hippyscientist

I have no idea! So frustrating! Also carrot cake day? mmmmmmm

Just to update you on my "one of those" day: my phone decided it would have a tantrum while I was cooking dinner and just froze, wouldn't turn off, wouldn't factory reset, nada. But I let it drain out and now it works again. But then things started to get better I found a game I love on my ipad (well I found that I had an ipad which I'd conveniently forgotten about), and I'm under on my food today so I get to eat sweeties! And I found some whisky!!! So now I have a hot toddy and Lord of the Rings (book version). I also have a meeting with a professor who I really respect tomorrow as I sent him an email basically freaking out about the mean boy (for lack of a better phrase) and the professor is super concerned for me. So meeting tomorrow. Steps in the right direction! Thank you all for being so awesome! Now, Fuzzy (@Pink Fuzzy Bunny), why'd you have to go mention that?!?! I have my USC interview on Tuesday, and the on campus interview was on Friday and I'm the last person they're talking to before they go into the ad-coms room and decide who to accept/reject. No pressure My status for Florida has changed to "the admissions process is decentralized to have more faculty involvement. Contact your department for information" which is entirely unhelpful. My delaware application is unchanged and I'm fully expecting a rejection from them and PENN STATE I haven't heard anything from so JUST LET ME KNOW ALREADY....(nope not frustrated, not at all). The boy moved back to California yesterday and keeps sending me photos of him with burritos and tacos and surf and beaches and all my favourite places and it's not fair i want to be there rather than getting drowned in the rain!

I'm sorry that grad school application season is the time you get diagnosed. Ar least you have adorable puppies?! This doodle dump is seriously making me feel better - I can't just pick one to share with you all so I'm sharing the album http://imgur.com/gallery/cTwOP (I should warn there's a slight NSFW watermelon one)

That is such an adorably cute puppy!!!!!!! Puppies definitely help - I'm actually on reddit/r/aww right now!!

Oh man, I'm outta wine too!!! @haltheincandescent that's a really awkward situation to be in. Did you discuss the possibility of one of you getting in while the other one didnt? Maybe arrange something fun to do together (I'd suggest coffee but it can be wetting and expensive) and see where the conversation goes?

Thank you guys so much for your kind words the community on here is amazing! I definitely think of you as friends. I made myself coach-approved cookie dough icing which I'm eating in bed. Screw the world today.

Raawr, I just don't know. He's had it in for the females on our course since day one but ever since we came back in January he's taken a total hatred to me. I've tried to pinpoint what I've done to cause him to hate me so, and I've tried to have an adult conversation with him to see whether we could just behave civilly around each other so it doesn't affect group discussions. That didn't work, and seemed to exacerbate the problem. I'm dreading going in tomorrow and having to see him.

Okay today is going so badly. I just need a good old cry but I can't even cry. One of the guys on my course is being totally unprofessional and is now purposefully sabotaging me as well as making increasingly incendiary sexist comments. I found out about the sabotage today. So to make myself feel better I took my reading down to the coffee shop to treat myself to a chai latte. And the leak that's been pooling in the roof burst ALL over me and my laptop. So then my friend invited me over to her house to try and cheer me up and I found eczema on my legs which I only get when I'm really stressed. So I come home to climb into bed and forget about the world and end up throwing boiling water all over myself. Seriously, all I need now is an email rejecting me from PSU.

YAY! I'm so happy for you!! @haltheincandescent

@Neist could you not say something like "Your points would be substantially clearer if syntax/grammar/accepted formatting were properly followed. There are resources on campus if you feel you need assistance." I have no idea whether this is seen as being too harsh? I had a paper come back to me at undergrad and the only feedback was "This is shit." Nothing constructive, no ticks or crosses, nope, just "this is shit"

Oh students are a blast. Although you'd be amazed at the mistakes that make it into published research too. We had a whole seminar at the start of my masters where we looked at bad papers. One suggested that a knee moment of 4000Nm was perfectly okay for those recovering from surgery. A fully healthy elite athlete may hit ~350Nm. It was pretty funny. Plus you feel like a boss spotting mathematical errors in papers. Some of them though I query how they got published. Amazing to see how far we've come in our understanding.

See I'm kinda looking forward to this. I'll make a game of it. But then I have always been the weird one who likes grading.... Better not make that known wherever I end up TA-ing!!!

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny I'm just hoping for ending up at the same school. I foresee bar meet-ups for wine/beer/tea/lime water...

It's helping. I'm not sure what that says about me, but it's helping.

Just cracked open a merlot and I feel all my anxieties drifting away...or that might be the 6 episodes of buffy i've watched today. Either way admissions-who?!

