WINE, WAIT, AND WHINE THREAD

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

4 hours ago, hippyscientist said:

 

 

@marycaryne frustrating is the right word for sure. I've been so patient for so long, it's hard when people try to comfort you "oh you'll find out soon". Yes but from "soon" to starting means: I have to get a visa interview appointment, get a visa, sell my stuff here, pack up a box to ship, book flights, start looking at state driving theory, finish my masters (it technically finishes August 19, I'm finishing early - hopefully by the end of July), move to the US, find housing, open a bank account & try to get a credit card somewhere, get a phone, find a place to train, pass the US driving test, register for classes and then start. I know a lot of that is the same for a lot of people but it just seems kinda daunting right now to have such a long list that I can't start on until I have confirmation. Actually typing that out helped, it's less than I thought

Dang... that does put it in perspective. I already know where I'm going and live in the same country, and I'm pulling my hair out anyway. I can't imagine having to move across the ocean.

[marycaryne]

6 hours ago, hippyscientist said:

 

@marycaryne frustrating is the right word for sure. I've been so patient for so long, it's hard when people try to comfort you "oh you'll find out soon". Yes but from "soon" to starting means: I have to get a visa interview appointment, get a visa, sell my stuff here, pack up a box to ship, book flights, start looking at state driving theory, finish my masters (it technically finishes August 19, I'm finishing early - hopefully by the end of July), move to the US, find housing, open a bank account & try to get a credit card somewhere, get a phone, find a place to train, pass the US driving test, register for classes and then start. I know a lot of that is the same for a lot of people but it just seems kinda daunting right now to have such a long list that I can't start on until I have confirmation. Actually typing that out helped, it's less than I thought

This is a prime example of why many schools need to get their crap together. It's not like they only have in-state applicants. There are out of state applicants. And there are international applicants. Both groups cannot wait until the last minute to hear from schools...especially international applicants. There is too much that needs to be done for a school to be all "Eh, we'll send a decision whenever we feel like. Well, MAYBE we will...".

[hippyscientist]

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny and at least you know where you're going!! I'm used to packing and moving on short notice (I moved countries with just a suitcase at a week's notice, but that didn't need a visa or a new bank account), but it's adding on stress that's not needed right now as my master's is incredibly stressful. Pulling 75hr weeks for that, dealing with family stuff and still waiting on grad school applications is slowly grinding me down. 

@marycaryne I agree. A deadline needs to be set to inform students by, even a vague deadline would help. It's also frustrating that each department will send out decisions at different times. When I first started this process there were no results on the results page for any of the programs I applied to so it was a sheer guesstimate on when they might start sending decisions. The two schools I've heard from have been fantastic (1a/1r) being very forthcoming with dates and details - the PI at my accepted school even sent me a timetable of internal deadlines so I be less stressed. But the other two schools - zip, nada, nothing, even upon enquiry. I don't think we should accept this as part of the process - clearly some schools are capable of letting applicants know details and timings, so why can't all? I really do hope to be able to see this process from the other side and maybe I'll be educated as to why.

[pterosaur]

@hippyscientist

Why go you need to worry about a US driving test? I thought the rule was that a foreign license was valid for 12 months (and that 12 months resets whenever you leave the country). 

[hippyscientist]

13 minutes ago, pterosaur said:

@hippyscientist

Why go you need to worry about a US driving test? I thought the rule was that a foreign license was valid for 12 months (and that 12 months resets whenever you leave the country). 

Because I can only drive on it for 30 days in the state I'll be going to, and I want to buy a car and will need a US license for insurance.

[raaawr]

17 hours ago, MarineBluePsy said:

I'm trying my hardest not to start any new shows lol.  In fact I also fired Young and Hungry because the whole Gabby & Josh mess made me want to scratch my eyes out and the other characters are hilarious and under utilized.  

