I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

CarlBrannen
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I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Sun Feb 06, 2011 6:36 pm

Argghhhhhh! It's superbowl Sunday! Nine applications and still no acceptances! Clearly I should have sent some applications to some easier to get into schools.

Anyone have any ideas for me?

PGRE = 990.
Three publications, single author.
3.5 years of 4.0 GPA in math and physics grad school (uh, before I got tired of it).
Passed prelims at U. Cal., Irvine
25 years experience designing electronics.

I'm looking for a small school, maybe in the mountain west, that has room for a guy interested in experimental physics.

kacsa8
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by kacsa8 » Mon Feb 07, 2011 1:14 am

I'd like to think that you've still got a shot to get in SOMEWHERE on your list (yes, I saw your posting). Maybe I'm just optimistic for you since I don't feel like I've got HALF the cred you've got, and I haven't heard anything back from anyone either...

Anyway, my department's colloquium speaker this last week was a gentleman from the University of Utah, and he started by saying that they're still accepting grad applications there (even though the website indicates otherwise). I don't know if that was just a personal invitation to our school or whatever, but it might be worth a shot to ask into the matter if you're really concerned about it. The most recent PhD recipient from my research group (doing experiment, like you want) got a post-doc assignment there last year, and she's been enjoying it. At the very least, it's a nice place to be if you're into skiing/hiking/the outdoors/etc. Best of luck to you.

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HappyQuark
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by HappyQuark » Mon Feb 07, 2011 3:13 am

I believe colorado state also accepts applications quite a bit later.

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zxcv
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by zxcv » Mon Feb 07, 2011 7:21 am

Pretty obviously, the only part of your application that would give an admissions committee pause is that you were in PhD programs twice before but quit. Taking on grad students is a major expense and no one wants to be the next sucker. But that was a very long time ago and I trust that you made your best argument why that isn't going to happen again.

IMHO, you're still a pretty compelling candidate. Your record shows you can do science, and you might even be a better bet than some senior graduate students already in the programs you applied to. Compared to PhD students I know (mostly Berkeley physics), you would actually not be that far outside the norm starting a new thesis project 3.5 years into grad school.

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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by bfollinprm » Mon Feb 07, 2011 7:30 am

CarlBrannen wrote:Argghhhhhh! It's superbowl Sunday! Nine applications and still no acceptances! Clearly I should have sent some applications to some easier to get into schools.
Remember the big blizzard that ravaged the country last week? Chill out, many top schools (like Berkeley) haven't even looked at applications yet.

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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by kapil_ds » Mon Feb 07, 2011 10:29 am

It's too early to freak out, Carl. I am sure that with your credentials, you will get in somewhere on your list. The non-traditional background makes it hard to predict where but you will make it somewhere.

Kapil

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WhoaNonstop
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by WhoaNonstop » Mon Feb 07, 2011 11:25 am

CarlBrannen wrote:Argghhhhhh! It's superbowl Sunday! Nine applications and still no acceptances! Clearly I should have sent some applications to some easier to get into schools.

Anyone have any ideas for me?

PGRE = 990.
Three publications, single author.
3.5 years of 4.0 GPA in math and physics grad school (uh, before I got tired of it).
Passed prelims at U. Cal., Irvine
25 years experience designing electronics.

I'm looking for a small school, maybe in the mountain west, that has room for a guy interested in experimental physics.
Excuse me if I am wrong, but am I the only one catching the extreme use of sarcasm here? =]

-Riley

bfollinprm
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by bfollinprm » Mon Feb 07, 2011 12:15 pm

WhoaNonstop wrote: Excuse me if I am wrong, but am I the only one catching the extreme use of sarcasm here? =]

-Riley
You're right. I missed it because I'm so strung out myself over applications it didn't even seem odd to me.

CarlBrannen
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Mon Feb 07, 2011 6:36 pm

WhoaNonstop wrote:Excuse me if I am wrong, but am I the only one catching the extreme use of sarcasm here? =] -Riley
No sarcasm. I'm serious as a heart attack. I like the suggestion of Colorado State and Utah.

I'm sure I'll get in somewhere, but I do think my current applications are doomed. The lower rated schools have sent out their acceptances.

