MarineBluePsy

I GOT A DISTINCTION ON MY MASTERS and it's thanksgiving break finally. Today is a great day!

stomach still tender from food poisoning. having to make up exam i missed due to said poisoning. thanksgiving break nearing, and I am absolutely out of fucks to give.
I just want to get my motorcycle fixed finally and ride out to hill country. can a guy dream?

I think it's okay to either leave this one blank (since your good scores speak for themselves) or just write one sentence like, "Yes, I believe my records accurately reflect my ability to do graduate work in XX".
Don't attribute it to your hard work and passion because that kind of implies that people without such scores/grades did not work hard and/or did not have passion. The point of this question is specifically for people who might have had life circumstances affecting their scores/grades to give more explanation. So, writing about your hard work and passion here would sound like you are putting down these people. This probably won't reflect well on you because the school wouldn't ask this question if they thought that hard work and passion leads to good scores all the time. 

{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}}  Pink I would have come!  I feel like we're both having the same experience with the class struggles and research going nowhere and being isolated in our departments because of it.  The fact that none of your classmates showed up is telling and no it is not acceptable to just blame it on being busy or forgetful.  We're all busy and have forgetful moments, but out of that many people there were at least a few people that could have put forth the effort to drop by.  What this means is that you'll have to build your support system outside of these people.  It won't be easy and it may take longer, but your classmates are making it pretty clear that they aren't going to be much of a support system for you.
Have you already started making holiday plans?  You can not sit in your apartment by yourself I don't care how clean it is.  I'm guessing you'll go home part of the time and see your mom, but if you can't go home the whole time you need to have things to do that get you out of the house and meeting other people.  Better people.  Maybe a charity project, trying a new hobby, or attending free events?
Is it weird that I'm surprised we're not seeing more eccentric people in our departments?  I think I expected half eccentric and half not because academia attracts all sorts of people, but apparently its a bunch of sameness and one eccentric.  I dig eccentric people, the world needs more of them.

@Neist Departmental eccentrics are the best kind of people. Who else would liven up the place??

I don't think anyone has thought of the best way to address the concerns both of us have raised so far. In my ideal, the goal is not just to put people in a category of various assigned privileges. And I definitely don't think quota-based selection is helpful either (how would it feel to think that you only got hired because you are part of Group X, and how does it feel for your colleagues to treat you that way etc.)
I think one of the better solutions is to have people write diversity statements. This is very similar to what you say in your 2nd paragraph above. You say you want to go beyond "typical diversity factors". The way I see it, it's not that I'm saying we should only consider diversity factors / membership in groups because a candidate/person is more than just this! I wrote what I wrote above in response to the way some people think that we should't include diversity factors at all. I'm not saying we should replace diversity factors with everything else, but to consider an applicant as a whole person---both their background in regards to the skills required for the position as well as their background as a person. 
Finally, "affirmative action" is a vague term and people have different meanings for it, causing many misunderstandings, I think. To me (and to the Canadian laws, I believe) affirmative action just means making evaluations for hiring based on things outside of the technical skills for the job in the interest of promoting fairness in our society. For example, a hiring committee may recognize that women in science face additional challenges due to unconscious bias instead of ignoring gender altogether. Some other people I've talked to think that affirmative action means a company/school must hire/admit X% people who are women (just using gender as one example). I think quotas like this may have some small short term benefits but isn't a sustainable way of creating an equal society in the long run.
There are other hybrid models too, like the "Rooney Rule" in the NFL. Many professional societies in my field have started using variants of the Rooney rule after realising that prizes for "early career" or "late career" achievement tended to go to men way more often than women (more than the fraction of men in the field). So, for prize lectures and annual society prizes, the nomination period is open until X number of women are also nominated. This is meant to combat the problem that people's unconscious bias causes them to think about men as leaders in the field first/more often than women. But, if the committee is conscious about nominating the best men and women, it is less likely to overlook a qualified woman because of unconscious bias. (Note: This isn't like a "quota" since it can still create a scenario where only the nominated men win every year). This is a relatively new practice so I would be interested in seeing how the distribution of awards in some parts of my field change in the next 10-15 years.

