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homie

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  1. Downvote
    homie reacted to crackademik in What time of day did your offer come?   
    What about Purdue in 2017?
  2. Downvote
    homie reacted to Ternwild in What time of day did your offer come?   
    Time my acceptance this year came in?  April 15th, when I accepted I won't be attending this cycle. xD
  3. Downvote
    homie reacted to Ternwild in What time of day did your offer come?   
    Oh?  Ruined due to not wanting to get in?  Or exterior life things?
  4. Downvote
    homie reacted to crackademik in What time of day did your offer come?   
    I wonder how many people are looking at this thread laughing

  5. Like
    homie reacted to slptobe! in CU BOULDER   
    Hey all! I just graduated from the undergraduate program at Boulder, if you have any questions about anything considering the area or anything, maybe I can answer any questions! 
  6. Downvote
    homie got a reaction from crackademik in What time of day did your offer come?   
    Hey Kendall, to be clear I have no intent to be offensive. It blew up my mind if you (or the others) think the other way.
    You started attacking people without knowing the time stamps of the downvotes in the first place, so don't try educating others if you behave the same way 
  7. Downvote
    homie got a reaction from crackademik in What time of day did your offer come?   
    Says the person who started all of this looool 
    Hey, instead of focusing on what time they send out notifications (and downvoting replies you dislike), why not wish everyone receiving a desired offer? 
  8. Downvote
    homie got a reaction from crackademik in What time of day did your offer come?   
    Nothing is certain, so as you said, then what's the point? 
    I only downvoted because the other two downvoted mine. In anyway was my post offensive? If not, then that was just mean. 
  9. Downvote
    homie got a reaction from Ternwild in What time of day did your offer come?   
    That's because of time difference I suppose? 
  10. Downvote
    homie got a reaction from Ternwild in What time of day did your offer come?   
    Hey Kendall, to be clear I have no intent to be offensive. It blew up my mind if you (or the others) think the other way.
    You started attacking people without knowing the time stamps of the downvotes in the first place, so don't try educating others if you behave the same way 
  11. Downvote
    homie got a reaction from Ternwild in What time of day did your offer come?   
    Says the person who started all of this looool 
    Hey, instead of focusing on what time they send out notifications (and downvoting replies you dislike), why not wish everyone receiving a desired offer? 
  12. Downvote
    homie got a reaction from Ternwild in What time of day did your offer come?   
    Nothing is certain, so as you said, then what's the point? 
    I only downvoted because the other two downvoted mine. In anyway was my post offensive? If not, then that was just mean. 
  13. Downvote
    homie reacted to crackademik in What time of day did your offer come?   
    Says the person who decides to flat out crap on a post for no reason. Different people cope with the anxiety of waiting differently. For me, allowing myself to only check my email during offer “peak hours” is a way to cope.
    As others have implied, maybe just don’t comment on a post that you think is useless?
  14. Downvote
    homie got a reaction from crackademik in What time of day did your offer come?   
    That's because of time difference I suppose? 
  15. Downvote
    homie got a reaction from crackademik in What time of day did your offer come?   
    during... the day? 
    I am sure they don't work at nights lol 
  16. Downvote
    homie got a reaction from Ternwild in What time of day did your offer come?   
    during... the day? 
    I am sure they don't work at nights lol 
  17. Like
    homie reacted to crazycheese8 in Post Your Backup Plan   
    I've got a job offer at Google – as a bonus, my boyfriend also works at Google and we could live together instead of doing long distance while I get my masters. So I've got a pretty sweet fallback if I get rejected from my dream school! ?
  18. Upvote
    homie reacted to charleszzx in Is anyone else just way too anxious?   
    I feel you. It gets worse when you only apply to one school..
  19. Upvote
    homie reacted to juilletmercredi in If I (like everyone else) want to be a professor, what should I do from the start of grad school?   
    Choice in school matters; the reputation of your program still matters a lot in academic hiring.  So does who you work with.  You want to work with a PI who has some name recognition in the field and/or a large network of people, because his network becomes your network.  The best advisors deploy their networks in support of their students and trainees - it could be as simple as you're applying for a job at Awesome University and your PI went to grad school with one of the SC members at Awesome U, so the SC member calls him up and has a chat about you.  That doesn't mean you have to pick the most famous name in the field, but well-known and well-respected faculty members are a definite plus.
     
