1Q84

I'm curious: does working at community colleges and other post-secondary institutions count as "outside academia"? I would be more than happy to do so but I hear jobs are scarce even there.

Best avatar ever.

Yes! All of this. Plus someone posted this in another thread (sorry, forgot which one) and I feel super validated because I knew there was a reason why I felt like garbage when I slept at 11:30 and woke up at 6 as opposed to just staying up a bit and sleeping at midnight. http://sleepyti.me/ It's a life changer!

That's the thing. Not everyone is petty like you, as was proved by the pretty harsh reaction to your suggestion that well-wishers are just fakers. I have nothing but good feelings for people who have been accepted. Why would I feel otherwise? I'm talking about people who have faced rejection and you're clearly not understanding that. Yawn.

Well, this strange non sequitur coming from the person who is convinced that people who are happy for other peoples' acceptances are just "faking it" should not surprise me, I guess. I already stated that I'm trying to take part in the anxiety-game that everyone else is playing. What that has to do with being happy or upset about peoples' good news is beyond me.

So the strawman saga of this thread continues.... My one and only point is that invalidating someone's angst during rejection is not helpful no matter how puerile or immature said angst may be. I recall your outbursts at your first rejection being filled with profanity and pointlessly melodramatic. Did anyone say as much to you? No, people commiserated and comforted you and quite kindly, as I recall. They didn't pontificate on the "proper" and "productive" way to deal with defeat because that would probably just make you feel worse. PS. You wanna talk about passive-aggressive? You're the one downvoting me and upvoting yourself. God... this stupid voting system is the definition of passive-aggression.

As always, you have mature and thoughtful words to contribute. Brava.

What I'm trying to say is that while your advice was positive, it also came off as paternalistic, pedantic and a little condescending. Obviously, I'm not speaking for tracyjacks but that's the feeling I get from the interaction. Would you have liked it if someone said what basically amounts to "grow up" to you while you were in the throes of your hissy fit? It'd probably just make you feel even worse, especially coming from someone who is just recently enjoying the benefit of securing their future for the next 6 years. There's a time and a place for this kind of advice but I think the moment of rejection is not that time. bluecheese kind of did the same thing to me. Everyone else was whinging about how they were so stressed over hearing back from schools and I contributed that I was stressed even though, from what I can tell, my schools only notify in April. I was told to just forget it and "do something productive" instead. Everyone else is allowed to be whiny and stressed, though? Well... maybe I was just trying to join the conversation and partake in the camaraderie-thru-stress that everyone else was experiencing. I understand the advice probably comes from a good place but there are other factors to consider when receiving paternalistic advice.

I like this philosophy and I think you're offering positive advice. That being said, I do recall you throwing a tantrum and swearing and shame spiralling on the board when you received your first rejection of the app cycle. I gather from other threads that now you've received some more positive news (congrats!) but you should also remember that there is some emotional/cathartic value in completely hissy fitting at the first sign of bad news. I'm sure you know that as you probably felt quite a bit better after your wallowing. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people give "look on the bright side" advice when _they_ are in a good place, expecting others to be emotionally aligned to receive said advice. All I mean is, there's a time and a place.

This is seriously too exciting! Congrats everyone... love all the triumphal life narratives going on!

I'm guessing because she or he meant that now there won't be 6 more years of debt to pile on top.

Don't hate.

Same here. Make it or break it this year. Ain't gettin any younger....

Tell me if you'd kick back and relax if you were in my shoes! If so, you're a better woman/man than I.

Apparently the schools I applied to only notify in April... I don't think I can take 3 more months of compulsively refreshing a website... :/

Not really. It's really hard to put a pin on McCarthy's style (especially since it shifts so much in this one) but stream of consciousness is not part of the palette!

McCarthy's Child of God. Nice and "uplifting"... in the sense that things could be worse. A lot worse.

Me too! Despite some pretty unfeminist lyrics, she's got some pretty awesome feminist leanings in some of her interviews. You guys... just make your tweets protected and change your avatar to something innocuous (if it's not already). Although I would proudly show off my Seinfeld quotes...

I totally feel you here. During undergrad, I had what I guess you could describe as "social anxiety" (in scare quotes because I never actually considered that I might be afflicted with that but looking back, I guess I was). I was so terrified during class of raising my hand and attracting attention that I sat there with my heart in my throat as I contemplated contributing an idea. By the time I finally steeled myself to say something, everyone was getting up to leave. The longer the class progressed, the more awkward it would be for me to suddenly speak up. So I just stayed silent for 4 years. I wonder why it was so difficult for me to apply to grad school the first 2 times... The point of that story is that despite that awfulness, now I'd like to think I'm extremely outgoing. How did this happen? I started working at Starbucks. And it was being forced to socialise (literally, in order to get paid) that made me get over the anxiety. Once I jumped over that first hurdle, the rest came naturally. I mean of course there were blunders and embarrassments in the first couple weeks but afterwards, I looked back and wondered what I was so scared of this entire time. Maybe your cohort is not the best place to embarrass yourself but like it was in elementary school, middle school, high school and undergrad, people have pretty short memories and are pretty forgiving, in general. The point of that story was that I think that finding a way to force yourself (by your own will or otherwise) to be put into that uncomfortable situation so you can rise above may do the trick. It may not be The Answer, but it worked for me. Here's a vote for taking the plunge and going up to that exclusionary group and asking if they wanna grab a coffee. ETA: This post was not sponsored by Starbucks Coffee Ltd. :/

Right! Now I have to decide if I want a daily or a weekly... I guess reading both would be ideal. I don't think I could afford both subscriptions, however... Ha! So true. It puts into perspective how much garbage I spend money on and how I could be putting that change towards a magazine. Granted this is only the electronic version I'm talking about but still... Thank you so much. You're quite the newshound!

The Results Search page is a my new home page and it hurts so good.

Thanks for the replies! What are the particular political slants of both paper/magazines? I heard that the Economist is rather balanced but somehow I have a hard time believing that.

I'm looking at signing up for a student subscription to the iPad app version of the Economist. It's $90 for a year ($1.76 an issue!) Anyone have a subscription and love or hate it? Anyone recommend another magazine subscription in lieu of the Economist? Thanks!

Heehee! You tell em, asleepawake! This is officially my new favourite post on gradcafe.

This is exactly what I did in my SOP. Eerie!