Upon visiting a graduate program

[knile]

The bones:
All this started for kaitl, whom I don't even know! Ah, strangers on the Internet, exchanging information. It was based on a discussion over in comments at jisalynn's entry from a few days ago. But this was far too big to post over there, and I also want it publicly archived in my journal. It's highly reminiscent of my "things to take to college"

Comments

[way_we_are]

Holy damn. Where you bored today or something? I promise to read the whole thing later tonight. I mean, shit, if you took the time to write the whole thing...someone should read it.

[knile]

Heh. It came up last week, and I'd been jotting down notes since then. By yesterday, it'd felt like I was out of original thoughts (turns out I wasn't, judging by how long it took me to edit/rewrite part of this). My schedule today was free & clear - except for a shopping excursion I shamefully blew off - and I knew I was going to feel better finishing it.

Read it whenever you get a chance, no worries... I was surprised people responded so quickly!

[knile]

Done & done. I think ACA has 3 copies of this in her RSS reader now. Haha... Serves me right for not paying enough attention to LJ & HTML tags. Thanks.

[julescm]

wow, that was incredibly thorough. i would like to add that it is important to ask multiple people the same questions (you will get bored with yourself, but you'll get a better sense of whether the responses seem to follow a trend). and i completely second the "bond with an older student" advice--i met two of my closest (older) friends here over my prospie weekend. also, pay attention to the rest of your cohort of prospective students, because if you hate them all you could be really miserable once you're all here (or wherever) together.

anyway that's my two cents.

also, neil, you reminded me of phillips and now i am craving CHOCOLATE.

[knile]

Oooh, good point about checking with more than one person for answers. (Ah, the beauty of e-mail.) There's some danger of being fed what Austin calls "the party line", but that should be easy to see through - especially if there are chinks in it all. Now, this sounds like it's contradictory, but it's not.

[tabsq]

The questions for asking are actually very helpful, hopefully I'll get an interview here and be able to ask them, wait, I guess I technically don't need to seeing as Joe is in the department and I've already met both the grad students in the lab and the professor. I guess all my questions before applying were valid though. And if I happen to get an interview I'm sure they'll be helpful so THANKS :).

[knile]

You've got a distinct advantage in knowing the town & stuff about the university, certainly. Good luck!

[kaitl]

Okay- I'm overwhelmed ;-)

But I will eventually read through all of this (unfortunately work is actually somewhat busy these days).

Thanks for taking the time to provide us with your knowledge ;-)

[knile]

Hah, I kind of worried about the overwhelming & the fact that you have a "job" at which maybe you should "do work". You could always print it out & hide in a bathroom.

[kaitl]

turns out i stopped doing my work and read this for a half hour instead (I decided it was my "lunch break")

I also sent the link to Seth and a friend who's also applying to EnvironE/ChemE programs.

I didn't quite get the comment about the prof talking to the student who asked "what if i want to have a baby," but maybe that's b/c i'm naive... in fact, it's probably because i'm naive.

okay-- real work now

[knile]

Only half an hour? I need to write more:)

Thanks for passing it around - I was getting concerned that the majority of the readers were past the stage of needing it.

She was asking maybe a couple questions at once. The first being the most superficial: "Is the department okay if I have a baby while I'm here? Or is that seen as really unprofessional, blah blah blah?" There might've also been some latent curiosity about health care & support available, but mostly it was the superficial. And the ridiculous.