#math grad school applications

[anissapierce]

It's kinda funny tht my dad passing his vasovagal reaction down to me means tht despite my love for biology etc I cant go into tht field or be a doctor (also if I went to med school i think I'll have a psychotic break) and bc of my mom pushing me so hard n giving me math related trauma and making me do extra math n my probable dyscalcia i can't get into physics like I wanted to in high school. Nature n nurture

[positivelyapunovexponent-good]

it would be really cool if I could have a day this month where I wasn’t so chronically afraid it felt like my intestines were twisted into a möbius strip. Because ya’know- I really like my digestive tract being an orientable manifold. If that’s all the same to the universe.

[softgrungeprophet]

i know a lot of the stuff i've been working on as a WIP has been angst and depressing stuff but there's ALWAYS comedy somewhere and sometimes that comedy is Peter spending all of his Bugle money on inadvisable quantities of instant coffee

[honeekyuu]

talk too much. [suna rintarou x reader] introductions.

two losers and a supermodel

yn + friends !

yn: math major, 4th year; thought about becoming a math teacher after college but realized at some point that she doesnt have that kind of patience. considering grad school or dropping out entirely, it really depends on the day. writes creatively in her free time

alisa: also a math major, 4th year; literally never in classes or school at all because she's always at modeling gigs around the world. somehow has better grades than yn

suga: education major, 4th year; despises math with a burning passion. has one special interest and it's sea creatures. everyone thinks hes the sweetest thing but alisayn know better. hes crazy

alisugayn were placed in the same dorm in their 1st year -- alisayn roommates and suga across the hall (his roommate was kita, they still get along and talk regularly)

daily affirmations (/derogatory)

suna + friends !

suna: fine arts major, 4th year; wants to be a tattoo artist. does not realize how hot he is (he's such a loser). roped into daily affirmations by komori, who wanted to create a club dedicated to boosting campus morale and self esteem. he's been trying to get out of it for over a year now because daily affirmations has so many members that they really dont need him anymore

komori: econ major, 4th year; he's kind of evil lmao. he really did start daily aff with good intentions and he really cares about running it well, but when he realized how big it had gotten he kind of regretted making it a free service LMAOOO he 100% plans to use daily aff and its success as a portfolio point for the job market. treats it like hes running an actual company even though everything is free and unpaid

kita: agriculture major, 4th year; big fan of sending plant facts to his partners in order to cheer them up. very kind, a fan favorite. super polite and often used as an example when komori gives the yearly "welcome to daily aff" talk

komosuna are high school best friends. komori dragged suna kicking and screaming to form daily aff in their first year so that he could reach the minimum member requirement to register clubs to the university (the third was sakusa, who dropped out the MOMENT another member signed up). komori pulled suna into a group chat with kita as an "intervention" when suna started getting a little too sassy with his partners. they just kept the gc going

Application for Daily Affirmations

i'm here again, talkin' myself out of // my own happiness

talk too much [renee rapp].

[fairiedance]

I put this on a bunch of shirts and stickers and stuff, I figure it'll be good for protests and campus activism. Found here. As usual ALL PROCEEDS are for my Palestinian best friend, to help take care of his loved ones. He'll donate any his family doesn't need to the charities he works with.

To my fellow grad students: this friend and I are working with our department on making it easier for grads to bow out of research they have a moral objection to. We're also working on putting together a statement on Palestine. If you have a lot of colleagues on your side and particularly if you're in a program like engineering, physics, astronomy or applied math (with a lot of military applications) you should try to see where your funding is coming from and support grads in divesting from ethically questionable research. I won't say too much about what we're doing because I don't want to risk doxing my friend, but here are some examples of statements from grads at the Goldman School of Public Policy and the UCSC Astronomy Department. We (STEM students in particular) are the next generation of minds behind the military-industrial complex. It's up to us to make it clear we will not be complicit in work that supports genocide.

You can also find my full shop here. To see a design on different products click on the display product and scroll down or go here to browse by design. Here's a small sample of some of my other work, I make stuff in a bunch of different styles so there's something for everyone:

Thank you to everyone who has helped out with my fundraiser so far!

[alwaysshallow]

softy soap AU where hes just ur golden retriever bf and reader is in college/grad school he listens to you ramble about your stupid midterms and hugs you when you tell him about the stress with grad school application. tries you buy u takeouts to cheer u up when u fail one of ur midterms. hes so supportive omggg😭🥺. " s'okay... you can try again. I failed basic math 3 times you know :)" also makes fun of ur notes but its so funny like "babe... why are you drawing so many hexagons???" "Johnny thats a glucose molecule" reader visits him at the base and brings him cute bento boxes and hes "practically wagging his tail" everytime reader comes around. send him lost of care packages and hand written notes!!!!! he keeps all ur letters and some of the packaging <3.

