TropicalCharlie

Just curious....do you include a signature in your school email? If so, what is the convention? What information do you include (dept name, your title, address, etc.)? I have seen several types of signatures and wonder which is most appropriate.

Sausage is delicious! In my experience, it's very flavorful and safe when cooked correctly. When I make pasta with tomato sauce, I use italian sausage and sometimes brat wurst instead of ground beef. Split open the casings and squeeze the contents out. No chopping involved. It adds so much flavor and a nice texture. You can also get italian sausage without casings at certain grocery stores like Sprouts or Whole Foods. Sausage also makes great stuffing in stuffed mushrooms. Yum!

I am wrapping up my second week of school and admit that I feel a bit overwhelmed. Moving from Hawaii to the mainland, arriving at my destination less than a week before classes began, attending orientation, furnishing our apt, having individual meetings with my advisor and the rest of dept. faculty, trying to find myself a 'lab' to call home (my dept has a shadow policy before we can be admitted to a research lab), preparing for a seminar presentation, and overloaded with tons of reading, I am definitely feeling unsettled and anxious. Once I get my routine down and become more familiar with the new settings, I know that things will smooth out. Right now I am barely keeping my head above water. Just gotta keep pushing through, one step at a time. Oh, and breathe

Having lived in Hawaii where many grocery items cost twice as much as mainland prices, I had to adjust and make the most of my food. It was easy to spend as much as $200 for 2 people and not even get a full week of groceries there. One thing we did and still do now to extend our food while keeping within budget is making a main protein dish that can be used in different dishes for the rest of the week. Buying a big chunk of pork shoulder on sale and making chile colorado or kalua pork in our crock pot, then using the meat in quesadillas, tacos, ramen, fried rice, etc. It really saves time on busy days when our schedule is a bit funky and prevents us from eating out since the main ingredient is already prepared, and we just have to assemble it into a meal. Now that we are back on the mainland, we are still getting used to how affordable groceries are. A box of cereal doesn't cost $7, lol.

I'm quite amused as well. Her gutsy email reflects the state of mind of most job seekers in this economy. I can imagine how frustrated I would be if I keep getting one rejection after another. While the email is unprofessional, media exposure will probably open up new opportunities for her.

From Hawaii to California (and Ca is not where my school is), so far we've spent $7200 which includes shipping costs and car purchase. Driving to our destination (~1500 mi) and settling in will probably cost another $3200. Luckily, grad student housing at my school doesn't charge security deposit, and it comes partially furnished.

My situation was a bit different but had the same effect on my GPA as yours. When I applied to grad schools, my ug GPA was about the same as yours now. What helped me was work experience and excellent letters of recommendation. As an undergrad, I did not plan on going to grad school but I knew that I needed work experience in order to be competitive after graduation. I worked in two research labs, each in a different discipline (geochemistry and ecology). After obtaining my BS, I worked in analytical chemistry for 5 years. During that time, I decided that I wanted to pursue grad school and took some postbac classes. I recommend that you talk to some professors and get into a research lab before school starts in the fall. If they can pay you, great! If they can't, ask if you can do independent research or volunteer. By joining a research group, you will gain experience and a letter of rec. These will improve your chances of admission tremendously. As for the 2 D's, it's imperative that you retake ochem and biochem during your senior year (or stay an extra semester). Most schools do not consider D as passing. Admission criteria vary from school to school. Most schools say that they look at the entire package and not just grades or test scores, but it's difficult to say whether adcoms actually review the entire package. In general, it's safe to say that minimum GPA and GRE scores are there to weed out students with weak applications. With a 3.0 GPA, you can improve your application by having work experience, good LOR's and good GRE scores. Another factor that comes into play is having a POI vouch for you. When you research grad programs and make contact with POI's, discuss your story with them. In my experience, every POI has been candid, and most of them were helpful. Some will tell your outright that they prefer students with better stats, and as hard as it is to hear, it's ok. Just move on to the next one. When you connect with the right POI who is interested in you, they can usually persuade the adcom to admit you, granted that you meet the minimum requirements of the graduate school (the program may have min requirements that are different). A note on researching programs: it's great to shoot for the stars, you may get lucky and find a POI who will fight for you. Keep in mind that top tier schools will get very competitive applicants, so your chances of admission will not be great (with your current stats). Spend a lot of time on program research and apply to schools that will be a good fit for you. If you plan to take some time off after you finish your degree, be sure to keep in touch with all your potential LOR writers. I've maintained a good relationship with all of mine, and even after so many years, it was very easy to get letters from them. In fact, that was the easiest part of my application process. If you have further questions, feel free to pm me.

