The School/Uni Thread

UCD is known for a lot, I know them specifically for their agriculture programs, mathematics and computer science programs (a very good friend of mind is going their for his PhD. in comp sci right now).

UCSD, I don't know much about. I do know they have one of the best oceanography and neuroscience programs ever though.


Honestly, I'm not sure where (or if) I will even be able to go to grad school. Even before I started at my UC I was fighting a serious depression, and I still am. My commute isn't much (70 miles total), but it hurts like hell with no income; and although my current place of residence means I get to save more money in the long run, it also means that I cannot be on campus or take part in any extracurricular activities. Hell, I can't even muster the energy to do any general work around the house, let alone coursework now. I'm tired.

As for where to go to school... as it is I am riding a 3.2 at 170 units - that is certainly not an acceptable GPA for more renown grad schools for a genetics program. Even if I were to get six more A's (4 classes next quarter and 2 this quarter, then I graduate), it would not bump my GPA up enough. I would have to fucking smash the GRE just to be considered.

Unfortunately, I have test anxiety too... yay for me. There is just something that stresses me out about a test that is used to gauge my prospective value as a human being.

I could go to UCR's genetics grad program (all you need is a 3.2 and the pre-req's completed (http://ggb.ucr.edu/). Honestly though, I haven't looked into as much as I should have yet, money is stressing me out, as is my living situation (or lack thereof).
 
Damn that really sounds like a shitty situation. Can you not take any classes during the summer and then work full time and try to build up some money?

On the bright side, your personal statement would probably be able to make up for other shortcomings, and possibly letters of recommendation as well. And maybe you could be a research assistant in some sort of lab there? That would probably look good on your transcript, plus a faculty member would get to know you better.

The neuroscience aspect of UC SD definitely seems to fit, since the lab director of the lab I'm going to be helping at is from there, though he went to Cornell for grad school, and Harvard Medical School for his post doc. I'm not quite sure if I want to get into neuroscience, but it is a very interesting field.
 
Hopefully I won't drag myself back down into the depths of the mire I (somewhat) crawled out of. If I can get a job that pays decently, then everything might turn out well. Me not owning a television = plenty of things to read in my fields of interest (especially when I don't have deadlines or half-assed papers to write). Unfortunately I'm not sure how many professors here would write a statement for me; I'm a transfer, I've been here exactly one year and I will be gone in another 13 weeks... kind of hard to build up a business relationship when all your professors teach every other quarter :/


The funniest thing I've heard about neuroscience is that if you are reading anything printed on the subject within the last six months, then you are already behind on the times - the field moves that fast.
 
So I'm working on applications to the following grad schools for Ancient History

Penn
Harvard
Yale
Michigan
UC Santa Barbara

Penn is my first choice.
 
Pessimism said:
Hopefully I won't drag myself back down into the depths of the mire I (somewhat) crawled out of. If I can get a job that pays decently, then everything might turn out well. Me not owning a television = plenty of things to read in my fields of interest (especially when I don't have deadlines or half-assed papers to write). Unfortunately I'm not sure how many professors here would write a statement for me; I'm a transfer, I've been here exactly one year and I will be gone in another 13 weeks... kind of hard to build up a business relationship when all your professors teach every other quarter :/


The funniest thing I've heard about neuroscience is that if you are reading anything printed on the subject within the last six months, then you are already behind on the times - the field moves that fast.
Click to expand...

Oh, right. Where were you at prior to UCR? Is there anyway you could be a research//lab assistant? All I did was email the professor who runs the lab I was interested and basically told him that I was interested, gave him a resume/transcript type thing.

Yeah it does seem that way. I was looking at he paper that my professor and his colleague wrote back in 2007, and on the database it showed that the article had been cited 22 times since being published, haha. A lot of it is just studying auditory stream segregation in different animals, or people with certain disabilities (i.e.the lab here also studies auditory stream segregation in people with schizophrenia).

@ Zeph - those all seem like pretty great choices! I hope they all go well.
 
After I'm finished with high school I'm going to take a year off. I have no idea what I'm doing, but the point of that year is to figure out what I want to do in life. I was thinking something involving linguistics, but some kind of study that contributes nothing to the world but material for nerds like me to read on wikipedia does not appeal to me. I'm thinking of carrying out this awesome barely-legal (not having to do with sex) business idea, or learning a bunch of languages and working as a translator.

Or I can bend over backwards to make shitloads of money and be batman.
 
Devasya Chāyā;9498988 said:
After I'm finished with high school I'm going to take a year off. I have no idea what I'm doing, but the point of that year is to figure out what I want to do in life. I was thinking something involving linguistics, but some kind of study that contributes nothing to the world but material for nerds like me to read on wikipedia does not appeal to me. I'm thinking of carrying out this awesome barely-legal (not having to do with sex) business idea, or learning a bunch of languages and working as a translator.

Or I can bend over backwards to make shitloads of money and be batman.
Click to expand...

i wouldnt bother taking a year off. just get GE done at a JC while you figure stuff out that way no time is wasted and you can get stuff done that you'll have to take no matter what your major is.
 
Meh, it's only a year, though. I need less responsibilities for a little while if I'm going to figure out what kind of career will really make me happy.
 
Devasya Chāyā;9499051 said:
Meh, it's only a year, though. I need less responsibilities for a little while if I'm going to figure out what kind of career will really make me happy.
Click to expand...

:loco:
 
Devasya Chāyā;9499144 said:
Well, I'm just a kid and life is a nightmare.
Click to expand...

K. Well I'm an old guy with 7 degrees. So chances are you aren't going to figure out what you want to do with your entire life in a year and even if you do it may not be something that you can actually earn a living doing. Thus... my advice... take care GE shit at a JC so you don't go in debt and you can mull over what you want to do while you're getting stuff done that you will eventually have to do anyway. ;)
 
Devasya Chāyā;9499151 said:
Hm. That makes sense.
Click to expand...

After I got my BA I decided to take a year off. That one year led to two. Two years doing nothing but working in retail. I decided to go back for my MA only to realize hey I can't actually get a job with this fucking degree. So I had to rethink my entire plan.
 
Thoth-Amon said:
After I got my BA I decided to take a year off. That one year led to two. Two years doing nothing but working in retail. I decided to go back for my MA only to realize hey I can't actually get a job with this fucking degree. So I had to rethink my entire plan.
Click to expand...

Then what happened?

I worked for a year in customer service following my BA. That was last year. This year I am I back in school trying to break into the Publishing industry here in Toronto.
 
I'm actually really curious about what you just said. How does one get into the publishing industry? What part of the publishing industry?
 
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