ANDS!

Someone's never known anyone in an Asian family.

Someone's never known anyone in an Asian family.

Someone's never known anyone in an Asian family.

It's an unvitation buddy.

"Dear Sally,

I am unable to personally fund (though loans or otherwise) a doctoral program. I thank you for the offer, however I will have to decline your offer of admission."

This isn't a beauty contest; what do you actually want to do that isn't the fanciful ravings of a poet?

Yale's BioStats seems lost in their school of Public Health. I would definitely go for the MS at Columbia.

Wow. Can you tell me what technique of psychoanalysis you guys use to diagnose people with disorders based on a low number of posts on an internet forum? I'd be eternally endeavored to you.
 
 
Really, what does making comments about someone's supposed inability to cope with x condition and how it must be indicative of some wider psychological or social anomaly add to the corpus of knowledge here? It doesn't.  Raimunda, I'm sorry your question was met with that kind of response.
 
Only you can truly know if your situation is irreversible and what you can do to be happy. If the program isn't doing it for you and you see no positive in sight, then isn't it better to try and find something that does? Life is too short to be constantly miserable about a situation we can change. We already are put through enough crap that we have no say in, why should we place ourselves in situations where we are forced to receive crap when we could remove ourselves.
 
If you really want the master's, think about what it's worth to you. If you don't, then weigh the options of how it will affect your happiness. Only you really know what's right for you, so listen to yourself. Not anonymous people on forums who don't even care or know enough about you to respond amicably. 
 
I don't know why anyone would think this is necessarily her fault or that she's imagining things. My experience with academia has been that academics can be narcissistic, self absorbed type a hardasses with inferiority complexes. Any doubt about the hostile nature of a good number of academics can easily be cleared up by perusing posts on this forum and others like it. Along with medical school and law school, grad school has a certain penchant for having a larger representation of jerks compared to our numbers in society.
 
It is quite possible that she is just in a department/program with complete and utter female-cleansing-products. To start making up phantom diagnoses on limited data is just not really a nice thing to do.

Another thread for the "Grad Student Problems" Tumblr that exists only in my head.

This is a pretty silly dismisal to make. The Ivy League schools (and their counterparts in the UK) are considered "super brands" in terms of their research/output. Not all Ivies are created equal, nor are they all represented in all disciplines. However it is a safe bet that should a person go to an Ivy, then the quality of their education will be pretty well known which translates to future professional success.

And I am laughing at the people ass hurt over the OP's concern; as if brand recognition is something that isn't (and should't be) on the minds of a grad student. Yes a lot of these posts come off as "Heading to Cambridge. . .what about YOU!?", but I'd say a fair bit of the negative backlash is a reflection on folks own insecurities about where they have ended up.

This isn't a beauty contest; what do you actually want to do that isn't the fanciful ravings of a poet?

This isn't a beauty contest; what do you actually want to do that isn't the fanciful ravings of a poet?

Yikes. I would come right out and ask your advisor: "What is the gameplan here? Can we talk about a plan of action that ends with me making some definitive progress towards obtaining my degree?"

This isn't a beauty contest; what do you actually want to do that isn't the fanciful ravings of a poet?

This isn't a beauty contest; what do you actually want to do that isn't the fanciful ravings of a poet?

Grad students have been some of the worst dressed people I've seen. The young undergrads come to class decked out; mostly because they are on someone elses dole and can afford to spend their work cash on nice things. This is not to say you HAVE to come looking haggard. However when it comes down to priorities, new clothes, when the ones you have are fine, ranks pretty low.

The headphones they provided blocked everything out. However the proctors and staff were as silent as church mice; there were two sections you needed to go through, so all conversation was limited to the lobby area. If you felt the noise level was enough to distract you (though - again - headphones), you should send a customer service review to ETS regarding that facility.

Wake up.  Become invigorated by the joy of being alive.  Profit.

I'd prefer a warranty over self insuring (through State Farm or something) any day of the week.  A personal insurance policy is unlikely to cover routine repairs (that for whatever reason you can't do yourself) or cosmetic issues.  My warranty has.  Never mind that what the policy will cover is probably going to be prohibitively limited to be of use beyond "Laptop exploded spontaneously. . ." or some such.  Yes, it's likely to cost far less and you can cover yourself in terms of theft, but you get what you pay for.   Also, I'd never get a machine that was tied to internet access.  That is obviously why these machines are so cheap, but the hassle of having a paper due, and not being able to access it - yuck (of course you could get an external, but then you are starting to veer into price-territory of a standard lappy).

I'd be more insulted this his idea of foreplay and romance is to file some funking folders.  The shit. . .?

I've never had a problem in over a decade of using IBM/Lenovo warranty service.  A 200 dollar warranty service versus having to outsource the problem (with no garauntee that it'll be fixed) - no thanks.   As for your machine being a hunk of junk in a few years - bah.  I think people toss this "obsolete" word around with a bit too much abandon.  "No longer best in class for [insert task]" might be the better phrase to use.  My Thinkpad R61 can still do the marginal stuff my T430s is currently doing.  It just does it a bit slower (depending on what you are using it for).   As for aesthetic issues, no one is ever going to call the Thinkpad series "bold. . ." in design (except for the Carbon).  These are business class laptops however - Lenovo makes a line for individuals who are "design concious. . ."  However, compared to Samsung or Apple - Lenovo isn't going to win any awards from the undegrad set.     If you care about a solid, well built affordable machine - it's really hard to get wrong with the T series.

I've never had a problem in over a decade of using IBM/Lenovo warranty service.  A 200 dollar warranty service versus having to outsource the problem (with no garauntee that it'll be fixed) - no thanks.   As for your machine being a hunk of junk in a few years - bah.  I think people toss this "obsolete" word around with a bit too much abandon.  "No longer best in class for [insert task]" might be the better phrase to use.  My Thinkpad R61 can still do the marginal stuff my T430s is currently doing.  It just does it a bit slower (depending on what you are using it for).   As for aesthetic issues, no one is ever going to call the Thinkpad series "bold. . ." in design (except for the Carbon).  These are business class laptops however - Lenovo makes a line for individuals who are "design concious. . ."  However, compared to Samsung or Apple - Lenovo isn't going to win any awards from the undegrad set.     If you care about a solid, well built affordable machine - it's really hard to get wrong with the T series.

I'd be more insulted this his idea of foreplay and romance is to file some funking folders.  The shit. . .?

I'd be more insulted this his idea of foreplay and romance is to file some funking folders.  The shit. . .?

. . .specifically a T430s from the Lenovo Outlet (returns and refurbished models).