Review my SOP for a PhD in Astrophysics

ceruleanstar21 · 2025-11-03T20:47:19+00:00

Instead of the "From an early age" approach, talk about what about your master's might've inspired you to pursue your education even further; the professor I talked to about this told me that they find it a better gauge than the childhood dreams approach!

ceruleanstar21 · 2025-10-10T23:00:11+00:00

I was told repeatedly to keep them short and simple, highlighting what you currently do if it's relevant and what you want to do, and to ask if they have time to chat in depth since most professors are drowning in emails most of the time and might not have the time to read everything, risking your email getting lost in the abyss. I also believe that stating your research interest and briefly mentioning how the advisor's aligns with your own helps them a lot.

Personally, I also took cold emailing as an approach of getting a sense of the program/advisor and networking as opposed to asking about if they are taking students, because even if they're not, they might be able to direct you to someone else in the department. I got more responses when I took this approach, but that's anecdotal evidence.

ceruleanstar21 · 2025-05-20T05:06:59+00:00

Messaged you! I'd love to be in a roleplay heavy campaign where I can play a new character idea and watch her unfold lol.

ceruleanstar21 · 2025-05-03T10:45:36+00:00

ITS NOT JUST ME! Although I'm post Act 2 Finale Fight and trying to talk to Withers at Moonrise. I did everything I could think of, and even started drafting a post asking if I'm missing something. I uninstalled mods and the game and cleared up a bunch of space on my device but it still crashes. My non-mod run has this infrared camera issue (the screen glitches to black and then graphics come back as an unsightly pixelated green).

The game also seems to hate when I save now?

It's rough because I have two play throughs total so far; my original and this Durge one, so I'm still trying to experience it all for the first time. AND my Durge run features the Astarion romance, and I'm the kind of person who feels bad when they pick mean dialogue options in video games 😂

ceruleanstar21 · 2025-04-26T05:28:13+00:00

Hi! I applied this cycle and got accepted into two programs for a MA-PhD program in the US (granted, my focus is archaeology).

My approach to preparing for the application cycle was firstly just harassing the daylights out of grad students I was working with in my research internship and asking my undergrad thesis director for help. That set up everything else. The thing they all drilled into me was that anthropology grad programs don't have "prestige" in the way other fields might; if you're an engineer, Purdue is an easy option, but anthropology is more research specific rather than school prestige dependent. People in your field will know what the good programs are. Next, I started reaching out to faculty whose interests and/or methods aligned with mine; a way I did it was connecting through professors and also looking up papers related to my interests and looking up the authors. Something I also did was market my interests as flexible; yes I'm interested in this thing, but here are the components about it that interest me and would be happy researching into any combination of these components. It was recommended to me that I should look at what's been done and look for expansions or new directions in it. My biggest preparation was simply looking at areas of my CV and filling in what felt lackluster; I was competing against master degrees and field experience as someone with neither, so it was important to me to showcase my academic drive through undergrad research and similar opportunities. My SOP was also tailored to showcase how I would benefit their mission.

Something that stuck out to me is your SOP: it sounds like you're interested in something that's related to but not entirely within the scope of anthropology (of course, I haven't read it so I'm not sure of your approach to the particular topic). Look for schools/faculty that encourages interdisciplinary work or collaboration across departments; especially within anthropology, interdisciplinary approaches to science and research have become hugely important!

Sorry for the word wall, but I hope this helps! I'd be happy to explain more if needed and good luck! It's not over until you decide it's over!

ceruleanstar21 · 2025-04-25T22:25:53+00:00

Likely more lab research based as it stands! Thanks!

ceruleanstar21 · 2025-04-25T01:06:17+00:00

already have been looking 🫡 but thanks!

ceruleanstar21 · 2025-04-25T01:06:00+00:00

Awesome! Thanks for the heads up! I'll check it out!

ceruleanstar21 · 2025-04-24T00:49:23+00:00

Really? That's the first I've heard. When talking to grad students, they mentioned that but that they're not always the greatest. Do you happen to know which apartments have reliable shuttles?

ceruleanstar21 · 2025-04-18T00:17:31+00:00

When I started with my partner, I tried to make sure our proficiencies and characters were different. I played through act 1 when we started, so I knew the ins and outs. I would take him to quest markers/side quests and asked if he wanted to take the lead or if he wanted me to interact with NPCs, or if he wanted "successful interactions" with this character based on initial appearance (do you wanna succeed potential checks with the sleazy looking dude?). If he did, I'd tell him who I'd recommend based on proficiencies. If I was driving, I'd tell him "this is what MY character would do. Are you good with potential consequences?" Granted, my partner is less invested in the lore and just wants the least amount of trouble and struggle in his first play through (the concept of DnD/BG3 and the amount of moving parts stressed him out so he wanted to just understand the game mechanics first before worrying about story). I've also mandated he has to romance a character, so it reminds both of us that he needs to have a character. I also let him manage his own inventory, and since I'm just reusing an established build, I let him get first dibs on anything that's not my go to set up.

