DrPepper-olic

chaotic children

Well, Duke is still stringing me along... I'd like to thank the Grad School at Rochester for emailing me to say, in 3 sentences, that I was rejected. It was short, sweet, to the point, and waiting for me when I returned from class. Thank you. To every other school, YOU ARE KILLING ME! **note: I can tell everyone else to keep calm, but I cannot take my own advice. Of course. Of. Course.

I agree. I would either email the POI you've already been in touch with or the department contact person. It looks like funding is going to be really tight this year, and if you have a financial offer of funding (again make sure it's a pretty firm offer), it could help the adcom's decisions. (Specifically, it could allow them to accept you, and then offer funding to someone else.) However, was this information already disclosed on your application?? I felt like every application I filled out asked if I had applied for NSF, Fulbright, McNair, etc. scholarships. I'm guessing you didn't already enter the NASA possibility? If not, then definitely relay the information. If so, repeating the information might not be such a good idea. P.S. Super congrats on being considered for a fellowship! The only thing I have that's coming close to paying for my tuition is a lottery ticket. If I win, even a little, you can bet your sweet ass I'm going to tell them I can fund myself too!

Don't panic, and be comforted that we're almost all in the same boat here. I'm waiting for 14 of 16. (Hey, I study statistics...I had to increase my spread.) What I gather is the people hearing back sooner either (1) were offered fellowships, (2) applied to programs that didn't receive so many applications, or (3) were culled. To me, it is particularly unsettling to think that my GRE score probably got me through the first round of rejects, but the rest of my application has sentenced me to applicant purgatory: the stack of uncertainty. As badly as I'd like to know what they think of me now (and I sometimes visualize asking the rock star economists I asked to study under at the various schools), I know that I have to let them go through the process. I imagine there are about 50 students in my field being courted by the 10 most competitive schools and (probably) some mix of the slightly less competitive schools. Below them would be another 50-100 students who are immediate first choice students to complete the entering class. These students have until April 15 to make their decisions. As badly as I would want to encourage them to make up their minds already (!!!), those students (just like the schools) have the right to take their time to pick the best choice for them. I can't imagine that I am in the first pool (and not receiving word yet is a good indicator of that). Thus I have resigned myself to waiting. At this point, no news is good news because to me I feel like I at least haven't received a firm "NO!" I hope that helps you too.

unknown number

lens cleaner

I agree that it depends on the programs. And, of course, if whoever wrote your LORs knew someone where you applied, that couldn't hurt. (Wish that had been my case!!)

barrel racing

cream clots

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labor pains

At the risk of sounding like a total mom, I want to stress etiquette. I work for and with professors. I've been through one round of grad school. I certainly think that we, as students, must be our biggest advocates. I also know that professors want us to acknowledge the effort they put into helping us out, when it's really not in their job description. I would definitely wait a month or two to email. If you email immediately after being rejected you will probably come across as entitled, emotional, or impatient. Since this is your perfect fit, you don't want to burn bridges with your POI. After all, you may decide to reapply next year or to apply to a post doc there. After a few months, this news will have soaked in, and you will have had some time to reflect, to figure things out, and to return to your "normal" self. (Read: Admissions time is to grad students what that potion was to Dr. Jekyll.) At that point, you should email your POI to thank him/her for corresponding with you before the admissions process. Express your gratitude for his/her time spent informing you about the department's particulars. Be gracious. Then you could add that you were disappointed not to have been admitted and that you are curious about ways that you could make yourself a better applicant in the future. It's better to err on the side of deferential if you want to keep this contact open for future possibilities (like a post doc). Love, mom. <3

receiving end

This!

(1) I had a waking nightmare where I dreamed I was rejected by UVA. It's one of the better fit programs I applied to, and they've been responding, so it sucked. Of course, the whole dream was very ceremonious. They had called me up to hand me the decision letter, and my old tap dance teacher from kindergarten was there to console me. Odd. Still no word from UVA in reality. (2) Yes, you may remember Full House, but do you remember Mr. Belding telling Slater to shoot his hopes and dreams? I feel a bit like that when people give me "encouragement" these days.

It's probably legal?

face plant

What a coincidence, Mrs. B. I'm training for a 10K. It's on Mother's Day. Actually, every year around this time, I start training for it. I haven't run in it since 3rd grade. I hope that this year will prove more of a success because I don't have lots of finals and whatnot the week before. Plus, I'm going to pay the entry fee as soon as registration starts. That should count for something... Other hobbies: -tutoring my husband for his Russian 101 class -learning more Russian myself -learning real analysis from Walter Rudin's Principles of Mathematical Analysis (to be set for classes in the fall) -interior decorating (I figure I can make whatever move easier by setting up a Zen living space now) -creating new recipes with the contents of my freezer and/or leftovers in the fridge -stress napping (The cousin of the angry nap, a stress nap can help clear your mind of all the anxieties around application time. I slept for 12 hours yesterday...) -adding to my "data set" (I have a few pet data with seemingly unimportant trends in social indicators that I have been gathering since 2004...maybe they'll mean something one day.) -writing down blog entry ideas, but not following through (I have so many yellow post-its on my desk!) -reading spam e-mails Of course, what I really do is check Grad Cafe a few times an hour, from various media. And, I must confess, that my data set is more related to clothes prices, advertising, sales, and inflation, than it is related to anything anyone would care about. I may very well turn into the John Nash of retail if I keep that up. (The crazy version from the movie, not the Nobel-prize winning one from your text books.)

Oh gosh, that is frustrating! Good for you that you didn't immediately call for the result! (I would be so tempted.) Is there a mind-numbing part of your thesis you can work on (stats? graphs? checking proper citations and margin width?) so you won't feel so distracted? At least you'll have a decision soon...

Since studying for the GRE turned me into Hermione Granger, I'd like to clarify. (Also, linguistics is my favorite pastime, but not my profession, so I welcome correction.) Forum has two plural forms. Dictionary.com lists forums first, followed by fora. IMO, forums is better used in conversation and in a casual medium, such as Grad Cafe. The actual latin plural, fora, is best saved for academic discourse (i.e. papers, presentations, publications, and (possibly) class discussion). While these two pluralizations can be interchangeable, I think you'll find that using the formal in a casual setting may come across as pretentious, just as using the casual in a formal setting could come off as unscholarly. Additionally, while it is nice to know the proper pluralization of Latin and Greek loan words used in various languages, you'll find that many do not recognize the Latin/Greek plural forms as more correct. For example, in Czech, academics use the Latin pluralization, while lay people use Czech pluralization. In Russian, no one will understand you if you try to use the Latin pluralization. I found that Spanish and French offer a similar case, and I am sure we can all agree that English is it's own special case. So, OP, while it is commendable that you know the word origin of the word "forum", and therefore know it's original pluralization, it is not the only way to pluralize the word. I am sure that the creators of the site are familiar with the existence of both options for pluralizing "forum," and they chose the form that sounded best given the setting.

stormy weather

solar panel

Hey a-rod! Perk up! Don't give up yet!! I will say that smaller/cheaper schools often don't have much funding to hand out. I got my MA from a small public school (very small), and most students in my program could only get a 1/2-time TA-ship to help with funding. That included a waiver for 3/4-tuition and about $500/month. Not much, but the cost of living there was also quite cheap. Larger schools often have bigger purse strings and can therefore offer more money (and take more students). Although those programs are more competitive, the package that they offer is more competitive too. All hope is not lost. P.S. You're a math person. Don't forget these are independent events!

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