-----------------------------------
P.S. Still no acceptances. If someone knows of a department who needs a hot shot electronics engineer / grad student, PGRE = 990, please send them my way. I'm easy to find on the web. Works cheap. House trained. Doesn't shed much. Theory or experiment.

badphysicist
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by badphysicist » Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:10 pm

CarlBrannen wrote:
WhoaNonstop wrote:Excuse me if I am wrong, but am I the only one catching the extreme use of sarcasm here? =] -Riley
No sarcasm. I'm serious as a heart attack. I like the suggestion of Colorado State and Utah.

I'm sure I'll get in somewhere, but I do think my current applications are doomed. The lower rated schools have sent out their acceptances.

-----------------------------------
P.S. Still no acceptances. If someone knows of a department who needs a hot shot electronics engineer / grad student, PGRE = 990, please send them my way. I'm easy to find on the web. Works cheap. House trained. Doesn't shed much. Theory or experiment.
http://physics.asu.edu/graduate/apply
In their timeline:
March 1st Application deadline: All materials must be received by this date for the application to be considered.
So ASU looks like one too.

bfollinprm
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by bfollinprm » Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:57 pm

If you are being serious, you should call schools between 25-40, even if the deadline has passed. They'll gladly take someone with your research experience, and they haven't finished their decision, so you still have a chance.

The only reason I could see not getting into school is a history of not finishing, so just make sure you convince whomever you speak to that you're very interested (which should be easy considering how panicked you are).

Also, call the schools you think you're rejected from and make sure. You might be surprised, and they might love to have a talk to you.

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grae313
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by grae313 » Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:29 pm

bfollinprm wrote:Also, call the schools you think you're rejected from and make sure. You might be surprised, and they might love to have a talk to you.
There aren't any. The bulk of admissions haven't even gone out yet.

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WhoaNonstop
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by WhoaNonstop » Mon Feb 07, 2011 11:12 pm

grae313 wrote:
bfollinprm wrote:Also, call the schools you think you're rejected from and make sure. You might be surprised, and they might love to have a talk to you.
There aren't any. The bulk of admissions haven't even gone out yet.
Exactly.

Obviously Carl has a very nice application as we all can see. I'm still taking this post as sarcasm even though Carl says it is not. =P

-Riley

CarlBrannen
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Mon Feb 07, 2011 11:59 pm

WhoaNonstop wrote:Obviously Carl has a very nice application as we all can see. I'm still taking this post as sarcasm even though Carl says it is not. =P -Riley
No, my application is from someone who has started three grad schools without completing the PhD. (Admitted the first was at a school that only offered the MS in math.) It's a lot of risk to hire a grad student, they say, so I believe that I am, indeed, doomed.

I'm going to apply for sure at ASU as David Hestenes is there and the stuff I'm working on is an extension of his work. It's not as prestigious as the big schools but it is probably better for me anyway.

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WhoaNonstop
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by WhoaNonstop » Tue Feb 08, 2011 2:04 am

CarlBrannen wrote:
WhoaNonstop wrote:Obviously Carl has a very nice application as we all can see. I'm still taking this post as sarcasm even though Carl says it is not. =P -Riley
No, my application is from someone who has started three grad schools without completing the PhD. (Admitted the first was at a school that only offered the MS in math.) It's a lot of risk to hire a grad student, they say, so I believe that I am, indeed, doomed.

I'm going to apply for sure at ASU as David Hestenes is there and the stuff I'm working on is an extension of his work. It's not as prestigious as the big schools but it is probably better for me anyway.
Even with that, I still think you're jumping the gun a little bit. No one has even received a rejection from any of the schools on your list. Maybe your application has some scratches, but I guarantee you that your application is much better than many of the people applying to those schools. Even with your situation, I'm fairly certain you'll get accepted by one of your schools already listed. Maybe get the application for ASU ready, but I'm sure you'll have an acceptance by then, easily by the end of next week. =P

-Riley

CarlBrannen
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Tue Feb 08, 2011 2:19 am

WhoaNonstop wrote:Maybe get the application for ASU ready, but I'm sure you'll have an acceptance by then, easily by the end of next week. =P

-Riley
But now that I've talked myself into it, ASU is sounding better and better. Perhaps I should insert a story regarding the ASU campus.

My buddy bought a megawatt electric oven from Boeing. We jack-hammered it out of the concrete where it was installed and he sold it to Armorworks in Phoenix. http://www.armorworks.com/ I agreed to install the machine and get it running. (By the way, turning on a megawatt oven is kind of exciting even though it's basically just a big, 3-phase resistor with a thermostat and a couple of indicator dials. But you do wonder if you're going to see ball lightening.) An iron worker, Bill Redding, and I assembled it and got it ready. (I.e. caulked it, painted it, tested the electronics, etc.)

