HandsomeNerd

Are there any good online programs for any degree?

...and the plot thickens.

/popcorn

...and the plot thickens.

/popcorn

...and the plot thickens.

/popcorn

As you acknowledge, it is ill-advised to change your long-term career goals for the sake of a relationship this young. I would suggest just enjoying the relationship for what it is, as it is happening, and not thinking too deeply about the future. If it turns out that you can't stay together, then you will have made wonderful memories without regret; and if you do get to be together, great! However, some folks don't like to be in a relationship at all unless they know there is a decent chance of being together in the long term, so this advice wouldn't work for you if that is your preferred relationship style.

ETA: Rereading this, it doesn't actually give you advice on the question you ask, so here's what I think: don't talk about it until a choice is actually before you, i.e. there's an offer to go to the job/school. I think this because if you talk about it beforehand, it will distract from enjoying the relationship in the moment. Again, though, this method may or may not work for you.

On eink and pdf: For those of you who primarily read research articles published on the journal's website, the program Calibre mentioned earlier in the thread is able to convert HTML to the output formats it supports (including epub and mobi). So instead of clicking over to the pdf just hit File -> Save on the full article's page and shoot that over to Calibre. I works fine for the journals I've checked out without many formatting problems (sometimes one extra page that's from the sidebar or something). Also, I'd recommend to click the option to NOT split on page breaks, since I found it slows things down a lot (on my phone's ebook reader anyway). This way you don't need to worry about zooming in and navigating a PDF that was designed to be read on 8.5x11" paper.

On iPad and Android Tablets: I had an iPad 1 for about a year (gave it away) and personally found that the size and weight made it a bit awkward for reading, it's not a problem for many though so just go to the store and get a feel for it. I currently have an ASUS Transformer which, while a lot of fun to use, I will be returning because the 16:9 form factor on a 10 inch screen is really weird in portrait mode. Landscape is fine (and unlike the iPad videos are able to actually fit the whole screen). I haven't experienced any limitations due to the Android app selection but I've never been one to download a ton of apps to begin with, especially since the mobile app world (even for iOS) feels so much less mature.

I'm glad you brought this up, strangefox. I'm almost into my second year as a MA student and still struggle with the best way to read texts, scholarly articles, reviews, and the like. I read slow, but it's mostly because I'm trying to summarize in my head AND jot down relevant notes. It's hard to move forward when you are constantly writing.

Everyone's got some great suggestions. I try to read in 30 minute bursts since I start getting vertigo if I focus my eyes on something too long (I know, weird). I also forget to eat and drink if I'm too into my studying. So I set a timer for 30 minutes - read, take notes - and then give myself about 10 minutes to get up and do something physical or other chores, like laundry, dishes, or walking to the mailbox.

I have a worksheet that I found on a defunct study skills website (adapted by David Rudge) that I use sometimes when reading. I continually tweak it to suit my needs. I'm pasting it here because I don't think we can attach word files. It's too lengthy, yet I think it works well if cut down a bit. If anyone wants it, I'll be happy to send the file to them.

CITATION HERE

PART I. WHAT THE AUTHOR REALLY SAID

TITLE OF ARTICLE / REVIEW AND FROM WHAT JOURNALS, ETC:

AUTHOR(S) OF ARTICLE / REVIEWERS:

TOPIC / SUBJECT:

MAIN CONCLUSION / THESIS:

MINOR CONCLUSION / THESIS:

SOURCES USED:

TERMS: List any terms or concepts that are unfamiliar or appear to be important. If the author provides a definition, be sure to write that down too. Circle any you feel need clarification or discussion.

Important terms Definitions


EVIDENCE: List any evidence the author provides for the main conclusion. Each of these may appear as a sub-conclusion of its own argument. If you spot evidence in favor of a sub-conclusion, list that as well and identify which sub-conclusion it supports. Circle any that you feel need of clarification or discussion.

