Stumbling Through College

Hello! I'm Tan and I'm a Master's student in Applied Math. I like to sneak in random posts about my other interests sometimes. Feel free to message or tag me! I'm shy but I don't bite.

[positivepatton]

When you just can’t love yourself, just work on giving yourself basic respect.

When you just can’t practice self care, aim for basic hygiene and keeping yourself alive.

When you just can’t have positive thoughts, focus on ignoring the negative ones.

When you just can’t quit those bad habits and unhealthy coping mechanisms, be sure to take care of yourself afterwards.

When you just can’t make yourself eat enough, aim for something three times a day, even if it’s something small.

When you just can’t stop binge eating, just do your best to forgive yourself and focus on something else instead of dwelling on it for any longer.

Not everyone is at a point where they can recover, and so thinking about recovery can be intimidating and make them shut down, because they just feel like they’re nowhere close to getting better so they might as well not bother. There needs to be more advice on dragging yourself through the days. Self care to the bare minimum. Aiming for “feeling okay with yourself” or “feeling less awful about yourself” rather than loving yourself. Baby steps.

[niqaeli]

The SINGLE most valuable thing I acquired from my undergrad degree was internalising this: something is better than nothing.

‘Perfect’ is the enemy of ‘good’. ‘Good ‘is often the enemy of ‘done’. Best practices are almost always the enemy of better practices.

I have spent a lot of time in my professional life – in several different fields, actually – trying to convince people to do something. Because something is always better than nothing. Even if it’s a very, very small something. It’s still better.

[mathprofessorquotes]

“You will never see inertia on any test because…I don’t understand it either.”

— Multivariable calculus teacher

[malandi]

FUCK disney. no amount of nostalgia or “they were my childhood uwu” will ever excuse the racist bullshit they do

whens the boycott gonna start it’s not like they make good content anyway they just live off of either 985758 remakes or stolen ideas from poc

and tbh this is why i cannot give a single SHIT about how ‘woke’ or ‘progressive’ disney is becoming. they made little mermaid black for representation but still shit on actual people of color. we have got to learn to spot performative allyship or else they’ll continue to get away with profiting off of marginalised groups while simultaneously hurting them. there are ways of consuming their content without giving them a single cent and i sincerely hope people Make An Effort

[skyline-sunset-in-my-veins]

ok so we can do a few things:

-Blows this up and pressure Disney to pay them what they own PLUS interest for delaying it. 

-Start a GoFundMe to do it ourselves and shame Disney as a result 

[brucie-deactivated05092020-deac]

They’re fucking capitalists, they won’t be shamed, blow this post up and make them pay

[palmpetals]

hope girls grow up knowing that there are infinite ways of being a woman. hope girls grow up loving themselves for who they are.

[briellestudies]

yooo how do u email a prof for a recommendation letter?

Hi Professor!

I am in the process of applying to ____ and they require letters of rec. I sincerely enjoyed your classes, and felt that they gave me a particularly good chance to display my strengths, such as ____ [class participation, writing, etc.] and would love for you to write me a letter, if you’d be willing. The due date is ____, and I can send you further instructions for submission later if you accept.

Attached to this email is ____, the piece of work I did in your class which best showcases my abilities, as well as my current CV [or resume]. If you agree to write me a letter, soon I will also send you drafts of my ____ [statement of purpose, personal statement, application essays, other relevant material] for my application to aid in your writing. I am also happy to meet in person to discuss this with you.

I want to stress that this application is quite competitive, so if you feel you will not be able to write me a strong letter then I completely understand - but please let me know. Thank you so much for your time!

Sincerely, ____

—

a few notes:

- you should have all your relevant materials (app essays, etc.) sent to them *at least* a month in advance to give them ample time to write the letter

- thus, your initial email asking them if they’d be willing to write a letter for you should be sent *over* a month in advance. professors are busy

- if you are applying for a really prestigious position/scholarship/fellowship, or grad school, it’s best to have at least a majority of your letter writers be professors (rather than adjuncts or post docs). ideally you’d want them to be full/tenured professors. in lots of cases, especially academic ones, *who* writes your letter matters - not just *what’s in* your letter

- the reason you send them the piece of work you did in their class that you are most proud of is to remind them of your abilities as a student and the quality of the work you produced for them. they have lots of students. sometimes they need a bit of help jogging their memory of exactly what you did in their class.

