Pas

Personally, if if I were that concerned, I'd consider deferring admission until the next fall term.

Like I said, it isn't everybody. Most are just fine. But I get what you're saying, and this is a good point to make.

I can understand why my post comes across as excessively judgmental. Let me clarify. It's not a matter of how they choose to use their time or what kinds of contributions they make in class. That is truly their business. It's something else entirely. It's a matter of reciprocal kindness and mutual respect outside of the classroom and in group settings. There is no reason to consistently engage in standoffish, aloof, or outright dismissive behavior. As I said, most do not do this, but those who do are just downright perplexing and unpleasant to be around. I just wonder if it's because of how they were raised or because they are trying to posture themselves to appear a certain way in graduate school. My university is in the South, so it could even be regional differences in behavioral expectations, since my group comes from all around. At any rate, in i/o psychology parlance, it's "workplace incivility" and taking a toll on my mental well-being.

Why are so many graduate students insufferable? I feel it is exacerbated in my case because I am in a terminal Master's program, rather than a Ph.D. program, but I do not know. Maybe it's just par for the course in academia. Is it just the combination of being away from friends and family, stress from high expectations, limited funds, limited time, limited real world experience, etc.? All of these seem to make most graduate students some of the most maladjusted people with whom I have ever interacted. By and large, they are just a different breed of people than I ever experienced in my years working in the real world. There is a higher prevalence of narcissism, arrogance, and selfishness than I ever encountered at my jobs. It's as though many of these people are still in middle school. The reason I mention all of this is that I thought graduate school would be hard, but not for the reasons it actually is hard. The coursework is engaging and intuitive. The professors are insightful, fair, and fun to be around. Fifty percent of my peers, though, are petulant children. If anything, I feel like the primary skill learned in graduate school is "how to think and produce quality work in spite of whomever is around you or in a group with you."

One. Day. At. A. Time.

I'll be on a conservative campus, too. That definitely plays into my trepidation. Believe it or not, I've only watched maybe half of an episode of that show...and hated it. You guys will have to explain to me what you mean by "watching too much Big Bang Theory."

I appreciate your thoughts. It's for the very reasons you mentioned that I will NEVER get a PhD - this is just a Master's program.

Hey guys, I've been feeling very anxious about meeting my fellow classmates and professors in a few weeks. Most of this anxiety has to do with the difference between how I feel a graduate student is expected to be as contrasted with what I feel to be my true personality. I'm not religious and see morality as a very gray area. I smoke. I drink. I swear. I've been known to fight a time or two. I've been locked up a couple of times. I've had a few close calls. I'm more interested in getting laid than dropping my two cents in the proverbial pool of knowledge. Despite all of this, I tend to be a good student on paper, and I see the benefit of obtaining a relevant graduate degree. Unlike high school and college where simply getting all A's and testing well is more or less considered to be stupendous, graduate school relies substantially more on the professional network that you develop. Herein lies the problem. I have this fear that now, as a grown-ass man, unless I make a substantial effort to be a jolly, humble, "keeps-it-all-together" type whose sole interest is contributing to the knowledge of the field, helping others, and generally just being some sort of caricature of a perfect graduate student that I am going to mess everything up. I usually feel friction in sterile, academic settings. I feel stifled and perplexed by the way other people interact with knowledge and their surroundings. Maybe I'm just a bit traumatized from my teen/undergrad years. Is this likely to be different in a graduate school setting? My plan is to simply try to treat others how I'd want them to treat me and try to do what I'm supposed to do until everybody gets comfortable enough with each other to accept each other as we are, not as who we could or should be. There will be times, though, where this plan will definitely be put to the test. So I guess what I'm asking is this: how do you balance being who you really are with who you are supposed to be, if you are even supposed to be anything at all?

Improve your application and reapply at UMich next year?

How about...lightweight road-tire bike recommendations in the $200+ range?

Definitely a step in the right direction with the Ideapad. It's the poor man's Macbook. I'd like to have one with a SSD.

Send it in the mail.

You got into both and the difference in offers seem negligible. The question is pretty simple. Where do you want to live? Also, how did you narrow down schools that offer an MFA with an emphasis in college teacher preparation? I wasn't aware that this was an emphasis offered by any MFA programs in particular, rather a concomitant goal of the fine arts curriculum for those that choose to teach following graduation rather than become exclusively professional artists.

The way I see it is that it is easier to cut to the core of another person based on a dozen bullet points because we inherently see ourselves as more complicated than we actually are and others as more simple than they actually are.

I'm trying to choose between schools in Kentucky and Tennessee. My options are MTSU, WKU, EKU, and NKU. (Lots of acronyms, I know!) Chattanooga and Memphis are too far away from where I would like to be, location-wise. It is extremely difficult to find any kind of comprehensive, current ranking system, but NKU just feels right, for some reason. What are your thoughts? I am more interested in an applied focus, and I have no idea if I will ever go for the Ph.D., so that isn't too much of a consideration.