juiceboxrampage

Hmm, I took my laundry home to wash it... But I would take it home and wash it myself! The laundry machines in my dorm were stupid expensive, they broke all the time, and people would often steal your clothes or take them out mid-cycle and leave them sopping wet in the middle of the dirty floor. Since I went home often anyways (my parents lived very close to campus), it was easier to just do my laundry at home without the hassle.

I've called a few schools and they didn't ask me for my name or anything. I just asked when they're sending out notifications, they quickly told me the date, I said thanks, and we hung up. If you tell them your name and your application number, yeah they'll look you up personally, but you don't need to if you just want to know when you'll get an email. I think the stigma is because they're so busy, and it's probably annoying having a million students calling asking for updates? Especially if a professor has no control over the departmental stuff that determines when notifications get sent out.

I don't know much about them, sorry. If you google maps "Boulder CO", follow 36 / Denver Boulder Turnpike south to I-25 / 87, which then takes you to Denver. You can look at all the different towns around the highways and maybe look them up individually?

I personally like calling the department or the graduate coordinator and just asking when they're sending out notifications. They can tell you the date that they're letting everyone know and you don't have to worry about having your name being attached to it.

Does anyone know if there are any housing co-ops or collectives in Stony Brook? Any political activism / anarchist / feminist / LGBTQ stuff going on in the area? Edit: Also, is it bike friendly?

Yay, I just got an acceptance to Stony Brook's Cultural Analysis and Theory Ph.D. Program with an emphasis in Women's Studies! I got a Teaching Assistanceship for $17,000 a year and I'm nominated for a Graduate Council Fellowship. Edit: I should add that I got an unofficial email from the Director of Graduate Studies for the Women's Studies department, and she said I should be getting a formal letter soon. So other folks who applied to Stony Brook may have a bit of wiggle room for when they'll get their notifications.

Traffic gets pretty horrendous... But that's because they've been doing construction on 36 for what feels like forever. (36 is one of the highways that goes between Boulder and Denver). They're adding an express lane on both sides for buses, high occupancy vehicles (not sure how many people you have to have in a car for it to count, but I'm assuming at least three), and tolled single/low occupancy vehicles. For now, traffic is worse. But within a year or two, it'll probably be a bit better. I hate driving to Denver during rush hour because it takes 2-3 times as long to get there and I have zero patience when driving in traffic. The buses are faster and easier, in my opinion. I'd recommend either living right next to a BV/BX/BMX bus stop (those are the ones that go straight from Denver to CU Boulder) or trying to plan your schedule so you don't have to drive during rush hour.

I've had those buttons for a while, and I know others who have as well... I don't think it has to do with acceptance. Sorry

I'm going to let my partner pick a city to live in on the east coast and follow him there, then reapply in the fall! I'm sure there will also be a lot of crying and whining and ice cream eating.

