synthla Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 From what I understand, admissions committees have started taking this into consideration more and more, although there's been some debate concerning (a) whether it is more important in the humanities/social sciences than in the hard sciences, and ( the relationship between this statistic and dog ownership levels. Regardless, knowing how we measure up to our peers should provide valuable insight for future graduate school applicants. I have 2.
psycholinguist Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 Whether this has anything to do with the recent surge of popularity being enjoyed by the phenomenon most commonly labelled 'the LOLcat' has yet to be determined but is currently under intensive study by several rival teams of researchers.
pawnee68502 Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 Synthla, are you ok? :wink: ........just kidding!!!!! .....and I have two.
belowthree Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 Zero but I hope to eventually change that. Fun topic, good post, etc..
synthla Posted February 19, 2009 Author Posted February 19, 2009 Whether this has anything to do with the recent surge of popularity being enjoyed by the phenomenon most commonly labelled 'the LOLcat' has yet to be determined but is currently under intensive study by several rival teams of researchers. I hear that the relative success of that research could directly impact a school's US News rankings. Choose wisely, everyone. Synthla, are you ok? :wink: ........just kidding!!!!! Quite well actually (well, aside from not hearing from UC Davis yet... :wink: ). There've just been so many sort of down-beat, serious threads lately, I decided to do something a little different.
UnlikelyGrad Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 Alas, I had to vote 0. If my husband weren't allergic, I'm sure we'd have 2 or 3. I love going to visit my sisters so I can have the luxury of sitting with a cat in my lap. PURRRR....
synthla Posted February 19, 2009 Author Posted February 19, 2009 Alas, I had to vote 0. If my husband weren't allergic, I'm sure we'd have 2 or 3. I love going to visit my sisters so I can have the luxury of sitting with a cat in my lap. PURRRR.... That exact situation (cat in lap) is actually what prompted the poll.
poiuyt Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 6-9??? Holy crap! I thought my 3 were out of control! But hey, that's what happens when you combine households...
Rutabaga Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 I knew I should have mentioned my cat in my SOP!
Tonights Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 I answered "Two" for our two permanent cats, Bonny and Waldorf, but we more frequently have between five and seven, because we take in groups of foster kittens from the humane society and then raise them, socialize them and adopt them out. This is both amazingly rewarding and tear-out-my-hair frustrating. Currently we have just one left from our last foster batch, Molly, who I'm pretty sure might be a demon disguised as a tiny grey kitty for her own fell purposes. Waldorf is obese and is on a diet heavy on the pureed lean meats and low on the kibble, to control his carb intake. He's only 8 months old but is gigantic and round. He's always been really big and was quite a robust kitten, but he's recently had a growth spurt and most of it was sideways. >_>;
BlueOblivion Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 This is, without a doubt, the best poll ever. Thanks for brightening up my day!
synthla Posted February 19, 2009 Author Posted February 19, 2009 This is both amazingly rewarding and tear-out-my-hair frustrating. Everytime I get a new kitten (which isn't that often), I'm reminded of all the frustrations that can come along with the little cat, but it's funny how it's all so readily forgotten as soon as they're out of that stage. Until the next one.
anythingtwice Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 I live on residence so I don't have any in my personal household, but at my mom's house there are five cats and a dog. We didn't intend to have five cats; we had one, then my sister brought home a stray last summer and we didn't find out until later that she was pregnant, and we still haven't found homes for all the kittens yet.
Rutabaga Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 If only I could my PhD in attending to the needs of cats instead of this policy business! Is it too late to apply to Cat U? I know I'd be good at it!
synthla Posted February 19, 2009 Author Posted February 19, 2009 If only I could my PhD in attending to the needs of cats instead of this policy business! Is it too late to apply to Cat U? I know I'd be good at it! At the very least, Cat U would have to be a better place to spend 7+ years than Monkey U, which is the subject of another thread, I believe.
jesso21 Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 I'm one of the ones with 5 cats in my house! But there is a good reason! I'm not *that* much of a crazy cat lady. I still live at home (fin. reasons), and we have 3 cats. But my sister's family is moving to England for a few years, and their 2 cats are not part of the move (she doesn't want to put them through the travel or quarantine). So we're taking them in. So that's why the 5 cats...but when I move out for grad school in the fall, I'm taking 2 with me. That'll straighten out the situation!
