awvish

UT Austin--for anyone who's interested and tearing their hair out--will have their final (I think) adcomm meeting on the 14th. I got an unofficial acceptance today (nominated for fellowship, which I hope means they're not going to change their minds...), and the DGS told me the date of the meeting. Hang in there, everyone, and best of luck!

OP--I don't think it'd be out of place to contact the POI, but it would probably help if you had some sort of plausible follow-up question so that you could avoid seeming desperate (I contacted someone like that today because I'd expected to hear from him last Thursday, and it had pretty positive results). A lot of times interviewers say something like "Please contact me if you have any other questions..." So if there's a good question or two you could ask, you could stick those in an e-mail and then casually tack on at the end something like "Also, I realize you may not be able to share any information on this, but do you have any idea when I can start expecting to hear back from the admissions committee?". Adding that you're excited about the program couldn't hurt. Good luck!

I lived in a co-op for nearly two years of undergrad (lived in an insta-community-type arts dorm for almost two years, and in a general purpose dorm for a year), and it was by *far* my favorite type of housing. It was an old, three-story house owned by the university, and there were 18 of us who lived there. We had house meetings every week, a 5-night-per-week mealplan, weekly chores, and occasional parties. I found the highest concentration of good friends there (as a vegetarian lefty, when I get the chance and with rare exceptions to both categories)--more longlasting friendships from people I met in that house than in the rest of my time as an undergrad combined. Now, I'm a bit studious and don't get out much, so that's a bit skewed as a statistic, but it's still telling anecdotally. We had problems--alarm clocks waking each other up, pot smoke affecting straightedge residents, early-to-bedders vs. beerpong-on-Tuesdayers, etc. Generally, though, it was pretty peaceful. Disadvantages are that it's hard to shift a group dynamic, the house tends (or at least tended) to get messy and grouchy around exam time, and you have to deal with things like heaters breaking and toilets malfunctioning yourself. In places with mealplan, you have to plan meals and cook (even when you're stressed out), and everyone tends to get really touchy and sleep-deprived at the same time. In general, though, I'd really recommend a co-op if you think you can deal with the close quarters. It's also good to be aware that you'll need to be ready to make concessions to people (e.g. if you smoke weed, you need to make sure that you don't disturb those who are uncomfortable with it--and if you're not comfortable with it, you need to be ready to acknowledge that some people will smell like it, even if they make sure the smoke doesn't get in the house (this was an ongoing battle for a semester in the house I was in). In fact, I'd recommend it so much that I'm looking for co-ops to apply to next fall--anyone know anything about the UT Austin and environs co-ops? Any more specific questions you have, feel free to pm me, or post on here. Finally, a topic on which I can be helpful!

I just got an acceptance to UT for next fall, and I'm interested in the co-op housing scene. I've seen the website online, but was wondering if anyone on here is a resident/has any experience with it. Also, I love cool/cold weather--I know that Austin is far enough south that it's silly to expect snow more than once in a blue moon (although I guess it just got some snow recently)...but how cold does it get in the winter? Thanks!

I had an interview with the Director of Graduate Studies and he told me I'd hear back from him last Thursday. I gave him until today, then e-mailed a general "Hi, curious about my status, any updates, had halfway expected to hear from you last Thursday," type e-mail. He got back to me within the hour, telling me he was glad I'd e-mailed, and gave me an unofficial, but very very clear acceptance (first one!). This is a special case, because it was both my POI and my interviewer (and he said he'd get back to me and didn't), but sometimes it can have good results. Good luck, everyone!

First (and constantly) I'll grin outwardly while squealing inside... Second: I'll email my LOR writers, my undergrad advisors, my family, and my friends. Third: I'll probably go sit in my hammock and fantasize about all the possibilities. Fourth: I'll go splurge at the market and buy the expensive ingredients I need to make pizza (cheese is hard to find but *so* worth it for celebrations). Then I'll make the pizza, eat it, and either ( A ) tell everyone at the regional transit house and chatter their ears off or ( B ) be inexplicably chipper until someone asks me why, and THEN chatter their ears off about it. Fifth: I'll start wondering about other offers from other places and become (once again) antsy for those decisions.

