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Sword_Saint

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Everything posted by Sword_Saint

  1. Accepted at Simon Fraser University with a guaranteed 34k for their 2 year program. It requires I be a a graduate assistant I think, but it's a stellar deal given that their tuition is only 7k a year. If Texas and Cincinnati can't compete with that, I will be getting my student visa and enjoying your guys' country by the Fall.
  2. Still waiting to hear about the full extent of the funding from Cincinnati and Texas State. I heard from Simon Fraser today, I was accepted with a guaranteed $34,000 for the 2 year program, and I can apply for other competitive financial awards on top of it. Tuition there is only 7,000 a year, so I'm flipping out right now. Had an anxiety attack reading it.
  3. I would say getting a better sense of a specific focus is useful but not mandatory when entering an MA program. I say this because you will develop a better sense of which path you want to take in terms of research and such, but having a general idea of where you want to go will shorten the amount of time it takes you to get there. Many faculty members I've spoken with [in my discipline] have indicated that knowing where they wanted to go from the outset allowed them to complete their degrees sooner than some of their peers who spent the beginning of their graduate degree determining what their master's thesis / dissertation should be about. Your idea for a master's thesis [or research for publication or whatever else] doesn't have to be set in stone but just narrowing the focus and then determining how you can contribute to that area could save you some time. In some respects it may be better if it isn't set in stone because then you'll be more receptive to constructive criticisms and feedback from your adviser. So I guess I would aim for a middle ground. Within my discipline my middle ground is like: Within criminology, I'm interested in place based criminological theories, crime mapping and crime prevention, all focusing on how to identify and alter crime at places. There are some theories I like more than others within that branch, but I'm still open to where and on what crimes I do that kind of research [compared to very specific: crime mapping and criminological frameworks for intimate partner homicides in rural suburbs]
  4. This is just for one of the prospective schools I'm looking at: GA's - Teach / teaching assistants or do research depending on the arrangement and need within the department. Graduate Research Fellowship - do research, but get paid more b/c the fellowship is awarded at the college level and not the department level.
  5. Like some of the other people have indicated, I had several reasons to want to go straight into graduate school from my undergrad. 1) The things I'm really interested in aren't taught to undergraduates, at least not at my undergraduate institution. -Geographically weighted regression modeling for determining crime causation at places -Advanced GIS analysis for crime prevention -Statistical techniques for measuring crime and problems in crime measurement past linear regression and analysis of variance 2) I know I would benefit from being in a setting where other students are as attentive and intellectually engaged as I am -At my Undergrad most students were cool with getting C's and just didn't connect with the material like I did -My senior level classes were pretty much always seminar courses with small class sizes where I would learn a load of information, I'm told I'll have the opportunity to learn more about this stuff as a graduate student in a similar setting. 3) Despite my amazing exposure to research as an undergrad, participating in graduate research in my discipline sounds like an incredible experience, especially given that I would be getting paid to learn how to do research more proficiently. -Chose my schools based on research fit; each of them has faculty whose work in this area I have extensively read about, the faculty are well known for crime mapping and prevention research 4) Getting a graduate degree would allow me to more easily work conducting research [something I love] that provides feasible solutions to complex crime problems -Many of the careers I'm interested in require a graduate degree in general, and a research degree specifically
  6. I worked on a research project where the Principle Investigator was a professor of one of my classes, in addition to being my boss. We did not get along; pretty convinced he hates me. He was the kinda guy to get pissed off at someone calling him Professor [X] instead of Dr. [X]. End of the day though he respected me for all of the work I accomplished in his project and others around the department. I can't imagine everyone liking you, but they can at least respect the quality of work you do.
