hippyscientist

No my natural hair colour is slightly darker than mousey brown. I've bleached mine at home too many times. Again, I just buy the box and voila. I think the worst was when my drunk aunt decided to bleach my hair while I was sleeping aged 8. I went to bed a brunette and woke up with cold water being thrown on my face and orange hair. It was ORANGE. And not a cool orange. You've never seen anyone more mad than my parents!

Wow that sounds so complicated! I walked into the supermarket, picked up the box that had the colour I wanted, went home, mixed the colour tube into the squirty tube, put on head and covered with a plastic bag for 30 mins, washed it out and put the supplied conditioner on and then dried my hair. Admittedly nowhere near as awesome as the stuff professional colourists do but for £4 ($5.70) it's the most affordable way right now.

Oh no! What happened? I dyed my hair today but not an adventurous colour - I've just gone super dark.

I haven't been given access yet - I can only use the public search on LionPath and it's really frustrating me! The grad school has yet to review my transcript - ugh - and I just wish they'd let me know something more. I wanna be able to book my visa appointment!!!

I don't no, but both PIs from the schools I've heard back from (one reject and one accept) but not attending have added me on Linked In which is kinda cool. I guess because my field is so small we'll be seeing each other at conferences a fair bit - plus it would be awesome to post-doc in either of their labs (although I already have my heart set on 2 labs).

If I could have afforded it, Briarwood looked awesome. IIRC it's within what you're talking about for budget. Ended up having a chat with a current student in my dept. about Lion's Gate who said it was reasonable, so that's okay by me. Seems to tick most of my boxes - as long as it's not a flea-infested place swarming with undergrads and will be warm in winter I'm cool. Don't really care about size or hearing things through the walls (although that would be nice eventually not to deal with). It seems like everyone bad mouths places in State College. I can't figure out whether the realtors are really scummy or it's just irate undergrads not understanding the adult world.

wow that sounds very busy! I'd be freaking out with no results 4 weeks out - good for you being so calm (at least on here). Looks like you have a LOT on your plate too with exams. At least presenting to the group will help with your viva. My week has been surprisingly productive. I've written 2 journal articles (one 2000 words, the other 3000 words) based off of a simulation and an experiment I did just before easter. I've been researching mattresses for when I move and I've started my diet - I'm struggling to eat enough which is the opposite complaint to most people. It's been sunny and really conducive to doing yoga outside. I've been less stressed than expected (especially considering I have 5000 words due in in 3 weeks which I haven't started). I think it's time for an hour of yoga and then dinner with a glass of wine.

I'm the opposite to everyone else! My lease starts 5 days after I start my PhD (but the weekend before classes begin), but I'm planning on moving to the US about 2 weeks prior, and I'll just stay in a hotel - I looked at Airbnb's but they were ridiculously expensive - for the 2 weeks with a hire car (until I can get my own car). Sympathise with you on the moving out of home lark! I moved out at 17, travelled, went to uni then half-way through undergrad I had some unfortunate circumstances with a housemate so had to move back home, where I remained for the next 2.5 years (on and off). I've enjoyed being out of home this past year, but mum still drives 3 hours for a surprise visit so hopefully she won't be doing that when I move to PA!!

I'm the first in my entire family to go to university (well my dad went but got kicked out). I'm the only "nerd" in my family, and I'm not too sure how I've ended up on this path! But both my parents have been amazingly supportive, if not fully appreciating the effort. My mom sometimes reads these boards so she has a rough idea of the hell of the application process, but my dad was generic with the "oh I had faith you'd get it". The people at university and those who have gone on to higher education realise how awesome it is, and how insanely competitive too - my PI said that he only takes one student every 3 years or so so he can fully dedicate his mentoring to them. But most of the others that I've told are just bemused at my elation, offering well wishes but not really getting it. I had absolutely no assistance with this process. My LORs were decidedly unhelpful but gradcafe and reddit have helped me figure it out. There really hasn't been much guidance at all through my schooling, but I think that's what makes us independent researchers! From wherever you come from, it's what you make of it (to a certain extent). Everyone has obstacles, just some people's obstacles are larger than others. When I was going through a tough time, someone said to me "The toughest burdens are given to those who can handle them" and to a certain extent (especially in the grad school context) it's true.

@MarineBluePsy ha - I forget about language on things like that! I definitely meant teddy bears!!! They're very cute and not at all like the other thing! As for the funding issue - it's difficult. If I put myself in the department's shoes I wouldn't want to guarantee funding with budgets being cut and it potentially gives an easy way to cut someone after the first year if they're awful (I doubt this happens frequently but I often go to the drastic version first). But as students it's really crappy. I've had long chats with my new PI (eeee that's so exciting I can say that) and he's said he's always managed to get his students summer funding and consecutive year funding too - my stipend is very liveable and is only for 10 months so if I get more at the same rate over the summer I'll be laughing. The bit that worries me is the department anticipates to fund for 3 years. 3 YEARS! I've either got to work really fast or find more money. Almost finished my lab report today although my figures keep jumping around. Word is so frustrating at times but I'm not allowed to submit in any other format.