1) EVIDENCE FOR MAIN CONCLUSION

2) EVIDENCE FOR SUB-CONCLUSIONS AND SUB-CONCLUSION SUPPORTED

IDENTIFY OTHER PERSUASIVE ELEMENTS. Were there any other aspects of this article, such as the way it was presented, its use of examples, the author's writing style, etc., that made the article persuasive or non-persuasive?

SUMMARIZE, using the evidence you found above, and how this evidence leads to the main conclusion. State points directly rather than "he says" or "it's about." (Don't evaluate the argument here.)

SCHOLARLY DIALOGUE, What are the criticisms the reviewer has of the text and / or author(s)?

CONTRIBUTION TO THE FIELD, How has the work contributed to the work already out there? Is it positive or negative?

PART II. - WHAT I THINK ABOUT THIS

FIRST REACTIONS. List or write up any reactions you have to the article. Do you agree with the author? Why or why not?

WHERE DOES THE AUTHOR GO WRONG? Remembering the argument you found for the author, identify what part of the argument, either evidence or the logic linking the premises to the conclusion, you think is mistaken. (Even if you agree with the author, play the devil's advocate by identifying what you consider to be the weakest point of the argument.)

WHAT IS THE STRONGEST PART OF THE AUTHOR'S ARGUMENT? Again, identify one part of the argument you think works well.

DEVELOP YOUR OWN POSITION - State your own position on this issue and sketch how you might support it. (If you find the author's argument compelling, suggest another way one might support the same position.)

One of my professors taught me the practice of creating annotations for every academic article I read. Basically, he taught me to skim the article looking for the main argument or central idea and rewrite a concise (one-sentence) summary of that idea. Then, I reread the article looking for how the author supports the main idea or argument, picking out the salient points and writing those down. Then, the last part involves evaluating the strength of the argument and commenting on how it's applicable. This works best for shorter, denser articles, and, tedious as it sounds, it really helps me focus and then I have a record of what that article was about for future reference (so I don't have to reread everything). I also use sticky notes (I hate marginal notes because they ruin the book!).

yea, all the good DC schools are part of the Washington Consortium (sp?), and allow for relatively painless cross-registration, from what i recall. guest lectures should be even easier to attend, as they'll have looser attendance requirements.

yes

yes

Hi All,
There's a very interesting discussion over at orgtheory regarding what members of grad admittance committees look for. The post itself is helpful but read the comments because a number of prominent sociologists weigh in. Check it out!

http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/how-i-pick-grad-students/

I've posted here before with my thoughts about choosing graduate school. Seeing how so many of you are in the middle of this supremely stressful time, agonizing over admissions and deciding where to go, I thought that I would let you all have some insight into what the process looks like from the perspective of an admissions committee member. I do this for three reasons. First, some of you could use the distraction. Second, many of you are facing the prospect of asking "why was I denied at school X" and should know how difficult this process is. Third, this is the first time that I've served on an admissions committee and I frankly was surprised at how hard this was, so now that it's all over I want to record my own thoughts.

Some background: I am an associate prof at a large department that is somewhere in the 20-40 range. We're good, not great, and we place our students fairly well. We admit an average sized class for schools at our rank. We have somewhere between 30 and 40 times as many complete applications as we have spots in our program. Another 50-75 every year are incomplete (missing GRE scores, something like that). We do not hold it against you if you are missing one of your letters of recommendation, but if you are missing more than one your files goes into the incomplete pile and is not reviewed.

From there, the process works like this. Every candidate who submits a complete application is given an anonymous number. We then do an initial pass through the applications to eliminate students who are simply unqualified based on test scores. The bar for this is very, very low, but if you cannot score at least a 100 on your TOEFL and a 500 on each of your GRE sections you are eliminated at the very beginning. This doesn't cut a lot of people, but it does have the benefit of eliminating students whose English or basic math skills are not up to snuff.

From there, the files are divided randomly into piles, which are divided up across the members of the admissions committee without regard to subfield or anything like that. Each file is read carefully by a committee member and assigned a numerical score from 1-10. Anyone who receives a "1" at this stage is automatically forwarded to the final round.

