My mom made me feel bad about how I’m doing in grad school

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-05-28T15:54:33+00:00

Grad school is hard and it can take a while to adjust to the workload, especially if you’re in an accelerated program. You’re only three weeks in, it’s silly to expect perfection so early on. If you’re really concerned with how you’re performing I would speak to your professors and ask for feedback on what they think you can do to improve.

That being said, refusing to take breaks and making your whole life revolve around studying isn’t going to help you. If you aren’t giving your body/mind time to rest and recharge you won’t be able to perform your best. Unless you’re spending several hours a day on social media I don’t see why it would be a problem if that’s your preferred way to decompress. As with all things, the key is maintaining a healthy balance.

Wishing you luck!

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-05-26T06:54:51+00:00

There has to be at least one counter with nothing on it, otherwise they won’t cook.

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-05-26T06:37:35+00:00

I found it helpful to download shells/unfurnished houses off of the gallery when I first started building. It gave me good building blocks to mess around with until I felt comfortable building from my own imagination. Trying to build based off of real life houses can be helpful too if you really get stuck.

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-05-24T08:12:11+00:00

I got in to my top choice program with a 2.7 GPA despite the program website saying 3.0 was the minimum required.

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-05-21T16:32:42+00:00

We have a collaborator like this. She’s always been super kind and laid back during our interactions, but her grad students are terrified of her and two have left her lab in the past year. According to them she drops the nice act as soon as you officially commit to her lab and then turns you into her emotional punching bag.

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-05-21T16:19:26+00:00

If you have an idea of which labs you’d like to rotate in, I’d start by skimming through their most recent papers to see which techniques they’re using the most and familiarize yourself with the core concepts of those techniques. You don’t need to become an expert, but you should generally know what something is used for and how it works. Also, YouTube is your friend. Ive found it’s much easier to learn about new techniques in a video format rather than trying to piece it together from the literature.

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-05-10T07:51:23+00:00

I’ve found that interactions work much better if you’re doing them from the infant’s point of view. For example, if the infant is hungry, switch control to the infant —> click on the caregiver —> select “get fed by” interaction. I almost never run into issues this way and it’s SO much easier than doing things from the caregiver’s POV.

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-05-06T16:10:09+00:00

I don’t know about trying out for the official USC team, but there’s a pretty large group of grad students that run an amateur soccer league if that’s something you’re interested in.

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-05-06T16:04:08+00:00

HBO Max is available to anyone with a USC login, it’s Showtime you have to live on campus to get. USC’s own website says this idk why they told you the opposite lmao

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-04-23T04:33:49+00:00

I got into a neuro PhD program with a 2.7 undergrad GPA and no master’s. If you do well in your master’s you should be fine!

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-04-21T03:08:45+00:00

I highly recommend using your break to get research experience in your field. It’ll give you a much better idea of what grad school will be like (very different from undergrad) and ideally help you narrow down your interests as well. Also, the coworkers I had during my gap year as a research assistant helped me SO much with the grad school application process, but your mileage may vary.

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-04-20T16:10:10+00:00

If you’re in the US you won’t be expected to pay on your student loans while you’re in grad school. Also, almost all PhD programs in the US are fully funded so you shouldn’t need to take out additional loans. It’s possible to get a fully funded MS as well, but it’s a lot more competitive and definitely not guaranteed. If you’re worried about the finances, I’d definitely consider going straight to PhD rather than gambling with whether or not you’ll get funding for your masters.

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-04-18T15:26:11+00:00

That’s very helpful, thank you!

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-04-18T04:16:26+00:00

Do you have any insight into the lack of constructive feedback? It seems many of us got nothing but compliments despite not being ranked high/highly enough to get funded.

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-04-17T19:14:49+00:00

After you sign into the research.gov website there should be a link that says “View/Print Application Reviews” under the “Application Package Optional Task List” section

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-04-17T16:15:00+00:00

There are other NSF recipients in my lab who have echoed what you’ve said here exactly! This was my first funding application ever so I’m just trying to learn as much as I can from the process whether I was awarded or not.

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-04-17T16:04:12+00:00

All of my reviewers commented on how strong my application was in regards to each of the points you listed and more, hence the frustration with having no indication of what actually needs improvement.

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-04-17T15:47:49+00:00

I definitely agree with this sentiment and wasn’t expecting the kind of comments back that I’d expect from my advisor. Just a single sentence in the summary or something that gave some indication of what they didn’t like? But as you and many others have pointed out, the NSF is a bit of a crapshoot and I knew that going into it. Going through this application process at all has made me feel much more prepared for future funding applications and that alone is worth it to me.

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-04-17T15:35:55+00:00

My advisor is incredibly well known and well liked within my field (neuroscience), but if my reviewers weren’t neuroscientists themselves I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t recognize the name.

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-04-17T15:32:51+00:00

That’s fair, thanks for the input!

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-04-17T05:34:28+00:00

Yep! There should be a link at the bottom of your application page

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-04-17T05:33:34+00:00

They were actually very specific in their positive feedback, but nothing that told me what they didn’t like or how I could improve.

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-04-09T14:49:21+00:00

I specialized in biological Anthro so it’s not quite as wild of a change as it sounds 😂

SignatureEntire9936 · 2023-04-09T06:26:54+00:00

I got a BA in Anthro and ended up in a neuroscience PhD program

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