was1984

I'm working on a project about "polymer migration into sublayers"...
at the moment i'm going to prove the migration of some acrylic monomers into layer which is composed of melamine-polyester resin.
what kind of techniques am i supposed to use for proving the presence of these acrylics?

You're likely to find useful information in the threads that have already been started on each city.

Hi everybody,

I'm looking into programs in Nashville and Knoxville and have never visited either city there. Anybody know what they're like to live in? I'm in Austin now, and I love the scale and pace here. Diversity is important to me, walkable neighborhoods, affordability. I love the progressive culture in Austin, and the international community. I have a feeling those will be less dominant in Tennessee but I don't have any first hand knowledge on it. Can anyone speak to any of those points?

Thank you~

We can agree to disagree. I refuse to spend 4-5 years of my academic life in an institution that is not preparing me to be the scholar I want to be. If weather is your biggest concern, then go for it. To-mae-toe, To-mah-toe.

I am not starting an argument with you. You can justify your graduate school decisions any way you wish. For me, I need to get over my aversion to snow very quickly, because in my specific field and area of interest, the action is where the snow is, and its more important for me to be with the faculty and advisors that are the movers and shakers in my field, than to be somewhere without snow. Seriously, it's 4-5 years. Perhaps I have a different perspective because I am over 30 and have varied life experiences. Four to five years is a drop in the bucket for me. As your signature says, YMMV....

And just like with shopping at Target, I'm done!

Thank you all for your answers.

What about financial aid- Can I accept admission+financial aid and then change my mind?

If I pay the deposit for grad school, does it mean I have to attend the school? I am mostly interested to know the policy for the following schools:
Vanderbilt
Michigan
Northwestern
Texas (Austin)
WashU
Yale
Illinois Institute of Technology
Urbana

I am agree with your thoughts. There are so many phd students are completed them studies, and many studying phd right now. But here is not many recruitment and jobs are. But i think you should never got impatient. You should try for it. If you lost your patient. This could be negative effect on your career.

Alright, my last rant was good fun, so here goes another...

Have you found that people say some really rude sh*t sometimes when it's brought up that you're going for a Ph.D.? Here are some of my favorites.

I know a guy who, like 25 years ago, went to the Business school at one of the universities to which I'm applying. When he heard I was applying there (to a different program) he pulled me aside and said, "you want a recommendation letter? You let me know." Um. Yeah. No.

This smug guy I know (has an ivy league undergrad degree and likes to flout it) was going on and on one night about how it's become so easy to get a Ph.D. these days that they're practically worthless. He was really working it. Finally, after awhile, I asked, "how long did it take to get yours?" he said, "my what?" I said, "your doctorate. Since you've been telling us all how easy they are to get I assumed you had one." And scene.

You guys have to have some good ones too....please share!

My favorite quote when I was going through the application process was, "you know you can make more money in the long run if you stay here." Keep in mind this was a state agency and the only way to make more money would be to go private sector. He wasn't sure what to make of my, "it's not about the money; it's about achieving a goal."


Hilarious, to be sure, but I'm hoping you meant "flaunt" and "End scene."

Here's mine:

The object of the game is to get as drunk as possible so you don't really care once the rejection e-mails start to roll in.

Take a drink every time...

A science program shows up, and you remember that you are in the humanities.

Someone posts an "Other" about a mass e-mail.
...two drinks if you received that e-mail as well.

A school that you have applied to shows up, and even though it's not your program your heart skips a beat.

A school that you have applied to shows up, and even though it's not your program you check your e-mail/voice mail on reflex.

A school that you have applied to shows up, and even though it's not your program you run to your mailbox to check for snail mail.
...two drinks if it's Sunday.

A program that you have applied to shows up as a rejection, you have no new e-mails, and you just get even more nervous.

A program that you have applied to shows up as an acceptance, you have no new e-mails, and you want to die inside.

You bookmarked the RSS feed for just the programs you applied to.

You bookmarked the RSS feed for programs you wish you had applied to, so you can torture yourself if you Would Have Known earlier.

Someone posts a rejection with a note expressing bitterness.
...Two drinks if it's, "Their loss."

Someone posts that they received a notification a program is accepting only one applicant this year.

Someone posts a result from a program without rolling admissions whose deadline has not yet passed.

There is a forum post asking, "Who posted this result?"

There is a results search listing that asks, "Who posted this result?"
...Two drinks if it asks for GRE and GPA.

You are waitlisted at a program, and someone posts they were accepted there but are turning it down.

Someone posts a result for a subject you have never heard of.

Someone posts a result for a subject you are fairly sure does not actually exist.

This question is really frustrating to me. I understand that it's really just a diversity statement, and I'm not diverse in the way that it's currently politically correct to be diverse, so I wish I could just ignore it.