I still haven't told everyone. People at uni know, so do my parents and 2 other friends. More people know I was going through the process but not what the outcome is. I'm keeping it quiet until I have the visa organised. Once I have that, you won't be able to stop me shouting from the rooftops!

It's terrifying! Look I know I'm an adult and I know I shouldn't be this attached to stuffed animals but I am. Deal with it. I'm not hiding anything in them, they carry no secrets (unless they can talk then...) and there is nothing particularly interesting about them except that I love them. mean TSA!

Hi!!! Yay! Welcome

With the bag thing - I have a North Face backpack that has MANY compartments. I have my laptop section, my lunch (sometimes breakfast and dinner too) section, my gym section and my miscellaneous section. All of what you just described but in one bag! I love it plus it's really supportive so doesn't hurt my back or shoulders. But then I have my yoga bag and I have a smart handbag for smart things which is the right size for my laptop too. To jump in on the TSA conversation - I have 9 teddies (I can't believe I'm telling the internet this) that are as old or older than me, or been gifted to me by people who are no longer here or just have really special memories. We are very attached and I could not put them in checked baggage. So everytime I fly to the US, TSA will get my teddies out, put them through a scanning machine individually, manhandle them and it's very upsetting. One time they even got threatened with a knife! But the rocks and the deodorant wow. I use aerosol deodorant so not allowed it on planes (unless the rules have changed) so sorry people.

YAY!!! Where did you apply for? It's so exciting!

@Effloresce I got it I was trying to explain how I checked my preliminary results to make sure they were sensible before going on to the more complex analysis but was having a total mind block on how to verbalise it. Spring is well and truly in the air here which means one thing - allergies. I can already feel my face starting to swell

Mash potato (yum)

Guys, can I please pick your brains? All my writing buddies have gone home for Easter break and my brain has given up on me. What's a sciency way to say idiot-check? In the context I'm trying to make sure my results are sensible. Ohhhh did I just answer my own question? N.B. don't try to write a 3000 word report in a day, brain goes to mush!

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny not sure how I missed your post but YAY On the GRFP! Congratulations And screw the crazy colour - own it!!

Still, working there for 4 years, that's impressive! I can understand why you call it yours!! Wow like every christmas we did carols in the museum for people, we used to go on school trips all the time to museums and places! One of the perks of living in Europe is the history and the accessibility - in Year 6 (~10 and 11 years old) we went to France for a week and did a lot of the old war stuff. My undergrad university wasn't too far from Stonehenge either so we actually had some awesome trips! We had our high school leavers dance in a zoo!!

Like others I took a year out between my undergraduate and starting my masters. I travelled, gained some office experience (surprisingly helpful in academia), did some research but was kind to myself and gave myself time to recharge. It can be very challenging to go straight through and sometimes I think taking a break actually prepares you better for grad school. Get some life in you! To re-iterate - it's not going to hinder your chances. Many programs in fact prefer people who haven't gone straight through, who've experienced a bit of life and have more to offer than just excellent academics. When I applied to PhD programs (considering I'd taken a year between high school and college, and another year between finishing my bachelors and starting my masters) I was told that a main concern was my age being too young! So go for it and make the most of your time. Find things that excite you, refine your interests, brush up on stuff you're not too sure on, relax and experience the world a bit

I'm sorry to hear you have had a poor experience. I would like to highlight something though in the point above. The professor is not wrong in suggesting a field that has a few scientists in, but is anticipated to be the "next big thing" will probably be better for career prospects than one that is saturated with thousands of scientists. Of course, the smaller field may be an old one that has burnt out, but the way I read the above is that it's an up-and-coming venture that will see an explosion of growth in the next 5-10 years - which is exactly what we want to find as grad students. It might work differently in physics but that's how I interpreted that. As for the group - bashing, and some of the horror stories outlined by @TakeruK that's not cool! I would struggle to keep quiet with overtly sexist, misogynistic comments too.

The transcript I'm sending is only my undergraduate one as PSU will only accept those from degrees that are conferred. It's been a bit awkward because my MSc will not be conferred until December, but they're basically admitting me off my undergrad and then excited when I get my masters transcript in like January (they get conferred December 22nd). @Need Coffee in an IV I'm sorry - your own museum?!?! What is this magic? I'm finding an appreciation for museums as I get older. When I visited Washington DC I was gutted because I didn't have enough time to look around the Smithsonians. I was very lucky that I grew up going to the Ashmolean (http://www.ashmolean.org/), a Natural Sciency one (don't ask me the name but it had a dinosaur skeleton, lots of bug stuff and lots of cool other skeletony things), and the Science Museum in London. Those were my 3 favourites for ages. It was a common birthday party to have sleepovers in the museum and the staff would put on educational games for us. It was pretty cool in hindsight although trying to sleep under a dinosaur creeped me out!!

Ick! This is expensive enough without that on top!

Intl. school. They won't accept it unless it's a proper paper one with stamps and all sorts. Right pain!