practical cat

Thus far, I've been finding that "all of the above" works just fine. (Except for the cheese.)

Shitting on Detroit is lazy. Especially since it's not an ugly city at all. It's impoverished (and, yes, primarily non-white) because of some ugly post-wwii red-lining policies and the collapse of the auto industry but it has a lot to offer culturally. Eastern Michigan has phenomenal microbreweries, museums, a bunch of lakes, great food, and the Tigers. Sorry guys, I shouldn't respond, I know. But nothing gets to me quite like Detroit-related ignorance.

Ummmmmmmm, season six of Buffy includes the greatest episode of the series: Normal Again. And Tabula Rasa is good. I also enjoyed Doublemeat Palace and the final three episodes. I am neither a teacher nor a student but a sub and a nanny and I will be spending my three week break arguing with people on the internet about Buffy. And maybe rewatching it?

Your chances are fine. I mean, there's no such thing as a automatic admit and there's nothing that would be likely to get your file thrown out or whatever. That's about the most confident thing I could tell you or me or anyone.

Yeah, I just kept trying. It was not a fun afternoon.

I had some trouble with them yesterday (though not nearly as much as I did with the ETS website, oh man) but my documents did eventually go through.

There will be plenty of time for feeling inadequate! Let's all feel great right now! (Erm, insofar as that is even possible.) You accomplished a lot. Like, a lot a lot. Get it, swagato.

Anything from the Post Punk Kitchen. Isa is a genius.

It's a public space. It's still in the room because it's in all of the rooms. It's safer to work under the assumption that it wouldn't take extraordinary measures to match usernames to faces/files.

You go, Glen Coco. But I had a really good middle school experience in terms of the mean girl stuff. It was elementary school that was hellish.

I feel like we've been here before. I am applying to Harvard and ok with it, other people are not applying to Harvard and are ok with that. Let's all be as ok with each other's decisions as we are our own, ok? Harvard or no Harvard, anyone else deciding to do something different does not invalidate my choices. ... I wish we could all get along like we used to in middle school.

I explicitly avoided that. I feel like it's way too early for me to make that kind of call. I'm sticking to: I think Professor X's work on Y is really great and I'm really into all of the work on Z being done in the department.

I accomplished everything I needed to accomplish between September 1 and today. And I made a sweater. I also faced my financial fears and began paying off debt and even managed to put some money into savings. I changed the oil in my car all by myself. I did a lot of "learning how to be an adult" things. It's maybe not the most impressive time period of my life but I've also learned how to treat myself better and put less pressure on myself.

Ok, thanks. I also put the relevant text in the boxes so I feel like they already have all of my information twice, so why would they want it a third time?

I'm about 99.9% sure this has been answer on these boards and recently but I'm not exercising good logic right now. Do I really have to send anything (SOP/cv) to Buffalo if I've uploaded the documents to the application itself? Different parts of the app say different things.

Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose, you guys.

I don't think that's true across the board. I had a letter writer, who often sits on adcoms, remind me to waive my right. Basically, there aren't any great reasons not to but better to play it safe.

The timing on the return of these scores is excellent. December 10 really is the best time to be feeling kind of mediocre.

Not to be That Guy, but they're up online now. My scores are not end of the world bad but, oh, there have been better percentiles in my life.

If anyone is into young adult feminist political satire, I'm finishing up Libba Bray's Beauty Queens right now and it is basically restoring my faith in humanity. It's not even good but it is pretty great.

That is amazing news. Fingers crossed extra hard for everyone applying there this year. (And now I'm kind of wishing I were too?)

Ugh. I'm reading 1Q84 right now and am positively sickened by the portrayal of women. I just... ew. It actually really hurts all the more because I kind of really enjoy the book otherwise. It's beautifully written/translated. But, OK. I think there can be somewhat sexually-charged interactions between professors and students that aren't actually anything more than that. Sometimes there are sexually-charged interactions between adult individuals that just happen regardless of context/environment. It need not also be charged with meaning, you know? "Too close" is not just proceeding with one's life otherwise. And, I only add this because I'm especially careful given how open I am about my institutional affiliation, no. I've been friendly with professors, had lots of companionable conversations with them but I've found my experience to be very strictly professional. (In fact, I'm currently in a situation where I see a former professor/mentor fairly regularly within the context of my new job and it weirds me the hell out.) Which is probably the perfect experience as an undergrad.

I'm honestly kind of excited. Not because I think I did we'll (I didn't) but because I just want to be able to know for sure where I'm actually sending the scores so I can get those "recommended" or "not required" schools' apps done.

It's hard for me to remember and I'm not near my notes but I seem to recall mailing transcripts to Rutgers. But I could very easily be wrong.

No one will notice. And, on the highly unlikely chance they do, it's not like it's an Issue.