hippyscientist

@jvpjvp I'm an international student too and I'm concerned about the prospect of renting an apartment without being able to see it in person. I can't get time off from my masters (I technically finish August 19th but I'll hand in my work at the end of July) to go househunting so it's either going to be a very rushed search when I get out there (like 2 weeks to find a place etc with no credit history in the US) or I'll have to sign a lease from abroad. I thought campus lodge looked awesome but maybe a little bit too undergraddy (at least what i could tell from the website). Someone who has more experience please let me know if I'm wrong! Anyone who's in Gainesville have any idea on rough insurance quotes for cars? Very average sorta car, very average sorta person. Just trying to get a rough idea of how much I'd need to budget to have a car.

Oh man congratulations!!! I love San Diego plus the school is in the best location ever. There's a couple of my favouritist places in the whole entire world in SD. Also, I need a whine. I ran out of nutella this morning. I am sad.

WOOHOO

I don't have the luxury of taking out loans as an international student, i'm reliant on departmental funding for all my programmes. It definitely makes it a little more nerve-wracking! I haven't applied to any PhDs in my home country...:/

CONGRATULATIONS! To @aid I second the other comments that probably best to hold off until March.

Small programs are definitely mis- or un-represented here. Only one of my programs was on the boards and that's only because the department is a huge PT one. Unfortunately, in my field a large grad program is an intake ~ 5. There's not many schools either that do it so not many opportunities. In some ways, I'm glad. It means I can't freak out if someone else gets notified! But I have no clue when I'm meant to hear back either. Double-edged sword.

@The Interdisciplinarian and @Neist I'll third the feeling that it's a long week. I keep thinking we're closer to the weekend than we are. It's because I have exciting things next week and so I want it to be next week already. I'm fed up of checkin my emails constantly too.

Sorry, I'm lying here hysterically laughing. If I felt this way I'd never ever ever go to class. We have sunshine outside for what feels like the first time since September but most of the time it's disgusting. My walk to campus is ~ 30 mins too so regardless of when I leave I always end up looking like a drowned rat.

@Phiner. Determination and @Euler thank you guys! I still haven't had an official notification, but I got sent the nomination through beginning of January...it's taken me this long to read the fine print to see that the eligibility criteria included acceptance into the program. My friends and boyfriend are not going to let me live this down. @Euler I am not sure of every fellowship, I just saw it in the fine print. Worth an enquiry/scout around a website in case. Congrats on the nominations yourself

oh my god i am a prize idiot. I was nominated for a fellowship - one of the criteria for the fellowship is acceptance into the doctoral program. I'M ACCEPTED SOMEWHERE!!!!!!!

Yeah see I'm not American and I've travelled to quite a few African, Middle Eastern and Asian countries for random times, and I've been in and out of the US quite a lot recently (and for like 2 months and a bit at a time). I also had a period of 3 years where I didn't live in the UK so my passport probably raises a fair few flags. I've even had the UK border patrol take acouple of looks at me. The downside of having the travel bug I suppose

Okay I'm confused. One of my schools asked me to make an ID login thing so I did, and now I can access everything - like register for classes kinda access. But I've had no email saying we've accepted you. But all my details (DOB, nationality, degree programme etc) are on the current student portal. And now we wait...

Once I've got a hang of the software, it'll probably take me about a week total (7x12hrs ish) to match the environment and skeleton to the motion, and then probably a month to figure out the analysis. Obviously it depends, if I'm going to use multiple injuries in the analysis it will take longer. I only just started two weeks ago so i'm still figuring out the software. There's a lot of international emails going around at the minute - I'm talking with people in the US, Norway, China and the UK about how to actually do stuff.

Oh man that sounds awesome! Like seriously awesome! I love hearing about different fields and stuff too Not that you've asked but I'm going to share anyway haha. I'm working on a project that uses a model based image matching forensic motion analysis technique to investigate ankle injuries. In lay-mans terms I basically take videos that have been broadcast on the telly of a sports person getting injured, do some funky stuff to them on the computer, recreate the environment in an animation software, apply a skeleton that's matched to that person's body dimensions, then export the resultant code to analyse it. I can then find out what looks to be causing the injury. It's pretty cool because this is a really new technique, only a couple of papers have been published in this area so we're really establishing it in the field right now. Anyone else fancy jumping in with what they're working on?

ne'er a truer word said! It's the only country where I've been made to feel like a criminal entering. (I'm not!) They dislike people who've travelled. It's nuts!

