WINE, WAIT, AND WHINE THREAD

[123hardasABC]

3 minutes ago, raaawr said:

I'm getting nervous about interviews too. My deadline was January 1 and according to gradcafe results my program will send out interviews around the 9th (Feb) and the results most likely will be out around March 15. Aaaah!!! I should've applied to safety schools but this is the only school and only program I wanted. I should prepare myself to the possibility of a next cycle cause I'm really bad at interviews. 

I don't remember what field you're in, but if it's in the sciences, the NIH has a great lecture on interviewing for grad school. Hell, even if you're not I think it's worth a watch because they do go over interview etiquette. http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=9809&bhcp=1 

Good luck!

[raaawr]

5 minutes ago, 123hardasABC said:

I don't remember what field you're in, but if it's in the sciences, the NIH has a great lecture on interviewing for grad school. Hell, even if you're not I think it's worth a watch because they do go over interview etiquette. http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=9809&bhcp=1 

Good luck!

I'm in Fashion Design and it seems like I'm the only one in this industry at gradcafe. lol! There's no thread, nobody responded when I made one, nobody responded when I asked the MFA thread. I feel alloooone. lol! thanks for the link, I will check it out right now!  

I don't know if my laptop speakers died but is there no sound coming out of the video? I already set the volume on the loudest it can go but nothing?

Edited February 2, 2016 by raaawr

[sjoh197]

So I have my first pseudo "professional" photo shoot in like 2 hours... and what am I taking pictures of.... a parking garage. 

At least if I don't get into grad school I can tour the world taking pictures of unfinished parking garages. 

[gingin6789]

1 hour ago, raaawr said:

hahaha! it's cool! I was laughing at myself too when I woke up again a few hours later. I was thinking to myself, "well, I don't care about you slenderman! I'm gonna turn on my ipad and ignore you." lol!

Do you think the adcom people are manifesting in our dreams as 1 person? lol. My friend said I might have been dreamt about waking up and seeing slenderman but I was able to send a message to another friend around 545am telling her about seeing slenderman so I know I definitely did pick up my ipad at that point. lol!

Omg your sassy-ness towards Slenderman later is hilarious XD I had a dream where these demons were chasing me and fire was falling from the sky, and I suddenly became lucid, stopped in my tracks, turned to the demons, sassily wagged my finger at them, and said "Woah, are you serious? Balls of fire from the sky? Um, I'm pretty sure that's not even meteorologically possible. I'm going to wake up and talk to my husband about this (since he's a meteorologist), and I'll be back to deal with you fools later. Peace." and I woke myself up from the dream XD I'm way sassier in dreams than in real life!

Hahaha I hope the folks on the adcomm aren't that evil!!  They've all been super nice so far, and I don't get any slendy vibes from them!

[nka93]

I'm wishing I hadn't turned my applications in early. One school had a deadline of February 1st and I submitted in early January. I got a reply that said they were processing and would notify me and send it for decision within two weeks. It's been three weeks and I just got an email saying they are busy entering submitted materials into the system and would process applications that met the deadline when they were finished. So I agonized for three weeks for no reason.

The worst part of this whole process is being kept on the hook. I went through it last year and it didn't end well. 

[raaawr]

14 minutes ago, sjoh197 said:

So I have my first pseudo "professional" photo shoot in like 2 hours... and what am I taking pictures of.... a parking garage. 

At least if I don't get into grad school I can tour the world taking pictures of unfinished parking garages. 

lol! make sure you get good natural light! haha!

9 minutes ago, gingin6789 said:

Omg your sassy-ness towards Slenderman later is hilarious XD I had a dream where these demons were chasing me and fire was falling from the sky, and I suddenly became lucid, stopped in my tracks, turned to the demons, sassily wagged my finger at them, and said "Woah, are you serious? Balls of fire from the sky? Um, I'm pretty sure that's not even meteorologically possible. I'm going to wake up and talk to my husband about this (since he's a meteorologist), and I'll be back to deal with you fools later. Peace." and I woke myself up from the dream XD I'm way sassier in dreams than in real life!

Hahaha I hope the folks on the adcomm aren't that evil!!  They've all been super nice so far, and I don't get any slendy vibes from them!

