Naito
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Everything posted by Naito
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@EAstudies @FedeHikari Yes, it is more probable than not that this was an administrative mistake regarding the language email. Harvard is a HUGE place and it'd not surprise me that some busy students or new clerical assistants (or maybe even temps) are working over the winter recess through the student employment program and were not familiar with administrative procedures and thus made clerical mistakes. Overworked and underpaid do that to you. There was even a union protest lately. Given all that commotion a shuffling of staff and a mistake were rather likely. Don't worry too much about it. (In the grand scheme of things, 1-2 years from now, you may look back at all this waiting and feel that this was not worth the wait). PS: I love their slogan: "We can't eat prestige." lol https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/10/4/huctw-tabling/
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Also, Fall semester grades were just posted recently at Harvard so it is doubtful the professors had time for both recording the grades and reviewing prospective students’ applications...
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Yeah professors are away for the winter recess and won’t be back for classes until late Jan. The clerks in the GSAS office probably are assembling the applications and ranking them in terms of GPA, GRE, AND languages etc. for committee review. If I remember correctly there was a language section for virtually all the schools I applied to (UPenn, Stanford, Harvard etc.) in 2017 as well.
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Thanks @AnUglyBoringNerd! Actually, I got accepted to Stanford for a certificate in between semesters at Harvard, and I'm actually doing the certificate program right now during the winter recess before the Spring 2019 semester starts at Harvard. I'm enjoying both. Also, there is a 30-credit MS at Columbia that makes one eligible to apply to a Doctorate at Columbia in the same field that I really like and want to do, but I'll try to get a job first after the Harvard program and then get my employer to pay for me for both the Columbia MS and Doctorate so I won't have to pay a dime. Never stop learning!
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@civitas I took a German class with a girl working at the World Bank. She did NOT have a great GPA. I think she went to National Singapore University for undergrad. She got into Harvard GSE for this Mind, Brain, and Education Master: https://www.gse.harvard.edu/masters/mbe Best of luck civitas! 新年快乐，心想事成！
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@AnUglyBoringNerd I'm glad you are enjoying Columbia! I'm still writing classical Chinese poetry in my spare time...because “对酒当歌，人生几何” and "生年不满百，常怀千岁忧。 / 昼短苦夜长，何不秉烛游！ / 为乐当及时， 何能待来兹 ？/ 愚者爱惜费，但为后世嗤。/ 仙人王子乔，难可与等期。" haha
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@civitas I applied to EALC/EAS last year. Got into UPenn, Stanford, etc. for MA and could go on to PhD after the MA but declined ALL their offers. (I'm now at Harvard for a completely different graduate program, and just finished my first semester with a 4.0 woohoo, and my friend at Harvard RSEA MA is regretting his decision with a boatload of debt!!!) I think you should focus on getting into Harvard's Graduate School of Education. I attended a talk of a guy who graduated from GSE and is now working for Google as a university recruiter (they have a group just to recruit Harvard students). You can do a lot more than just education with Harvard's GSE, unless you really, really, REALLY love doing EALC research. And whatever you do, do NOT take on a lot of student debt, or you will be like this person (BA East Asian Studies, Cornell; MA East Asian Studies, Stanford, but debt): https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-have-a-lot-of-student-loan-debt I'd like to defer to this 高人 for how admissions at the Ivy Leagues work for EALC in terms of GPA, GRE, LOR, SOP, etc. etc.
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It's a professional degree -- but I shouldn't say more than this -- which leads to high-paying jobs and if I'm lucky I can make a lot more. I've been reading several books by another EALC-er -- Tim Ferriss, who graduated Princeton with an AB in East Asian Studies -- such as the 4-Hour Workweek (https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/dp/0307465357) and I'm convinced a pragmatic approach might be more useful for me at this stage; "it doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it can catch mice it is a good cat," so said Deng! It's all a means to an end. I don't want to be like 陆游 who was evaluated by 朱熹 in《宋史：陆游传》" 其能太高，迹太近，恐为有力者所牵挽，不得全其晚节。” I want to get to 天山 and found a way, even if it deviates from the poetic professorial path. I wrote a poem to several of my professors thanking them for their support, but I am not going to be in academia like they wish, but I respect great scholarship. (Last poem, I promise...) 《贈我師》 都城語院中 受教自師宗 謝贈緋花植 稱揚樹業1功 -- 无官居士 1. “一年之计，莫如树谷；十年之计，莫如树木；终身之计，莫如树人。一树一获者，谷也；一树十获者，木也；一树百获者，人也。我苟种之，如神用之，举事如神，唯王之门。” 《管子：权修第三》
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Update: 人間万事塞翁が馬! Here's a twist. I still get to go to Harvard with partial tuition reimbursement! This isn't for RSEA or EALC though. But Harvard nonetheless and the issue of funding no longer exists! I'll be sure to keep in touch with East Asian Studies while focusing on my courses. Happy in Harvard!
