We've wined, we've waited, now it's time to celebrate 2016

[Euler]

1 hour ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

People make it sound like getting into graduate school is guaranteed - like I had just as much of a chance of getting into Cornell as I did getting into my local community college right after high school. My parents didn't go to college so I know they're proud but I don't think they realize just how much work it was... my professors here on the other hand were literally jumping up and down with me when I got into Cornell! I bet that if you're telling people who have gone through the process, you will be gazed at in awe!

This is so unbelievably true! One of my siblings said "What? You mean there are people smarter than you?" And I'm just like...well, objectively, based on my subject GRE scores, I'm statistically below average now. And it seems like most of the programs I applied to accept(/ed) anywhere from 5-15% of the application pool! The odds aren't in my favor.

Also, it's hard to explain that how good a school is for undergrad degrees doesn't necessarily correlate with their grad programs- Wake Forest was definitely my safety school, and everyone knows it for being a selective undergrad place, but some of the state schools (Penn State/Chapel Hill especially) were the highest ranked on my list. I had to talk to a neighbor and try to explain why I don't actually want to go to a "great school" and why I really didn't want to actually go there. But now that I have a funded offer to somewhere I'd love to be, I couldn't be more thrilled

Edited April 1, 2016 by Euler

[MarineBluePsy]

9 hours ago, hippyscientist said:

With the bag thing - I have a North Face backpack that has MANY compartments. I have my laptop section, my lunch (sometimes breakfast and dinner too) section, my gym section and my miscellaneous section. All of what you just described but in one bag! I love it plus it's really supportive so doesn't hurt my back or shoulders. But then I have my yoga bag and I have a smart handbag for smart things which is the right size for my laptop too.

To jump in on the TSA conversation - I have 9 teddies (I can't believe I'm telling the internet this) that are as old or older than me, or been gifted to me by people who are no longer here or just have really special memories. We are very attached and I could not put them in checked baggage. So everytime I fly to the US, TSA will get my teddies out, put them through a scanning machine individually, manhandle them and it's very upsetting. One time they even got threatened with a knife! But the rocks and the deodorant wow. I use aerosol deodorant so not allowed it on planes (unless the rules have changed) so sorry people. 

I've pondered trying to find an all in one bag, but haven't found one I like yet.  We'll see.  And it really took me a minute to realize you were talking about teddy bears and not grown up nighties lmao!  I kept thinking ewwww why would TSA be touching your intimates?!

1 hour ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

Yes, so much this!

People make it sound like getting into graduate school is guaranteed - like I had just as much of a chance of getting into Cornell as I did getting into my local community college right after high school. My parents didn't go to college so I know they're proud but I don't think they realize just how much work it was... my professors here on the other hand were literally jumping up and down with me when I got into Cornell! I bet that if you're telling people who have gone through the process, you will be gazed at in awe!

That's part of the reason why I love this community so much. You get it! The happiness I get from hearing that some of you got into your top choices is much larger than I would ever expect to feel about Internet strangers

Yep!  I think this is why I've stalled on saying anything to my family.  I spent years pre-during-post college trying to explain the point of getting a BA.  Then I had to do it again with my MA and you know what?  I'm tired and sick of explaining myself when ultimately they just don't get it.

15 minutes ago, savay said:

I have been loving this thread! I also got in and have accepted an offer and holy crap am excited! I was so anxious during application season and even though I was probably a little hyperbolic, my friends just assumed I would get in. It was somewhat frustrating to not have those worries taken seriously. And now they just give me a Congrats! and an I-told-you-so-look. This is what love looks like, right?

@MarineBluePsy I have been scouring carryology's bag reviews lately -- they've introduced me to a lot of quality brands I had never heard of. May be helpful. I don't quite have 9 tubes of deodorant, but I made my own for awhile with coconut oil & baking soda and I have to say it worked really well. I've been too busy/lazy as of late to make another batch after I ran out, but if you're feeling adventurous it might be fun -- you can google recipes.