    But to me, "good" program means somewhere in the top 20-30ish; once you're in there, I think it's more about where you would flourish.  You might want to take a peek at the faculty at the kinds of institutions at which you'd want to work and see what kinds of programs at which they earned their PhDs.  Obviously if you want to be somewhere like MIT or Stanford, you need to go somewhere like MIT or Stanford.  But the requirements may not be so stringent if you would rather end up at a mid-ranked public university or a small teaching college.
     
    Being able to come up with research problems to solve is a process, and that's what graduate school is all about - so don't worry about that.  It develops as you go through the doctoral program.  I was also worried about that in undergrad, but by the time I was finished with my PhD I was bursting with ideas, and now in my postdoc I am formulating ways to address those research questions and writing grants in my head for them.  That's what the purpose of the doctoral degree is - to help turn you from a consumer and assistant in research to the one in control of your own research.
     
    I think the earlier you can pin down what kind of research you want to do, the better, but you don't have to know right away.  I spent the first year-ish of grad school interested in something quite different than what I eventually ended up doing; and the direction of my research is changing a little bit in my postdoc, too.  So I would spend some time in the first year of your grad program reading in some fields in which you are interested and getting some RA experience in those kinds of labs to see what you like.  Also, the earlier you pick something, the better, because you can start gearing your seminar papers to help you write your dissertation.  I had my area chosen by the end of my first year and the rough idea of what I would do my dissertation on by my second/early third.  So I geared all of my seminar papers and my comprehensive exam topics towards my research area.  It was great because I did less work on the seminar papers - I didn't have to reinvent the wheel each time - and ALSO because I was able to go back and mine those papers/exams for references and ideas when I was writing the dissertation.
     
    Networking: So a lot of people envision networking as something purposeful that you do, that there's some spiel or special pitch or preparation you have to have for it.  Nah, not really - networking is simply getting to know people in your field that you like and who like you, and then doing something with those people.  Networking in your department means showing up at departmental colloquia, going to the informal gatherings and events, and chatting people up.  Then follow up on those chats, if you want to - reach out to people and see if they want to collaborate on a project or paper, or get coffee, or talk to you about a concept.
     
    Networking at conferences is just a larger version of the same thing.  Lots of conferences are known for being great places for grad students and emerging scholars, so look up which ones those are and attend them.  Some of them have speed mentoring sessions or lunches with prominent people in the field or other kinds of events tailored to help young folks out.  Those things sell out early in my field, so register early and sign up for them.  (One minor thing I would've told my past self to do is get a credit card with a small limit, and use it solely for conferences.  Even if your stipend has a travel fund a lot of times they reimburse you, so you still have to have access to large chunks of money to pay conference registration fees and for flights and airfare.)  Also don't be afraid to walk up to scholars in your field after symposium sessions or talks to introduce yourself and ask a question or have a chat.  I met a lot of prominent people at conferences doing that.  I chased down people in poster sessions who did jobs I wanted to do and asked them about them, lol.  Get some business cards!  People will often ask for your card.  The university usually sells them discounted to students, so wait until you get on campus and have an address and phone and stuff, and then order some and bring them to conferences.
     
    Other than agreeing with what rising_star and TakeruK have already said, I am going to say something that might sound counterproductive: don't teach too much.  I say it because you said you loved teaching.  I love teaching, too, and so my inclination was to try to get as much teaching experience as possible.  Teaching, however, is undervalued compared to research experience - and at most top schools, a person with better research experience and low amounts of teaching experience (but decent evaluations) probably has better shot at the job than a person with lots of teaching experience and low research output.  So you want to get some experience, but not too much.  TA for a couple of classes and then, if you can, try to teach at least one class as an instructor - maybe over the summer.  (That is something I wish I did differently - I have TA and co-instructor experience but not quite instructor of record in the traditional sense.)  Many elite universities offer graduate students the opportunity to teach classes in the department over the summer; there's also the option of teaching at a nearby community college or other four-year that doesn't have graduate students and/or needs adjuncts.  Everybody needs adjuncts.  But just do it once or twice - after that, it has diminishing returns, and teaching is SO SO time intensive.  You need the time to work on your research and get publications.
     
    Last thought - one thing I did in grad school was go to the faculty pages of departments in which I'd like to work.  Then I looked at the CVs of people in my field, and saw what they had done before they got hired to the department.  It was nice because I got a rough idea of both the average and the range of things that people did to be competitive, but it was also a big relief - because I found that the reality is that most people did less than what most graduate students expected they needed to do in order to get hired, even at big places.  This is how I found out that I was relatively competitive for even top places in terms of research, and why I'm finally kind of serene about my job prospects when I go on the market this fall (OHMYGOD).
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