I'm currently a Peace Corps Volunteer, so if I don't get in, I might try to extend my service. (Peace Corps as an alternative takes a bit of prep time, though, and is a two-year committment, so I don't know how well it'd work for anyone who's not already in it--unless, of course, you don't mind a two-year hiatus.) I also might come back home and find some sort of expense-meeting job somewhere near where any of my past PIs work so I can volunteer in their labs. Or maybe I'll go work on my mom's organic farm. Or maybe I'll go to DC and apply for some sort of development/policy job. None of those are as exciting as starting my Ph.D, though. Best of luck, everyone!

Cooking the quinoa in any broth or stock should improve it. You can also do it the way my co-op used to cook "swamp rice"--saute garlic, dump the uncooked quinoa in, let it get coated with oil and hot, then add water and curry powder (and raisins if you're adventurous), green peppers, etc. Also, you can substitute it for rice in fried rice, or chicken soup with rice... Those are my favorites. Good luck! A dessert that I used to label as "poison" in the fridge in college so my housemates wouldn't eat it: Equal parts dark chocolate and silken tofu. Honey to taste Melt chocolate, add to tofu in a food processor, and mix until homogenous. Add honey to taste. Serve chilled. It makes a really great puddingy mousse--nobody has been able to tell that it's tofu so far.

I like "advisor" better, because it implies that the advising is the function of the person rather than one of the things they do. "Adviser" implies it's a less permanent thing, but my sophomore year high school English teacher told me it was more correct. Anyway--it's fairly academic to go into the implications, I know, but that's an aspersion that I feel like few people on here can honestly cast....

This is sort of weird...but... I find that I'm a lot more tightly wound than usual, but rather than coming out as being angrier or more short-tempered than normal...I have trouble focusing. It's like I have subject-specific ADD. A minute on the topic of anything but admissions, interviews, and obsessing about my chances and tactics and so forth, and I'm suddenly distracted. By anything. My right heel, the pattern of shadows on the wall, the birds outside, what kind of food I had for breakfast. It isn't even the thought of admissions...I just can't focus on anything very well. This would be a problem if my current job required long thinking periods.

You got it in one. Sorry that wasn't the clearest wording... Thanks so much for the advice, too. Best of luck with your applications!

I've got a bit of a dilemma, and was hoping people might have suggestions on sorting it out. I was just contacted for a phone interview at one of my top institutions--so far, so good. (YAY!) In my field, it's required to apply to a specific lab, and so in my SOP, I talked about two labs I was interested in. Lab A is one subdiscipline and lab B is another subdiscipline. There are, obviously, related aspects. My personal background (life and job experience) falls much more strongly into B, but my research experience and direction of interest is in A. My problem is, I'm almost overqualified for B, and for that precise reason, would much rather go into A (it interests me more, I'm getting burned out on aspects of B, it will be easier to switch from A to B than from B to A if I later decide that my life is not complete without more B in it, etc). I want to convey this to my interviewer (who is in neither lab and neither subfield, just a member of the adcomm), but just strongly enough that I get admitted to lab A instead of lab B. And, of course, not so strongly that I won't get into either. I suppose it's always an option to try to switch advisors once I'm in, but that seems slimy and seems like a great way of making advisor B into an enemy (or at the very least, fairly unhelpful). Help?

I'm in the same boat there. Katerific (in re Heath bars), that sounds like the best idea ever.

Hey, it's been a while since anyone posted here... I'm applying for Fall 2011 admission to behavioral ecology/chemical entomology programs with some phylogenetics, behavior, and mutualisms mixed in there too. At this point, it's just waiting left for me (I won't hear anything from anyone at least until the end of January, if not a full month later)...so, lots of time to post, refresh email, etc. Anyone else out there, EEB people?

Very Prestigious Schools: Ha. Wait, no. She's serious. She thinks that crappy grades in the field and no formal background, no GRE subject test, and a couple of mismatched majors--even from an Ivy League school...and what's this...letters from her past PIs who are totally irrelevant to her proposed field...she thinks all this makes an application?! I'd cry, if this weren't so...funny. Oh no! She's doing development work in Africa...and she took time out from doing that to apply? Wait, is she ever competent? This is just sad. Okay, okay. Focus. *Puts in the pile labeled "Waste of paper"*. Next. Not Quite As Prestigious Schools: What, does she think that just because we're not a VPS she thinks she can gatecrash us with little credentials and less evidence of competence? Puh-leeeeeeze. *Adds to the "Puh-leeze" pile*. Next.