- the reason you send them your other application materials (personal statement, statement of purpose, CV) is so that they have information to draw from when writing your letter. they know what you’re passionate about, what you hope to do in the future, other experience you have, and can use this information when writing your letter

- on a similar note, this is also why you’d want to list the strengths you displayed in their class

- basically, you want to give them as much information as you can about your strengths, goals, and intentions - give them prompts they can use to write your letter

- the bit at the end about asking for a “strong letter” is important because some professors can only write you mediocre letters (e.g. “this student was always on time to class and gave their undivided attention during lecture” - what does this tell admission committees? well, it tells them that the professor has nothing positive to say about your *academic* abilities and so they’re resorting to other strengths. it’s a polite way of saying “this student was okay, but not spectacular in any notable way”. big red flag for admissions committees.) if all you’re going to get is a mediocre letter, you might as well not get a letter at all

- if the professor you ask accepts, then be sure to send them polite reminders as the date approaches. (i usually send a reminder at the 1-month-till-due-date mark when i send the other application materials, and then again at the 2 week and 1 week marks, and, if necessary, every day after the final 3 days leading up to the due date

—

i know this was a lot, but i remember being in your shoes and being completely lost when it came to applying for stuff so i know how daunting it can be. i figured i’d just throw all this information at you to be of as much help as possible.

for reference, i’ve applied to graduate programs, fellowships, and scholarships. i have been accepted into several of the top 10 graduate programs in my area, as well as received multiple scholarships and a fellowship, and received honorable mentions for some of the most competitive fellowships in the US. i have also worked with the admissions committee at my graduate program to organize multiple informational events for those interested in applying to graduate school and, in the process, have learned a lot about what makes a strong application.

so while you should absolutely take my advice with a grain of salt (different circumstances call for different standards), i do have quite a bit of experience with applications and what makes a strong letter of rec.

i hope this helped! best of luck with whatever you’re applying for :)

[chibird]

Maybe some of you are in a place where you need to hear these things. Trust me, it does turn out okay. 💛

Loading Penguin Hugs | Instagram | Patreon

[indiaisstudying]

i love my dumb idiot child so much! you don’t even understand how much

i decided to post some study notes but then realised you haven’t seen my baby for a while so here!!

[mathprofessorquotes]

“You can’t do anything in this life without parametrization. Even my belly can be parametrized by spherical coordinates.”

— Calculus III professor

[no-longer-another-bondi-blonde]

“In 1984, when Ruth Coker Burks was 25 and a young mother living in Arkansas, she would often visit a hospital to care for a friend with cancer.

During one visit, Ruth noticed the nurses would draw straws, afraid to go into one room, its door sealed by a big red bag. She asked why and the nurses told her the patient had AIDS.

On a repeat visit, and seeing the big red bag on the door, Ruth decided to disregard the warnings and sneaked into the room.

In the bed was a skeletal young man, who told Ruth he wanted to see his mother before he died. She left the room and told the nurses, who said, "Honey, his mother’s not coming. He’s been here six weeks. Nobody’s coming!”

Ruth called his mother anyway, who refused to come visit her son, who she described as a "sinner" and already dead to her, and that she wouldn't even claim his body when he died.

“I went back in his room and when I walked in, he said, "Oh, momma. I knew you’d come", and then he lifted his hand. And what was I going to do? So I took his hand. I said, "I’m here, honey. I’m here”, Ruth later recounted.

Ruth pulled a chair to his bedside, talked to him

and held his hand until he died 13 hours later.

After finally finding a funeral home that would his body, and paying for the cremation out of her own savings, Ruth buried his ashes on her family's large plot.

After this first encounter, Ruth cared for other patients. She would take them to appointments, obtain medications, apply for assistance, and even kept supplies of AIDS medications on hand, as some pharmacies would not carry them.

Ruth’s work soon became well known in the city and she received financial assistance from gay bars, "They would twirl up a drag show on Saturday night and here'd come the money. That's how we'd buy medicine, that's how we'd pay rent. If it hadn't been for the drag queens, I don't know what we would have done", Ruth said.

Over the next 30 years, Ruth cared for over 1,000 people and buried more than 40 on her family's plot most of whom were gay men whose families would not claim their ashes.

For this, Ruth has been nicknamed the 'Cemetery Angel'.”— by Ra-Ey Saley

[macaronsandfries]

She’s 60 now, she’s still doing activist and advocacy work, and working on a memoir.

[sapphoesublime]

12 March 2019, Tuesday 

So the university’s resident cat decided to sleep on my lap while I was reading outside <3 Is this what love feels like???

[quilavastudy]

me when I start in August

[randommomentsdevida]

Dead

[cranquis]

interns by January

[zevveli]

The most terrifying joke in the Healthcare profession:

What do you call the person who graduated last in Medical School?

