UnlikelyGrad

I'm pretty much a Mac person, but I have been known to use Linux (and the command line . Actually, I have been known to use Windows, too, but only when dragged to it kicking and screaming. My son wants to build a computer from scratch; when that happens, we'll probably install Ubuntu on it. BTW, Macs *seem* overpriced--but we've been able to use our Mac desktops for years and years (like 10+), way longer than anyone I know has been able to use their Windows machines. In other words, replacements are more expensive but less frequently needed. Now my laptop is only ~3 years old and starting to get flaky, which is disconcerting. I expected to be able to use it through grad school...

We have one grad in our program who's at least 50...and my mom got her MA at 53. I don't think age is the only factor, especially since a lot of adcomms skim your application the first time around and probably don't even notice your age. Take a careful look at your apps--could you use a new SoP? How are your GRE scores? etc. Have friends in your field give your app material a critical examination. Then try again.

Oh, we've had 50yo grad wannabes on here. I'm 39 also, btw, though I jumped the LoR hurdle at 36.

Oh...and here I was ready to step in and do my mod-ly thing!

You have to understand that we don't go through the results weeding out what we feel should be deleted. If you feel comments are offensive, racist, or sexist, report them. Chances are they won't get seen otherwise. (The same goes for forum posts, btw. I read ~30% of the posts of my own volition but frequently don't see spam/offensive posts unless reported.)

I'm "only" a moderator, and I imagine bgk can strike me with lightning if I'm wrong, but my feeling is that the forums exist so that people can ask questions. The results board is supposed to be for results only. If you feel this is not the way it should be, ringo-ring, why don't you start your own results page? This is not the only one on the internet. When (or if) you do, you will find out exactly how "free" the internet is.

I hang out with undergrads and I'm 39. Seriously, the club I'm in has a membership of ~90% undergrads. But the leadership is ~50% grad students. (Yes, all of the grads are in the leadership.) So it's not so awkward for me. The president of the club is just a couple of years younger than I am. % undergrads in club membership seems to depend on what the club is. Intramural sports seem to be fairly well split. Ethnic clubs tend to be weighted more on the grad side. (Which doesn't help if you are white, I guess.) Artsy stuff like glee club seems to be more undergrads.

My experience: your social life will be whatever you make it to be. Even if you are in an antisocial department, there seem to be about 10,000 student clubs on campus that will provide good social opportunities for you. I'm a bit of an introvert but I do like talking with my officemates and I'm in one club. (And that's just on campus; I have an off-campus activity as well.) There's a group of grad students in our department that like to go out to restaurants/sporting events/clubs/you name it, but I'm not that sort of person.

Notre Dame, I think. Don't remember other than that.

I think a lot of us here are introverts too. I think the thing to do is to go in to office hours with the idea that you are going to talk primarily about anthropology. Find some facet of the class that really gets you excited, then go and talk to the professor about it. Ask for suggestions on extra reading if you want to go in-depth or not. After a couple of discussions like this the profs may start talking to you about personal stuff, if you're comfortable with it. If not--well, that's ok, at least they know how you think about anthropology!!

It means "professor of interest." Ummm. Your physics background is horrible but you want to go into PChem? That makes no sense. SoP is preferable. I think you should use your emails primarily to indicate interest. If your email messages are too long, they won't read them.

No, you should read any recent papers published by your POIs. That will tell you plenty and it will keep you from seeming like a pest.

Agreed. I've managed to get through 1.75years of grad school w/o drinking at all. I don't know anyone else who doesn't drink; there's a microbrewery 1 block from my office which is the unofficial department (profs+grads) hangout. Depending on where we go, I have water or a soft drink or--better yet--a smoothie. I'm not saying people don't think I'm weird, but they accept that I just don't do beer.