While working on that project and various others, Bill told me a story about putting up one of the buildings at ASU. It seems that his employer had a policy that workers were NOT to stare or whistle at the female students. I suppose this is something that iron workers do. So they obeyed it as well as they could. However, the behavior of some of the students in their efforts to get the ironworkers to whistle at them was enough to bring to mind the phrase "wardrobe malfunction" to mind.

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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by midwestphysics » Tue Feb 08, 2011 2:25 am

zxcv wrote:Pretty obviously, the only part of your application that would give an admissions committee pause is that you were in PhD programs twice before but quit. Taking on grad students is a major expense and no one wants to be the next sucker. But that was a very long time ago and I trust that you made your best argument why that isn't going to happen again.

IMHO, you're still a pretty compelling candidate. Your record shows you can do science, and you might even be a better bet than some senior graduate students already in the programs you applied to. Compared to PhD students I know (mostly Berkeley physics), you would actually not be that far outside the norm starting a new thesis project 3.5 years into grad school.
I couldn't agree with you more, on every point. As for the schools to apply to late Carl, given your list, you are applying to some really good schools, as you should be, but the only ones that usually accept apps later are not nearly as high up as those. So, it really comes down to whether you want to drop down that far or wait another year, not that either one is a bad thing. Still, I wouldn't go crazy yet. Like said some schools have not made their moves yet so give it time. Besides, even if the first round went out I wouldn't be shocked if you were at the top of a very short list for the second round. Just be patient for now, I know there is a lot of good competition out there but you are a very interesting applicant if you ask me..... On a side note, I'm glad I wasn't in this year’s applicant pool; some of these profiles are very good. The length of a reach this year seems to be extremely short given how many good students are available and applying.

CarlBrannen
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Wed Feb 09, 2011 3:54 am

Thanks for the assurances y'all. And my spooky gold mining buddy adds that I'm going to get in, but towards the later end. He uses a "pendulum" to find things out like that, which is fairly common among gold miners. But one of my mottoes is "hope is not a plan", so I've started up various plots, one or another of which is likely to be effective.

I filled out most of an application at ASU, but I haven't talked to the professor I know there.

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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Wed Feb 16, 2011 10:56 pm

Pulling strings seems to be having some success, in that I've got invitations to send a couple applications in after the due date. Or maybe they just want the money.

And meanwhile, since desperation leads to extreme measures, I'm crunching out a new paper unifying the charges and generation structure of the elementary quarks and leptons. I'm about to do the most boring part, add citations. :(

Quantum States of Hopf Algebras and the Weak Quantum Numbers
http://brannenworks.com/E8/HopfWeakQNs.pdf

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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by pqortic » Sat Feb 19, 2011 5:04 pm

CarlBrannen wrote:Pulling strings seems to be having some success, in that I've got invitations to send a couple applications in after the due date. Or maybe they just want the money.

And meanwhile, since desperation leads to extreme measures, I'm crunching out a new paper unifying the charges and generation structure of the elementary quarks and leptons. I'm about to do the most boring part, add citations. :(

Quantum States of Hopf Algebras and the Weak Quantum Numbers
http://brannenworks.com/E8/HopfWeakQNs.pdf
Carl, you have an extremely brilliant profile for graduate schools and I hope you get into somewhere sooner rather than later. but what I cannot figure out(and maybe some committees) is that why you want a PhD in physics? can you clear this up?

CarlBrannen
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Sun Feb 20, 2011 3:48 am

pqortic wrote:Carl, you have an extremely brilliant profile for graduate schools and I hope you get into somewhere sooner rather than later. but what I cannot figure out(and maybe some committees) is that why you want a PhD in physics? can you clear this up?
I need a PhD in order to have a job that allows me to spend time daily with people who care about physics. As it is now, most of the people I know think that I'm a genius because I can compute the area of a triangle from its base and height. (This is actually a useful art if you are around stuff that dangerously tips over when you try to pick up too heavy a piece of steel.)

I'm guessing it has something to do with my appearance. This is me down in Australia for the FFP10 conference:

Image

No, really, I'm too old. I've got too much experience in too many areas for a serious physicist. Physicists are supposed to be concentrated on a single subject because that subject is so huge that no one can understand it fully.

