wildviolet

Hey everyone! Two more days of work for me! Then six weeks to get ready for a cross-country drive with all of my stuff... yay!

I've spilled coffee on my three-year old MacBook twice now... and the motherboard is in danger of dying any day. And my "p" key does not work (I have to copy and paste). And my track pad doesn't work either, so I have to use a USB mouse. So, I will need a new laptop for the start of grad school in the fall... and originally I was thinking of the Air. But, now that the new retina display MacBook pro is out and seems to be a hybrid of the old pro and the Air, I'm tempted to splurge 2K on the base model. What do you think? Is it worth it? I won't be playing any intense games... just word processing, reading, some photos, reading, some movies, reading, and web browsing. I'm not all that tech savvy, but I do love Apple products.

When I was in undergrad, I once had a class with a doctoral student TA who had grimy fingernails that he would examine during the professor's lecture. LOL, we all thought he was gross! Anyway, to answer your question, I plan on wearing what I have currently in my closet from 10 years in the workforce--business casual (dress skirts, nice sweaters and cardigans, dresses, dress pants) for teaching and conferences and casual (jeans) for class and RA duties. I like fancy, non-sensible shoes (I own only one pair of sneakers). But, I guess my overall advice would be to dress comfortably. I'm comfortable in three-inch heels and a business casual dress, but I know not everyone is. I don't know if I'll change when I get to campus in August--when I visited in the spring, it seemed like the doctoral students were fairly casual (jeans, fleece vests, t-shirts) for class.

Hi SeriousSillyPutty--are you talking about two students in science education or for the entire program? The incoming cohort for the department within the college of education where I'm going is about 25 to 30. During the first year, all of us take the same seminar course. I think it will be a great bonding experience. But, I will also be taking a course just for science education students--it's for first and second-year students, but sometimes the others drop in for fun and to keep up-to-date with issues in science education. Anyway, feel free to pm me with any other questions. Good luck!

Yummy! This is how I like to make mine, too. Plus, you can add any veggies, meat, herbs, spices that you want.

Just wanted to give another big shout out to litjust for starting this thread. It's been a wild ride, and I'm thankful to have had some companions along the way. Best of luck to everyone! If you want to keep in touch professionally via LinkedIn, please PM me. It's not to early to start building our networks!

I've taught in both Maryland and California. Feel free to PM me with more specific questions.

Decision made... Michigan State! Loved the people in my program--so many awesome people with impressive backgrounds and life experiences.

PhD in Education. I was accepted to 3 out of 4 programs that I applied to--all with top researchers in my field. I already had an MS with thesis from a local state university with a 4.0 grad GPA. My undergrad GPA was 3.14 (science at a top private university that did not inflate grades). My summer was "off" because I'm a high school teacher. But, I have two young children, so my summer was not exactly paradise.

I started studying about 2 months before my test date in late August. I had the summer off, so I probably studied about 2-4 hours a day, maybe 3-4 days a week. For me, it wasn't so much about time as it was about getting better scores on the practice tests. So, I went through the entire Princeton Review book, the Official GRE, and some of Barron's. I took as much time as I needed to get better, especially on the quantitative section. The week of the test, I took the Official GRE full-length exams to get a feel for timing, and they were pretty close to what I actually got: 94% V, 82% Q, and 87% AW.

I would still go without having to worry about being on the job market in five years.

I completely agree with Pitangus on this one. When I found myself on the wait-list, I didn't feel so great at first. But (after asking about it here on GC and talking with some friends), I realized that there many more qualified applicants than spots available. I mean, my potential adviser could probably accept only one, maybe two, new PhD students. So, the fact that he chose somebody else over me doesn't diminish my self-confidence--at least he chose me as an alternate and didn't outright reject me! Anyway, I'm happy to have received a scholarship at another university with equally amazing faculty in my field. So, I guess it all works out in the end. I'm of the mind that what happens happens for a reason, even if it initially seems like a bad thing.

Now reading The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. Also have the movie "Food, Inc." waiting on iTunes.

I love this thread. Unfortunately, it's feeding my habit of buying books, setting them on my bookshelf, and not getting around to reading them. Anyone else have this problem?

Not yet... I'm going to decide whether to visit UW after I visit MSU... because I may not need to...

Finally got around to reading Hunger Games last night. Literally could not put it down! Now I'm ready for the movie.

Love the Wrinkle in Time series and Ursula LeGuin--I spent my middle school years in the public library reading all those fantasy novels!

The fortune from my cookie today reads: "You shall soon make a long, overdue personal decision." LOL, I sure hope so!

LOL, depends on who you ask!

These are in limited supply. Congrats on getting a scholarship!

LOL. Funny how old threads get picked up.

It depends. Linda Darling-Hammond, arguably one of the most distinguished scholars in education today, received her EdD in Urban Education from Temple University.

The College of Ed website is not very encouraging. It makes it sound like RA/TA positions are limited and competitive. I don't think I could handle the stress of worrying about how to pay for my PhD from quarter to quarter. Really? I think it's stressful enough without having to worry about that. When I spoke with my potential adviser, he made it sound as if private institutions are doing better than the big public universities (I told him that I had a tough decision to make and was concerned about funding, and he assumed that my other choice was a private, not public, university).

Thanks for this. Ugh, you're right. I should visit UW, too...

I think this is the key point for me. Right now I would have to say that Michigan State is the front-runner, but I have to visit to be 100% sure. I've had contact with people at both institutions (and one person who was at Michigan and is now at UW), and I'm pretty sure that Michigan is going to be a better fit for me. Thank you all for answering my cry of frustration! It was nice to have an acceptance from UW, but it just complicated the decision-making process. Thank goodness this will all be over soon!