Complaint Thursdays

[Sabres Fan in NS]

:unsure:

 

Pretty quiet in here.  Can anyone hear me?

 

The weather has been too bad for us to take out the legendary Legend.

[Randall Flagg]

Here's one. The graduate school application process has cost me almost $1500 so far.

[WildCard]

Here's one. The graduate school application process has cost me almost $1500 so far.

Good God man, that's absurd. How much per application?

[pastajoe]

:unsure:

 

Pretty quiet in here. Can anyone hear me?

 

The weather has been too bad for us to take out the legendary Legend.

Do you have running water yet? If not can you melt snow?

[Randall Flagg]

Good God man, that's absurd. How much per application?

Slightly less than $100 between the fee, sending scores, and sending transcripts. Then I added on the cost of the two tests I had to take. I've applied to 13 schools so far.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Do you have running water yet? If not can you melt snow?

 

We do and there is not enough 'clean' snow to melt.

[Randall Flagg]

Oh and another complaint. A professor who wrote my letter of recommendation, has it finished, and knows that there are applications due, hasn't checked his email in at least 12 days. I have an application that's a week late now and his letter is all that needs to be submitted. The rest of them are only waiting on him, too, and they start the reviewing process as soon as every piece is in, so they're reviewing other applications and not mine yet because of that one person. 

Edited December 29, 2016 by Randall Flagg

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Oh and another complaint. A professor who wrote my letter of recommendation, has it finished, and knows that there are applications due, hasn't checked his email in at least 12 days. I have an application that's a week late now and his letter is all that needs to be submitted. The rest of them are only waiting on him, too, and they start the reviewing process as soon as every piece is in, so they're reviewing other applications and not mine yet because of that one person. 

 

What a tool.  Do they not remember what it's like to get into grad school.

 

Hell, I'll write you one and sign TrueBlue's name to it.

[WildCard]

What a tool. Do they not remember what it's like to get into grad school.

 

Hell, I'll write you one and sign TrueBlue's name to it.

Doubt that does much, he only has a GED

[darksabre]

Doubt that does much, he only has a GED

And it's not even the GED you think it is. 

[Drunkard]

Doubt that does much, he only has a GED

 

You should do it, man. Put your expertise in bird law to good use. Plus we need a new night man song anyway and Charlie hieroglyphics always end up that way, anyway.

[Stoner]

Oh and another complaint. A professor who wrote my letter of recommendation, has it finished, and knows that there are applications due, hasn't checked his email in at least 12 days. I have an application that's a week late now and his letter is all that needs to be submitted. The rest of them are only waiting on him, too, and they start the reviewing process as soon as every piece is in, so they're reviewing other applications and not mine yet because of that one person. 

Telephone? (Nah, I wouldn't either, even though I'm not even a millennial.)

[WildCard]

You should do it, man. Put your expertise in bird law to good use. Plus we need a new night man song anyway and Charlie hieroglyphics always end up that way, anyway.

Hahah well played :lol:

And it's not even the GED you think it is.

...it's not? I'm scared Edited December 29, 2016 by WildCard

[TrueBlueGED]

Slightly less than $100 between the fee, sending scores, and sending transcripts. Then I added on the cost of the two tests I had to take. I've applied to 13 schools so far.

Not to play back seat adviser, but...you should have narrowed your choices down more. I normally recommend a max of five.

 

Anywho...it costs you money to send transcripts? Seriously?

Oh and another complaint. A professor who wrote my letter of recommendation, has it finished, and knows that there are applications due, hasn't checked his email in at least 12 days. I have an application that's a week late now and his letter is all that needs to be submitted. The rest of them are only waiting on him, too, and they start the reviewing process as soon as every piece is in, so they're reviewing other applications and not mine yet because of that one person.

Have you tried contacting the department? The secretary and/or chair may have alternate means to get in touch with him.

[Randall Flagg]

Not to play back seat adviser, but...you should have narrowed your choices down more. I normally recommend a max of five.

 

Anywho...it costs you money to send transcripts? Seriously?

 

Have you tried contacting the department? The secretary and/or chair may have alternate means to get in touch with him.

I'm not sure that's how it works in physics, to be honest. I've been told by both my department and people who work in graduate programs to fill out as many as I can. I know of plenty of people doing between 15 and 20. I've correctly analyzed which schools are good yet still give me a decent shot, and the best acceptance rates I'm seeing are like 35%. A lot of them are ~20% and I want a choice between 3-5 of them. I've been putting in good amounts of time to each application, I've worked consistently on them for over a month and have spent hours and hours a day for the past two weeks, so I'm not rushing or anything. 

 

Yes, but only $5 per. What's annoying is that a lot of schools want the official ones right away, they won't settle for unofficial-until-acceptance.

 

And yes, I've been in email contact with the Department Chair, because he's another of my recommenders. 

[TrueBlueGED]

I'm not sure that's how it works in physics, to be honest. I've been told by both my department and people who work in graduate programs to fill out as many as I can. I know of plenty of people doing between 15 and 20. I've correctly analyzed which schools are good yet still give me a decent shot, and the best acceptance rates I'm seeing are like 35%. A lot of them are ~20% and I want a choice between 3-5 of them. I've been putting in good amounts of time to each application, I've worked consistently on them for over a month and have spent hours and hours a day for the past two weeks, so I'm not rushing or anything.

 

Yes, but only $5 per. What's annoying is that a lot of schools want the official ones right away, they won't settle for unofficial-until-acceptance.

 

And yes, I've been in email contact with the Department Chair, because he's another of my recommenders.

