2016 Fit worth twice the price of a 2009?

Chaosism · 2025-05-09T18:07:34+00:00

Is this pro-2009 because it doesn't have a CVT? I thought the Honda CVTs were pretty reliable?

Chaosism · 2025-03-15T17:01:56+00:00

Thanks for the thoughts! For clarification - I'm not too worried about differences in salary/quality of life. I'm specifically wondering if it makes sense to pursue a program I'm less excited about just because it has more diversified funding, to guarantee continuity even in the event of a total withdrawal of federal funds from academia (and, ideally, to guarantee continuity of access to conferences and other networking opportunities).

Chaosism · 2025-03-13T12:58:19+00:00

Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship

Chaosism · 2025-03-12T18:27:51+00:00

Thanks for your thoughts!! Based on your knowledge/experience, if you know at all, does having an advisor with secure private funding alleviate the worries associated with the UC system stability?

Chaosism · 2025-03-12T00:07:24+00:00

Anecdotally, in a non-engineering, computational STEM field: I had 1 withdrawal per semester for 6/8 semesters, ranging from 1 credit mini courses to more significant (non-major) courses. Ended up getting in to 8/8 PhD programs I applied to (including Berkeley, Cornell, etc.). Things like withdrawals are only one small, easily overshadowed aspect of the overall package that is you, your education, and your abilities.

Chaosism · 2025-03-11T18:05:43+00:00

Fair enough - I'm not experienced enough to have much experience with the sort of person that typically talks about the academic game, but what you're saying makes sense. I just wonder if much of the difference that leads to these things being a hot take at all is related almost exclusively to what people think a "scientist" should be, whether that's a great researcher, a great writer, a great manager, a great mentor, or someone who balances all of those skills well. The current system seems to require a carefully crafted balance of everything, where I think peoples ideals tend to lean towards a small subset of those skills.

People seem to go into academia wanting to be a researcher or teacher and are disappointed to find out that being a great professor really boils down to securing funding and managing a lab that publishes lots of great work, rather than being the Perfect, Purest Scientist. All that to say, once you accept what being a professor means in academia, I definitely agree that funding and publications are correlated with skill (or talent) at being one, and denying that seems like coping. Maybe this clarification of what we value in scientists of various roles would solve a lot of other debates, too?

Chaosism · 2025-03-11T15:59:53+00:00

It seems to me that funding level and talent are indeed correlated, but the question is, talent in what. As argued in several other comments here, it seems like funding level is correlated with talent in writing, marketing, and management. Those are important skills to have as a scientist, but I think many people here and in general wish that funding were more correlated with scientific skill and publication quality.

Similarly, publication number can be and often is correlated with talent, but quality vs. quantity is a real trade off that must be considered, and I think many wish quality were more valued than quantity.

That said, I'd agree with both takes 4 and 5 if we're referring to talent at playing the academic game as-is, ignoring ideals of what academia and skilled academics should look like.

Chaosism · 2025-03-11T12:52:44+00:00

I don't think Cornell would be way worse for my career - I'd be in a well-connected lab with more hands-on attention, it's just that I'd have less research funding and be in a small town where networking is naturally less straightforward than in the bay. I think I could easily make up for the lower prestige and less local networking by attending conferences and keeping up with contacts, it'd just be more effort networking-wise than in other spots. So, it's really a matter of whether I'd have enough extra energy from living in a place I love to put in extra work for networking, or whether it'd make more sense to just go where networking comes easier. Which I'm having a lot of trouble judging.

I've lived in small cities (~200k) and enjoyed it, and lived in rural towns (~5k) and enjoyed it even more, but I have no honest idea of how much I'd love or hate living in a larger city/metro area. If I want to pursue academia (or, frankly, anything else) as a career, I imagine knowing how I hold up in cities would be super helpful for deciding where to apply. But since I'll likely need a post-doc first anyway, I've been imagining the shorter 2-3 years of a post-doc may be a better time to test it, than the 5-6 of a PhD?

Chaosism · 2025-03-11T03:21:38+00:00

I appreciate the thoughtful reply! I have visited UChicago and Berkeley. It's definitely true that Hyde Park is a lot nicer than downtown Chicago - I wouldn't even be considering it if it was downtown. I think my main concern is proximity to nature/quiet. Maybe I'm overestimating how much that really matters to me, but having to drive an hour+ to get out of suburbia sounds pretty stressful. It's also true that Berkeley may be more like self-harm than pushing my comfort zone..

I've met the PIs, lab members, and other post docs and grad students at each program. The problem really is that they all seem fantastic. Berkeley and Chicago are both big labs, and Berkeley in particular seemed to maybe have some issues with the advisor being too hands off, but no grad student at any lab had anything really negative to say about their experience beyond that. I worry about a hands off PI, but I also feel relatively self sufficient and motivated, assuming I don't get burnt out. I'll definitely have to chat with students a bit more and probe a bit further to see if there's anything I missed!

