#MOVED it

[superfluouskeys]

Do you have any advice for someone who will be applying to grad school soon? I want to eventually get a PhD and teach, but it's so scary to think about organizing myself enough to do the applications and I also barely know where to begin. Any advice is welcome!!

Also p.s. i love your fics <3

Thank you so much!! I will try my best! Disclaimer: I only know how it is in the U.S., but I do have a fair amount of friends/acquaintances who have gone to grad school in various fields, so I think I have a pretty wide range of experiences to go off of besides my own.

BIG first thing: find programs that will either pay for your degree or otherwise offer you some kind of excellent financial aid situation. It is almost never worth it to get yourself into some kind of hellish student loan situation. If you want to teach there might be some kind of government forgiveness thing but even those can be unwieldy, so just watch out and stay on top of it.

But, going off of that, and this is just my personal opinion, but don't bother applying anywhere you don't actually want to go just because the money is good or it's prestigious or whatever. You're already going to be mildly miserable a lot of the time while doing your PhD, you might as well do it in a place you can tolerate. Figure out what's most important to your own success--for me, I absolutely have to like my professors or I will really struggle. Other considerations fall below this.

Someone will probably have a suggestion specific to your field for how many schools you should apply to to maximize your chances, so you can build a list of schools you're interested in based on that vague estimate to start looking into, but I also think there's something to be said for drawing the line at a certain point where it's not worth it, and you might be better off getting some kind of work experience for a year or two and then trying again. I actually applied to graduate school right out of college, which would have been a DISASTER if I had gone LOL.

BIG second thing, just based on my personal foibles, reach out to some professors/mentors/employers/whatever with whom you've had a good relationship in the past (if you haven't spoken recently), ask them how they're doing, and update them on what you've been up to and that you're thinking about pursuing your PhD. This is especially important if you've been out of school for awhile, but it's good to get into the habit of periodically touching base with professional contacts even if you're still in school. You're going to need letters of recommendation, AND you're going to keep needing references for various things, and it's good if you don't have to cold call people you haven't spoken to in a long time once you already need something.

Note that calling up esp. professors you haven't kept in touch with is usually fine! People generally want to help you! It will just make you feel less awkward if you've kept in touch ahead of time. It's great if the person has some connection to your field, but IMO it's better if the person just knows and likes you and can speak honestly to your merits.

I also personally had a huge issue just wrangling the people who agreed to write me letters of recommendation to like, do it, and use the website submission thing correctly, in time for the submission deadlines LOL, and I felt SO awkward reminding them about it but was also going INSANE as the deadlines approached. This was honestly one of the most stressful parts of the whole process for me, and you might find you want to apply for an internship or grant or something early on before you've really connected with your new profs and need these references AGAIN, so my advice is just try to get some people who are willing to help you lined up ASAP so perhaps you can avoid this particular nightmare. 2 minimum, but 3-5 is ideal.

As for organizing everything, it's definitely time-consuming, but there's also something kind of gratifying about it. When you go through the trouble of gathering together every mildly relevant or impressive thing you've ever done in your life, you'll be like, wow, I did some cool stuff actually :). Note that you never know what admissions will find interesting about you, so don't count anything out right off the bat--my school loved that I have a background in music, while my German degree continues to be pretty much irrelevant LOL. If you're still in or just out of school there's probably someone whose job it is to help you with e.g. how to put together a grad school resume or read over your personal essays or w/e, so definitely take advantage if that exists, but you can absolutely do it yourself if not, no sweat!

Though I would recommend finding someone, like maybe one of those past profs/mentors/etc. I mentioned, to look over your personal essays for you just so there's another pair of eyes on them. Personal essays were the SECOND most stressful part of the whole process for me because I HATE writing personal essays LOL! But having someone tell me what kind of narrative law schools are looking for helped me to refocus my writing and feel slightly less insane about it.

Finally, always remember, don't sell yourself short!! In any application process you want to play up your strengths and minimize your weaknesses, but don't hold yourself back based on the weakest points in your application. Apply for things you really want to do or that would be really beneficial for you even if you don't think you'll get them--you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, and this applies to every aspect of your life btw!

I hope some of this was at least mildly helpful! I wish you all the best in your journey! Grad school is great and such a rewarding--

[inkskinned]

please i love you i'm begging you bring back suspension of disbelief bring back trusting the audience like. i cannot handle any more dialogue that sounds like a legal document. "hello, i am here to talk to you about the incident from a few minutes ago, because i feel you might be unwell, and i am invested in your personal wellbeing." "thank you, i am unwell because the incident was hurtful to me due to my childhood, which was bad." I CANT!!!!

do you know how many people are mad that authors use "growled" as a word for "said"? it's just poetics! they do not literally mean "growled," it's just a common replacement for "said with force but in a low tone." it's normal! do you hear me!! help me i love you please let me out of here!!!

[riacte]

not romantic not platonic but a secret third thing [what would happen between earth and the moon if the earth stopped spinning as illustrated by xkcd randall munroe]

[longsightmyth]

People are so stupid about snakes. If there's a little black racer chilling outside just leave it alone, you don't have to kill it, it's probably dealing with all your pests for you, jesus christ

[tigressjasper]

image i am in love with

[kawareo]

"Imagine still posting fanart a whole year after the game came out" brother what are you talking about

[jordanbolton]

“The Driver” by Jordan Bolton

My first book ‘Blue Sky Through the Window of a Moving Car’ is out now! Order it here - https://smarturl.it/BlueSky

[loadingartist]

moved 😭

bonus panels on my patreon 💌

[dr-rato]

GET ROTATED

[swan2swan]

Whoever conceived and animated this moment, I hope they're doing well and thriving. This is S-rank romance stuff here.

[slyandthefamilybook]

tumblr glitched out somehow but idc because this is way better than the original poll

[podcastwizard]

cashier: ok that'll be $20

me (visibly sweating): ah, yes, of course! a perfectly reasonable price for a grilled cheese and a small smoothie! that was exactly the price i expected you to say when i ordered a single grilled cheese and a smoothie and my vision is NOT getting blurry as we speak! i am a perfectly normal temperature and my speech patterns are natural and even because this is the countenance of an individual who expected to pay 20 american dollars for a single grilled cheese and a smoothie!

cashier: where's all that blood coming from

[canisalbus]

✦ Pebble ✦

[marzipanandminutiae]

"hey why are all the barrier garments like linen shirts or chemises or combinations going away?"

"oh we have more washable fabrics now! you don't need to worry about sweat reaching your outer clothing when you can just chuck it in the washing machine!"

"cool!"

[100 years later]

"so uh all of those new washable fabrics are leaching microplastics into our water, and the constant machine-washing wears garments out faster. they're also not really sturdy enough to be mended, so we keep having to throw them out and now the planet is covered in plastic fabric waste that will never break down. also it turns out that the new washable fabrics hold odor-causing bacteria VERY well. so could we get those barrier garments back please?"

"sorry babe linen now costs $100000/yard and since it's been so long without them, nobody knows how to adapt barrier garments to the current styles anyway"

"..."

"maybe try this new $50 undershirt made of Special Sweat-Wicking Plastic Fabric! :) :) :)"

[randomalistic]

Selfshippers who ship with weird/unappealing characters. I love you. Like hell yeah you go get with Mr Crocker. Go get with lord faarquad