Classwork: If you haven't done any geology since high school, I have no doubt they will make you take classes in that subject. For chemistry: you should have a strong background in general chemistry, though the rest of what they ask of you is going to be program-specific. If you're getting into mineral interactions, for example, they may want you to have some thermo and some inorganic. If you're doing biogeochemistry, they may want you to have organic and/or biochemistry; I assume you've have one or the other of these if you're a biologist. What classes you take will depend on your program, no doubt. (Can you describe in more detail: What sort of program is it? What is your research specialty going to be?) Books: I don't know if it's the best out there, but a "classic" intro chem text is Chemistry: The Central Science by Theodore Brown. This is used in many universities and they seem to put out a new edition every 3 years or so, so you can get an earlier edition for very cheap--just a few bucks. Buy the solutions manual too. If you work through the whole book you'll probably get enough thermo and organic that you can "speak the language" (even if you aren't very talented at serious problems yet). For geology, since it has been so long, I recommend going to your local public library and getting a couple of overview geology books written for the layman. Again, your aim is to be able to speak the language--enough that you can listen to geologists talk about sills and alteration and deposition and not get totally lost. Even if you pick up a textbook later you will find that this exercise has been very helpful. (Besides, books at the library are usually far more readable than any text.) I have yet to find a good intro geology text. You might have better luck posting this question on the earth sciences board, where the "real" geologists hang out.

As a chemist who started a geoscience program a couple of years ago, let me reassure you that you will be okay. As a previous poster said, they assessed what remedial classes I had to take by looking at my transcripts. For me that meant I had to take mineralogy and petrology (I'd taken an intro geology class in undergrad). Most people do start research in their first year, but usually they are just assisting other grad students on their projects rather than getting into full-fledged research for their own dissertation. And everyone, EVERYONE feels like the administration made a mistake in admitting them. It's called impostor syndrome, and all grad students suffer from it.

Shhhh....don't make me lose hope until I get some publications!!

This is why I don't even bother trying until July.

I think missing a day and going to school B fresh would be a lot more effective than going to school B after a night with no sleep--I can't imagine you'd remember much of the first day in the latter situation!

Another scientist here... From what I can tell, our written exams are based primarily on our classwork, possibly also on stuff we had to learn on our own for our dissertation research. We have 5 days of written exams; each day you get problems from one of your committee members. Then one day of orals. From what I can tell, any question is fair game--I'm expecting some ridiculously hard ones, but also questions regarding stuff covered in undergrad which are applicable to my field of study. So you really do have to know your stuff backwards and forwards. A friend of mine in English Lit is studying for his exams right now. He had a list of reading that's fair game. It seemed daunting to me--I think almost 100 books! Yikes.

I agree. Seeing a counselor is not a replacement for talking to friends, family, etc.--you really do have to have that as well--but it is very helpful because ( a ) as Bedalia said, they have no emotional attachments, and ( b ) unlike friends and family, they have a good idea of what ways are healthiest to react to certain triggers and will help you implement those coping mechanisms in your life. Sometimes we (and our friends and family) don't have any idea at all on how best to cope with situations--a trained counselor is invaluable in this regard.

Fairly casual? The people in the geology dept at my school wear jeans to dress up. Otherwise, shorts. I think nice black jeans and a button-down shirt or polo would do it for you. If you want to get fancy, upgrade to khakis instead of jeans. I think sneakers in decent condition would be okay (all the profs in the geol dept here seem to wear sandals). But this may just be a super super laid back school, I don't know.

Yes! FREEDOM FOR ALL!! Go protesters, GO!!

I would say that these are common symptoms, but not necessarily "normal" if you mean normal functioning. The bolded phrases are symptoms of depression. Go to your school's counseling center, if they have one, and talk to someone--they'll help you with coping strategies.

As a moderator on this forum, I must say that **$** and that you should all @@~~@@!

In my case (2 years ago) I was accepted to the school that was the best fit for my research interests but they didn't offer me funding. So I chose the school that was the next best fit. Honestly, it was the best thing I ever did. In retrospect, the advisor I ended up with was *WAY* better than the one I would have had at my school A--not necessarily in terms of research interests, but in other ways. There are very few advisors out there who focus on career development (not just development of research skills) as much as she does. And I love her as a person. School A is a lost cause, but you are not and neither is your career. I suggest you visit B and C (if you haven't done so already) and choose between them.