Big thanks to admissionprof

[fermiboy]

I just wanted to shout out a big "Thank you!" to admissionprof for all his/her helpful advice and for giving us a glimpse to the "other side." It's awesome that you take the time to post here and help us out. Can you put that under the "service" part of your CV?

"Anonymously advised prospective graduate students on physicsgre.com"

Thanks again, professor.

[grae313]

I'll second that. Thanks, professor.

[quizivex]

Thanks admissionprof. You've been very helpful to lots of us regulars and probably to lots of other users who read these forums but never post anything.

[dlenmn]

Agreed. Thank you.

[zxcv]

I'll join in on the thanking.

Fermiboy, do you read FemaleScienceProfessor?

[Helio]

And thanks fro the prospective applicants

[admissionprof]

You're all very welcome, and I appreciate the thanks. Looking back, I've probably spent a grand total of 2-3 hours reading and writing posts, and maybe half an hour with a dozen PMs. It's worth that amount of time to reduce a little stress, get a few people to DECLINE OFFERS WHEN YOU KNOW YOU AREN"T GOING , and give advice. I think of it as part of my job.

I've thought about whether to surrender my anonymity, since many of you would think more highly of my institution, and some juniors might even apply next year. But it's best not to---I've said a few things about some places that wouldn't have been appropriate. There are a few admissions directors who know my identity (I asked one to contact a couple of schools when they jumped the April 15th gun, both places relented and adhered to the rules). Despite one person's guess some time ago, you don't even know my gender...

Good luck to all of you.

[jdhooghe]

Here, Here!

Yes, thank you for all your excellent advice

[twistor]

I'll drink to that. Thanks admissionsprof.

[twistor]

Despite one person's guess some time ago, you don't even know my gender...

Sounds like it's time to play the gender guessing game.

[excel]

Good thread. Thanks a lot, admissionprof.

Despite one person's guess some time ago...

That was me Why not start a poll in the lounge to see if most of us think s/he is he or she!

EDIT: I just started the poll in the Lounge.

[admissionprof]

Despite one person's guess some time ago, you don't even know my gender...

Sounds like it's time to play the gender guessing game.

All right, twistor, I'll admit it. I'm of the feline persuasion.

[cancelled20080417]

Well, I am the only one who always thought that( and I still think ) admissionprof is NOT a real Prof. Plz do not get me wrong. I do not believe if some body claims something anonymously ( so people don believe me, coz RG is anonymous, *** twistor, I am NOT RICHARD GARE. I do not even know who that is) That is just me, but your comments have been very helpful and no matter who you are, I thank you for spending time on this forum and telling us stuffs that a 'real' admission Prof would say.
Thanks.

[admissionprof]

Well, I am the only one who always thought that( and I still think ) admissionprof is NOT a real Prof. Plz do not get me wrong. I do not believe if some body claims something anonymously ( so people don believe me, coz RG is anonymous, *** twistor, I am NOT RICHARD GARE. I do not even know who that is) That is just me, but your comments have been very helpful and no matter who you are, I thank you for spending time on this forum and telling us stuffs that a 'real' admission Prof would say.
Thanks.

RG, you may be right about many things. This is not one of them. I am a tenured full professor in charge of graduate admissions at a class I research university....

[grae313]

There is really no point in arguing it. RG will have his opinion, and the only way to change it is to break anonymity, which isn't going to happen. There is no need.

[cancelled20080417]

Ok admissionProf, are you going to tell us the state also ?

[vroomfondel]

thanks admissionsprof, whether you are the real thing or the forum equivalent of a placebo.

either way, it helps.

[Helio]

Well, I am the only one who always thought that( and I still think ) admissionprof is NOT a real Prof. Plz do not get me wrong. I do not believe if some body claims something anonymously ( so people don believe me, coz RG is anonymous, *** twistor, I am NOT RICHARD GARE. I do not even know who that is) That is just me, but your comments have been very helpful and no matter who you are, I thank you for spending time on this forum and telling us stuffs that a 'real' admission Prof would say.
Thanks.

RG, you may be right about many things. This is not one of them. I am a tenured full professor in charge of graduate admissions at a class I research university....