I'm bumping this thread because I'm procrastinating doing other work! I went to CU Boulder for my undergraduate degree and I'm still living here. Let me know if you have any questions. Here is some general information about the things people tend to ask about. Diversity: Most Boulderites are fairly liberal and accepting. There's usually a weird line where people are against racism/transphobia/homophobia/etc. in theory, but don't necessarily know how to interact well with actual people of color or LGBTQ people. There's lots of color blind "I see people as people even though all of my friends are straight and white" rhetoric, you know? Boulder is 88% white and I have heard from people of color that it can be pretty alienating. Boulder is very LGBTQ friendly. There's lots of LGBTQ resource centers, events, and groups, but obviously anywhere you live there will be discrimination. Boulder is one of the most active and most fit cities in the country. The average Boulderite is pretty fit, and it's uncommon to see obese people here. I've heard that it can be difficult being overweight in Boulder because everyone is expected to be very active and healthy. Transportation: You do not need a car in Boulder. The city is extremely bike friendly -- there are a ton of bike paths, super wide sidewalks, bike lanes in the street, AND now you can legally bike in any road (though cars are not used to this yet and will yell at you if you take up a whole lane). The bus system is pretty good and almost every bus stops on campus. All students at CU get free RTD passes, too, so you get free public transport in all of Colorado. You can also just walk. Even when we have three feet of snow out, you can see people walking and biking around. If you're going to CU but don't want to live in Boulder, you can live in one of the cities along Highway 36. There's a bus that goes between Denver and Boulder that stops at almost every exit along 36, so you can still bus to class. Housing: Housing is really expensive in Boulder, especially if you want to live close to campus. Boulder has dumb zoning laws that only allow three unrelated people to live in a house, which makes it super difficult to negotiate cheap housing. I personally live in a co-op and think it's fantastic. There are only three legal co-ops in Boulder (you can look them up by googling "Boulder Housing Coalition"), but there are tons of illegal ones (only illegal because they're violating zoning laws). Each one has a different purpose. Some co-ops are more family friendly, some are just people who want cheap rent, some are focused on political activism, some are focused on producing most of their own food, some are focused on creating and displaying art and music... Please PM me if you want information on these houses. You can also search craigslist and look for key phrases like "cooperative living", "co-op", "community", etc. If you want cheap housing and you don't want to live in a co-op, your best bet is to share a room with someone, violate the zoning laws by cramming more people into a smaller space, or live outside of Boulder. Things to do: Most folks love Boulder because of all the outdoorsy and active things to do. We have bike paths everywhere, we're right at the base of the foothills so you can go hiking, you can drive up the canyon to go rock climbing or inner tubing, you can go snowboarding or skiing, and there's climbing gyms and yoga studios everywhere. There is also free yoga everyday at Prana, which is awesome! Like I said before, even when it's blizzarding out, everyone still goes running and biking. If you're into the co-op scene, we have tons of events all of the time. Each of the co-ops usually hosts at least one event a month. Here's some of the events that go on, and they're all free: art shows, concerts, poetry nights, open-mics, anti-oppression trainings, life skills and relationship trainings, language classes, community meals, LGBTQ dinners, game nights, clothing swaps, food/drink/beer making classes, and a million more. My life kind of revolves around the co-ops, so I don't know much about other things in the city like bars or anything, but let me know if you have any specific questions and I'll try to help. Weather: Colorado gets something like 300 days of sun a year. It does snow in the winter, and we usually get a big blizzard every other year or so, but it doesn't stay cold like it does in other places. It'll snow one day, but get back up to 50 or 60 degrees the next day. It's lovely. Culture: The general caricature of the Boulderite is the "trustafarian" -- the hippie version of a trust fund baby. There's a blog that makes fun of the white women in Boulder: stayoutofmynamastespace.com . It's not a super accurate view of the average Boulderite, but it shows an extreme version of the rich hippie culture here. We do have legal weed here, but it was normal to smoke weed in Boulder before weed became legal. It's more expensive to buy from a shop than it is to buy from a dealer. It's not at all a big deal here. People will glare at you and make comments if you're smoking cigarettes (nicotine is banned on campus, as well), but no one really cares if you smoke weed. Like I said before, people are really active. If you want to hang out with someone, they'll probably ask you to go climbing, go to yoga, go on a bike ride, go on a hike, or something like that together. A lot of women here don't wear make-up, have short hair, don't shave their legs or armpits, etc. You'll get more judgment for this on campus than you will in the city, but it's not a big deal here if you're not feminine. There definitely is a large population of 'normal' people, and there are a lot of fraternity/sorority type folks. I just hang out with other dirty hippies so I have more to say about them. Overall I think most people are very nice, accepting, open-minded, liberal, and pretty chill. I love Boulder. I tried to include some negative things to give people who may be in a minority/oppressed group a realistic image of what they might have to deal with, but I think Boulder is a wonderful place to live.

Good news: I finally got a hold of Michigan!! Bad news: They are not going to send out notifications until early next week, since they're waiting on funding approvals. Yay even more waiting... Edit: Ah, you beat me to it! I should have checked this thread before I called.

Congrats to everyone who got accepted to CU! I went there for my undergrad degree, so feel free to ask me questions about professors or the department or anything. I'll also be posting in the city guide about Boulder.

I've tried calling several times but the graduate coordinator at Michigan is not answering. I have to go to work now, so I can't call anymore. Sorry! It'd be great if someone else could try in a little while, though let's be sure not to flood them with calls, since I know a ton of us applied to Michigan. Wishing you all the best!

I just called them, but the graduate coordinator is at lunch. Ugh! I'll have updates in an hour or so, hopefully. I think they're so delayed because Michigan had a blizzard over the weekend.

I called Penn for y'all even though I didn't apply there. It seemed less scary than calling somewhere I did apply, haha. They directed me to Audra, the graduate coordinator, and she said you should be notified mid-February, no later than the beginning of March. Update: Ann Arbor is closed today due to weather! Boo. So I'm assuming notifications will not go out today.

Ooh the new and prospective students page at Wolverine Access (for the University of Michigan) is down right now! I'm going to overanalyze this and assume that means results will be posted very soon. I'm almost 100% positive I'm not going to get in, but it's still been fun going back and forth between email, gradcafe, and Wolverine. Edit: Okay so apparently it's just "scheduled maintenance" but I can still dream that the whole world revolves around sociology PhD programs

I spend $50 a month on food. I live in a co-op, so we bulk order and share our staples (flour, rice, lentils, etc.), which keeps the cost super low. We get all of our produce and specialty stuff from dumpster diving, which is obviously free. We'll go two or three times a week. Since stores in my area compost everything, they just have compost bins full of produce. Most places will throw stuff out if it has small cosmetic blemishes (like a little bruise on an apple) and Walmart just throws out tons of PERFECT food for seemingly no reason. We're not digging through trash -- you just open up a compost bin and it's full of fresh fruits and veggies that you can just throw in a bag and take home. We also get bags of bagels from bagel places, those prepackaged meals/snacks from Starbucks, and other random "expired" goodies like cheeses and drinks from grocery stores.

