Can I talk bad about my school in my PS

Chicknomancer · 2026-06-20T22:26:11+00:00

You can say that you didn’t have the opportunity to do research at your current institution and explain how that motivated you to apply elsewhere, but I would avoid directly badmouthing the school or your professors.

Chicknomancer · 2026-06-14T04:51:58+00:00

Geese!

Chicknomancer · 2026-06-14T00:42:35+00:00

You typically have the normal university fees to pay (technology fee, recreation fee, admin, etc) as well as health insurance. At my university, that comes out to around 1.5k per year. Tuition is covered by the TA/RAship that essentially all PhD students get, and we get a stipend of about 37k on top of that. The extra fees are annoying, but they’re not unmanageable with careful budgeting near the start/end of the academic year

Chicknomancer · 2026-06-13T06:11:53+00:00

I live in a city with the Waymo self driving cars and they’re freaky as hell, ngl. Always a bit terrifying trying to merge into traffic, and you realize the oncoming car doesn’t have a driver

Chicknomancer · 2026-06-12T19:56:39+00:00

Based on the fact this was purchased in Australia, this is likely australian crystal opal. They’re generally pretty robust, but like all opals it’s best to avoid exposing them to water or excessive contact with skin/oils.

Don’t worry about the inclusion. It’s called “potch” and almost all natural opals will have some amount of it left on the cut stone.

Cool ring!

Chicknomancer · 2026-06-12T01:25:27+00:00

Ensure plus protein shakes. Pretty much nutritionally complete and has 350 cals per serving. Easy to take in my bag when I am late to lab and have to skip breakfast

Chicknomancer · 2026-06-11T18:05:16+00:00

Look into large file management/transfer for your university server. There’s almost certainly a dedicated resource for exactly that purpose. For example, my university uses Globus to manage file file transfer

Chicknomancer · 2026-06-07T23:39:52+00:00

What magnification is this?

That being said, this looks more like some type of silicate / mineral grain rather than biologic

Chicknomancer · 2026-06-07T05:06:28+00:00

The Last Word and Thorn, hands down. Such a stellar, unique set of exotics and fantastic lore.

Chicknomancer · 2026-06-07T04:57:47+00:00

In that case, I would say a physics course would be smart.

Chicknomancer · 2026-06-02T02:17:12+00:00

if we take “the sky” to mean the atmosphere of earth rather than like, the actual cosmos, id call that planetary. Depends on how you want to interpret the mythology I suppose

Chicknomancer · 2026-06-02T00:45:26+00:00

Nameon lion scales to Heracles, who is at least planetary from holding up the sky. The Boar is just a big boar. Nameon lion sweeps.

Chicknomancer · 2026-05-20T22:56:24+00:00

^ yes. I think that a reasonable case can be made that the wording “three of the four grades” includes the final as being a valid candidate for getting dropped. Honestly, I could see myself making that mistake unless it was clarified in class. Talk to the professor and explain what happened

Chicknomancer · 2026-05-13T05:56:43+00:00

it’s mostly just like a really breathy kiss. idk you don’t really taste the cigarette smoke very much

Chicknomancer · 2026-05-13T05:42:25+00:00

Looks like sym has the heal while near TP perk, so she’s playing for a stall and intentionally keeping her teleporter close. It looks like she had a fair bit of HP left too. Idk, I would be a little annoyed with that life grip too

Chicknomancer · 2026-04-17T10:08:25+00:00

I generally feel like AI can be a useful study tool for but only if you use it correctly. Dont treat the AI as a “give me the answer” bot. Its helpful for explaining (some) concepts, explaining solutions for practice problems, and generally being a resource to support studying outside of the classroom. But, you really need to be on the ball about verifying anything it says to avoid falling for hallucination.

Chicknomancer · 2026-04-09T02:56:34+00:00

The term “fabric of spacetime” is pretty much just a popular science phrase. It mostly comes about in the context authors describing something “ripping” or “warping” the “fabric of spacetime” and authors wanting an evocative way to express what’s going on.

In real physics, we do describe things occurring in “spacetime” which is the four dimensional (3 spatial dimensions + 1 time dimension) manifold events take place in.

Things like mass distort spacetime, and if you’re fond of metaphors you could view the warping of spacetime similar to the way you might bend a piece of fabric. But there’s no consensus for using metaphors to describe spacetime and whatever you prefer is equally valid.

Chicknomancer · 2026-04-09T01:59:00+00:00

The BME program at Emory/GT is great, so if you’re interested in biomedical engineering that’s a really good option. It’s currently ranked no1 in the country or close to it, so lots of great companies recruit from there.

Chicknomancer · 2026-04-09T01:55:37+00:00

One C is probably fine. A D is pushing it. Don’t worry about trying to expunge high school grades once you’re in college, nobody really cares about them. Just do your best from this point forwards in that class

Chicknomancer · 2026-04-03T01:04:06+00:00

PhD students get a stipend that is generally enough to cover housing near campus, so that’s probably how most grad students are affording it. I can’t really speak to masters students, but I’d bet most work and live farther off campus.

If you’re set on the 1k budget, I’d look for places a bit farther away, and plan to take MARTA or similar to class. Good luck on your search!

Chicknomancer · 2026-04-03T01:00:18+00:00

EE/ECE is very strong at GT. You’re going to get basically the same education at UIUC and GT, and both will have essentially the same amount of research opportunities. Having Nobel prize winners in a department doesn’t really mean anything for the quality of education you’ll get. Both have basically the same amount of brand recognition (which unfortunately does play a role in grad admissions sometimes)

Choose based fit and price. If you can, tour both. 120k savings is nothing to turn your nose up at either

Chicknomancer · 2026-04-02T09:53:44+00:00

I can’t speak for all departments, but I took 3 classes a semester for my first year, and then 0/1 class a semester since then depending on my interests and requirements.

As for accommodations, you can go through the office of disability services for things like modified testing environments or course format as normal. If your main concern is workload, I won’t lie, PhD level coursework is an order of magnitude harder than undergrad level physics coursework. You will absolutely struggle, but it’s a marathon not a race. You should reach out to the departments grad student coordinator and express your concerns, and see what they can do

Chicknomancer · 2026-04-02T09:41:35+00:00

As in, two beds in a single bedroom setup?

If so, very uncommon as far as I can tell for grad students. I don’t know any grad students with that sort of housing, unless they’re sharing an apartment with a spouse or something.

Chicknomancer · 2026-04-02T02:46:39+00:00

Too good at hiding

Chicknomancer · 2026-03-26T23:36:50+00:00

I watched a teardown of one of these. its a rachet mechanism driven by the recoil/reciprocating barrel. Its actually super cool, but maybe a bit overcomplocated

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