In other departments, like English or History, you see 50-year-old grad students all the time. But physicists expect that only youth can do physics. And in fact, I've known my share of physics professors who'd lost their ability to calculate at a stunningly young age. (Hmmm. I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs. Maybe that's good for you.)

Here, compare, on .edu websites:

50 hits for "old physicists":
http://www.google.com/search?q="old+phy ... ite%3A.edu

2,670 hits for "young physicists:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22young ... ite%3A.edu

By the way, age discrimination is covered by the "Age Discrimination in Employment Act", which applies to people aged 40 or older, so they're opening themselves up for an interesting class-action lawsuit:
http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/adea.cfm

Physicists do this without even knowing they've violated the law. They don't even know that discrimination is a bad thing. For example. On the UCSB physics website, they talk about the Sloan Research Fellowships as follows:

News and Announcements
"These two-year fellowships are awarded to young scientists with outstanding potential within their fields."
http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/

But when you actually click on the link you're taken to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation website and the wording is quite different:

"the fellowships are given to early-career scientists and scholars"
http://www.sloan.org/assets/files/press ... holars.pdf

So who actually gets the fellowships? It's hard to argue when the discrimination in the statistics matches the discrimination in the language.

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WhoaNonstop
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by WhoaNonstop » Sun Feb 20, 2011 3:04 pm

CarlBrannen wrote:In other departments, like English or History, you see 50-year-old grad students all the time. But physicists expect that only youth can do physics. And in fact, I've known my share of physics professors who'd lost their ability to calculate at a stunningly young age. (Hmmm. I don't drink, smoke, or do drugs. Maybe that's good for you.)

Here, compare, on .edu websites:

50 hits for "old physicists":
http://www.google.com/search?q="old+phy ... ite%3A.edu

2,670 hits for "young physicists:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22young ... ite%3A.edu
However, if you search old historian vs. young historian, you'll find somewhat similar numbers: ~422 and ~3720.
CarlBrannen wrote:News and Announcements
"These two-year fellowships are awarded to young scientists with outstanding potential within their fields."
http://www.physics.ucsb.edu/

But when you actually click on the link you're taken to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation website and the wording is quite different:

"the fellowships are given to early-career scientists and scholars"
http://www.sloan.org/assets/files/press ... holars.pdf

So who actually gets the fellowships? It's hard to argue when the discrimination in the statistics matches the discrimination in the language.
It depends how you define "young scientists". Personally, I define that as being fairly new to a field of science, regardless of your age. Now if it would have said "young people", there might be a problem. In my opinion "early-career" and "young" scientists go hand in hand, I just think you're reading into it to much.

Regardless of how this is defined though, do you think you're young to the science field? You know you're not!

Anyways, I'm still confused about your extreme paranoia on the issue. Your first post on this thread was February 6th, way before most programs had even met to make decisions. Even with your outstanding background, I can see how some programs are going to be hesitant. Patience.

-Riley

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midwestphysics
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by midwestphysics » Sun Feb 20, 2011 4:24 pm

Yeah, definition is key. A lot of these programs you find on the web dedicated to "young scientists" are for like middle school/high school kids which would mean we're all old scientists by that definition. You’re fine and you’ll find a school, so just relax. Also, a little confidence goes a long way. If you act like you belong most people are too afraid to challenge that and those that do are usually easily reasoned with. Attitude makes all the difference; people are not looking to deal with those who will stir the pot in ways that are not conducive to their goals. So if you start ruffling feathers my guess is that schools won’t want to deal with a high maintenance student no matter the age.

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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by t2kburl » Sun Feb 20, 2011 10:33 pm

I can understand the stress level increasing, Carl. To have come so far and still dedicated yourself to the decision of pursuing your PhD could not have been an easy choice at this stage of your life. I doubt our younger audience here can really get a grip on that. However, I believe the adcoms will take that in to consideration as well as your amazing stats. One of the adcom folks from UW-Madison told me they prefer older students because they know we're serious about our choice to pursue an advanced degree.
On the bright side, at least your list is not full of rejections. You just applied to schools that are apparently slower to select.
Hang in there.

---edit* this is not meant to imply the younger students here are any less serious or dedicated, just that the adcoms may view older students differently in that regard.