That said, I'm planning to discuss how my family brought me up understanding how important education is. I'll talk about how my mom teaches at a Title I (economically disadvantaged) school and how my dad valued his own education so much that he worked full time to pay for it while he attended. I'm also going to mention some of the financial hardships I had in school that caused me to have to work for a large portion of my degree. Beyond this, I don't really know what to say about it. My research topics aren't exactly relevant to improving education for minorities, so I can't go anywhere near that.

This question is really frustrating to me. I understand that it's really just a diversity statement, and I'm not diverse in the way that it's currently politically correct to be diverse, so I wish I could just ignore it.

That said, I'm planning to discuss how my family brought me up understanding how important education is. I'll talk about how my mom teaches at a Title I (economically disadvantaged) school and how my dad valued his own education so much that he worked full time to pay for it while he attended. I'm also going to mention some of the financial hardships I had in school that caused me to have to work for a large portion of my degree. Beyond this, I don't really know what to say about it. My research topics aren't exactly relevant to improving education for minorities, so I can't go anywhere near that.

I know this has been mentioned before, but is anyone else struggling with this one?

Please describe how your personal background informs yourdecision to pursue a graduate degree. Please include information on how youhave overcome barriers to access opportunities in higher education, evidence ofhow you have come to understand the barriers faced by others, evidence of youracademic service to advance equitable access to higher education for women,racial minorities, and individuals from other groups that have beenhistorically underrepresented in higher education, evidence of your researchfocusing on underserved populations or related issues of inequality, orevidence of your leadership among such groups.




Why the huge focus on others' access to higher education? I understand you are not expected to address every one of the subquestions, but this prompt is frustratingly specific!

i am having the same problem, bro. I will simply igore others' part and focus on myself.

I'm having a lot of difficulty as well. I've tried several different approaches, and the best one focuses on a hardship that isn't really listed in the prompt. Also, I can't really tie it to why I'm pursuing a ph.d...I mean, there are so many ways to answer the question, 'why do you want to get a ph.d. in ____ field?' and it's difficult to tie them directly to having a hardship in your life. How are you guys coming along with this?

This question is really frustrating to me. I understand that it's really just a diversity statement, and I'm not diverse in the way that it's currently politically correct to be diverse, so I wish I could just ignore it.

That said, I'm planning to discuss how my family brought me up understanding how important education is. I'll talk about how my mom teaches at a Title I (economically disadvantaged) school and how my dad valued his own education so much that he worked full time to pay for it while he attended. I'm also going to mention some of the financial hardships I had in school that caused me to have to work for a large portion of my degree. Beyond this, I don't really know what to say about it. My research topics aren't exactly relevant to improving education for minorities, so I can't go anywhere near that.

This question is really frustrating to me. I understand that it's really just a diversity statement, and I'm not diverse in the way that it's currently politically correct to be diverse, so I wish I could just ignore it.

That said, I'm planning to discuss how my family brought me up understanding how important education is. I'll talk about how my mom teaches at a Title I (economically disadvantaged) school and how my dad valued his own education so much that he worked full time to pay for it while he attended. I'm also going to mention some of the financial hardships I had in school that caused me to have to work for a large portion of my degree. Beyond this, I don't really know what to say about it. My research topics aren't exactly relevant to improving education for minorities, so I can't go anywhere near that.

This question is really frustrating to me. I understand that it's really just a diversity statement, and I'm not diverse in the way that it's currently politically correct to be diverse, so I wish I could just ignore it.

That said, I'm planning to discuss how my family brought me up understanding how important education is. I'll talk about how my mom teaches at a Title I (economically disadvantaged) school and how my dad valued his own education so much that he worked full time to pay for it while he attended. I'm also going to mention some of the financial hardships I had in school that caused me to have to work for a large portion of my degree. Beyond this, I don't really know what to say about it. My research topics aren't exactly relevant to improving education for minorities, so I can't go anywhere near that.

Yeah, that makes sense. So that would mean that if you pitch a general project within your area of specialization, the professors from the other area would be able to understand it, right? If so, then I think that going with a detailed pitch within your area of specialization is the way to go. You'll then need to spend some space in your SOP explaining that you are interested in having your ideas implemented in different subareas of circuit design and that you're eager to learn about those new areas (I feel a bit ignorant here but I hope you understand the idea..). It makes sense that at this point in your career you only have experience in some subareas of your general research interests but not in others, you just need to make your experience appear relevant to what you are planning to do in the future--and that can be different from what you've previously done.

I totally disagree with you, LadyL. you treat your acceptance as property, as if its something you own that you can do whatever you'd like with. the reality is that, by sitting on an offer that you know you will reject, you are making life worse for a number of people on the waitlist. so, sure, it's your "right" not to inform the school of your decision just like its my "right" not to be kind to strangers, not to donate to charity, or to throw food and goods away instead of donating them, etc.

the note you received is definitely a little terse, but i think you should consider the positions of others (the department, students on the waitlist) on not just your own fancy in this situation.