avicus

Look at your reputation points. This isn't exactly a forum to troll on, in case you aren't aware of that now. Go troll at reddit or failbook or facebook, anywhere but here.

I empathize with you. The American legal system is such that it has bred an overly-litigious society, IMHO.

Hi ponylevel What I meant was not to generalize as in assuming that your experience, or the experiences of people you have known (and therefore experienced vicariously) should not be taken as the de facto norm, in graduate school. There are so many variables at play here, and you know as well as I do how varied graduate school programs can be across different faculties/departments, much less different schools. So my point is that it is really a rather complex scenario that we're talking about here, and I'm sorry if you or someone you knew had a bad experience relationship-wise, but I strongly feel that you should not use that negative experience as a stumbling block, ie to discourage other people on this forum from pursuing relationships while in graduate school. This forum is about giving and seeking advice, not ranting (per se) or expression of bigotry/misogyny (at all). Just my 2 cents worth.

For me, the part about the guy having job security. I'd thought (perhaps rather mistakenly) that Western culture tends to emphasize the romantic, rather than more practical, aspects of finding a life partner. Of course, I'm speaking from a cultural background where arranged marriage was rather common up to 20-30 year ago, (and still occurs today for desperate cases LOL)

Don't generalize. Ever.

ktel you sound remarkably Asian here. This is not an insult, just an observation, as I'm from Asia. For clarification, I think that this is an extremely sensible point of view.

I can't wait for my turn to dole out these words of wisdom haha.

Thank you so much, juilletmercredi. Like TakerUK said, awesomest.post.ever.

I see. My school has many opportunities for summer RA-ships which pay up to 3x the amount of funding given during the other 9 months, because it'd be a full-time job then.

From what I know, the fact that your parent was an alumnus of the university you're applying to usually only helps if you're applying to the Ivy League, and also if your parents were/are major donors to the university.

double blind

pet rock

Music player

I am an international student, who is definitely NOT a super-good-looking female with high GPA (on both counts). I got full funding for my 1st year of my doctoral program in an STEM field, at a public university (suffice to say it's one of the Public Ivies). FYI, I am an "average looking international guy..." mentioned in romeo2die's post.

Heeello gradcafe-ers, Calling all international students on this forum who are/ will be enrolling in Fall 2012 at CU Boulder. If you fit the description, do reply to this thread. That way, we can get to know each other, and form a support (?) group of sorts, especially for those who are coming from halfway around the world (like me unfortunately) to Boulder. Which is, by the way, the awesomest college town ever. Period. So, yeah.. let's start the ball rolling! P.S. Have a great summer! Wherever you are!

Heeello gradcafe-ers, Calling all international students on this forum who are/ will be enrolling in Fall 2012 at CU Boulder. If you fit the description, do reply to this thread. That way, we can get to know each other, and form a support (?) group of sorts, especially for those who are coming from halfway around the world (like me unfortunately) to Boulder. Which is, by the way, the awesomest college town ever. Period. So, yeah.. let's start the ball rolling! P.S. Have a great summer! Wherever you are!

smiley court is near the ECEE department.But do you really not intend to pay rent?

"Apocalypse management" FTW!

I agree with Ghanada​. Just to add on, as you might be aware, it is generally more difficult to get into funded Master's programs, as they are relatively fewer than funded PhD programs. I have a few questions/concerns, however: 1. Why are you applying to "philanthrophist organizations" for financial aid? IMHO, if you have some form of financial resources (viz. your parents in this case), then applying for financial aid from these organizations would not be a wise decision, since You would be competing with people who actually do not have the money for graduate school, and whom these organizations actually aim to help; (I'm speaking very generally here), If you were truthful in filling out the financial situation section of the application, you probably would not stand a good chance of receiving aid; If you weren't truthful in filling out your information, and if you did get financial aid as a result, would your conscience be fine with it? Even if it were, you would be denying a rightful applicant his or her chance to get financial aid. 2. You need to be really sure that going to grad school WILL actually improve your chances of getting a better job, because you will end up becoming more specialized in your field, (unless you are switching fields). So when you graduate, your job options might actually become more limited, and you have a smaller choice of potential job choices. What is a decent job to you? Good pay? Flexible working hours? Because it means different things to different people. My conclusion is, graduate school is not a MUST to get a "better job". Experience and interpersonal skills are just some of the myriad factors, besides academics, that will help you in securing a "better job"

I had terrible grades for the whole of my sophomore year and the first semester of my junior year. (I had decent grades in freshman year and senior year). But as Hank Scorpio mentioned, I did not focus on those poor grades in my SoP. Rather, I mentioned that I was having some trouble focusing in class, due to having to take many required courses that I had little to no interest in, which caused stress and consequently health problems. That there were other personal problems at play doesn't matter; the adcomm does NOT need to know that. What I think they were looking for, in my case, was i. Why was there a change in the trend of my GPA ii. What I did to overcome it iii. Evidence of ii. - e.g. an upward trend in your junior/senior year. Of course, in your case (as well as mine), I suppose reference letters will matter a lot. If your referees can attest to your research potential, then you should be home-free. If you're wondering, I did get accepted to my program (top 20% in my field). And with funding. So, hope this helps, and don't give up hope!

Is it really important for you to go to graduate school?

field theory

chocolate cake

left field

Awesome man! Being able to work with NASA is an extremely noteworthy achievement in itself.