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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by pqortic » Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:48 am

CarlBrannen wrote: I need a PhD in order to have a job that allows me to spend time daily with people who care about physics. As it is now, most of the people I know think that I'm a genius because I can compute the area of a triangle from its base and height. (This is actually a useful art if you are around stuff that dangerously tips over when you try to pick up too heavy a piece of steel.)
That makes sense. your age ain't gonna deprive you from getting into grad school. We have a postdoc in our department who started his PhD in his 40s.

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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by enthree » Mon Feb 21, 2011 1:27 am

CarlBrannen wrote:This is me down in Australia for the FFP10 conference:
Heh, I'd recognize that statue anywhere. I think I might have seen your talk at that conference.

Also, if it helps to know, one of my current supervisors didn't start his PhD till his late 40s or something.

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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Mon Feb 21, 2011 7:33 pm

WhoaNonstop wrote:However, if you search old historian vs. young historian, you'll find somewhat similar numbers: ~422 and ~3720.
That's my point, the disparity in history is a factor of 8, in physics it's a factor of 50.
CarlBrannen wrote:Anyways, I'm still confused about your extreme paranoia on the issue. Your first post on this thread was February 6th, way before most programs had even met to make decisions. Even with your outstanding background, I can see how some programs are going to be hesitant. Patience.
I knew I was in trouble when I hadn't heard back from U. Washington by then. And it isn't paranoia, it's simple deduction. That school was the lowest ranked I'd applied to, and it's a public school so it's important that my application was in-state. I understand my relative chances very well. It's over. For next year's statistics, you will see a bunch of red 990s.

Believe it or not, there are people who know how the election is going to go long before all the ballots have been counted and recorded. (Uh, I hope I have to eat these words. And maybe I am still hopeful because I'm continuing to spend time carefully sharpening my physics skills. To do this, you find a problem that's interesting and try to understand it.)

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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Mon Feb 21, 2011 7:42 pm

enthree wrote:
CarlBrannen wrote:This is me down in Australia for the FFP10 conference:
Heh, I'd recognize that statue anywhere. I think I might have seen your talk at that conference.
The talk was "Position, Momentum, and the Standard Model Fermions"
http://link.aip.org/link/?APCPCS/1246/182/1

After a fairly involved peer-review argument at Foundations of Physics (where Gerard 't Hooft is chief editor), the paper got 2 positive reviews and trimmed down to size and was published as:
Spin Path Integrals and Generations
http://arxiv.org/abs/1006.3114

I'm working on the successor which adds in the weak hypercharge and weak isospin quantum numbers using Hopf algebra.
enthree wrote:Also, if it helps to know, one of my current supervisors didn't start his PhD till his late 40s or something.
That is amazingly old for a career start for an employed physicist, care to share anything more? PM me and I'll keep your secret.

Right now I'm figuring I'll move down to Phoenix Arizona and work with my hero, David Hestenes. It would probably be more satisfactory than grad school elsewhere.

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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by enthree » Mon Feb 21, 2011 11:15 pm

CarlBrannen wrote: That is amazingly old for a career start for an employed physicist, care to share anything more? PM me and I'll keep your secret.
This is in Australia so it's a bit of a different system. Everything is "RA" and professors take on students directly themselves. You could always look overseas for a PhD?

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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by axiomofchoice » Mon Feb 21, 2011 11:36 pm

CarlBrannen wrote:I knew I was in trouble when I hadn't heard back from U. Washington by then. And it isn't paranoia, it's simple deduction. That school was the lowest ranked I'd applied to, and it's a public school so it's important that my application was in-state. I understand my relative chances very well. It's over. For next year's statistics, you will see a bunch of red 990s.
For the record, I have not received anything from U. of Washington by Feb. 6, either, but by now I have a few good offers. Granted that I'm not in-state for Washington, but I still think you were too paranoid then and even now. Your unusual background make you a bit of a toss up if I'm to gamble at your chance, but that simply means the result from one school is no indication for the others. You can safely call California for Obama, but Florida? Ohio? Pollsters can't "know" the result for the toss-up states until the ballots are (mostly) counted. Many schools on your list have not yet finalized the decisions.

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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Tue Feb 22, 2011 1:34 am

axiomofchoice wrote:Many schools on your list have not yet finalized the decisions.
UCSB, Washington, MIT, Harvard, Princeton are done except for their traditional sending out of huge number of rejections in March.

Stanford's at least half done, maybe completely.

But Caltech, UCB, and Texas still haven't started.

