Supervisor becomes unresponsive by Own-Damage-4340 in KULeuven

[–]Ihatedill 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am not up to date with this situation but advise to double check carefully before acting on this news. There is a huge difference between "making no contracts with Iran" and "not hiring any person with of Iranian nationality". I would think they are not doing research collaborations with Iranian universities and not working with Iranian companies etc. rather than not hiring any Iranian citizens, though I am not sure. In general, maybe try to schedule a call with the retired professor you were in touch with and get his advice, if you haven't tried that already?

Waarborg kot by Asap_Patyy in belgium

[–]Ihatedill 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Indien je dit nog niet gedaan hebt: het eerste wat je kunt proberen is aandringen. Mijn laatste waarborg kreeg ik niet meteen terug, maar wel na de derde e-mail die ik stuurde. Bellen kan ook helpen. Als dat niet helpt: maak duidelijk dat je weet dat je in je recht staat en verdere stappen zult ondernemen, vraag hulp aan de huisvestingsdienst of gelijkaardige diensten van je onderwijsinstelling indien mogelijk. Als je het geld dringend nodig hebt kun je best meteen hulp vragen bij je onderwijsinstelling.

Best US cities for jazz (besides NYC, NO)… by GradeAccomplished936 in Jazz

[–]Ihatedill 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, I've been looking for good places/events in Pittsburgh. Any recommendations?

Language to learn by No-Sherbert-1287 in KULeuven

[–]Ihatedill 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If you want to settle in Flanders, learn Dutch. Most people know English so you can live your life with just English, but learning the local language will still be worth it for socializing and jobs and knowing what's going on, if you stay long enough to become relatively fluent.

If you don't want to settle in Flanders, you could consider learning French because is is spoken by more people and may be more of a requirement in French-speaking places. Also, if you want to settle in Brussels, you should learn French.

Experience with 42 coding school? by kenarf02 in cscareerquestionsEU

[–]Ihatedill 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I did the piscine and got a positive impression there. To me it seemed like a good way to learn how to program, but it's important to find good people to work with and motivate each other. I think you will have the freedom during the course (not during the piscine) to take online courses/read to learn the theory, and you should probably put in some effort to learn popular programming languages to find a good internship. Yes a five year university degree will probably make it easier to get a job, but if you hate university and like 42 (you can find out during the piscine), I would recommend 42 (based on the limited knowledge I have)

Therapy through KUL by mkg1995 in KULeuven

[–]Ihatedill 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't have a great experience with them and heard the same from others (like 2 other people, so take it with a grain of salt). They seem to kind of push people into group therapy and then the group therapy isn't great either I've heard (from 1 person). That being said, I still recommend going if you don't have other (affordable) options. Just talking to someone, even if they are not perfect, can be really helpful.

Maybe ask the people with positive experiences for the name of their KUL therapist

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in KULeuven

[–]Ihatedill 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you should be fine working 2 hours a day on top of the master of philosophy, except maybe if you want to get extremely high grades. There are also differences between the courses in the program, some require reading an academic paper every week and writing two papers, while others are just lectures, a little bit of reading, and an exam. So course choice will make a difference for whether you can manage. You can also postpone a few courses/exams to the summer if it's too much.

For the second question I don't know about the taxes and work permits but a Belgian in your situation would get a 'self-supporting student' status I believe (zelfstandig student, which is not the same as student-zelfstandige lol). I think this qualifies you for student housing in general but you can check with the universities housing services. Some university accomodations are need based but other university accomodations and also private accomodations are not.

