Hi everybody, mind if I join you? I'm a physics/astro student... in daily life there's nobody I can talk to about this, because (like most other physics people, maybe like you too) I'm determined to be cool under pressure / tough / able to handle anything. People generally drop by my desk and say things like "Have you heard back yet?" but nothing more or less. I like chatting about this kind of stuff since I am interested in human behavior and how people deal with stress..so thanks for reading. Maybe we could chat or something and make friends if you drop me a message You all seem like really nice people, and we are in this together, until the very end.
For physics/astro people like me, it currently feels like the calm before the storm. Gradcafe results.. there are almost none for physics yet. But if you look on the physics gre website, there are ~ 30 people online, presumably reading the forum.... it's tense! This tension is interesting in itself, regardless of the outcome. What will come next?
I think it might be useful if we all swapped 'survival tips' that eased the stress of waiting.
Something that works for me is this saying: "If you haven't given up yet and you are still trying, nobody can tell you that you have failed." Also the general idea is that it's an endurance test, and that you have to have an independent, strong and calm mind in order to succeed.
In the day, what helps me with the waiting is doing research while listening to calm music. I recommend LOTR soundtrack, available on youtube
Other things that currently help me are: taking long sleeps (8 hours at least) at night, and doing something fun and relaxing before sleep such as watching youtube videos to distract from the waiting. I recommend David Blaine's specials (which are on youtube)...he's a magician who always thinks of unexpected and daring tricks to do. One special is called 'Beyond Magic', it's really very good and makes me forget about all of this grad school stuff temporarily!