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@AnUglyBoringNerd Yes. They should have used a different picture...They should use this picture below, but it's a different song: (I learned all my Chinese from YouTube etc.) 笑 ｗｗｗ
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There is a classical song that is very popular among the Old Wind School (古风派） in the Middle Kingdom right now. Please allow me to use this song to congratulate 諸君 here for having gone through all this testing and application process! "踏書山百階 乘學海一舸 ... 學貫五湖 中西捭闔 ... 來鴻笑去燕 且行且高歌" Wine and music!
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Congrats @AnUglyBoringNerd 女史 and @kotatsumuri 君, and @archimon 先生 on Columbia and Michigan! Just got back from Japan recently. The sakura, sushi, sake were all great, except there were too many salarymen also trying to 花見...Tokyo is always so crowded at this time of the year. Anyway, ramen and robots, samurai and shinkansen, tea and Toyota, wait for me -- I will return to Nippon again next year! I'm always very excited each time I am in Japan! As for schooling, this will sound very unconventional, but I decided to decline Stanford, UPenn, UVA, and Georgetown. In some parallel universe, I would do academia, but not in this one. I was never really a good student anyway, and just did the bare minimum to get by; grad school life seems too specialized, lonely, and difficult, so I might not do well anyway. My professors/recommenders kept pushing me to accept one of the offers, but I reached out to quite a few mentors who are still in or already left academia, and the feedback was not so positive -- almost unanimously the advice is the exact opposite of Nike's motto: "just don't do it". So I'm staying at my job and will get an MBA and then do something Asia-related. Who knows, I might get posted to Japan on an expat package...at least this plan was suggested by a good friend in Tokyo. With JLPT N1 I can probably get posted in Japan. If I can live in Japan for a few years while doing practical stuff, that will be the best of both worlds -- 不战而胜，两全之策。
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I finished my last poem, and this concludes my grad school application voyage. 20 days later, Tokyo, Japan here I come! As previously mentioned, this is the ci 詞 to conclude my part in the Poetic Party in this thread . Chinese is not even my fifth language, so please don't criticize me too harsh if there are any technical errors haha...It was great to find wonderful "poet pals" here: @AnUglyBoringNerd @Ouyang @costevens @thesiswillbegreat @Kongyiji @mxiongturquoise @spicyramen @tsuyuri etc. V.《蝶戀花・學海泱泱風作浪》 學海泱泱風作浪。 霪雨霏霏，萬頃雲飄蕩。 若坐書船乘水上，綿綿滄間何方往。 斷判當舟危萬狀。 悵惋簫聲，棄念兹情忘。 騎馬轉歸封將相，紅塵世路前程旺。 無官居士 嶽陽子、白駒子 敬筆 2018年3月10日 美東 中仄中平平仄仄。 中仄平平，中仄平平仄。 中仄中平平仄仄，中平中仄平平仄。 中仄中平平仄仄。 中仄平平，中仄平平仄。 中仄中平平仄仄，中平中仄平平仄。 Quick, rough translation: "The Vast Sea of Learning With Its Waves and Wind" The vast sea of learning has its share of turbulent waves and strong wind. Excessive rainfalls pour down heavily, thick and fast, With an immense space of clouds fluttering with the tide. Suppose one sits on a boat of books to ride on the waters, In an unbroken, continuous, never-ending deep blue which way will one go? It is judged that the said ship is a perilous venture in the extreme. A sad sigh of regret is played as a tune through the vertical bamboo flute, There's no choice but to abandon this idea and forget this emotion. Riding on horseback and turning back on course to be appointed a general or official, The society of mundane mortals and the way of the world may have prosperity in store for me.
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Accepted to Stanford. Meh. If anyone wants to go to Stanford, PM me and I will decline. (Staying at job for promotion & raise + my soul is not for academia anymore).
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@kotatsumuri Good things happen to those who wait! I'll have my fingers crossed for your funding as well! I'm ready to decline UPenn (so that if someone really wants it so badly, they can have it), and I'm ready to decline ANY incoming offer from the remainder on my list, if accepted that is. I got a promotion and raise at work so I think I will stay, and do an MBA few years down the road sometime in the future when I reach 30. As a side note, it's amazing Paul Goldin got a PhD from Harvard at age 24...So sad I won't be studying with him. But I will apply Han Fei Zi, Wang An Shi, Shang Yang in the real world!!!
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I spoke with my boss and he said Harvard Grad School at the MA/PhD level may be harder to get in than Harvard Law, Business, or Education...In fact a World Bank friend just got into Harvard's Master in "Mind, Brain, and Education" https://www.gse.harvard.edu/masters/mbe but probably thanks to her work experience. For humanities, it's all about fit, research interest, and agenda of the lord professors...
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Thanks @kotatsumuri! To imagine having to go through this one more time haha...and this waiting game is like an abyss!
