juiceboxrampage

I mean, there's pros and cons to both situations. I think one thing you might "miss out on" is the learning experiences from having roommates. I've found that having roommates has helped me with learning how to compromise, how to deal with shitty people, how to communicate effectively, and how to set boundaries. It was a lot easier for me to start living with my partner, because I had already figured out how to live with other people, so we weren't fighting about stupid little things like most people do when they first have to live with someone else. I also feel like I've had a lot of those cheesy, fun moments that I can look back on when I'm older. Whatever you decide doesn't have to be permanent, either. You can move in with someone for a semester or two, then get your own place if you don't like it (or vice versa).

I've already heard back from all of my programs and I'm still obsessively checking my email. It's a bad habit now. I thought once I had heard back, my life would go back to normal, but now I'm anxiously awaiting responses from professors, updates on an old journal submission, etc. It's pretty sad.

My university has a lot of those chairs that are all glued together in a row, so if one person jiggles, the entire row jiggles. In one of my classes a guy shook his leg so hard that I was literally bouncing up and down in my seat. Can I point out how much I love that all of our pet peeves are about people interrupting our studies? I feel like a lot of non-academics would be complaining about very, very different things.

Honestly, I find the pre-revocation acceptance responses more cringey and sad. "I can't believe I got into my top choice with only 140 Quant and a 2.5 GPA! Wow!" (Not a direct quote cos I just feel too bad.) My heart is hurting for all of them. I can't even imagine having to go through that.

Seriously, how does that even happen at one of the top computer science progams in the country? It's so ironic and horrible. I am deeply sorry you (and everyone else that applied) had to go through that.

There's a specific section on backpage for "focus group/studies", and I've also seen people post surveys under the "miscellaneous" section. You can also post it on craigslist. You can post it under a bunch of different major cities in the U.S. 99% of the surveys I've seen on these websites are unpaid, so I feel like any sort of monetary incentive will vastly increase your chances of getting folks to participate. Maybe you can see how much money you can get, and then decide how many people you want to interview, and then divide it out? That's what I did for my thesis. You can say in your ad something like "first 10 participants get a $5 gift card", so you don't have to pay out of pocket if an unexpectedly large number of people complete the survey.

The thing is, according to this site's results page, other applicants got a three year grant AND two years of TAing. So I feel like if they wanted me to TA, they would have given me a TA position. I did email the graduate coordinator, but she hasn't gotten back to me yet. I guess I'll find out soon what the deal is.

I live in a huge co-op and I love it. I can't imagine living alone now. It's kind of hectic at first, but I love being able to have privacy and alone time in my room if I want, or I can just walk into my living room if I want to hang out. There's always someone around if I want someone to study with, someone to eat with, someone to talk to, whatever. I am actually an extremely quiet and reserved person, but I love having so many roommates. We learn to have alone time together, you know? Plus I live in a very active and political house, which really inspires me and pushes me to be a better person.

Thank you so much for sharing! It's great to hear that it worked out for you. May I ask when you started applying for external funding? Did you just apply the semester before you knew you'd need it? Was it stressful balancing coursework/research with applying to grants? I had no idea that I wouldn't have to pay full tuition later on. That's very helpful to know -- I was freaking out a bit over the possibility of having to pay tens of thousands of dollars.

Thanks for your responses, everyone! I am definitely planning on contacting UCSC about this, I just wanted to get an outside perspective. I've seen posts in the past where folks were adamant about not accepting an unfunded offer. I wasn't sure if a partial funding offer was as taboo.

Hello all, I was recently accepted to UC Santa Cruz's sociology department and I was offered a three year fellowship. Does anyone have any experience with such a short period of funding? I have a zillion questions, so if you can even just offer insights into one of them (or just give your personal opinion), that'd be great! Is it unrealistic to hope that I can get some other sort of funding after three years? How common is it that if I do well in the program, the school and/or department will give me extra funding or a tuition waiver down the line? Or will I only be able to find external funding? Will I be considered an in-state student after three years, and thus be eligible for an in-state tuition waiver (or at least the lower cost of in-state tuition if I'm stuck footing the bill)? I've heard of people asking departments for more money, but I haven't heard of anyone asking for more years of money. Is it possible to ask them to extend the fellowship to four or five years? Thanks a ton!