Masking race/gender addresses some issues of unconscious bias by the evaluator. Some schools go with this route, at least for the initial screening of applications. This works well at the graduate school level, however, it won't really work as well later on (e.g. postdoc and faculty hires). Most of these positions require detailed information about your research that will reveal your identity.
Also, masking these factors at the time of application doesn't change the fact that one person's lived experience is different than another based on their race, gender, socioeconomic class etc. One example: you have two students and a standard application form that asks for a few stats. Student A has a 3.7 GPA and volunteered in a lab for 10 hours per week during their senior year. Student B has a 3.7 GPA but no research experience. With this information only, you might want to choose Student A over Student B. However, if you ask for more information, you may find out that Student A was get some scholarships from their private high school to fund their university education and had the time and money to volunteer in the lab. Student B, however, needed to work during university to pay for tuition so they didn't have time to volunteer in the lab. They also showed that they applied for undergrad research grants (so they could be a paid researcher) but were not successful, demonstrating they were interested in this pathway. Now, how would you evaluate them? I think it would be unfair to not also consider the background of each student and recognizing that some people have more opportunities than others. 
In my opinion, grad schools shouldn't (and I know that many do not) simply evaluate students on how large their list of achievements are. Instead, schools are looking for certain areas of excellence in academic achievement, research experience, and character traits. This is why it's important to ask applicants for more information and to get the full picture. 
Finally, it is not impossible to suppress implicit bias. In fact, discussing that these biases exist and bringing them to the forefront along with strategies that remove ambiguity in the definition of a "qualification" can reduce the negative effects (e.g. [1], [2]). In my single experience on a hiring/search committee (for a Graduate Dean, not a faculty position), we spent the first 2 meetings with an HR person defining exactly what criteria we will use to evaluate candidates and which factors we will consider before even looking at a single application. I think this helped us a lot.

The challenge is that lotsssss of research shows that intergroup factors influence raters' perceptions of candidates' qualifications. e.g., men get hired for potential but women based on past achievement; equivalent resumes are rated as worse if accompanied by a stereotypically female or African American name. Put another way, there's probably no such thing as an objective assessment of qualifications and it's better to recognize than minimize group differences.

I'm still floating around, and I think I'm getting better at this graduate school thing (yay). I read a book for leisure last night. I feel fancy.
I hope everyone else is doing okay!

Okay, I'd much rather fail a class on my own than have a major group project to do. This is grad school, students don't have enough time to get things done on their own, let alone having to collaborate for a class. I'm so sorry.

I've sort of thrown my hands up at this point. I'm going to do the best I can with the time I'm given. As long as my grade are sufficient enough to maintain funding, I'm not sure if I care all that much. 

I'd just email her telling her that you took her class a couple years ago and let her know what you've done since then (how your interests developed, etc.). If possible maybe try to tie in how taking her class affected your decision. Then let her know you're planning on applying to PhD programs and you'd like to talk to her about her research or whatever else you want. These types of situations probably aren't that uncommon.

i didn't do jack shit today. I have to learn a whole bunch of shit before I can even start, and everyone's busy. reading is starting to become a major drag. damit..

We're only a 1.5 weeks into school, but I genuinely like everyone in my cohort. Really happy about that.

Not sure if this counts as a vent or a self pat on the back -
Currently taking a Data Analytics course online, and getting emails from other students in the class. It seems that one of the papers that I wrote for the undergrad version of the class is being used as an example for the grad version, now they asking me for advice. I'm both annoyed at them asking and kind of happy that the paper was chosen as an example (I did give permission to use it several years ago, just never thought it would actually be used).
I just emailed the prof for the class, asking if I can update and expand the original (since I have done more independent work on the topic) or pick a new topic. Hoping for the update and expand, this way I can self-cite..
 

And now I have living room furniture!  How nice to have a place to sit and relax or read.

If I don't fail my first exam next week it will be:
1) a miracle, and
2) a huge cause for celebration

@MarineBluePsy Designating today as my veg out time. I definitely need it.
I'm surprised by how nice my place is. Maintenance is prompt, management is friendly, pre-furnished with pieces that are attractive, comfortable, *and* functional. 2/3 roommates have moved in so far. We pretty much do our own things w/o getting in the way of each other, but we chit-chat whenever we cross paths. No one knows about our last roommate. Haven't heard from him at all.
All in all, I'm grateful. Just in awe that I'm finally here.

You guys!  My washer and dryer just arrived!  What wonderful machines and they're all mine!  Of course the delivery guys left a sweaty smell in the air, but I can get rid of that.  No more laundromat!

oh i try to dissociate my me-time at home from my work and classes. I purposely keep my lab key separate from my apartment key to remind me to try to have a life off campus

I'm taking a break from essay writing, and I thought I'd share a musical interlude.
You can thank me later.

Yep I have truly taken that on board. I feel SO MUCH HAPPIER than when I was doing my masters, where I really wasn't social and didn't have a life outside of studying and the gym. Who knew that having social interactions and a hobby would be good for your mental health? Apparently, everyone!

YES. This! I'm paying twice as much as I would with a roommate, but I get to come home and just... be.

This is why when people ask me... to live alone or with a roomate? I always say live alone if you can afford it. The money you save isn't worth your sanity.
The best option is obviously to find a hunky engineer lover like I did and move in with them, but I guess not everybody gets those kind of options. Lol. 

Wow... That's a no from me. Maybe its the parenting in me coming out, but I would have straightened her out already.
Dont clean her dishes. If her pans are taking up the stovetop, start putting them in a box or plastic bag and removing them from the common area and putting them in her personal space. Same with other clutter. Dont clean up after her or she will just learn that if she leaves stuff out, it will bother you enough that you'll do it.
Be direct. Actually tell her out loud "Stop putting shit on top of the trashcan when its full." "Stop leaving your god damn pots on the stove for 5 days" etc.