coffeeplease

I've been doing this, and looking at university housing. I've got bunnies who will be coming to grad school with me (knock on wood!) so I looked to see which schools have pet friendly housing.

This is amazing. Alcohol poisoning will be a welcome distraction from the waiting.

Ha, I dreamed that my alma mater called me up to tell me that I was actually a few credits short of graduating and that I would have to return to campus in the fall to finish my BA. I had this dream for like 6 months a few years ago, as there was a semester-long gap between finishing my coursework and actually receiving my diploma, but this time there was the added humiliation of having to call up all of the schools I applied to, explain the situation and ask if they would still consider my application. Even sadder, this was not my first grad school-related dream.

Ugh, the longer I wait the more nervous I become. I don't really have a solid Plan B ... I suppose my options are A) staying at my current job (NO!), B ) applying for an MA abroad or C) moving back home and looking for temp work or some kind of internship there. None of those are particularly horrible, but going through this whole process has made me realize just how much I WANT to go to grad school and do my PhD, so it will really, really suck if I get rejected across the board.

A staple of the magician's toolkit ... like how clowns always carry a rag soaked in ether. (Was just watching AD today....it's a great distraction from the waiting!)

You guys are so classy. If I'd had to pick an alcohol, it would have been tequila, salt, lime, shot glass. And a really greasy hangover breakfast.

Also, some chocolate and a box of tissues.

Also quitting my job. I can't wait.

Dunno why I do this to myself, but I just opened up all of my app materials. Found a mistake on my CV and my SOPs were horrible....what was I thinking? How did I let myself submit them? ARRRGGG. Really need the waiting to be over.

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I pulled an all-nighter trying to get my NYU SOP done in time for their "recommended deadline." I had to leave for the airport at 5:30 am, and didn't spend a whole lot of time thinking about packing or sorting through my handbag. I cleared security at two international airports -- Hamburg and Newark -- and worked like crazy on my SOP. During the Newark flight I finished and rifled through my handbag to get some chapstick. While searching, I found something I had forgotten to remove from my bag ..... pepper spray. Made it through two major airports with mace in my bag. Good job, TSA.

Ha, I had a similar experience with my great-uncle: he speaks Yiddish to me and I answer him in Hochdeutsch, and we can have basic conversations that way. Germans do swear a lot (at least the ones I know) and so do I, so I will have to practice the self-censoring. I notice that their swearing tends to be very...scatological. I so wish I could share Monty Python's sketch (NSFW) in my conversation courses. But I'm not ready to be fired *just* yet. Northern Germans also have some funny (clean) expressions... my current favorite is "alter Schwede." I've heard a smattering of Plattdeutsch up here too -- also very entertaining. TAship is how I ended up here too -- stayed on after the grant ended.

That sounds really interesting! Any writers in particular you work on? (Also a fan of the Austrians here ) A student of mine told me that Austrians call Germans Piefkes, after the Prussians' hats (I think)...I found that really amusing. I'm in Hamburg, also teaching English. How did you end up in Wolfsberg? PAD?

Hello djl, welcome to the thread! What are your interests? I'm hoping to get to Austria sometime between now and graduate school, although after years in Norddeutschland I'm worried I won't be able to understand a word. FWIW, in my limited interactions with the departments, I've also found them to be quite understanding -- the advantages of small programs I guess.

The Great Gatsby. My high school English courses were very light on American lit, so many of us graduated without reading the canon. Also haven't read The Scarlet Letter or The Old Man and the Sea, now that I think about it.

My significant other recently had a dentist tell him that he's too old to learn to brush and floss properly (26), so he should just come in for cleanings every 3 months -- so I'm guessing you'd be better than that guy for sure.

Yeah, my guess is that they will put out another one before next year's exam cycle, when they have more data to work with. It seems like schools are also unsure of what to make of the new scores -- I had one prof email me to that effect.

Not 5 minutes ago I was thinking to myself that I SHOULD have applied to U Chicago... I even applied for a transfer there as an undergrad (denied, sadly). Somehow it never came up in talking to my UG profs when discussing my interests, so I didn't think to add it to my list after deciding not to apply at the beginning of this whole mess. Also, ontolme, what are your thoughts on Harvard's German department? Just curious since you have the insider info.

I hadn't taken a math class in about 5 years when I took the GRE -- I am terrible at math, and I managed to do fine without sacrificing TOO much time. I used the Princeton Review's GRE book, plus their math workbook since I was a ball of stress (I only used that for extra practice on things I was really struggling with, though). I think that PR stuff is designed for people like us, who are terrified by numbers and triangles and whatnot. The book did a good job of putting me at ease since it breaks things down into simple concepts and explains things pretty well, and for that alone it was worth the investment. I put those things on flashcards (properties of triangles and such) and looked at them once and a while during my commute and it was enough -- made 79th percentile on the math section, which was enough for me to triumphantly throw out said books and flashcards and kiss the exam goodbye. As poeteer said, aiming for 550 (now about 146 -- source) would probably be ideal, but check with your targets schools to see just how much effort you should be putting in.

tell me

Same. I'd probably be trying to get into Iowa's summer workshop. Or into journalism. Or into any number of other fields that interest me ... English, Philosophy, Media Studies, Sustainable Development. I am interested in lots of things and qualified for none of them, basically.

Correcting exams brought me another answer. In an essay on technology/dystopian futures, one student brought up the iPhone. This was actually appropriate, but what wasn't appropriate was waxing poetic about the iPhone for four pages (she was supposed to be critiquing a short newspaper article). The best part of the answer though, was this: "The cool thing about the iPhone was that you could listen to music or call a friend, or even somebody else." Revolutionary technology, that.

So close and yet still so far away.

You know the saying, "show, don't tell?" You've got a really powerful story and I think you undercut it a bit when you spell things out a bit too much (ie, this has made me "goal-oriented"). The things you've experienced and done are moving and powerful, and they will say a lot more about your character (although I would split up the last sentence and end on the note you have, or something similar to it)

I haven't had too much direct experience with schools, but I emailed one department after coming across some info on the website that contradicted what was in the application. I received a really nice response from the department secretary -- and quickly, too. The experience was a bright spot in what has otherwise been a really depressing process.