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

[pterosaur]

I'll admit being slightly bitter about not getting this fellowship (it's natural and it'll wear off), but they just released the 12 winners (out of 800 applicants): 9/12 male, 4/12 from MIT undergrad, 11/12 white. Starts to feel like something of an old boys club.

Edited April 22, 2016 by pterosaur

[jlt646]

2 hours ago, pterosaur said:

I'll admit being slightly bitter about not getting this fellowship (it's natural and it'll wear off), but they just released the 12 winners (out of 800 applicants): 9/12 male, 4/12 from MIT undergrad, 11/12 white. Starts to feel like something of an old boys club.

Oof, that is gross. /: It's totally valid to feel salty about not getting it regardless of demographics, but those numbers make it worse for sure.

[hippyscientist]

MY I-20 ARRIVED This is exciting.

@pterosaur that's less exciting. That's totally acceptable to feel a bit miffed!!

[Neist]

20 minutes ago, hippyscientist said:

MY I-20 ARRIVED This is exciting.

@pterosaur that's less exciting. That's totally acceptable to feel a bit miffed!!

Congrats!  

3 hours ago, pterosaur said:

I'll admit being slightly bitter about not getting this fellowship (it's natural and it'll wear off), but they just released the 12 winners (out of 800 applicants): 9/12 male, 4/12 from MIT undergrad, 11/12 white. Starts to feel like something of an old boys club.

Much of this entire cycle has made me ponder whether a good deal of this entire process adheres to old boys club mentality.

[sjoh197]

40 minutes ago, Neist said:

Congrats!  

Much of this entire cycle has made me ponder whether a good deal of this entire process adheres to old boys club mentality.

That's funny... sometimes I wonder if the only reason I got in is because I'm a girl and they have a quota to fill. 

[hippyscientist]

@Neist I think you might be right. The system was historically set up as an old boys club, and it's ridiculous that recruiting female PhD students in some disciplines is considered diversity. It's definitely changed, but not at the same pace as society has, leading to crappy stats like @pterosaur's fellowship ones.

[Neist]

10 minutes ago, sjoh197 said:

That's funny... sometimes I wonder if the only reason I got in is because I'm a girl and they have a quota to fill. 

It's possible, but it's sort of tin foil hat territory unless some school publishes detailed acceptance statistics (some do, actually).

If you want, there are legal mechanisms in place to see your admissions documents (http://college.usatoday.com/2015/01/28/stanford-students-discover-how-to-access-their-admission-records/). Some Stanford students figure this out a year or so ago. I'm really tempted to ask for mine. It depends on the university, of course, but you might be able to see the actual comments from the admissions committee. 

Part of me wants to do it, and part of me doesn't. I'm very familiar with the department and the faculty, and I'm afraid I'd read things that would cause me to forever dislike them.  Might be nice to see who believes in me, though.

9 minutes ago, hippyscientist said:

@Neist I think you might be right. The system was historically set up as an old boys club, and it's ridiculous that recruiting female PhD students in some disciplines is considered diversity. It's definitely changed, but not at the same pace as society has, leading to crappy stats like @pterosaur's fellowship ones.

It's especially bad in certain disciplines. I don't know if Chemistry still is, but it used to be very homogeneous, at least at the university I'm at now. Thankfully, the humanities tend to be pretty diverse. I enjoy being in a melting pot.

[hippyscientist]

Just now, Neist said:

It's especially bad in certain disciplines. I don't know if Chemistry still is, but it used to be very homogeneous, at least at the university I'm at now. Thankfully, the humanities tend to be pretty diverse. I enjoy being in a melting pot.

I'm in one of the "bad" disciplines. We didn't have any female members of staff in my department until February! When you mix sports, surgery and engineering - it's not exactly traditional female subjects, whatever that means. I love it though, because it means theres a lot of work to be done to shift the paradigm and I'm looking forward to being a part of that. 

