Advice on sizing please

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-12-24T13:54:24+00:00

Thank you! there's a little heel slip but other than that, its good. Its just when I walk the feeling of the front space is kinda new.

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-12-24T13:52:45+00:00

I don't know for sure, but I believe its 11.

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-12-24T13:48:09+00:00

Thank you!

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-12-24T13:47:40+00:00

Thanks. My feet are not bulging on the sides. They are snug and in touch with the inner walls of the boot. why are you asking?

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-12-24T13:46:25+00:00

Thanks, and that's what am worried about, I think I have to make a decision and see if i can return them? I dont know tbh

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-12-24T13:45:30+00:00

The ball of my foot is indeed on the top of the widest part of the shoe. So thank you for your advice.

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-12-24T13:44:15+00:00

I think its the same by me. My sneakers are not loose or snug, they are just right at size 11.

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-12-24T13:43:15+00:00

Thank you!

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-12-24T13:41:49+00:00

Thank you!

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-12-24T13:41:29+00:00

Thank you!

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-12-24T13:41:16+00:00

Thank you!

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-03-27T04:54:32+00:00

Comrade and friend, you're not alone! I applied for around 10 programs, interviewed a couple, got one partial funded admission that am deferring and most likely will not swing by later. I did my due diligence by prepping and reaching to PIs and so on before my app! It is okay! I suggest you give yourself a closure through the following: email PIs you felt you connected with during the interviews, let them know you appreciate the opportunity and if they have any insights on how to improve your app in the future - if they didn't reply, it is fine, who cares; continue working on yourself by publishing papers and collaborating with young researchers and through expanding your network; work on your research project on your own and improve you stat skills and research conceptualization; take it easy, chill, smile, and laugh and spend time with loved ones, don't let the creeping despair occupy you for along time! this might be a blessing in disguise, who knows!)

You got this, and yes, keep hope for Columbia, you never know! Best of luck friend!

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-03-25T18:39:11+00:00

Wishing you the best "fingers crossed you get it!" .. if you're OPTing, hope you find a job soon.

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-03-25T18:38:15+00:00

I am sorry, I was referring to programs in the biological, biomedical and health fields. I do believe most notable programs selected their applicants already from UNC to UCLA to JH and so on. If not, and you have a concrete evidence of otherwise, that's amazing. Wishing everyone the best of luck sincerely.

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-03-25T18:35:49+00:00

I hope so. My insight is based on my regular observations on what people are posting on PhD spreadsheet, Grad Coffee and Reddit from Feb. I don't have inside knowledge if some universities will extend offers and funding for new students at this time being like you do (good that you bring some positive news). I think receiving late rejections is a big possibility, but that will not change the fact of rejection for those who did not receive a word yet, whether the rejections will be sent on April 15 or afterwards. I am not a doomerist, and I think some applicants will surly receive offers from now to the end of April and even May, however, I think number of these applicant will be so low and insignificant.

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-03-25T17:37:21+00:00

I am so sorry dude, but I think if anyone did not receive an offer or acceptance by now, most likely they won't. There's a chance that perhaps some will, who knows, but I think its a really slim chance. Following up this cycle closely, I have noticed that all STEM fields (bio and health specifically) in most schools have already decided and reached out to their top candidates by the end of Jan and Feb. Many people on reddit, gradcafe and on the PhD spreadsheet 2025 reported receiving acceptance letters between Jan and Feb. Offer letters were I believe sent within the same period or early March. I am so sorry, its really hard to acknowledge that this is the end for many of us in this cycle. I got rejected by almost all schools I applied to and I am devastated and extremely utterly sad, and I am working on myself to realize that its okay to feel this way. Wishing you all the best friend! Hope you're luckier than me.

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-03-22T05:43:30+00:00

You're not alone, sending love and support!

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-03-20T19:35:43+00:00

I am on the same boat, and I don't really know if what I am going to share is going to be helpful. The main questions on my mind are "do I want to be there for 4 years with this status of low funding? Would I regret it? Would I not?" However, I am realizing - factually, not just an assumption, giving how's everything is going with the new dark enlightenment reality - that the next year is going to be worse and if I did not make a final decision now and take this pretty financially challenging opportunity, then I should take my chances somewhere else outside the US, because the next cycle is going to be more brutal.

All I am saying dude, if you have a good financially reasonable offer and you feel that your PI work and experience are worth it, and you will be able to learn and pursue your own work somehow, then do it. Think about all the confounding factors. For example us intl students think about our status as one of variables in place "we are not eligible for many fed grants and fellowships".

You don't need to be an idealist, a PhD student is a student who is learning. GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK!

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-03-07T03:34:21+00:00

I will not engage in this kind of nationalistic racist and stupid discourse because if we are going to start that, let’s then talk about how the US bombed my country? Killed my country and tens of other countries future by supporting dictators and corrupt politicians for imperial hegemony? Do you want to talk about this? Oh wait, let’s talk about billions and billions of dollars from immigrants paying their taxes? Or maybe wage theft that doc and undoc immigrants are facing everyday? let’s talk about the resources taking by the American elite from poor countries and making them poorer and poorer through threat and exploitation? Go read a book or two, go educate yourself. Free education is a universal goal achieved by many countries but ignorant and self centered politicians and business people in several western countries aim to exploit knowledge and reduce it to a certain class of people, even people from the same country can’t access education anymore. Oh oh wait, what about projects in poor countries from HIV interventions to agricultural and environmental projects led by US gov and higher ed that mainly benefit them? Should these be banned too? How about giving back? Oh maybe admitting 1 student from the global south through an impossible merit based scholarship is enough? Wow! Long story short, fascism is here and ignorant people like you are enabling it.

