Musick

Did anyone apply to the MEME program at Brown?

How can I have 58 views and no replies??? Come on guys/girls.

Is it normal to get a rejection letter from the department secretary where the letter is typed in the body of the email and has someone else's name at the bottom with no signature? This seemed bizarre to me, rather than getting an attached letter or something from the official graduate division. And frankly, this secretary did not like me because I occasionally had to ask her questions and follow up questions during the application process because she did not communicate clearly. So yeah, while the institution in question is highly selective and I'm certainly not above being fairly rejected... I see a possibility of foul play here. I'm sort of joking, sort of not.

If you look at the past history of any school on the results search page, you'll find that within a given year, most schools send out both acceptances and rejections on multiple different dates. So these "admits are out" kinds of posts you see around here basically mean "I received my decision." Don't despair! The schools I'm now waiting on seem to pass out decisions throughout the second and third week of March, so I have some time off from the suspense, although I guess it's still there.

So... I've always been a problem solver. I'm good at it and I love it. I ended up in philosophy and the arts instead of math / computer science though, surprisingly to me if I were to go back in time and tell my high school self this would happen. Anyway, I would like to make up for the computer science coursework I did not do as an undergraduate and I'm wondering... (Can / How can) I do this now? I'm wondering if someone can recommend a sequence of actions that would lead me to knowing as much computer science / practical coding as someone with a bachelor's degree and/or someone who is employed at the entry level as a software developer. I have heard of a fair number of software developers with degrees other than computer science and limited coursework in it... or no degree at all. But I recognize that times change, progress is made, and perhaps this is less common than it was when various computer technologies were less common/pervasive than they are now.

So I was just reading over one of my SOPs for a school I'm still waiting to hear from, and... I found a missed comma in a place it obviously should have been! I believe that I demonstrated my ability to use various punctuation including the comma correctly all over the rest of the application in various portions of prose... but this stuck out to me and freaked me out. Not only that, in an additional statement I prepared about some of my work (not required), I found a missed apostrophe (the possessive kind). So my question is... how screwed am I? My worry is of course that this bespeaks carelessness. But I also think everyone makes the occasional typo (including my POI at this place in some emails to me!)... and since the degree I am applying to pursue is not one in K-12 English education... perhaps the rest of my strong application is far more relevant to my chances for success at that school than two punctuation mistakes across an entire application. Of course, it's often said that PhD programs are very competitive and pretty much looking for any reason to not have to consider yet another applicant when so many are qualified and so few can be admitted. Thoughts? Experiences with this?

Bullshit? Why do you think that? And yes funny enough, the particular type of program I'm applying to does not care one bit about GRE, and as long as GPA isn't particularly atrocious it doesn't matter either. That said, you know what they say about guys with big GRE scores. Big...

Wow. You totally caught the reference. I spent a bit of time trying to think of a clearer way to make the reference but then decided not to bother. But hey Fermat is dead and I'm right here making occasional trouble apparently. So feel free to ask for my truly remarkable proof if you're looking to dominate the GRE.

Having achieved a perfect score... I can tell you, don't buy the materials. There are a handful of simple strategies I could fit into one post here that will destroy that test's "challenges".

You should probably eat healthier... it will make your paper better. You know, Maslow's hierarchy, bro.

Are you suggesting the feeling needs to be anything other than short-lived? Let's be clear that it is you talking about emotion, I did not suggest that was the part of the response that people could get something from. But from that, cameraderie, commiseration, etc... What I was actually referring to is the information about why I'm okay with the rejection, the comments about the school. My words were "academic circle jerk". I think those were the words that upset some people here, as in academia, formality fetish is unfortunately common. Anyway, I think for people who hope that their research activities and things they produce will impact others and greater society... it's very important for them to tread carefully with programs that favor "progress" and "innovation" that are not connected to benefiting others, either in or beyond academia. I find that this is especially a risk in the fine arts as well as more theoretical disciplines.

I'm not aware of what you think we disagree about. But I'm not going to insist that you continue to engage if you're uncomfortable.

Oh I'm having a great time here. But I feel sorry for everyone who takes everything so seriously... for our own happiness we should all think about the good we now have access to where we got accepted, and the bad we dodged where we got rejected. I don't personally perceive any negativity, but I'm sorry if you do and I've been a contributor.

Are you following me around the forum talking about this? Why do you care so much? If it's that person's dream school, great, I'm happy for them. I only speak for myself when I badmouth the school. Why should they care so much what I think? By the way... you assume that I'm just talking about the "Best Rejections..." thread, but in fact at least one of those users has been chiding me in other threads and downvoting all of my posts. Maybe I should have pursued a career in writing instead if I'm this good at getting so many opinions raging and emotions boiling over a few sentences I typed. I'm flattered.

Hmm... what's the sample size of reactions to reactions to rejections that you have observed? Anyway you just did it yourself actually. I think if someone wants to remind themselves and suggest to others what's not good about a particular school they were rejected from, that's perfectly fine. It's informative and useful and makes that person and possibly others in the same situation feel better. Of course if you describe it with the word "smear" it seems bad. "Don't yell at me."