-💸

he's such a "yer so smart, bonnie" when you tell him how your midterms are like... stressing you out and you hope it's gonna be over. he fucks you slowly when you need it, while asking you questions that you carefully written so he could revise with you <3

johnny brags about you in the military!! talks about how smart you are, how good grades you have!! how brilliant his girlfriend is! he doesn't leave your side even for one SECOND when you're visiting him. he needs to have everyone aware that you're his and no one else's. not to mention that he practically growls if someone is too close for comfort.

when he fucks you in the bathroom, he tells you how good of a mother you'll make when you're gonna be like. done with school. panting, he babbles about you having his kids, how cute you're gonna be with your swollen belly and a kid on your hip..... you almost want to drop school just because he's so adored with the idea.

[regular-tetraheathen-blog]

So im deep in the weeks of graduate school applications now and where better to go for help than strangers on the internet. I'm applying to math PhD programs and am seeking advice.

What should I focus on in my statement of purpose? I've gotten conflicting answers. Some people say focus on research, some people say focus on teaching. In my mind my purpose is so clear: go to grad school, learn "the ways," and become a math professor.

[astriiformes]

hiii! im a 17 y/o applying to college, but i have no idea what i want to major in/do with my life. im interested in math and science but also history and stuff. any advice?

Oh I am. An interesting person to ask this question considering I have changed my major multiple times (partly due to switching schools) and am now doing something a bit weird.

I suppose the first thing to mention is if you really aren't sure what you want to do in the future, there are options other than college and there's no shame in taking a gap year or two in order to figure out if it's actually the path you want to take. However! It sounds a bit like you are at least interested in the idea of college, and also that's where my own experience lies, so I'll offer what I can. Just definitely keep in mind there are other routes, if it doesn't end up fitting.

Honestly my biggest piece of advice to anyone looking at colleges is to dig into what actual courses are offered at the schools you're looking at. The same degree at one school can vary significantly from ones at another school, and getting some idea of if the specific classes that are a part of a given program are interesting to you can prevent a lot of heartache in the long run. I did not do this with the first college I attended, and found out the hard way that their program was really heavy on classes that I was less interested in and struggled with more. Which was frustrating.

As for narrowing down what you specifically want to major in, keep in mind that you don't necessarily have to. Like, you do have to pick a program, but interdisciplinary degrees and even build-your-own degrees like the one I'm currently doing are becoming increasingly popular, and there are ways to spin having disparate interests into something unique where you can really succeed.

When I started college, at my first university, I was doing a general Biology degree. Then I transferred to a school where you could pick slightly different concentrations in Biology, and did part of a degree in Biology, but with a concentration in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Then I took a break for about four years, because college was not working for me. When I picked it up again, at yet another school, I started with an interdisciplinary degree in Biology, Society, and Environment--still fairly Biology-heavy, but with an added focus in the humanities surrounding science . Eventually I abandoned the framework of structured degrees entirely, and am now finishing college doing a Bachelor's of Individualized Studies, which is a degree program my school offers where you essentially pick three minors and build your own degree out of them. (Mine are Biology, History of Science, and Cultural Studies & Comparative Literatures)

I hope that illustrates a couple things. One--you are not locked in to your first choice, and in fact may figure out what you want to do partly by dabbling in some other things first. And two--there are lots of different flavors of studying even some of the same subjects that vary from degree to degree and school to school. Look into some of the weirder options that are out there that might let you combine multiple passions for sure!

If you're specifically interested in a degree that blends the sciences and the humanities, some keywords that might be useful to you are looking up schools with programs in Science and Technology Studies (or STS), History of Science, or Philosophy of Science programs. Even if they don't offer Bachelor's in them (sometimes those are restricted to grad degrees), they may offer minors or concentration options, or be something you could work into an individualized degree if your school has a program for those, and at the very least may have classes you could take in those subjects even if you have to do a slightly different degree to dabble in them.

Best of luck with your searching and applications! I hope all this rambling can at least be of some use to you.