Around this time last year, I had just returned from a lovely and relaxing vacation in Kauai and began preliminary work on my grad school applications. I was filled with self doubt about the future but all the work I put into to this paid off. I started my MS program remotely back in June and am moving next month.

Like anything in life, I think that grad school will be what you make of it regardless of the atmosphere of your program. Generally, if you're the type of person who easily makes friends, then it should not be an issue. If you're shy, then you'd have to find a coping mechanism that allows you to overcome it enough and put yourself out there a bit (speaking from personal experience). When friendships are formed, I doubt that people foresee a life-long friendship, initially. I think it's more like, hey, so and so is pretty cool and fun to hang out with. From there, you build on that foundation. Whether this friendship extends beyond grad school is determined by what you and your friends make of it.

darkknight9 - Delayed/ late admission is a common practice in professional programs like medical and pharmacy schools. A friend of mine was not admitted to his first choice PharmD program pretty much until the very end, leaving him 2 weeks to move 2500mi. For traditional graduate programs, however, I have never heard of such a late admission response either. Are you able to get in touch with current students in the program and seek some insight? They may not have info on the current admission process but may be able to shed light on previous years.

Adding to Eigen - Generally, advisors and faculty members are not directly involved in sending out notifications or planning of such events. Always contact the graduate program coordinator for your department whenever you have a trivial question like this. In most cases, the coordinators are responsible for notifications and planning of such events and likely to have answers to administrative questions. They are also ones that you will be working with primarily when it comes to stipend/reimbursement questions. It would serve you well to form a good relationship with these folks as they will be of tremendous help during your graduate experience.

First, it sounds like you are heading for a major tune up if they are recommending that you replace the belt, which I am assuming is the timing belt. Timing belt replacement costs anywhere from $500-700. Brake fluid flush shouldn't cost you too much or if you have a mechanically savvy friend, they may be able to do it for you. Is your mileage approaching 100k? Usually timing belts are replaced at this point. Dealerships are known to recommend replacement much earlier than this, but it is not necessary. Since you are not planning to use the car much during the next two years, these maintenance items can definitely be deferred. Is there a reason why you are not taking your car to Chicago? I am not familiar with Chicago but have heard that parking can be an issue. It sounds like you are very attached to the car. Moving it around every few days will become a chore for your parents and get old real fast. If you sell it, you can put the money in a cd account or something similar. The money will sit there and make you a bit more while you are in school.

You may want to start with this thread

While I have started my program last month remotely, the actual physical move will take place in Aug. Orientation is Aug 16. School starts Aug 20. Because of my husband's job, we cannot leave here earlier than Aug 11. Fly from Hawaii to CA. One day to visit with my in-laws and pick up our car and belongings. Drive to our destination with a pit stop in AZ to visit my family. In total we will be driving about 1600 mi to get to our destination, arriving the night of Aug 15. It would be nice to have more time to get settled in, but that's the way it goes. I'm excited about this journey.