I had a bit of a concern about guaranteed funding as well. As others have mentioned, some schools cannot put that in writing due to the nature of their budgeting process or union guidelines. My offer letter said something like "You will most likely receive further support in subsequent years..." which was a red flag to me. I brought it up with the department chair and he apologized that they couldn't outright guarantee me funding but that they'd never had anyone lose it who remained in good standing. 

Keep celebrating everyone! Happy Friday!

I'll have to check out that website for some ideas.  I want to have everything I need without feeling like my body is loaded with 100lbs and I want to look cute.  This must be how people end up inventing things....if only I were that creative.

I must admit I've never thought to make my own deodorant.  This could be because I always buy deodorant/antiperspirant combos and I kind of like being blissfully naive about how it actually works.  I have heard that you can swipe essential oils such as tea tree or lavender under your arms to kill germs and keep from stinking.

[nka93]

49 minutes ago, Neist said:

I think a lot of programs stipulate that funding is conditional because they fear that budgets will get slashed. In practice, I think a lot of said programs only include the wording in case of disaster. The program I accepted's funding is stipulated as "up to five years," but in practice, if you need it and you maintain grades, it's nearly always there.

 

25 minutes ago, savay said:

I had a bit of a concern about guaranteed funding as well. As others have mentioned, some schools cannot put that in writing due to the nature of their budgeting process or union guidelines. My offer letter said something like "You will most likely receive further support in subsequent years..." which was a red flag to me. I brought it up with the department chair and he apologized that they couldn't outright guarantee me funding but that they'd never had anyone lose it who remained in good standing.

It is kind of scary to think about the funding situation being so precarious. I recently found out that my undergrad school had to turn down all of the applicants for their Clinical Psych program because the funding didn't come through. They refunded all of the application fees and told everyone they were restructuring the program. I have quite a few friends from undergrad who were impacted by this. Some of them were counting on going to this school for Clinical Psych because it is basically the only program in the area. I have no idea if current students lost their funding though.

[Neist]

5 minutes ago, nka93 said:

It is kind of scary to think about the funding situation being so precarious. I recently found out that my undergrad school had to turn down all of the applicants for their Clinical Psych program because the funding didn't come through. They refunded all of the application fees and told everyone they were restructuring the program. I have quite a few friends from undergrad who were impacted by this. Some of them were counting on going to this school for Clinical Psych because it is basically the only program in the area. I have no idea if current students lost their funding though.

It is scary, but it makes sense. Unless you're going school with an absurdly huge endowment (like Harvard), what school can guarantee funding? It almost demands that the money is just sitting in the bank, waiting to be spent on you. I think that's probably unrealistic at most universities.

Am I taking a risk? Sure, but I think I'll be fine.

[hippyscientist]

@MarineBluePsy ha - I forget about language on things like that! I definitely meant teddy bears!!! They're very cute and not at all like the other thing! 

As for the funding issue - it's difficult. If I put myself in the department's shoes I wouldn't want to guarantee funding with budgets being cut and it potentially gives an easy way to cut someone after the first year if they're awful (I doubt this happens frequently but I often go to the drastic version first). But as students it's really crappy. I've had long chats with my new PI (eeee that's so exciting I can say that) and he's said he's always managed to get his students summer funding and consecutive year funding too - my stipend is very liveable and is only for 10 months so if I get more at the same rate over the summer I'll be laughing. The bit that worries me is the department anticipates to fund for 3 years. 3 YEARS! I've either got to work really fast or find more money. 

Almost finished my lab report today although my figures keep jumping around. Word is so frustrating at times but I'm not allowed to submit in any other format. 

[sjoh197]

So I found out that I am apparently on a funding waitlist... and there is no indication on if/when i will receive any or any word. 

[Neist]

Just now, sjoh197 said:

So I found out that I am apparently on a funding waitlist... and there is no indication on if/when i will receive any or any word. 

Sorry to hear that.

But I guess wait list is better than a denial?

