HappyCat

When I deem the reasons legitimate (e.g. my mother was very sick and I had to go visit them and miss classes, assignments, etc), then I don't feel guilty. That said, I finish the work almost immediately when the issue is fixed. If I'm just being lazy, then, yes, I feel guilty and then I remedy it. EDIT: And I consider it dishonest to say you're busy if you're not. But as I said in an earlier post--Catholic upbringing! Sometimes I get a brain-freeze and can't work on a particular academic thing--like my thesis--for some time. But then I find something else that I can do to help me get through my brain freeze (clean, cook, work on another assignment, etc).

Yup, Catholic upbringing here, too.

I would never do that. Frankly, I try to stay busy because I fall into a rut in which I do nothing but watch television and meander online. It makes me irritable, depressed, want to go out less, and less focused. It's one thing to take a day to regroup, but at that point I would shoot my adviser an email and tell him I'm ready to help out, do work, etc. I also wonder if there's a correlation between your other post about asking others to repeat themselves in conversation and not focusing by doing extraneous web-browsing etc. Again, I find myself less focused when I spend an inordinate amount of time online. I suppose the way I view it is this: If I feel dishonest/guilty, then I'm doing something that I shouldn't be (according to my own moral and ethical codes), so I don't do it. Simple as that.

I'll be doing CCCC again this year, but this is the last one for awhile--I've been to 4 the past year and have had no reimbursement. :-(

I'm on my department's listserv and between that, my two 18C listservs, and the college in general, I woke up to the lovely number "(9)" in my gmail. I freaked. I thought somehow I got like 6 notifications at 2:30 in the morning. So pathetic.

For me, it generally depends on who it is. Younger faculty I tend to call by first name--not out of disrespect--but I tend to have more informal relationships with them as well. Some explicitly tell me "Call me <firstname>." Others I have taken to calling them "Prof. <lastname>" in the classroom and by their first names outside of the classroom. Older professors I always call professor. However, outside of the classroom and such, I typically call professors by just their last name (especially if it's two syllables--I don't know, it just sounds good lol). One time, when I was saying goodbye to my thesis adviser (and LOR writer), I said "I'll see you later, <lastname>" and forgetting to say the title! I was so embarrassed but he just said "See you around, <mylastname>!" Hahaha EDIT: I was also in an MA program and am a bit older, and I teach at the school as well, so I frequently had this weird student/friend/colleague thing going on, which is another reason I flip-flop between names so much,

You also may want to check out CUNY's Journalism program if you want to be in NYC. http://www.journalism.cuny.edu/

My parents live in upstate NY, and I live in NYC. The farthest I applied is the mid-west (logistics of where my husband could get a job, etc. played into my app process). At any rate, there were some issues where ETS didn't send my GRE scores to Indiana, and I was complaining to my mom about it. She says: "Good. Hopefully now you won't get in." Now, I understand she doesn't want me to move far away, but it was so incredibly insulting and hurtful for her to hope that I don't even get accepted. In terms of that kind of response, I understand how you might feel.

Since I finished my MA last semester, I'm focusing on miscellaneous things: Learn a foreign language, work on an article, teaching (freshman comp) for the semester. But the real thing I'll be doing is selling my apartment, buying a house, and moving into my new home :-)

You are my HERO. Can we get this pamphlet stickied somewhere? And can you put this as a publication in your CV?

I wonder if it's the same reason people have put Jedi School, Drag U, and some universe of life nonsense. It really, REALLY irks me.

I'll be 25 but turning 26 shortly after starting the fall semester. It took me a little while to finish my BA (I transferred and lost a lot of credits) and then I did an MA. Plus I've always been a bit older than most students since I have a winter birthday.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't modify this recipe from allrecipes.com. But my modifications take it from good to great ;-) Chicken Pot Pie 1/2-3/4 lb cubed chicken breasts 1 cup sliced carrots 1 cup frozen green peas 1/2 cup diced celery 1/2-3/4 cup cubed potatoes (really depends how deep your pie dish is) 1/3 cup butter 1/3 cup diced onion 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 2 cans chicken broth (measured as 1 can for now and 1 3/4 cup for later) 2/3 cup milk Pillsbury Pie Crusts (because after all this--I'm lazy) Bell's Turkey Seasoning to taste (super-important lol) http://www.bellsseasonings.com/BellsSeasoning.html Salt and Pepper to taste Preheat oven to 425 Cook chicken, peas, celery, potatoes, and carrots in a pot or (preferably) a dutch oven with a can of chicken broth and the rest water until it is covered. Once boiling, lower heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 15 minutes. Strain when done. In a saucepan, cook onions in butter. Lower temp to low/med. Slowly add and stir in flour (it'll become lumpy and like a ball). Add chicken broth and milk, being careful not to make it lumpy (stir it in slowly!). Season with turkey seasoning, salt, and pepper to taste. Put a pie crust in the bottom of your pie dish. Be sure to leave some room at the edges to attach to the top crust. Dump your chicken and veggies in the pie dish and spread them out evenly. Pour the yummy gravy stuff on top (it'll seep it's way down). Bake for 30-35 minutes (may be more or less, gas vs. electric etc). Cool. Eat! Takes me about an hour and a half top to bottom (including all the dicing and such). Pain in the butt, but my husband and family request it all the time :-)

Also, are there close-by schools with other MA programs? You may be able to join "groups" from other schools with similar interests. For example: NYU, Columbia, and CUNY Grad Center share an eighteenth century literature group. Could you socialize with grads at other schools? I'm a bit surprised about the description of your grad program. Did you know what you were getting into when you applied? Did you research the school thoroughly before accepting?