[that-aspiring-academic]

The Plan -

𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑠 -

Grade - 10

Current Class Averages - 90% (ish)/Biology 11, 60.8/Mathematics 10C, 73%/FraL, ???/English 10C, ???/PE

Study & Notes - Cornell Notes + Quizlets (Bio), Note Packets + Review + Workbook (Math), Assigned In-School Work (FraL)

𝐺𝑜𝑎𝑙𝑠 -

This term:

Secure an 80% average (this term)

Get 75% or above in mathematics (this term)

Score 78%+ on all finals (this term)

Next Term:

Secure an 86%+ average (next term)

85%+ on all finals (next term)

87% on Science Humaines Finals (next term)

Next Year:

90-95% average across all classes

92%+ on all finals

Second or third best subject must be a Mathematics

𝐽𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑦 -

Main Goals - Early Graduation and Scholarship to UBC or UofT (or an Ivy League if possible), RCM L8’s

Study Habits:

Cornell Notes in all applicable classes (Bio, Sci.Hum, Psych, etc)

Minimum 1.5 Hours a day dedicated to studying

Minimum 2 hours a day on weekends for studying/projects

Use External Resources & get those accommodations

Secure a Piano Teacher again

AFFIRM YOURSELF BABES (here)

(Resource List)

𝐴𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑚𝑒 -

Hi, I’m Alice (they/them)! I’m 15 & in my second year old High School (Grade 10). I’m using this blog to help motivate me to study and get my grades up, as well as improve on some of my hobbies (piano, taekwondo, Italian, etc.) as fast and as effectively as possible. I’m Canadian and in my provinces Gifted Program so my grades, classes, and schoolwork might seem odd.

My main Goals are simple; graduate a year early (grad 2026), get accepted into my dream uni’s with scholarships, get my RCM L8’s, and get my blackbelt in Taekwondo. I want to go into psychiatry, history, or mycology, though these can all be subject to change. I want to get all my required academics to give myself the broadest range of opportunities.

I have 2 main extra-curriculars I also will be keeping track of or posting via this blog; Robotics and peer-tutoring, of which I am in the business team (robotics) and general tutoring (pt).

The main things I will be posting are inspo, updates, blog entries around how I feel or what I am studying for certain subjects/teachers, journey updates, my piano work, playlists, and essays/schoolwork for review and archive purposes.

Any and all tips are welcome!! :]

[thehours2002]

Any advice for getting into and getting through Masters/PhD programs? Since you're a professor and all.

well, i’m a graduate teaching fellow/adjunct professor which i promise is very different from a “real” professor, but here’s what i’ll say off the top of my head about these apps

get a professor whose terminal degree is a phd on your side! even better if they’re willing to help you go through your application closely and give you feedback on your personal statement, writing sample, etc.

in fact, send your writing for the application to as many trusted advisors as you can for feedback.

in your personal statement/statement of purpose, be as specific as possible about what your research interests are. it’s possible (even likely) that your research interests will evolve as you continue your graduate education but showing that your current interests are specific shows the committee reviewing your application that you have direction and you know what sort of thing you want your thesis or dissertation to be on (like this will of course change but i think it shows a level of maturity in your thinking about your scholarship)f

try to attend conferences and get teaching experience under your belt that you can put on your CV. i was pretty shocked that no one else in my cohort had teaching experience so it’s not *necessary* but it may be something that helps you stand out. having gone to conferences also shows that you’re serious about research and being part of the field

if you can help it DO NOT GO TO GRAD SCHOOL ON YOUR OWN DIME. especially at the phd level. if your program accepted you without giving you a fellowship then you shouldn’t be there. (i think this used to be more of a thing and has maybe dropped off). i would think that you should only be paying your way through grad school if you’re CERTAIN there’s a lucrative job on the other side of it for you. and for those of us pursuing grad degrees because we want to be professors, there usually isn’t.

if you take the GRE and your math score is low don’t worry about it if you’re going into the humanities. mine was awful and apparently they didn’t care. also, i think i took the GRE twice and did no studying in between and my verbal score shot up to 96th percentile the second time, so if you have the money it might be worth taking more than once if you think you can bump up your scores. a lot of programs are eliminating subject specific gre requirements (like a special english lit gre test or something idk i never took it) or not requiring the GRE at all. so check and see what your programs require before you invest too much time in the GRE stuff.

apply WIDELY. by that i don’t mean you should apply to a zillion places, but don’t apply to places that won’t be a good fit and don’t limit yourself by arbitrary factors like geography. i applied to places on the west coast and in the midwest and it is just sheer luck that i ended up in nyc, exactly where i wanted to be

dont be discouraged if you have to apply more than once. a LOT of this is luck of the draw and how you fit in with the current body of students and whether there are professors there who are capable of mentoring you because you share research interests

but take all that with a grain of salt because it’s just off the top of my head… and it’s been 3 years since i last did this so i’ve probably forgotten some things about the process.