I am waiting for the circular argument

[twistor]

All right, twistor, I'll admit it. I'm of the feline persuasion.

There are two ways I can interpret this. I assume the cleaner one and conclude that you are female.

[vicente]

Well, I am the only one who always thought that( and I still think ) admissionprof is NOT a real Prof. Plz do not get me wrong. I do not believe if some body claims something anonymously ( so people don believe me, coz RG is anonymous, *** twistor, I am NOT RICHARD GARE. I do not even know who that is) That is just me, but your comments have been very helpful and no matter who you are, I thank you for spending time on this forum and telling us stuffs that a 'real' admission Prof would say.
Thanks.

RG, admissionsprof is a real physics professor, on one of the grad school open houses I went to, one of the graduate admissions professors told me that he reads these forums and knows admissionprof personally. I didn't ask for her or his identity (so don't bug me!)

[quizivex]

Don't fall for it, RG!! vicente is a fake too!!! he is just an alternate username admissionprof made to try to give himself credibility. admissionprof uses vicente to stir up discussion with other forum users who will then ask admissionprof questions that admissionprof will give spurious answers to in order to throw off his competition. yes, admissionprof/vicente is just a rebel student that garden banned from heaven and wants revenge.

geez i got carried away, lol.

thanks, vicente, for resolving this issue once and for all!!

[fermiboy]

Fermiboy, do you read FemaleScienceProfessor?

Not regularly, but I'll think I'll add it to my "blogs" bookmarks and check it out. Is it good? I do read quite a few physics and science blogs, some of my favorites are Asymptotia, Cosmic Variance, Pharyngula (sp?), Physics and Physicists, and Uncertain Principles. I used to read Lubos Motl's Reference Frame for his crazy rants, but they started to get old really quick.

[zxcv]

Fermiboy, do you read FemaleScienceProfessor?

Not regularly, but I'll think I'll add it to my "blogs" bookmarks and check it out. Is it good? I do read quite a few physics and science blogs, some of my favorites are Asymptotia, Cosmic Variance, Pharyngula (sp?), Physics and Physicists, and Uncertain Principles. I used to read Lubos Motl's Reference Frame for his crazy rants, but they started to get old really quick.

FSP is one of my favorite blogs. I guess her post along similar lines is just a coincidence.

I read several other blogs of the quantum computing persuasion (Shtetl-Optimzed and The Quantum Pontiff, both coincidentally by Berkeley grads) and a few other physics ones that I'm sure you've encountered. An American Physics Student in England is also interesting, by a future fellow student (for me) at Berkeley. Not to hijack this thread, but I'm still looking for more good ones .

[schandre]

... (I asked one to contact a couple of schools when they jumped the April 15th gun, both places relented and adhered to the rules)...

Yeah! Thank you very much for that admissionprof!

[Benfit]

You gave me a great advice, admissionprof. I will never forget it. Thank you so much!

[twistor]

quizivex is also a fake persona created by admissionsprof to heckle the people who question the authenticity of admissionsprof. You thought we would fall for this ruse but we've outsmarted you.

If you're going to fake an identity don't claim to get a 990 on the PGRE because everyone knows that's only possible for transgenic military supersoldiers.

[admissionprof]

quizivex is also a fake persona created by admissionsprof to heckle the people who question the authenticity of admissionsprof. You thought we would fall for this ruse but we've outsmarted you.

If you're going to fake an identity don't claim to get a 990 on the PGRE because everyone knows that's only possible for transgenic military supersoldiers.

Actually, every single member on this forum (except one) is a fake persona set up by admissionprof. It's just to mess with that one person's mind. I won't tell you who is real. (and thanks to the impersonators I set up for the open houses...)

[twistor]

How do I know if I am real or not?

I post therefore I am.

[Helio]

I post therefore I am.

this sums up the internet

[VT]

yeah, a big thanks to admissionprof from me too.

[admissionprof`]

Since next year It's more likely that I won't be in admision committee...so before leaving such a wonderful blog I was just curious howmany of u guys seriously want to have some clue about my identity !!!!!!

[al-Haytham]

nice try buddy..but why do you have a ` attached to admissionprof

[quizivex]

Why is there an apostrophe in admissionprof's name?

