katsharki3

We also at my school have one teacher who seems to enjoy giving graduate students Bs and Cs. ...Well, maybe not enjoy exactly, but he's the only professor who consistently gives students Bs and Cs in classes, by making his exams hard, not wording his own questions well, and being very picky about what answers he wants in essay type questions--no full points if you don't use the exact right wording that he wants (even if your answer is otherwise correct)! This is generally known and accepted, but yeah, I definitely don't understand it. All of the students who do poorly in his class do well in their other classes, so it's clearly not all down to their intelligence (though part of it might be that he teaches the required genetics classes which are often harder for people). Why would you make your class so hard that so many grad students get Cs? And thus make it hard for them to get fellowships, keep funding, etc?

I'd say you are definitely going to need a car, yes. There is a bus system, but I think it's only very reliable around the downtown area, and there are many areas of town where the buses don't reach. Plus it takes so much longer to commute on the bus. I mean, you could maybe survive with just the bus if you were planning on trying to live in the downtown area near school, though I have no idea what sorts of apartments are around there. And having a car is definitely helpful as far as getting around to different grocery stores and other stores, as well as if you'd ever want to go to the beach--the buses don't go there!

Hey there! I'm currently a master's in Biology student at University of North Florida in Jacksonville. I'm not sure if you're looking specifically for "graduate student housing," or just housing in general. As far as I know there's no official graduate student housing unless you live on campus, which is ridiculously expensive. But in general it's pretty easy to find relatively affordable housing in Jacksonville, as long as you don 't insist on living near the beach or in a "nicer" expensive area. I live with one roommate in the Mandarin/Baymeadows area, and my rent is $420 a month, plus then about another ~$100-$150 in utilities depending on the season (i.e. how much air conditioning we use). You can find similar prices in a lot of areas, though, again, not so much near the beach. Let me know if you have any other questions about Jacksonville! What school are you applying to?

Thanks for your reassurance. In general, reading your other posts and knowing you got into a good PhD program even with a couple Bs from your master's programs, that alone makes me feel better. I'm still not sure if I want to go on to a PhD myself, but I was also freaking out about the multitude of people that seem to say that PhD programs expect a perfect GPA in a master's program, and one B essentially kills your chances to get into a PhD program. Your experience seems to prove that wrong though. I did go talk to the professor for the course today, and got a chance to look at my exam. I ended up making a bunch of rather stupid mistakes on some of the problems, so I definitely do deserve that 78.5, despite the fact I thought I had understood everything when I turned it in. I'm just definitely going to have to make sure I clarify any questions I may have on our take-home exam and work consistently hard on my paper for that class. I'm kind of doubtful I'll be able to raise my grade to an A- or even a B+ (though I suppose it is possible), but hopefully I can at least get it up to that B grade and avoid academic probation. I'm not so much concerned about the grades in that, well, yeah, clearly I didn't understand everything, so I deserve that grade. And I'm working now to go through the problems I missed, make sure I understand everything, and do a better job with analyzing what some of my answers mean. My goal here definitely is more to make sure I understood the material well by the end of the semester, though of course having the high grade is nice... Definitely am still scared right now about that B minus grade and academic probation. But it is good to hear that this happens to other people and they are able to work up from this point. Getting a C on my first exam just made me feel very defeated and like I'm not cut out for a master's program. Hopefully I can work hard to prove that feeling I have right now wrong, and build up from this point. Going to keep trucking on.

Well, as it turns out the professor for this class is also the graduate coordinator. So thus the graduate coordinator is clearly aware of what my grade is in this class. And I figure while I'm asking him for help with the class specifically, it can't hurt to check with him about how serious they tend to be about receiving a B- and keeping the TAship since I'm concerned and he'll have an answer. Thanks for this. I'm definitely going to talk to the professor for help so I can try to correct my mistakes, make sure I'm on track for the paper, and definitely at least make sure I keep this B- if not raise it up to a solid B. I'm not expecting straight As in grad school, I really do want to learn and understand what it is I'm not quite getting. Improve my knowledge and grow in different areas. But since this class is just our 2 tests and a paper, getting a C on one fo those is concerning, and for grades I'm more concerned about the fact that if we receive a B- in a class (which I have right now) then we risk losing our TAship. So yes, definitely going to talk to the professor and work hard to correct my mistakes. And try not to freak out too much, because while being aware of my shortcomings will help me do better, freaking out over them too much won't really help in the long run. But thanks for the reassurance. I do imagine Cs on tests in certain grad school disciplines is more common than people want to discuss, especially in a (tough) course in one's first year. Doesn't really make me feel better about myself, but it helps to know I'm not the only one who showed a poor performance on a first exam in grad school.

