qbtacoma

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFsRnXnb2mk The joke starts at 1:45.

dangerous liaisons

Eeee baby birds! Sexing chicks is one of those weird jobs that I secretly want to do (but, apparently, it is very highly skilled). I don't even know if sexing ducklings is a thing, but they are the pinnacle of cute so I want to do that even more. BTW surprisecake, a few weeks ago your username inspired me to surprise my roommates with a cake. It had sprinkles.

dirty minds

carnivorous beasts

Why? People are meeting them in a professional capacity. Yeah, there's a little bit of the starry-eyed going on, because we want to be like these folks eventually (TT jobs! Cool theories!), but it's not like folks are saying rude things.

Any field which creates/interprets cultural value has, I think, the burden of responsibility for creating cultural attitudes. Propaganda is the most direct example of a negative effect, but cultural values are created in every field. Think, for example, of the current canonization of the Founding Fathers, which is supposed to provide guidance about modern day moral issues ("The Founding Fathers were Christians who created a Christian nation and to really inherit the nation's spirit we've gotta make life shit for everyone else!" "No, the Founding Fathers respected Islam!" "No, the Founding Fathers were secretly atheist!").

In the meantime, we still have to pay for it.

black list

I hope so!

Yes. You have, perhaps, the best reason possible for W grades (that is, no one will doubt your character/ability to handle stress with this reason). Unless the programs explicitly say they won't admit anyone with grades lower than 3.X, X>1, you are more than competitive. Just make sure you explain the bad patch in your SOP. A sentence or two will do it.

anaerobic exercise

super freak

penultimate report

That's the way I read the question too. I chose funding over prestige. Honestly, the choices I made in the application process were all around whether I liked a professor's work - I didn't think about prestige as much, and so I picked a lot of young faculty. They just don't have the publication history yet. So I can't say this is a dilemma that I've set up for myself.

I see where you are trapped here - you need professors to write two of your three letters, but you have been out of school for so long that this professor cannot honestly write you a good letter. As someone else said, see if you can sit down and talk about your goals with him. Other things you can do: send him a summary of your work in class to jog his memory, your resume, and a draft of your SOP (but don't necessarily ask for his feedback on this, this is for his information only). Try to give him a handle of who you are and what led you to applying to graduate school at this time. At worst, he will only write the useless letter. At best, your information will trigger something specific about you in his memory, or he can talk about his new impressions of you. It still won't be a great letter, but it will be better than he could have done. I'm sure he feels bad that he can't give you a better one.

dire motive

So I guess they're not looking for an application from you in the future, huh?

Thank you so much!

Congratulations to all the recent acceptances!

Swiss guard

real change

"But but but I did good on the test, how come I'm not handed everything! What else is there but tests!" I feel mean now, but really.

free coffee

You know, I actually think this was a good debate, apart from the tone.