The remaining files that receive a 2-10 ranking are then given to another member of the search committee, who re-reads them and rescores them. Any file that receives a "1" in this second stage is automatically forwarded to the final round.

The remaining files from this stage (meaning that they received "2" or lower on both initial reviews) are then divided up based on subfield and given to the member of the admissions committee who represents that subfield. That committee member then ranks the files a final time. Any student that receives a "1" or a "2" at this penultimate stage makes it to the final round, regardless of the earlier scores from the first two reviews.

The point of doing it this way is to ensure that we give every student a fair shake. Each student receives a close read from three separate faculty members, each of whom can advance a student to the final round.

We end up with around four times as many files in final round as we have available spots. Each committee member then ranks these students, and we have a big meeting where we decide who to admit and to waitlist out of this group. We then bring our proposal to the subfield representatives who are *not* on the search committee, and they have the ability to lobby for different choices from the final round (although they tend not to do this). From there, the department votes on the proposed list of admits and waitlisters.


***********


So that is how the process works in terms of procedures. I suppose that all of you are probably wondering how we decide who gets one of the 1s. The answer is that it is supremely difficult to do this. We make mistakes, I am sure of it. Our goal is to find people--and this is important, so read carefully--who can successfully complete our program and secure a tenure-track job. That is the outcome that we are trying to achieve; we are not trying to admit the smartest, the most unique, or even the most interesting students (although we do want these people too!). It's possible that other departments that care less about placement are more interested in just admitting smart people, and I bet that for schools like Harvard and Princeton, that's probably true. But for us, we want students who will succeed.

The challenge is that it is really difficult for us to tell what kind of applicant will be able to do this. We know that you will have to be bright, you will have to be creative, and you will have to be highly motivated. But trust me, anyone who has gone through a PhD can tell you, it's not like anything you've ever done before. Unless you already have a PhD, there's nothing that you could write in your application that will convince us that without a doubt you've got the chops. We have to make a bet based on imperfect information (and in fact, we probably are facing a game of incomplete information too, at least about your own objectives). It takes a special kind of person to do this, and I'm not certain how much we learn from pedigree, letters, grades, and test scores, but that's what we have.

What I can say for sure is that even if we only based our decision on pedigree, letters, grades, and test scores, that wouldn't be enough to whittle down our choices to a manageable number. We are dealing with a massive oversupply of qualified candidates. In my first round alone, at least 20 students were Ivy League grads with 3.7+ GPAs, 700+/700+ GREs, and glowing letters. We could have populated an incoming class with these alone, yet each other admissions committee member probably had the same number of people with similar backgrounds. Then you dig deeper and you realize the number of people with incredible life experiences, great grades, great letters, and all the rest, but from other schools. Or they have great writing samples that make it clear that they know what a political science PhD is all about, even if they don't have the very best grades. Or you get a student who has worked two jobs to pay for an education at a regional state university, someone whose drive and motivation clearly signals his/her ability to bring a project to completion even if s/he does not have the best pedigree. Or someone who's at the top of her class at a top-rank Indian university. I could go on. There are simply too many of these people for us to admit all of them.

So what does it come down to? At the end of the day, it's seemingly minor things like "fit," or "interest," or "promise." Most of these are beyond your control as applicant. If you don't seem to have a good idea of what graduate school is all about--many applicants, unfortunately, do not--you don't make it. If you make a big deal about how you want to work with Professor X, and Professor X is considering a move to a different department, we don't accept you. If your writing sample doesn't show that you can express yourself clearly, there is little hope for your application. If your application emphasizes grade/scores/letters/pedigree, but doesn't convince us that you have what it takes to succeed in the PhD, you're not going to be admitted. If you've gone straight through from undergrad, without the sort of life experiences that convince us that you know why you want to go to get an advanced degree, the bar is a lot higher (but not insurmountable). And these are very fine distinctions, and again, we definitely make mistakes.