My parents are trying to be supportive as the rejections start to roll in by denying all logic. "Don't get too down on that rejection! They could always change their minds and accept you later!" "Just because some strangers on the internet said all the acceptances went out last week doesn't mean you're rejected. You shouldn't believe everything you read online! I'm sure you'll get in!" "Well, if you just got an email, that's not official. Just wait -- maybe you'll get an acceptance letter in the mail." "Yes, my old coworker's sister's daughter's friend applied to grad school, and I think I remember her saying to wait for an official letter in the mail."

This is the cyclical thought process I get myself into: If I couldn't get into Santa Barbara, there's no way I'll get into Michigan because it's higher ranked. If I couldn't get into Emory, there's so way I'll get into Stony Brook because apparently I'm not qualified for Women's Studies. And if I couldn't get into those schools, there's no way I'll get into my last school, Santa Cruz, since I've been rejected everywhere else and thus am obviously unworthy of grad school.

Boo, I got rejected as well. I'm starting to freak out a bit here. Considering I'm a much worse fit for Michigan, I'm going to assume I'll be rejected there as well. That only leaves two schools left.

Yeah, it's hard to play the waiting game right now. We could wind up ANYWHERE in the country right now! And he has to put his career on hold because he has no idea where we're going to wind up. I'm glad you and your partner are working things out! Wow, that's encouraging to hear. My partner hiked the Pacific Crest Trail last year (as in he walked from Mexico to Canada), so we did the long distance thing for several months. I feel like we handled it pretty well, but 4-6 years for a PhD is a lot different than 4-6 months for a hiking trip! I do remember at my undergrad graduation, there was a PhD student graduating whose partner had been living in another country the whole time. His partner was at graduation and they looked so incredibly happy together. It was cool to see. Yes I think my partner is jumping the gun a little on where he thinks he wants to live, but that may just me hoping for the best! I hope things work out for you two. Probably the same thing! I mean we don't fight about it at all. I don't think this is going to end our relationship because we can't handle the strain. We are super supportive and loving about it, but we just have different opinions about where we want to live. I think our issue right now is the fact that we're so young and we haven't been dating for THAT long. So neither of us wants to give up our dreams for such a recent partner at our age, because that feels weird and unhealthy. I think it's a different story for folks who have been dating longer or who are married -- there's that expectation of a commitment there. Right now, my partner and I are trying to decide if we want to change our life dreams and goals for each other, which is hard. The commitment feels a bit forced and rushed rather than chosen.

I've had the same school-related nightmares since I was a kid. In them, it's always near the end of the semester and I suddenly remember that I haven't been going to one of my classes. I have to beg the teacher/professor to not fail me and to let me take extra credit. Sometimes when I go in to talk to the professor, I walk into an exam and am forced to take it, even though I don't know any of the material because I haven't been going to class. Wow, you know, I just realized that my nightmare is what a lot of college kids actually do every semester. Except I always forget about the class in my dreams, and I'm sure a lot of people just choose not to go. Crazy.

I applied to five PhD programs. I backed out of a few at the end because I wasn't super stoked on the program, area, school, etc. I'm kind of kicking myself now, seeing other people getting accepted to the schools that I decided not to apply to. I've had to remind myself numerous times that, no, I actually do NOT want to live in Minnesota or Texas, even if it would make me feel better right now to have a better shot of getting in somewhere.

I hate how my partner and I have such conflicting interests right now. I want to go to grad school in California. He wants to move to the east coast. If I get into my dream schools, he's stuck living in an area he hates. If I don't get in anywhere, he gets to pick where we live and we get to follow his dream. My worst case scenerio is his best case scenerio, and vice versa. I can feel him trying to be oversupportive when I talk about my dream schools. And he can tell that I'm trying to cushion the blow of being potentially rejected by reaffirming that it's better for him. We're just in this weird phase where we're both like, "No, sweetie, let's do the thing YOU want to do. I'm so stoked for you even though it sucks for me. No, really, this isn't my own personal hell on earth, because I'm just so selfless and happy for you." I feel like me going to grad school might end in us splitting up, which would be a real bummer. And I feel overdramatic talking about it, because it's not like at age 22 I think I'm going to marry this guy I've been dating for only a year, but it still sucks.

I have a crazy family, too. Good for you for continuing your education and doing what's best for you. In my experience, unsupportive people will be unsupportive no matter what you do, so you might as well take care of yourself.