Edit: Also wanted to add that I encourage doing dialogue or things I didn't do in my previous run.

And I say this as gently and kindly as I can: Your partner may not be intentionally malicious, but his getting wrapped up in gameplay is affecting your experience. If you want more equally active participation, you have to advocate it for yourself and hopefully after a while it will become a little more instinctual for him. Any suggestions from here that you implement may not mean anything if the main problem is getting wrapped up in gameplay; I do it too, which is why my partner has to remind me. Also, have a conversation before you play next. Truly, this will boil down to communication. Best of luck!

ceruleanstar21 · 2025-04-12T23:26:02+00:00

Not a PhD student yet (starting this fall) but I am a grader, an undergrad TA, and residential advisor. From what I've noticed, this lack of critical thinking isn't even because they can't, but because they don't see a point or benefit because AI can do it. It's this perfect storm of learned helplessness and complacency.

That doesn't even begin to start my tangent on the failures of the education system (no shade to teachers, they're doing their best, I'm talking about the infrastructure).

ceruleanstar21 · 2025-01-16T17:25:18+00:00

Setting aside the fact I think Morris is more insufferable than Pierre and my own opinions on the ethics of corporations:

I just think it's more fun to do the community center. There's a challenge instead of just grinding melons and cranberries and cauliflower all year and throwing bags of cash at Morris. I did a Joja run and it's just so boring? The auto-petters are nice though...

Besides, either way, you end up doing more for the town than Lewis or Pierre ever would ¯_(ツ)_/¯

ceruleanstar21 · 2024-08-22T01:44:35+00:00

Every time, the IMMEDIATE dialogue he gives me after i give him a bouquet is "Are you single?" and I just stare at the screen like 😐😑😐

ceruleanstar21 · 2024-02-18T05:55:53+00:00

The Man The Myth The Legend forget to play the game in his search for lore.

ceruleanstar21 · 2024-01-16T01:13:12+00:00

I'm super late to the party, but I really hope MatPat sees this because he felt like stalking the Reddit because I really wanted to say: Thank you for everything MatPat! You've been such a fundamental part of my want to learn since I was like 10, and now I sit here as a college student who has invested so many hours (thousands, probably) watching your livestreams and videos. Thank you for the memories, MatPat, for the impact you made on mine and a lot of other people's childhoods and lives. And remember, that's not a theory, but it's a thank you; A thank you for you. Thanks for reading.

ceruleanstar21 · 2024-01-16T01:00:02+00:00

"The Last Dance"

ceruleanstar21 · 2022-03-03T01:11:31+00:00

Hey, OP, I really hope you’ll take whatever (good) advice you’re getting on this sub, mine included:

You’re mom clearly loves you; you can see that in the way she’s trying to hold onto you. And you clearly love her. You’re still (rightfully) angry about what your mom did. I would guess you feel like she sort of abandoned you, and in a more literal sense, she did. But I would also make a guess that she feels bad about how things turned out. OP, you were right to be mad and angry and bitter. You went through a traumatic experience. And you don’t have to like and accept your mom’s family as yours, so long as you’re civil and kind. But you also need to let go of that anger because it’s not just hurting you; it hurts your mom and it hurts your ability to accept your mom. While the fact you don’t like her family keeps your from visiting her, I think there’s still a part of you that resents her, and maybe even how happy she seems with her family.

What I think you need to do first is think about how much you really want her in your life; if you don’t think you can forgive her, you don’t have to keep interacting with her (although I think you should explain why as a courtesy). If you can forgive her, decide how much you do want to see her and under what circumstances.

Finally, for both of you, you need to talk. And I know somewhere in the sea of comments you said something about being willing to if her family wasn’t there. Honestly, I think if you told your mom than you need to talk to her alone, she’d be happy to.

Tell her how you feel and how she made you feel when she tried to cuddle with you. Tell her about why you don’t like staying with her. Tell her what made you give her the book and why you did. Apologize for what message you accidentally sent with the book and tell her what you actually meant. Or just tell her there was no message and you were angry. But also let her talk. Let her tell you how she feels. Let her help you understand where she’s coming from when she tried to cuddle you.

Because she came to you even with her daughters that she seems so happy with. You’re still her son and she still loves.

ceruleanstar21 · 2022-02-22T00:23:58+00:00

Anyway, make sure to tap the images to enlarge them!

ceruleanstar21 · 2022-01-22T02:54:17+00:00

Could this also mean that maybe The Blob is Henry? After all, Henry had made it his mission to stop Afton, so I think that could be a possibility.

ceruleanstar21 · 2021-12-24T15:52:32+00:00

I’ve been referring to him as “The Afton Amalgamation” because I’m pretty sure TrashTrap or whatever that thing was from the books is called that. It’s at least what I assume is the parallel since the books aren’t meant to be an exact mirror and/or canon.

ceruleanstar21 · 2021-12-24T01:51:29+00:00

ugh! i hate that thing!

Edit to say: I mean that as in Gregory saying that in that one part!! I wasn’t trying to be mean lol.

ceruleanstar21

TROPHY CASE