sjoh197

Also... just for fun... unless I am instructed otherwise by my advise-y people, I would like to take Igneous Petrology, Thermochronology, and either Geochemistry or Igneous Petrogenisis&Plate Tectonics this semester. Not that that really means anything to anyone else... but it's nice to at least type it out loud.

My program has the basic requirements set up... but most of the course structures are at the discretion of your advising committee. Out of my 54 hours, I have to take a min of 24 "class" credits, 3 classes of which must be selected from 4 different categories. 6 credits of dissertation, and the other 24 hours are any combo of classes, independent study, or research. While my PI definitely does what I want to do... the uni is very oil-heavy in my field, and I'm not going into oil. So my options are definitely pared down comparatively. And when you say you couldn't find the listing, did you mean like a schedule listing... or just a catalog listing... because this is the catalog listing http://catalog.mit.edu/subjects/6/

Well, it's almost May and I still haven't heard anything from my department. It would be nice to register and stuff, but I haven't heard from anything from the advising staff like I am supposed to. I'm hoping that May will be the month for me....because I will likely explode by June.

I don't start until august, and have had the last year off... but I am so glad that I already have furniture, and a stable relationship, and live off campus.

Maybe try down in the medical section?

Usually I feel ok... especially if I'm not alone. But I have often had men follow me saying provocative or just downright disturbing things at me. Creepy guys staring at me on the train and asking me to dance, or commenting on my clothing. Some of them are nice, some of them are not. And I have never walked alone at night. So if they follow me in broad daylight... I can only imagine what they would do at night. I'm actually rather concerned about what I am going to do getting to the university. The train goes there, but I have to get off downtown and board another train. Not something I want to do at nighttime. Just not sure yet. I have spent countless nights in the "wilderness". Bears coming into camp, cougar country, bobcats, having a grizzly charging uphill towards our trail.... Never in my time outdoors have I ever felt even remotely the fear that I have being surrounded by these unsavory men.

We are moving in August.... 3 miles down the road lol. The biggest problem here is that once you find a place near downtown that is also gated/has closed parking... you suddenly hit the "luxury" market, with hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, etc. We finally found a place in a nicer part of town, with regular carpet, laminate counters, and white appliances. We'll only be saving about $200 a month, but we'll be going from 649 sqft to 816sqft. I have been followed home from the train by strange men on many occasions and refuse to live near downtown in a place that isn't locked or gated. It is such a relief to get to the front door of my complex and know that my fob key lets me in and keeps them out. They can't even follow to see which apartment I live in. But you really pay for it.

I don't know if you've already picked out your mattress and stuff...but if you haven't... If I can't find the furniture I want on amazon prime, I usually look at wayfair.com. They have free shipping on almost all their furniture (I think it's everything over $50) and they have some good mattresses. They take a little longer to ship on some things, but have an awesome return policy (basically will take anything back/ replace anything that is broken... no questions asked) We had a metal bed frame come in a week, a chair that came in a few days, and a couch that took 3 weeks, but it was a particular couch and it was really large so it had to be special delivered, not in a box.

Lol. That's how I feel every day... and I've been down here for years now. I can't wait to just move somewhere in the middle

Our pre-hurricane rush was always pretty terrible. I once went in to get something a solid 3-4 days before the hurricane was supposed to hit.... Walmart, WALMART was empty. No jugged water, no milk, no bread, no cans. Nothing. The only thing left was the soft produce. Also... all of the gas stations were closed because there was no more gas. They literally ran out of gas because everyone stockpiled for their generators. I always keep extra rice, chickpeas, canned veggies, and like a couple cans of chicken. Stuff like that keeps for a really long time. Now that we've moved, if a decent hurricane were to hit houston, we would likely evacuate rather than stay. It floods here too badly.

I know its not helpful to you... but I find that I will never even look at an apartment without going onto apartmentratings.com and google reviews. I have found places that look great until I read the reviews. Granted... most people will only post complaints, not compliments, but if every review say it has roaches, it probably has roaches.

Ugh... the nerd shirts. I could never bring myself to don the "Geology Rocks!" or "Gneiss going" or any of the other geology puns. However, our department had these t-shirts that were pretty bad. Our building was the Howe-Russell Geo-Building. And there was a t-shirt with an old black and white photo of Dr. Howe with these photoshopped on sunglasses and hat.. and a quotation of him asking "Howe you doin?".

