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mmm35

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Everything posted by mmm35

  1. My impression has always been that grad students are more casual and sloppy than undergrads. I've been buying fitted t-shirts and sneakers to get ready for school and ditching my slacks. But then again I am an engineer . . .
  2. As another overprotective kitty mom who is about to fly home with her cat and has researched it a ton, I would not reccommend giving the cat benadryl! The altitude plus medication is very bad for kitty hearts. At least that is what other overprotective kitty moms have said. I believe it is fine on land though. Also airlines vary a lot by how much they charge for carrying on pets, so look around for prices. I think Southwest is the cheapest and the only one which doesn't require written documentation of the pet's health from a vet within 10 days of the trip.
  3. Did anyone here go on an admitted student visit to MIT CEE? If so did you get your reimbursement yet? I haven't and I have not been able to get in touch with the woman there. Is anyone else having this problem?
  4. I seriously considered going to the same school for all three, but ultimately decided not to. One major reason was that I had allready run out of courses to take by the time I finished my M Eng. More importantly though is that I wanted a new perspective on things and to get a chance to learn from a new group of people. The further I got into the process, the more I realized that what I wanted to study would be better to study at a different school. I dont think that "academic incest" is nearly as frowned upon now as it was in the past, but the reasons that it was frowned upon still exist; it is always good to broaden your horizons and avoid getting pigeonholed into your undergrad advisors interests. Can you apply to PhD programs and see if you get better funding offers before deciding to do the MS or PhD at your current school? Overall though, going to a different school may be best for you personally, but I really doubt it would make a difference in getting a govt job. I know that in industry people could care less if you have a masters or not, and I doubt anyone who hired me could tell you where mine is from. But it is always possible to change your mind and want to remain in academia.
  5. I work for a consulting firm that is very over-worked right now so I had no worries of being fired for quitting and I gave about a months notice. People remarked that I had given more notice than necessary and were all surprisingly nice about it. I was terrified that people would say you must have known about this for a month now why didn't you tell us, but no one did. Has anyone else left when you were there? How much notice did they give? I don't think anyone expected me to give more notice than normal just because I was leaving for grad school rather than for a different job.
  6. Nope, Princeton I was slightly worried that MIT has the better overall name too, but you have to be true to yourself, you will be more successful where you feel most comfortable
  7. My choice came down to those two schools (but for engineering). I think it depends a lot on what sort of environment you are looking for as the schools are incredibly different. One school is an Intitute of Technology and the other school doesn't offer professional degrees as it wishes to focus on the pursuit of knowledge. One school is in a city and the other is in a smallish suburban town with fields and a forest preserve nearby. One school encourages its employees to start up businesses and the other (well I have no clue if it does). You should compare research interests first and if that doesn't make your decision visit the schools because they are incredibly different.
  8. Yeesh, the first post asked if you have a real job or not, it wasn't my word in the first place. I even added quotes to try to not offend those who aren't "professionals." You just cannot win with some of the people on these forums. . .
  9. I have a "real" job, a 9 to 5 engineering consulting position. I just put in notice yesterday that I was leaving and nearly had a panic attack. No matter how much you know it is the right decision, leaving stability and lots of spending money is not easy.
  10. Somewhat off topic, but: I have the same last name as my future advisor (and he has the exact initials of my father). Hopefully that won't create any issues of people thinking we're related!
  11. Another random piece of advice, don't break out the winter coat too soon. I remember in college seeing all the freshman from California put on their down coats when the weather got below 40. That is a big mistake, keep the warm clothes for when it gets below 10! I eventually got a huge variety of winter clothes ranging from stretchy gloves and thin wool coats for late fall to the furry wool gloves and down coats in February. It is nice to look at the below zero weather report and know you can still go one level warmer.
