Cosmos

I have been wanting my own place for a while, but I think I will end up in San Clemente for the first year to avoid the hassle of furnishing/finding a good neighbourhood/looking at houses from abroad. I hope I get placed with good people!

Hey, I decided on UCSB! Did you?

Hey, sorry to tell you but the UCSB social psych recruitment weekend is this weekend

Exactly what I was going to say!

I met someone yesterday who has an interview at NYU for cognitive neuroscience, next week I think

Hi there, I am attending an interview weekend this week and on my itinerary it says that I will have a 45 minute interview with my POI and three 30 minute interviews with other faculty in the department that do completely different research. Has anyone had this experience before? I was just wondering if anyone knew how these non-POI interviews go... will we spend most of the time discussing their research or will they mostly just be asking me questions? Thanks! Cosmos

Haha I burst out laughing when I read this!! That would be awful, especially since we all probably read and re-read our applications a bazillion times before submitting. Funny story, this actually happened to me last semester... for my final paper of my final neuropsych seminar, my second last paragraph ended with 'The point here is that' then the next paragraph started. Horrible.

Cool, thank you! I ended up receiving an itinerary for mine, it sounds a lot like yours. Best of luck!

Brilliant, thank you!

A lot of good advice has already been offered, so I will only add one thing. Have you considered that this may be more related to your attitude than to the actual students around you? I could be completely off base, but I have had personal experiences where I arrive somewhere and feel intense dislike for those around me, grouping them together as a homogeneous 'other' that have nothing in common with me. It is a really extreme (and probably false) position to contend that every single one of your peers has no qualities that you can respect/admire/find fun or interesting. Dig a little deeper? I transferred schools in my second year of undergrad because I was really unhappy in first year... I experienced a bit of a negative spiral where I felt lonely and different --> preferred to be by myself --> felt more lonely --> stayed by myself more until everyone around me had formed close friendships in my 'absence' and I was worse off than ever. In retrospect, if I had given them more of a chance we might have become great friends. That being said, I do believe we have pretty strong and immediate intuitions (for the most part) about whether we will get along with someone. I suppose this is 'clicking'. You can meet someone in 5 minutes and already feel like they are your best friends, and you can know someone your whole life and still feel awkward around them. I can totally feel your pain, I know what it's like to feel alone and it really does suck. But there is hope yet! New grad students, other people at the school, random encounters in coffee shops... Like everyone else says, I think you should stick it out and try and be professional with your cohort, try and see their good sides, and you can fulfil that social need through other people. Getting into a good grad program like you're in is a really special thing, and I'm sure if you stick it out you will meet lots of interesting people and come out with a great degree. Try and spend more time on campus! And you always have your boyfriend to laugh about your coworkers with. Hope this ramble was slightly helpful..

Great, thanks socihealth!

Haha! I never knew 'Inspectors' still existed! Also, Gellert: you are most definitely going to get accepted somewhere awesome and have a great time. Be kind to yourself!

I am going to take me and my friends out to dinner. I might also get a caramel frappuccino from Starbucks.

So I am interviewing at Penn at the beginning of February and I have been in touch with my POI. He has repeatedly told me that he would be happy to answer any questions I have for him. Like, repeatedly. I am starting to feel that I should have many questions for him! I thought the whole point of the interview was to ask each other questions, so I was kind of saving all of mine for then. My POI put me in touch with his current graduate student and I am supposed to skype with him this week to get the inside scoop, so I really don't have anything to ask my POI right now... is that odd? Do most people have more questions at this point, questions that can't wait for the interview? Anyone else have a similar experience?

I am moving to Australia to sit on a beach until I get in to grad school. Seems like the most reasonable thing to do at this point.