Amogh

I find this interesting. Never had that issue. Most of the profs in my department wear Jeans and a shirt/tee to every event except the HoD. Well, most of my friends are in the Hard Sciences as you call them. I'm in CS. They wear Jeans, sneakers and whatever they can scoop out of the closet for a top. Some tend to dress extra creatively, most just wear a t-shirt with a funny message or something. Most people don't care what you wear to school, as long as you don't stink. Many people don't leave the lab for days and being around their stench can be quite a challenge!

Well, Computer Science is partly an Engineering discipline so I'll take a crack at answering your question. If your peers are anything like mine, they couldn't care less if you are gay or straight. You should just act normal and mention it at some point in conversation like some of the other posters said. Personal relationships are mostly a thing that only come up during the occasional social events so most people don't bother sharing most of the time.

I watched it last Friday. I thought it was pretty interesting. More of a "this is what we think the state of the system is, make your own decisions kind of thing". Didn't do any favors to MOOCs or Udacity, not that I'm complaining. There really needs to be a movie on Grad school though. Ivory Tower should really have been about grad school. Or they should have named it differently.

Wow that's a lot of very useful info. Thanks a lot! I should get down to doing that. That's true, the only reason I haven't got one till now. However, I'm tempted to say screw it and get one to ride on any day there isn't ice on the road (essentially that means putting it in storage from Dec to April). Lol, I wish it was possible to relocate the school. Nice.. That M4 exhaust probably means your ear drums are going to burst, though. Never understood why people change exhausts but to each his own...

How much do you guys pay for insurance! I'm 23 and I will have to get a local license before I buy my car (NY allows me to rent cars on my indian license for like forever so I didn't bother till now). Got some quotes online and boy were did they burst my bubble! I'm being quoted idiotic rates, $200+ p.m. on any kind of car I put in, be it Mazda Mazda3, Nissan Altima etc or a BMW 325ci! I don't see how anyone can afford to pay for that and the car.. Looks like no car for me till I turn 25 then.. Heck motorbike insurance is $20 p.m. in comparison.

The GSX-650F is in the same range as the GSX-R600 etc. The R is meant to mean Racing spec. Those bikes (especially the 600cc ones which is the general engine capacity most races specify) can with very little modifications (essentially safety stuff to meet the requirements) be used to race in MotoGP! Someone actually did recently, last year I think. He even finished in the top 10th. The GSX is just a style moniker. This bike is essentially a Bandit 650 with fairing and sportier setup. So it's in the sport touring category. I'm not ready for a SuperSport. Don't think I'll ever be. They're too uncomfortable anyways.

SV650 is a nice bike. I hope you have ridden quite a bit before because it does put out quite a bit of power and torque. Cracked fairing should be fine. I'm thinking of getting a gsx650f myself. Well there are quite a few other costs (gear can set you back a cool $1000 you know, helmet, gloves, boots and a jacket) Oh and 24k miles means new tires soon unless they were changed very recently. Road trips... Ah, the pleasures of the open road.

@Lifesaver, Didn't look at your profile pic while I was reading through because there were like 40 messages pending by the time I logged in. Hence I wasn't sure who mentioned the Jeep.

Fork bends are indeed risky things to call because there are many ways you can patch up a fork to hold it together but it won't be aligned and won't move freely so if you jam the front brake you can be thrown off the bike due to uneven fork action. However, having said that, if you can find one that had a fork that had a minor bend and that was hammered out, it isn't a complete deal breaker.

bhr and rising_star, 50k for a car? No sir, you've got me wrong I'm afraid. I'm looking at ooooold cars for like 8k. Tons of them on CL from 2002 to 2006! Lol.

That's a lot of responses. From what I can make out the common themes here appear to be: Most people seem to be buying new cars This surprised me. I expected to hear a lot more stories of how people either bought lemons or diamonds on craigslist. Japanese cars seem to be very popular (not surprising) reliable good fuel efficiency More people seem to be buying on loan than cash (again not surprising if buying a new car). Sedans and SUVs seem to be the most popular. I'm really drawn to luxury sport cars like the Acura TL, BMW M3, Infiniti G35, etc used of course. Anyone walked this path before and have anything to contribute? Also, we haven't touched on any American cars, other than one person talking about his/her Jeep. Buick has been getting the most reliable car title from JD Power Auto Surveys for the last 3-4 years beating the likes of Nissan and Acura. That has to mean something I guess? Does anyone drive a pickup? Any thoughts on that? I'm sick of getting into standard cars and not being able to sit straight in the passenger's seat (the driver's seat generally has height adjustment, although the sun visor is just plain useless to me in just about all of them). I hear fuel efficiency is a major concern in this category.

I am looking to get a motorcycle here too. I haven't cos I started off in an MS program and was broke till I converted to the PhD program recently. However, the car seems so much more sensible a decision because of the weather around where I live (frozen at least 5 months a year). But OMG riding again! ( goes off to a corner to drool about riding on the open road again)... Salvage bikes... Hmmm... It's a little hard to say mate. Bikes are much easier to work on that cars in my opinion but having said that, a poorly welded part is also putting your life on the risk more than in a car to some extent. Rebored engines are a pain in the ass because if the rebore wasn't done well or the pistons sealed properly etc you could have a block that will seize up. If you know your way around tools, or have a friend who knows bikes, you could get a salvaged bike and save a ton of money. There seem to be a ton of bikes with clean titles on CL however so might want to just consider one of those.

I've been a motorbike guy most of my driving-age life (not here with all this snow). Looking to buy a car now. Did some googling and I'm surprised that there isn't a single post relevant to buying a car in grad school. Tons for undergrads and new grads though but I don't feel like we are well represented by either group. SO lets make one here. What do you guys and girls look for in a car (in grad school of course)? How much did you spend (or are considering spending/ think you can take on comfortably)? anything else you think is relevant.

I'm joining a new lab. We literally got our lab space allocated to us today! My advisor was asking me what I want in the lab so I figured I'll sample what cool stuff people have in their labs and compile a list of what this room should have. SO, What do you have in your lab? What's cool about your lab?

Short version: Nope. Long version: As long as you don't mind sitting in a class with people 20 years younger, no. The flip-side is that you bring experience to the table, something none of us have, so you will soon see yourself treated as a sort of a guru on all things 'work'. . I think you should go for it if you want to but is there a really strong motivation behind this sudden decision? An MS mostly doesn't add much to your profile given (i'm assuming) you've got at least 10+ years of experience as a programmer? Most Master's degrees are academic not industry oriented so you'll find that things that you may not have used in your work for the last couple of years are suddenly the focus of study and it may or may not exactly be beneficial to you. That said if you are interested in moving to advanced development jobs, an MS may be the way to go. Think your options through and if you think it will be rewarding go for it. Age is not a determining factor at all.