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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by db25 » Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:07 am

CarlBrannen wrote:
axiomofchoice wrote:Many schools on your list have not yet finalized the decisions.
UCSB, Washington, MIT, Harvard, Princeton are done except for their traditional sending out of huge number of rejections in March.

Stanford's at least half done, maybe completely.

But Caltech, UCB, and Texas still haven't started.
I'm quite sure that UCSB did not send most of their acceptances yet, and MIT sent most but not all. But you may be right about Princeton.

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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by The_Duck » Tue Feb 22, 2011 4:17 am

CarlBrannen wrote:Stanford's at least half done, maybe completely.
Why do you say that? I only see Applied Physics results from Stanford on thegradcafe, no regular Physics ones.

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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by sphy » Tue Feb 22, 2011 4:33 am

CarlBrannen wrote: Image
Excuse me.......
Awesome "seven pack abs" :wink:


You are destined to go to a great school and time will answer this. Best of luck.

CarlBrannen
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:27 pm

The_Duck wrote:Why do you say that? I only see Applied Physics results from Stanford on thegradcafe, no regular Physics ones.
Oooops! Okay, I'm 5 down, 4 to go.

And I just got an email from (what I consider) a highly respected phenomenologist asking me to drop in for a talk. So maybe things will work out.

By the way, I found a video that succinctly expresses why it is that I don't like climbing around in towers:
http://www.liveleak.com/e/07b_1284580365

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grae313
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by grae313 » Wed Feb 23, 2011 12:39 am

Hell yeah I love that video! Blows my mind.

larry burns
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by larry burns » Wed Feb 23, 2011 1:56 am

db25 wrote:
I'm quite sure that UCSB did not send most of their acceptances yet, and MIT sent most but not all. But you may be right about Princeton.
I really hope you are right, as it is my last chance at getting in to a top10 school. But based on gradcafe from last year, you are indeed right

CarlBrannen
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Wed Feb 23, 2011 1:59 am

grae313 wrote:Hell yeah I love that video! Blows my mind.
Well it makes me want to pee. Instead of climbing around in stuff like that (admittedly a lot lower), I'd rather get a PhD and have a nice indoor job.

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WhoaNonstop
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by WhoaNonstop » Wed Feb 23, 2011 2:02 am

I'm switching to Theoretical Physics if that is required in any experiment.

-Riley

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sphy
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by sphy » Wed Feb 23, 2011 6:13 am

CarlBrannen wrote: By the way, I found a video that succinctly expresses why it is that I don't like climbing around in towers:
http://www.liveleak.com/e/07b_1284580365
Wow It was so exciting to go there and see the curvature of earth and if possible calculating the radius of curvature (minus the serious laborious work has to be done) and btw why there is no elevator? 1768 feet.

CarlBrannen
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Wed Feb 23, 2011 8:34 pm

sphy wrote: btw why there is no elevator? 1768 feet.
There's always an elevator for most of the way up the tower. It's your basic steel cage on a string. Probably has some safety features so if the string breaks the cage doesn't do the 32 feet per second per second thingy. By the way, neglecting air friction, it takes a little over 10 seconds to drop from 1700 feet.

I was navigating for my dad when he flew us past a guyed mast that was higher than our altitude. At a height of around 1400 feet, he figured he was high enough that we didn't have anything to run into. (By the way, except near airports, it's very hard to run into another aircraft because airplanes are small, the sky is big.) But as navigator, at the appropriate time I pointed out that we should see the lights from a tower above us on the right a few miles away and sure enough. He owned a fifth of an Interstate Cadet:

Image

I don't like heights but can work at them. I am very slow and deliberate. I stay clipped in at all times. The worst parts are when you're waiting for someone or something. Then my mind drifts to questions about "what would it be like if there's an earthquake?"

And I did have an exciting few seconds when a 40 foot structure I was building tipped over. It was stopped by a wall after tipping around 5 feet or so, so it wasn't really dangerous. Maybe if something had broken instead of bent we'd have had what the iron workers call a "steel shower". Me and the other guy working on it (we were underneath it, moving it a few inches over from where we'd set it up, with crowbars) froze in place with shock. Never again. The next time I see something like that falling over I'm going to head for the hills screaming like a girl. Just like the pros do.

