hippyscientist

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny yeah we have to do lab reports but they're restricted word counts. Most are 1-2000 words, an occasional 3000 and the major projects we do are 5000. They never come to more than about 10 pages. My undergrad research project was 24 pages including all reference lists, appendices, contents etc. We don't do verbose lol. I think that there may be a disparity in country norms here too, not sure though. What I'd love to have done a month at undergrad in the US to see the differences.

@sjoh197 relieved to hear you kept the blah, blah, blah out!

@sjoh197 That is hilarious!! Half my professors would love it, half would hate it. Also, 30+ pages? WTF do you write for that?!?! My longest was 5000 words and that was a research project! My discipline does concise only... Also, my forum writing is appalling, I just write how I talk here and it's pretty bad lol. I had feedback from a paper that asked me to make my axes on my graphs black....they were?! I felt like at that point the grader was just trying to find stuff to grade me down for!

Yes the re-reading is a recipe for breakdowns! It's bad enough reading work when you get it back. I made a stupid mistake in a lab report writing isokinetic instead of isometric. D'oh. Big difference (one moves, one doesn't). I'm going to make the most of the lull in work and binge watch some more Buffy. At least we don't live in Sunnydale!

@TheMonkeyOnMyBack Oh I feel your pain. I had an email from my current programme director titled "PhD Assistantships", the next line was "Hi Piglet, I'm really pleased to inform you..." and then it cut out. I initially didn't see it was from my programme director and got so excited in the grocery store. Turns out it was just asking me to forward on details of PhDs available at my current institution. So not fair!!

@rhombusbombus and anyone else concerned about visiting multiple schools for interviews. I visited before applying and my rankings definitely changed. Go and enjoy interviews, let them woo you, see if you could fit in there with current faculty, current grad students but also the other candidates they're interviewing. That will tell you a lot about the mentality of the department and what they're looking for. Most of all, enjoy! (and don't feel guilty about having lots of interviews. Both department and you need to see if you fit as well as you think you do)

This so much this!!! My dad is successful in his career, he has an excellent small business that has a high profit turnover and he takes home a decent amount each month, but is miserable as anything. He tried to push his mech eng agenda on me and I knew I wouldn't be happy going down that path. After many difficult arguments and decisions, I think he's finally accepted my career path as "mechanical engineering of humans" which it kinda is! My motto is "you do you, as long as you're not hurting anyone". I also use "learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow" (actually it's one of my tattoos). I think so many people just need to follow their guts, their hearts, acknowledge and learn from past mistakes and stay optimistic for the future. Who cares what others think?!

I think a lot of the stigma about PhDs and academia is that many people simply don't understand it. They hated school, partied through uni and don't thrive off the academic challenge. Additionally, their experiences of academia come from lectures, and occasionally research, and that doesn't even show the half of it! Whereas occupations like doctors, lawyers, accountants, office jobs etc are known quantities, but not everyone has experienced it, and so potentially project their own view on the professions, and of course the monetary aspect cannot be ignored. I just think so many people hated school, and can't seem to understand why you'd want to stay in "school" for the rest of your life. Trying to explain that it's nothing like undergrad or high school is almost fruitless

@ron_swanson my masters is a little different as it's in the UK and grades are still important. There's not grade inflation or "easy A's", and it tends to be frowned upon and opportunity limiting if you don't get a merit/distinction (top grades) out of the programme. I'll not be busting my ass just on classes in PhD, but for now it's important to prove that I can do my subject. From what I gather, the US system is almost totally different.

@sjoh197 I mean I understand it's their policies, and for those who've worked under red tape it can be just as frustrating enforcing it, but it still doesn't make much sense! It would be great if common sense prevailed but alas we have to go with the lowest common denominator. That's awesome though that your mom is a professor! I bet she's supportive through this? Neither of my parents ever went to uni (well Dad did but got kicked out), nor my aunts/grandparents so I'm the first in the family and no one has a clue about the frustrations and excitement that accompany it. "So you're going to be a professional student and never go out in the real world and work?" "Yes dad, because all the work I've been doing since I was 14 on top of school and training wasn't real work, and working 50+ hours a week dealing with departmental politics isn't work and potentially being on the cusp of awesome breakthroughs aren't real work" ehhh I'm preaching to the choir here. Always envious of those with parents who get it!

It definitely depends on the school. I'm applying whilst studying a Masters in the UK, which officially doesn't graduate until December 2016, but I will have finished all the work by July. Some schools are okay with it, others are not. Your best option is to contact the schools you are interested in, to see what their policy is.

I wish I could have applied to more schools but I was restricted by funds and also by schools that would accept me without officially graduating from my masters programme. I "officially" graduate in December 2016, but will have finished all work associated with the degree by the end of July. It means I'll have an uber quick turn around, but you'd be surprised at the number of schools who said that I'd be an outright reject as I hadn't officially left. That immediately narrowed down my choice of schools, because I really don't want another "gap year" - I already took one between leaving school and starting university, and one between graduating undergrad and starting my masters. It's always a tough balancing act, and until we have an acceptance, the neuroticisms continue. Should I have applied to more schools? Less schools? Did I make a silly spelling mistake? Did I come across as aloof (big one for me)?

