a reaction from Gvh in popular things you hate   
    I liked Daniel Tosh's older stand-up, but Tosh.0 is gross. I tried watching it for a bit because I thought he was a good comedian, and I hoped that it would get better over time, but it never did and instead just made me angry. And I know at least a few people who agree, so you're definitely not alone!
  6. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to Feanor in That fake out moment!   
    I'm positive Chicago wants to induce a heart attack.  You open your mailbox and are greeted by an email from "The University of Chicago", sent from their grad admissions' email... telling you all about the problem of rescuing endangered languages, their research on Mexico and "interesting" alumni.
  7. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to Garyon in FALL 2015 APPLICATONS   
    Your welcome! Your anxiety is my anxiety 
     
    Umm wouldn't something like a "First In First Out / Last In First Out" order be more likely? They assigned us a numerical ID after all...
     
    Probably they liked our SOP so much they didn't even need to check us up on external sources   
  8. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to goldheartmountaintop in popular things you hate   
    Sorry for derailing the thread for a sec, but this bothers me and I feel like it should be addressed. Most people do find grad school stressful, especially at first, including people who have already breezed through grad courses as undergrads. The expectations are just different, both from faculty and from yourself, and there's a lot of pressure in doing high quality research while juggling your other program requirements/your life. I would suggest waiting until you've been in grad school for awhile to adopt this kind of attitude (though even then it's still kind of ill-advised).
     
    Back to the original thread:
     
    I am in the same boat as others, coffee-wise! Inexplicably, drinking coffee (even one cup) gives me shoulder tension (?) and toothaches. Does anyone else experience this? But I can drink cups upon cups of black tea (which I do), with no problem, so it seems to be coffee-specific, rather than a caffeine thing.
  9. Upvote
    wuglife427 got a reaction from Knox in popular things you hate   
    Wait do you hate all eras of Family Guy? Old Family Guy was great, but it's been just awful the past few years.
  10. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to GCool in popular things you hate   
    +1 Fairly Oddparents
     
    But maybe you meant Shakespeare, in which case I've shown off my immaturity level.
  11. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to TakeruK in Biased Grading   
    I agree with proflorax that we (graduate students in general but also specifically the users of this board) need a safe space to vent. C&C did not post anything that would harm any other person. We might not always agree with the poster's point of view, but that doesn't mean we always have to criticize or react negatively to it.
     
    Since there are no details that would identify any person and that C&C is not taking any actions that would harm our community here as well as the general "academic/grad student" community elsewhere, then I don't think there is any harm in a venting of frustration/stress like this.
     
    I would say a post like this by C&C is far different from a lot of other posts that were "harmful" venting because they either specifically named programs or schools or people and/or they advocated for extremely unprofessional or dishonest behaviour. 
     
    In addition, I would note that the original post asked for advice on how to proceed with asking the professor for a grade increase. The first few comments were responding to this question directly. I agree that it's helpful to advise C&C that perhaps 89.89 is just a coincidence, but we should keep in mind that 1) each poster might not share all the details of the situation and 2) for the sake of establishing a supportive community, we can recognize that sometimes some of us are more stressed out or feeling very frustrated and just need to vent their feelings without having their situation analyzed and criticized.
     
    I know I sometimes give unsolicited advice so I'm guilty of this as well. GradCafe is an online, pseudo-anonymous forum that can be used for a lot of purposes. Sometimes, the poster wants advice and feedback on their actions; sometimes the poster just wants to vent and say unprofessional things behind the safety of the Internet, and sometimes, the poster just wants to ask one specific question without having to justify their past actions or motivations. Or sometimes a combination of the three. I think it is reasonable to say that for the latter two cases, it's not too much to put our highly analytical graduate student minds in the background and just be supportive when another colleague seems to need it.
  12. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to ProfLorax in Biased Grading   
    I think it's problematic, though, that people on this forum think it's their job to teach other graduate students how to be proper graduate students. C&C had a moment of panic, came to what C&C thought was a safe space to vent, and has been attacked on a weirdly personal level since. C&C didn't name the professor or the program, didn't email the professor or the chair with accusations. There was no bad behavior exhibited by the OP.  I think the only thing posters here have taught C&C is that this isn't a safe space to vent. 
     
    Also, C&C asked a fair question. What does one do if a grad student suspects an unfair grade? This is a legit problem in the humanities, especially when most or even all of our grade is based on one seminar paper turned in at the end of the semester. The conflict between C&C and the professor has been resolved, but this could have been an opportunity to discuss strategies and methods to discuss end-of-semester grades with difficult professors. But rather, people decided to detail how C&C is "unprofessional," paranoid, and overly confident. 
  13. Upvote
    wuglife427 got a reaction from isilya in FALL 2015 APPLICATONS   
    Alichka--yes, I'm so sick of this SoP. I'm stressing out because I considered X University to be one of my top choices, but when I added the "fit" paragraph, it couldn't get it to sound as strong as the others I had written. After writing a few different versions and reading the whole essay entirely too many times, I'm beginning to think this program is just not as good a fit as I thought. I guess it's not the worst thing to realize at this stage (I'm really jazzed about all the programs, so it's not like moving this one down the list means everything is ruined), but it's still not a great feeling since I thought I'd researched so carefully. Also I may have yelled "just BE BETTER" at my computer screen.
     