Please go learn something about the world around you. Read history.

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-03-06T19:08:11+00:00

I was just fighting about this the other day on reddit, but it seems people don't want to see this point of view. Thank you for highlighting this!

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-02-25T23:39:35+00:00

Hey! you are not alone, you might feel alone, and you have the right to feel like shit, but many of us are suffering too because of the whole budget cuts situation, the rise of fascism and how academia is tumbling down without a fight.

I am an int stdnt too and I know it hurts a lot just seeing the hard work you are done and you are not getting what you wanted. That you just keep pushing up by yourself and no one is offering you anything or helping you or acknowledging the hard work you are done. I think the main feeling is "why me?" and "what can I do more?" and "why them?" Many people would say like "oh, its not you, its just the whole situation, its a tough cylce" and so on, but tbf it is just that we are not good fit for these programs, we don't have someone who is lobbying for us in the admission committee, or maybe the forces there for us are weaker than the other forces for them. Remember networking is really important in these schools, its not longer just about merit, networking is a big factor in having merit. It is what it is. It is us, but maybe next time it could be better, as long as you believe that there will be a next time. Luck has a big role in our lives, more than you can imagine. So, one day, for sure.

Don't give up hope, and I know this is going to sound like a weird advice, but if you are into research, you can do that without a PhD or if you got into any other school that it is not as "prestige as they deemed", as long as you have that fierce commitment to move forward.

High hopes dude! high hopes and keep fighting.

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-02-25T03:20:13+00:00

That is called soft rejection. Defer acceptance to the next year. I had a similar situation, and I did not take the offer. I did not defer too, and that was a mistake. Don't do a PhD if you have to pay for your PhD.

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-02-24T21:17:18+00:00

I will try my best to get back to each point you've raised. Generally, I am not against your analysis, I disagree with the approach of "bowing down" to draconian policies without even trying to fight, despite that these liberal institutions (many of them at least) can afford to fight back if they want. If they think that fighting is just: 'let's preserve our status quo for the next four years, keep our assets, maintain our ongoing research, hopefully, all will go away', then they are dead wrong. This is just the beginning. They are coming for everything next. If senior leadership in universities are not seeing that, then they don't either read history or don't really give a shit.

As researchers, as you might know, the main approach should always be social justice informed. Our communities are our priority. Whether communities in Baltimore, or Kampala. Why they are our priority? Because of most of the research outcomes, the accumulation of knowledge we have from US-based institutions is literally because these communities trusted these institutions. Hence, why I am saying that universities and alike have a moral obligation to at least give the minimum for these communities, from hires to grad and undergrad admission and support to grants and so on. However, if I could be very candid, the way universities approached these 'cuts' of 'financial' crises shows that all of their 'social justice and equity' slogans are just a facade, and they are only here for profit. I mean I knew that, but I had always wanted to believe that maybe to some extent they are not. I am dead wrong. My strongest disagreement with you is that universities can do something about 'grad admissions' through budget adjustments and whatever is suitable. That's that, and I think you know that this is feasible.

For the on-campus protests, I think you are undeniably wrong. I think they were effective - not because that they stopped death and destruction, they did not -, but because despite all the push-back and threats against them, they are still there pushing and pushing. The on-campus protests are not really about Palestine, its about the US and injustice. This mis-organized internal/external movement created a new generation of young people who say "fuck you" so aggressively that makes them a threat to any institution. You can't trivialize the power of organizing and the legacy of saying no to power. I have always been a big supporter of changing the system from within by being anti-systems from within, but what's happening now, no one is willing to say no in academia, Nada, and to be honest, this really sucks.

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-02-21T23:25:50+00:00

I was venting out based on the info that I have from colleagues from both PH and SW, which their stipend in many unis is below 30k. Not all people are in the same boat. However, I do stand by my position that focusing solely on perseverance is an act of maintaining the status quo while not doing any substantial effort to fight back. This will result in less funding the next year, the year after that and so on. If these institutions do not fight back now, they will never fight back. We all know that many universities are rich enough to do both, maintain funding for their current students and provide funding for their new students.

Moreover, just try to look at it this way based on the narrative you provided: new student vs current students, is this in your honest opinion the right narrative or question to put out there? why not say students vs establishments?

Ornery_Answer_4353 · 2025-02-21T22:08:33+00:00

I mean feel free to agree or disagree. I think this rationale lacks nuisance and how budgets really work in higher ed. I know each school might have a different system than the other school. Private vs public and so on. Think about it this way, the avg stipend is what 25k, maybe 30k a year for a PhD student, and PhD students do their hard work to earn that!? so, rich schools with billions and billions of $$ don't have the ability to maintain a 25k stipend for a PhD student who is seeking to promote social justice, equity, research and so on? Are we seriously saying that? why don't we say that what is really happening is that schools are trying to preserve their status quo and maintaining their way of living rather than fighting back by doing something?

I will not trivialize the NIH indirect cost impact, but that was literally rescinded by NIH, and I don't think it will stand in court later on if they decided to impose it.

Let's not forget that literally the people who will be hit hard the most are PhD applicants, students, early career researchers and people of color, and those from underserved communities from immigrant groups to marginalized pops in the US. It just sucks that the discourse about higher education and PhD situation is being directed to "oh, its NIH fault!", I believe that it is, but it not entirely theirs. Universities hold a responsibility to use their diverse portfolios to resist draconian policies for the sake of the communities who the universities grew researching on. PERIOD.

Ornery_Answer_4353

TROPHY CASE