angel_kaye13

If you're coming to Oxford, join the Meet and Greet thread here!

I was a visiting student at Oxford in 07/08 and am going back for 2010-2011. Oxford is a lovely, lovely city to live in; I've never been anywhere more beautiful.

It's incredibly easy to get the bus or train into London. There are 2 major buses that run every hour (the Oxford Tube and the Oxford Express). Both have discounted student rates. The train station is within walking distance if you're at Oxford and if you book in advance online you can get really great deals.

There's loads of stuff to do. I can't speak for Brookes but there are a surprising amount of societies and organizations to get involved with (Oxford Union especially) as well as a ton of cultural events, ethnic restaurants, music venues, a few clubs, lots of pubs, etc. There are a handful of museums, a botanical garden, gorgeous parks and countless university events. And you're never more than a bus or train ride away from London if you really want to live it up.

I'm looking into 1 bedroom apartments and the going rate is about 700-750 GBP/month. I'll be living with my husband so this isn't really that bad per person. I'm sure you could find much cheaper housing if you looked for roommates. As for London, it really depends on the area. My husband lived in south London (45 minute commute into central London) and paid 450GBP/month for a room in a shared apartment.

What universities are you looking at? If you have any more questions about Oxford or moving to the UK in general (banking, cell phones, etc.) feel free to ask .

We have a bunch of cacti in the house including an aloe vera and they are fine. Orchids seem to do well indoors and bloom nonstop which add a fun pop of colour (you have to give it some ice cubes from time to time though, but otherwise very low maintenance).

I love tillandsias (commonly called air plants) for indoors and they are pretty hardy if they get light.  In particular, I've never even seen my xerographicas (giant air plants) so much as flinch, even when I have to travel for work a few weeks at a time and forget to have someone water them.  Plus, they are strangely adorable.

This is the best houseplant care blog that I know of: http://houseplants-care.blogspot.com/. The amount of light in your apartment is by far the most important criterion. If you click on the lighting guide link on the left, you can see the types of plants that are likely to do well in your place. My favourites are zz plants and aloe veras, both of which were low-fuss and thrived in my Toronto apartment.

I really like oxalis plants. They open during the day and close at night! And they come in purple!

Much to my excitement, I'm moving to a new apartment - one I've got all to myself!
 
I wanted to add some greenery to my space, but I'm fairly clueless when it comes to plants & flowers. What plants would you recommend for (i) a well-intentioned but busy grad student (ii) someone based on the Eastern Seaboard climate (iii) both indoors and on a balcony? 

I know this probably comes a little too late/exam may already be passed. But I always think of the one key advice I received back in my undergrad, when I was studying at Oxford: you can only do SO much. After that, you have to let go and just do your best. I took that home with me, and even now. I appreciate the stress. But utilize that stress into something positive (focused studying, etc), then just let go and do your best.
Also, Test Taken 101 is that, after so much studying, there comes a point (right before the test) that any further study is counterproductive. Though I generally keep running notes until the very last moment, myself.*^^* So. Take that with a grain of salt.^^

Good luck!!

I'm pretty sure at least half of those were mine...

Current salary - may make a difference in any funding you may get, having less money may make for a greater amount/percentage of funding.
Work number - they are looking for as many ways to contact you as possible, no harm in giving it to them, unless you cannot receive calls at your workplace.
 
Neither of these questions should have any impact on their decision.

Not that this will make you feel any better, but I bet that director got reamed, or at least felt like a heel. Either way, I agree with everyone else: that REALLY sucks, and hoping some other program snatched you up. :-)

I prefer "advisor" personally, but I've been known to flip flop arbitrarily.

During last year's application cycle, I made a point of mentioning how wonderful the admin personnel at Washington University in St. Louis were to deal with. Sarah Hennessey in particular, who is/was the academic coordinator, was very friendly, efficient and quick to respond.
 
The reason for this post, however, is that I just received an email from their DGS, kindly talking about the strengths of my application, and a couple of things I could do to improve it for the next cycle, if I didn't wind up getting in to any programs this time around. I'm very impressed. Perhaps it's just a quirk of my temperament, but motions like that -- personalized emails that didn't have to be sent -- are major selling points for me. It's one of the reasons why I'm very happy at UMD (they stress a congenial collegiate atmosphere), and is one of the reasons why, when I reapply to Ph.D. programs next year, I will include WashU in my plans once again.
 
 

I think I.S can have some benefits actually.. That little (LITTLE) bit of insecurity can act as a fuel to keep pushing us to do better, revise, improve, rewrite - whatever. And it helps keep us modest and thereby open to other people's ideas and thoughts. I think having that little insecure voice in the back (very back) of our minds can act to prevent us from becoming over-confident and arrogant.