[justsome-di]

Nobody Ends Up Dead in a Bathtub, Everyone Keeps Their Organs: Chapter 15

Summary: Alex is an ordinary, highly-introverted office worker. He clocks in and out and goes home to his little apartment he shares with his younger sister. He hasn’t dated in years. Until his co-workers set him up on a blind date.

The only issue is he and his date are not on the same page. At all.

While  Alex thinks it’s a normal date, Damián is under the impression Alex is a  client who paid to be there. No-so-quickly, they realize something is up. It’s all a prank. Damián is a sex worker Alex’s co-workers hired as a  sick joke.

After reassuring that they’re both okay, Alex decides he wants revenge for both him and Damián. The plan is to use the stigma of sex work and start a 6-week, scandalous fake dating scheme with a big finale at the office Halloween party. Alex’s co-workers will be too horrified to try to prank him again. At least, that’s the plan.

You can also read this on AO3, or Patreon  (patrons also get chapters a week early along with bonus content). If you’re enjoying the story and want to support me in other ways, consider dropping me a message in my inbox or reblogging this post!

Leo made sure he was punctual and on his best behavior. Damián had picked out a nice shirt for him to wear and begged him to keep it tidy. It was like Leo was still a child in Damián’s mind. Like he was sure Leo hadn’t matured past seven when he would try wrangling worms out of the mud while in his church clothes.

It could have been that Damián was nervous that Leo was going to make a heterosexual spectacle of himself. Leo could see the way Damián was almost holding his breath before he left the apartment. It was the classic “straight people are around” rigidity. Leo saw it often when Damián tucked a part of himself away when they left some bubble of safety Leo couldn’t see.

Leo considered asking Damián if he should stay away from the lecture, if it was best if he didn’t try to force himself in, but then Damián told him he was happy he was going. That maybe in the future, they could go to stuff like that together. There was no shortage of queer events in the city. When they both had the time, Damián had said fixing Leo’s collar, they should think about the next one to go to together.

Leo showed up 15 minutes before the lecture was set to start, waited patiently in the back of the lecture hall until Eve shuffled in, and found a seat with her in the middle of the audience.

He looked around the lecture hall. It was a sea of multi-colored hair cut short or grown long. Eve wasn’t the only one with an undercut, and she wasn’t the only one rocking an academic goth look—large black sweaters and Doc Martens were all over the place.

In the corner of the room, the guest was speaking to some faculty member Leo had seen a few times around campus.

“Who is this woman?” Leo asked.

“You didn’t look her up?” Eve asked, a bit of judgment in her voice. “Jo Sheryl?”

“I asked my brother, and he didn’t know, and that was the extent of my research.”

He should have put forth a little more effort, but he had thought if he knew everything about her, the lecture would be underwhelming. He didn’t want spoilers. If she had any great anecdotes, Leo wanted to hear them from her in person.

He also might have neglected to look her up in favor of working on grad school applications. He had finally sucked it up and applied to the out-of-state schools he had been looking at. Michigan had a well-respected, competitive applied math program, and Michigan wasn’t too terribly far away. It was cheaper than living in New York, too.

There were also programs in Connecticut and Massachusetts. 

Leo submitted the applications when Damián was gone on a date with his new, weird client. It was the only way to distract himself when Damián had texted him to say he’d be out a little later than planned.

“Yeah, well, Damián is a little older than her target audience,” Eve said. “He probably hasn’t seen her stuff because’s a guy in his 30s.”

“Damián isn’t all that old.”

Wait.

What?

Leo turned in his seat, infuriatingly small for him. All the seats on campus felt like they were made for someone three inches shorter than him. Complaining about how his legs were cramped in the small space between him and the seat in front of him only got him eye-rolls from people who didn’t seem to realize that while being tall was nice, there was such a thing as being too tall.

“How do you know Damián?” Leo asked.

“He didn’t tell you?” Eve said it so easily. “We’re in a gay book club together. I saw him last night, and we connected the dots between you and me and him.”

“Oh, yeah, his book club.”

“I actually run it.”

“No shit.”

“And my brother is—well, he’s been hanging out with Damián. They’re doing a whole thing together.”

Was he maybe the person Damián had been planning a night with at the end of the month? Was Eve’s brother the guy Leo stewed over? Eve probably shouldn’t have been giving up so much information about Damián’s clients and appointments. Leo had always held that information close to his chest.

“Anyway,” Eve said. “Jo Sheryl wrote a graphic novel. It was called Stories from a True-to-Life Dyke. It’s about lesbians in college.”

“That’s all it’s about?”