Doctor.

[quilavastudy]

I never saw that as terrifying, I saw it as inspiring because med school can get pretty competitive, and it’s fricking hard to be top of the class. I’ve never been anywhere near top of the class - but you don’t have to be.

Medical school is a long hard road, and you have to be pretty damn good to get all the way through and pass - yes, even scrape a pass - that’s what people don’t realise. If you aren’t good enough to be a doctor then you probably won’t ever graduate. So even if you passed last, you still made it, you’re still a doctor. Who cares where you came in your year, you’ve achieved something amazing.

[ley-med]

Exactly.

You know what the equivalent of grade “D” is called here? Elégséges, which mean enough.

I might barely pass, but passing means enough. 

And apart from reaching that minimum standard, my grades won’t define how good of a doctor I’m going to be. (Seriously, one might suck at writing tests, or explaining the concepts in an oral exam, that doesn’t mean they can’t be a brilliant doctor.)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Penguins new ad campaign celebrates well-read books

This new ad campaign from Penguin appeals to those of us who think beat-up, torn, taped, scribbled-upon books are more appealing than pristine ones. I wondered if the books photographed here were found as is, or lovingly distressed by the art director, then I saw the small print in the lower right of each ad, which suggests they were found that way.

https://boingboing.net/2019/07/05/penguins-new-ad-campaign-celeb.html

[strawberrystudiesblog]

“ Don’t limit your challenges, challenge your limits ”

Day 6/100

Maths 😊

[gentle-reminder]

gentle reminder

you don’t always have to be right but you don’t always have to be wrong; compromise when needed, but don’t hurt yourself or others: you’ll learn how to balance it out even if it takes time and practice - please believe in yourself and remember there are others who believe in you to

[mathprofessorquotes]

“This part of the equation is ugly, so I’m gonna do the other part first and hope I get hit by an asteroid and die before I get to it.”

— Calculus professor

[hufflepuffwannabe]

How to Be Productive During the Weekend

The struggle is real: even though we have a wonderful 48 hours to get everything we need to done, time somehow slips through our hands. Here’s how you can best utilize the weekend, so you can manage to fit in your work, some fun, and much needed rest.

1. Address your needs first

Did you miss out on a lot of sleep over the week? Use that first night of the weekend to fully recharge. You’ll be useless to yourself if you’re tired.

Are you just crazy burnt out from the week? Take some R & R time for yourself. Unwind with a few episodes of your favorite show on Netflix, read, take a bath, meditate, or go out with your friends. Do whatever it is that revitalizes you. You’ll also be useless over the weekend if you’re still burnt out.

2. Make a plan

As with anything you want to execute successfully, you need a plan. This is where you whip out the bujo, planner, or a bunch of sticky notes if that’s your style.

Write down a list of everything you need to get done over the weekend. This is only the essentials, the top priorities. Example: study for A.P. Bio exam, write reading response, do laundry.

Next, take each item from the list and break it down into steps. Example for reading response: 1) Read chapters 1 & 2 of Jane Eyre; 2) brainstorm response ideas; 3) make a brief outline; 4) write response draft; 5) edit

Don’t let seeing so many steps overwhelm you! The point is that you’re breaking down the larger, tougher projects into smaller, manageable tasks. You can check them off as you’ve completed them for a delightful sense of accomplishment.

3. Schedule, schedule, schedule!

Scheduling allows you to make necessary social engagements or allocate chill time for that highly important balanced lifestyle. 

If you need to break down your day into hours or even half hour units, then do it if it works for you. Allocate a realistic (generous) amount of time for each task. And stick to it.

4. “Easier said than done, Carolyn,” is what you may be thinking, and that’s totally fair. Here are some tips to make all of this easier:

Be kind to yourself. Forgive yourself if you need to. We are all human and subject to imperfection. That’s just how it is, and that’s okay. Please don’t beat yourself up if you don’t follow your schedule or feel like you’ve accomplished every task you set out to do. It’s okay, alright?

Put away your phone! In the other room! In a drawer! Have a friend hold on to it! Or just download Forest, which is a great app that incentivizes staying away from your phone.

Download the app SelfControl for your computer and block sites that tend to suck you in (like tumblr, for example!).

Stay well nourished and HYDRATED for maximum mental functioning.

And I’m dead serious about this balanced lifestyle stuff: if all your needs are being met, then you’re more likely to stay focused and driven.

Finally, reward thyself. You’ve earned it. Bath bomb time!

[cwote]

[cwote]

If anything, admitting when you don’t fully understand something displays curiosity for learning. So keep asking those questions!