I highly suggest using the Powerprep if you can (alas, it doesn't seem to like 64-bit computer software) because it uses the adaptive software that you will experience during the GRE. Non-adaptive practice exams don't give you a real sense of your scoring (e.g. I would typically score high 400s, low 500s in those practice exams and received a 640 in math. And I'm not a math person.). Another suggestion is--if you have no clue what to do at ALL--just guess and move on. Don't even waste your time. The first time I took the GRE I panicked when I ran into a problem I didn't understand and tried to figure it out. After about seven minutes on it, I realized what little time I had left and spent the few remaining minutes essentially having a panic attack. You're not going to magically "learn" how to solve the problem in that time frame, so just move on. With the adaptive test, if you're getting most 500-600 range questions right, they won't immediately bump you down to 200-400 level questions. You usually get at least one more chance to redeem yourself at that level before it moves down, so it's worth not totally wasting your time. Also, I know you don't have much time, but I found the Manhattan GRE books incredibly helpful (and it comes with adaptive testing software to download). Each mini-book is a specific aspect of math or verbal, so I bought the books of things with which I had problems and it helped a lot. Manhattan makes great GMAT books, but the GRE ones are new to them, having only come out this past fall.

I wish I could un-learn this idea. I, too, should know in the next couple weeks. GAH.

Every time I think "Oh no, I won't hear until March! Ugh!" I then think "Thank GOD February has only 28 days!"

I have a few methods (bear in mind, I'm an English lit. person): Hard copies of journal articles etc. go into a three ring binder sorted by content of article (about a particular author, about a particular book, about a particular theme), then date. Oldest goes towards the back, newest in front. Notes I write from library books/books I cannot write in go into a Moleskine with colored post-its indicating how it's useful (pink = ch 1 of my thesis, etc). Moleskine goes in the binder. C:/Documents--Folder for classwork. Inside classwork is a folder for each semester. Inside each semester is a folder for each class. Inside those folders are my docs for that course. C:/Documents--Folder for classes I'm teaching. Folder for each course (e.g. Eng 110), then semesters inside that folder. C:/Documents--Folder for research. Folder for Thesis inside, divided by readings, chapters, etc. Also folders for misc. research and articles I'm working on for publication. Also, I LIVE on dropbox.com. I can super easily access and back up my stuff on it! You know, I never thought I was freakishly organized until I started writing all of this!

Although I'm in English, when I defended my thesis, I was told by many of my (closer) faculty that it was nothing to worry about--that they would ask about my methodology, how I got to my argument, etc. It was not that easy. I was asked a lot of nuanced questions about my particular text and questions about texts that were tangentially related to my thesis. However, while that may seem quite a bit tougher than just discussing the process, I found that not only did I have answers to their questions, but I really knew the material. It made me really confident, proud and happy of my work. I'm sure you'll experience the same! Good luck!

Any moms here? I'll be considering starting a family while doing a PhD--how do these things fare for mothers?

Also, from an admissions perspective, the professor may not be able to say much: if the professor seems interested, it could be misconstrued as an "in"--and it would be in writing. This could be problematic for the school if you opted to press the issue after a positive response. I view it like a celebrity saying "No comment." It doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. It's completely neutral.

SUNY and CUNY are different--State University of NY vs. City University of NY. SUNY schools can offer PhD programs in their individual campuses (e.g. Stony Brook, Albany), but CUNY only offers PhDs through their Graduate Center. Since I said I applied to CUNY--not SUNY Stony Brook--I won't be able to help you. However, you can always contact the graduate admissions counselors to ask about your status (and this goes for any school, really).

I absolutely agree and am actually a bit offended. Perhaps I'm being selfish, but if you applied to the English PhD programs to which I am applying and got a spot over me--someone who's worked hard in an MA, gone to conferences, taught classes, wrote an extensive thesis in a rigorous field of study--I would be heartbroken. If English isn't your thing, don't go for it. If music isn't your thing, don't go for it. You already have a degree in engineering--why don't you think about what you want to do professionally? Perhaps engineering plus "Degree X" will help you achieve LIFE goals such as future employment, instead of something so short-focused. Also, I'm not entirely sure anyone here will tell you an "easy-in" school. Why? Most of us apply to more difficult schools that have rigorous requirements.

I'd still consider business casual. No tie, button shirt, khakis/slacks. In NYC "casual" does not mean the same as some other places. My husband, for example, had to head out to Indiana for a business-casual event, and some people were in jeans and polo shirts. Also, if you're coming any time soon, be forewarned that we have a LOT OF SNOW right now (/facepalm), so you may want to go with darker pants.

My general rule of thumb is something I gained from my business-oriented husband: If you were on an elevator with the CEO of the company, what are the most important things you could tell him in that 30 second ride down? Likewise, what are the most important things you can say about yourself in 30 seconds? I don't like jumping into the research right away, so I break the ice with explaining why my name rhymes (seriously, my first and last name rhyme): "It's my married name, and it was a choice." Always fun :-D Little background info, and then how I got to where I am academically and professionally.