InquilineKea

Oh cool - can you receive free incoming calls in Skype too? (incoming calls from land-line and cellphones?) That is the most important thing to have, as some services must call me through phone.

Oh cool. Could you turn an iPhone or Android phone into a pay-as-you-go phone too?

Wow - care to explain how it helped you get those? Thanks! (I use academia.edu to inform me when professors google me - it often means that they also visit my other webpage [where their IP gets logged, haha]. Not that I'd use it for anything evil - but I'm just curious as to whether or not their attitude towards me changes after they find my webpage)

Hm, so the thing with cellphones is that their monthly rates *really* add up. And I'm not a big phone user to begin with, so I could just get a longline phone if I really need to call someone. But are there possible phone plans where I don't need to pay a monthly fee?

I saw that - there's a single bus (on Saturday) that can get me just before 8:30 - however - the 16 doesn't allow me to get to UPS before 8:30. The other thing is that I cannot be guaranteed to catch a bus, so I can't rely on a single bus. == Anyways - I got most of my woes solved. I found a WWU student in Bellingham (off Reddit) who I can crash over with, and another student who will drive me to Tacoma. Yay. The only problem is that I don't know how to thank them (especially since I don't know how to cook)

Oh cool. Yeah - I agree - connections are super-important. Although much of it is dependent on chance. Finding someone you "click" with is something that can SERIOUSLY catalyze one's career (sort of like Watson and Crick). The only problem is that those people are far and between.

Ah - thank you very much for the support! Yeah - this is definitely hard to say. Geoscience tends to have very little representation on the Internet (apart from Physics Forums and PhysicsGRE.com). And yeah - there are a bunch of people who also apply from physics too. I don't know how much I'll apply to yet - much of it depends on my GRE scores. But I'll probably apply to 3 Caltech departments and 2 UChicago departments - at least.

Haha wow - very interesting! Damn - I really should go to one sometime. Is it possible if you could just skip the hotel they're suggesting, and maybe just couchsurf or possibly just briefly live with someone else in the university?

I just sent the email to pimi810. Am interested too

Do we still get partial credit if we get one of them right?

Oh yeah - that's definitely true. Unfortunately, NASA funding cuts seem to be hurting my chances. Kasting told me that he's losing funding for one grad student because his exobiology proposal failed to get renewed

How does it usually work out in the end? There's one possible caveat: they may already consider it "done" and be tempted to procrastinate a bit more (I know that I have a nasty tendency to procrastinate when I start very early actually - I often learn things far ahead of time, but then put it aside and stop caring until the last minute). Or they might also be reluctant to mention certain types of changes. On the other hand, of course, it can be a good thing too, since there's less of a "mental barrier" to start. == Of course, you might be able to gauge how good they were based on your original outcomes (I was able to get into a graduate-level summer program as an undergrad), but I have a feeling that the program was less competitive this year than it usually was

Just wondering

Wait - I thought vocabulary is even more important for the New GRE... Is it? After all, you're going to have to select multiple correct answers, which means that it's harder to use "princeton review" strategies

Wow - I didn't know that. Thanks very much! I'll definitely look into it. Fortunately though, I managed to find someone who's also taking the same test in Tacoma in November - so I don't need to worry too much about that anymore (posting in the physics majors facebook group really helped)

Ah yes - thanks for all the info! Yeah, it's a massive debate that I'm having with myself right now. Also, I'd like to ask the same question with respect to workshops too. Like http://www.cesm.ucar.edu/events/ Same travel expenses and lodging expenses. Then you also have event expenses too (which could vary) And how does the worth of attending them compare with the worth of attending conferences?

I'd like to present my research at http://abscicon2012.arc.nasa.gov. But the costs (conference+travel+hotel costs) - which might approach $1000, are a bit of a deterrent. On the other hand, the networking opportunity might be one that may be impossible to get anywhere else. But there's always a chance that I might get no networking at all. I can understand that conferences were very important in the pre-Internet era. But now it's simply easier just to find people you're interested in and to email them. They might be more accessible in a conference (since they're prepared to "waste" their time there), but is that accessibility worth shelling $1000? Also, what happens during most of the days of the conference? It's 4 days long. Hm... there are a lot of topics in the 2010 session: http://www.lpi.usra....n2010/a-f.shtml == And the costs for other conferences seem quite prohibitive too. See http://www.ifa.hawai...meetingcost.htm, for example. $465 *just* to attend the session. And that's not even including travel+hotel costs. == I believe that Sean Carroll (at cosmic variance) also mentioned that it's not the presentations that people are into - but rather - the opportunity to talk to one another after the presentations.

Maybe we might be able to share resources with each other. Anyways - I'm definitely applying. My primary interests are actually in astrobiology - in particular - planetary atmospheres, so I'm mostly applying to the schools where the professors do a lot of work in the field. There's a lot more but I'll stop for now

Oh okay I see. Hm - here's another question: so if I can expect to get the hardest questions, is it more advisable to use the Kaplan "Advanced GRE Math" workbook, as compared to the regular workbooks?

Yeah, except that I'm still financially dependent, so in practice, it's their call (since I'm exhausted from having too many fights) - it's really that I don't have auto insurance so they've figured that it's better to not risk having me drive. Wow - thanks for the interesting story! (and thanks to Ennue too!) Yeah - that definitely will convince me to probably get a hotel instead. And maybe even to skip out on CouchSurfing (since the same things could definitely happen with CouchSurfing too)

Hm - CouchSurfing doesn't seem to be working, but I just have another idea: Reddit! People on Reddit actually can be quite generous (at least the local Reddit subreddits are), and you don't have to individually contact people. So I'll do that and see where things go.

Yeah - unfortunately - my parents don't allow me to drive. So public transport is the only option. Good point about delays - that's why I'm thinking about just taking a Greyhound the day before, and then staying overnight (I don't have anything on CouchSurfing so people seem very reluctant to reply to me - though it appears that I can overnight in a hotel for $55) Thanks for telling me all the options and examples though!

So... I just registered for my two subject test GREs. Unfortunately, I could only register for the first one at Western Washington U (in Bellingham), and the second one at the University of Puget Sound (in Tacoma) - I live in the Seattle area. And I have to be there by 8:30 AM. Which means that none of the public transportation services can get me there early enough for the tests. =/ So I'm going to try something else: Maybe I'll take the bus/Greyhound/Amtrak to those places on the day before the exam, CouchSurf (or possibly Airbnb) over for a night, and then take the exam during the following day Does anyone else have similar issues? i'm just wondering.

Oh okay, so if it consistently tests you by the hardest questions, then does this mean that you could get some questions wrong and still get an 800? (on the quantitative section, at least)

Wow - very interesting! I'll have to try that out sometime. Thanks! I'll ask (just emailed my school's tech support)