Yay yay yay I got into Santa Cruz!! I got an unofficial email a few hours ago. They gave me a Chancellor's Fellowship with guaranteed funding for three years, but haven't yet told me exactly how much money I'll get. Let me know if you have any questions! In years past it seems like they've trickled out acceptances all the way into March, so no worries if you don't hear today. Edit: I'd love to talk to other folks who got in about funding and things. Pm me please!

Off campus. I'm talking about LGBTQ folks forming an intentional living space where everyone is either LGBTQ or a very committed ally. I think I know what you're trying to say with the last part of your sentence? But LGBTQ friendly housing is not a given anywhere.

I've been in contact with some LGBTQ graduate students at Stony Brook and we're discussing starting a co-op, or at least an LGBTQ friendly house! PM me if you want to be involved

Most of the things I wish I had done differently were from way back in the day as a young undergrad. The things I messed up on during the actual admissions cycle were due to lack of energy/concentration (following a huge life disaster), so I'm not sure I would have been able to do them differently even if I wanted to. Here's my advice: 1. Do an honors thesis, or some other form of research. I feel so much more prepared and qualified having done my own independent research study, and I'm sure my applications reflected that. It was also a great way for me to get to know professors, since I'm incredibly socially awkward and had the hardest time just popping in for office hours. 2. Find a way to talk to professors high up on the totem pole. I personally hate how much reputation is valued in academia, but it's the way things are. When I was trying to find LORs, I realized all of the professors I was in contact with were actually only lecturers or assistant professors or whatever. One of my LORs did not want to write a letter for me because he thought his lack of prestige would hurt my profile. Obviously it's better to have ties with an assistant professor in your field than some famous tenured professor who knows nothing about your topic, but still. 3. Try to get published and go to conferences. It was only after I applied that I found out these things are expected nowadays. I didn't even know conferences were a thing that undergrads could and should go to. 4. Start looking at schools' requirements early. I had zero idea that I needed to know a language, for example, and now I'm scrambling to learn one. 5. Read posts on thegradcafe. Congratulations, you're already doing it! I found this website after I applied. I pretty much went through the whole application process alone. I got a little bit of guidance from a few professors, but honestly they didn't give me much specific, constructive advice. If you're here, you have access to so much knowledge and advice about what you can do to improve your application. 6. Be honest, both with programs and with yourself. Even though I have pretty stellar numbers (4.0 GPA, great GRE scores), I've been rejected from most of the schools I applied to. I applied to programs and schools I wasn't a great cultural or research fit with, just because I felt like I "should" have. I was more concerned about being a good student than about finding a program that suited ME. I think I included just enough of my weird interests to turn away the more mainstream folks, but not enough to really engage the other weirdos who would want to work with me. I wish I would have trusted myself more and just gone for it, instead of being wishy-washy and trying to force myself into a mold that I clearly do not fit. I would advise that you write truthfully, because even if you're more likely to get into a program with a fake/generic SOP (which you're not), you'll probably hate the program once you get there. 7. Be gentle with yourself. Despite the things I listed here that I messed up on, I think my biggest hindrance was out of my control. Your self worth is not tied to how many programs you get accepted to, or how prestigious your school is. Things will work themselves out.

Bringing this thread to 2015! I'm already making lists and spreadsheets of things I want because planning is just way too much fun for me. Future students, what are you getting? Current students, what do we need that hasn't been covered yet? I'm down to discuss how to obtain everything as cheaply as possible. I tend to get my software through certain free methods. I make my own wall planners/schedulers by just drawing a little calendar on butcher paper. Whenever a business has free pens that have their logo on it, I take them (and scratch off the logo when I'm bored in class). One thing that is immensely helpful to me, as someone conducting interviews that I have to transcribe, is Dragon software. It's the software that "learns" your voice, so it transcribes your speaking into text. Instead of typing out my interviews, I listened to them through my headphones and then restated it into a microphone, which Dragon transcribed into text. It was SO much faster than typing. When I type, I have to pause every few words or so because I start to forget or I can't type fast enough. When I talk, I only have to pause every once in a while, like if my interviewer talked too fast or said something weird. I'd highly recommend it.