No, no... You gotta read a couple posts above.

I could help you get that bad taste out faster with some chocolate peanut butter lasagna.

My father and I are doing a 37 mile hike over the salkantay pass into machu picchu. We'll be over 15000 ft for part of it. The chocolate peanut butter lasagna is super duper easy to make. Make a pan of brownies, then cut it up and lay it in the base of a 13*9 pan. Then mix 1 block of cream cheese with about 2/3 cup of peanut butter and some cool whip to make it more spreadable. Put that over the brownies. Then mix a small box of instant chocolate pudding, then put that on top. Cover in left over cool whip, or whipped cream, and then sprinkle mini chocolate chips on top. If you want it extra peanut butter, you can mix some peanut butter with the top layer of cool whip too.

Going into a food frenzy today lol. potato salad... check BBQ wings... check bacon wrapped asparagrass... check chocolate peanut butter lasagna... check massive regret due to my upcoming climb... double check

Nope. Radio silence. I haven't heard another word from the department. About anything.

Watched the Lion King last night. I'm sure the neighbors were concerned with the music-like wailing emanating from my apartment. You can't not sing Hakuna Matata

Fun trip. My father wanted to hike to machu picchu and doesn't really have anyone who likes to backpack/camp/crap in the woods (I guess like is a strong word on the last one) So he's been taking me on all his hiking trips. We'll be going over the salkantay pass on a 5 day 37 mile trip. Wouldn't be so bad if it weren't over 15000 ft lol.

So here I am... Bawling my eyes out once again to the only book that has ever made me cry. By far my favorite, and in my opinion, one of the best books I've ever read. If anyone else is looking for a very, very good read...Watership Down by Richard Adams is a book I tell people "read" and then they say "But it sounds weird... Its about rabbits" but then when they read it they agree its one of the best books they've read.

I know that the bathrooms in my old department were kind of few and far between... and the men's and women's were often not near each other. I went into one of the lesser known womens bathrooms late at night, and there was this dude standing in the stall leaning against the wall peeing, no door closed, no nothing. I left... but only to give him his privacy, although with the door open, I have a feeling that he didn't really need it.

Sometimes I think.... magic fairy turn me into a 1/2 black 1/2 native american female lesbian. That would hit all the diversity levels. But then I remember all the bullshit that those groups have to deal with, and feel pretty terrible remembering that I am straight white person with an education.

Good fit often has to do with research interests. Are your research interests a good fit with the current opportunities in your department? That is the question. This could actually make you a better candidate in some senses. You have experienced different areas of your field, gaining usable skill sets from each one, giving you a much better idea of what you truly want to do. Present it as a useful learning experience that will help you in your future research. When I first started doing "research" in undergrad... I was crushing up rocks into powder and centrifuging them. Literally mind numbing work.... but I spun it as teaching me not only valuable lab practices, but also the potential for experimental error far down the line of work... error that one might not consider when looking at "abnormal" results. You can always take the work that you have done and find a way to apply it... especially if it used the similar skill sets that you said it did.

The program I got into typically is about 25% women. In geology there is a decent amount of diversity I guess. Usually the math-less portions of it are where a lot of the women seem to concentrate, and things like geophysics, planetary geo, and quant heavy geochem tend to be more male heavy. I don't really want to see anything about my app. It would just make me nervous and question myself. I guess I'm just confused/frustrated/nervous because I still haven't heard anything about the funding waitlist. And this is from a dept. in which I was told in the past that they don't try to accept people without funding. And I would think especially for PhD? If I'm not good enough for funding, then why the hell did they accept me?

Any non-ghetto apartment near the med center will be much closer to 1000 a month. You can live just outside the 610 loop for that price range, but the drive will be anywhere from 45 min to an hour. There are some decent 2 beds you can get for 1400 ish and share. Estates at Bellaire is one I can think of. Gables citywalk is another. That's anywhere from a 15-25 minute drive. Also... remember that a lot of places here have a pretty decent pet fee per pet, and also pet rent usually $25 each pet. Another thing you could think about is using "park and ride". Houston metro has a park and ride deal, where even though your ride would be a little longer, you would be on a bus that does non-stop service to TMC. Saves the wear and tear on your car, and means you can use that time to relax, read a book, check your emails... whatever. http://www.ridemetro.org/Pages/ParkRide.aspx