I think pretty much every grad student gets them at some point or another. Mine seem to come and go, depending on how well my research is going. I think it's more just getting used to them being there, and telling yourself that all you can do is your best.

We used to have a huge thread sticked on Imposter Syndrome over on the PhD Comics graduate forum, but it's since been taken down due to hackers and spam, sadly.

You're basically going to have to either expand a class essay or write a sample from scratch. Creative writing won't be of interest to a Masters program since they are interested in your analytic skills as well as your ability to write. 

Edit: whoops cross post

Yeah, same.  I'm stoked/nervous.  It's gonna kick my ass, but it'll build character.  Or something.
 
 
Verbum.  

I'm refreshing myself on Latin (on my own) this summer as well. Latinists unite!

I don't think that's really true. Based on my experience, graduate students certainly have time to date. 75% of students in my department are in a relationship right now. 25% of students in the department were already in relationships prior to graduate school, so perhaps a better metric is that 50% of students started their current relationship after graduate school started. Or, if you only count the students who were single upon entering graduate school (presumably those already in relationships were not looking) then 67% of incoming single students started a relationship after graduate school began.
 
Overall, surveys of the entire campus show that about 40% of graduate students are in a relationship. 
 
I do think that graduate school does make some aspects of dating more difficult. For example, some people choose not to start relationships because they are close to graduation and will be leaving soon. Or, some people find it harder to meet people with similar interests because if you don't make an effort, grad school can be really insular and you only ever see people in your department. However, these challenges are not unique to graduate school. Well, maybe academics do move around more than other professions, but the insular thing is true for many other careers and professions too. 
 
A very common solution to the "it's hard to meet new people when you're in grad school" problem is to use online dating. A lot of my friends and colleagues met their SOs this way!

That's what I'm doing.~^^ Yay, Latin!^^

It may seem silly, but I've been "out of the game" for so many years, it's been refreshing getting to ease myself into the coming Fall. And, by "ease" I mean I am dying a slow death by Latin. But it's an awesome way to go. ;-)

I hope you all are having as fine a time in your respective summer courses, one week in!^^

Just curious -- are any of you newly admitted graduate students planning on taking a summer course or two to help get in the swing of things? The reason I ask is because I've registered to take a graduate course at UMD that starts on June 1st. I checked with the department coordinator to make sure it was fine for me to do so, and it seems to be fine (pending a tuition remission question, but that's beside the point)...but will anyone else be doing the same thing?
 
 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm going to take an intensive language course this summer to buff up on my Latin.  My program just started offering admission to the University's summer language programs for free for incoming students and I'm hoping to take advantage of that option.
 
I feel like it'll be a good way to get used to being in school again, get a head start on language study (I want to leave grad school with at least reading fluency in two foreign languages), and get a feel for my new campus/city.

Oh my god. My jaw literally dropped when I read that. THIS IS COLLEGE. YOU DO NOT GET AN "A FOR EFFORT" IN COLLEGE. It's not kindergarten, it's not Snugglenet University. I mean really. It's not the professors' job to cuddle these folks and help them coast.

Then again, as an undergrad I worked as a writing coach and I truly could not believe how some of the folks I helped even managed to be admitted - or why they wanted to be admitted in the first place! People who put in no effort, don't try, don't even want to try.... *head explodes *

I'm sure some others have seen this in yesterday's NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/education/18college.html

An excerpt:

Nearly two-thirds of the students surveyed said that if they explained to a professor that they were trying hard, that should be taken into account in their grade.

Jason Greenwood, a senior kinesiology major at the University of Maryland echoed that view.

Based on personal experience (which I'm sure you'll find in other threads here), I offer advice similar to the above posters: Keep in tune with your emotional well-being.  You will be very motivated going directly into graduate school and you might feel compelled to jump into your studies full force, wanting to, perhaps, stay ahead, to understand the topics early on.  Be careful with this method.  As the above poster said: take baby steps, pace yourself.  Keep any budding obsession with classes and grades in check.  You want to do well in classes, but they are absolutely secondary in graduate school.  Meet colleagues, get to know them, find ways you can help them with their own studies.  You'll help yourself through helping them.  Also, they will find you to be a helpful person and will exchange their own time and assistance if they're decent people.

This one's a real thinker:
 
 
BU, Economics PhD; Rejected:
"I bought a watch last year."
 
 
How... cryptic. I'm not sure exactly how that relates, but deep down I know it does.