Also, really interesting about legally being able to see your admissions documents. I don't want to do that!! I know I wasn't the strongest candidate on paper, but I also know that meeting me people are almost always pleasantly surprised. That's why I find it so funny that out of the 3 schools I heard from, it was the one that interviewed me that I didn't get!! But I don't care about my background - I will walk into a place a blank slate of expectations, and I will prove myself from the ground up, regardless of what they thought of my application. 

[sjoh197]

5 minutes ago, Neist said:

It's possible, but it's sort of tin foil hat territory unless some school publishes detailed acceptance statistics (some do, actually).

If you want, there are legal mechanisms in place to see your admissions documents (http://college.usatoday.com/2015/01/28/stanford-students-discover-how-to-access-their-admission-records/). Some Stanford students figure this out a year or so ago. I'm really tempted to ask for mine. It depends on the university, of course, but you might be able to see the actual comments from the admissions committee. 

Part of me wants to do it, and part of me doesn't. I'm very familiar with the department and the faculty, and I'm afraid I'd read things that would cause me to forever dislike them.  Might be nice to see who believes in me, though.

It's especially bad in certain disciplines. I don't know if Chemistry still is, but it used to be very homogeneous, at least at the university I'm at now. Thankfully, the humanities tend to be pretty diverse. I enjoy being in a melting pot.

The program I got into typically is about 25% women. In geology there is a decent amount of diversity I guess. Usually the math-less portions of it are where a lot of the women seem to concentrate, and things like geophysics, planetary geo, and quant heavy geochem tend to be more male heavy. 

I don't really want to see anything about my app. It would just make me nervous and question myself. 

I guess I'm just confused/frustrated/nervous because I still haven't heard anything about the funding waitlist. And this is from a dept. in which I was told in the past that they don't try to accept people without funding. And I would think especially for PhD? If I'm not good enough for funding, then why the hell did they accept me?

[Neist]

17 minutes ago, hippyscientist said:

I'm in one of the "bad" disciplines. We didn't have any female members of staff in my department until February! When you mix sports, surgery and engineering - it's not exactly traditional female subjects, whatever that means. I love it though, because it means theres a lot of work to be done to shift the paradigm and I'm looking forward to being a part of that. 

Also, really interesting about legally being able to see your admissions documents. I don't want to do that!! I know I wasn't the strongest candidate on paper, but I also know that meeting me people are almost always pleasantly surprised. That's why I find it so funny that out of the 3 schools I heard from, it was the one that interviewed me that I didn't get!! But I don't care about my background - I will walk into a place a blank slate of expectations, and I will prove myself from the ground up, regardless of what they thought of my application. 

It could be good for the discipline, too. Diverse perspectives can spur diverse, unique research. Being at the forefront of that might be exciting.  

Also, I agree with you on the admissions records. Curiosity wants to see them, but I'd rather just do my own work without discouraging knowledge of other's opinions.

9 minutes ago, sjoh197 said:

The program I got into typically is about 25% women. In geology there is a decent amount of diversity I guess. Usually the math-less portions of it are where a lot of the women seem to concentrate, and things like geophysics, planetary geo, and quant heavy geochem tend to be more male heavy. 

I don't really want to see anything about my app. It would just make me nervous and question myself. 

I guess I'm just confused/frustrated/nervous because I still haven't heard anything about the funding waitlist. And this is from a dept. in which I was told in the past that they don't try to accept people without funding. And I would think especially for PhD? If I'm not good enough for funding, then why the hell did they accept me?

You know, it hasn't been until the last few months that I've realized how slow-as-molasses academia operates. I'm surprised anyone gets anything done. Hopefully, you'll hear something soon.  

[mk-8]

On 4/2/2016 at 1:25 PM, Euler said:

I just officially accepted the offer to Virginia Tech!

Congrats! My sister goes there for undergrad and is an applied discrete mathematics major. She really likes it and it's a great school!

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

I'd like to think that being female doesn't affect my chances, but the fact is as follows:

being a girl -> """diversity""" -> fellowships -> more funding -> acceptance.

So maybe indirectly it does affect my chances. Although I rejected an offer from a school who gave me a fellowship which led to nearly a doubled stipend because I'm a female, and I rejected it less than 2 minutes after getting it just out of spite. Plus, one of the first things a potential PI told me is that "he hires a lot of females". Like, SO???

 

[hippyscientist]

10 minutes ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

I'd like to think that being female doesn't affect my chances, but the fact is as follows:

being a girl -> """diversity""" -> fellowships -> more funding -> acceptance.

So maybe indirectly it does affect my chances. Although I rejected an offer from a school who gave me a fellowship which led to nearly a doubled stipend because I'm a female, and I rejected it less than 2 minutes after getting it just out of spite. Plus, one of the first things a potential PI told me is that "he hires a lot of females". Like, SO???

 

Yep! I've been told specifically I can apply for specific diversity scholarships because I'm female. Let's take stock for a minute. The only things that I am "diverse" on are being first in my family to graduate (including aunts and uncles and parents and grandparents), being female and on-paper poorness. So the heck what?! That means diddly-squat (to me, others may have different opinions). Recruitment should be based primarily on terms of ability and interest, and only consider diversity as a last resort. Also, no special treatment just because I'm female please - any thing considered "female" should be accessible to all. By that I mean things like emotional support & parental support. I dunno, just gets my knickers in a twist and I'm not going on any more of a rant on a public forum! 

[sjoh197]

Sometimes I think.... magic fairy turn me into a 1/2 black 1/2 native american female lesbian. That would hit all the diversity levels.

But then I remember all the bullshit that those groups have to deal with, and feel pretty terrible remembering that I am straight white person with an education. 

 

[Neist]

25 minutes ago, sjoh197 said:

Sometimes I think.... magic fairy turn me into a 1/2 black 1/2 native american female lesbian. That would hit all the diversity levels.

But then I remember all the bullshit that those groups have to deal with, and feel pretty terrible remembering that I am straight white person with an education. 

This made me laugh.  

I agree with you. I'd rather not deal with anything rather than get special treatment and deal with a load of crap. I neatly fall into a comfortable wallflower role, even if I'm not socially awkward. I like blending into the background. People bother me less when I blend in.  

Edited April 22, 2016 by Neist

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

1 hour ago, hippyscientist said:

Yep! I've been told specifically I can apply for specific diversity scholarships because I'm female. Let's take stock for a minute. The only things that I am "diverse" on are being first in my family to graduate (including aunts and uncles and parents and grandparents), being female and on-paper poorness. So the heck what?! That means diddly-squat (to me, others may have different opinions). Recruitment should be based primarily on terms of ability and interest, and only consider diversity as a last resort. Also, no special treatment just because I'm female please - any thing considered "female" should be accessible to all. By that I mean things like emotional support & parental support. I dunno, just gets my knickers in a twist and I'm not going on any more of a rant on a public forum! 

YES I AGREE. I hate that when we get awards and things they tend to mean less because the general feeling is "you only got this because you're a female". If I could afford to (and if it were logically feasible) I would've submitted two applications to each grad school, one as myself (female, first-gen college student, low SES), and one as a male from a well-off middle-class educated family and see where that got me.

[Neist]

27 minutes ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

YES I AGREE. I hate that when we get awards and things they tend to mean less because the general feeling is "you only got this because you're a female". If I could afford to (and if it were logically feasible) I would've submitted two applications to each grad school, one as myself (female, first-gen college student, low SES), and one as a male from a well-off middle-class educated family and see where that got me.

One of the reasons why pulling your admissions results in the previously mentioned way is so interesting is that, if a lot of people do it and share their records, we could collectively see trends in acceptance patterns.

I cannot imagine that enough people would request their admission records to make a study worthwhile, but it'd be super interesting. Make a great book, I bet.

Edited April 22, 2016 by Neist
Ergh. Typo king reigns supreme!

[janetjanejune]

I'm a black, trans, queer, low SES, non-Christian woman. I literally hit every diversity marker out there!  Trust me, y'all don't wanna deal with what I go through to claim affirmative action. 