I'm also wondering what's up with Castle.  Beckett wasn't even in the last episode at all and I didn't even notice until I was giving someone a recap later lol.  When I first started the show I really liked the Castle & Beckett dynamic, now its boring and I'd rather not bother with it.  I think the show would be great if it just focused on Castle and his PI business and worked with Ryan and Esposito's, no Beckett needed.

I have yet to catch up on Castle and I already removed Young and Hungry from my list awhile ago. lol. i don't know why but Gabby is always giving me secondhand embarrassment so I couldn't watch it anymore. I did start another new show that I enjoy, Grandfathered. John Stamos aged like a bottle of fine wine. haha!

[faithleee]

Another day of waiting starts... 

 

good luck to everyone who's still waiting !

[RobotBernoulli]

10 hours ago, marycaryne said:

This is a prime example of why many schools need to get their crap together. It's not like they only have in-state applicants. There are out of state applicants. And there are international applicants. Both groups cannot wait until the last minute to hear from schools...especially international applicants. There is too much that needs to be done for a school to be all "Eh, we'll send a decision whenever we feel like. Well, MAYBE we will...".

Oh my god yes! I'm applying to schools in the UK and the US. When a school in the UK gives you an offer, you have 30 days to accept or decline. And it just so happens that my top UK school's (Cranfield) offer runs out on April 7th.

At this point I'm considering calling the US schools which haven't responded (a.k.a ALL OF THEM) and letting them know that if they don't make a decision quick I'm cutting my losses and throwing in with one of the best aerospace schools in the UK. UK schools had free applications, and all responded within a month... 

[ChrisTOEFert]

6 hours ago, hippyscientist said:

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny and at least you know where you're going!! I'm used to packing and moving on short notice (I moved countries with just a suitcase at a week's notice, but that didn't need a visa or a new bank account), but it's adding on stress that's not needed right now as my master's is incredibly stressful. Pulling 75hr weeks for that, dealing with family stuff and still waiting on grad school applications is slowly grinding me down. 

@marycaryne I agree. A deadline needs to be set to inform students by, even a vague deadline would help. It's also frustrating that each department will send out decisions at different times. When I first started this process there were no results on the results page for any of the programs I applied to so it was a sheer guesstimate on when they might start sending decisions. The two schools I've heard from have been fantastic (1a/1r) being very forthcoming with dates and details - the PI at my accepted school even sent me a timetable of internal deadlines so I be less stressed. But the other two schools - zip, nada, nothing, even upon enquiry. I don't think we should accept this as part of the process - clearly some schools are capable of letting applicants know details and timings, so why can't all? I really do hope to be able to see this process from the other side and maybe I'll be educated as to why.

Trust me, it doesn't.  I am still waiting on more school, even though I have accepted elsewhere and wouldn't attend, it is still frustrating to be in limbo.  They have a vague response deadline of "Late February/early March", the kicker of this one?  It was the earliest application as well (Dec 1).  I know Max Planck's are usually pretty prestigious and probably want to make sure they are making the right choice, but come on?  Even if they had something like 500 applicants for 10 spots, the typical 2% acceptance rate, they definitely should know by now.  I sent an exploratory e-mail towards the middle/end of February once I had heard from pretty much everywhere else to ask what's up and they sent me a stock, generic e-mail about being patient and they would let everyone know by late Feb/early March and sent a link to their website that says the exact same.  What is even more frustrating is previous applicants have shown accepts/rejects by early February once a year for the past few years until nothing for 2015 and 2016.  They have also updated their website from saying "applications for Dec 2015 have now closed" to "We are now accepting applications for Dec 2016".  So it is possible that they have let all the interview candidates know and I am rejected, but my friend in my office applied for the same program in a different department and mum is the word on his application too.  We are both laughing while pulling our hair out! 