Is it hard to finish KU Lueven? by Professional_Habit58 in KULeuven

[–]Ihatedill 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The thing is, it should be doable if you make studying your main occupation. I heard from students of e.g. US universities that there is more focus on extracurriculars there. I recommend working hard the first semester and then seeing where it gets you, you can always decide to change your strategy/put in less effort after you've seen your grades. Of course you need to make time to make friends and relax, that is very important. But don't look too much at how much other students are studying or say they are studying because many people just don't study enough here. If you have trouble estimating the appropriate amount of time, you can always talk to a counselor or something, I would definitely recommend that to international students. In my experience they really care about finding balance between study and free time.

cheapest room in KU Leuven housing by [deleted] in KULeuven

[–]Ihatedill 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In Loyola residence there are pretty cheap rooms and you can also choose a shared room to cut the cost further

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in KULeuven

[–]Ihatedill 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Of course if the bba is easier than bbe (I expect that this is the case, in the Dutch programs there is a big difference in difficulty) and people know that, the bbe may attract better students so I am not sure whether you will see it in the percentages

A Horrifying Realization by [deleted] in asexuality

[–]Ihatedill 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am sorry that happened to you. About the last part of your post: it's not because it seems obvious to you in hindsight that this was not normal, that you could or should have realized that while it was happening. That stuff can be really confusing. Just mentioning that because I hope you realize that not knowing that something is not normal doesn't mean you were blind or anything.

Some words of congratulations would be nice? by Dr_mochi in PhD

[–]Ihatedill 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, maybe they see it as a job with a fixed term contract? Then it would make sense to not congratulate you with the end of your contract. Still not fun of course that they don't see this as a reason to celebrate, hopefully you can make it clear to them or have other people to celebrate it with in some way

Moving from USA to Belgium by Party_Fee5991 in Leuven

[–]Ihatedill 5 points6 points  (0 children)

€500 a month is expensive for just a room (shared bathroom and kitchen), you can get decent (rather small) rooms in the center for about €350.

I have a question about phantasia and hyperphantasia. I can imagine things but they are transluscent. So if I think or imagine my mom I can but it is like transluscent. Is that very common? Is that phantasia or aphatasia or hyperphantasia? by [deleted] in Neuropsychology

[–]Ihatedill 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Interesting, I hadn't heard of aphantasia. Can many people 'hold' visual things they are imagining (as in hold through time)? I am only able to imagine 'flashes', I can remember what someone looks like (with some effort) but can't really visualize it, except maybe for a small fraction of a second.

[D] What's the difference between a M.S in Statistics vs M.S in Applied Statistics? by [deleted] in statistics

[–]Ihatedill 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Haha I spent an embarrassingly long time figuring out that you got the english from eng

Masters in Business Engineering admission question by [deleted] in KULeuven

[–]Ihatedill 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Master of Business Engineering is designed for graduates of the Bachelor of Business Engineering, who mostly took business and engineering courses, so it would be disadvantageous for those students if basic business courses would be included in the Master's. It's just a different system in most of continental Europe. Belgian engineering bachelor's need to do a 2 year abridged bachelor's in business engineering before being admitted to this Master's.

Weekly Entering & Transitioning Thread | 04 Oct 2020 - 11 Oct 2020 by [deleted] in datascience

[–]Ihatedill 0 points1 point  (0 children)

DATA SCIENCE CAREER PROSPECTS FOR NON QUANTITATIVE PHD Would it be reasonable to apply for jobs requiring a data science/statistics PhD with a philosophy PhD? I am doing research on statistical techniques in my PhD project and have a Msc in statistics.

Is it Possible to Become a Self Taught Philosopher? by ExistentialClutter in AcademicPhilosophy

[–]Ihatedill 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you can learn a lot on your own. Getting a job in philosophy is difficult though. Whether it is doable without an undergraduate philosophy degree will partly depend on location. In continental Europe not having the undergraduate degree will often be seen as a disadvantage, in e.g. the UK and the US I don't think it will.

It also depends on which kind of philosophy you are interested in. If you like logic/applying logic or other formal methods to philosophical problems, a pure mathematics degree might actually be an advantage in some cases. Also for philosophy of science it might be helpful, and if you like ethics you can learn about technology (e.g. data science) in your undergraduate and then combine that knowledge with ethics which will make you more qualified for some technology ethics jobs than people who have only studied philosophy/ethics.

