nice. i loved calculus, I took 2/3 of the calc needed in high school and my teacher was great. the theory behind it, the thing about the area of infinitely many rectangles under a curve to find area, etc is super cool

people who love and are good at math are so foreign to me. i just can't comprehend it sometimes and it feels like another language (it is!), but i sure am trying. i look at math and everything starts to swirl around just like in a cartoon. even if i can figure out how to work certain types of problems, i never know when to use the correct method and i don't always get exactly what i am figuring out.

i found this dictionary last week that may help. it puts math terms and junk into english. so now i can attempt to learn why i am doing what i am doing.

studying for the gre, the site i use to help me study (magoosh) has really good videos to explain things. like even basic things, like why do you add exponents when you multiple bases with different exponents. it spells out what you're actually doing and why it makes sense mathematically. this comes in handy when you deal with weird critical thinking math problems on the gre. unfortunately the site is not free but im sure khan academy or somewhere else has similar videos.

i took methods of calculus which is like applied calculus for psychology and business. it was interesting. derivatives and integrals and limits and shit. i enjoyed it

Reading everyone's experiences in this thread feels alienating

^ i agree tbh, and i'm not sure why

EDUMACATION IS BRAIN WARSHING

who needs maths or geography anyway what a waste of time

oh yeah geography, yuck.

school, shmool!

got this email from my professor



why does life have to be so fucking hard netphoria

here’s the thing: i want more than anything to do this. some context: this is about a broadcasting class i’m taking that i can only take three times unless i move up and produce/direct games. i care about this way more than my other actual classes for my major because i’m a stupid idiot who doesn’t know what he’s doing

this needs to go well and it probably won’t

I suppose we can assume he's not the professor of using apostrophes where appropriate instead of the number one in superscript.

what²s wrong with your voice?

.

oh yeah. that's the one thing i haven't really mentioned on here

basically i have this medical condition thing where it sounds really hoarse all the time. i used to be incredibly self conscious about it but now i don't really care (unless it fucks up this thing for me)

Aw. At least you can always join a black metal band.

Just kidding ram. i feel your pain. my nasal congested drone sounds exactly like napoleon dynamite. and ppl tell me this. fuckers.

Hoarse enough to peddle unlicensed tours of the Vatican to tourists?

i...don't get it

i've been told i sound like filthyfrank

diane rehm went out and achieved anyway

school has been closed since wednesday and won't open until 9/18. but two of my classes are online so fuck me i guess? it appears that we are expected to still complete everything even though no one else is

i mean it's not a big deal since i have power but some people like evacuated or have no power/internet. lots of students flew back to their parents

I took the GRE today. Got 163 verbal which is 93rd percentile. 155 quantitative which is 59th percentile. I was trying to get 320 total but I think if I take it again I will very likely get lower quant (155 was pretty miraculous, I guessed a fair bit). 155 is fine for quant anyway (for psychology programs), just getting above 320 looks good but oh well. 318 it is. only the very very elite schools will require 320, most are 310. there's also a writing section that takes some time to be scored but the topics were easy so whatever I get is probably the best I can do, so no use wasting any more time on this test. phew.

ah shit. today is the first day of my 12-week class. after my 5 hours of office hours for student government, i have class from 6 - 8:50. s'gonna be a long day. thursday will be the same except no office hours.

saturday is the first day of my 12-week class from 9am - 1:30. i don't mind that so much.

damn. i have one class today from 3-4 and can barely be bothered going

Just asked my possible #3 reference if he would write letters to me and he said yes. :D

Now I can get to applying. I think I have a good list going

1. University of Miami
2. Sam Houston State University (my sister works here in a different dept. but I'd have family nearby. very good forensic school)
3. Nova Southeastern (my backup. this school is expensive. other ones would give me tuition remission + stipend)
4. Fairleigh Dickinson University (NJ) - forensic program and my scores are signficantly above the average they admit. So this is one I'd more easily get into
5. University of Alabama - Birmingham - yeah I know it's Alabama but they have a great forensic program and the best stipend I've seen so far

I still am going through to see other schools. John Jay in Brooklyn is a good school but they accept like 4 people and living expenses would be very high. I prob will do one more though.

I am excite

tight. i just submitted my application to loyola yesterday. i still need to finish my apps for loyola marymount, university of southern california, university of chicago, and university of texas at dallas.

how do you ask your references? asking anyone to do anything for causes me tons of anxiety and then i feel like that anxiety influences how i ask if i do ask, anyway.

for clinical psych the references need to be very high quality. the three professors are ones i've cultivated relationships with, almost for this purpose (but not only). they are the ones who have really helped me develop and broaden my knowledge of the field.

my thesis professor, this is his job, and i know he'll write though i haven't formally asked. the other ones i feel like are doing me a big favor, because it will take them who knows, 1-3 hours of work that they are doing for no compensation. but advancing the field is important to most psych professors, so it's not too hard to find people.

my forensic psych professor, i took 5 of his classes and routinely asked questions and talked to him before/after class. i asked if he'd do letters for me at the end of the final class i took with him in spring. i just emailed him reminding him who i am and asking if it's ok if i give these schools his email address. he made it clear at the beginning of each semester that people should make themselves known through asking questions etc if they want letters, so he can put something more than 'got As in all my classes'.

the third professor, i've taken two of his classes and participate and talk to him. this is the professor i know the least. his classes are once a week so they are long with a break in the middle, and i made sure to talk to him one on one a bit. lots of people blow the class off or leave at the first break, but he's noticed and commented how i'm always there. we also write one page papers for his class that get somewhat personal, like "how might jung's theory of the anima/animus manifest in your life" was the last one. although i think that's one of jung's weaker theories, it still leads to talking about yourself on a deeper level than most classes. he just seemed like a professor who would be very enthusiastic about this sort of thing, and he was very nice, saying it would be his honor to write me letters.

so yes, especially part time faculty are doing you somewhat of a favor (or at least going above and beyond what they are being paid for), and I treat it that way. unfortunately if you haven't cultivated relationships yet it might be very hard to at the end. but i dont think other fields are as recommendation-heavy as psych.

fuck, i'm the worst. i hate starting and maintaining relationships. relationships are jobs, man. i've had it on my to-do list forever to head to the professor's (there are two) office to ask face-to-face because i hate email but i it just keeps getting moved up and i always find some lame excuse to myself.

s a m e

i haven't even though about trying to do that shit.

i suppose i'll just apply to jobs and pray