Midterm and Mars
Last night I had a dream about my psych midterm. We got to lab today (in the dream) and our grades were listed by our student number on a huge overhead. I only got 10 questions right out of 45, and I was really really upset, so I went to talk to my professor about it. I started to cry and he said he felt really sorry for me.
So he took me to Mars.
Yeah.
Luckily, I did not get a 10/45. I got an A. But I didn’t get to go to Mars.
Hahaha, what the hell, universe?
WOAH what a weird morning.
I woke up at like 4:30 this morning and felt like death, so I kinda aimlessly wandered around my apartment for half an hour or so before collapsing back into bed. I woke up for real at about 9:50, which I thought was okay, since stats doesn’t start until noon.
Until I realized that stats ACTUALLY starts at 11. Which gave me approximately an hour and 10 minutes to get dressed, walk (run) to the bus, get to campus, and hike up to the math building.
Well, let’s just say that the powers of the universe were on my side. Just as I sprinted to the bus stop, #7 showed up, and just as I got to my second stop, #480 showed up. So now I know that the absolute fastest I can get to campus is 25 minutes.
OH, and then I saw some calculus graffiti on a recycling bin. I’m not freaking kidding. It was an integral equation for 1/3 (or something like it, it was in black ink on a dark green bin). I wanted to take a picture, but there were too many people, and I didn’t have but my crappy camera phone.
I shall go back later and take it.
I HAVE THE URGE…
THE URGE TO UNDERSTAND MATH!
I don’t know what it is about this subject. It terrifies the hell out of me (especially when I have to take a class in it), but yet when I don’t understand something about it I have this incredible urge to take as many math classes as my soul will allow me in order to actually “get it.”
Right now I want to take calculus again. Lots of it. Mainly because I forgot all that I learned due to losing my notes and the class being at 8:30 in the morning (whose brilliant idea was that, anyway?).
Sigh.
I guess I’m realizing that now that I’ve started grad school, I’m one major step closer to pigeon-holing my education. It’s not undergrad anymore, where nobody gave a crap what I took. I actually have to “stay on task.” Which is surprisingly difficult for me.
Whatever.
One’s education should never be a monogamous relationship
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, save monogamy for human relationships! Happiness comes from integration of knowledge from many sources. I have realized that I love statistics and I love philosophy (plus like twenty other things), and in order to be happy I must somehow have them both (all).
I often ponder just giving up on this whole one-track idea of undergrad/masters/PhD and just deciding to stay in undergrad for as long as possible to see how many degrees I can accrue.
One can dream, right?
“DURRRR WHAT’S A STAPLE”
Seriously, have any of these people ever seen a stapler? An obnoxious proportion of the 366 students fail to staple their assignments…it’s really freaking annoying. The whole “I’ll just fold my pages over” only works if you’re the only one doing it, so that when your crappy folding job falls apart, the TA will know that all the detestable pieces of free paper are yours.
Ergh.
ALSKDJSLGLSFJSLR FREAKING PASSION PIT
There is only one song cooler than the Sleepyhead Jazzsteppa remix.
And that is Sleepyhead.
Why does this song and its variants continue to rule my soul?
Also: Tinn-R makes me incredibly happy.
Also also: grant proposals blow. BUT I’m eligible for funding from the National Science Foundation because Quantitative Psychology is a branch of psychology they consider as “science.”
OH GOD MY FUTURE IS IMMINENT
So as of today, I am officially a grad student. Yay. I also realized that my blogs have spanned my entire undergraduate career (with like a month of high school included, at no extra charge!). I shall continue such blogging until I graduate.
Whenever that will be.
Neutrality: It’s Not Just for Switzerland Anymore
So today sucked because it was TA Development Day, which is codename for Groupwork for Nine Hours Day, but while we were designing fake rubrics, I thought of a good topic for some research (even though there’s probably hundreds of papers written on it). What are the effects of having a “neutral” or “no preference” response in Likert-type scales? Like such:
“I am a cool person.”
(1) strongly disagree
(2) slightly disagree
(3) neutral
(4) slightly agree
(5) strongly agree
What effect does it have on the response? Are more people going to fall into that neutral category, thus lowering the number of people who would have chosen otherwise if that category hadn’t been there? Or are people put off by surveys/questionnaires that lack this “middle ground” option—thus including one would increase response? It’s an interesting thing to look at.
Until we meet again, USA…
So today my mom and I drove up to Vancouver to move my crap into my new apartment. I almost made my playlist EXACTLY as long as it needed to be…if we hadn’t gotten stuck in a traffic jam, it would have ended perfectly.
Oh well.
Pictures to come soon.
Edit: right here!
Happies
Yay! So now I have a place to live in Vancouver next semester. I’d show you pictures, but the listing has been taken down.
Now to get that stupid student visa taken care of…
Bloggity McBlog
Check it:
“You have been awarded a 1-year UBC Graduate Entrance Scholarship (GES), valued at $17,500, in support of your graduate studies. These fellowships are only awarded to the top students, so you are to be congratulated on your academic success.”
Pretty cool, huh? Put the TA money on top of that, and I’m getting $27,500 for my first year at UBC.
Snazzy.
UBC part II
HOLY CRAP is it big here. The campus is the size of Moscow (at least population-wise—seriously) and the psych building is like three times the size of the Kibbie Dome.
It’s ridiculous.
There aren’t any quantitative students here, but there are two of us prospectives, so who knows.
Oh, AND it’s sunny and about 67 degrees here, as opposed to snowy ass Moscow in February. Go figure.
UBC
I’m in Canada, bitches!
After flying to Seattle and then renting a car to drive to Vancouver (weather problems were a factor, which is why we didn’t fly the whole way), I am now sitting in a fancy hotel, waiting for tomorrow, during which I shall go examine UBC and see if I want to go here.