@SnpStark ooops! Please tell me what I said! It's been a while since I've studied spanish properly, and I only ever learnt castillian. Celebrating if things go right will be mexican food post gym with my nerds (my group of friends doing my masters course, we're all super nerdy and we gym together too i love them!) and many margaritas. If things don't go according to plan I will have buckets of tea and be round my friends house playing assassin's creed, taking the frustration out on the controller. Edit: Just noticed I'm a mocha on the grad cafe rankings! Mmmm I do love a good mocha.

When I was 3 I wanted to be a marine biologist when I grew up, out in the field, collecting data and then analysing it (although I'll admit the younger years were so I could play with the big whales like in Free Willy). When I got to 16 I realised that I didn't want to do all the plant stuff, and I was far more interested in humans and how they work. As a kid I was told that I'd never amount to anything in sport, and so here I am over 15 years later having competed for my country in 2 different sports and starting a PhD in a sport-related field. I think the research element is I love knowledge. I love theorizing and testing and puzzles, and that is what research is one big puzzle. If I can play puzzles with the end goal of reducing injuries in sport, shortening recovery time from reconstructive surgery and streamlining the physical therapy used for that, I'd be so happy. Plus, I've spent years working in offices and whatnot, I need to be mentally stimulated to function properly.

Oh man I'm envious of you guys who haven't started yet. I'm already on my 3rd week of the semester.On the plus side I really like my new classes, this is more what I was expecting this year to be like. On the other hand, I'm really nervous about my grades, I got an assignment back and it was my lowest grade yet. I just need to figure out what I did wrong. Somewhere this semester I have to figure out where I'll be going for PhDs, sort moving out of the country, take my classes, find some paid work so I can afford to move, train, and juggle my research project. I think food and sleep will have to wait.

@rhombusbombus i also found that watching kids cartoons in spanish helped tremendously, especially the ones aimed at little kids just starting to learn the language. Combined with duolingo and actual conversations, you'll be laughing! Anyway, all you really need is "hola, dos cervezas por favor" and "quiero que todos los tacos"... @Pink Fuzzy Bunny that gif is so accurate! I'm also in desperate need of laughing. I got a grade back on an assignment and it's my lowest one yet. I'm so confused because I worked really hard and thought I'd built on the feedback from the last one. A friend who wrote something similar got 11% more, and I'm struggling to understand why. Definitely a little down in the dumps this morning from it. All I need now is a nice little acceptance.... Congratulations to those of you with acceptances/interviews that came in yesterday.

It's interesting seeing the spread of ages on here. I'm in a similar position to some of you I think, I'll be starting my PhD (provided I get in somewhere) at 24, my partner is gunna be 29 this year (crap, when did he start getting that old?) and everyone keeps asking us when we're going to be getting married. Thing is we've been together 5 years, and we've been apart for 4 of them (interspersed with weeks here and there). We've talked about it and said we actually need to be in the same country for a little bit before we think about truly settling down together, but both feel it'll be somewhere during my PhD that it happens!

agh i was meant to get a paper returned online today at 5.30 (so 15 minutes ago), and it's up there, but with no grade?! and says the grading and feedback is unavailable for this paper....I WANT TO KNOW!

Congratulations @haltheincandescent

The wait is so horrible!! My schools are totally spread out with regards to when they respond so it's very frustrating. My advice, try to find something to take your mind off it all! and @gingin6789 thanks! I'm overthinking so much...evidently!!!

@gingin6789 no way! It's my top choice, but it's so competitive. One of my professors here got his PhD from PSU, and one of the lecturers there got his PhD from my current department and one of the current PhD students graduated from my programme before going there so there's a large link for two universities on different continents! Hoping that will swing in my favour.

Thank you Good luck!!

Oh my goodness how exciting @rhombusbombus! Now if you can tell them to accept me while you're there that would be appreciated!

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny okay, I am no where near that cold!! We're at -4C (24F) and that's far cold enough for me right now. @sjoh197 I'd be envious but I've lived that life! I did miss the snow (although I love to complain about it when it's here). Also interesting about the subject GRE and general GRE, in my field there is no subject GRE so we could never focus on it. Instead, letters of recommendation and research experience seem to be the most heavily weighted, followed by your GRE and GPA (evaluated together) from what I could piece together from different departments. It's great getting to know others feeling this frustrated/neurotic about applications because as supportive as my friends in real life are, not one of them is going through this process. I'm rooting for every one of you (we're in different disciplines so YAY no competition) to get your grad school dreams come true. Also, I really should get a holiday calendar for the US - there's SO many holidays that are so different!

We're having a cold snap here and it's making me reconsider where I want to end up. California seems more and more appealing the longer I stay in the cold!!! Bracing myself to get out of bed and trudge through the ice to get groceries.