UnlikelyGrad

What I would say has mostly been covered. Just a few more notes from someone who got transplanted to a considerably colder climate: When looking for thermal underwear, don't buy cotton--get a good synthetic blend or else (from what others tell me) silk. Cotton does not keep you warm at all if the weather is wet. Also, be sure you have good wool-blend socks. I lose a lot of heat through my feet for some reason, so this is key for me. Most of my socks are wool-blend heavy-weight hikers (some Thorlo, some generic knock-offs). If the snow is deep, i.e. over the top of my boots, my socks get wet as I walk to school; thus, I like to keep an extra pair around. Like some of the above posters, I hate hats. Most of the time I make do with the hood on my jacket, which fits loosely and doesn't bother me so much. However, at temperatures under 20 F, I find a hat to be an absolute necessity. Mine is a fleece hat that also covers my ears; I think earmuffs would drive me batty. Mittens/gloves are also very nice. At first I tried to keep my hands in my pockets, but that doesn't work if you need your hands our for schlepping groceries, etc. My mom swears by lined leather gloves, but I can't afford those, so I just wear cheap knit gloves. Unfortunately these will get wet quickly, so, like socks, it's nice to keep a spare pair somewhere.

Ours is about 3 years old now and has never had a problem despite printing 1000+ pages per month over the duration of its lifetime.

My home printer is a Brother--similar to the current 5250dn but I think the generation before. I love this thing. We found it on eBay, refurbished, at an awesome price. (Can't remember the actual price but I think it was under $200 with shipping.) It almost never jams up, even when duplexing hundreds of pages. The toner cartridges last a long time, too.

Is this for your department in particular or the campus as a whole? I will try to think of a few things to say.

In my department there is a core set of courses that everyone takes, which made at least part of the decision making easy. For the rest, your advisor is definitely one of the people who you should talk to. Once you get a thesis committee, it will be a joint decision.

I got mine today too. I wish they'd sent it in a smaller envelope--the big manila envelope in my mailbox sent my hopes skyrocketing. They crashed soon enough.

Another person here doing the commuter marriage thing, huh? Well, email me if you want to whine. It can be tough but it's doable.

Well, sometimes you DON'T respect professors but have to suck up anyway...And then there's the administration which can be a real pain in the rear. But still, I have to say it's far FAR better than working retail, fast food or slow food (waitressing)...

For those who have heard: did you hear by email or some other method?

As someone who has been teaching freshman-level classes for a year, let me say something that may (possibly) reassure you: You think you're bad. The freshmen you're going to teach will be much, much worse. (I've had a few non-freshmen in my classes. Seniors are usually ok, juniors so-so, and sophomores not much better than the freshmen.) You'll survive. Even if you really do suck, your students will suck worse.

Would you be attending as a non-degree student? If so, expect to pay $200-$300/unit at a state school. Not sure what costs are like at a private school. As a non-degree student, I paid $230/unit (I think) for lecture courses and $300/unit for a lab course. I looked into costs in an adjacent state, since we were considering a move at the time, and the costs there were fairly similar.

A note of caution from someone who's wrapping up her first year: I didn't come out at the beginning of the summer, and I wish I had. The people who came out early seem to have had a better shot at nabbing the RA slots. I, on the other hand, think I'm gonna have to TA for another semester. At least.

A note of caution from someone who's wrapping up her first year: I didn't come out at the beginning of the summer, and I wish I had. The people who came out early seem to have had a better shot at nabbing the RA slots. I, on the other hand, think I'm gonna have to TA for another semester. At least.

A lot of what I want to say has already been said by other people, but I feel compelled to say something anyway. I will be celebrating my 20th anniversary in 2 months, so I like to think that I have bit more experience in keeping a relationship together than most. A marriage, or any relationship, works only when two people are willing to support each other, despite the sacrifices that such support entails. It involves accepting the other person the way they are, even though you wish they were slightly different. Reading your post, I get the feeling that you seem to want to shape him into your idea of success. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe he has a different idea of success? Have you ever considered the idea that he might not want to be a rock-star academic? Has it ever occurred to you that he might not WANT your "advice" on graduate school? Maybe he just needs someone to listen to his woes; someone who will say, "Wow, sounds like you had a rough day!" rather than telling him what he should do about it. Maybe he wants to be treated as an intellectual equal even though he didn't get into quite as good of a grad school as you did. FYI: I come from a family with many strong, successful women. For example, my sister Chrissy (who paid for her graduate education by first becoming a NSF fellow, then a Hertz fellow) has been the "successful" one as compared with her husband, who still works part time so he can pick up their kids from private school. She has a Ph.D., he has a M.S. She is a tenured professor, he is a research associate in her department. If you were to walk into her house, though, you would not know which one was more successful. They treat each other with respect and kindness. I could give you more examples of the women in my family and the men who married them, but I won't bore you. Just trust me--the attitude you have is immature, and not at all conducive to convincing a male partner to stay with you. ("Keeping" makes him sound like a pet or a trophy.)

I read a lot of YA books when I had toddlers--it was just easier to find things in the children's room w/o disturbing other people!! Most of what I read was fantasy though. Lloyd Alexander is awesome! I have a fantasy YA novel in the works. But it's been half-finished for oh, five years now...and I'm not sure when it will be finished.

I think the there are two questions you need to answer before we can help you further. First, do you plan on doing a Ph.D. for sure after the M.Sc.? And do you have the capability of funding $40k of debt? It sounds to me like the answer to question #1 might be yes. If that's true, and if you have the capability to pay for it somehow (even through loans), I think you should go for Delft. If you want the US advantage, you can get that with your Ph.D. school. Yes, it is a lot of money, but hopefully you can get a job after graduation to pay back what you owe--put off the Ph.D for a few years.

Stanford does have a more happenin' social life, since not everyone there is a geek. (They offer degrees in humanities/social sciences.) Also because the male/female ratio is a little less skewed. If you're at Caltech and looking for a girl, you usually have to go off campus. I personally don't know what LA has that you couldn't find near Stanford in terms of attractions. Family though...family is important. Doesn't this depend on the department? Which department would you be TAing for? I know my info is a bit dated, but I'm pretty sure that both physics and chemistry TAs used to teach only one section. (Sounds like bliss to me!)

I used to think like you, so I didn't apply to the DOE this year. But then just last week, my advisor mentioned that she had put in a grant proposal to the DOE. There's no way that any of the stuff she does can be applied to energy technology...ever. Environmental remediation is the only possible application of what she does as far as I can see. So...I think they must have a slightly broader field of interest than just energy.

Maybe some people will turn down the award, opening up room for you, I guess. (But who the heck would turn down the NDSEG? So much prestige!!)

another rejection...what a surprise Congrats, Neurone! That's a huge accomplishment!

Uh oh. So much for my grand vision of finishing my heaps o' grading today. I'll probably be checking my email every minute or two instead.

Yeah, it sure was!! OK, I checked the FON listing, and I think I applied under Land Protection. (My proposal is on a USB drive in my desk drawer at school, so I can't actually look it up right now.)

I don't remember the name but it was one of the last ones on the list. Personally, I think I'll have a better shot at this thing 2 years from now. The 'no pubs' thing is really coming back to bite me.

I haven't heard anything either.

At least one student in my department got an award, and my school would hardly be considered a "top school". Well, maybe some of our other departments would, but the department I'm in is waaaaaay down the list.