“Obviously there’s a plot. There’s Minnie, this freshman, and it’s all about her coming to terms with her sexuality and falling in love with this cool dyke.”

“Is that an okay word to say?”

“What? Dyke?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s okay for me to say, and it’s how the character describes herself. But if you’re asking if you can use it, then no. You probably shouldn’t.”

“Okay. I wasn’t planning on using it, by the way. I just wanted to know what the status was. I know there’s other words, and I’m trying to keep on top of the list.”

“What, a slur list?” Eve gave him a curious look and shook her head. “You’re a funny ally.”

“I’m doing my best!”

“I know. I’m just saying. You’re funny about it.”

Leo wasn’t trying to be funny. He was trying really hard. If he was a better ally, if he understood things better, then maybe he could return to Damián with some of it and make up for some of what their family had done to him. If Leo could be on top of all the struggles and hot topics, then he wouldn’t have to worry about Damián feeling isolated.

“Being queer isn’t all about the words you can and can’t use,” Eve said.

“I know. I know. I just want to know about things.”

The president of the GSA walked to the podium and leaned into the microphone. Leo had never seen him before. He was a little guy with purple hair. And though the dye job was patchy and growing out with a few fingers of dark roots coming in, Leo thought he looked pretty cool.

Jo Sheryl also looked cool. She had a leather jacket and a men’s button-up top, and her hair was cut very short. Her unplucked eyebrows, the lack of make-up, and the way she held herself was all very masculine. Her hands were shoved in her pockets until she walked up to the podium. When she walked, she did it with purpose. Shoulders held square, chin high.

Leo was very familiar with butch women. He thought they were neat. He admired them on the subway like they were a piece of art. He took everything about every single one of them in.

But seeing Jo stand in front of the room, he felt something stir inside him. Like this was the first time he was actually seeing a butch lesbian for what she was. Beautiful, bold, and so wonderfully not quite one thing or another.

Leo leaned over and whispered, “Is part of being gay looking cool?” He meant it as a friendly joke, but he feared it came off as a serious question.

“Yes, it is,” Eve whispered back with a smug smile.

Jo Sheryl began speaking. Her voice was low. She rocked back and forth on her feet and waved her hand as she ran through notes and a slide show. The lecture hall was silent except for her baritone washing over the waves of seats.

She talked about how she first came up with the idea for her graphic novel and how it seemed to blow up overnight as she was posting it to her blog. The response to it had been overwhelming. With love for Minnie came long-awaited-for acceptance for herself. She had received the positivity she had been seeking for years and also provided it back in turn for those who needed to see themselves in comics.

It was a cycle, she emphasized. When queer people lifted each other up, they lifted themselves up. When queer artists and writers wrote for themselves, they wrote for others and vice versa. The importance of community was never so evident to Jo as it was in the comment section of her comics. Strangers on the internet, all across the country, had made her feel more comfortable in herself than she had felt in a long time.

She was hiding less and less of herself not just to her audience but to the people around her. Though she was out to her family, she hardly ever talked about dating women in front of them. She had straight friends who she knew accepted her but didn’t understand the deeper parts of the LGBT community—the finer details of the history, the ongoing struggles, the little things Jo had to see and cope with every day. With the success of her comic, she started speaking up. Started showing herself more and more, no longer fearing isolation if they decided that she was being “too much.” There was now a massive community to fall back on.

Leo had never thought about being queer in such a way before. It was just like being Latino. He liked seeing people like him succeed. It felt good. It felt like he was capable of also succeeding—and doing so without having to give up any part of himself.

For a while, after he started college, he didn’t speak a lot of Spanish outside of the apartment. If Damián slipped into it when they were out, Leo stubbornly only responded in English. Damián, equally stubborn, would only respond in Spanish until Leo realized that Damián wasn’t forcing it but was giving Leo permission.

And it wasn’t like there weren’t other people speaking Spanish in New York. Leo heard Spanish all the time.

But there were some spots—the organic food stores Damián sometimes took him to, the clothing stores in the less diverse neighborhoods—where Leo didn’t want white women side-eyeing him or white managers coming up to ask if he needed “help” with anything with a tight smile.

Leo already had it rough in those spots. His complexion was darker than Damián’s, and he was taller and built up a little stockier. He was young enough to be up to no good but old enough to threaten someone, somewhere. Speaking Spanish, even in a place like New York City where people really should have been used to hearing an ever-changing flow of languages, made Leo feel like he was making a spectacle of himself. He could tell when someone turned to look, when people shuffled away while keeping a close eye on them when he and Damián naturally switched between languages.

