u/FuelNo2950

Stats: 3.5low/17mid, international, basically KJD, no C+F, reapplying this year after getting WL everywhere except HYS (applied Nov-Dec).

For people with experience--does being waitlisted mean if I apply with the same stats + this past year of WE, I have some chance of getting accepted to these schools? What are some realistic targets and safeties I can apply to with a 3.5low GPA?? Do I even count as a splitter anymore loll should I just aim for T50-100? 😭

Sorry this is a rant but I just feel so hopeless and dejected. I feel like I have all the odds stacked against me and I feel stupid for not trying harder earlier and stupid for wanting to try now. My GPA is below the median for basically every T120 LOL. I was a little proud of my LSAT but now I wish my dumbass retook it sometime earlier this year so I can have an 17high and still apply by September to balance out my ridiculously low GPA. Every cycle is getting harder and I'm dreading the results this year. I am unaccomplished potato and I fear I may be one forever.

Is it even worth going to the states to study anymore? Is it safe for international students still? Will I have to pay 100,000 USD just to apply for a work visa or whatever the fuck Trump said last week? And the climate is going to shit and oh my god I hate being born in this generation.

(apologies for the gloom and doom)

Hi! Question for people who put their hair in a bun: how do you protect your scalp from tension that causes headaches and traction alopecia? I have thick hair and I end up with a tension headache halfway through the day. I'm not sure if it's in my head, but I think I also notice my part thinning.

How do you do your hair to prevent this? Thank you!

This is the date on which Ray Bradbury's short story, "There Will Come Soft Rains" takes place, so I thought it was time to reread this short story. It's about a fully automated home system continuing to operate despite its inhabitants having been incinerated by a nuclear bomb.

It's a very short read, but I think particularly relevant in today's times. At one point the house reads its owner, whose last shadow is imprinted on the outer walls, this poem by Sara Teasdale.

>There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

I can't say I've read many short stories, and of the ones I've read I remember even fewer clearly. But a few stay with me, and this is one of them (along with, just off the top of my head, The Garden of Time, Bobok, Ward No. 6, and Dream of a Ridiculous Man). I think it captures the eerie-ness of being alone in a place where you ordinarily are never alone in, like your school or an airport, really well. 10/10 recommend!

*Idk if short story review falls under book review. My apologies if this breaks the rules!

I'm a big reader/book hoarder, so I collect fragrances that are 'bookish,' so to speak. Give me your favorite book related or library themed frag!

Frags I love that are in this theme:

- Diptyque L'eau Papier
- Amouage Memoir (woman)
- Byredo Bibliotheque
- VP Poets of Berlin

Hi! So I am going to a concert on a Sunday at the music hall at CKS but the timing very is tight following my train to Taipei. I was wondering what you guys think is the fastest way to get from TPE Main Station to CKS at rush hour? I am hoping because it's Sunday the traffic won't be as bad, but I'm not sure, and not super familiar with Taipei traffic. Thank you in advance for any insight!

It is about 1-2 sentences long, and says something like 'the best art is [depressed?], horny, or both'

It could very well be a tumblr post or a real quote, but I saw it online and have been searching for it again to no avail. I'm sure about the 'horny,' but the other adjective evades me. It made me laugh and I want to show it to my friends! Thank you :)

Hi! What are your recommendations for good encore pieces for a piano trio? We're open to any suggestions, classical or otherwise!

It's our first time playing together, we only have a few rehearsals, and it's a pretty heavy program with the Tchaik trio and several duo sonatas (over 2 hours with intermission), so we're looking for something easy to put together, easy to play immediately after the Tchaik, and also easy for the audience to listen to after the behemoth program.

A few we have considered are:

- Scherzo from the Debussy trio
- Mvt 1 from Schoenfeld cafe music (too long?)
- Schubert Eb trio andante (too heavy?)
- Mvt 3 from Saint-saëns E minor trio
- Dvorak Humoresque (but I feel like this is actually very difficult to play well)

any recommendations are welcome and much appreciated, thank you!

EDIT: wrote schoenfeld as schoenberg LOL I'm so sorry it's been a long day

Most national flags are just blocks of colors in different iterations, with countries like Mexico and Belize, which use multicolor crests, being the exception. It seems there was a time when elaborate crests on national flags were more common around the world. When/why did simple flags become the norm?

We all know about the Eslite closures, but I just visited Dream Plaza for the first time today and it was so depressing to see what used to be an entire floor of books replaced with an obscenely large Starbucks and an incredibly shitty curation. I can somewhat understand the piss poor English selections (four different Robert Greens in Psychology; half of the history section is just different editions of Sapiens & subsequent Harari books; there were five copies of Hillbilly Elegy???) But even the Chinese shelves left much to be desired. Massive sections of self-help and trading books, shelves and shelves of magazines, and just one shelf of literature. I visited the Eslite at lingko, and it was similarly depressing. Eslite Zhongshan is slightly better, and the underground bookstore is wonderful, but unfortunately there are no English books there.

I remember when I was young, we had multiple brick and mortar locations for 書林, where the English selection was huge. There was Page One at 101, which was my favorite bookstore. Of course, we also had the Eslite Dunnan location, as well as many independent bookstores. Almost every mall had a big bookstore that was mostly books(!!!). Now you're lucky to even find one bookstore in a mall at all, and any bookstore you do find can be expected to comprise (at least) 50% stationery. The last of the Japanese bookstores that my grandpa loved to visit has also closed recently.

I talked to a grandma whose store I'd been visiting for years, and she said she has been operating at a loss for years. She said she'd wanted to make it one more year to the bookstore's 50th anniversary, but she doesn't know if she will make it.

I am just so depressed at the state of things. I think the overemphasis on STEM/technology in particular has failed to introduce our generation to the joy of reading. Almost everyone I talk to thinks that reading fiction is either some faraway intellectual aspiration that they will get to when they retire, or simply that it's a waste of time.

Please do let me know if you know of any bookstores in the Taipei area that has a decent collection of books, English or Chinese! I'd very much appreciate it. :')

EDIT: The grandma's bookstore is 信義書局! The address is 復興南路二段173號. She runs the shop with her husband and her son, and they're all lovely lovely people. : ) Please do visit them if you have time!

Hi! I applied this cycle but my stats are quite unfortunate (3.5x/17high/kjd). I was waitlisted by every T14 I applied to and I've quite given up hope on making it this cycle. I have no excuse for my GPA, and it is not an upwards trend. I just didn't try at all for any course I found boring, and looking back I want to smack myself.

My question is if there is potential benefit to doing another Masters Program and hopefully getting a higher GPA? Has anyone done this before with success? Would my time be better spent getting work experience? But I hear that 2 years of WE is almost the same as KJD. Any help would be appreciated, thank you!