Oh @Pink Fuzzy Bunny I wish I still could do that! Unfortunately my coach wouldn't be best pleased with me I did polish it off today though! So easy!!! Freshly baked bread in an hour. Tip: Bake the garlic into the bread and top it off with salted butter that melts into it! mmmmmm

I'm just at the point where I want to know either way now. My peers all know and ask me pretty much every class whether I've heard anything (I'm the only one trying to go international). It's so frustrating to have to keep saying, no not yet. Add in people asking why I haven't applied to stuff here and I just start losing the will a little. Is it too early for wine yet? On a more positive note, I baked the most amazing rosemary focaccia bread last night and it was GF so no tummy issues I didn't eat the whole thing at once...

@rosali oh totally, non-updated webpages just complicate issues! Oh so you looked at knees 8 years ago but now you're looking at neuromechanical control? Helpful not. And I'll agree with finding professors interested in what you want to do. Although broadly speaking interests in the knee seems to be fairly common, when you elucidate the intricacies it turns out that only a handful of schools cover what I want to study, with the special considerations of taking me without officially graduating from my masters (CW finishes in June, don't get the piece of paper with MSc on until December). Add in money concerns and 4 schools it was.

Oh yeah I'm with you on this. 4 programs, 1 I know I fudged the application process so it's more like 3. One interview from the only program that interviews. The others, ahhhhh. Other departments and colleges have started releasing stuff from those schools but nothing from mine. Worrying is like a second job at this point.

I have my proper interview on Tuesday!! EEeeeeeeeeeee

I'm sat here laughing my ass off at this! I just made my friend (who's not doing application season this time round, she's got this next year) read it all and we agree this phrase is hysterical. Thanks Fuzzy!!

Today is not going well. 1. I made a mug of tea and put it in the fridge and took the milk back to bed. 2. The wind blew my room key (it's a card) out my pocket so now I can't get into my house 3. One of the guys on my course made some really mean comments to me in class today 4. My tongue bar broke and now I gotta run home in the middle of a really busy day to get a new key and a new tongue bar 5. The microwave didnt heat up my food well 6. The stuff I ordered so my skype interview won't drop is being delivered to my moms house. And she's away. Now I've had to reorder it. Ugh. I need good news

@gingin6789 and @artsy16 CONGRATULATIONS! I woke up to reading that and I now have the biggest smile on my face for the both of you would you guys stop talking about californian food? Good god I miss it. Although I miss New York pizza too... and all the amazing foods and candy you have!!! This is so cool that you have a relationship with your family that means this is a worry for you! I'm an awkward international student all my mates are scattered around the world, boyfriend in the US so moving to grad school means I'll be closer to him. Plus I only see my dad like 3 times a year as is and he's 45 minute away. I reckon moving to the US means I'll see him more as he has a cool place to come vacation. I actually couldn't think of anything worse than staying in the UK for the next 4-5 years for grad school!!! Also, moving where you know no one...that's so much of an adventure! You get to listen to their stories and best places to eat and explore a whole new world (even if it is just a new town). Everytime I go somewhere new, be it the next town over or a new country, I try to look at it with the same awe and wonder as a little kid going on holiday for the first time. It's awesome, you get to meet amazing people you never would have met before, experience something different and be able to tell all your friends about the craziness you get up to. Admittedly in grad school the craziness will probably be limited to "I found an awesome new coffee place" or "I didn't cry because of work load today" but still! Everything is an adventure, we just have to embrace it!

Okay I'd like to chime in and echo what @nanita said that numerial age is irrelevant. Maturity and self-confidence, however, do tend to come with age. Many 20 year olds lack the life experience and self-awareness and comfortableness in their own skin to hack academia politics, and I know this was a concern raised to me when I was applying (I'm 24...a veritable oldie). That's not to say YOU are like that, but it is a common perception for younger students. Equally, without life experience (life, death, ups, downs, struggle and hardship - again this may all apply to you) do you really know what you want out of life and out of research? I would say that these are questions that faculty may ask when reading your application. They may be brought up in interviews, but how you handle yourself and can justify your interest in further study (beyond the cliche delaying the "real" world) will speak reams.

@rhombusbombus sounds like it's a relatively common problem that they've dealt with before and it also sounds like you've done the right thing. All these people hearing from PSU....just tell me already lol! @artsy16 it depends on the situation - if they have a spare room/couch I see no problem. Sleeping in the same room therein potentially lies an issue. As @sjoh197 and @Pink Fuzzy Bunny said, i'm sure it's not unreasonable to ask for a reassignment. Everyone who helped me with my skype conundrum, thank you! I've managed to get hold of an adaptor and ethernet cable for £5 (yay reasonable) which will be delivered tomorrow. Hopefully that works!