Can I just do a gif instead of a song? Pasteltomato's letter was hilarious so I figure maybe a little bit of thread derailing is okay? When people with lower GPAs / GRE scores are posting about their acceptances to a school you just got rejected from:

I'd start looking ASAP since students are already signing leases (as in most/all college towns, I'm assuming). With that sort of budget, you can find a pretty nice one bedroom apartment. You can look at craigslist, obviously, and CU has an off-campus housing listing, though it's pretty small. Boulder/Denver (and all the surrounding areas) also has a free housing search service calling Housing Helpers. You can call or email them, tell them what you want (i.e. how many bedrooms, price, location, etc.) and they'll send you a list of different places. They can also schedule showings for you if you're in the area. In my experience, they haven't been pushy about trying to make you get on a lease, and like I said, it's completely free. I don't know how I forgot to mention this before. It's super helpful!! Edit with links for the lazy: Craigslist: http://boulder.craigslist.org/search/hhh CU's housing listing (called Ralphie's List): https://ralphieslist.colorado.edu/ Housing Helpers: http://www.housinghelpers.com/

Ah, see I've lived in Colorado my entire life, so I'm one of those locals that apparently doesn't have much of a basis of comparison for traffic. You are right that the bus pass isn't "free". You get a huge discount than if you were buying one directly from RTD, though.

The response I've gotten from people when I told them I was accepted to Stony Brook have either been: "...where is that? I've never heard of it." Or "Oh my gosh New York City will be so much fun and crazy!"

I sent an email saying thank you, I'm still waiting to hear back from some other schools, but I'm really excited at the offer. They understand that most students need some time, so as long as you don't flat out say that you're accepting their offer, they'll probably understand. I think it's good to show some appreciation -- they picked you out of a ton of other applicants and probably spent a lot of time talking about how you can fit into the program. Congratulations, by the way!

I just told my work that I got accepted. They all knew that I was applying to schools (even before I was hired) so I didn't think it'd be a big deal. Now my manager is kind of freaking out and talking about putting up ads to find my replacement, even though I'm not planning on leaving for months. I think part of that has to do with my uncertainty around when I'm leaving. They seem to be interpreting "I don't have an exact date yet, but it won't be until summer, and I will give you at least one month's notice" as "I'm going to peace out whenever I feel like it." I agree that it's better to keep them in the loop, but be careful. I wish I had waited until I had a more clear idea of what my plans are before I told them. The management at my job is very laid back and we're all very friendly, so it may be even more prudent to hold off if you have strict or unfriendly bosses.

One semester, I had a class with a guy who would always eat an orange. But he wouldn't peel it into slices and eat it like a normal human being. He peeled the skin off, left the orange held together as a ball, and then would try to take bites out of the entire thing. Even five rows away you'd get hit with some juice droplets and all you could hear was SLURP lip smack SLURP SLURP. I wanted to kill him.

Thanks a ton! I'm sending good vibes to all of you!

I always expected I would feel like a "real" adult once I got to this stage. I thought I'd feel so confident, mature, and successful once I had my college degree and starting working to become a fancy-pants doctor. Nope. I still feel like a little kid, I'm just giving myself more responsibilities. The whole application process has been completely surprising. I only applied to one school for undergrad and I had guaranteed acceptance (since I was in-state and had a high GPA/ACT scores). So this is my first time having to actually try to write good essays, waiting to hear back, dealing with the possibility of not getting in anywhere, sitting by my phone and computer all anxious... It's been crazy! Folks who went through this process for undergrad, is it easier going through it again? Harder? Is applying for grad school just so different that it's hard to compare?