The School/Uni Thread

That totally sucks about the grad school situations, but your backup plans seem pretty good. That's my biggest worry about grad school, applying to and not getting in to any of them, but I guess UNLV could always be a backup.

On the other hand, though, I have a friend that works in the same lab that I do, and he's graduating this semester, and so far has gotten into Dartmouth, Vanderbilt and Illinois (Urbana I think). They all flew him out for interviews too and whatnot. It would be cool to follow in his footsteps, but I don't think that's quite the reality (and then again, I'm not really sure I want to continue in the auditory cognition/neuroscience field so much).
 
It's not all it's cracked up to be. I only enjoyed it because I fluked out and ended up in a program I actually excelled in and went on to do post-grad work in. I will have a PhD in this field by this summer and it's not something I ever thought I would attain at any point. Am I happy though? Debatable.

I see my little brother who went for a two-year technical diploma route and he is incredibly enraptured by his work and loves his career. He has to deal with certain bullshit regarding co-workers, etc, but I face the same issues with my own colleagues.
 
What university are you attending?

And regarding technical degrees I totally agree. My brother earned his auto-body degree from a technical school and earned his ASE certification and love what he does. I envy him for that. Most of the shit I'm really passionate about and would love having as in career is either unteachable/there's no degree for them (in most respects) or a complete long shot with the odds severely stacked against me.

I'm going to be majoring in engineering (mechanical/computer) myself when I transfer to university. The engineering field is definitely intriguing to me, but finding a job as an engineer in a field I'll actually enjoy isn't guaranteed and working for someone else probably won't make me all that happy. I'd rather work for myself on my own terms (just like my brother) because that's really what I enjoy. So much in fact that I've submitted applications for two different patents.
 
King Drunkard said:
Ya I'm aware. I'm already sort of in the field right now though. I work for a company that distributes hydraulic and pneumatic seals and components industrial applications.
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All i know is that and i know i'm right. A mechanical engineer neither distributes nor sells. The're just designers and manufacturers of machines and tools which needs a very good understanding and applying the laws of physics and mathematics.

Anyway, i wish you good luck. I hope you get accepted.
 
Enjoyable enough if you are pragmatic in nature and can put aside inherent biases. By that, I mean you work with people from a lot of different backgrounds and it's easy to get frustrated by bureaucratic factors that are inherent in doing grad work at a large university.

I found the people I worked with pleasant enough and there are some brilliant people there.
 
Zephyrus said:
Are you graduating this May? If so, what's your plan thereafter?
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I'm graduating in June but I'll be done with school by April 29th. My plan is to return to Arlington for May/beginning of June so I can have some vacation time plus go to the Deathfest. After that I will return to Toronto and officially graduate. Then I will get a post-graduate work permit and try to find a job. The areas I'm planning to look are government, universities/colleges, and U of T Press. After working for a year I can become a permanent resident, which is my plan at the moment.
 
Zephyrus said:
So it's official. I didn't get in to any of the grad schools to which I applied.

Bummer.

Plan B is going into effect. I'm going to take classes for grad credit with special student status here at UMaine this Fall. I'll be teaching Latin this summer and I might be hired to teach Greek in the Fall. That teaching experience will be some significant credentials that could make the difference next time I apply to PhD programs.

After that, who knows. I have several options. The most logical fallback would be to stay at UMaine even further and pursue a Masters in History here, but I would really like to get the fuck out of here and benefit from a new environment/faculty etc. So I will apply to Masters programs elsewhere, perhaps a couple PhD programs again (hearing back from Michigan so late means I must have been CLOSE to making the cut). I'm looking at Iowa specifically, where I would have a good shot at their Classics MA program due to the strong connections they have with my profs here. My ultimate goal is an Ancient History doctorate, but it's common for people with Masters in Classics to then move on to that.

I'm also entertaining the idea of going to Oxford, Cambridge or Trinity for a 2-year BA, which would be the equivalent of an MA here in the States, and will give me a great chance of getting into top PhD programs in the states.

In short, my future is pretty much secure until the end of this year. We'll see where it goes from there.
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Hey man, just to give you a heads up that the Oxford/Cambridge/Trinity MA is in fact not an MA at all but a BA. The MA is just a weird ceremonial thing that you get after three years of your original graduation and means nothing; it confuses a lot of people.

If you did want to come to the UK for a 'top up' qualification to strengthen your grad applications then I'd strongly reccomend doing an MPhil or something like that instead. They can be expensive though if you don't get a scholarship.
 
So I did my MA thesis defense yesterday. It went extremely well. The night before I was freaking out and having major anxiety about it because I was worried about fucking up my presentation. I practiced in front of my gf a couple of times which helped but I was still pretty nervous. Well, my presentation went perfectly, and I handled the question period way better than I had expected. So once I was done with my presentation and the question & answer period I left the room while my committee deliberated. After about 2-3 minutes the chair of my committee calls me back into the room and then shakes my hand and says "congratulations." That moment was like a huge weight being lifted off my shoulders.

My chair said to me something like "You have an unusually logical and analytical mind" and then told me not to hesitate to ask for letters of recommendation if I ever needed them (this is one of the best things you could ever have a professor say.) Another committee member said that it was one of the better theses he's read. I passed with no required revisions, which means that my committee liked the thesis just the way it is. AND my gf took time out of her busy schedule to be there with me, which meant a lot to me. So everything went really well.

GREAT. FUCKING. DAY.
 
Cythraul said:
So I did my MA thesis defense yesterday. It went extremely well. The night before I was freaking out and having major anxiety about it because I was worried about fucking up my presentation. I practiced in front of my gf a couple of times which helped but I was still pretty nervous. Well, my presentation went perfectly, and I handled the question period way better than I had expected. So once I was done with my presentation and the question & answer period I left the room while my committee deliberated. After about 2-3 minutes the chair of my committee calls me back into the room and then shakes my hand and says "congratulations." That moment was like a huge weight being lifted off my shoulders.

My chair said to me something like "You have an unusually logical and analytical mind" and then told me not to hesitate to ask for letters of recommendation if I ever needed them (this is one of the best things you could ever have a professor say.) Another committee member said that it was one of the better theses he's read. I passed with no required revisions, which means that my committee liked the thesis just the way it is. AND my gf took time out of her busy schedule to be there with me, which meant a lot to me. So everything went really well.

GREAT. FUCKING. DAY.
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The Ozzman likes this.

One more step to your PH.D. dissertation:

How to appreciate Hayek: Don't be a fucking faggot

Anyway, I haven't posted in this thread for a while so I should give an update...

I am currently not in school, but I am doing self study of the preliminary examinations for the Actuarial designations. I'm currently studying for the Financial Mathematics exam, but I'm on hold since I'm also doing CE through work. I am going to have three fucking study guides for this exam and it's the easiest one apparently.
 
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