The Great Grad School Thread

Discussion in 'General Chatter' started by Saro, Nov 2, 2017.

  1. fractalLettuce

    fractalLettuce a disaster cabbage

    GUESS WHO FORGOT THE CERTIFICATE OF CLEARANCE!! (It's me and i have four days until the final deadline, but I got fingerprints taken today and filled out the request)
     
    • Witnessed x 1
  2. fractalLettuce

    fractalLettuce a disaster cabbage

    math and science subtest scores release tomorrow night and also i am moving on to the interview portion and i'm NERVOUS. Like I know what I want to say and I'm a charismatic motherfucker when i need to be but OOMPH.
     
    • Witnessed x 1
  3. fractalLettuce

    fractalLettuce a disaster cabbage

    just so the circle of stupidity is complete here too, I'M IN.
     
    • Winner x 4
  4. Exohedron

    Exohedron Doesn't like words

    Congratulations!
     
  5. fractalLettuce

    fractalLettuce a disaster cabbage

    Thank you! They told me at my interview I'd hear back in a week or two and I hadn't heard anything in four, so I was very concerned for a bit there :)
     
  6. Ipuntya

    Ipuntya return of eggplant

    i'm gonna be taking the gre in the fall and i gotta do well since i'm aiming high
     
  7. Chiomi

    Chiomi Master of Disaster

    Good luck! The best recommendation I have is to work on essay forms.

    I only have two more weeks before I'm done with this semester. I'm so, so looking forward to it.
     
    • Agree x 1
  8. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    Good luck! Essays were my downfall the first time I took it, so I'd recommend working on those as well.

    I have... A Full Committee now, and am gonna be taking my prelims in the summer if all goes well. I'm dying of anxiety
     
    • Winner x 1
  9. fractalLettuce

    fractalLettuce a disaster cabbage

    Winnertesed, Saro. I'm glad you finally found a full committee! Are prelims like the quals my husband took? Either way fingers crossed for you, and Ipuntya.

    edit: probably not seeing as your committee is involved? GOOD LUCK REGARDLESS!!
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2018
  10. Saro

    Saro Where is wizard hut

    It may or may not be? It's kind of hard to say because different institutions do things differently. For me, I have a written proposal and an oral examination (administered by my committee), and if I pass, then I'll actually be a PhD candidate and not just a student, and be eligible to present/defend my thesis (when it's all together obviously, lol).

    Thank you for the good luck wishes!
     
  11. fractalLettuce

    fractalLettuce a disaster cabbage

    Ah! That's equivalent to the ATC then, I think. (advance to candidacy) that was nervewracking. Make sure you get lots of practice time speaking and writing if you have that going on. @syntheme wound up with a sleeve of equation transfer after the presentation was done bc relieved chalkboard lean.
     
  12. syntheme

    syntheme Active Member

    Until like right after my ATC there was a requirement that there be one member outside the department too.
     
  13. Exohedron

    Exohedron Doesn't like words

    Oh man, "equation transfer". I loved having blackboards but man did I transfer a lot of equations, both complete and powdered, during my time in grad school.
     
  14. Chiomi

    Chiomi Master of Disaster

    I get to talk to my advisor in like two weeks about when I get to officially propose my masters thesis. It's going to be interesting, because my boss who'd be my committee chair is officially retiring on Wednesday and no one except someone I refuse to be in the same room with will understand the programming.
     
    • Witnessed x 2
  15. rats

    rats 21 Bright Forge Shatters The Void

    hot question: how do GREs work? followup question: im a physicist do i need to write an essay for my GRE, what,
     
  16. Chiomi

    Chiomi Master of Disaster

    there's the general GRE and subject-specific GREs: I've only taken the general. If you take the general, you need to do essays, which tbh isn't a bad thing since you'll need to publish eventually. But also physical science programs don't tend to care as much about the verbal stuff as the quantitative stuff, so even if you don't get the scores you want it should be fine.

    Also, bonus: GRE scores for everything but the essays are posted immediately online. It's rad.
     
    • Like x 1
  17. Exohedron

    Exohedron Doesn't like words

    Yeah, my GRE essay was pretty crap, but I'm a mathematician so that's par for the course and the departments I applied to didn't care.
     
  18. latitans

    latitans zounds, scoob

    Okay y'all I have a grad school etiquette question

    So I'm working on a big research project that involves using pandas (the Python library, not the animal) and network analysis. While I've done some digital humanities stuff before, this requires more advanced programming knowlege than any of my previous projects.

    There's this postdoc in a related department who has led seminars on digital humanities stuff before. He also works on some of the same ancient languages that I do, so he's really keyed in to the particular difficulties of using digital tools on this type of material. I've attended some of his seminars, and chatted with him a bit about his research outside of the seminars.

    So my question is: would it be appropriate for me to email him asking for help when I run into a problem? I know he has his own research to do, and I don't want to bother him and take up a lot of his time. I also don't want to seem like I'm trying to get him to do my work for me. But on the other hand, our departments are supposed to have a collegiate, collaborative atmosphere, and he's offered seminars and workshops on this stuff in the past.
     
    Last edited: Jun 20, 2018
  19. fractalLettuce

    fractalLettuce a disaster cabbage

    Maybe start with asking him if he's alright with you hitting him up for troubleshooting? At least that's where I'd start pending the input of other people in here
     
  20. Exohedron

    Exohedron Doesn't like words

    Yeah, asking for troubleshooting or a bit of programming help shouldn't be going too far. I mean, there are two issues here: using up his time and having him do the research for you. The first is up to him, but as long as he's not actually doing the analysis for you then the second isn't really an issue. You're going to have an acknowledgement section of your thesis anyway.
    If you're really worried about it, your advisor probably has the final say.
     
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