Cookie

I use LaTeX and BibTeX with the natbib package. natbib uses BibTeX files, which basically just contain the data for each citation (author, year, publisher, etc.) and then BibTeX plus the natbib package takes this information and formats it into whatever footnote/endnote/bibliography style I need. I haven't written a citation by hand for ~8 years. I can tell natbib to use Chicago, or any other style that I want.
 
To get the BibTeX information, I use Mendeley to store my papers and it usually can either read the data right off the PDF, or do a DOI lookup to get it. In the cases where both of these methods fail (usually older papers or books), I manually fill out a form on Mendeley to give it the information.

Yea, I guess because everything in grad school is pretty much ambiguous: no set schedule, very few hard deadlines, and everybody makes progress in their own term.
I try to keep a positive mindset by setting concrete personal/professional goals. If today I achieve something towards those goals, I'm happy. There is no need to compare yourself with this fellowship winner, or that Crossfit girl

I read it more as tempering expectations. IE, we generally expect the bulk of our junior graduate students to have poor professional socializing skills. They're still young. Expecting them to not be that way, and being annoyed by very common behaviors is, in itself, annoying. 
 
Or I could be reading it completely wrong. 
 
I do have on more to add though:
 
Avoiding seminars/talks by outstanding scholars in the field because they aren't the exact subfield you're most interested in. 
 
The complaints lately about mandatory attendance at department seminars (we don't do subfield specific seminars) is immense, with lots of people saying they aren't interested in anything outside of their current planned dissertation research. To me, that seems especially naive in terms of developing yourself as a scientist long term.

That it never feels like I work enough.
I have no other duty besides research, and the freedom to pick whatever topic to tackle and how much to get done is sometimes scary.

Is there merit in re-taking the GRE solely for the purposes of applying for the GRFP? Or are there other ways to demonstrate quantitative competency and compensate for my low Q score? 
 
Verbal and Writing are 97th and 93rd %ile, respectively, but as mentioned, my Quant score is laughably low (37th %ile). I'm wondering if that's enough to sink a potential application. Undergrad GPA was 3.76 (graduated magna cum laude).
Q: 149
V: 167
AW: 5.0
 
I'm not as awful at math as my score would suggest, but it doesn't come naturally to me, unlike verbal. So it can take me a little while to wrap my head around a problem and solve it; the time constraints on the GRE really sunk my score. Give me five minutes per problem rather than ~two, and I suspect I'd do a lot better... (if I were to retake, I'd work on this, obviously.)
 
Background: Accepted to a research-heavy/PCSAS-accred. clinical psych PhD program for Fall '15. My research is in affect science (i.e., emotion and emotion regulation, using psychophysiology/neuroimaging/etc. methods) which I have been/am studying in clinical populations at the moment, but the questions needn't be confined to those populations.

Hi, 
 
As part of the preparation for my first year of graduate school, I recently came across the book of Robert L. Peters on Amazon titled 'Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning A Master's or Ph.D'. I read the introductory part of the book and I discovered that it is a must read for prospective graduate students. However, It will be difficult for me to purchase the book at the moment due to some stringent financial constraints. For those who have read the book or have a PDF copy of the book, can you please assist me by forwarding the book to my e-mail (REDACTED). Thanks in advance  

Wooohoo! Will make going off of the fellowship this fall a bit less painful. 

Actually, we might get 34k. I got the award last year, but was on reserve for this year (did not take the stipend 2014-2015). I just declared tenure for 2015-2016 on Fastlane and when I view my fellowship status, it lists 34k. That's neat.

This is incorrect!  
If you miss one of the rec letters, some programs will even send you an email reminder! And self-reported scores are sufficient for most adcoms.
Queue, you should email them though to let them know your materials have been sent.

Like 1Q84, the way I try to reframe these types of behaviours is that I try to remember that I don't really know the full story. For example, maybe they really struggled with coursework before college and they are now very proud of what they are able to accomplish. Maybe some relatives on FB really want to hear this information. Another way to think about this is that perhaps you are not the intended audience of the post. In fact, I rarely write things on Facebook that I intend for people I see all the time in real life--they're meant for friends and family that live far away. 
 
Personally, I also don't think it's really necessary to call it "insecurity" on the other person's part to make myself feel better. Maybe they do want to impress someone else and that's not really my concern. I also don't really feel like I need to "get to know the person better so I can understand why they do this". If someone irritates me, I simply limit my interactions with them to only professional ones.
 
tl;dr: The way I deal with annoying behaviour is to remember to not take it personally; I am not the protagonist of a story where everything happens because of me. 

All of these!

I have these and I have to answer then URGENTLY!! 4a i know it . 4B is it counting the dot and crosses? Others who can answer them for me?

Even if you don't think the particular place where you will be studying or working will care one way or the another, the wise thing would be for you to assume it will have some type of negative implication for you.  If you're okay with that, then proceed. 
 