Sometimes I also feel that my subconscious is sassier than me in real life too. lol! I'm a heavy sleeper so I don't have a lot of lucid dreams unless I drink coffee a few hours before bedtime or I'm super anxious about something and can't stop thinking about it. haha!

I'm hoping I won't end up seeing slenderman on my skype interview if I get invited to an interview. lol!

[RCtheSS]

I thought I'd be more relaxed after receiving my first acceptance notice... but if anything the frequency of checking my email inbox and the Results page has tripled since last week.

I want ALL the admissions decisions. Please?

[knp]

@123hardasABC One of my friends who's done a lot more interviews than me has A Thing about using professional vocabulary in interviews. I don't know if that's good advice in general, or if it's just her thing because she has a more formal style of speaking and writing than I do. So when we practiced doing interviews together, she was trying to get me to stop calling works of scholarship "awesome" or "cool" quite so often. I don't think this was a requirement for admission, but it was probably a good idea.

Anyway, fast forward to my interview with the school where I'm interviewing with one of my favorite scholars. I ended up describing her most famous book, to her, as "like, totally awesome."

[polarimetric]

7 minutes ago, RCtheSS said:

I thought I'd be more relaxed after receiving my first acceptance notice... but if anything the frequency of checking my email inbox and the Results page has tripled since last week.

I want ALL the admissions decisions. Please?

Oh god, me too! When I got my first acceptance, everyone I told said, "Well, you got in somewhere! Aren't you relieved?" All I could think was sure... but do you know what this MEANS!? I could get an email or phone call from one of the other programs at any time now... IT HAS BEGUN! and I've been glued to my email ever since. Just one decision is enough to get you hooked. (Unfortunately, now I'm halfway through my second week of withdrawal.)

[ancientqueen]

I had 3 apps due on January 15th, and 3 on the 31st. 

Got an acceptance from one of the Jan. 15 schools via email five days after the deadline with an invite to visit (and they're paying for me to come out, too, which is ace). 

My top choice school was a 1/15 deadline as well. There's only one posting on the results page and it dates back to 2008, so I'm not sure how accurate it is, BUT they said they were notified on February 4th. So basically I'm losing my mind waiting. 

As far as how I'm staying sane? Netflix. So much L Word and Arrested Development. Oh, and some nice red wine. Gotta quell the anxiety somehow. 

[iloveOM]

I just received email about my second interview one hour ago. February will bring me up and down lol

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

I love that this forum is getting quite populated now as we head into February...

 

[RCtheSS]

By the way, I'm scoping out everyone's admission-related signatures. I'm picking up some neat design tips and will go edit mine accordingly to waste more time!

[The Interdisciplinarian]

31 minutes ago, knp said:

@123hardasABC One of my friends who's done a lot more interviews than me has A Thing about using professional vocabulary in interviews. I don't know if that's good advice in general, or if it's just her thing because she has a more formal style of speaking and writing than I do. So when we practiced doing interviews together, she was trying to get me to stop calling works of scholarship "awesome" or "cool" quite so often. I don't think this was a requirement for admission, but it was probably a good idea.

Anyway, fast forward to my interview with the school where I'm interviewing with one of my favorite scholars. I ended up describing her most famous book, to her, as "like, totally awesome."

 

*has flashback to job interview that went REALLY well, only to suddenly not get an offer*

*counts "likes" and "awesomes" and "cools" in conversation*

*cries*

[Justwaitingforneuro]

Just send a mail from another mail account to make sure my uni-mail still works. Yes it is ready to receive an email. Though the fact that it is almost 9pm now tells me that it probably wont be today.

[polarimetric]

15 minutes ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

I love that this forum is getting quite populated now as we head into February...

 

I've been lurking silently for a couple weeks now and the intensity of February definitely motivated me to start posting. I was so excited when I first found this place because I was like, omg, these people get it, these are my people! It's important to have that like-minded environment, lest you drive all your friends and relatives insane talking about the application process... I mean, I'm still doing that in addition to posting here, but at least I feel better. 

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

43 minutes ago, knp said:

@123hardasABC One of my friends who's done a lot more interviews than me has A Thing about using professional vocabulary in interviews. I don't know if that's good advice in general, or if it's just her thing because she has a more formal style of speaking and writing than I do. So when we practiced doing interviews together, she was trying to get me to stop calling works of scholarship "awesome" or "cool" quite so often. I don't think this was a requirement for admission, but it was probably a good idea.