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@AnUglyBoringNerd So true, I agree! This again shows that sometimes we should grasp X instead of Y, and not stubbornly cling to Y when X is right in front of our eyes. Jin Yong 金庸 probably meant to have the love story of Wang Chongyang and Lin Chaoying 林朝英 as a lesson 前車之鑒 for Yang Guo 楊過 and Xiao Longnu 小龍女 to learn. Had the founder of the School of Quan Zhen 全真派 chosen love rather than sacrificing his life for a lost cause -- much like Lu You 陸游 did -- for the Southern Song, he would have been happier. Some people often fall into this trap. Another example is Toyotomi Hideyoshi 豊臣秀吉 would have been happier had he focused less on power at the expense of his family; Toyotomi's last words were full of regrets: "Dew drops and disappears, like my life is about to end; my city of Naniwa (Osaka) -- a dream is but a dream."「露と落ち 露と消えにし我が身かな 浪速のことは 夢のまた夢」 . Of the three unifiers of Japan 天下人, Nobunaga was too rash and Toyotomi too greedy (invasion of Korea), and only Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康 was the only one who knew the Way of the Middle 中庸之道 and balanced politics and family and, like Zhang Liang 張良 stepping back into retirement after achieving success 功成身退, knew when to stop (e.g. closing the country 鎖国 & abdicating the throne for his son). But, as is often human nature, we chase after something we don't already have in front of us, like Li Mochou 李莫愁 who wants a love that has already been buried alive in a tomb many years ago. Yang Guo and Xiao Longnu made the right decision at the end of the novel, it seems! Yang's father's sworn brother, Guo Jing 郭靖, however, died during the war against Khublai Khan. If Lu You, too, could have his time of life and waged war against the Jin 金 and suffered the same fate as Guo Jing , perhaps we might not have the 11,000 poems that he wrote. (Though of course, Lin is just a fictional character, so the historical Wang had no one to live with at the living tomb, actually... ) We can only, therefore, listen to the Will of Heaven while doing our best. 盡人事而待天命.... By the way, I love novels that incorporate historical elements like Jin Yong's novels. Another series that I think nicely incorporated historical elements into it is Sun Hao Hui's The Great Qin Empire 孙皓晖《大秦帝国》. When asked why he, as a Xibei University professor, chose historical fiction instead of scholarly work, he replied that the novel better equips us to explore and understand the society and people of the Qin. (http://book.ifeng.com/yeneizixun/detail_2012_09/02/17286239_0.shtml)
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Thanks @spicyramen! I still have a few schools to wait for, though I'm already like "dead" like Wang Chong Yang 王重陽 and ready to live in 活死人墓. I will read all of your books when you publish, though, even if I don't go into academia!!
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Sigh. I'm done with this cycle, and won't go back to school. Lu You: "who would have thought, my heart and soul should be at Mount Tian, but I die of old age in the Province of Cang" (Lu You, 1125–1209). “此生誰料，心在天山，身老滄州。” “當年萬里覓封候 志在千里壯心憂 嘲詠風月 諷朱門沉沉酒肉臭 征人都白頭 心在天山老滄州 待得王師統九洲 墳前熱酒 祭奠此生悲愁 暮年有夢-記陸放翁 詞：麥田 後期：阿海 演唱：玖諾 十年風霜淡舊題 沈園裡 幽夢匆匆不堪憶 道是滄海水 巫山雲 橋下春波 還盼驚鴻照影 獨自行 山重水複阡陌隱 孤心賞 柳暗花明良辰景 素衣游天下 滿愁情 江山錦繡 怎可拱手讓金 誰念舊日紅酥手 淺斟一杯黃縢酒 春風太暖 不抵眼角眉梢風韻 轉瞬的回眸 也曾共剪西窗燭 也曾歆羨少年游 人終作土 唯鏡中朱顏瘦 當年萬里覓封候 志在千里壯心憂 嘲詠風月 諷朱門沉沉酒肉臭 征人都白頭 心在天山老滄州 他日王師統九洲 墳前熱酒 祭奠此生悲”
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@thesiswillbegreat Waaa! This is perfect!!! Wow sometimes I wish I were born (ancient) Chinese (not of the current era, of course, argh, but of the Han/Tang -- anything after Song is bleh...) so that I can write better poetry. I love the political implications in your poem. Wow, just wow. My hat off to you! Genius! 拜讀大作，風雅自然，涵義深淵，平仄通暢，妙絕琳琅，禀賦之高露苦功，才智超群顯詩中! Just wow!!! 拜讀先生之大作，天地人間之大樂！ I'm trying to compose one last poem, this time a lyric poem 詞, under the pen name 無官居士嶽陽子 , but I am so afraid to make technical errors (argh, why did this genre become sooooo difficult starting with the Tang-Song!!! Ancient poetry from Zhou to Han wasn't this technically rigid. Argh! ). So I'm still revising it...
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Yes, half funding and borrowed student loans the other half. But this friend didn't go to Harvard for undergrad. The one (who is now a law professor) that I also know got a FULL merit scholarship but he went to Harvard for his AB also in the EALC department. Good luck getting funding @archimon!
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I called a current RSEA student in his 1st year, and he told me he didn't get an email from the Chair (but he got a general email) so keep checking your portal and waiting!
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@costevens CONGRATS costevens! I knew from the beginning you would be admitted to Harvard.
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@SUMMER715 CONGRATS!!! This is GREAT news!!!
