Trapped In an EW Box

Hey canecon, you've got a pretty sweet deal there. Nuffield is just generally AWESOME and they usually support their students really well...they don't take in that many. Plus, their study bedrooms are generally some of the largest - and if memory serves, their students were getting the use of computers in their rooms (in addition to whatever you may bring with you). Also - and most importanty - college food generally sucks, but Nuffield's is actually really good. You're really close to professors as well, they sometimes have offices not that far from your study bedrooms. You can PM me if you want to know more, I wasn't at Nuffield, but had a bunch of friends who were :)

B - we're econ grad students...so BY DEFINITION we're cool ;)

For the poorly funded: Option A: SUBLET Option B: Research Grants that require "data gathering" abroad :)

Well, I would argue that that having a pet provides just enough of a distraction to mellow me out when I find myself getting stressed. Watching my cat chase around little toys attached to strings is priceless entertainment and taking care of a pet really doesn't cost that much. There are some downsides though - 1. most nice places to live don't allow pets, so sometimes there's a trade-off there, 2. unlike a girlfriend or boyfriend that you can dump if they get annoying, it's much harder to extricate yourself from an owner-pet relationship if you find that it's more than you can handle, 3. you also have to worry about a pet like you would worry about a toddler - you really can't "go home" or wherever for an extended period of time without making arrangements for the care of your pet, so this really restricts your freedom a bit, 4. cats are a little easier to take care of, but if you get a dog, you HAVE to walk it when it wants to be walked - you're on their timeschedule, not on yours! (or else you're going to have a very messy house!), 5. many people are allergic, so you might want to keep this in mind if you like to entertain or plan on having roommates, 6. as well, many grad student apartments are TINY, so this can be burdensome on a pet if it doesn't have enough room to run around in your apartment, and 7. it's something to think about - it's been my experience from visiting a number of grad student apartments that grad students generally do NOT take care of their pets the way they should regarding cleanliness - most grad students are messy and don't even clean their apartments like they should, so adding a pet to this makes for some very nasty environments. In the end, I think a pet can really add to your overall quality of life as a grad student IFF you are responsible enough to take care of it!!

Me too!

Great - thanks, this is really helpful. I'm not looking for signalling value, just looking for which classes I can squeeze in for my last quarter to prepare for the PhD and what would be the best use of my time! So it seems like the consensus is on PDEs then? Though maybe a statistics course might be more useful? There's a course at my school on causal inference - of course at the exact same time - so I would have to choose between them. How advanced of a statistics background is "good" before entering a program?

Do you guys/girls know which is probably going to be the most useful - partial differential equations or basic complex variables? Sorry for yet *another* math question...any help would be appreciated! Thx :)

So might this be the week for Oxford?? I've applied to Cambridge, but they've asked for some additional materials from me, so my application status still says "applicant". I think since they don't close their applications process unless June, they do rolling admissions....can anyone confirm that?

best of luck guys! you've all been big supporters of everyone else on the forum!!! :luck2:

Thanks Olm! I think we definitely need a secretary whisperer again!!

Has anyone heard from either of these UK schools? MPhil, DPhil, PhD? Anyone have any info?

What about visiting Departments on days other than their official admit days? I may be in this situation too. Is is useful? Or will the only thing to be gleaned something like hmm...I like number of Starbucks here?

Some inside info: decisions are still being finalized, but letters (from SSD I think) are all being mailed (yes, mailed by post) this coming Friday. Of course, I don't know *what* that means for people who haven't heard directly from the Department... I think it's going to be a wait-and-see game. Hope that's helpful!

i really shouldn't have brought my laptop to class today...

ooooohhhhh..... thanks guys, again giving me heart attacks here, ha ha... my bad for not reading closely enough! "marketing"....whew... :whistle: