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fuzzylogician

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Everything posted by fuzzylogician

  1. There's lots of advice already on this website, as well as elsewhere. One important piece of adult wisdom is knowing how to use it -- use the search function to find relevant information here and elsewhere, and come back with more detailed questions. That will increase the likelihood that you'll get replies. (= help us help you!) What you're asking now will require a whole lot of time to answer, and not everyone will want to spend that time on this question, given that we've already answered it multiple times in the past. Another piece of advice is to start creating a network. Reach out to current students at your program to find out information about where students live, how much rent costs, if anyone is looking for a roommate, when is the right time to search (the housing market might have a yearly cycle and you'll need to know when leases tend to begin to know when apartments go on the market). More experienced students will have all of this information at their fingertips and some will be willing to help, I'm sure.
  2. I give the fellowship/grant name, a short description, and a dollar amount for large amounts (over $5000). I try to make sure that the name + details aren't more than 2 lines per entry. I separate internal from external grants -- both so there is no deception and it's easy to separate the more competitive from the less competitive awards, and also because with time I expect not to list as many (or any) of them, at some point.
  3. That's a first...
  4. Maybe, unclear. But your behavior today isn't helping anything. Friends, no need to create new reports. We are aware of this situation and are taking care of it. Congratulations to those who got accepted and good luck to those still waiting.
  5. Here's the thing. I don't know how we're supposed to verify whether or not this poster is telling lies when we're talking about acceptance notifications; we don't know if they are all sent at the same time and the fact that someone -- or even everyone -- here hasn't received any emails tells us nothing about the veracity of this claim. If you can show us actual proof that that's happening, as opposed to reporting accusations that aren't backed up by any evidence we can check, then we can talk again. (Tagging @rising_star, @Eigen, and @TakeruK here, for good measure; I'm about to go off the grid for a bit and I don't want this discussion to get lost.)
  6. Just popping back in to ask everyone to calm down, relax, and ignore anyone who is posting things you disagree with or find offensive. If you're not familiar with it, this board has a quite useful "Ignore User" function, so you don't even have to see content from someone, if you'd rather not. Please do that instead of generating multiple reports and starting fights on the board. I'd hate to have to lock this thread, too.
  7. Alright, so for a smaller specialist audience, one thing you might consider is rotating presentations by group members (when there is something to present, and you should know that people will often not volunteer but will agree to present if you ask them, so as the organizer this will be an ongoing task for you), presentations by invited speakers if you happen to get someone passing through town, and otherwise you might pick a topic and either read papers on that topic, or in one group I'm in we choose a book we want to read per semester and go through the chapters 1-2 at a time any week that we don't have a presentation. Also, cookies. It's inexpensive and it'll go well with coffee. If you bring a box and pass it around once or twice during the talk, I'm sure people will take some. When you have your organizational meeting, you want to explain the goals of the group -- likely to provide a venue for people to stay in touch with developments in their field, and a low-stress option for presenting new and ongoing work. Discuss a theme, ask for volunteer presenters, but to set the tone, you might want to get a few of your colleagues to give presentations like you'd want the group to have (and maybe you give one), so people see what you are envisioning. Also, so they have time to start thinking about what they'd like to present. Another option is to meet every other week, so it's easier to find presenters and it's not as time consuming.
  8. There will often be more things going on than time you want to spend at these events. It's okay -- even encouraged -- to triage and only do some things. You shouldn't feel bad about it! Time management is an important skill to learn. You pick the events that help you most, and skip some of the others; you might choose the ones that could help your research or that are most related to it (that's the most obvious), but that's not the only consideration. Think about big vs small event: the small ones might get into more interesting and in-depth discussions, and might be a good way to meet and interact with people in your subfield. Bigger events will give you more of an opportunity to be visible and network, but might be less relevant to your interests*. Also consider the speaker and your progress in your program; earlier on, general purpose talks by invited specialists might be a good way to get exposed to new subfields, even if you don't think they interest you -- you never know. Later on, more specialized talks might make more sense, but I still think it's important to stay connected with what's going on in other subfields, to learn about new methodologies, etc, even if they're not relevant to my own work in any way. For things you miss, I often find that writing the speaker a personalized email to apologize for having had to skip their talk is a good way to stay visible (to them) and not feel as bad about not going to something I would have wanted to (and might have been expected to) go to. (Also to some extent, the buddy system mentioned above, but I think you can only rely on others so much). * the myth of only attending talks in one's area! sigh. I think it creates narrow-minded scientists and should be abolished from people's minds. After all, you want to be able to converse with colleagues in other subfields and have a general sense of what's going on there. I'm not saying you should know the most cutting edge new developments, but attending a colloquium talk by a famous invited speaker once every few weeks won't kill you!
