Two Espressos

Not exactly, but I'll probably be the most Beckettian (read: stoic and minimalistic) person there. And yes, I guess self-identifying does ruin the mystery. We'll see how it goes.

If Grad Cafe somehow comes up in any of my conversations, I have no qualms with mentioning that I'm Two Espressos. A bunch of the regular posters from last season who got into and matriculated at UT-Austin apparently revealed their identities on here. Like I said in another thread, I'd like to get to know some of you in real life.

The same happened with me this season. I certainly didn't think I'd have runaway success, but I did kinda hope I'd get accepted outright into a Ph.D. program. Granted, I'm incredibly grateful for the acceptance and waitlist I do have, but I guess I either overestimated my abilities or underestimated the competition this cycle, perhaps both.

Hi all, I'm waitlisted at UNC, but they're offering funded visits to us waitlisters too, so I'll be at the Prospective Student Open House in a little over two weeks! I've already made my travel arrangements and have notified Dr. Thrailkill, the grad student coordinator, etc. I'm excited to meet everyone! What does everyone think about the tentative itinerary? I think it sounds downright awesome. I'm a little nervous about the cocktail party (it's a little intimidating for an introverted fellow like myself), but that should be fun too.

If I do end up getting into UNC, then yeah, you actually did guess correctly. Weird, huh?

Fishbucket = DontHate? Am I the only person who didn't get that until just now?

Me too! I feel like I've formed connections with some people on here, and I'd love to meet them in real life. Lots of interesting and humane thinkers on these forums.

Same for me. I vacillate between thinking "I'm awesome! Hell yeah!" and "I'm shitty! My acceptance and waitlist are just flukes!", but I think this is perfectly normal for prospective grad students and academics generally. If you're entertaining a funded offer at a good program, even if it's your only acceptance, you should be proud: the odds we've had to contend with are shitty. I will admit, though, that those with multiple offers at elite schools make me jealous.

I have one credit's worth of a physical education "class" on my transcript, but I largely agree with you. Phys. ed. classes really shouldn't count for university credit. Thankfully, I think the amount of credits you can actually take in these areas are limited to a small handful at most places.

Yes, this! ImWantHazPhD, bluecheese, and a few other people whose usernames I cannot remember really annihilated the application season this year. Nice work, everyone!

Nonsense: you totally did something right. Congrats, thestage!

True, but critical thinking tends to lead one to positions respecting and promoting the autonomy and betterment of the human person, simply due to the fact that the arguments supporting those stances tend to be stronger. ETA: I do really hate some aspects of this thread, and now my posting here has inadvertently caused more people to read it.

Thanks, everyone! I'd love to attend Georgetown if they'll fund me. Their financial aid is a bit precarious though. My Georgetown acceptance post is demure for a reason: while Georgetown has a strong program with great Ph.D. placement, my heart's at UNC. It's great to know I have options nonetheless. It's a terminal M.A. program. Thanks! I've seen lots of praise from Georgetown students, a good sign in my book! Oh and ComeBackZinc: nice to see you back on these forums! How's Purdue treating you?

In at Georgetown! The email said I'm a "strong candidate" for funding, but those offers won't go out until next week at the earliest.

You don't browse the web much, do you?

The more waitlist notifications you get, the greater the odds of your being accepted somewhere... keep 'em coming!

Dr. Jimes Tooper! You win.

Well yes, but you have to accept that anything you dislike/find morally objectionable cannot be held liable for being so. Nazis cannot be blamed for doing what they did, for example. Of course, you cannot be blamed for finding their actions morally objectionable as well, but you see where this is going: everything is as it "ought" (ought put in quotes because if you're a hard determinist, you cannot believe that anything "ought" to be the case in an objective sense). Hard determinism destroys the possibility of knowledge. It's not possible to know that something is the case if you cannot not know that something is the case. Hard determinism is self-assumptively incoherent in that it destroys its own premise: were it the case that hard-line determinism is true, we couldn't know that determinism is true or not, as everything is causally reducible to the physics of subatomic particles. Also, hard determinists can simply shrug off their opponents as being physiologically compelled to state the arguments that they do. Freudians do a somewhat similar thing by trying to claim that their opponents' rejection of the existence of Freudian ideas is in itself evidence of Freudian ideas. ETA: I'm a compatibilist determinist, by the way. I haven't read/researched these issues enough to feel qualified to call myself that, but that is the technical term for it. Perhaps it's possible that human cognition/free will is an emergent property. I don't know. But I'm really tired and incoherent right now, so I'm going to bed.

I can't prove you wrong. Well technically, I have no control over what I end up doing, and you have no control over whether or not you find my evidence convincing. What I really want to know (since I can't not want to know) is how hard determinism can coexist with cultural studies or any kind of social theory/activism (assuming you do cultural studies-esque work). ETA: It's late, and I'm too tired to write a badass defense of free will tonight. But I will say that hard determinism is 1) epistemologically untenable and 2) unable to account for the reality of abstract phenomena. Think about the ontology of mathematics and stuff. Ditto for sentences.

A wild hard determinist appears! You hard determinists are fun. By fun, I mean I'm causally determined to find your stance humorous. And I'm causally determined to write this response on here. And write about writing this response on here. And write about writing about writing this response here. And--

I see where you're going with this, but weight/body issues certainly have much more cultural impact than what you've listed here. My point remains as stated earlier in this thread: I think Fat Studies is important, but I don't think it warrants its own sub-discipline. I'm totally a philosophy/literature/science kind of guy rather than a social theory/cultural studies kind of guy, so I'm trying not to butt in too much...

I often think about this (kinda). How far do we take this logic? What about sexual minorities, "ugly" people, etc.? How far do we take the normalization of bodies?

I want to hear more about this.

Sensible enough. My point above would only apply to "-studies" degrees that actually exist.

This. Most "-studies" fields have some merit, but I question whether they really need their own demarcation. I'd prefer to see gender, race, sexuality, etc. studies integrated into applicable disciplines; it would shut up a lot of the anti-intellectualism from the public as well, who see these fields/degrees and wail about their not being "practical." Were a B.A. in Beckett Studies offered, for example, I'd never major in it. It's too specific, as I'd say other "-studies" programs are as well (with some exceptions). ETA: I'm not an expert in any of these fields, so of course the value of my opinion is limited. Maybe you all can see where I'm coming from, though?