There are two things that you should take away from this. The first is that, at least this year, admission to my department (admittedly, not the best one) was fiercely competitive. Unbelievably so. I have never served on an admissions committee before (my department only allows tenured professors to be on this committee) but I get the impression that it's gotten much harder since I got my PhD. The second is that you should not sweat it if you don't make into the departments of your dreams. I'd say that at least 80% of the total applicants in our pool this year were plausible candidates for admission, meaning that I would have been happy to admit them. We end up making a lot of hard choices based on imperfect signals of future professional performance, and to reiterate once more, we definitely make mistakes. Nothing makes me more frustrated than when we admit a dud (it happens). I am always happy to see a student who didn't make it into our department succeed somewhere else.

Best of luck to you all.

You wouldn't spend three thousand dollars to get into three T30 schools?

I would cut that check this fucking second.

Your line actually explains the point of the passage far better, and enables the reader to comprehend far more quickly! The explanation of Salmonella etc can follow, but in essence, your sentence is really what the passage is about. And your use of "once upon a time" means that it's definitely not boring.

It's not 'scholarly writing' but it gets the point across in a fun way. What's the problem?

I would bet that far more people would understand your line in a few seconds, compared to muddling through the GRE passage wondering what on earth the main point is.

ok now you've passed the border of making a point to being just plain obnoxious.

I agree. We ought to write accessible text. That is a separate issue from what texts the GRE should sample from. The GRE should sample from the kind of texts you will read in graduate school. Unfortunately, many scholars do write like this. You will need to be able to read such writing in graduate school, regardless of whether or not it ought to exist.

use google maps

I'd just start over with a whole new draft. Try something different. You've got this approach out of your system, now try something more professional, less emotional, and less story like. Your writing has a lot of superfluous stuff in it, so I'd work on cleaning that up. Every sentence is important and should stand on its own. As far as content, spend more time on where you're going rather than where you've been, and be as specific as you can. I get that you may not have intended it to sound like you view your law school experience was a mistake, but it really does read like that.

From her point of view, you don't sound very mature, hardworking, or helpful. She gave you a couple projects, and you sound like you are intentionally failing because you are very judgmental of your supervisor. Why should she trust you? She told you to contact the customer services guy at the corporation that sold the instrument, and you didn't do that. Why not? It sounds like a no-brainer. Just contact them. They owe you.

So what if she's hiring her boyfriend? Big deal? You're caught in the middle of what? Just get your work done. Get your own girlfriend so you aren't judging people who have social lives.

You sound like you are intentionally failing, being immature and judgmental about things unrelated to the project, and running to save your career at the expense of showing loyalty to someone who gave you a chance. I wouldn't want to work with you.

No offense, but this mildly reminds me of the recent Donald Trump win of coaxing Obama into showing his birth certificate.

Actually, as a graduate student, there appears to be no difference between subsidized and unsubsidized stafford loans: they both clock in at 6.8%. http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/studentloans.jsp?tab=funding

Actually, as a graduate student, there appears to be no difference between subsidized and unsubsidized stafford loans: they both clock in at 6.8%. http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/studentloans.jsp?tab=funding

Kinda far (depending on what you're used to commuting, I guess). Not in terms of miles to cross, but in terms of traffic or trains / buses to use... I'd say about 1-1.5 hours. You could take the metro from Silver Spring to Union Station (about 15min), and a Circulator bus from Union Station to Georgetown (can't remember how long), which gets you right in the middle of Georgetown. Or you take the metro from SS to Foggy Bottom or Rosslyn (about 40min) and walk (more than a bit) or grab a bus (5-10min). I don't know how long it would take to drive, especially since it could vary a lot depending on the day and time of day.
 
Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, and Mt Pleasant are adjacent to each other (you probably knew that).
Adams Morgan = depends on exactly where you are, but something on the red line is closest, trendy neighborhood (i.e. expensive), but closest of your choices to McPherson Square and American (AU is kinda lonesome - most students leave the neighborhood for their fun)
Brookland = Brookland / Catholic U station (red), immediate area around Catholic U is alright but getting closer to NY Ave station (red) isn't great, rent will be cheaper than Adams Morgan and probably on par with Columbia Heights
Columbia Heights = Columbia Heights station (green / yellow), recently revitalized so rents are going up, pretty much everything you need is here (even a Target! not saying you need that, just saying they put EVERYTHING in here)
Mt Pleasant = hipster heaven, similar feel to Columbia Heights (perhaps less "commercial" feeling now) but metro is further away, so rent might be cheaper
Petworth = Petworth / Georgia Ave station (green / yellow), probably the cheapest of your selections, not as far along in the process of revitalization, more "up-and-coming"
If you want to get cheap and see more of the city, look for places to live on bus lines that will go to your school / job. The bus is $1.50 (with SmarTrip, which you will obviously get!), and trains are more expensive and fares tend to increase more. Buses also conveniently have free transfers that last 2 hours, so some round trips can be made on a single fare. Plus, neighborhoods close to metro stations tend to be more expensive.
If you go outside DC...
I would forget about the western end of the red line (Bethesda / Friendship Heights are closest) entirely because they're all expensive and some areas aren't very walkable (or attractive, depending). If you venture the other way on the red line, Silver Spring and Takoma Park (TP is half in DC, half in MD) are often cheaper than the places on your list. Forest Glen (not exactly close to stuff) / Wheaton / Glenmont aren't as pretty, but are do-able if you want to save on rent. MD on the green line isn't as nice (stay north if you do look into it), but cheaper. Prince Georges Plaza has a lot of amenities to offer now, but is not the pleasant walkable typically "DC" neighborhood you're probably dreaming of. Stay out of the blue / orange MD side (somewhat near the Anacostia area - tho Anacostia is technically on the green line - that another person posted about - and let me add that Chinatown isn't near Anacostia). If you are inclined, Arlington (blue / orange VA side) is loved by many, wouldn't be outrageously expensive, and would provide relatively easy commutes for both of you. Of course, much of it isn't as pretty and "DC-like" as the neighborhoods you're considering. In fact, I think NoVA is mostly crappy looking (think 1960s-80s plain-government-monstrosity type buildings, obvious exceptions being Alexandria and old single family home areas of Arlington).
 
I wouldn't keep a car for GWU. I don't know about housing in that particular area, but it's close enough to Georgetown (Foggy Bottom station is in the middle of the campus) to make me believe it's probably really expensive.