  9. There is no set formula for generating "hotness". What will work will depend on the circumstances -- your participants, your goals, your physical settings (room, time of day, etc). Different formats will work for different people and different goals, so it might help to know more about who you are aiming for and how many people you expect to get. A good format for a group of 10-15 specialists is very different than what would work for 50 non-specialists. So, give us more information, and we might be able to give you better advice. But .. free food. That always helps.
  10. I would not mention you past in your SOP unless it's relevant to your proposed research. The SOP is a professional document about what you want to study and why Awesome U is a a good fit for your interests. You might consider mentioning this in an addendum or personal statement (or in the "is there anything else you'd like to tell us" field that you often find in applications), if you think it'll come up and you want to explain it yourself. If you do apply under your old name, will your current name appear in transcripts or anywhere else the adcom might have access to? I do think it's a fair assumption that someone might google you, so if you worry that if it's found out it'll hurt you, it might be best to just get in front of it early.
  11. I assume he didn't mention it to you because it wasn't something he could share with you at that point. As an academic, he needs to make decisions about his career and negotiate an offer, formally accept it, and inform his current/old employer before it makes any sense to tell a prospective student. At this level, some people don't make it known that they've applied, let alone been offered a position, before they make a decision to move; there is a lot of politics involved, and you're not going to share that with someone you've never met. Yes, this obviously affects students, but this is how it's done. I think he's being very nice to inform you as soon as he could and to give you options (though I think it's unfair to put the decision on you, but that's a different story). I do agree with your current profs that it's not clear that he could take NSF funding with him to NZ; but if he's willing to make arrangements to bring you over and fund you, and that sounds good to you, that's probably a good deal. This person sounds like a good advisor, from what you've described here.
  12. Not deleted, but moved (as we always do with posts that are posted in the wrong forums).
  13. Honestly, I would learn from this not to put together half-assed abstracts, but this can sometimes happen even if you are careful and take your time; mistakes happen, and sometimes it's just the case that between submitting the abstract and presenting the work you've learned new facts, run new analyses, or otherwise changed how you think about the data. That's fine. You just present whatever is the latest development, even if it's quite different from the original. That's all part of the natural development of science. At least in my field, you wouldn't change the abstract and you wouldn't withdraw it unless something went very wrong, but you'd just update the actual presentation.
  14. My advice: surf some academics' websites, both junior and senior, to find a format(s) you like, and make your own. There is no one correct way to go about this, and I personally don't think I know anyone who uses a generic template like you describe.
  15. Moving to another country comes with the obvious difficulties that you might imagine -- it's a new culture, education system, etc. You won't have the language barrier that many international students have, but still, you'll have to figure out everything from the currency and tipping and the banking system to which brand of toilet paper you like, and everything in between. You won't have a credit history, you'll be away from your family and friends, you'll be in a new health system that might not be obvious, and at the same time you'll be starting a PhD program and will need to figure that out, too. It's a lot, but it's something that a lot of people successfully navigate every year. If you do get admitted to a PhD program, you'll also get funding that should be sufficient to live on, so that doesn't need to be a concern. I'm not sure what you mean by what the benefits would be; you'll be a funded PhD student, presumably in a good program that can support your research interests and train you for your chosen career. If you want to have a career in academia, you'll need to think about whether you'll want to have that back home or somewhere else, and then I'd suggest looking at the website of the relevant universities and seeing who they have hired recently and where they got their degrees from. If you want to go into practice, you'll need to figure out certification. I would imagine that there is a process, but it may take some time or require some local examinations. That's definitely something to figure out before making any decisions.
  16. In fact, both @TakeruK and I are moderators but not admins, and therefore can't deactivate accounts. You need to reach out to @bgk or @rising_star.
  17. I replied to a very similar question in another thread recently. Here is the thread; there are some very good suggestions from other posters on what you might want to ask. You don't need to ask all these things, obviously. Mainly, your goal is to have a conversation and get a sense for how you and your potential advisor get along.