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sphy
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by sphy » Thu Feb 24, 2011 3:13 am

CarlBrannen wrote:
sphy wrote: btw why there is no elevator? 1768 feet.
There's always an elevator for most of the way up the tower. It's your basic steel cage on a string. Probably has some safety features so if the string breaks the cage doesn't do the 32 feet per second per second thingy. By the way, neglecting air friction, it takes a little over 10 seconds to drop from 1700 feet.

I was navigating for my dad when he flew us past a guyed mast that was higher than our altitude. At a height of around 1400 feet, he figured he was high enough that we didn't have anything to run into. (By the way, except near airports, it's very hard to run into another aircraft because airplanes are small, the sky is big.) But as navigator, at the appropriate time I pointed out that we should see the lights from a tower above us on the right a few miles away and sure enough. He owned a fifth of an Interstate Cadet:

Image

I don't like heights but can work at them. I am very slow and deliberate. I stay clipped in at all times. The worst parts are when you're waiting for someone or something. Then my mind drifts to questions about "what would it be like if there's an earthquake?"

And I did have an exciting few seconds when a 40 foot structure I was building tipped over. It was stopped by a wall after tipping around 5 feet or so, so it wasn't really dangerous. Maybe if something had broken instead of bent we'd have had what the iron workers call a "steel shower". Me and the other guy working on it (we were underneath it, moving it a few inches over from where we'd set it up, with crowbars) froze in place with shock. Never again. The next time I see something like that falling over I'm going to head for the hills screaming like a girl. Just like the pros do.
Scary!
But we all are human and more or less everybody feels the same way as you do when the matter is about heights. Off course some don't show it up, but the underlying feeling is always there. I guess.

CarlBrannen
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Thu Feb 24, 2011 8:09 pm

sphy wrote:But we all are human and more or less everybody feels the same way as you do when the matter is about heights. Off course some don't show it up, but the underlying feeling is always there. I guess.
I've worked with enough people to be quite sure that different people have different feelings about heights. And about fear in general.

P.S. As expected, I got my rejection from Stanford.

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HappyQuark
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by HappyQuark » Thu Feb 24, 2011 10:18 pm

grae313 wrote:
Hell yeah I love that video! Blows my mind.
One of the subcontractors that I work with does these tower climbs and according to them, the majority of these really tall towers have an elevator that takes you half of the way up. The only problem is that at those heights, the wind speed tends to dislodge the elevator from its tracks at which point the emergency brakes lock the elevator in place and you end up climbing the entire tower by hand anyway.

CarlBrannen
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Fri Feb 25, 2011 5:41 pm

sphy wrote:Scary!
But we all are human and more or less everybody feels the same way as you do when the matter is about heights. Off course some don't show it up, but the underlying feeling is always there. I guess.
This just came up on hyperbole and a half:

"The Scariest Story"

Image

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2 ... story.html

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sphy
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by sphy » Sat Feb 26, 2011 4:47 am

CarlBrannen wrote:
sphy wrote:Scary!
But we all are human and more or less everybody feels the same way as you do when the matter is about heights. Off course some don't show it up, but the underlying feeling is always there. I guess.
This just came up on hyperbole and a half:

"The Scariest Story"

Image

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2 ... story.html
Thanks Carl,
It was awesome and Scarier. Did you notice the line about her little sister?
She seemed extremely excited about absolutely nothing.

Did you know what happened to him in future? By telling scarier stories he became
Image.

(P.S. last public photo of his.)

CarlBrannen
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Sat Feb 26, 2011 6:07 pm

sphy wrote:Did you know what happened to him in future?
Let me link in another story from her that will make it clear she's a GIRL:

Spiders are Scary. It's okay to be Afraid.
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2 ... fraid.html
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2 ... party.html

They're all good:
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2 ... dhood.html

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sphy
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by sphy » Sun Feb 27, 2011 10:41 am

sphy wrote: Did you notice the line about her little sister?

Did you know what happened to him in future?
So I used both the genders because That was special, awesome, funny and cute.

CarlBrannen
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On the subject of those radio towers...

Post by CarlBrannen » Sun Mar 20, 2011 2:22 am

It turns out that radio towers are good for other things than just sending out electromagnetic signals. You can climb up them and freeze to death:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/03/09/bo ... -michigan/

CarlBrannen
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Re: I'm doomed! I need a really safe school? Who takes em late?

Post by CarlBrannen » Wed Mar 23, 2011 7:31 pm

Being doomed, I just sent ETS some more money to send yet more score reports to yet more universities.



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