Edit: Oh yea and no offense to "admissionprof '", but admissionprof has better english

Edit2: Haha and admissionprof ' joined the forum 10 minutes ago...

[quizivex]

nice try buddy..but why do you have a ` attached to admissionprof

haha, al-Haytham, you beat me by a minute!!!

[grae313]

nice try buddy..but why do you have a ` attached to admissionprof

yes, it seems that admissionprof's english suddenly deteriorated and s/he decided to make a new profile under "admissionprof'"

[twistor]

yes, it seems that admissionprof's english suddenly deteriorated and s/he decided to make a new profile under "admissionprof'"

I think we've all done that at some point.

[twistor2]

yes, it seems that admissionprof's english suddenly deteriorated and s/he decided to make a new profile under "admissionprof'"

I think we've all done that at some point.

Yes, I concur.

[forecast8]

I've thought about whether to surrender my anonymity, since many of you would think more highly of my institution, and some juniors might even apply next year. But it's best not to ... Despite one person's guess some time ago, you don't even know my gender....

To a pair of eyes in the head of a hopefully soon professional researcher, that looks a lot like taunting. If fact it looks like you are daring someone to out you. Between the details you have actually written and the things we can infer, I suspect that given a few hours I could make of short list of three to four names.

Here is some of the data I would use:

Definate info:
- top 50 but not 20 school. (That narrows it to thirty names)
- Have a daughter (probably just one daughter, maybe other sons) either currently enrolled or just finished with grad school involving music. That would fix your age between about 45 - 60.
- You are not at Florida State or Columbia
- Your school admitted three intl's on April 14th last year.

Inferred
- You live in the Eastern time zone (Based on a thirty second analysis of your posting times )
- This is your first or second signficant experience in an online community (You are showing increased effectiveness in interacting in a free for all discussion and you are only just learning how to PM. this doesn't help much, but is interesting and may support an older age estimate)
- You are likely not female (This is just intuition on my part based on several intangible factors)

When you first started posting I suspected you were Thomas Humanic, but I'm less certain now. If it were summer time and I didn't have things hanging over my head I might be more inclined to waste time chasing this down.

[dlenmn]

If it were summer time and I didn't have things hanging over my head I might be more inclined to waste time chasing this down.

Perhaps I missed something, but I recall the point of this thread was to thank admissionprof, not to stalk him/her. I'm grateful for admissionprof's contributions to this forum, so I'm for respecting his or her anonymity.

[quizivex]

yeah, having a professor share his/her insights was something this forum really needed... the last thing we should do is make him/her feel uncomfortable here...

[twistor]

You live in the Eastern time zone (Based on a thirty second analysis of your posting times )

Who elses posts do you analyze?

[grae313]

I've thought about whether to surrender my anonymity, since many of you would think more highly of my institution, and some juniors might even apply next year. But it's best not to ... Despite one person's guess some time ago, you don't even know my gender....

To a pair of eyes in the head of a hopefully soon professional researcher, that looks a lot like taunting. If fact it looks like you are daring someone to out you. Between the details you have actually written and the things we can infer, I suspect that given a few hours I could make of short list of three to four names.

Here is some of the data I would use:

Definate info:
- top 50 but not 20 school. (That narrows it to thirty names)
- Have a daughter (probably just one daughter, maybe other sons) either currently enrolled or just finished with grad school involving music. That would fix your age between about 45 - 60.
- You are not at Florida State or Columbia
- Your school admitted three intl's on April 14th last year.

Inferred
- You live in the Eastern time zone (Based on a thirty second analysis of your posting times )
- This is your first or second signficant experience in an online community (You are showing increased effectiveness in interacting in a free for all discussion and you are only just learning how to PM. this doesn't help much, but is interesting and may support an older age estimate)
- You are likely not female (This is just intuition on my part based on several intangible factors)

When you first started posting I suspected you were Thomas Humanic, but I'm less certain now. If it were summer time and I didn't have things hanging over my head I might be more inclined to waste time chasing this down.

Who gives a flying ***?

[forecast8]

Who gives a flying ***?

There is a class of people who compulsively solve riddles. If they happen to do it for a living we call them scientists.

