Call for Updates

Now that we're in the thick of the grad school application season, I thought I'd ask for another round of updates from those of us applying to grad schools (that means Jared and Ryan, I think). Where did you end up applying? Where do you hope to end up?

For those of us already in grad school, how is it? Any advice? How are classes? How is the comprehensive exam? Do you sleep? Enlighten us, please.

As for me, I am playing the "apply for fellowships" game this year. I've already applied for the NSF, I'm in the middle of applying for the DoE's CSGF, and I'm about to start the application for NASA's NESSF. After one semester, I'm starting to get the hang of graduate student life. My classes are actually covering new material now, which is nice. Colorado is cold and snowy, just like I like it. Life is somewhat more relaxed than I expected. I had heard enough stories of slave-driving advisers and sleep-stealing problem sets that I was expecting grad school to be a lot worse than it has been. I've had a few 70 hour weeks, but mostly I put in about 40-50 hours a week (~30 to classes, ~15-20 to research) and my advisor so far has been a pleasure to work with (although he does seem to be very particular about the color tables I use in figures). All in all, life is good.