boneh3ad

Unless it is a group of unaffiliated trolls who are inadvertently undermining each other... hmmm. Ponder on this I will I could only wish... At any rate, my advisor is plenty happy with my work (I think, he notoriously never gives a pat on the back) so I have that going for me. As long as he vouches for me, I think I should be good unless I totally bomb it. He is one of those unbelievably untouchable guys in our department. He has a parking pass that says he can park literally anywhere except handicapped spots. He frequently parks in the building's loading zone.

Yeah, if you don't pass only one section you retake it orally and they just make sure you aren't an idiot, taking into account what your major area of research is. If you don't pass two of them, you have to retake the written exam. My undergrad was mechanical so I am slightly more worried but not TOO much. The main difference is only terminology after all. Still, it is a huge pain in the butt and is now officially cutting into my research time simply due to how much extra preparation it requires to go back over those two other areas.

Our quals are the 16th - 20th of May and they are general, meaning I have to know all the D&C and materials and structures stuff as well. It annoys the daylights out of me. I ran into our department head in an elevator the other day and joked that he didn't have to give us the exam if he didn't want to, and surprisingly he told me he was trying to change it. It looks like I will be one of the last groups that has to take an all-encompassing version of the exam. Oh well, at least they put weight on your grades in those classes and your advisor's recommendation, so I have a little leeway.

I have to figure out how to relearn dynamics and controls before this stupid qualifying exam. I knew there was a reason I did fluids instead of D&C.

At some point I also need to stop worrying about the NDSEG and finish writing my paper for AIAA Hawai'i this June. That may have to wait until Monday, however. heh

I was about to say... I am "studying" for quals right now.

I won't disagree, though this is the internet, which is known for ridiculously persistent trolls, so it isn't impossible.

Fair enough. Are you sure that fortytwo is a troll? The image could certainly be a fake, but it is a pretty well-done fake if it is. That isn't necessarily out of the realm of possibility. Either way, if it is real that isn't necessarily bad news. It would imply that both of us are on the deferral list or else being sponsored by a different governing body.

Different sort of Looney Tunes. We are already at neuroticism but we are quickly adding paranoia to our portfolio.

Spoofing the header is what spammers do all the time so you can't trace them though. Still, who knows. At that point I think we are getting a little Looney Tunes though.

Who says they didn't spoof the header? Or just photoshop it? Go, go gadget conspiracy theory! Jealousy doesn't even come close to what I feel right now. I suppose I can't complain too much. At least I am doing things I genuinely enjoy (most of the time).

You get Patriot's Day off? What do you live in Foxborough, MA? I had a hard enough time missing something like MLK day! Actually I think I worked on MLK day.

At this point I hope we hear something by August when we are all on the hook for tuition, haha!

He may not necessarily be a troll. He also may have just typed that up himself. It wouldn't be that difficult to come up with that. The important thing is there hasn't be any conclusive evidence. Maybe all the acceptances have gone out, maybe not, but just randomly claiming you got one proves nothing. An image of the message in your email client would be more convincing. Of course I suppose that could be forged or photoshopped. At this point, I will just believe it when I see my own acceptance/rejection.

If it looks like a fish, smells like a fish and tastes like a fish... Be that as it may, he showed up after he would theoretically even be looking for this type of thread, registered here and posted for the first time and listed his major as the same major as the two people who were talking about not hearing back yet. Those are three things that would seem awfully coincidental to most. Occam's razor. The more likely answer is that he was a troll that already posted here and came back to check up on his handiwork and then registered a new account to continue his work. At this point, pics (or reputation) or it didn't happen. This topic is way too "trollable".

Says the person with his first post and who only joined the party AFTER his/her alleged acceptance. Something doesn't add up...

Agreed. I am not ruling out the possibility that the people who claim to have gotten an email might just be talking out their butts to get a rise out of the rest of us. However, if they are telling the truth my post still rings true. If they aren't telling the truth then we are all worrying about nothing (so far).

I highly doubt that, but if one discipline or sponsoring body turned their selections in first, they may have sent them out immediately. For example, maybe ARO sent in their picks and those were sent out, but AFOSR hasn't notified ASEE of their picks yet. Similarly, maybe they divide into 3 groups: offers, deferrals and rejections and they have sent out offers and rejections but people who were in effect deferred have to wait to see who accepts their offers before they get closure. At the very least that means that if you haven't gotten an email yet, you aren't out of the running. In other words, I still have hope and my stomach is still in knots.

It doesn't necessarily mean you didn't get it at this point. It means that if you did get it, your name hasn't gone into the system yet, which would explain the lack of email as well. It seems like they are likely not just dumping all the acceptances/rejections at the same time, so who knows exactly what their system is.

We know of those and then I think two other people in this thread who claimed to have gotten an email offer but didn't give their area of research.

All I know is that I was sitting here diligently studying for the qualifiers and now I am clicking refresh on this page and my email incessantly.

Eh, it isn't really the classes I am worried about. I am doing perhaps slightly above average in class. It is the stuff outside of class for me. I realize it differs for engineering and most other majors, but I feel pretty useless around my lab and in trying to help out my labmates.

So is anyone else feeling lost and nearly useless compared to the more experienced grad students after a semester or two of their program? I sure as hell am.

Haha, that is funny because I feel like it looks the most normal on me about a week after I shave.

Shoot, I just subscribe to the practice of not shaving for a week or two at a time regardless of how it looks. I don't really care. Then I shave down to almost being clean when it starts getting annoying to me and repeat the process. This process is what I have lovingly referred to as "I am too lazy to really care."