  7. Reminds me of a former co-worker who always was the first to get his hours cut for some reason. All of us were pretty sure he was going to come into work some day with a firearm. Or the situation would turn sideways and up like the ending of "Office Space" (1999). Not sure if question at the end was rhetorical- assuming its not, my two cents: Some of it is a matter of perspective, lets take being a dick for instance. At a recent academic conference I got tired of listening to bad presentations, so I started asking the presenters difficult questions, or giving critical feedback. "So...you didn't make research questions?" and "What rationale did you use to conduct a study not supported by similar previous research [like these 10 recent studies]?" It may have been considered a dick move, but it is beyond me how they got that far without having asked themselves those questions, or been asked by others. It'd be a disservice to let that slide in my discipline. Your situation as you've described it, some things are worth being a dick about. The pursuit of your goals, that's definitely one of those things. Fellow grad student is failing to demonstrate any progress on something they claim to have been working on for months? Sounds like a personal problem to me. Not to burn ALL the bridges here, but if you've got physical proof of having done something that can be implemented, something you've taken the initiative on that serves a coherent and useful purpose, you should run it past whoever it needs to get run past and get it going. That's the aspect I disliked about group projects, some group members fail to meet deadlines and its like "well...I'll have the entire project done this week, and you can bet I'm not going to be kind when we're presenting and a member of the audience asks who did which part." Throwing this out there also: there are a lot of interesting "TED Talks" about female leadership. They cite a lot of relevant studies in my opinion about confidence and when its necessary to be sort of aggressive about accomplishing your goals. Down below are links for some of them that I thought were worthwhile to watch (then again, I think most of the TED talks are worthwhile to watch). Why we have too few woman leaders- https://youtu.be/18uDutylDa4 The career advice you probably didn't get- https://youtu.be/JFQLvbVJVMg
  8. One of my former co-workers was Serbian and I definitely agreed with parts of their educational system. Specifically have distinguished schools for technical expertise versus art schools and having a greater emphasis on doing things you not only enjoy but are really good at (more realistic/stricter entrance requirements for example). My co-worker lived down the street from a sort of mechanic shop where they stripped, repaired and replaced engines for different manufacturers throughout Europe; he had been working in some capacity at the shop since he was 11 or 12. Fourteen years later he finished his degree in mechanical engineering, with a decade of experience working on vehicles. That must create unparalleled expertise in that field, its mind blowing to me because thats just a totally different lifestyle, to wholly dedicate yourself to something from a young age. The thing for me is that the burden to make your degree useful is solely on you; if you think you can complete whatever you think the most useful degree is and just sit back and wait for job offers to come to you, you're going to have a bad time. Conversely, those people that get a degree and then complain forever about it, those people lack the creativity and imagination to show the world how useful and applicable it is. I guess I would posit that there is no degree that is totally useless, there are only people who the degree is useless for.
  9. Still waiting to hear from the Criminology Department at Simon Fraser. I don't wana be that guy who's badgering them all the time, but they said they'd have it figured out by last Saturday, and my other schools told me the last week of February. It'll be either Texas State University or Simon Fraser University [probably]. I haven't been updated on Cincinnati's funding opportunities for me but they'd have to be amazing to be competitive with how badly I want to attend the other 2 schools.
  10. PhD's in general I would say are not normally very lucrative. Many of my professors point out how some of their high school peers who never went to college are now charging 100 dollars an hour as an electrician or plumber. There are for sure other careers that will pay better sooner than getting a PhD; those jobs don't generally afford someone the same level of autonomy, the ability to contribute to the world's understanding of your discipline, or the distinction of being a topic area expert.
  11. This reminded me of one of my irrational irritants: The first time, and every time since then, that I heard someone say they were going to school or taking time off work to "go and discover themself" I get irrationally angry. In regards to people not believing in school: College, like as the university as a place for higher learning, is for sure not for everyone. I take that as a self evident truth as I encounter people clearly not willing or able to exercise a "higher" level of thinking. This truth is similarly identifiable when I try to paint a house and fail miserably or how I will never be capable of being a successful power-lifter. I think many people are better off learning a trade; the problem now I think is how college oriented our society is and the indistinguishable university as a pseudo place of learning, pseudo trade school. *Note: I have an equal respect for people in the university setting versus various trade fields, my frustrations stem from our society's expectations of a person and people not working to their strengths. It is super 'un-American', but fundamentally, not everyone can be anything they want to.
  12. You bring up a valid point about about the questioned legitimacy of certain disciplines. I brought this up in one of my SOP letters, that certain degrees are under valued for not teaching students immediately marketable job skills. Its a point of contention for me as people often question my decision to minor in philosophy or feel that criminal justice involves common sense knowledge. One of the first books I read in an intro course as an undergrad the author described his frustration of how he would tell people he was a PhD in justice and the people would always give him their 2 cents about what was wrong with justice related topics or how the PhD could do his job better. The author contrasted his experience with his neighbors, his neighbor being an airline pilot. Invariably, when telling people he was a pilot, no one would question his ability to successfully land an airplane or what should be done to make it better. There is a for sure issue with the melding of universities and trade schools in my opinion, and it meshes into this issue of people thinking if you can't perform a technical skill that a lay person can understand your degree was worthless. Good post- also, my ramblings are somewhat due to exhaustion.
