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

[janetjanejune]

@sjoh197 needs to provide us all with chocolate peanut butter lasagna. 

[sjoh197]

59 minutes ago, pterosaur said:

Like normal lasagna but adding chocolate and peanut butter...? Because that would be replacing an uncertain taste with a quite likely horrid one. I might stick to my naan and chocolate digestives.

No, no... You gotta read a couple posts above.

[Neist]

In the previously-mentioned spirit of productivity and planning, I cleaned my desk and bought a desktop bookshelf. I like being organized, and it seemed like a relatively cheap way to stay that way. I don't have any bookshelf space to speak of at my apartment; most of my shelf space is in my office at my job, and once I start graduate school I'll be losing that shelf space.

I'm excited for this fall.  

[Danger_Zone]

4 hours ago, Neist said:

Anyone else getting perhaps a little carried away with planning?

I'm a person who does well with planning. At this point, I've almost tentatively planned every moment for the next several years. The precise courses I want to take. What skill-building courses I'd like to take in the summers. I'm currently considering which conferences would be best to attend/present at.

There's so many awesome things to do, and so little time to do them.  High on my priority list is getting a bibliography-focused certificate through the rare book school and teaching myself data analytics via Udacity.

I love planning! I have a really long list of things I need to do before the end of the summer. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment, though. My mind is really focused on moving at the moment, and it's hard to plan for a lot of things that come with that until I'm physically in the country. But I've chosen most of my courses for the fall, I am just struggling a bit to figure out what I want my minor field to be. I understand wanting to do a lot with seemingly little time. I'm really wanting to get a graduate teacher's certificate, as it gives you a lot of extra exposure to classroom teaching, so I'm hoping that works out.

I'm also planning my first vacation ever!! I figured this is a good time to plan one before I am super busy with school.

[janetjanejune]

I haven't gone overboard with planning. My friend recently graduated from the school I'll be attending. She's given me a lot of tips and advice. The most I've researched are apartments. Called two already and been placed on a waiting list. Furniture's gonna be whatever I can find at Goodwill, Habitat of Humanity Restore, Craigslist, etc. I'm bringing an air mattress to save on cost.

[cwr]

4 hours ago, pterosaur said:

Yup, it is indeed the Hertz. I know a guy who got it last year (he's in my current international fellowship program and went to CalTech - the only other school with multiple winners this year), but that's it. And since he only had his own experience to go off of, that didn't end up being hugely helpful. No one at my undergrad university could provide me with any advice on it, either, since I'm not even sure they've had anyone apply before.

It was a strange interview experience - I was a finalist, so I went through both rounds of interviews. And the only woman I saw in the whole process was the woman in charge of the administration. Mostly a bunch of old white men.  Somewhat it's the field and somewhat generational, but it did make me feel a little out of place. I didn't know how to prepare for the interview, since they ask you all sorts of off the wall questions like why cats have slit shaped pupils and what happens to the autocorrelation coefficients if you add gaussian noise to a system. (Actual questions from my first round interview.) I didn't think the first interview went terribly well, so I was surprised to get through. I actually thought the second round went better, but apparently not? They made some comment at the end about how everything was all good, but I didn't really have much independent research yet. (Apparently nothing I did in my 4 years of research was independent/creative enough? IDK)

I'd be eligible to apply again next year, and if that independent research part is my biggest weakness, the start of my PhD research might be a pretty big boost to my application. Not sure yet, though. I'll let the taste from this experience wash out of my mouth before making any decision on that.

Which fellowship, if you don't mind me asking? 

I understand what you mean about not having people from your undergrad to ask, because I dealt with this all year for fellowships. With the exception of the NSF, everything I applied for was uncharted waters for students from my university. The best we had was one faculty member who was a previous winner for one of them, but no current or former students to ask. 

Okay, so that's in keeping with what I heard about the interviews (the obscure, almost unanswerable questions). Are you (or did they have reason to think that you would be) familiar with autocorrelation coefficients of a system? Because I would have just stared blankly at them if I was asked that, because I haven't the foggiest idea what an autocorrelation coefficient is. It's pretty disheartening to hear that four years of research is looked at as not enough independent/creative input, especially considering my field, because usually huge teams work on papers/analyses. 

Best of luck in applying this year, if you do. I would say – if you can bring yourself to – why the hell not? The worst thing that happens is they say no, and we can all share in the rejection next year. I'm sure the DoE would help your case, but either way, that's a huge deal. Realistically, I'm trying to target the CSGF for next year, since DoE funding in high-energy physics is huge, so getting the CSGF would be a huge boost for me. 

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

Just cleaned out my closet so that I can pack all this stuff for my move to Ithaca (less than two weeks, whaaaaat?!) I've bought so many things in the hopes that one day I might care enough to dress cute and not just wear a nerdy t-shirt, but I've given in now. Nerdy t-shirts ahoy!

[hippyscientist]

3 hours ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

Just cleaned out my closet so that I can pack all this stuff for my move to Ithaca (less than two weeks, whaaaaat?!) I've bought so many things in the hopes that one day I might care enough to dress cute and not just wear a nerdy t-shirt, but I've given in now. Nerdy t-shirts ahoy!