What makes it even worse is I got interviewed for a newer, slightly different Max Planck institute over the summer and applied on the last day, May 31, as I only heard about it opening about 2 weeks before the deadline and I needed to scramble to get my materials ready.  So prestige is the same, you would think.  My POI sent me a Skype interview request in a week/week and a half saying she combed through over 350 applicants (I am assuming collectively, because that would mean there were almost 3,000 applicants for the 8 positions if the same trend is applied to every project) and was selecting 15 to interview.  I was Skype interviewed on a Thursday and heard back the following Sunday that they wanted to fly me out to Germany in late July for an in-person interview.  After narrowing it down to 17 candidates, they said they were going to take a maximum of 10.  It took 2 weeks for them to notify all applicants of being accepted/rejected after the in-person interview days.  Although, my one friend was accepted within 2 days, so I'm pretty sure they knew who they wanted the night the interviews finished as all 5/6 POIs were going to Greece for a conference and probably discussed it on the plane over.

Long-winded response over, they definitely could expedite the process!  I think some of the delays come down to who is going to get funded and who isn't.  International students are tricky too, unless you are applying for a school/institution that is pretty much made a reputation on taking the best in the world, not just from North America or the "Western" world.  I think some of it also comes down to them knowing they hold all the power and know there is basically nothing we can do.  What are we going to do withdraw our applications?  Cool.  There's 20 other students behind you that are going to jump at the chance and we will fill your empty spot in 3 hours. 

Look on the bright side, absolute worst case scenario we should hear something by the week of April 15th if you're applying to a U.S. school!  While I'm hoping to hear something by the end of the month, if not, I will be sending a second e-mail (screw proper student-advisor e-mail tact!) and asking what's up.  I have nothing to lose since I already accepted elsewhere.  I just want to know! 

Edited March 14, 2016 by ChrisTOEFert

[pterosaur]

Now that I have word back from all my PhD applications, I'm not sure whether I should move on from "Wine, Wait, and Whine" to "Decide and Drink", or whether I stick around to stress about waiting to hear back on 4 independent fellowship applications. (You want to talk about a long and frustrating wait? Some of these applications were due in October and don't send back word until April!)

[FoxAndChicken]

8 minutes ago, pterosaur said:

Now that I have word back from all my PhD applications, I'm not sure whether I should move on from "Wine, Wait, and Whine" to "Decide and Drink", or whether I stick around to stress about waiting to hear back on 4 independent fellowship applications. (You want to talk about a long and frustrating wait? Some of these applications were due in October and don't send back word until April!)

Oooh. That does sound frustrating! Have you visited CMU yet? I'm going to visit Thursday! Eeeeeeee. Super excited. Before then I have SO MUCH TO DO though. (So naturally I'm here telling y'all about it instead of doing it.) I have two essays due tomorrow and two math problem sets due Wednesday. T_T

I'm taking an independent study on math logic stuff, and on Friday he asked if there was a way to make an algorithm that will print every string of well formed formulas, and/or one to print every tautology and I was like "Pshhhh no? They go to infinity so quickly. You would have A or A. And you would have A or A or A. And you would have A or A or A or A. And you would never get to anything else. I'm pretty sure about that." Half an hour later he was like "So, for your homework, you're going to find that algorithm." *dies* But it was actually super easy! There's a twitter bot doing it, and it's my new favorite bot. You can measure a string by its length, and since there are countably many atoms you could have in propositional logic, you make a grid, and then draw a squiggly line through it, making sure you hit every box. Then, in each box there will be a finite number of items that are that length and have that atomic symbol as an element. As soon as I thought about it, it was pretty obvious, but now I'm worried that he thinks I'm dumb. xD

Edited March 14, 2016 by FoxAndChicken

[hippyscientist]

9 minutes ago, FoxAndChicken said:

I'm taking an independent study on math logic stuff, and on Friday he asked if there was a way to make an algorithm that will print every string of well formed formulas, and/or one to print every tautology and I was like "Pshhhh no? They go to infinity so quickly. You would have A or A. And you would have A or A or A. And you would have A or A or A or A. And you would never get to anything else. I'm pretty sure about that." Half an hour later he was like "So, for your homework, you're going to find that algorithm." *dies* But it was actually super easy! There's a twitter bot doing it, and it's my new favorite bot. You can measure a string by its length, and since there are countably many atoms you could have in propositional logic, you make a grid, and then draw a squiggly line through it, making sure you hit every box. Then, in each box there will be a finite number of items that are that length and have that atomic symbol as an element. As soon as I thought about it, it was pretty obvious, but now I'm worried that he thinks I'm dumb. xD

That went straight over my head haha so I don't think you're dumb! I do a lot of "math" but it's all mechanics and/or statistics and not logic stuff. 