[nka93]

I'm feeling really grateful for finding a masters program that will fund me at all. I'm going to get some debt but not anything drastic. It sucks that attending a graduate program is so risky financially but the fact that I still want to do it is a good way of confirming to myself that it is what I really want. I just have to have faith that it will work out one way or another!

[sjoh197]

idk, despite living in texas since last June, they classified me as a non-resident. And that's awfully expensive lol.

[Neist]

6 minutes ago, nka93 said:

I'm feeling really grateful for finding a masters program that will fund me at all. I'm going to get some debt but not anything drastic. It sucks that attending a graduate program is so risky financially but the fact that I still want to do it is a good way of confirming to myself that it is what I really want. I just have to have faith that it will work out one way or another!

I'll probably take on between $5-10k after three years. Hardly anything drastic, like you. My stipend is enough, but my budget is going to be tight enough that I'll probably need small loans to cover books and unexpected financial burdens. 

I admit I'm a little bit terrified of graduate history classes and buying books. Ergh. I can get them secondhand pretty cheap as long as I know what I need well in advance, but required reading at the beginning of a semester is going to need be more expediently acquired. I wanted to try to go e-books for a lot of my books, too, and obviously I can't get those used.

Last thing I need is more books on bookshelves I don't own.

6 minutes ago, sjoh197 said:

idk, despite living in texas since last June, they classified me as a non-resident. And that's awfully expensive lol.

Hm. That's odd. Have you looked into what the rules are for residency in Texas? I thought that states generally consider you a resident after a year, but I guess Texas might be different.  

Edited April 1, 2016 by Neist

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

1 hour ago, marycaryne said:

My parents have been the same way about it. My mom was a high school drop out who got her GED neither she nor my dad went to college. As a result they are pretty clueless on anything that goes beyond high school. Everything I knew came from my late grandfather who attended university in Bolivia. They really think that acceptance in college or grad school is pretty much a guarantee. So it didn't even faze them when I got accepted into grad school. I mean they were happy for me, but they didn't even begin to understand any of the process that would have resulted in genuine excitement.

I'm sure your grandfather would be so proud!

Yeah, every time I apply for something and say "I probably won't get it" my parents just say "you say that about a lot of things that you get!" Like, NO MOM. NINE HUNDRED PEOPLE APPLIED TO THIS GRADUATE PROGRAM. THEY PICK 20. 

[marycaryne]

21 minutes ago, sjoh197 said:

idk, despite living in texas since last June, they classified me as a non-resident. And that's awfully expensive lol.

Most school requirements are a year, and if you've only been there since last June, you technically aren't at a year yet even if you aren't starting until after and so perhaps you can't actually be classified as a resident until you officially hit that year. I would call and ask about their residency requirements and if you can be reclassified once you hit the year mark.

Edited April 1, 2016 by marycaryne

[marycaryne]

5 minutes ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

I'm sure your grandfather would be so proud!

Yeah, every time I apply for something and say "I probably won't get it" my parents just say "you say that about a lot of things that you get!" Like, NO MOM. NINE HUNDRED PEOPLE APPLIED TO THIS GRADUATE PROGRAM. THEY PICK 20. 

Thank you!! It means a lot!

My parents, particularly my mom, go from one extreme to another. First, they think it's a guaranteed acceptance. And if something goes wrong, I must somehow not be good enough. When I got rejected from OSU my mom was immediately all "they would have taken you immediately if you had better grades...". Except I have a 4.0 and am graduating Summa Cum Laude (and did it working full time with a husband and two young children), so yeah. I obviously needed better grades. I've given up trying to explain it to them.

[Neist]

16 minutes ago, marycaryne said:

Thank you!! It means a lot!

My parents, particularly my mom, go from one extreme to another. First, they think it's a guaranteed acceptance. And if something goes wrong, I must somehow not be good enough. When I got rejected from OSU my mom was immediately all "they would have taken you immediately if you had better grades...". Except I have a 4.0 and am graduating Summa Cum Laude (and did it working full time with a husband and two young children), so yeah. I obviously needed better grades. I've given up trying to explain it to them.