I need to invest in some nerdy t-shirts. Physicists always have epic ones. There's a guy on my current course who did his first masters in Physics and got to work at CERN so he wears that shirt around all the time. I'm pretty envious haha. 

[sjoh197]

9 hours ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

Just cleaned out my closet so that I can pack all this stuff for my move to Ithaca (less than two weeks, whaaaaat?!) I've bought so many things in the hopes that one day I might care enough to dress cute and not just wear a nerdy t-shirt, but I've given in now. Nerdy t-shirts ahoy!

Ugh... the nerd shirts.

I could never bring myself to don the "Geology Rocks!" or "Gneiss going" or any of the other geology puns.

However, our department had these t-shirts that were pretty bad. Our building was the Howe-Russell Geo-Building. And there was a t-shirt with an old black and white photo of Dr. Howe with these photoshopped on sunglasses and hat.. and a quotation of him asking "Howe you doin?". 

[Neist]

51 minutes ago, sjoh197 said:

Ugh... the nerd shirts.

I could never bring myself to don the "Geology Rocks!" or "Gneiss going" or any of the other geology puns.

However, our department had these t-shirts that were pretty bad. Our building was the Howe-Russell Geo-Building. And there was a t-shirt with an old black and white photo of Dr. Howe with these photoshopped on sunglasses and hat.. and a quotation of him asking "Howe you doin?". 

 

Those all sound wonderfully cheesy. 

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

Geology has the best puns... most of mine are from Woot and are just stupid little comics.

For instance, one is a cell doing long division on a black board (cell division), that one is my favorite. I got them way too large though, I really need to figure out how to cut them down to size!

[RCtheSS]

21 hours ago, Neist said:

Anyone else getting perhaps a little carried away with planning?

I'm a person who does well with planning. At this point, I've almost tentatively planned every moment for the next several years. The precise courses I want to take. What skill-building courses I'd like to take in the summers. I'm currently considering which conferences would be best to attend/present at.

There's so many awesome things to do, and so little time to do them.  High on my priority list is getting a bibliography-focused certificate through the rare book school and teaching myself data analytics via Udacity.

I'm totally like this. In my first semester of undergrad, I created a table in Word outlining every course I'd take in every semester of college. It was helpful for me to keep track of my degree audit since I was double majoring, minoring, and "certificate-ing". I've already started a similar table for my master's program but I definitely need to sit down with an adviser or two to work out the dual degree requirements.

UChicago offers Lynda to all of its students, and I've already flagged the Python courses to teach myself some programming this summer.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

I guess I should've looked at reviews for this apartment place before signing a lease with them... utilities run about 3x what they said they would, and the maintenance sucks apparently  

Live and learn, I guess.

[savay]

3 hours ago, RCtheSS said:

I'm totally like this. In my first semester of undergrad, I created a table in Word outlining every course I'd take in every semester of college. It was helpful for me to keep track of my degree audit since I was double majoring, minoring, and "certificate-ing". I've already started a similar table for my master's program but I definitely need to sit down with an adviser or two to work out the dual degree requirements.

UChicago offers Lynda to all of its students, and I've already flagged the Python courses to teach myself some programming this summer.

Yes... I am also joining this wagon with you and @Neist. I have a huge spreadsheet from when I started applying with dates and programs, and now it's courses and requirements and reading lists -- as well as all of the grants/fellowships/summer opportunities I plan to apply to and professional societies and conferences and... 

I'm talking to my adviser in two weeks and hopefully she can validate this...fixation. And offer some guidance.

[hippyscientist]

1 minute ago, savay said:

Yes... I am also joining this wagon with you and @Neist. I have a huge spreadsheet from when I started applying with dates and programs, and now it's courses and requirements and reading lists -- as well as all of the grants/fellowships/summer opportunities I plan to apply to and professional societies and conferences and... 

I'm talking to my adviser in two weeks and hopefully she can validate this...fixation. And offer some guidance.

Ohhh I like your thinking. I'm going to start compiling my PhD plan spreadsheet.

[sjoh197]

12 minutes ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

I guess I should've looked at reviews for this apartment place before signing a lease with them... utilities run about 3x what they said they would, and the maintenance sucks apparently  

Live and learn, I guess.

I know its not helpful to you... but I find that I will never even look at an apartment without going onto apartmentratings.com and google reviews. I have found places that look great until I read the reviews. 

Granted... most people will only post complaints, not compliments, but if every review say it has roaches, it probably has roaches. 

[savay]

@hippyscientist It's definitely helped with the 'but I want to do everything!' feels, and also made me realize that if I can get the external fellowships for overseas research, I might as well take 3 years to do my MA. And, it's also helped with prioritizing what I want to get done/focus on, and goal setting.

[hippyscientist]

4 minutes ago, savay said:

@hippyscientist It's definitely helped with the 'but I want to do everything!' feels, and also made me realize that if I can get the external fellowships for overseas research, I might as well take 3 years to do my MA. And, it's also helped with prioritizing what I want to get done/focus on, and goal setting.