I’ll probably have to, but whatever.
I do not feel like working on my philosophy homework, but I have to.
Also, why is Hulu working?
Insult + Injury = Apple Pie
FUCK I didn’t get into my top school.
I could have guessed as much.
Screw this, I’m too much of a loser to blog today.
Bah.
I’m so sick of doing these stupid grad school applications.
I’m in freaking Hawaii. Everyone else is out having fun; I’m stuck in this hotel room in like 90% humidity trying to concentrate on these stupid things.
Blah.
If I had more to blog about, I would, trust me.
Are you serious?
GOD DAMMIT. AGAIN.
The company that I have to get into and through graduate school to work for is the very company whose test will probably be reason schools will turn me down. If it didn’t suck so horribly, I’d be laughing at the irony.
I’ve done an average of 26.6 credits per semester, with a couple of those done over the summer. I have a 4.0. I’m graduating in 37 days with my psychology degree. I have almost enough statistics background for a minor and almost enough philosophy background for a major, both of which I’m getting next semester. I have research experience. I’m co-author of an article that’s under review for publication. I have worked my ass off for the past year and a half, cramming eight semester’s worth of work into five. Why? Because I am so ready to go into the career I want that I’m willing to sacrifice everything—down time, time to hang out with friends, non-school related extracurricular activities, even my sanity (flashbacks to last semester’s finals week)—to get to a point where they’ll finally let me to the job I want to do so badly.
So what will my GRE scores tell the grad schools to which I’m applying?
They’ll tell them that I don’t know what 9 raised to the 14th power is (this was an actual question. Seriously. What is the practicality of knowing this??).
They’ll tell them that I can’t find an antonym of the word “panegyric” given a list of five words.
They’ll tell them that I can’t remember the formula for the area of a cylinder.
But you know what it won’t tell them?
That standardized tests have never once predicted my performance in academia (with my SAT scores, my undergrad GPA should apparently be about a 2.6).
That I understand statistics and enjoy them.
That I have such a passion for psychometrics that it’s all I can ever see myself doing with my life.
That I am probably the most motivated person they’ll ever meet.
It’s just very, very depressing to think of the fact that regardless of all this hard work I’ve put into my education, regardless of the stress, regardless of how desperately I want to be a psychometrician and carry out what I think is my life calling, no school will give me a second glance because I cannot perform well on a standardized test.
Fuck it.
+900 in Negative Karma!
Good thing to know: waking up 5 minutes before you’re scheduled to take the GRE leads to super crappy GRE scores.
Fuck this, I don’t want to talk about it.
Indiana Jones and the 25 Credits of Doom
I’m sorry, Rob. I don’t mean to be so freaked out, but I’m under so much freaking stress right now I’m about to die.
Honestly, this 25 credit thing was basically a breeze up until dead week started. Seriously. Now it’s hell on earth.
Will that stop me from attempting to do 28 credits in the fall?
Of course not. You know me.
OOH! OOH! But guess what I found!
RICE UNIVERSITY.
Behold! This is one of the professors there:
Mark A. Kulstad
Emphases: LEIBNIZ, History of Modern Philosophy, Epistemology.
This man, I want him. If I can’t stalk Leibniz, I’ll stalk the guy who studies him.
Oh, and the school also held the first annual NORTH AMERICAN LEIBNIZ CONFERENCE back in January.
Amazing.
Who’s ready for the GRE?!
Well I’m sure as heck not. That’s why I bought some flashcards and such today. Luckily, you can take it five times in a twelve-month span, so I think I’ll be okay.
Goal score: 1400+
Plus I have to take the subject test on psychology. Well, I don’t have to, but the colleges I want to go to recommend it. Crap.
A blog solely about school (feel free to bypass this one)
As the title says, this blog is entirely about school, so you can stop reading now if you like.
Okay?
Okay.
So I totally rocked the socks off the first tests in my Tests and Measurements class on Tuesday. Highest grade in the class. You have no idea how good it feels to know that you may actually be good at what you want to do with your life (and you beat a bunch of seniors and a few grad students). Plus it was the little ego and confidence boost that I’ve needed practically this whole month. God, this month has sucked. But more on that later.
Next item of business: grad school! So far I’ve found a total of FOUR schools that offer a PhD in psychometrics. How sad is that? But anyways, as good as the University of Minnesota sounds (and it sounds GOOD), Fordham University in New York City sounds good as well. This is probably due to the fact that they have a list of required classes, and these classes are basically very specific courses on very specific topics, such as psychometric theory and ANOVA. Dream come true!
But can you seriously see me in New York? I can’t. But I will be applying to every single school I can find (all four of them), so we’ll wait and see which one (if any) I get in to. Then decisions will be made.
Wee.
Math, you’re deriving me crazy!
How many times have I used that joke?
Okay people, I’ve got another school-related question for you. As you already know, I’ve got my three minors: statistics, philosophy, and writing. Statistics and philosophy are essential—they’re highly recommended by the grad school I want to go to. Writing, on the other hand, is an “optional” one that I’m doing just because. So I’m wondering whether or not I should stop pursuing it. I’m thinking this a) because if I go for it, I’m going to have to take eight classes per semester (AT LEAST 21 credits, cause one of those classes will be a lower-credit music class) and b) I want to take Latin or some other equally awesome random classes. If I have a writing minor, I won’t have time to take anything else.
And also—and I’m a little ashamed of this—I want to have a chance to be able to drop math this semester if I need to. I just don’t know if I’m ready for another math class that’s not set up in the super-easy fashion of Polya. I’ll have to read up a bit first (but dropping is a last resort!).
I hate these kinds of things. And yes, I know minors don’t matter at all, really, once I get into grad school. That’s one of the things pushing me towards cancelling writing.
Eigenblogger 