I think a lot of people probably also don't realize that just because a school isn't an known-name school doesn't mean that specific programs aren't difficult to get into. U. of Oklahoma certainly isn't difficult to get into, but I bet the PhD program in meteorology is absurdly difficult to get into. My parents seem to think that I was going to automatically get into OU because I'll get my undergrad there. 

Like you, I've given up trying to explain to people.

On a side note, I'm not from a family of college graduates either, so I can relate. I think I'm going to be the first college graduate in my immediately family ever. I doubt I have relatives who attending college going way back because we're all from Oklahoma, and we're all pretty much country people. 

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

26 minutes ago, marycaryne said:

When I got rejected from OSU my mom was immediately all "they would have taken you immediately if you had better grades...". Except I have a 4.0 and am graduating Summa Cum Laude (and did it working full time with a husband and two young children), so yeah. I obviously needed better grades. I've given up trying to explain it to them.

LOL! Parents

COME ON, WHY DIDN'T YOU GET BETTER THAN 100%?!?!?!

[Euler]

So even though I have several schools to hear back from still, and a couple solid "maybes" and only one school with a "yes" that I've heard back from...I'm really strongly considering accepting Virginia Tech's offer without regard to the other schools. I don't want to be hasty, and I have until April 30th apparently to get back to them. But man, I can't stop thinking about how much I'd love to be there.

[MarineBluePsy]

1 hour ago, nka93 said:

 

It is kind of scary to think about the funding situation being so precarious. I recently found out that my undergrad school had to turn down all of the applicants for their Clinical Psych program because the funding didn't come through. They refunded all of the application fees and told everyone they were restructuring the program. I have quite a few friends from undergrad who were impacted by this. Some of them were counting on going to this school for Clinical Psych because it is basically the only program in the area. I have no idea if current students lost their funding though.

I take it this is not an R1 university?  In my observations this kind of thing is very rare at top tier institutions and my guess is because they attract more funding from a variety of sources....corporate sponsorships, grants, alumni donations, etc.  Mad props to this school just telling the new hopefuls sorry we can't take you and refunding the app fees rather than saying sure please come and drown in loans.  If the current students didn't lose their funding they better be working on a backup plan because funding reductions are entirely possible.

1 hour ago, sjoh197 said:

So I found out that I am apparently on a funding waitlist... and there is no indication on if/when i will receive any or any word. 

This does not sound like good news to me.  Have you applied for outside funding in case the school doesn't come through?

21 minutes ago, Neist said:

On a side note, I'm not from a family of college graduates either, so I can relate. I think I'm going to be the first college graduate in my immediately family ever. I doubt I have relatives who attending college going way back because we're all from Oklahoma, and we're all pretty much country people. 

Yep its similar for me too.  Another irritating thing I'm experiencing is people outside of the family that are well educated acting like they don't get how it was possible for me to become a well educated person given my humble beginnings.  There are plenty of well educated people in the world that came from humble beginnings and many talk about working hard to find opportunities to educate themselves, utilizing all the resources at their schools, the public library system, finding mentors, etc.  I used some of the same steps and these people often look at me like I have 3 heads.  I mean honestly, how hard is to fathom?  

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

Just now, Euler said:

So even though I have several schools to hear back from still, and a couple solid "maybes" and only one school with a "yes" that I've heard back from...I'm really strongly considering accepting Virginia Tech's offer without regard to the other schools. I don't want to be hasty, and I have until April 30th apparently to get back to them. But man, I can't stop thinking about how much I'd love to be there.

Are you sure you aren't just thinking that because it's your one yes? What about all the other places? What was your top choice when you were applying?

[Euler]

3 minutes ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

Are you sure you aren't just thinking that because it's your one yes? What about all the other places? What was your top choice when you were applying?

My top choices were Dartmouth (got a rejection) and Florida State- I don't have any research focus yet, so in terms of the actual programs offered, I only really care that the school's not narrowly focused on one thing.

Florida State is the one reason I'll probably continue waiting, especially since I may have a chance at a fellowship.