I'd say FU to anyone who calls me a token diversity. I work my ass off and am damned good at what I do. Even in the off-chance I was chosen because I'm a minority, let me revel in that small slice of victory. You (whatever majority is downplaying me) have the whole privilege pie to eat.

[Neist]

28 minutes ago, janetjanejune said:

I'm a black, trans, queer, low SES, non-Christian woman. I literally hit every diversity marker out there!  Trust me, y'all don't wanna deal with what I go through to claim affirmative action. 

I'd say FU to anyone who calls me a token diversity. I work my ass off and am damned good at what I do. Even in the off-chance I was chosen because I'm a minority, let me revel in that small slice of victory. You (whatever majority is downplaying me) have the whole privilege pie to eat.

Oh wow! I bet you do have to deal with a bunch!

Like I said, I'm happy being ignored. I'd rather be ignored than anything else. Years ago I learned that attention is rarely worth it, at least to me. I'm probably the most content lonely person ever.  

Also, it's a little off topic, but also on topic, I hope that I live long enough to experience a gender blind society. For example, what's with separated bathrooms? It's an antiquated, inefficient practice. Everyone knows that women's bathrooms are nearly always more crowded than men's bathrooms, especially at large events. I'm baffled why we don't just make one really large bathroom. 

[sjoh197]

15 minutes ago, Neist said:

Oh wow! I bet you do have to deal with a bunch!

Like I said, I'm happy being ignored. I'd rather be ignored than anything else. Years ago I learned that attention is rarely worth it, at least to me. I'm probably the most content lonely person ever.  

Also, it's a little off topic, but also on topic, I hope that I live long enough to experience a gender blind society. For example, what's with separated bathrooms? It's an antiquated, inefficient practice. Everyone knows that women's bathrooms are nearly always more crowded than men's bathrooms, especially at large events. I'm baffled why we don't just make one really large bathroom. 

I know that the bathrooms in my old department were kind of few and far between... and the men's and women's were often not near each other. 

I went into one of the lesser known womens bathrooms late at night, and there was this dude standing in the stall leaning against the wall peeing, no door closed, no nothing. I left... but only to give him his privacy, although with the door open, I have a feeling that he didn't really need it. 

[Neist]

7 minutes ago, sjoh197 said:

I know that the bathrooms in my old department were kind of few and far between... and the men's and women's were often not near each other. 

I went into one of the lesser known womens bathrooms late at night, and there was this dude standing in the stall leaning against the wall peeing, no door closed, no nothing. I left... but only to give him his privacy, although with the door open, I have a feeling that he didn't really need it. 

The the building that the history of science department is in here at OU only has 1 bathroom per floor. So, if you're not lucky enough to be on the correct floor, you have to travel to get to a bathroom. 

Pretty annoying.

[hippyscientist]

@janetjanejune I LOVE your attitude. Life would be so much easier if everyone acknowledged that not everything has to be politically correct all the time. Guess what? I don't care if you're a blue smurf from the planet Zogg, if you are a cool person we'll be friends. If you're the best person for the job you'll be hired. If you've got the right attitude, you'll go far. I just wish more people had that outlook. I genuinely don't factor in outwards appearances in my interactions with people (well I mean if you're wearing hideous clothes I might cast judgement silently) but it's all about personality. 

Right, bathrooms. I pee in the guys toilets if the girls is occupied (there's one female toilet and 5 guys ones in my building). I pee in the guys toilets if the queue is really long for the girls. I invite guys to pee in the ladies bathroom at male-dominated sports fixtures. There I've told the internet. There's certain situations where I'm less okay with this, but more ANY person rather than mens/womens divides. One is in clubs/bars etc. Add alcohol to the equation and I've seen some pretty horrible stuff happen to people of all genders. Having a safe place to do your business is paramount. Maybe we just have toilets that are self-contained. Problem sorted. 