If they solve riddles for fun they are ones on the subway with a crossword or sudoku book.

The riddle of who is admissionprof was never particularly interesting until (s)he made comments about us guessing h(is)er gender. I looked at that and thought, "I bet I could solve that riddle and here is how."

@admissionprof. I have no interest in who you really are, nor time to really even think much about it. But the identity of any annonmyous writer who says interesting things has always been a riddle that attracts some attention. This was true long before the Internet. And like any riddle it presents an opportunity for sense of satisfaction when one solves it. This is why the author of Primary Colors or the fake Steve Jobs blog could not hope to remain annonymous for very long.

[grae313]

There is a class of people who compulsively solve riddles. If they happen to do it for a living we call them scientists.

And being able to judge which riddles are worth one's time is a characteristic of a good scientist

[doom]

oh snap!

[will]

Grae's such a good scientist that she knows exactly how much time forecast8 spent on this wee project purely from conjecture.

[grae313]

Grae's such a good scientist that she knows exactly how much time forecast8 spent on this wee project purely from conjecture.

To a pair of eyes in the head of a hopefully soon professional researcher, that looks a lot like taunting. If fact it looks like you are daring someone to out you. Between the details you have actually written and the things we can infer, I suspect that given a few hours I could make of short list of three to four names.

Here is some of the data I would use:

Definate info:
- top 50 but not 20 school. (That narrows it to thirty names)
- Have a daughter (probably just one daughter, maybe other sons) either currently enrolled or just finished with grad school involving music. That would fix your age between about 45 - 60.
- You are not at Florida State or Columbia
- Your school admitted three intl's on April 14th last year.

Inferred
- You live in the Eastern time zone (Based on a thirty second analysis of your posting times )
- This is your first or second signficant experience in an online community (You are showing increased effectiveness in interacting in a free for all discussion and you are only just learning how to PM. this doesn't help much, but is interesting and may support an older age estimate)
- You are likely not female (This is just intuition on my part based on several intangible factors)

When you first started posting I suspected you were Thomas Humanic, but I'm less certain now. If it were summer time and I didn't have things hanging over my head I might be more inclined to waste time chasing this down.

Just typing all that would take more time than it's worth, IMO. Just thinking about it enough to want to write down all of that is a little ridiculous, again, IMO.

[fermiboy]

So are you the time police now, Grae? Making sure that everyone uses their time to the best of their ability? Just kidding.

If forecast8 wants to have a little fun with admissionprof's mystery identity then who cares?

[forecast8]

There is a class of people who compulsively solve riddles. If they happen to do it for a living we call them scientists.

And being able to judge which riddles are worth one's time is a characteristic of a good scientist

No. Don't you go down that intellectual path, you have every indication of being a better scientist than that.

Every month for the last 10,000 years someone looked at the full moon and asked, "why doesn't it fall down?" And 99 times out 100 someone standing nearby said, "That's the stupidist question I've ever heard (TTSQIEH)." Need I go on with other examples? High Energy guys wanted to build the SSC in Texas and enough tax payers said TTSQIEH and congress scrapped it. Nasa got 1.6 Billion to launch to the Hubble and when most people heard how much it cost (and cost is measure of time) they said TTSQIEH.

You have the right to critic my methods. You may choose to participate or not participate in some project I am working on or to fund or not fund research I am doing. But when you set yourself up as an absolute authority on what is worth spending 15 minutes thinking about you are anti-science.

Now sometimes it does turn out that research is fuitless. Most of it is. Newton spend the second half of his life trying his hand alchemy and Einstien the second half of his trying to disprove Quantum mechanics.

I sincerly hope that in 10 years when you have your 'truly originial world changing idea' and you just need a few $100K to test it out that no one says TTSQIEH.

Now it doesn't matter how much time I spent mulling admissionprofs identity - it was my time to waste. Shame on you for belittling my curiosity. And besides if Lois Lane had spent half the time I did investigating who superman is she could have avoided getting killed in Superman II. (or III? I can't remember)

[forecast8]

You live in the Eastern time zone (Based on a thirty second analysis of your posting times )

Who elses posts do you analyze?

You would not believe what I know about you.