  12. A backpack. And if anyone has a problem with it I will say that I am an engineer and therefore allowed to wear a sweatshirt, jeans, a pony-tail, glasses, and a backpack every day and do it unapologetically. I can look good on weekends, and I'm too old to care about impressing people with my looks on normal days. (during my masters program people that I lived with wouldn't recognize me out on weekends when I wore makeup/real clothes because my boyfriend was in town, haha)
  13. Well, I'm only moving an hour away but: I won't miss a job that requires no brain power at all. I won't miss a job that requires no effort at all. I won't miss being lazy. I won't miss being looked down on for being a woman. I won't miss feeling guilty for complaining about my "good" job. I won't miss the traffic, the pollution, the angry people, and the sight of concrete as far as the eye can see. I will miss my perfect apartment, living alone, the diversity, the few weeks when the baseball team is in the playoffs and everyone is smiling and talks to each other, the convenience, the adorable and affordable restaurants, my boyfriend, the time to sit with the cat for hours, and the spending money. I have such a love-hate relationship with this place, but I have a hate-hate relationship with my job and a love-love relationship with grad school. Woo-hoo, one month left! I'll miss my parents a lot too, but I have been missing them a lot for 7 years now. The feeling never really goes away, though you do get more used to it. ( wow I cannot believe its been 7 years :'( )
  14. I'll be in Princeton engineering next year Is anyone starting over the summer? Did you talk to anyone about starting housing and health insurance early? My department told me to talk to the graduate school, but I'm not really sure who to talk to. I guess I will just call the generic number. I'm hoping for Butler apartments with my kitty, otherwise I'll be stuck finding housing off-campus! good luck everyone!
  15. Also, make sure that you enjoy college and do what you really want to do. I think it is rare to have decided to go to grad school all ready when in high school, and it is incredibly likely that you will change your life plans in the next few years. I don't think schools will care at all if you came from a community college. But they will care if you really truly want to be there, try not to get too far ahead of yourself and just enjoy the ride. If you are meant to be in a PhD program, it will show and you will eventually find your way there.
  16. Aside from any money issues, RAships, and how it looks to professors, do you think the actual research done in those summer months is worthwhile? If I did this it would only be two months, do you think it would still be a huge benefit or get me ahead in my program? Right now it looks like I could have an opportunity to mentor some college kids on an awesome project if I don't go early (plus some time off), but I do want to take every chance I can to get ahead. Is not going in the summer detrimental to me in the next few years in the program? Gezzloume seems to think it wasn't too helpful with research. UnlikelyGrad, aside from missing out on RA positions, did you feel behind those that were there in the summer? Do you feel your research suffered?
  17. For government loans, I know that there are forms on the loan servicing website. I haven't looked at them yet, but I'm guessing you will have to do the exit counseling (which is mostly just what repayment plan you want and a stern reminder that you have to pay them back) and then fill out the deferment forms. I don't know anything about private loans, but I'm assuming it is similar . . .
  18. My future advisor mentioned a summer start when I visited a month ago, but did not mention it again when I told him I was coming. I'm not sure if I should bring it up again, and I'm not sure if I'd want to do it anyway. I've been working for a few years now and part of me thinks it would be good to get used to using my brain again in a low stress situation (and good to get a head start with the optimistic part of me saying maybe I could finish faster) but another part of me was counting on the additional money I'd save in those last few months (especially considering my lease is timed to end when I go back to school and I'd be paying double rent). I'm also worried about missing a month at home with my parents and a last European vacation with the boyfriend. Actually the biggest pro I can think of for a summer start now is getting to quit my job very soon before I jump out a window on the 34st floor to get away from my coworkers or scream at one of the chauvanistic jerks and quit on the spot (though part of me does think that would be AWESOME). Anyway, one person mentioned that starting early wasn't any major help to them, is that the general consensus? I'm not worried about looking bad for not doing it since the advisor hasn't brought it up again or formally offered it, but I don't want to miss out on a chance to get ahead either.