Georgetown - so pretty! So expensive! All those important people in one place!
Gtown and GWU are pretty close to each other - they share a metro stop (Foggy Bottom), although Gtown is at least a 20 minute walk from it - and kinda uphill (the next closest stop is Rosslyn, across the Key Bridge in VA). So, really for Gtown your choice is to 1) live in the thick of it, 2) live reasonably close to a metro stop and become a fan of long walks or additional bus rides, or 3) live on a bus line that goes straight into Gtown. I don't know what the school offers in terms of shuttle buses. UMD has an extensive network of them, so maybe Gtown does too - it would make sense!
Bus-wise, a lot of the D & G buses that go to Gtown's campus come from expensive neighborhoods as well. Check em out on wmata's DC bus map: http://www.wmata.com/bus/maps/ You might try a neighborhood along one of the Circulator lines (Circulators are cheaper - only $1 vs $1.50 with Smartrip, and still accept transfers, AND they come about every 10 minutes, which is pretty awesome, but the downside is they stop running around 9pm). You'll see on the map http://www.dccirculator.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27&Itemid=11 that the yellow and aqua colored lines go to Gtown, and that the other Circulator lines crossover in some areas.
Arlington might be a good choice for you too. You have be careful about your searches in Arlington though, much like other cities in the area (Silver Spring is another example), the city of Arlington is huge! You need to make sure you're picking something near a metro, or at least a decent bus stop. Clarendon is a metro stop on the orange line in a pretty vibrant area, but others nearby are also good.
I suppose what I really want to say is that you can live in a lot of places and still get where you need to go. It might be easier to decide depending on your "scene." If you favor more conventional neighborhoods, they'll be more expensive, but closer to Gtown (stuff around Friendship Heights (border of MD) / Bethesda (MD) / Adams Morgan / Dupont / Cleveland Park / Arlington). Not to say that everything in those places is straight-laced - certainly not! Dupont is both conservative and wildly liberal at the same time (home to many embassies and drag queens alike). If you're more "indie," you'll like being in Columbia Heights, Petworth, Mt Pleasant, U Street Corridor...if you're very "crunchy," you'll dig Takoma Park. Eastern Market and Capitol Hill are interesting - a cross between very wealthy and some rather poor sections - parts of it wonderfully beautiful alongside parts than still look a bit rundown. It's technically SE though, which is a no-no on some people's lists. My dad is a retired DC firefighter, and not to freak anyone out, but he had a lot of bad stories about fire stations in SE (probably beyond the Capitol Hill section). But things are changing, and many of the places I've mentioned were considered bad neighborhoods until a few years ago. Even where I live in Silver Spring was unfathomable to me 10 years ago.
Maybe some of these blogs might help you decide:
http://dcist.com/
http://www.princeofpetworth.com/
Good for figuring out what to do in DC:
http://www.culturaltourismdc.org/ (look for walking tours! if you visit, a walking tour might help you decide)
To compare what I've said to my actual situation (and let you gauge what you find against my hometown): I live in a 580 square foot studio apt in SS. I'm a 5-7 minute walk from the metro / tons of buses (due to construction - we're getting a new library and a travel depot thing next to the metro), close to tons of places to eat, 2 movie theaters (AFI, anyone?), Whole Foods, Safeway, Giant, and all my utilities are included for $1140 / month. This will sound crazy to some people and pretty damn reasonable to others. I refuse to live in a swankier place (or have a separate bedroom) because I don't see the point. I have a pool and a gym in my building - what more do I need? For the people who are looking to pay $1500 or less for an apt that's not part of a house, you'll probably end up a little further from the metro than you'd like, and you'll need to live in a less ritzy neighborhood, but it's entirely do-able. I don't know if you'd really want to travel all the way from SS to Gtown or GWU - you'll probably find the equivalent to what I have in Arlington and have a happier commute. But if your heart is set on a neighborhood in DC, go for it! There are so many lovely places to live, and so many things happening everywhere.
Almost forgot - I noticed some people were wondering about living expenses in general. I don't have a lot of amenities that others can't live without, but we're all gonna be grad students, right? We're used to this
I use Netflix instead of cable ($10/month). I have a pay-as-you-go phone (I am THAT cheap - I have unlimited texting for $15 / month cuz what the hell - that's what Skype is for ). I have no car, and pay about $100 / month of public trans (using the metro a couple days a week, but mostly using the bus). My renter's insurance is about $130 / year, cuz $20,000 was the lowest I could go. I don't smoke, don't go to bars too often (couple times / month ish?). However, I go out to eat A LOT and I like to buy groceries at Whole Foods (I spend just as much at Safeway because I'm not buying all junk food so I might as well stick to Whole Foods). I easily drop $600-700 / month on groceries and eating out (this is WITH my bf - so it would be less for someone on their own, and a lot less for someone who is conscientious about cooking at home more often). Of course, most of my purchases are in MD, where sales tax is 6%. The 10% tax in DC feels enormous! VA is 3%...just FYI. My eating habits are going to change considerably once I'm in school! Everything else is almost as low as I'm willing to go
I know I've repeated myself a bunch throughout this forum - just trying to put all the vital info in the response. Hope it helps to clarify the picture in your mind - I'm doing the same thing - except for cities in the UK! Finally, living in the same place for almost 30 years pays off