Quantum Buckyball

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=study+GRE

I dated someone who was a high school dropout (as an adult, he ended up becoming a musician and a cook) and came from a family with a history of neglect, drug abuse, and extreme poverty. He was pretty self-educated though, as he read a lot of pretty high-level books and was happy to discuss philosophy and history with me.
 
The relationship actually ended up being very interesting and enriching. After spending time with a lot of pretty sheltered young people groomed for the academic path, hanging out with someone with a lot of real world experience was refreshing and gave me new perspective. My not-so-educated dropout boyfriend was never pretentious, as some academics I've dated have been (although far from all), and he was great at getting me out of my comfort zone, off campus, and off the computer.
 
Any difficulties we had were mostly related to personal habits (he was a chain smoker who had begun at a very young age and tried many times to quit), which were only marginally related to his lack of education. 
 
I think that your philosophy on life (political and social and religious beliefs, ideas about cleanliness/noise/entertainment activities) is much more important than how many years you've spent in formal education. A great relationship can exist between two academics, but it can also exist between an academic and someone without a high school degree.

I think the easiest way to improve yourself is watching a lot of foreign TV shows or movies (US or UK)...with English subtitles  , at least this was what I did and I thought it was very useful and convenient 

So, person A and I hung out last night and it was fun, we did not talk about anything school/research related stuff 

I have such a success story. I could never have dreamt to stand where I stand now. Just hope that posting this is the right decision. My story is a bit extreme perhaps, but I suppose that it is far from unique.
 
I was ahead in school and struggled hard having to do work years beyond my level. (I live in a country where home schooling is not allowed.) I was terribly lazy and still a straight A student. I hardly ever did a thing. I am so embarrassed looking back, but it did not know any better at the time. Socially it was okay (in elementary and high school, anyway), so most of the time I coped though I developed a severe social anxiety due to not being acknowledged. There have been times that I would get depressed. I hit rock bottom in 11th grade, despite being in a very good gifted program. I always tried to find challenges somewhere (extracurriculars, taking additional courses, early college entrance, but also not attending classes, not studying for tests; the whole range of both desired and undesired behaviors), but in 11th grade it was just over. There were no more advanced classes to take, no more classes not to attend. I then decided to skip 12th grade all together. Not because college/university would necessarily be better, since at the time I was convinced I was "just not a student type". I skipped 12th grade, because college could be no worse.
 
And it was not worse. It was better. I could study something that really interested me. For the first time I was not by far the most advanced student and that was (literally) a life saver. I learnt all these things I never learnt in school: taking notes, asking questions, persistance, spending time on something. Somehow I largely overcame my social anxiety. I have no idea how that happened, but I do know that 'fitting in' at least sómewhere is crucial for people. I had never fit in anywhere before, so this was a new experience for me. You can imagine how ambivalent I am about leaving my current institution.
 
I now hold two acceptances for Master's at world top 10 universities. I have this surreal "WTH just happened?" feeling. I cannot help but being very grateful to all my teachers and everyone who believed in me and tried their best to accommodate me. It is thanks to them that I made it through school in the first place. I am very happy to see my school continue to make progress in gifted education. I know for a fact that if I had not been allowed to skip 12th grade, at the very least I would have been nowhere near where I am now. It is very likely that I would have dropped out.

There are plenty of applicants willing to take your spot :-) Believe it or not, you're really not that special.

So, long story short, I've been talking to two mathematicians recently (within 3 days, it just happened) and realized I was having a difficult time finding their research interesting...like......very little... like the whole measure theory stuff (pure math theorist)    
 
Anyways, do you guys have any pointers for dating mathematicians? like, what are the stuff they like to do in general? or just avoid talk about research at all..  

a vague question deserves a vague answer

what kind of physics or chemistry??????? condensed matter physics?? quantum chemistry??

If you're naturally gifted...then yes ..... It would probably take me at least a month to go through all the materials, I'm a slow reader hah.

It depends.

If you plan on getting a good job in the industry then focus on overall ranking, business people tends to focus on brand name more.

If you plan on getting a good post-doc job and eventually become a professor, then focus on chemistry program ranking.

If you plan on getting a good job or a good post-doc job, then focus on research fit and networking more than schools' rankings.

take the summer off, it'll be the last "free" summer you have for a really long time.

This statement kind of confuses me. 
 
Tattoos are for people to express themselves, or really do whatever the heck they please. To say, "you can express yourself with pictures, but not words," just seems odd. Why can't you put words on a canvas?
 
Also, on topic, some of my favorite tattoos are biology ones where it looks like the muscle or bone in whatever body part the tattoo is. The ones that look really realistic are pretty sweet looking. (Although it's a little too creepy for me to get, I don't really like the idea of blood and muscles and stuff, to look at a reminder on my body every day would give me the heebie jeebies.)
 
Also, I really found that book by Carl Zimmer very interesting! I would love to look through the entire book.

Wow, I would really send an email to expain your intentions. Not for your sake but rather such that UW might give more appropriate responses to people with similar requests in the future.

There are plenty of applicants willing to take your spot :-) Believe it or not, you're really not that special.

So, long story short, I've been talking to two mathematicians recently (within 3 days, it just happened) and realized I was having a difficult time finding their research interesting...like......very little... like the whole measure theory stuff (pure math theorist)    
 
Anyways, do you guys have any pointers for dating mathematicians? like, what are the stuff they like to do in general? or just avoid talk about research at all..  

nutella

person A and I are going to see a horror film this weekend >.> I'm just not gonna talk about research related stuff with person A ~ 

nutella

RuPaul's Drag Race

person A and I are going to see a horror film this weekend >.> I'm just not gonna talk about research related stuff with person A ~ 

So, long story short, I've been talking to two mathematicians recently (within 3 days, it just happened) and realized I was having a difficult time finding their research interesting...like......very little... like the whole measure theory stuff (pure math theorist)    
 
Anyways, do you guys have any pointers for dating mathematicians? like, what are the stuff they like to do in general? or just avoid talk about research at all..  

Pokemon Yellow

So, long story short, I've been talking to two mathematicians recently (within 3 days, it just happened) and realized I was having a difficult time finding their research interesting...like......very little... like the whole measure theory stuff (pure math theorist)    
 
Anyways, do you guys have any pointers for dating mathematicians? like, what are the stuff they like to do in general? or just avoid talk about research at all..  

nutella