Age Survey

[thebeatgoeson]

Recently 24.  Basically got a rejection from Wisconsin for my birthday, so that was neat.

[DontHate]

I'm 74 but I age backwards so it's all good. I'm actually quite young for my age.

[Two Espressos]

22!  Many people think I look considerably younger though.

[AurantiacaStella]

24. Do other grad students my age really not wake up at 5am too? I am very old at heart though; can't really function after 8pm.

[Datatape]

I find I function best on about 22 hours of sleep a day.  Doesn't really matter when.

[KeelyMK]

24. Do other grad students my age really not wake up at 5am too? I am very old at heart though; can't really function after 8pm.

exactly. I usually wake up early and do all my homework in the morning so when I get home at like 6 I can just cozy up and get ready for bed lol.

[Deadinthewater]

I am 14 years old. If anyone is reading this, please hep. I am getting younger. After taking the time to write this, I am now 12.

[Gauche]

24. Do other grad students my age really not wake up at 5am too? I am very old at heart though; can't really function after 8pm.

 

Old souls unite. My mind automatically wakes me up at 5 no matter how much sleep I get the night (or morning) before. It's rather inconvenient really.

 

I'm 22, for the record.

[DontHate]

I used to have this goal, to publish a book by the time I was 27. Now that I'm older I've adjusted it: I want a PhD by the time I'm 30. Even that might need to get adjusted, but here's hoping. Also, before I accomplish these goals I won't allow myself to reproduce. 

 

That last part isn't very difficult to abide by because I'm single as fuck.

Edited February 21, 2013 by DontHate

[bfat]

Goddamn, this thread makes me feel old as dirt.

And for the record, I am old as dirt.

And by that I mean I will be 30 next week. How the fuck did that happen?!?

[thestage]

I used to have this goal, to publish a book by the time I was 27.

 

if this doesn't work I'm probably going to finally write a novel.

 

but I still have to, like, find a way to make money.  this shouldn't still be a problem in the very twilight of one's twenties.

 

what ever happened to patronage, world

[Mercyhurst2010]

22!  Many people think I look considerably younger though.

 

I hear you on that. I'm 25 (birthday yesterday!), but people often think I'm 18 or 19. I'm pretty sure I stopped aging in late undergrad. Aside from 2 or 3 gray hairs that sprung out during my MA comp exams, that is.

[dazedandbemused]

I hear you on that. I'm 25 (birthday yesterday!), but people often think I'm 18 or 19. I'm pretty sure I stopped aging in late undergrad. Aside from 2 or 3 gray hairs that sprung out during my MA comp exams, that is.

 

I wish! The number of times that people have assumed that my 13-year-old brother is actually my son is, frankly, insulting.

[TripWillis]

So yay for 27. (my 28th birthday is also the last day of undergrad AND the day the new Star Trek comes out. I die.)

I am also a Taurus who loves Star Trek.    IS IT KHAN????

[Porridge]

You know what? I'm probably going to start a fight here. But there is only one decent star trek series. TNG.

[TripWillis]

You know what? I'm probably going to start a fight here. But there is only one decent star trek series. TNG.

You will not be starting a fight with me. TNG is easily the best iteration.

 

Still, ST II, ST IV, and the reboot are all good in my book.

[no_foam_cappuccino]

24. Do other grad students my age really not wake up at 5am too? I am very old at heart though; can't really function after 8pm.

I was thinking the same thing when reading this thread. Since when does being under 25 mean we're sleepy little things? I'll have worked at Starbucks for a full year before starting a PhD program, and you better believe I won't be able to shake my 4:30am internal alarm. 

[aGiRlCalLeDApPlE]

29

[lewisthesamteenth]

You will not be starting a fight with me. TNG is easily the best iteration.

 

Still, ST II, ST IV, and the reboot are all good in my book.

Yes, all the even-numbered Star Trek movies are good. Despite your omission, I think VI has its moments.