The reason I recommend a max of five is to help students focus on what they really want to do--nothing is worse than being in a graduate program where none of the faculty really specialize in what you're looking to research, or they are...but haven't been active with it in a decade. Having a strong idea what you want to study helps you hit the ground running and maximizes your chances for faculty wanting to co-author with you. Also, money :lol:

 

From what you've said here, your grades are sterling, so don't sweat the acceptance rates.

 

I also try to emphasize not just the school, but the area and social aspects of the department. But I'm guessing that's irrelevant to you since Bobby Ryan knows how to spell compete better than physicists can spell "social gatherings" :nana:

 

And I honestly can't believe you're charged for transcripts. That's insane.

[Randall Flagg]

The reason I recommend a max of five is to help students focus on what they really want to do--nothing is worse than being in a graduate program where none of the faculty really specialize in what you're looking to research, or they are...but haven't been active with it in a decade. Having a strong idea what you want to study helps you hit the ground running and maximizes your chances for faculty wanting to co-author with you. Also, money :lol:

 

From what you've said here, your grades are sterling, so don't sweat the acceptance rates.

 

I also try to emphasize not just the school, but the area and social aspects of the department. But I'm guessing that's irrelevant to you since Bobby Ryan knows how to spell compete better than physicists can spell "social gatherings" :nana:

 

And I honestly can't believe you're charged for transcripts. That's insane.

I've looked into current research at every place I'm going to, but for me, I have no strong preference. My goal as a kid was to get a PhD chipping away at any small field of physics. That's still what I want to do. Whether that's in relativity, high energy, particle physics, astrophysics, condensed matter - it still doesn't matter to me. I'm ranking preferences for each school like they ask but stressing that it doesn't matter to me, because it truly doesn't. At least, not yet. 

 

That's also a thing that is important to 99% of people but isn't to me. I was perfectly content having 3 friends and not doing anything but homework and posting on this forum for four years from my dorm room at St. Bonas. I could do that the rest of my life and be fine :P 

 

I thought it was normal, but I guess I'm being robbed!

Edited December 29, 2016 by Randall Flagg

[TrueBlueGED]

I've looked into current research at every place I'm going to, but for me, I have no strong preference. My goal as a kid was to get a PhD chipping away at any small field of physics. That's still what I want to do. Whether that's in relativity, high energy, particle physics, astrophysics, condensed matter - it still doesn't matter to me. I'm ranking preferences for each school like they ask but stressing that it doesn't matter to me, because it truly doesn't. At least, not yet.

 

That's also a thing that is important to 99% of people but isn't to me. I was perfectly content having 3 friends and not doing anything but homework and posting on this forum for four years from my dorm room at St. Bonas. I could do that the rest of my life and be fine :P

 

I thought it was normal, but I guess I'm being robbed!

Ah, I think I remember now you said elsewhere here that you aren't hyper focused on a single thing yet. Makes sense in that case to cast a larger net. The fees sure add up though :lol:

[Randall Flagg]

Ah, I think I remember now you said elsewhere here that you aren't hyper focused on a single thing yet. Makes sense in that case to cast a larger net. The fees sure add up though :lol:

For sure. Luckily, graduating early means I have 4 extra months to work!

[Winston]

For sure. Luckily, graduating early means I have 4 extra months to work!

Back in undergrad, my fiancée worked with a guy that supposedly applied to over 100 places. Yes, ONE HUNDRED. A whole variety of programs if I recall- med school, PhD, masters. He said he was in the hole over $10K. I never met the guy, but my fiancée seemed to believe it based on working with him.

 

I think she applied to 8 places for PhD. 3 upper echelon that she doubted she'd get into, 3 that she was fairly confident, and 2 she knew she had in the bag. Turns out she got interviews at all 3 "reaches" and is attending the top school that she repeatedly told me she had no shot at.

 

Hopefully you have a nice mix of those tiers. Don't doubt yourself even if some of those schools seems out of your reach. You'll likely end up with more options than you thought and will have some serious choices to make. Good luck!

[Randall Flagg]

Back in undergrad, my fiancée worked with a guy that supposedly applied to over 100 places. Yes, ONE HUNDRED. A whole variety of programs if I recall- med school, PhD, masters. He said he was in the hole over $10K. I never met the guy, but my fiancée seemed to believe it based on working with him.

 

I think she applied to 8 places for PhD. 3 upper echelon that she doubted she'd get into, 3 that she was fairly confident, and 2 she knew she had in the bag. Turns out she got interviews at all 3 "reaches" and is attending the top school that she repeatedly told me she had no shot at.

 

Hopefully you have a nice mix of those tiers. Don't doubt yourself even if some of those schools seems out of your reach. You'll likely end up with more options than you thought and will have some serious choices to make. Good luck!

That's wild. Congrats to your fiance! And that's what I've been trying to do. I have 4 schools that I call a reach but aren't crazy. Only 1 in the top 25 on most "ranked" lists. The rest I feel I have a pretty decent shot. And that's the goal, a difficult choice with a lot of options. Thanks! 

[inkman]

Is this the complaint thread or a place where pinky lifters come to discuss all the dough they spent on their fancy pieces of paper.

[SwampD]

Is this the complaint thread or a place where pinky lifters come to discuss all the dough they spent on their fancy pieces of paper.

How about this?

 

End of the year self assessments are the biggest waste of my time! I've been here for 25 GD years. What do you think you are going to learn that you don't already know,... and if I suck, then why have you kept me here for so long?!

[ubkev]

Is this the complaint thread or a place where pinky lifters come to discuss all the dough they spent on their fancy pieces of paper.

At least it's an appropriate place for you to complain about them.

[WildCard]

At least it's an appropriate place for you to complain about them.

Very meta