So one of my classes so far is going really well--at the moment at least I have an A in that class. We'll see what my grade ends up being on the second exam, but overall the material for that class is much easier for me to follow and understand. This class is also directly related to my thesis project, and is actually taught by my advisor, so it's good that this class is going well. But the other class I'm taking...well, apparently not going so well. We just got back our grades on our take home exam, and I got a 78, leaving me with a B- in that class. I knew I hadn't aced that test or even gotten an A on it, but I genuinely thought I'd understood the material better than that "C" grade reflects. I know the best course of action here (which I plan on doing) is talking to the professor for that class about how to make sure I can do better on the take home final and ensure I'm on track for the paper that is also part of our grade for that class. But I'm still freaking out. If I really step up my game, then hopefully I can manage to bring that B- up to a B, but I do feel like it's much more likely I'll end up being stuck with that B-. That's the lowest grade I've had in a class in a long long time, which is scary in itself. But even more scary than that is the fact that at my school, anything less than a B is essentially considered failing. Not a B-, but a B. The handbook says if you get a B- you'll be placed on academic probation, and may risk losing your TAship. Which, like, seriously can't happen because otherwise there's no way I can afford to keep going to this school. I don't really know that I'm asking for any advice here, because of course the best actions are to talk to my professor and the graduate coordinator to see how serious this really is. But I am very scared and definitely questioning my abilities as a scientist or ability to complete my master's program now. I guess maybe I'm just looking for some reassurance that grades like this do happen to others in grad school, and I'm not just an idiot who clearly isn't cut out for a master's program. Anyone?

Haha, I also have scoliosis, and I just wanted to say I don't think you really "gave it to yourself" by using a one shoulder book bag. It might have made it worse, but scoliosis in itself is genetic.

I used to use a messenger bag through high school and my first two years of college. It became second nature to me. But then I switched to a backpack my junior year, and it was really amazing how much better my back/shoulders felt after just 2 days using a backpack. But I also imagine it's very much a personal choice as far as how much you will be carrying around. And my professors vary as far as what they use--a couple use backpacks, some use messenger bags, and some just use the traditional briefcase that has to be carried in your hand. It might be best to have both, and maybe use the backpack when you have to carry multiple books/laptop, but have a messenger bag you can use at conferences and such to look more professional? Also depends on what your commute is--if you just walk from your car to your office/classes, a messenger bag might not be too bad. But I take the bus and walk to school, so a messenger bag really starts to hurt after a while. It also is possible for backpacks to look professional. My professors use simple black backpacks, like this type: http://www.www8-hp.com/h22175/UKStore/Html/Merch/Images/c03513831_1560x1144.jpg

It really depends on the school. For me, with the TAship I got at UNF I'll get $12,000/yr and that covers partial tuition (or, in the words of the biology coordinator, "a bit more than half"). I also did end up getting a scholarship that I think will end up covering the rest of tuition. But yeah, it really varies. So you need to ask a grad school adviser/coordinator. You could also try asking your PI, but often they don't really know the exact details of how funding works.

Just as a note to everyone: if you want to save the pdf of your reviewer comments, you can't just save it as a PDF for some reason (it is as a .do file, whatever that is). Or at least I can't. Simple fix: Just Print-->Save to PDF ...This may seem like common sense to a lot of people (sorry if so), but i just wanted to put this out there in case anyone else was confused but wanted to save a copy of their comments.

Yeah, I didn't get it either, which quite frankly I definitely expected. I thought my project was good, but my proposal definitely wasn't cohesive...I've never done something like this before, as I'm a senior undergrad. On the plus side, I got a lot of really great reviews (which actually surprised me) and they all seemed to think my project idea was good (if not fully put together)! A bit of a mixed bag on what the three reviewers thought about my broader impacts/outreach for my personal statement. I don't have a lot of traditional teaching experience, but have done an outreach internship and worked as a program leader for my university's stranding program, but some reviewers didn't seem to think that was enough. Ah well. That's certainly something I can work on this summer and while I'm in grad school with my TAship and all. All in all, I'm pleased with the reviews I got back, and definitely eager to redefine my focus once I'm at grad school and hopefully get 2 more chances to apply for it again! Just for reference: VG/VG, VG/G, VG/VG (Geosciences-Marine Biology)

It's crazy! ...Though I really need to get off this thread and back to studying for my exam tomorrow without distractions.

It's down now!

Thanks! Congrats to you too on your acceptance! I'm still waiting a bit on funding too before I accept the offer at UNF. It comes with a paid TAship ($12000/yr) and partial tuition waiver, but I'm also up for another graduate scholarship from the school that would probably cover the rest. In all honesty, I'll probably take the offer either way because the research seems too good to pass up (studying hammerhead reproductive biology through the use of hormones), but I do want to wait to see just what the full package will be.

This is one of the few times I can appreciate the 6 hour time difference between Hawaii and the east coast. When the results come out at 2 - 3 am EST, it'll still be 20:00 or 21:00 on Monday here. (EDIT: or whenever the results come out. Still trying to not get my hopes up that it will be tonight)