Damián always handled those moments well. He never stopped speaking that lovely combination of Spanish and English, flowing so easily between the two. And eventually, Leo, as he grew older by a few years, understood why he did it. There was no point in trying to hide that part of them. It came with pain, sure, but it was worse to keep Spanish to the “right” places. It was worse to play by the invisible boundaries other people had drawn for him.

Leo was sure that that must have been how Jo felt when she cut her hair short or when she started shopping in the men’s section. It had to have been hard and came with the fear that was unique to being unapologetically visible, but it must have felt like a weight was lifted from her shoulders. When she saw other women like herself, when women like her saw her, that would have been well worth it all.

Leo tried thinking about how Damián had to navigate the world being both gay and Latino and if he could only be visible in one direction or another at a time when Leo wasn’t looking.

There were questions after Jo’s lecture. Someone asked if she was going to continue her series. She said she had plans for one more volume and then she would move on to other projects. She had more confidence now to pursue other stories she had been too scared to tell.

She was asked about upcoming artist workshops she was hosting in the city, thoughts about a recent collaboration with a writer, and if she had any advice for other queer artists.

“The one thing I want to tell all queer artists,” Jo said, “is that a lot of people are going to tell you no. Publishers will turn you down. Readers will leave nasty comments around the internet. It will feel like you’re not doing anything right for anyone because everyone has something to complain about. A lot of straight people who are trying to help you will tell you to ‘tone down the gay stuff.’”

There was a wave of laughter. Leo laughed, too, to show support and that he understood that pressure to suppress an identity, to try to be a more tolerable version of yourself for others.

“But,” Jo continued, “you don’t have to listen to any of those people. There’s a whole new world out there online where you can share your work with people who are looking to read it. If everyone else is telling you no, you need to give yourself permission to tell yourself ‘yes.’ And I want everyone here, even if you’re not an artist, to be as authentic to yourself as you can be. Even if—and I know you’re all in college so this might be the case—even if you don’t really know who you are yet. Keep telling yourself that you’re allowed to exist in whatever way you’re happiest. The world deserves to know the real you.”

The room was filled with applause. Leo clapped the loudest out of everyone.

The president announced the questions were over, thanked everyone for attending, and thanked Jo for being their guest. What a way to end things! Leo felt inspired. He was going to go straight home and tell Damián all about Jo Sheryl and how much he had learned from her.

He was going to see every single guest the GSA had through the next semester.

“I think I get it,” Leo said after Jo stepped away for a book signing. “Being queer is like being Latino. You know what I mean, right?”

“Yup. Us marginalized groups have to stick together. And you know, True-to-Life Dyke has a Latina character. She’s not a major character for the first half, but she gets a bigger role in the second volume.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. And I have a hunch she’s going to have an even bigger part in the next volume.”

“That’s dope.”

Jo’s books were for sale at a collapsible table with a long line right outside the lecture hall, but Damián didn’t have the money to spend $40 on two graphic novels. He’d have to find them later. Maybe at the queer bookstore Damián went to. Maybe he’d tag along the next time Damián went, and they could bump into Eve together.

The president of the GSA spotted Eve and made his way up to her. She greeted him kindly and introduced him to Leo, who made sure to tell him that he was an ally. The president looked up at him with a smile and as he began asking if they were going to attend the next meeting, Leo’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He left Eve to explain her hectic schedule and stepped away.

It was his mother. Great. It was like she always knew the absolute worst times to call.

“Hi, mom.”

“Leo, are you busy?”

“No, mom.”

“Good. I wanted to know when you’re visiting home. We haven’t seen you in months.”

Leo closed his eyes. He didn’t want to go “home” at all, but it was expected of him, and he felt like it was important to keep some peace between him and his parents.

“You don’t live that far away,” she said. “It shouldn’t be that hard to see us every once in a while.”

“I know. I’m sorry,” Leo said. “I’ve been trying to get applications for grad school submitted before the end of the semester.”

“That’s why I want to see you. I want to know how it’s going. I can’t brag that you’re getting into all the top schools if you don’t tell me when you get accepted.”

“I haven’t heard back from anyone except SUNY.”

“You’ll get accepted to all of them.”

Leo laughed nervously. “I don’t know. Some of these programs are pretty competitive.”

“Talk to your father and I about it over brunch in a couple of weeks. How’s two Fridays from now?”

She always scheduled their meetings like they were business partners rather than family. He just knew that she was penciling him in between a hair appointment and some tea with her church friends.

“Uh. That’s fine. I have class at noon on Fridays, though.”