I've never had any issues with hair colour when travelling (I've gone with blonde, pink, blue, purple, green and red hair as well as my natural brunette). I have had issues with other stuff while travelling - such as not looking at all like my old photo (it was taken when I was 15 and I look NOTHING like it now, face shape has changed and eyes have lightened) but not really hair colour issues. You should be fine travelling. They do like to "randomly" profile quirky/not the cookie-cutter suburban middle class family though.

I just wanna hear back from the remaining schools now. Acceptances/rejections I don't care, these applications have been completed and submitted since OCTOBER and I've only heard anything from one school. It's not cool. I'm fed up of waiting. I'm fed up of being patient. If I wasn't so flipping busy I'd have reached this point a while ago. JUST TELL MEEEEEEEEEEEE. I find it ludicrous that my friend applied to a PhD in the UK at the end of January, he had his interview last week and will find out this week whether or not he's in. I can even forgive a little lee-way over holiday periods if deadlines were before Xmas. But seriously. I'm totally cool. Vent done. It's funny how all the little things compile until you hit a point where you just have to shut down and hide under the duvet. I hit that at the weekend and, despite my little rant above, I feel a lot more able to cope with work load, training load, parental stress, family health issues and grad school season. If someone wanted to pay for me to go on a mini holiday for a few days that would be awesome. Sunshine and warmth are severely needed right now. And now that my tangent is over, this is awesome!!! I have a few tattoos and piercings and they are part of me and my personality. They don't dictate intelligence, and neither does hair colour/length/style etc. @bugabooo on the very rare occasion I wear makeup I love Bobbi Brown stuff for foundations, concealer and blusher. Weirdly, victoria's secret mascara looks awesome on my eyes and I do love my MAC red lipstick.

Yikes I don't even know how to put fake eyelashes on or what the heck contouring even is (like I know but wouldn't have the first clue about where to start). I miss my pink hair, I wish it was acceptable in my field. I recently went from "surfer blonde" to chestnut brown as it doesn't cost as much to maintain.

Damn girl I love your hair! I'm with @SLPgradstudent I am not a makeup person. Occasionally I'll wear it for interviews and big events but day to day - no way. Too much effort with gymming daily and swimming. Not too sure about grad school attire in the US now, because at my current school it's totally fine to wear gym kit (and I do, regularly). Even lecturers bum around in sweats and hoodies and beanies (yes seriously). Yet I hear you gotta look put together day to day in most US programs. Yikes. I mean if I'm in jeans and uggs I've made an effort....sorry getting side-tracked, procrastinating a huge piece of coursework.

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny and @raaawr I'm currently bingeing BBT, I do love that show. I'm more of a Leonard myself (and not in physics though I love it - I do read quite a few physics papers in my spare time). I second Raaawr's question, what's your interest??

@Neist I saw a post on the results page for Renneslear (sp?) and got really excited for you, then realised it was in Electronic Arts (and I don't think that's your area right?)

Thanks for the reply! Instead of hotels have you thought about Airbnb? I just looked and I wish it's what I'd done in gainesville, i think the hotel I stayed in put me off a bit (it had "sweaty walls and floors" that's the best way I can describe it). You see I am not a city girl! Funnily I might be better had I visited now as I definitely live in a place where you wouldn't want to walk home alone at night. Not being a football fan at UF....oooohhh I've heard they'll convert you! I was surprised at how nice all the accommodation looks online, did that translate in real life?

Does your school have their own internal sort of craigslist? That might be useful for getting rid of stuff without being as scary as proper craigslist.

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny teach us your ways oh wise one!! In all seriousness though, that's amazing. I know a couple of weeks ago you were thrilled about Boulder, what made you switch to Cornell? If Boulder really want you this much, that says a lot about their programme. At the end of the day, it's a decision only you can make, and despite us all going "oh what an awesome problem to have" it is still stressful! I honestly don't see the stress subsiding until I hit tenure. Might as well buckle in for the ride

@RCtheSS thanks! If I hear positive news from them I might just be picking your brains! My boyfriend's good buddy went to UF and raves about it, but I just got a weird vibe. I guess it doesn't help when you visit on a non-normal day. I've just been looking at apartments and everything and holy crap my money would go so much further in gainesville.