nhyn

why would they not care? i'm sure they'll appreciate it. maybe it's just that you haven't heard of it, doesn't mean it hasn't happened in the sciences scientists are people, too. My advisor insisted that I not give any gift but I gave anyway because he's like, my favorite professor ever , and I'm sure he'll like my gift. It gives him something to remember me by, too!

I love Paper Source try it if you have one in your area! amazing papers.

i got mine from school Y a week after they received my receipts. But then again school Y has always been super fast and smooth about everything. I haven't got mine from school X either, neuropsych76.

My POI suggested emailing this particular grad student since our interests are somewhat similar, to see what her experience is like. She replied, in great details. We had nice conversations. Your best bet is to ask your POI for their contacts; chances are that your POI might have mentioned you to them already, so it won't be too out of the blue.

If I have an option to take another year off and pursue something like your plan B, I'd it in a heartbeat. Like you, I'm sure I want to do my PhD, but I also think I'm still too young and this might be the only time I can just pick up a random job, have fun with it, and quit with little consequence. So I'd say...ask, politely, your school if deferring is an option. If you phrase it right, I don't think it will do any harm (never hurts to ask). I mean, after all, they ACCEPTED you (as in, they will have accepted you when you are in the position to ask for deferment) You can phrase it in a way that might make it relevant to your future research, even. I know someone who deferred a psych PhD to do a masters in education and also to join various dance groups and just take a break from her field for a while, and her advisor was so supportive that she even bought tickets for the lab to one of the student's performance. Advisors can be supportive too, you know? ^^ Good luck!

I don't see why not if you get in, they'll be so happy and proud, if you don't, they might be able to offer you advice and maybe even offer to send LORs again next year, should you reapply. I'm close with my recommenders so it's a must to let them know.

I never learned Japanese through the Internet so I can't help you much re: online learning, but for starters try the Genki books. It's a popular Japanese book series for beginners. I'm quite sure you can find it cheap on ebay or amazon - everyone uses it. Oh and one time I tried looking up websites because I had to look up something but didn't have my textbooks, and my initial impression was that the websites that teach Japanese can be hit or miss. You really want a book. Sometimes websites publish wrong info, and since you're a beginner, you wouldn't even know. Podcasts and such are good for listening - Genki must have a listening component too, but don't quote me on that (I jumped to third year Japanese and used a different textbook when studying with a tutor at home, but Genki is what my school and a lot of other schools use, judging from what people in my study abroad program said). Another good way to learn is watching Japanese anime, dramas, etc. You might think it's silly but I know a guy at my school who has perfect pronunciation and sounds fluent, just by picking up from watching anime. Mind you he had to start from 101 still (for reading and writing), but speaking-wise he was able to keep up with third-years when he was in 101. The most difficult part in learning a language by yourself is the pronunciation (since you have no feedback), so if you can find someone to practice with, that'd be best. This is from my experience learning 2 languages and teaching my native language to college students ^^ Oh, just remember: a good book to keep is A Dictionary for Basic Japanese Grammar (there's also Intermediate and Advanced). very clear, quite comprehensive, has (VERY IMPORTANT!) correct English explanations. As Japanese students we were all required to purchase the basic and intermediate, and advanced is optional. They don't differ in level of difficulty, IMO, it's just a matter of what phrases are used more often in daily speech (the more frequent the more "basic"), so if you want to buy all of them that's fine too. They are a tad expensive, though (~20,30 $, if $ is still shitty like when I bought these).

i don't think so...I remember not all of the applicants showed up at that grad student dinner. Just tell them your schedule won't allow it etc.

Wow. Just...wow. I admire your self-motivation, but you clearly don't understand how depression (or mental illnesses for that matter) works. Maybe you should discuss it some more with your psychiatrist friends (and I hope they are really psychiatrists who went to med school and learned that these illnesses can be helped with medication, and there are reasons for that.) To the OP: I hope you'll find a way to work out your problems. From what it sounds like, the professors didn't want to be your main advisors not because they held any personal feelings towards you - oftentimes if the profs feel like they can't be the best advisors (because they're not an expert on the topic) they'd likely back off and let you find someone else, which you unfortunately can't. I'd say if you are really passionate about your project, and think you can do fine alone with some help from professors (although you might feel scared you have no "official" guide in the process), I think you should go for it. If not, making a few compromises probably won't hurt that much, but like you said, you might not like it as much either. So weigh your priorities - are you more fearful being alone or are you more pissed about not being able to do what you like? Remember that this is superficial advice from just reading what you wrote here