[Puffer Fish]

My favorite school said no, via a physical letter in the mail.

I have one more school to hear from and if I don't get an acceptance, I'm stuck in waitlist hell.

Everything is terrible and I want to cry.

[FoxAndChicken]

1 minute ago, hippyscientist said:

That went straight over my head haha so I don't think you're dumb! I do a lot of "math" but it's all mechanics and/or statistics and not logic stuff. 

Ooops. Maybe more background? Propositional logic is some variables (you can use x,y,z. But I'm going to use a_0,a_1,a₂. . . for reasons that will be clear later.) And also some symbols. We have and (^), or (v), if/then (->), if and only if (<->) and not (~). You can give what's called a recursive definition of propositional logic that goes like this:

We will call a bunch of variables and symbols a well-formed formula (WFF, pronounced like the song a dog makes Woof) if it meets the following criteria:

1. Any variable a_n where n is a natural number (0, 1, 2, 3, . . . ) is a WFF.

2. If you have two WFFs,  α,  β, then  α ^  β,  α v β,  α -> β,  α <-> β, and ~ α are also well formed.

3. Nothing else is well formed. 

Knowing this, the prof asked me if it was possible for me to pick a way of just saying well formed formulas such that if I was given a random WFF, I would be sure that I would eventually say the given one. I answered wrong. T_T 

[FoxAndChicken]

3 minutes ago, Puffer Fish said:

My favorite school said no, via a physical letter in the mail.

I have one more school to hear from and if I don't get an acceptance, I'm stuck in waitlist hell.

Everything is terrible and I want to cry.

Oh no! I'm sorry. T_T 

[hippyscientist]

1 minute ago, FoxAndChicken said:

Ooops. Maybe more background? Propositional logic is some variables (you can use x,y,z. But I'm going to use a_0,a_1,a₂. . . for reasons that will be clear later.) And also some symbols. We have and (^), or (v), if/then (->), if and only if (<->) and not (~). You can give what's called a recursive definition of propositional logic that goes like this:

We will call a bunch of variables and symbols a well-formed formula (WFF, pronounced like the song a dog makes Woof) if it meets the following criteria:

1. Any variable a_n where n is a natural number (0, 1, 2, 3, . . . ) is a WFF.

2. If you have two WFFs,  α,  β, then  α ^  β,  α v β,  α -> β,  α <-> β, and ~ α are also well formed.

3. Nothing else is well formed. 

Knowing this, the prof asked me if it was possible for me to pick a way of just saying well formed formulas such that if I was given a random WFF, I would be sure that I would eventually say the given one. I answered wrong. T_T 

Thanks for explaining! That actually sounds pretty interesting. If I had any reasonable amount of free time I'd look into that haha. 

@Puffer Fish I'm sorry. If it doesn't work out this time round, there's always next season. You might feel crappy now but these things happen for a reason and it'll all be alright in the end. *hugs*

[pterosaur]

24 minutes ago, FoxAndChicken said:

Oooh. That does sound frustrating! Have you visited CMU yet? I'm going to visit Thursday! Eeeeeeee. Super excited. Before then I have SO MUCH TO DO though. (So naturally I'm here telling y'all about it instead of doing it.) I have two essays due tomorrow and two math problem sets due Wednesday. T_T

Yeah, I visited CMU about 2 weeks ago, when I did a whirlwind tour back to the US and visited all my schools in one go. I had 24 hours in Pittsburgh, so the scheduled a really jam-packed intense visit for me. It also involved the department head giving me a tour of the new biomedical engineering building, which is still an active construction site. So that was fun.

