California Adventure
Mar. 4th, 2012 05:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jhameiaOK, so I guess I should write somewhere about what happened in California. I've been spending a lot of time decompressing from it.
So my ride out began in the noon, after waking up at 10am or so. Getting to the airport was no fuss, although it was cold out. I like the fact that I didn't have to check in my bag. I won't be able to pull it off in May though, since I plan on bringing in booze for Ay-Leen (we are going to commiserate over university rejections together).
The route is: 2 hours to Atlanta, and then 4/5 hours to Ontario, California.
One of the current grads, a fifth year WOC (Azn!) doing fantasy lit and classical Chinese, came to pick me up. She was really nice in explaining the parts of town, and drove me to MacDonald's so I could get some food, before dropping me off at my hotel, and stayed until I was safely ensconced in my hotel room. Which was a very nice hotel room! It had a microwave and errthing.
Good thing I checked my email? Because the secretary of the department emailed everyone to say that she was coming to pick those of us in the hotel up in the morning. So I woke up early, around 8am, and hung out in the lobby and had some hot chocolate. I checked out the local literature, asked the poor receptionist dude a ton of stupid questions about maps and stuff, and then someone else came in and she was also here for UCR's recruitment day. Then someone else. So by the time the grad secretary came, I already got to know two of my potential cohort, both from the East Coast, both also expressing the weather shock.
The first person we sat down with was the grad recruitment adviser, Dr. Yenna Wu. I'd been exchanging emails with her, and I was somewhat surprised to see that she is a much older Asian woman. I don't know why; I thought she'd be much younger. But it was good to hear her, you know? Anyway, she explained a few things, introduced herself, got us to start introducing ourselves, and we were about a few in when the chair of the department came in. He started talking, and we asked him many questions.
Then we got to go have a chat with other PhD students in the program! Without the professors sitting around. And there were a LOT of POC students who'd come out, too. It was a good, easy-going, gossip-filled session, with a lot of good advice from the seniors, and there was a kind of atmosphere where I think there's a sort of implicit acknowledgement of how not-well-adjusted we all are, being academics, but no real judgement against it. I got to talk to a couple more indepth, since one of them was in my field, sort of, doing science fiction (she actually said, "WE NEED TO TALK!" and it was just very cool to have someone so neat want to talk to me :O ) and the other is a Malaysian-Malay, and I got some really useful info on studying in the States.
Onto lunch, where we just got to generally mingle. It's the sort of event I would go to for the free food, ostensibly, but also for the social mixing. And profs kept saying to me, "I remember your application! The steampunk one!" /o\ *SO EMBARRASSED AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA* But omg there are some very neat profs here.
Then a session with the director of the program, Dr. Bloom, who told us what this year's course offerings are, who's teaching them, and what we'd need for our coursework.
Oh, earlier they tried to explain the quarter system to me, but I don't think I understood it. Ten weeks seems standard to me, but turns out, it starts very late?? USians, I don't understand you. Why do you start classes so late in September, get only a scant couple of weeks off, finish the spring quarter during like May?? (My MA program, we started mid-Sept, and that was pretty late already! We were done coursework by early April. Which I think is how shit should work!) (Anyways.) (Suffice to say I still don't quite get it.)
There was also something about how those of us who already have an MA could defer some courses, which I might have to ask about sometime. Anything to get coursework out of the way is great, although admittedly, the core course, on canons, seems like a class to take over and over and over again @_@ A different prof teaches it every year, and since different profs handle different literatures, each term has just about completely different material! How cool is that!
We then got to sit in with the acting graduate adviser who told us a bit more about the requirements for the three tracks. This is the other snag I'm hitting whereby it seems the science fiction track is a bit of a mess at the moment? As in no one except the founders are sure exactly how it works. Even the students don't quite know. I may have to speak to Dr. Raphals again to figure out what courses I'm supposed to be taking, but I'm guessing I'll have to take some STEM classes or something. Which will be cool of course... I should comb through the university catalog to see if there're any history of technology courses to take.
Afterwards there was tea! And then we had the option of either taking a campus tour, or going to a science fiction talk. I went to the talk, because I was curious. (It was somewhat interesting, but only mildly so, since it was about some dead dude who wrote from a combo of French and English perspectives, so between Verne and Wells.) And wow the library. There are printing presses. Very pretty printing presses.
So this was late afternoon by now, and I was truly confused by the heat. 26'c! I'm walking around with a winter jacket! I didn't really have much else to do, and it was a choice of hanging around the department some more, or, heading out to Dr. Wu's house, which she's renting out. Another of my potential cohort, Heather, drove us, because she might have to move with her daughter.