Were you at the grad student dinner for school X (that we both interviewed for - wink wink)? I can tell you that it was probably the most helpful dinner, esp. since the next day was so poorly organized and I barely had time to talk much with the grad students. However at another school I interviewed at we met grad students during lab tours and meetings, and the dinner happened AFTER that so it wasn't very helpful. So I think if you have the grad students on your interview schedule, or figure you can get a chance to talk to them later, it's fine to skip the dinner. Good luck! heard from school X yet??

I guess it'll provide you the foundation, but I've been self-teaching (with extensive tutoring from my computer engineer genius bf) Matlab without having to refer to high school textbooks for linear algebra (we did a bit of that in high school in my country). In programming there's no better way to learn than just do it and make a shitload of mistakes. Sorry that doesn't answer your question at all

thank you! so cute! XD cant believe you had all the patience to draw it slide by slide :-o

I don't get it, if you've never been an RA (even undergrad one), how do you know if you'd like research? Yes, grunt work sucks, but it also gets research going. In any area/industry, you'll have to pay your dues before you get anywhere I can't say I like the grunt work but I can say I learn a lot of useful skills and get talk to a lot of people with useful information. Also, working on other people's studies, even if you can't design the study itself, you can learn from it and develop your own ideas. Take initiative, then you'll get somewhere.

He actually offered me the option to do the MA but I already have an offer so I declined Since I'll be in the area he offered to collaborate later...whichi s all good I guess? hmm you havent heard? thats weird. who did you apply to?

If you like, I say go for it I'm working out the details but I am going to have this POI as my advisor, as she said she wanted to stay but it's really up to the school (poor professors nowadays!), but I have another prof who's tenured and whose research is also very interesting, so I plan to keep close connections with both of these people. Plus, it's always to your benefit to collaborate with different faculty members anyway Fear not and follow your heart!

In his email my POI said "the department decided that you weren't high enough on their priority list", so I'm assuming all decisions have been made. There were A LOT of applicants interviewing with Young - she's new, needs students, etc. And since Petrovich's lab (the physical lab, a wet lab of course) just completed, and my advisor whose 2 students are nearing graduation, etc., they are probably higher on the list (to admit students) as well. So all im saying is that they probably had to convene as a whole department to see who is admitting how many so that the lower-priority ones know how many they can admit Yea i'm a little bummed out but the other guy who interviewed with me was very qualified, I feel I was justly defeated

loose vs lose. I swear, I almost lose it sometimes (pun somewhat intended) when people use loose instead of lose.

BC is very slow. I swear I broke down and called them like 100 times because my prof sent her letter THREE TIMES and it never got there (??) apparently. We had to email it. Anyway, they just made their decisions 2 days ago, not in my favor One of Petrovich's applicants had a lot of interviews though, and she only has one grad student in her lab so I think she's high on the priority list. You might want to wait a bit more to see if any slot opens. Petrovich was a nice lady and her brand-new built lab is pretty cool

What I did was ask point-blank whether my POI intended to remain at the school in the next 5 years. My POI (an assistant prof) got back to me with candid answers and was completely sympathetic with my concern - so I guess what I'm saying is just ask if that assistant prof thinks that s/he might not be able to follow through with you, then you might want to be co-advised by someone else or choose the tenured POI at a different school. BUT, I've also have heard of cases where grad students follow faculty to the new school, or, if the school is in the same area, and the student is in his last/second to last year of his PhD, then it's entirely possible to meet once in a while and talk through emails. I've talked to a PhD whose advisor moved to Berkeley while he was still at UC Davis, and another PhD whose advisor moved to a different school in the same city. All worked out fine

How "safe" is the "safeties"? Make sure you like them, they have the resources, the profs are smart and supportive, the peers are intelligent, the placement record is good. If they satisfy all the criteria above, I don't think it's a bad idea to go there. But if not, go for the job. Jobs pay, give you experience, and (most definitely ) toughen you up. Although I have to remind you, a good job that is worth your time and worth putting on resumes and worth talking about is super competitive, too