I found the GRE and the SOP to be the most challenging aspects of the application process. I had been out of school for ten years, so I was quite worried about how I would fare on the GRE. I took the GRE when it was still the CAT format, and during the 30 seconds it took to populate my scores, my heart must have skipped several beats. I did well enough the first time, so that was a big relief. I got over this hurdle, and it was on to the next. The SOP was a long process of writing and re-writing, getting various qualified people to look over it, and more re-writing. Then adapting the original version for each school was a process in itself, because one school may have a limit of 1000 words while another wants only 500. LOR's were the easiest for me since I had kept in touch with all the right people over the years. I knew all of them personally and professionally since I worked for them and took their classes as an undergrad. I never even thought of going to grad school until about five years ago. It's a good idea to maintain contact, even when you don't think you need to at the time, because you just never know when you'll need their help further down the road.

I think many people who responded this article perhaps missed the point. It is not advocating cardio exercise over strength training or discouraging strength training. It is simply stating that when it comes to burning abdominal fat, aerobic exercise is shown to be more effective. Anyone who has ever taken a PE class knows about the benefits of both types of exercises. Of course, everyone's body responds differently, so to each his own

My husband is in his final year of the pharm d program. Pharmacy school is considered a professional school just like medical/veterinary/dental schools. There is no funding or assistantships. Pharm students are on their own when it comes to finances, so student loans are the only options for most students. The coursework is intensive. In addition to a lot of external responsibilities, my husband took about 18 units per semester which is the norm. By external responsibilities, I mean short stints of required pharmacy rotations that take place during the semester and summer at various clinical sites. Keep in mind that student loans only cover the school year and not summer months, so your brother will have to plan for that. Your brother should definitely look into scholarships. My husband applied for some through his school and got a few which paid for about 15% of his tuition. While that doesn't really make much of a dent, it's better than nothing. He also worked for a pharm professor doing research and was paid as a RA, mostly during the summer and a few hours a week during school. Having a job is definitely doable but the employer would have to be quite flexible. If you have any other questions, pm me, and I'll have my husband reply. He's not on grad cafe.

Just curious, is your new roommie a vegetarian or vegan? I used to know a vegan who did not want to use cookware that has been used to cook animal products. Other than that, I have not heard of anyone not wanting to share cookware either.

I would hold off until you can shop for furniture in person. Your investment is going to last you the duration of your program, so you should get to test/sample and make sure that you really it. 1-2 weeks without it isn't that big of a deal. You can always get a bean bag chair until you get furniture. Those things are comforatble for most tasks. Bring a sleeping bag and a pillow. That, and internet connection should suffice until you get other things.

Secretshayats - congratulations!

It's great to see that you are planning ahead. Everyone here will have a different opinion on which book or combination of books helped with their GRE studies. For me, I borrowed both princeton and kaplan books from the local library and bought nova as it has extensive quantitative practice problems. For vocab, you can find many free online flashcards that people have put together using princeton, barron and kaplan vocab lists which eliminates the need to buy them. I believe there is a GRE vocab app for the iphone as well. My local library also has 2 free computerized GRE practice tests which are different from anything being offered at the time that I took it. I found this very helpful as it helped with time management during the test. You may want to check your library for such resources. Don't start studying too early as you will not retain much by the time your test date comes around. For someone like you who plans on going straight from undergrad to grad school, I think 6-8 weeks would be sufficient prep time.

My plan is to eat smaller portions and do cardio at least 4 days a week. It has worked well for me in the past, so I just have to keep myself motivated. Here's an interesting article on aerobic exercise vs strength training.

It will be worth it to take some time for yourself and relax before the hustle and bustle of school life kicks in. Unless you are going to starve, it's worth it to have a bit less money and a lot more time to enjoy yourself. Remember money comes and goes, but time is something that you can't get back.

Since you mentioned public policy as an interest, expand your grad school search to energy policy and environmental economics. The job outlook for these fields is very positive as every agency is developing goals, plans and policy to work with upward demands for energy while balancing economics. In addition to governmental agencies, lucrative careers can be made in consulting. I worked for a niche environmental economics firm some time back, and they couldn't hire consultants fast enough to fill project demands.

9 more days! Like Antecedent, while I'm looking forward to moving on, I'm thankful to have my job despite my lack of interest in it.