  18. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what+is+a+qq+number
  19. I'd encourage you to reach out and not only correspond but ask for a Skype conversation. That will give you a much better sense of how you would get along with this potential advisor. If you're going to spend that much money on a degree, you should at least know that you'll get the kind of advising and support you need. When you email to ask for this meeting, you could also ask to be put in touch with some of her current advisees. I'd then reach out to them and again ask to chat on Skype. People are much more forthcoming when you speak to them in person and there is no record of what they said; especially if there is something negative to be said, most people would not want to write it down and send it to someone they hardly know. Either way, you should definitely have some contact with every person who is a potential advisor; since you want to get a PhD, presumably there should be three people writing you LORs, or maybe two + one from your undergrad. Talk to everyone you might want to work with. You're an admitted student now; they will want to recruit you and should make an effort to connect with you. (Note: I'm saying this irrespective of the question of doing unfunded degrees in the Humanities, which I am generally against. But in some cases it may be unavoidable, and regardless you should make smart decisions based on all the information you can gather.)
  20. Does younger PIs at school B mean untenured? What are your options if someone you're counting on doesn't get tenure? (Or, if they just take another offer and leave?) If they are relatively inexperienced, is there any kind of placement track record for you to look at? Have they trained students who've successfully graduated and gotten jobs like you'd like to have? If you are confident that school B can provide a solid training and you're not sacrificing more than you are comfortable with, life considerations are important. If, on the other hand, this will lead to a serious compromise, it's something to be very aware of so you don't resent your partner later. I find the coin-toss method pretty effective. Or, alternatively, spend some time thinking "I'm going to school A/B!" and see how that makes you feel. Are you happy, or regretting your decision?
  21. Oh, you deserve to be tired and upset. Don't take anything I said to mean that you shouldn't take some time to heal. The application process can be long and very much anxiety inducing. Take your time, you need and deserve it. And good luck.
  22. For what it's worth, I understand feeling this way, but at some point you'll need to decide to be happy with the option that you have. Being miserable because you didn't get your top choice is fine for a bit but isn't really a good life choice. You have funding and good supervisors, and I hope you'll like the work you do. You might learn to like the place, but even if not, keep in mind that (i) it's temporary, and (ii) regardless of where we live, we end up really only living in the small confines of our home and work, and as long as you make your home and work pleasant, a lot of the other stuff doesn't need to bother you too much, unless you choose to let it (and to a large extent it is a choice!). As for leaving a program mid-way through, it depends on what you'd leave it for. I left an MA program mid-way through to start a PhD program at a top school, and it hasn't hurt me. Stopping and starting another MA might be a different story. But before you make plans for leaving, I suggest you make a serious effort at making yourself happy where you are and planning on staying. Otherwise, I really don't see the point in going in the first place. Nothing good can come out of going to a place you've already decided is horrible.
  23. Take your time to mourn for this year, but then it'll be time to regroup and look for options that have better funding options for next year. Those do exist in linguistics, but you have to know where to find them. Stay strong! (And in case this helps, look for posts in the Linguistics board from a not-at-all-happy former Oxford student, to see that you may have dodged a bullet!)
  24. Well, since you're restricted in terms of location, you might as well start making local connections. Is there a way you could start showing up to public lectures (colloquia and such)? Or look into getting to know the professors and seeing if anyone might support an independent project? Are there opportunities for you to work/volunteer in a lab to gain some of that missing research experience? I would imagine the main concern any admissions committee will have is how you know that you actually want this degree, given that you have no background in the field, and also no research experience of any kind. There will be questions of your fit with the department and your readiness for the degree in general. If they are to invest in your funding and training, you'll want to know that it's a good investment. Start by figuring out how you'll answer those questions in a well-crafted SOP. You'll also want to think about where you'll get LORs that will address your research abilities and fit with the degree you're pursuing. Since you're starting from a less than perfect position, one thing you may need to take advantage of is your physical proximity to these schools; if they know you in person, it may help mitigate some of those concerns.
  25. Yeah, no. It's unprofessional and I would not be okay with it. Same as I would not be okay with someone bringing a random friend of theirs to class, especially when students are presenting, without asking me first. It's one thing if they're quiet and in the back while I lecture, but it's completely different if they are actually interacting with students or cuddling during class! (I would not be okay with anyone "snuggling" in my classes, btw). I think now would be the time to gently bring this up with your assistant TA and ask him not to do this again.
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