illinoisellie Posted February 25, 2009 Posted February 25, 2009 Are cats easy to care for? Assuming I would get one that was already house broken. I've never had any pets before, but would like to have one perhaps in grad school... Though my first choice would be a dog, i've heard they are much much more expensive than cats? ..maybe I should get a cat that barks....
jesso21 Posted February 25, 2009 Posted February 25, 2009 Are cats easy to care for? Assuming I would get one that was already house broken. Cats are pretty easy to care for. If you get a regular American Shorthair, you don't need to bathe them or brush them that regularly. (though my cats do love a good brushing!) As for being house broken, most cats are really good at using the litter box. Just show it to them a few times, and they'll know to use it. (same with their food, water, and scratching posts) So easy!
hornedfrogmeg Posted February 25, 2009 Posted February 25, 2009 Can't say that I like cats. But I wish dogs were as easy to take care of. When I work freelance gigs it's 10-15 hour days and there's no way if I were to get a dog they could wait to go out to do their business for that long. I need to litter box train my future dog lol.
katanianQ Posted February 26, 2009 Posted February 26, 2009 no cats here. but my pup, georgie, loves me unconditionally AND thinks i'm pretty damn smart. i can tell by the mournful look in his eyes when he looks at me (his little way of saying 'ma, i loved your last article. all those schools are crazy for not talking you.') too bad georgie doesn't currently sit on any adcoms.
inactive_since_inf Posted February 26, 2009 Posted February 26, 2009 I don't want to look boastful, but I myself am one (for the uninitiated: look at my username )
psycholinguist Posted March 2, 2009 Posted March 2, 2009 for an interview weekend at one of my schools, i had to write a short bio about who i am and send it in and so, after a brief description of my academics and extracurriculars, i took a risk and mentioned how i like to spend my free time with my cat. at the end of my interview with the department chair, he stopped us a little bit early and said "if you don't have any more questions for me, i wanted to show you pictures of my cat." so there i was, sharing cat pictures with the head of the department, during my interview--random but awesome. and it must have worked, though, since i was admitted to that school a few weeks later! What a nifty story!
WindWhisked Posted March 2, 2009 Posted March 2, 2009 My boyfriend is a tall, muscular fellow that loves action movies, meat-lover's pizzas, and watching baseball. Imagine my surprise when, upon visiting his house for the first time, he falls all over his cat, cooing after her and saying, "Awww kitty!" I love that he's a cat person at heart and, even though I'm mildly allergic, expect to have at least one when we get married. The cat can have his/her own room, hopefully!
GirlattheHelm Posted March 8, 2009 Posted March 8, 2009 We have 2 barn cats and one 'mistake'. I consider him more like a dog - he's huge. They are all barn cats and not allowed in the 'house' but they are still part of the family: Dirty Face, The No-Name Cat, and Fluff-O
guenevere01 Posted March 9, 2009 Posted March 9, 2009 2 cats = double the joy! I've obviously been obsessing about my applications way too much, I just ventured over to the lounge for the first time in a while and found this awesome post! By the way, if you're only mildly allergic you can still swing it - my husband was allergic to his roommate's cat, but he's fine with our two most of the time, provided that we vacuum once a week and brush them. The best remedy, though, has been allergy wipes - they're at the pet store, and you just wipe your cat down with them every so often and it keeps the dander from getting so strong and killing everyone's allergies. Of course the kitties don't like it, but they dry off after a few minutes and are back to loving you again. Even my SO's sister, who is extremely allergic, can hang out at our house if the cats don't climb on her. Our dogs are actually worse for my SO's allergies, since they romp in the yard most of the day and then bring in all the dust and pollens with them in the evenings. Taking care of cats is easy most of the time. They do, in my experience, tend to get sick more often, what with randomly throwing up and coughing up hairballs and getting infections that make them want to pee on your clothes (talk about a way to stay motivated to keep your clothes picked up!). We only have an incident every few months or so, and this is not to say that dogs don't have incidents too. Overall, though, the training is a lot less work, even though it depends a lot on the cat whether they'll be furniture scratchers/curtain climbers. We give ours a "house" to climb on and scratch, which seems to pretty much take care of their needs in that area. Yay for fuzzy, cuddly, mischievous, beautiful, independent kitties!
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