“We’ll make sure you make it to class.” There was a few seconds of silence. “Where are you right now? It’s very loud.”

“I’m at an author’s visit on campus.”

“That’s nice. I’ll let you know where we get reservations. I love you.”

“Love you, too. Tell dad I said hi.”

Fuck. He had to deal with this shit in person. But it’d be fine. He’d get it done and out of the way, and he wouldn’t have to see his parents again until Christmas. If he moved a little further away, he could probably go longer stretches of time without seeing them.

Sorry, no money for a plane ticket. No time to leave work and grad school projects. See you Easter, maybe!

Leo hung up and returned to Eve who was now alone and scrolling on her phone.

“I’m heading back to my brother’s apartment,” Eve said. “Unless you want to learn more about the GSA. I told Chase I’d indoctrinate you if you were interested.”

“Don’t you mean recruit?”

“No, it’s an inside joke.” Eve shoved her phone into her pocket. “Want some flyers?”

“Sure. Yeah. Definitely.”

And so he left with Eve, hands full of flyers and a calendar of events and his phone buzzing again from his mother telling him that she had already made a reservation. When Damián asked him later how it was, Leo lied through his teeth and said it was great. He had had a great day.

[maceofpentacles]

OH MY GOD I FORGOT TO TELL THE PEOPLE IN MY PHONE THE GOOD NEWS!!!

i emailed the head of the history masters program here at my school and told her all about how i graduated back in december and all that jazz. i asked about the gre because whenever i think about it i have panic attacks and she fucking told me that there’s a recent alum grad thing that allows me to literally just Not Take it???

genuinely such a fucking relief i almost cried when i got her email back because math gives me panic attacks!!!! also i can get the $70 application fee waived and get a $600 annual discount for 2 years of full time enrollment so ahhhhh!!!

i’m so so excited to apply and (hopefully) start grad school this fall! i miss classes so much i’m so fucking bored holy shit!!!

[thistransient]

- So I went to the Taiwanese trial class with my friend. It was taught by a little old lady who was nice enough but gave me some mild flashbacks to those harrowing weeks with the Mandarin teacher of a similar age. Most of the session was her explaining the history of 台語 in Taiwan, with a side of trying to force the 8 tones and counting from 1 to 10 upon us via rote memorization. I felt a bit frustrated and not entirely thrilled, my friend was miffed that the school hadn’t explained the price they quoted was for the trial class only. We’ve decided to give it a pass and try a different school, although our scheduled trial there is on hold on account of the teacher falling ill. In the meantime my friend has begun to contemplate taking group Japanese class instead (as his partner and her kid are Japanese), which is much more widely available. I am tempted. Do I need to start half-assedly learning yet another language? Probably not. Do I want to divert my energy from Mandarin to whole-assedly learn Japanese? Also not really. Is there a high chance of following through nonetheless? At least I’m self-aware about it...

- Job applications here largely require a photo, and I need a haircut but I’m afraid to go back to the place I went in August for the big chop. The guy started cutting it while wet, then broke out the blow-dryer and kept snipping til he was satisfied, but because my hair is curly and I do not own styling product more complicated than a comb, it reverted immediately to a vague dandelion shape and took several months to actually resemble the reference photo I’d provided. The thought keeps crossing my mind to simply shave my head entirely. I had it buzzed to a 3 some ten years ago after a dye-job gone wrong and did not enjoy my appearance. Of course I look different now, and hair grows back, but the struggle between wanting the catharsis and radical change (not to mention less mess in the shower drain strainer) of a head-shave, and fearing the hassle of growing it all back out if I do truly detest it is raging inside of me.

- After coming back from Korea I may have spent one whole day languishing in bed and eating spoonfuls of peanut butter as a meal before slowly reconvening daily activities. I have been meeting some friends and going out, but I end up needing one day of hermit-like recovery for every outdoor social endeavour. I have yet to implement any kind of proper schedule (beyond “try to eat three meals and go outside at least once”), leading my friends to recommend I start by contemplating my greater, overarching goals for life. Every few years I come round to the notion of attempting a STEM degree (which would require redoing undergrad, but, as they say, “the time will pass anyways”). I think it would be really engaging to do a program taught in Chinese, and possibly motivate me to overcome my deficiencies in the math department, which is what always puts me off the whole scheme. Scientific terms are so much simpler in Mandarin because they’re extremely 顧名思義 (just as the name implies); English really shot itself in the foot with all the Greek and Latin. I don’t even need to check the dictionary to figure out 光合 means ‘photosynthesis’... Will I actually follow through with this, and live out my days happily studying trees and avoiding small talk with humans, or will I continue to trundle through life intermittently trying to teach English between bouts of autistic burnout? When I put it that way, the answer seems obvious, but this is without factoring in all the bugs that live in trees... Also wasn’t I trying to convince myself to go to grad school for what, translation? linguistics? library science? something? just a few months ago? Maybe overarching life goals are a red herring at present, and I should just get a job first and then see what kind of things I’m interested in when I have consistent disposable income to pursue them at length.