And it's definitely far more than it being my one real yes- VT has a really heavy focus on getting grad students to learn proper teaching methods, and has them teach calc for engineers and math majors, and since I definitely plan to teach long-term that's a big upside. But outside of that, the advisors, department chair, professors, current students- everybody was really open and friendly. And one other big thing, the main student who was giving us a tour of the campus said she came in with a weak background, and went into detail on the way it works with the department to get caught up. I'm coming in with several fewer classes than most incoming students, so that was really valuable.

But yes- at this point, I'm probably around 90% certain that even if I were to get funded offers from my other options, I would still accept the offer. I know I should hold out for that 10%, but waiting is so tiring!

[hippyscientist]

18 minutes ago, MarineBluePsy said:

 

Yep its similar for me too.  Another irritating thing I'm experiencing is people outside of the family that are well educated acting like they don't get how it was possible for me to become a well educated person given my humble beginnings.  There are plenty of well educated people in the world that came from humble beginnings and many talk about working hard to find opportunities to educate themselves, utilizing all the resources at their schools, the public library system, finding mentors, etc.  I used some of the same steps and these people often look at me like I have 3 heads.  I mean honestly, how hard is to fathom?  

I'm the first in my entire family to go to university (well my dad went but got kicked out). I'm the only "nerd" in my family, and I'm not too sure how I've ended up on this path! But both my parents have been amazingly supportive, if not fully appreciating the effort. My mom sometimes reads these boards so she has a rough idea of the hell of the application process, but my dad was generic with the "oh I had faith you'd get it". The people at university and those who have gone on to higher education realise how awesome it is, and how insanely competitive too - my PI said that he only takes one student every 3 years or so so he can fully dedicate his mentoring to them. But most of the others that I've told are just bemused at my elation, offering well wishes but not really getting it. 

I had absolutely no assistance with this process. My LORs were decidedly unhelpful but gradcafe and reddit have helped me figure it out. There really hasn't been much guidance at all through my schooling, but I think that's what makes us independent researchers! From wherever you come from, it's what you make of it (to a certain extent). Everyone has obstacles, just some people's obstacles are larger than others. When I was going through a tough time, someone said to me "The toughest burdens are given to those who can handle them" and to a certain extent (especially in the grad school context) it's true.

Edited April 1, 2016 by hippyscientist

[Neist]

2 minutes ago, hippyscientist said:

I had absolutely no assistance with this process. My LORs were decidedly unhelpful but gradcafe and reddit have helped me figure it out. There really hasn't been much guidance at all through my schooling, but I think that's what makes us independent researchers! From wherever you come from, it's what you make of it (to a certain extent). Everyone has obstacles, just some people's obstacles are larger than others. 

The internet is pretty fantastic for things like that.  

How did people ever get anything accomplished without it? Depending on other's generosity seems unlikely.

[sjoh197]

22 minutes ago, MarineBluePsy said:

This does not sound like good news to me.  Have you applied for outside funding in case the school doesn't come through?

 

I've been looking for outside funding... but am struggling to find anything I am eligible for.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

46 minutes ago, Neist said:

The internet is pretty fantastic for things like that.  

How did people ever get anything accomplished without it? Depending on other's generosity seems unlikely.

If it weren't for the Internet, I would not be applying to graduate school. Period. I wouldn't have known about REUs, or the GRE, or the many scholarships/fellowships I've had the privilege of receiving, because my school doesn't tell people about these things.

 

Although I am working to change that... organizing an annual seminar just to say words, and stuff.

[sjoh197]

So I asked the graduate advisor if people get off the funding waitlist often... and all I got was

"I can't say at this point. Sorry."

So now I'm depressed.

[Neist]

30 minutes ago, sjoh197 said:

So I asked the graduate advisor if people get off the funding waitlist often... and all I got was

"I can't say at this point. Sorry."

So now I'm depressed.

Aww. I'm sorry.  

You never know though, something still might happen! Wouldn't be awesome if programs were a little more transparent? It's frustrating!