 

However, I cannot agree with your use of the adverb "easily" in "TNG is easily the best iteration." My biggest problem with TNG is that it lacks what I believe made the original series so awesome, and superior: the Kirk/Spock dynamic. One could even toss Bones into that ménage-à-deux. JLP, for me, is a mixture of Kirk and Spock, but completely unleavened: while he is both inventive and logical, he lacks the timely impetuousness of Kirk and the subtle humor of Spock. That's not to say that TNG is bad; the characters just never gripped me in the way that TOS's did.

 

So yeah I'm 25.

[practical cat]

I wish! The number of times that people have assumed that my 13-year-old brother is actually my son is, frankly, insulting.

And I wish I had this problem! I work in a middle school and the amount of people who think I am a (really very professionally dressed) student is sad. Cannot wait for grey hair.

[bfat]

So this thread begs the question, and I know it's been raised before--is there age discrimination in the admissions process? I know apps can't ask that straight up, but they can certainly see my old-ass transcript from my first semester in undergrad...

[Gwendolyn]

So this thread begs the question, and I know it's been raised before--is there age discrimination in the admissions process? I know apps can't ask that straight up, but they can certainly see my old-ass transcript from my first semester in undergrad...

Perhaps there is. I was at a conference for one of the fellowship programs in which I've participated during undergrad and there was this 60 year old woman (she verbally stated her age) who had a year of undergrad left and (as a part of the program's requirements) she intended to pursue her PhD. One of my cohort members said that he didn't think she should have been allowed into the program for the mere fact that she would be retirement age before she even got her PhD. A main goal of the program is to transform the academy and he believed that (granted it takes an average of 7 or so years to get a PhD + her 1 year of undergrad left) a person in her twenties (or 30s or 40s) seems to have a greater potential to contribute to the academy rather than someone who will likely not get a PhD until around the age of 70. 

 

I definitely can understand his logic, but If she's down for the cause, then I say "why not?" 

Edited February 21, 2013 by Gwendolyn

[It's (Not) About Me]

23.5, lolol. My half birthday was a couple of weeks ago. I'll be 24 when I enroll. I get up between 6:40 - 7:20 AM erry day because I like to work out and eat breakfast and read the paper and smoke my pipe before going to work. You know.

 

And I wish I had this problem! I work in a middle school and the amount of people who think I am a (really very professionally dressed) student is sad. Cannot wait for grey hair.

Hah, I work for a professor in an academic building that is used almost exclusively by grad students and faculty. I get mistaken for a grad student in her field (not English) on a daily basis. It actually kind of sucks to have to correct people: "No, I graduated in 2011. No, from the college. No, in English. English--you know, language and literature? Yep, I'm applying now. No, in English." PLEASE, make me tell you one more time that I am NOT a grad student! Haha.

[Datatape]

I look a few years younger than my actual age, enough to where some of my students thought I was a fellow student until I walked up to the front of the classroom and started setting things up on my first day.  I've had a few of them ask how old I am and I usually resort to one of two responses:

 

1.) Look off into the distance thoughtfully and say, "Well, it's been forty-one eons since I was belched forth from the primordial ooze, so..."

 

2.) Tilt my glasses down the bridge of my nose, stare unblinkingly over the top of them, and say, "Old enough to be the wisest person you will ever have the fortune to know."

[intextrovert]

I would be curious to see how the 21-25 category, which looks like it's significantly the largest at about 60%, breaks down. I was 24 when I applied (25 when I enrolled), and so had spent 3 years in the working world after graduation. Because of that, I felt much more affinity for the mid-late-20s people than those coming straight from undergrad. So I do wonder how much of that category is 21-22, and how much is 23-25. I also wonder if there's a difference in admissions success between those older and younger applicants, or alternatively between people straight from undergrad and those not, and in which direction. Anecdotally, there was only one person in my cohort who came straight from undergrad, and that person was older than the typical undergrad anyway. We need some statistics people in here!