  19. For my school: Fellowships - federal income tax only School-year Assistantships - federal and state income tax Summer Assistantships - federal and state income tax plus social security etc. Though I assume the state taxation varies by state. And some places you may even have to consider city taxes, in case anyone wanted to be more confused
  20. Speaking as a soon-to-be PhD student, it depends on the school. I actually got into a very tip top school with a fellowship that I hadn't done much research on (I desperately wanted to go to one specific school but felt I should apply to back-ups). I then visited to look into the program and quickly realized that no one there did anything even close to what I was interested in. One professor even told me that my interests were not worth working on because he only did work that would get him published in Science or Nature. The weird thing is that I laid out my interests pretty extensively in my SOP and mentioned the research there that I found most interesting (which they were no longer really working on). The whole experience was totally bizarre and I left thinking no one had even read my SOP which was odd for a school accepting less than 10% of applicants. One guy actually told me that it sounded like I shouldn't come there unless I was very flexible. So I think that some schools don't pay any attention to your interests and only admit you on the merits of your application. Did you ask that specific professor if he/she will be around next year? I think it is totally fair to ask. I am sure however, that they will make sure you have an advisor and that you will have some say in who it is. Are there other people there that you'd want to work with? I also don't think they would say that you might work with that professor if he wasn't going to be there next year. But I'd ask more questions before making any decisions.
  21. I only sent thank you notes. Hearing that others sent small gifts makes me nervous! I will probably ask two of these people for fellowship LOR's in the future, have I made a mistake? (plus I have great respect for them and would never want to appear ungrateful!) Are gifts standard, will I be looked at as not expressing enough gratitude?
  22. I would double check the requirements. I was looking at this the other day, and I think that you have to be on the 10-year repayment plan in order to qualify. Or on income-contingent. If your payments are set up to take 20 years they don't let you stop in 10 years (then everyone in public service would set the loans up for 20 years). I think the requirements were on the direct loan servicing site, but it took a little digging to find them.
  23. mmm35

    Princeton, NJ

    I read somewhere that housing would be out at least 30 days before moving in, but not after June 30th. I'm not sure if that applies to incoming students though, because alot of the stuff on the website seems to be for returning students only. We're suppossed to get a big packet of information in May or June that should say something about e-mail adresses. If you don't hear anything by late June you should contact them. (this is all from memory though so don't hold me to it)
  24. My plan is to buy generic versions of everything (except maybe shampoo and conditioner), to do netflix instead of cable, to defer my student loan payments, to stop going out to nice dinners, to not buy nice clothes for the next 5 years, and to live in cheap on campus housing with roommates. Also to be too busy to spend lots of money on entertainment. But the reason I was posting was to comment on eating cheaply. At my undergrad school (and where I'm going for grad school) there are co-ops where a group of people all buy food together and eat together evey night. Usually you have to cook one night a week, but the other people cook the other nights. It is fantastic to have company for dinner every night and to have homecooked meals every night without cooking yourself. My old co-op would even save plates of food for people who couldn't make it to dinner. And most of all it is incredibly cheap to do this. Everything was bought in huuuuge bulk quantities and made from scratch. We literally had garbage cans full of things like flour and suger. I think it cost $400 to eat for a semester (though we only ate meat once a week). If co-ops aren't your thing, I reccommend Traer Joes for cheap staples, and even cheap frozen foods to heat up. Then again my impression that Trader Joes is dirt cheap may be less true outside of a city where normal grocery stores aren't really expensive.
  25. I visited the school that I will attend in August last year. I e-mailed the department grad coordinator because I had a day off work and he said to stop by. They were very nice about it and I met with several professors and grad students and loved the place. Now I am attending in the fall (and I think that meeting them all in person probably helped my application, and meeting with them in August showed that I was really interested in the school and was thinking ahead). So tell your girlfriend to try to set up appointments in August. The worst case is that the professors will be busy and say no, but I don't think it could possibly harm her chances of admittance.
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