     
    My suggestion: If you or a friend has a fire pit, make a nice fire, throw the SoP into it, and make s'mores. You may need to wait until it's warmer out, but honestly it's the best. I did that with my AP Physics notes after the exam, and let me tell you, those marshmallows were excellent.
  14. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to isilya in FALL 2015 APPLICATONS   
    This is happening to me too! And some of the schools that I thought weren't as great a fit, I had wonderful fit paragraphs and now I'm way more excited about those schools!
  15. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to grad_wannabe in Waiting Game--how do you deal with the waiting anxiety?   
    this x100000. 
     
    I've been coaching my parents on the importance of FIT.
     
    "Mom, it's not about who is BEST, it's about who is the best MATCH for the program, faculty, and their goals that year. Come February we have to drum that into our heads."
     
    "Yes, dear, but you're such a hard worker I bet you'll get in everywhere."
     
    sigh.
  16. Upvote
    wuglife427 got a reaction from wetheplants in Should you put your name on your writing sample?   
    Of the school's I'm applying to, only one mentioned this. They said to put your name and the department you're applying to at the beginning of the document, but to leave 1" of margin blank at the top of each page. Looking around the forum, it seems like other schools specify the empty header, too. My guess is that when they print materials, they put your application number or whatever relevant info at the top so that everything stays organized.
  17. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to Alichka in FALL 2015 APPLICATONS   
    Is anyone else just sick to death of their Statement(s) of Purpose?  I don't know how many more times I can read over and tweak the same dang two-page essay without going crazy.  I have seriously thought about printing out a copy just for the satisfaction of setting it on fire.
     
    This is mostly due to down-to-the-wire insanity
  18. Upvote
    wuglife427 got a reaction from aojfifjoaisjaiosdj in FALL 2015 APPLICATONS   
    I'm in the same boat, Chiki--I've submitted to Stanford, and I might be able to get another app due tonight or tomorrow, but then I have 2 others to do before finals are done and then four more over winter break. It's super-stressful, but just know you're not alone in your hell-week(s) misery! And hopefully this relatively short period of high stress will pay off in the end Good luck with everything!!
  19. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to Between Fields in Venting Thread- Vent about anything.   
    It's the start of my first finals week as a doctoral student and I suddenly find myself with the attention span of that dog from the movie Up.
  20. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to FaultyPowers in Application FAILS!   
    Hi Letter Writer!
     
    I just thought I'd send you a quick text to let you know that your letter is due on Tuesday! I don't know if you've gotten my three previous emails about it, since you've never responded to any of them! I do know that you haven't turned your letter in yet though, because I've gotten emails from the school telling me they've gotten everybody else's but not yours! How you uh, how you comin' on that letter you're working on? Huh? Gotta a big, uh, big stack of papers there? Gotta, gotta nice little letter you're working on there? Your big letter you've been working on for 2 months? Huh? Gotta, gotta compelling recommendation of me as a prospective doctoral student? Yeah? Gotta description of some obstacles I've overcome? Huh? Gotta recommendation brewing there? Working on, working on that for quite some time? Huh? Yea, talking about that 2 months ago. Been working on that the whole time? Nice little narrative? Beginning, middle, and end? Some friends become enemies, some enemies become friends? At the end your recommendee is richer from the experience? Yeah? Yeah? No, no, you deserve some time off. 
  21. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to dr. t in Getting by on the hard days   
    Man, I wish graduate applications factored in your ability to make puns. I'd be a lot less concerned about the whole process!
  22. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to ilovelab in I Think I've Made a Huge Mistake   
    Graduating from and Ivy does not guarantee instant interviews in science. Its whose lab you worked in, who your PI knows and what your CV looks like. Unless all the PI's at ETH as crap it shouldn't be a problem, as long as you can find a supportive PI whose lab you can do good work in. If you are getting your MS in Neuroscience why do you care about people not knowing your schools name outside of science? Do you plan to go into marketing/psych/comm? If you're going to stick with science why does it matter? Or does it bother you that the average person in the US has no idea where your school is? Lets be honest, most people in the US have no idea what Caltech, Reed, WashU, Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams, Rice, Scripps, Janelia, Mayo Clinic etc are. It doesn't mean they aren't great institutions. Who cares! A prestigious school doesn't necessarily have the best program.  You also are saving 80K in debt. That's a lot of $$$ you're going to save by not having student loans.
  23. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to onzeheures30 in Is it okay to start the SOP with discussing the advent and importance of your field ?   
    Two paragraphs about the field? That's too much. Even one generic sentence is too much, if you ask me, if it does not directly link the importance of the field to why you want to pursue a degree in this field. A SOP should be about you, not the field. Don't waste your space telling the committee something they already know (they are specialists in your field, no need to preach to the choir).
  24. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to ravenray in popular things you hate   
    Tomatoes.  
  25. Upvote
    wuglife427 reacted to Munashi in popular things you hate   
    Mayonnaise
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