[FoxAndChicken]

1 minute ago, pterosaur said:

Yeah, I visited CMU about 2 weeks ago, when I did a whirlwind tour back to the US and visited all my schools in one go. I had 24 hours in Pittsburgh, so the scheduled a really jam-packed intense visit for me. It also involved the department head giving me a tour of the new biomedical engineering building, which is still an active construction site. So that was fun.

How was it? One of my friends visited last week and she said she loved it. I'm pretty excited.  

[pterosaur]

4 minutes ago, FoxAndChicken said:

How was it? One of my friends visited last week and she said she loved it. I'm pretty excited.  

I'm not sure how much overlap there would be since we're in pretty different disciplines. Pittsburgh itself seems like a pretty cool city. It's done a good job or rebuilding and rebranding itself after being a steel town. It's also the lowest cost of living of all the schools I visited (with a correspondingly lower stipend). The BME department is relatively small, which appeals to me since it means that they can focus a lot on the students. Every semester, the faculty meet to discuss each student's progress, so no one falls through the cracks and they can *almost* guarantee that I'd finish in 4 years. Funding is also guaranteed for the full duration, which is definitely a plus. I could definitely see myself living there and being successful in the program. I felt that way about all 3 of my top choices, though. So it's kind of coming down to (1) which research direction do I want to go in, and (2) which option would give me the most opportunities to do more things on my own and leave doors open.

[pterosaur]

Also, @Puffer Fish - I'm sorry to hear about that.

Can this picture of a happy puffer fish do anything to lighten the mood?

Or maybe a sad puffer fish that can empathize with you?

[hippyscientist]

@pterosaur waaaaayyyyy too much love for those puffer fishes!!! 

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

58 minutes ago, pterosaur said:

Now that I have word back from all my PhD applications, I'm not sure whether I should move on from "Wine, Wait, and Whine" to "Decide and Drink", or whether I stick around to stress about waiting to hear back on 4 independent fellowship applications. (You want to talk about a long and frustrating wait? Some of these applications were due in October and don't send back word until April!)

Right??? I want to simultaneously send the NSF hate mail and chocolate chip cookies.

[pterosaur]

1 minute ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

Right??? I want to simultaneously send the NSF hate mail and chocolate chip cookies.

It's made even more stressful by a conversation I had with my undergrad PI yesterday where she said she's betting that I'll get at least 2 of the 4 fellowships I applied for (NSF GRFP, NDSEG, DOE CSGF, and Hertz). I feel like I'm now under even more pressure, even though there's nothing I can actually do about it now.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

1 minute ago, pterosaur said:

It's made even more stressful by a conversation I had with my undergrad PI yesterday where she said she's betting that I'll get at least 2 of the 4 fellowships I applied for (NSF GRFP, NDSEG, DOE CSGF, and Hertz). I feel like I'm now under even more pressure, even though there's nothing I can actually do about it now.

Oh man... those well-meant "I bet you'll get at least X acceptances" put on so much pressure. 

 

if I get the NSF, I'll be the first person from my university to have done so, and all of my professors know it and keep reminding me. NO PRESSURE THERE

Edited March 14, 2016 by Pink Fuzzy Bunny

[pterosaur]

7 minutes ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

Oh man... those well-meant "I bet you'll get at least X acceptances" put on so much pressure. 

 

if I get the NSF, I'll be the first person from my university to have done so, and all of my professors know it and keep reminding me. NO PRESSURE THERE

From my naive perspective that you got in everywhere you applied, I'd think you stand a pretty good chance. But the NSF is also a crapshoot, so if you get one reviewer who's in a bad mood when they're reading your proposal, you're out of luck.

One of my letter writers also told me he thought I'd get in everywhere I applied. So we're already 0 for 1 on predictions.