It's a bit out of the way, which puts it out of my list, even though I know I can carpool with others, but it IS a nice house... backyard with persimmon trees, nice rooms, large living room. Heather and I dropped off Dr. Wu, parked and wandered around campus a bit more before heading out to dinner. We couldn't decide between that and driving downtown, although I wish I had a chance to check out the downtown. We did see a couple of the residential areas right by the uni, within walking distance (we both want places that is within walking distance to campus).
Heather treated me to dinner, by way of coaxing me to pick UCR ('cos I'd have to treat her to dinner next time, right?), and sent me to the airport. Which was nice to her. I was supposed to get a ride from one of the other grad students, but he was busy at the time (my flight was 10.30pm, and I wanted to be there by 8.30-ish... he asked his girlfriend but she lives in LA and so I felt bad about it, and tried getting my ride from the airport but she was busy too, so Heather, since it was on her way anyway, drove me in).
So... didn't get to stay long enough to get a sense of the town, alas, but it seems like the uni is a great place.
My flight back was pretty uneventful, but it was 4 hours and then 1 hour of sleep, and suddenly it was bright daylight and another 2 hours traveling home. And of course, as soon as I got off the plane, snow-rain. SEE, THAT IS FEBRUARY WEATHER.
UCSC is having a grad recruitment day April 1, but they have no monies at all to subsidize student visits... I'm tempted to just go, just to meet the faculty. But I'd like to be able to give UCR an answer in the next couple of weeks. So I'm giving McMaster a week more to get back to me about whether I'm in or not, and I can go from there.
So my ride out began in the noon, after waking up at 10am or so. Getting to the airport was no fuss, although it was cold out. I like the fact that I didn't have to check in my bag. I won't be able to pull it off in May though, since I plan on bringing in booze for Ay-Leen (we are going to commiserate over university rejections together).
The route is: 2 hours to Atlanta, and then 4/5 hours to Ontario, California.
One of the current grads, a fifth year WOC (Azn!) doing fantasy lit and classical Chinese, came to pick me up. She was really nice in explaining the parts of town, and drove me to MacDonald's so I could get some food, before dropping me off at my hotel, and stayed until I was safely ensconced in my hotel room. Which was a very nice hotel room! It had a microwave and errthing.
Good thing I checked my email? Because the secretary of the department emailed everyone to say that she was coming to pick those of us in the hotel up in the morning. So I woke up early, around 8am, and hung out in the lobby and had some hot chocolate. I checked out the local literature, asked the poor receptionist dude a ton of stupid questions about maps and stuff, and then someone else came in and she was also here for UCR's recruitment day. Then someone else. So by the time the grad secretary came, I already got to know two of my potential cohort, both from the East Coast, both also expressing the weather shock.
The first person we sat down with was the grad recruitment adviser, Dr. Yenna Wu. I'd been exchanging emails with her, and I was somewhat surprised to see that she is a much older Asian woman. I don't know why; I thought she'd be much younger. But it was good to hear her, you know? Anyway, she explained a few things, introduced herself, got us to start introducing ourselves, and we were about a few in when the chair of the department came in. He started talking, and we asked him many questions.
Then we got to go have a chat with other PhD students in the program! Without the professors sitting around. And there were a LOT of POC students who'd come out, too. It was a good, easy-going, gossip-filled session, with a lot of good advice from the seniors, and there was a kind of atmosphere where I think there's a sort of implicit acknowledgement of how not-well-adjusted we all are, being academics, but no real judgement against it. I got to talk to a couple more indepth, since one of them was in my field, sort of, doing science fiction (she actually said, "WE NEED TO TALK!" and it was just very cool to have someone so neat want to talk to me :O ) and the other is a Malaysian-Malay, and I got some really useful info on studying in the States.
Onto lunch, where we just got to generally mingle. It's the sort of event I would go to for the free food, ostensibly, but also for the social mixing. And profs kept saying to me, "I remember your application! The steampunk one!" /o\ *SO EMBARRASSED AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA* But omg there are some very neat profs here.
Then a session with the director of the program, Dr. Bloom, who told us what this year's course offerings are, who's teaching them, and what we'd need for our coursework.
Oh, earlier they tried to explain the quarter system to me, but I don't think I understood it. Ten weeks seems standard to me, but turns out, it starts very late?? USians, I don't understand you. Why do you start classes so late in September, get only a scant couple of weeks off, finish the spring quarter during like May?? (My MA program, we started mid-Sept, and that was pretty late already! We were done coursework by early April. Which I think is how shit should work!) (Anyways.) (Suffice to say I still don't quite get it.)