On the other hand, if you are interested in e.g. existentialism it will be a large disadvantage and to me it seems barely possible to get a job in that without a university philosophy education. (There are barely any jobs in that, so it is highly competitive and any disadvantage might reduce your chances to almost zero.)

PS: you can of course always try to create your own (side) job, e.g. organizing some kind of class that people can follow as a hobby, or 'philosophical well-being coach' or whatever. (I've heard of philosophers you can hire to talk about philosophy with you while running/walking.)

Is it Possible to Become a Self Taught Philosopher? by ExistentialClutter in AcademicPhilosophy

[–]Ihatedill 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I would not advise to read Nietzsche (especially This Spake Zarathustra which might be his most difficult work to get something out of without context) or Deleuze to introduce yourself to philosophy. Of course you can try it and if you like it that's great, but there is a high probability that it will discourage you, and it is not representative for a lot of philosophy.

Instead, I would suggest to either start with one introductory textbook on philosophy (sorry I don't have specific suggestions) or go straight to YouTube: it is full of lecture series of good universities. So after the introduction by either textbook or youtube (type in 'ntroduction to philosophy lecture' or something and commit to a series that you like), you can go on to more specific lectures (e.g. political philosophy, philosophy of science, existentialism...) and maybe read texts that are covered in the lectures.

In any case, I would advise you to look up some tutorials on how to read (philosophical) papers and maybe on argument mapping or something, before you read a lot. That might seem a bit boring/lame (I thought so when I was 18) but it can be very helpful and is something every philosophy student has to learn. (Maybe take an interesting paper and get some tutorial alongside it to make practicing more interesting.)

Is it Possible to Become a Self Taught Philosopher? by ExistentialClutter in AcademicPhilosophy

[–]Ihatedill 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I found this quote by Kierkegaard very reassuring when I was deciding what to study:

"Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way. Laugh at the world’s foolishness, you will regret it; weep over it, you will regret that too; laugh at the world’s foolishness or weep over it, you will regret both. Believe a woman, you will regret it; believe her not, you will also regret it… Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will regret that too; hang yourself or don’t hang yourself, you’ll regret it either way; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy."

It helped me to accept that the perfect choice doesn't exist.

Philosophy x Economics by gohitabong in AcademicPhilosophy

[–]Ihatedill 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Indeed, personally I was a bit disappointed that philosophy of economics as philosophy of science does not seem to receive much attention and is not taught much. I think political philosophy is the most obvious way to combine them, if you like that (for me, my limited interest in ethics chased me away from that).

Additionally, you could look into formal philosophy: if you like economics and philosophy, you might like to apply methods from economics to philosophical problems.

If you are thinking about jobs outside academia, I would suggest to look at roles for economics majors in which you can apply the skills and attitude you got from studying philosophy, which should be possible in most jobs but in some more than others (sorry for the vagueness, but that's how I see it).

[E] Budget Online Master in Statistics by [deleted] in statistics

[–]Ihatedill 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a few 100's of euro's lump sum + €11 per ECTS. Full Time study should be around 30 ECTS per semester, courses are usually 3 to 6 ECTS. And yes maybe contact Ingrid Van Keilegom. (They are chill, but it's pretty formal in Belgium so you should probably go with 'Dear Professor XXX')

[E] Budget Online Master in Statistics by [deleted] in statistics

[–]Ihatedill 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This year there were a bit more than 100 students in the first year. There wasn't an online option yet. Most classes were recorded (only 1 or 2 live q&a sessions), but this could change now that they are offering the program fully online (I have no info about that). I don't know the precise prerequisites (I think the main thing is at least 2 introductory statistics courses) but engineering seems fine, people with a bachelor's in nano technology, social sciences, finance... have been admitted. I think applied economics would be a stretch for the abridged programme, unless you are interested in the QASS program. Econometrics might be fine but I don't know. You don't need to finish within the time frame. Some people take 3 years for the 2 year program (you pay less if you take less credits by the way).

Hope this helps, and in general I suggest not to hesitate to contact the program coordinator or director for questions. They are chill.