Anyway, fast forward to my interview with the school where I'm interviewing with one of my favorite scholars. I ended up describing her most famous book, to her, as "like, totally awesome."

That's also one thing I find myself talking about in interviews. "awesome", "cool", "sweet", and "nice" are words I use way too often. I think that when one of the professors was describing his work I just said "interesting" over and over. Probably 6+ times in a row. Gah!

[nevermind]

7 minutes ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

That's also one thing I find myself talking about in interviews. "awesome", "cool", "sweet", and "nice" are words I use way too often. I think that when one of the professors was describing his work I just said "interesting" over and over. Probably 6+ times in a row. Gah!

It seems to have worked out for you.

 

[Gvh]

11 minutes ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

That's also one thing I find myself talking about in interviews. "awesome", "cool", "sweet", and "nice" are words I use way too often. I think that when one of the professors was describing his work I just said "interesting" over and over. Probably 6+ times in a row. Gah!

This is something I've struggled with as well! So far I only had a brief phone conversation with a POI, but was very aware of the increasing number of times I used "awesome" to respond to something he said. I was trying really hard to come up with words I wouldn't have also used in 1997 describe a Blink 182 album. Maybe "fantastic", "great" is better. OR better yet, don't use anything like that and instead dive straight into another (well tied-in) point?! 

 

P.S I will note that during the call I was reassured when the PI I spoke to used the word "stoked" to describe his findings...

Edited February 2, 2016 by Gvh

[hippyscientist]

Ahh just had interviews  Felt like it went well, although I definitely said far too many awesomes, cools and I do this thing when I get excited where I talk with my arms so it looks a little crazy, especially on skype. Now it is out of my hands. I feel surprisingly zen. 

Now though, I'm overanalysing as the interviewer ended with "hopefully we will see you in the Fall". She did say though that I will know for certain before the end of the month. Oh Februgatory...

[knp]

21 minutes ago, The Interdisciplinarian said:

*has flashback to job interview that went REALLY well, only to suddenly not get an offer*

*counts "likes" and "awesomes" and "cools" in conversation*

*cries*

I mean, yeah. Some people have a strong bias against people whose speech patterns sound young or whatever...

1 minute ago, nevermind said:

It seems to have worked out for you.

But clearly those people aren't everybody!

I mean, I try not to use "like" etc. too TOO much...but at the same time, I don't think that the bias against people who sound young should be indulged to the point of eradicating my natural speech patterns. "Totally" is totally not going to totally disappear from my vocabulary.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

5 minutes ago, nevermind said:

It seems to have worked out for you.

 

Well, I only had one interview  If more programs in physics interviewed, I would be totally screwed. I have the social skills of a tree stump.

 

[FoxAndChicken]

My field doesn't do interviews. :/ I did a lot of pageants for scholarships, which are way harder than any interview I've had. So I kind of wish my field had them. 

[haltheincandescent]

6 minutes ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

Well, I only had one interview  If more programs in physics interviewed, I would be totally screwed. I have the social skills of a tree stump.

 

Social tree-stumps unite! (I'm somewhat convinced that interviews, despite being the "last" stage, aren't ultimately weighted that heavily for the schools I interviewed with...because, oh, they were bad. Likes, ums, awkward silences, and Well, I....don't know, really-s, everywhere. When my last interviewer sent me an email about my being accepted, he only mentioned being excited about my writing sample and statement--interview glossed entirely over. Hahaha. Worked in my favor, I suppose....)

[talkingscop]

Hello all, another lurker here being driven out of the woodwork by the pains of Februgatory (brilliant term!). First post here on gradcafe, so hope I've hit all the right buttons in the right places 

Looking at past years, I shouldn't be hearing from any of the (only 5) programs to which I've applied before the end of this week at the earliest, and the majority not til closer to the end of the month and into March (and possibly early April, in one hideous case), but seeing other people in the same subject areas getting interviews and offers from other places is just soooo hard! I keep thinking, 'Why didn't I apply there, then I'd have heard by now?', because clearly I forgot when researching programs that it's not fit, or funding opportunities, or location that are the most important things to consider when applying, it's waiting times and the speed of the adcomms! Or that's how it feels at the moment, at least 

Of course, being exceedingly British, I am dealing with the anxiety by drinking excessive amounts of tea...