There was also something about how those of us who already have an MA could defer some courses, which I might have to ask about sometime. Anything to get coursework out of the way is great, although admittedly, the core course, on canons, seems like a class to take over and over and over again @_@ A different prof teaches it every year, and since different profs handle different literatures, each term has just about completely different material! How cool is that!
We then got to sit in with the acting graduate adviser who told us a bit more about the requirements for the three tracks. This is the other snag I'm hitting whereby it seems the science fiction track is a bit of a mess at the moment? As in no one except the founders are sure exactly how it works. Even the students don't quite know. I may have to speak to Dr. Raphals again to figure out what courses I'm supposed to be taking, but I'm guessing I'll have to take some STEM classes or something. Which will be cool of course... I should comb through the university catalog to see if there're any history of technology courses to take.
Afterwards there was tea! And then we had the option of either taking a campus tour, or going to a science fiction talk. I went to the talk, because I was curious. (It was somewhat interesting, but only mildly so, since it was about some dead dude who wrote from a combo of French and English perspectives, so between Verne and Wells.) And wow the library. There are printing presses. Very pretty printing presses.
So this was late afternoon by now, and I was truly confused by the heat. 26'c! I'm walking around with a winter jacket! I didn't really have much else to do, and it was a choice of hanging around the department some more, or, heading out to Dr. Wu's house, which she's renting out. Another of my potential cohort, Heather, drove us, because she might have to move with her daughter.
It's a bit out of the way, which puts it out of my list, even though I know I can carpool with others, but it IS a nice house... backyard with persimmon trees, nice rooms, large living room. Heather and I dropped off Dr. Wu, parked and wandered around campus a bit more before heading out to dinner. We couldn't decide between that and driving downtown, although I wish I had a chance to check out the downtown. We did see a couple of the residential areas right by the uni, within walking distance (we both want places that is within walking distance to campus).
Heather treated me to dinner, by way of coaxing me to pick UCR ('cos I'd have to treat her to dinner next time, right?), and sent me to the airport. Which was nice to her. I was supposed to get a ride from one of the other grad students, but he was busy at the time (my flight was 10.30pm, and I wanted to be there by 8.30-ish... he asked his girlfriend but she lives in LA and so I felt bad about it, and tried getting my ride from the airport but she was busy too, so Heather, since it was on her way anyway, drove me in).
So... didn't get to stay long enough to get a sense of the town, alas, but it seems like the uni is a great place.
My flight back was pretty uneventful, but it was 4 hours and then 1 hour of sleep, and suddenly it was bright daylight and another 2 hours traveling home. And of course, as soon as I got off the plane, snow-rain. SEE, THAT IS FEBRUARY WEATHER.
UCSC is having a grad recruitment day April 1, but they have no monies at all to subsidize student visits... I'm tempted to just go, just to meet the faculty. But I'd like to be able to give UCR an answer in the next couple of weeks. So I'm giving McMaster a week more to get back to me about whether I'm in or not, and I can go from there.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-05 02:51 am (UTC)Is it seriously 26º at UCR this weekend? It's been warm and winterless, but I didn't realize it's that warm and winterless down in the south!
Given that even my relatively poor department is able to subsidize visitors, UCSC not having the money to subsidize people seems like a sign of…things.
It sounds like UCR is pretty cool, though!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-05 03:32 am (UTC)And yeah, I feel really bad about UCSC =/
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-05 03:07 am (UTC)It's worth remembering that UCR is the most diverse of the campuses in the UC system. They also, from my experience, are really open to cross-departmental collaboration, and the faculty in Ethnic Studies, Media and Cultural Studies and English are all amazing.
Remember also that you are in very accessible distance to LA––an hour and a half on the train or an hour's drive. Unless very unlikely things happen I'll be gone, but I'll hook you up with interesting activist/academic critical ethnic studies & Asian-Am studies LA folks if you come to SoCal!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-05 03:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-05 08:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-06 03:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-05 11:03 am (UTC)US academic schedules vary a good deal. I'm used to going back right after Labor Day (first Monday in September), but one of the schools I teach at starts a week or two earlier, in late August. This year one of my spring semesters started after Martin Luther King Day (mid-January) and the other not until the very end of the month (that school has a four-week winter session which I happily did NOT teach during).
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-06 03:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-06 10:28 am (UTC)