gellert

Weird, I called last week and they said they were still sending invites out. *shrug*

nemesis,

"No, you don't understand. I HAD to buy this new/expensive sweater. What if I get a grad school interview? Preparation is key." "Well, eight people posted interview invites for Awesomesauce U on the results survey, but since none of them revealed themselves in the Notif Thread I'm guessing they're all fake. Still hope for me, ha!"

Seriously? Downvoted for being a little silly on a bad day? At any rate, here are some more serious offers: Learn a new language. Pretend you're a spy and you have to recon your house and figure out all possible exit points/weapons/etc. Also works for zombie invasion prep. Vacuum. You know you need to. Find a new interesting recipe you've never tried before and cook with a friend. Read a trashy/guilty pleasure book. (Gossip Girl, anyone?) Buy yourself flowers to put on your desk and keep your spirits up. Read the entire Guide to Getting It On. Learn to draw.

Learn to play the accordion. Invent your own language. Beat the world record at Minesweeper. Try to kiss your elbow. Get involved in a local Star Trek live action role play group. Make Lazy College Senior memes (or live them). Sew a quilt. I'll come back later with some more serious ones.

Real life tales of TAing 101 classes (paraphrased to protect the innocent): "So the big game is on Thursday ... aka same time as class. Can I still get attendance and participation points if I miss, or can I make them up somehow? Thanks!" ...Note that this particular student is not an athlete, just a fan.

I think that's a question each person has to answer for themselves. I don't consider the time I spend on TGC every day to be too much, regardless of whether or not it may be slightly psychologically debilitating for me. However, another person may find the amount of time I spend on these fora to be exceptionally much in the extreme. It's up to you if you want to limit the number of times you check the fora per day. I don't, but that's because if I didn't, I'd simply spend that time worrying about what might be going on on the results survey. Sure, maybe that could have been prevented by never checking the survey to begin with -- or if we want to regress a couple years, by never developing an internet addiction in the first place -- but it's a bit late for that by this point, so we have to live with what we've got, and make decisions based on that.

"So you're getting a Master's, then?" "No, a Ph.D." "But you don't have a Master's!" "You can earn a Master's while you're in a Ph.D. program after a couple of years." "So you ARE applying for Master's programs." "...No." "...Wait, so what type of program are you applying to again?" "Psychology Ph.D. programs." "Oh, got it, so you want to be a therapist or something, huh?" "--I give up."

Unfortunately,

trek's

break

"It's mid-January. Should I give up? Yeah I'll just give up." << sh*t gellert actually said "Make sure you borrow a friend's phone if you call the department for updates. Don't want them to link your phone number to your app. Even better, use an out of state area code and disguise your voice. Foolproof!" "So I have a 3.9 GPA and 1590 GREs, with eight years' research experience and fourteen first-author publications and a stellar fit. Chance me? I think I'm gonna get rejected from ALL THE SCHOOLS. " "Academia.edu says I've been googled four times today! What do you think that means?"

In the spirit of the previous post, how about some Sh*t Grad Applicants Say? For example: "I just realized I used a comma splice in my SOP. OMG this is an insta-rejection, isn't it? Tell me now. It's better if you just tell me now." "So...what're your stats?" "Hi! Congrats on your acceptance to Awesomesauce University! ...So who was your POI?"

Bueller

world

^ Pretty much. I'd just as soon forget about it as soon as possible and move on to bigger/better/happier things. Like the new Hunger Games movie coming out soon.

^ Hahahaha good. For some reason I just envision adcomms as all having these old stuffy English names like Alfred and Stirling and Benedict.

twisted logic

"Say, Colin, why haven't we just sent gellert a rejection yet?" "Huh? What? Are you talking to me? Oh, I'm thinking of using old transcripts and writing samples to wallpaper my new corner office. Bit of humor to brighten up my day when I need it, eh Reginald?"

Check out craigslist to rent lots of suburban-y places. Well. I mean, are you wanting Southern suburbia or what Northerners would consider suburbia? For Northern suburbia, check out the areas I mentioned earlier -- Carrboro, Westwood/Valentine/Old Pittsboro, McCauley, etc. For more typical Southern-style suburbia, you'll probably have to sublease because in the South, when you live in suburbia, you're buying the house not renting it. (It's all very classically Stepford.) Check out Southern Village (subleases via craigslist etc.) and Meadowmont for the most typically Southern suburban neighborhoods near campus. -- I also have more restaurants to add to my list from my last RDU restaurant post: Pomegranate Kitchen (off 15-501, amazing) Open Eye Cafe (coffeeshop in Carrboro) Neal's Deli (sandwich in Carrboro) Jessee's Cafe (coffee and sandwiches in Carrboro, quite cheap for lunch) FOOD TRUCKS OH MY GOD (Parlez-Vous Crepe, Chirba Chirba, "The Taco Truck," to name a few. They're all on Twitter.)

^ Congratulations! I know people are admitted by the dept as a whole, but would you mind PMing me your POI just the same?

Yeah, everything in Chapel Hill looks like that. You'd have to go to downtown Durham to find anything that looks both urban and architecturally/aesthetically pleasing, and it'd be way outside a student's price range. (Think, brain surgeons live here -- not grad students live here.) The Westwood Dr. area is definitely not rural, though if you keep going down S. Columbia toward where it crosses over 15-501 (you can view this on Google Maps) it definitely starts to look that way. In actuality, Westwood Drive/Old Pittsboro/that area is right across from Old Mason Farm Rd, which is on hospital campus. There are also two bus stops in that area for convenient transportation to/from main campus. As for Carrboro, that's the artsy/hipster sort of area. Expect a lot of cyclists and ironic lenseless glasses. However, it's definitely got the coolest coffeeshop/diner scene of the RDU area which is awesome for studying if you like to get out of your duplex/house every now and then. It's a mix between upperclassman undergrads, grad students, and liberal arts-oriented professors here (obviously I'm grossly overgeneralizing, but I'd say the standard holds in most cases). There's an organic food co-op in downtown Carrboro, and another version of the same co-op further down S. Columbia Street toward that "rural area" over in Southern Village (which is more typical Southern suburbia: houses, duplexes, apartments, little shopping center, etc., and is mostly adults/families but a few grad-age students). The greatest concentration of undergrads is going to be in the apartment complexes (obviously) as well as any neighborhoods really close to Franklin Street. (For example, Greek life is housed on or just off Franklin, as is an "off-campus" campus housing option for undergrads and several student-oriented apartment complexes.) There're also a lot of undergrads down Martin Luther King Jr Pkwy way. Avoid that if you don't enjoy loud parties. If you want large concentrations of grad and med students, your best bet is Carrboro -- the side furthest from Chapel Hill (15-20 minute bus commute, ish) or the Westwood Drive/Old Pittsboro area (walking distance, 5 minute bus). McCauley is hit or miss for undergrad/grad ratio, depending on where exactly in that neighborhood you live. There are also a lot of grad students in the apartment complexes off 15-501 but that area is pretty far from aesthetically-pleasing or historic. If you need any specific help, PM me and I can tell you about the specific area I live in. Plus there's a good chance I'm moving to Cambridge/Boston next year, so perhaps you could help me out in return. Also, if you don't mind commuting/driving from Durham and have a price range, I can find some historic areas in dtown Durham near Duke that you might be interested in. (Converted loft sorts of deals, etc.) Like I said, generally more expensive, but now that I think about it, I consider $500/month rent to be moderately expensive if not including utilities. These places would be like 900-2000/month which may/may not be more like what you'd find in Boston/Cambridge.