  13. Alan sharp
  14. Fig Newton
  15. Really interesting thread. I started reading it because I'll be a TA for the first time soon and figured there would be helpful stuff here, but read through the entire thing because of the discourse about gender dynamics and relationships in academia. Good discussion. It gives people a lot to think about in regards to their own innate biases and decision making process with respect to gender.
  16. Magic Card
  17. *Still waiting to hear from Simon Fraser University about master's acceptance/rejection- specifically their school of criminology* Contacted them about a week and a half ago, told me they would have it sorted by late this last week and get the info out soon thereafter. Waiting game it is.
  18. It depends on a lot of things. If you are interested in eventually being in the United States I think it makes more sense to attend school there as an undergraduate. One of the things it depends on is what you are interested in learning about within criminology. For example, if you want to take many law related courses, obviously you should go to school in the U.S. But if you want to take courses about crime prevention or criminal justice research then either school would be fine because courses would be functionally similar at the respective schools. Me for instance, I am finishing my undergraduate at a school in the U.S. but I've applied for Simon Fraser's Masters program because many of their faculty specialize in the research I want to work on. I do not plan on working in Canada though, probably going to move back into the U.S. after my degree. Speaking of which, why or how do you know you want to go to graduate school before you've even started your undergraduate program?
  19. Jack Sparrow
  20. Mighty Ducks
  21. I [briefly] dated a girl whose father was the local 3 star general of all of the Air Force in the state. Nepotism is totally a thing. This stuff is totally real sometimes. When people say it isn't what you know but who you know, those people are right; this is why you try to never burn bridges. 1) Pissed at idiots in the gym. "Me and my 4 friends are going to use the bench press over here, and instead of using heavier weights, we are going to find all 12 of the 10lb weights everywhere on this side of the gym and use those. FYI, we'll be here a LONG while." 2) I was concerned about my car, took it to the mechanic and they ok'd everything after a long and presumably thorough inspection after changing the oil and replacing some minor components. Next morning car doesn't start. 3) The one school I'm most interested in hearing from in regards to acceptance/rejection is the one school to not indicate one way or the other by mid-march, three weeks after all of the other schools. 4) Went to academic conference and get in elevator: Vocal Complainer: "Oh, you're from Alaska, I'm from the east coast and I bet it's colder at my house than in Alaska." [5 more minutes of complaints] Myself: "....oh really?" Vocal Complainer: "It's 0 degrees at my house, can you believe that? 0 degrees!" Myself: "As of tomorrow morning, the website says outside my house will feel like -41" 5) Mom: "Can you pay for your extended family member to fly up and see your graduation?" Me: "....[not a chance in hell]...."
  22. Disclaimer: My field is Criminal Justice / Criminology. I would speak with the admissions folks before applying, even if their website indicates students with only bachelor's degrees can apply for their PhD program. I say this from personal experience, two of the universities I am interested in attending that listed that as acceptable under certain circumstances, after speaking with them, informed me that practice is not what they're currently doing. The norm in criminal justice doesn't appear to be bachelor's to PhD but some of the faculty in my department went that route, in my department it was like 2 out of 12. Also: if you are going from bachelors to PhD, be sure you have a solid GRE and preferably research experience if possible.
  23. Pretty much what everyone else has said, specifically that every school is dramatically different. My formal correspondence with one school at their Graduate College was that I would have to competitively apply for funding and none could be awarded without going through the proper channels and whatnot; I spoke with the admissions folks of the department informally however and they quickly and readily told me they would reserve a graduate assistantship spot for me should I accept to attend their institution. It really, really all varies.
  24. Dunno if this is appropriate or not [u.S. applicant applying for MA to Canadian school] but still waiting to hear back from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby B.C. Their criminology program has a lot of what I'm looking for in terms of crime mapping and such, can't wait to hear if I was accepted or rejected.
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