I'm relatively lucky with parents--they don't pester me much. But my dad thinks I walk on water, and even though my mom is a little more realistic, she can't totally hide that she thinks that if I tried, I might sink only up to my ankes. They have each--individually--let slip multiple times references to "When you go to ___" and "So when I visit you at ____". Makes me sort of regret telling them my two favorite choices. But with my social group (mostly other Peace Corps Volunteers, who are really supportive but not very informed of the specifics of my field) it's nervewracking. I told them all where I was applying, and now they all think I'll definitely get in everywhere. I keep trying to explain that--as everyone else says--it's not WHEN, it's IF. But they don't listen, and while I don't mind saying that I didn't get into Harvard, I don't want to have everyone think I'm just making excuses when (I mean if) I try to explain how competitive it is afterwards. This might not even make sense. Any road, I wish they'd just put me out of my anxiety.

Running low.

I've always had a thing for (and a bit of a talent for) languages and words. When I was in...early high school...my mom got this day-by-day calendar of archaic English words. Because I've also always been something of a trickster, 'awvish' appealed to me then ("Elvish; playfully mischievous") , and became my go-to username--it's short, whimsical, and unique, as far as I can tell. My avatar is a picture of me on a cliff striking a brave-explorer pose--I took a research course in Kenya, and my friend took the picture against a skyscape we both thought was pretty incredible. I like it because yes, it does symbolize possibility and potentiality and so forth...but it's also poking fun at it. So it reminds me to take myself and my aspirations seriously, but not *too* seriously.

Balderdash, I don't know about your field, but for Harvard's OEB I was told that I can start expecting to hear back in late January or (this year) early February. Another school I applied to is a "mid-February" place, although rolling admissions mean that the person may not have basis for that assertion...

Applied to UMichigan, CU Boulder, UT Austin, UToronto, and Harvard for EEB (Ecology and Evo Bio). Wishing they'd start getting back to me--does anyone know whether they send e-mails with admit information, or if you have to rely on checking the websites? (I don't know whether there are any application status site features for the EEB departments at these places.) I'm currently away from Internet for weeks at a time, but have an even harder time getting any snail mail. It's trivial, but it's stressing me out. They do email, right? ...right? ......right?

For anyone who's curious, I heard (from my potential adviser when I went for an interview) that the person in charge of coordinating the OEB Department at Harvard isn't super invested in getting the process rolling, so to expect to hear a little bit later than average this year. (A very long disclaimer: I'm applying to Ph.D programs outside of both of my undergrad majors with a nonstellar GPA from the regional capital near my post as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Africa. I scheduled a bunch of visits on my visit home for the holidays because I knew I wouldn't be able to visit schools after admissions decisions had been made. So it's not as though official interviews have been granted from any of the places to which I applied--I just gatecrashed them.) But I wish they'd hurry up and say something. Good luck, everyone!

I'm currently serving in the Peace Corps, and am also applying for grad school programs in Behavioral Ecology (totally unrelated to what my Peace Corps job is). I could easily get a really great recommendation from my Country Director, but I know I can also get good letters from: --A friend (a professor) who is also my undergraduate advisor from a fairly prestigious university --A different friend (also a professor) in whose lab I did minor research assistant work for a few semesters, from the same university --Two professors I worked for in an REU one summer, from two other universities I'm not sure where to pull from--since the REU professors are actually related to my field, I will probably ask them, but as for the third letter, is it better to go with another professor who has known me for longer, or pull the Peace Corps card? Thanks for your input!

I've got a problematic situation, too. I had some bad grades early in intro bio my freshman year, then did two summers of research in ecology, and took a field class in the same subject. A year after graduation (I'm in the Peace Corps right now), I realized I wanted to get a Ph.D in behavioral ecology...but I don't have the background or the grades to back this up officially. Can I rely on my research experience (and publications) or should I spend a year catching up? Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!