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was1984

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Everything posted by was1984

  1. RA positions generally pay better than TA positions, at least in the sciences and engineering. You should really discuss this with the graduate coordinator directly before accepting.
  2. I also had a strong verbal score (640) and a weak AW score (4.5). The fact that the essay is graded by a computer makes it completely irrelevant, as far as I'm concerned. I've always been told that I'm an exceptional writer, especially for an engineer, so when I first got the score back I was shocked. However, the reason I write well is because I write succinctly, so the low score is not really a big surprise to me anymore. The ability to write a strong essay for a standardized test is probably only very weakly correlated to the ability to actually write well. Most professors I've spoken to tend to agree with this, and a lot of engineering professors don't even know or care what the analytical writing score means.
  3. It sounds reasonable to me. Basically, they are paying you as a TA while you are doing your coursework, and once you start doing your serious research you should look for a professor that can take you on as an RA and give you a project to work on for your dissertation.
  4. I finally received my first acceptance. This does take off the edge a bit, but right now I'm so giddy I'm being equally unproductive.
  5. was1984

    Austin, TX

    I lived in Austin for about 6 years. The last two years have been a lot colder than usual. Typically it will get below freezing around 5 days a year, overnight. It's fairly common to have daytime highs in the mid 60's even midwinter. Occasionally it will even jump up into the 70s. Winter is honestly the best time of year in Austin, because summers are pretty brutal. Expect 20 or so days above 100 degrees (sometimes well above 100 degrees) with high humidity. It's usually above 90 between early June and early September and it's rare that the high temperature is below that in that period.
  6. Eh, I'm a grad student now and I have plenty of time to enjoy myself. It's all about time management.
  7. I've found that reading novels and skiing have been the only things I can do to get my mind off of the applications. If I get just 1 admit from a school that isn't a safety, I feel like I'll be back to normal again. I hope.
  8. I'm trying to finish up my M.S. thesis right now, and waiting around for admission results is not helping at all! Today, for example, I decided it was prudent for me to go home 4 hours earlier than usual so I could check my mail. Plus, I'm always refreshing the results page on the website instead of actually doing something productive. Anyone else dealing with this?
  9. Hah, I've seriously thought about doing this analysis but I was deterred by the fact that there are too many simplifying assumptions to make the analysis very useful. Glad you weren't deterred (you must not be as anal as I am) so I can use your work. Also, reading this made me realize that this message board needs some sort of TeX equation interpreter.
  10. You should have a very good reason to defer any offer of acceptance. You applied this year and were accepted for this year. In engineering an acceptance implies that your advisor needs a student this year, not next year, and you may upset some people by deferring without a very good reason. Funding and research opportunities within a research group are very fluid, so there is no guarantee that your potential advisor will have the same situation next year.
  11. Good find. Looks like Berkeley may be doing things differently than they have for the past several years.
  12. What's the difference between taking a year to 'find yourself' outside of a Ph.D. program versus inside of one? If you're not sure, just go for a year and see what you think.
  13. Right there with ya. Every piece of junk mail I get in my inbox causes my heart to start beating faster. This is ridiculous.
  14. Interestingly, the school I applied to first (Dec 1st deadline) is one of the last to typically respond. I won't hear back from them until March. If history serves, I should hear back from my first school this week if it's good news, and a couple of weeks from now if it's bad news. Either way, I'm likely to know by the end of this week!
  15. I think 'adviser' is technically more correct, but I see a lot of people using 'advisor'. Which one do you use, and why?
  16. Based on last year Berkeley should be coming out this week. Good luck everyone!
  17. I've definitely learned the hard way to be meticulous with my lab notebook. I always thought it was stupid how they made us take such meticulous notes as undergraduates in our lab notebooks, but I've learned why. Date your entries; number your pages; reference papers. It will eventually make writing so much easier. Also, I like to number only the front side pages of my notebook. This allows me to use the back side of pages for scratch work. That way my scratch work is near the place where I formally note it in my lab book, but doesn't interfere with the organization of the 'formal' part of the book.
  18. I use loose-leaf engineering paper in a 3 ring binder. Like others have said, I like the flexibility of loose leaf. If I miss a class for some reason, my anal personality doesn't have to worry about how many pages to skip in a bound notebook for that lecture. I can actually copy someone else's notes with a copy machine and put them in sequence. I can include other materials (such as homework) in sequence with my lecture notes, too. The reason I use engineering paper is because it's yellow and it's backed with graph paper. The yellow is much easier on the eyes, and the reverse side graph paper is just visible enough to make drawing figures and keeping consistent lines in text easy.
  19. Those of you who are offended by curt replies need to develop some thicker skin of you are going to be successful graduate students. Most faculty members are -extremely- busy people and they are dealing with a lot of these types of emails right now. If they sat down and wrote a well thought out reply to everyone that has emailed them wanting to work for them, that would probably be an entire day or more wasted on that process. Plus, people who are emailing professors right now are indeed being a tad bit annoying. It's totally fine to email a professor to verify that they are a good research fit before applying to the school, but at this point you've already applied and if you are an appropriate fit your application will be reviewed. Emailing potential advisers right now is superfluous and irritating.
  20. I don't understand the point of regular mail for anything but the transmission of goods. It wastes paper, costs money, and takes more time. In direct response to the question, I'd like to hear whatever will let me know soonest. In general that's going to be email, since phone calls cannot be a mass communication and thus have a certain amount of latency. I'd be perfectly happy with an automated telephone system too, though. Hell, I'd be happy with a text message. Just tell me!
  21. 6 schools $505 in application fees $115 to ETS (so irritating...$115 dollars to put a few numbers on a few CD roms) $75 in transcripts/postage $695 I got of easy compared to a lot of you, but I had already taken the GRE previously. The GRE is a flat out racket. Thanks to MIT at least for realizing this and not requiring the GRE.
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