Completely switching tracks. I just discovered mug cakes. I've made them high protein, gluten free and they're amazing. I just needed to tell you all

Edited April 22, 2016 by hippyscientist

[MarineBluePsy]

18 hours ago, sjoh197 said:

The worst part is that my mom is and was a good cook. Those were long, stressful days. And she really did dry the shit out of that chicken. But man is her thanksgiving spread to die for. Last year her turkey was so juicy that we couldn't even move it out of the turkey pan onto the platter because it just disintegrated when we tried to pick it up. It was some delicious turkey.

Does anyone here remember poor people ground beef... You know, the ground turkey in a plastic tube thing. Mix that in with hamburger helper and you were living like a Rockefeller.

That is interesting.  The worst memories I have of my mom's cooking are from the holidays.  Shortly after moving out I refused to celebrate them altogether.  Although this year will be strange and I hadn't really thought about that either.  Right now I live close enough to my mom that if I wanted to go home and choke on her crappy cooking during the holidays I could.  I don't, but I like knowing I could.  Soon I'll be across the country.  Hmmm....

And yes I buy ground turkey in tube form all the time, but it isn't any different than ground turkey in any other packaging other than being awkward in the freezer.  Did you mean some sort of meat/other product hybrid?

1 hour ago, Neist said:

Also, it's a little off topic, but also on topic, I hope that I live long enough to experience a gender blind society. For example, what's with separated bathrooms? It's an antiquated, inefficient practice. Everyone knows that women's bathrooms are nearly always more crowded than men's bathrooms, especially at large events. I'm baffled why we don't just make one really large bathroom. 

Unisex bathrooms actually make me quite angry.  I do not want to go into the restroom and see a man at a urinal ever.  Nor do I want to go in there, sit in one of the lounge chairs praying for my migraine to go away while guys are in there doing whatever it is I don't see when they're in the men's room.  I very much enjoy going into the ladies room and hogging the entire counter with my makeup/face/hair products while I do a not at all quick change and gossip with the other ladies without the presence of men.  I've also hid in plenty of ladies restrooms waiting for a friend to pick me up after not being able to get rid of some creepy dude.  The women's restroom is not just for tinkling!  We ladies just have more things to do and need our privacy.  

As for large events having long lines at the women's restrooms...in my experience staff just wait til the men's line clears and then we ladies get to take over that bathroom too.  So really what should happen is the number of women's restrooms should triple.

[Neist]

3 minutes ago, MarineBluePsy said:

Unisex bathrooms actually make me quite angry.  I do not want to go into the restroom and see a man at a urinal ever.  Nor do I want to go in there, sit in one of the lounge chairs praying for my migraine to go away while guys are in there doing whatever it is I don't see when they're in the men's room.  I very much enjoy going into the ladies room and hogging the entire counter with my makeup/face/hair products while I do a not at all quick change and gossip with the other ladies without the presence of men.  I've also hid in plenty of ladies restrooms waiting for a friend to pick me up after not being able to get rid of some creepy dude.  The women's restroom is not just for tinkling!  We ladies just have more things to do and need our privacy.  

As for large events having long lines at the women's restrooms...in my experience staff just wait til the men's line clears and then we ladies get to take over that bathroom too.  So really what should happen is the number of women's restrooms should triple.

Actually, I agree with you! We're not in a place or time where I think unisex bathrooms are possible. However, I do think that the reasons why they aren't possible are due cultural and social norms, not inherent barriers. I think that these norms will lax over time, and eventually, no one will care. But maybe that's the egalitarian in me. I have lofty, romantic hopes for the future.  

Besides, even if unisex bathrooms were to happen, basic bathroom design would need to change. I think unisex bathrooms would need to be a new type of bathroom, not simply a larger one.

This is a weird discussion.  

[MarineBluePsy]

9 minutes ago, Neist said:

This is a weird discussion.  

It is!  And I was just thinking of how often this thread gets on weird discussions.  I could totally see all of us hanging out in a cafe blabbering on about all this weirdness in person.  Hmmmm with so many of us relocating we probably could do a meet in the middle sort of thing.