I mean I already have my courses organised. The conferences are so challenging though! So there's 1 big one every year. 2017 it's in Australia, 2018 it's in Ireland. Hopefully I can get funding to attend those because they'd be amazing to go to. I'd also like to keep in touch with an interest group in the UK. Haven't got the foggiest clue about where to start looking at funding opportunities, think that might be a conversation for once I'm in my program.

It's all so exciting! My whole body is basically vibrating with knowing that going down this path is right for me (sorry living up to the hippy part of my name again). This just feels right. #nerdsforlife

 

@Pink Fuzzy Bunny dude, hopefully that's a case of just people complaining and you'll be lucky. If not - at least it's only for the lease length and no longer. 

Edited April 25, 2016 by hippyscientist

[Neist]

3 hours ago, RCtheSS said:

I'm totally like this. In my first semester of undergrad, I created a table in Word outlining every course I'd take in every semester of college. It was helpful for me to keep track of my degree audit since I was double majoring, minoring, and "certificate-ing". I've already started a similar table for my master's program but I definitely need to sit down with an adviser or two to work out the dual degree requirements.

UChicago offers Lynda to all of its students, and I've already flagged the Python courses to teach myself some programming this summer.

Access to Lynda sounds nice.  Udacity has some free introductory programming and statistics courses, and that's probably what I'd take. Gotta boost my technical skills!

29 minutes ago, savay said:

Yes... I am also joining this wagon with you and @Neist. I have a huge spreadsheet from when I started applying with dates and programs, and now it's courses and requirements and reading lists -- as well as all of the grants/fellowships/summer opportunities I plan to apply to and professional societies and conferences and... 

I'm talking to my adviser in two weeks and hopefully she can validate this...fixation. And offer some guidance.

You know, I've considered asking faculty members, but I probably already seem overly eager. I haven't even gotten my enrollment information for the fall semester, so I'm trying to mollify my obsessive planning until a proper time. 

Anyone else think a MA, or even a PhD, just isn't enough time to study something sufficiently? I don't think squeezing in all the coursework I'd like into a PhD is possible.  

[hippyscientist]

1 minute ago, Neist said:

Anyone else think a MA, or even a PhD, just isn't enough time to study something sufficiently? I don't think squeezing in all the coursework I'd like into a PhD is possible.  

This is why I did a taught MSc, and now doing a PhD and then there'll be a post-doc, and I'll never leave the academy....

[Neist]

Just now, hippyscientist said:

This is why I did a taught MSc, and now doing a PhD and then there'll be a post-doc, and I'll never leave the academy....

I think there's enough non-degree certifications and free MOOCs that I should be able to fill in the gaps, but I guess time will tell.  

If I do finish a PhD, I'm somewhat hopeful that I could land a post-doc position. I'm interested in a somewhat obscure niche sub-discipline, and there's several post-doc positions for it. I have to wonder how large the applicant pool for these fellowships are, because I honestly don't know many people who share my interests.

[hippyscientist]

Just now, Neist said:

I think there's enough non-degree certifications and free MOOCs that I should be able to fill in the gaps, but I guess time will tell.  

If I do finish a PhD, I'm somewhat hopeful that I could land a post-doc position. I'm interested in a somewhat obscure niche sub-discipline, and there's several post-doc positions for it. I have to wonder how large the applicant pool for these fellowships are, because I honestly don't know many people who share my interests.

I already have a short list of labs I want to do a post-doc in. My current advisor and my new advisor have contacts at both so I'm hoping over the next 3 years I might interact with their contacts and try and make myself known. 

I found a grant-in-aid thing that only ~ 200 people are eligible to apply for, and I too am in a niche discipline, so no clue. But my attitude is you don't get what you don't apply for. It's worked pretty well for me so far

[Danger_Zone]

8 hours ago, Pink Fuzzy Bunny said:

Geology has the best puns... most of mine are from Woot and are just stupid little comics.

For instance, one is a cell doing long division on a black board (cell division), that one is my favorite. I got them way too large though, I really need to figure out how to cut them down to size!

The psychology department at my uni sold "Forever Jung" and "Freud is my Homeboy" shirts.  

Edited April 25, 2016 by Danger_Zone

[Danger_Zone]

Got into my top grad school, and now I'm going to Disney World in a few weeks!! This is the best year ever.

Edited April 25, 2016 by Danger_Zone

[haltheincandescent]

1 hour ago, Danger_Zone said:

Got into my top grad school, and now I'm going to Disney World in a few weeks!! This is the best year ever.

Exciting! Yay!

 

1 hour ago, Danger_Zone said:

The psychology department at my uni sold "Forever Jung" and "Freud is my Homeboy" shirts.  

But also, there are always good opportunities for English department puns or literary shirts in general. But, yet, most academic-y lit people don't seem big into the whole book-reference t-shirt thing, so they never happen. I'm usually with them, to be honest, but, have to say, this one's pretty enticing: http://www.litographs.com/collections/t-shirts/products/moby-tee