- I am, at the ripe old age of my mid-30s (I’m rounding up since my birthday is next month- again, so soon??) being forced to reconsider what it means to like someone. Perhaps on account of being socially inept and spending all of my formative years in Catholic school, I took for granted that it was that painful, infatuated pining one feels for attractive strangers or casual acquaintances who generally don’t reciprocate. In the past couple years I began to experience the strange phenomenon of having great affection for friends I’d gotten to know slowly and who became increasingly physically appealing as time wore on, but I wrote this off as Mystery Emotion X because it lacked that frantic obsession I was accustomed to. Now I suspect this may simply be a healthy manifestation of romantic attraction. I’ve often struggled with exactly what identity label the intersection of my gender, attraction pattern, and neurodivergency might land me under. I think the plot is thickening... but I will put off pursuing further clarity by going to the BDSM bar instead.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

While the best astrophysics colleges in the nation are up north or out west, the best college in Florida is none other than my alma mater UF. I would ideally like to get as far away from this stinking cesspit of a state as possible, but to go to school anywhere else I'd need to spend a year establishing residency or pay exorbitant out of state tuition. UF is, for me, the cheapest option. I graduated with my BA in 2018, and they accept about a third of all astrophysics applicants, so I stand a good chance of being re-accepted for this BS program (not grad school; I'm looking for a second bachelor's in a non-useless field). Do alumni get preference? I don't have much else going for me, but they already have my high school test scores and my transcripts, so I think I have a leg up on other incoming freshmen (tentatively). Next spring I'm going to apply for fall 2024, brushing up on all the math I've forgotten in the mean time. It's gonna be an uphill battle all the way, but I could use the challenge. It's better than sitting around twiddling my thumbs waiting for something good to happen by itself.

[freckledacademic]

in the spirit of contributing to the studyblr community, is there anything folks would be interested to hear me talk about?

i was a math/biochem double major at a research undergrad, and I am in the grad years of an MD-PhD program

obv I’m not an expert, and how I do things won’t be applicable to everyone, but I’d be happy to talk about things like studying for math classes, balancing double majors, ditl of a grad student, studying for STEP, scientific writing, med school studying, etc

[fairiedance]

I've made a bunch of poppy designs, but the Faqqua iris is the more official national flower of Palestine, I figured I should do something with it too. You can find the above design here.

As usual ALL PROCEEDS are for my Palestinian best friend, to take care of his loved ones. He will donate any his family doesn't need to the Palestinian charities he works with. He's hoping to donate most of it if possible, he always gives everything he can to those in need, which is really impressive because he has never had much for himself in his life. He's always the first person to buy food for the homeless people outside the cafe, or send a paycheck home to help his relatives, or bring food and supplies to a labor action. I currently have his nice coat because he put it on me when I was cold and told me to keep it (I'm going to wash it and give it back anyway, haha). Outside of a few sentimental possessions most of his stuff ends up being given away sooner or later to someone he thinks needs it more.

He felt weird about accepting this charity at first, I had to convince him to hold onto the money from this fundraiser for his own loved ones (some of whom are definitely in a really precarious position) rather than give it all away to charities immediately. He's so generous, even to his own detriment sometimes. You guys, I'm feeling really emotional today, I love him so fucking much. God I hope things get better soon.

Anyway, this design is kinda small so mostly for stickers but available on some other things too. Here are some examples:

You can find my full shop here. To see a design on different products click on the display product and scroll down or go here to browse by design. Here's a small sample of some of my other work:

Also to my fellow grad students, our department is currently working on making an easier path for grads to bow out of research they have a moral objection to, in addition to putting together a statement on Palestine. If you have a lot of colleagues on your side and particularly if you're in a program like engineering, physics, astronomy or applied math (with a lot of military applications) you should try to see where your funding is coming from and support grads in divesting from ethically questionable research. I won't say too much about what we're doing because I don't want to risk doxing my friend, but here are some examples of statements from grads at the Goldman School of Public Policy and the UCSC Astronomy Department. We (STEM students in particular) are the next generation of minds behind the military-industrial complex; let's make participation in the war machine unpopular.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in my fundraiser so far!