FoggyAnhinga

No kidding! I have a really hard time focusing on my work right now... some days I feel like I'm about to throw up (I'm still waiting from my top programs).

That is probably one of my least favorite questions during an interview - mainly because if i list the schools my POI will eventually reject me because he/she will think "he's definitely a better fit at that school than here". That may be your opinion, but it's not what I think!!

Had a dream that I received an unofficial acceptance phone call from my POI from my dream school after an interview. Gosh, what an amazing dream (it was crazily vivid too!). Only to realize that it was only 4am and I was still in bed after opening my eyes, ugh (I do remember opening my eyes very reluctantly lol).

Here's an amazing fake out moment: Subject line: Admissions Office - Additional Documents requested My initial reaction was "holy mackerel, they are considering me for admission so they are requesting me to send official sealed transcript copies!!" of some sort. Turns out, it was just an email notifying me that they (one of the schools I applied to) received my recent FAFSA application (I applied for it in case funding doesn't work out for some schools I applied to), and that I may need to provide additional documents later in April. Blargh...

Only a day left of February, and then it's March! March should definitely be the month considering most schools consider 4/15 as the deadline for admitted students to accept or reject offers.

Oh here's a good one: Brown University, American Studies, PhD (F15), Rejected via email on 27 Feb 2015 : Amazingly, my rambling SOP with its two blatant typos failed to impress them. Sigh. At least my dog still loves me! Maybe the key is to use a spellcheck if you are too lazy to read through your entire SOP for a final proofreading...

Couldn't agree more! Why keep it a mystery? If you aren't planning to take in any more students for a particular app season just say so on your website! If I was a professor it'll take me 30 seconds to do it haha. But then, those professors who explicitly state that they are planning to take in students for this coming fall on their website receive far more emails from prospective students than other professors do, so I guess POI's who don't specify whether they're accepting students or not could be slightly less competitive...

branch stick

Oh and I also met the current Oregon governor and talked to him for a few minutes. Not sure if this counts as meeting but I saw the Beach Boys several years ago and the Eagles' live performance last year.

Probably the greatest challenge I experienced was while sending out emails to many POIs (prior to working on the applications), I had to be EXTRA CAREFUL when copying and pasting one email content addressed to one professor to another email, especially since I was aiming to make myself solely interested in that POI's research (I didn't want to look like I was spam-emailing a bunch of faculty, which I certainly was not doing). I only copy & pasted a short summary of my past research between different emails, but as for my goals and research interests, I had to write every one of them from scratch for every email I was writing. It's especially frustrating when you get a response from a POI that clearly indicates he/she didn't read your email to its entirety (one POI's email clearly indicated he didn't read my email at all, and told me if I'm interested in applying, I should take GREs asap - I mean seriously, I wouldn't even be preparing to apply if I hadn't taken my GREs!!).

I'm definitely not a fan of Budweiser lol

Wow, that sounds like one of the most oblivious women I've heard of - most likely she'll be in constant denial if she is confronted about her faults, etc. From what I remember living in Asia several years ago, if a group of people make no effort to move out of the way, people just push you or brush past you roughly (can't expect too much politeness in Korea or China in those insanely busy metropolitan streets). Haha so how did your friend explain herself when you asked her about that?

Haha nice! I too hate drivers who get irritated w/ pedestrians who are trying to cross at a designated crosswalk. I mean, some of these drivers think having a car makes them the ruler of the roads! WTH? One time an expensive Acura almost hit me and I was very close to kicking the front end of that jerk's precious car, but I heard that these drivers love to sue anyone who damages their vehicle so I restrained myself, just yelled at him, and moved on.

I saw Michelle Obama three years ago and Jeff Corwin later that year!

old fashion

My patience too is dwindling after my interview... But 3 weeks! You definitely have my sympathies kjc! I heard that when it comes to final admission decisions after a formal interview/site visit, the POI usually does a quick job once they make a decision on your application, but it's the adcom that can be really slow with the progress/paperwork processing, etc...

funny question

A huge congrats to you!! Waiting after an interview feels much tougher than waiting after submitting the application...

Gah that is annoying... especially if that person has a stinky morning breath haha. I also had an experience where I was withdrawing some cash from an ATM, and the person behind me had the nerve to stand pretty close behind me, also breathing down my neck. I was on the verge of yelling at him "What's so captivating? Would you like to know my current balance? Are you short on money??" But I decided to avoid any confrontation, just gave him a weird stare after I was finished, and left.

Not sure if anyone on this thread brought this one up yet, but one thing I have to vent from my recent experience - groups of people walking VERY SLOWLY and taking over the entire sidewalk. And CLEARLY they noticed that someone walking behind them is in a bit of hurry, and could have moved over to one side to let me through. But nope, they decide to continue on sluggishly and I eventually had to step off the sidewalk and run past them, and get off the road before I am smacked by an oncoming car. Some people just don't read cues that well... sigh...

welcome home

fresh water

Light beam

Ian, I experienced something similar yesterday (well, not exactly similar but still car-accident related lol). I was leaving the parking lot, and this stupid woman came out of nowhere (she was driving through empty parking spots apparently) and rammed my car's driver side. No injuries, but my driver's side door doesn't open. She was apologetic and seemed to have claimed all responsibility, but then, apparently she filed a claim, declaring that she inevitably hit my car because someone rear-ended her. TOTAL BS!!!! I mean, there were witnesses and even a CCTV which recorded EVERYTHING... and there weren't any cars that rear-ended her, obviously. Which brings to another thing to vent, people who cause car accidents and claim no responsibility or make false reports! And now, having to deal with this mess... gah...

academic games