Remember that supervisors aren't always completely candid about the basis of their decisions.  Distaste for tattoos or negative conclusions drawn from them could be couched in a phrase like, "We think you should get the benefit of a little more time in your current position," or "It's that other person's time."  That's all it takes.
 
As a former supervisor, I have to be honest and say that a tattoo these days says only one thing to me: "Follower."  It's become such a trend/fad that people with no ink are the ones who stand out.  Professors and HR people who value individual identity, personal confidence and innovation might see it the same way.     
 
It's the same sense of irony I get when I see a pack of people on noisy Harleys rumble by, attired in all the requisite Harley leather, doo-rags, and goatees.  They're all being rebels...  together.  That always makes me chuckle... 

Dif Q is fundamental. You should take it, no doubt.

Yeah sure. I'm not sure how competitive it was, it sort of felt like they awarded most who applied.
 
I did GROW with USAID, which provided more incentives to go to developing countries, and I got the feeling it was less competitive as well. Timing was the most stressful thing, because you had to have a letter from the host organization, which can take a while to find an org to work with, interview with them, and have them produce a letter and paperwork.
 
The application itself wasn't too bad, a bit of short writing on the topic. They want to see a plan for what you will acquire while you are there and what exactly you will work on.

This is something your graduate program's handbook probably clarifies.  I think a D would raise some eyebrows regardless of whether you get kicked out, but you can redeem yourself. Don't beat yourself up too much.
 
 
Also, you are not alone.  I got great grades my whole life and had some of those weirdly frustrating and demeaning grade moments my first year of graduate school.  It got to the point where the graduate director brought me into her office to talk.  I had gotten a B- in one class (not a hard one!), and a C put us on academic probation (every school handles letter grades differently).  She started asking me what went wrong and starting saying maybe I should learn how to study. I just kept thinking, "this is so surreal.  I've been a straight A student my whole life." Truthfully I had no idea why I was struggling so much in that class. Anyhow, I promised I would do better the next semester and left her office to go sit outside and cry for a good half hour. You know what happened the next semester?  I got another friggin B-. I cried a lot and drank a lot of wine but life went on. It hasn't affected my graduate career at all because I proved myself in other ways. (caveat: this was a doctoral program). 
 
The point is that everybody has something go wrong in the first year of grad school.  It's just a sucky year. What makes it worse is that nobody talks about it. You go through and think that everybody else has their s*** together, and it's just not true.  After a few years people will open up and talk about how stressed, isolated, and crazy they felt. Just know that you are not alone. 
 
Also, have some ice cream.  :-) 

The odds are around 2% to 3%, given that around 50-60 awardees reject their offer every year. I got an HM too, with two very positive reviews (E/E) and one reviewer who didn't like my GPA, but otherwise really liked my application (VG/VG). I think it's best not to think about it... But I'm sure half of the HMs will worry about it until the upgrade letters go out anyway (mid-June I think).
 
Oh: and long-time reader, first-time poster.

Pick the environment that is going to enable you to create knew knowledge more effectively.

I got it last year and went to Durban, South Africa. I heard back on 3/28/14 last year, and applied again this year and haven't heard back. What is up with this? Anyone know why we haven't heard back?

My current PI and other letter writers have stressed then when I tell profs that I have chosen to attend another school that you should not discuss the reasons why and should NEVER mention money as a reason. From his point of you, it could look like you are chasing after money instead of science, which he is pointing out as a problem. I think the points he makes are correct... you should be more concerned with science than money and the email that you sent to him says otherwise. He doesnt sound pissed at all. It sounds like he wants you in his lab and is trying to recruit you, while also being a good mentor and explaining that you should not make a big decision like this solely because of money.
 
I sort of think you got yourself in trouble with that first email. You should chose your graduate school based on science and research fit. The other aspects should be secondary to the science. It sounds like you DO like the science and environment more at school A and just didnt want to say this to spare his feelings. I totally understand why you framed it to be about money but I also think that caused reaction on his end since he doesnt think this decision should be about money. I think you need to email him back, very kindly, and explain that you feel confident in your decision to attend school A since it seems all around like the perfect fit for you. I would mention that you still love his work and would be honored to work with him again in the future.

I don't see where he is upset? Seems like a pretty normal case of a prof wanting you to attend his institution and trying to persuade you...

E/E  E/E  E/VG
 
Awarded
 
I honestly cannot even believe my life right now  
 
(1st year grad student, HM last year)
 
 
Congratulations to everyone who won!

I got it!!!

E/VG VG/VG E/E

I'm kind of stunned...
 
Second Year: Won E/E, E/E, E/E

I worked on an undergrad student committee that brought George Takei to my campus (large state school). I met him and his husband Brad, awesome people!