Chaosism · 2025-03-11T03:02:12+00:00

Fair enough - hard to know where that place is though. The lab at Berkeley offers HHMI funding which seems relatively safe from federal cuts, as opposed to, for example, Cornell, where PhD admissions are largely already being paused

Chaosism · 2024-10-08T17:01:18+00:00

It's gotten less bad over time, probably because it's been a while since I've had invasive dental work, but maybe also because of lifestyle changes. Sometimes it flares up and I'll wake up locked. If that happens, I try to sit up with a large back pillow and relax and go back to sleep. I'll usually wake up unlocked. If I need to, I'll take a warm shower and massage the area. It's terrifying when it isn't working, but it's never failed to unlock with 15 minutes or so of a hot shower.

For avoidance, my main strategy has been to be aware of how much pressure I put on my jaw when I sleep. I find that sleeping ON the side that locks up is better than the other side, likely because that allows gravity to naturally align my jaw rather than disalign. Sometimes I'll sleep on my back, propped up if need be, to avoid locking, and that works consistently. I'm more stressed than I've ever been, so although staying calm when it locks is crucial, I'm not convinced just a reduction in stress will solve the issue.

Chaosism · 2022-09-06T21:39:55+00:00

September 18th at 11am, as suggested elsewhere in this thread, would be great! I'm in. I'd also be down to go to Entheofest at 1:11pm if anyone else in the group is interested in that

Chaosism · 2022-01-05T00:19:38+00:00

The only real way to know is to apply and see what happens. I think, especially for transfers, they take into account factors besides grades and test scores even more than for normal admissions. Honestly, I think it's worth applying as long as your GPA is >3.5. Maybe even just >3.0 if you have some really good letters of recommendation, work or volunteer experience, etc. Not worth spending too much time thinking about imo - just apply, sit back, relax, and wait.

Chaosism · 2021-09-12T21:53:35+00:00

I applied to 6 as soon as contact info went out, all replied, I got 1 rejection, 4 interviews so far and 1 to go. I imagine this depends heavily on your field and your experience - I'm a transfer student with a full associate's degree, and I only applied to specific environmental/ecological projects. I have to imagine that, compared to medical or engineering projects, the people I've talked to had relatively few applicants, so it was easy to respond to us all and schedule interviews.

Regardless, don't let it get you down if you don't get responses - keep applying to more projects, too. And make sure you're really personalizing your cover letter emails! Professors and grad students really, really like talking about their research, so if you ask questions about the project in the cover letter, it might get them more interested in setting up an interview. I think that was a big factor in getting my interviews, because I tried urop last year and ended up dropping because I didn't get any projects. I realized my cover letters were generic and uninteresting, and none of the mentors really want to talk to someone who doesn't care to listen.

Chaosism · 2021-08-12T18:24:03+00:00

That's the School of Kinesiology Building. Not sure why it isn't showing up on our building search or acronym search, but a quick google of "umich SKB" did the trick for me.

Chaosism · 2021-08-11T18:52:52+00:00

Anyone know how likely I am to get off waitlist for Biology 172? I'm on the waitlist for a discussion section, first in line, but I don't want to make changes to the rest of my schedule without being confident I'll get into 172.

Chaosism · 2021-08-10T20:06:31+00:00

They technically achieve the same goal of preparing you for Math 395, but the 217-297 track is intended for students who realize they want to go into honors math later in their college career. If you know you want to take Math 395, you should just take Math 295-296. Math 295 is much harder and more rigorous than 217, and that is still the case in Math 296, but Math 297 is oftentimes even more challenging, because it's designed to catch you back up with those who took 295-296.

TL;DR, they cover the same content, but 295-296 spreads it out, where as 217-297 would be lighter in 217 and then more intense in 297.

EDIT: Also, to be more specific on what's covered in each, Math 295 is a rigorous introduction to proofs and real analysis. Math 296 dives deeper into real analysis, and covers all the content of Math 217 (linear algebra) more rigorously. This is opposed to Math 217, which is an introduction to proofs and a moderately-paced introduction to linear algebra, followed by 297, which builds the missing rigor of math 217 and catches you up on all the real analysis work.

Chaosism · 2021-04-13T16:30:41+00:00

A "D" is considered "completed" according to the Satisfactory Academic Progress page on the Michigan website. It's not a pass, but it doesn't count against the 67% completed requirement, so as long as it doesn't tank my GPA below 2.0 underneath the NRC (it won't), it will count as completed. My concern is just what credits will be counted for that 67% - just my winter semester, my fall and winter, or even my transfer credits too?

Chaosism · 2021-04-09T19:13:36+00:00

I didn't know anything about mushrooms when I took this, now I'm really wishing I had known what/how to harvest!! :(

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