GRE Scores

[WarpGirl]

OK PARTY!

[Elessar]

I should be in. I'm going to call the office Monday morning and tell them what I got and see what they say "off the record" before they actually receive my scores and process my app.

[WarpGirl]

Let us know OK so we can all fawn over you a bit.

[Elessar]

Will do

[Alelou]

I bet you'll be fine, although I hear that graduate programs that actually provide full financial support are very competitive in this economy.

I suspect it's fairly rare to have such respectable scores on the OTHER side of your GRE from your course of study. They're probably thinking, "Oh cool, here's a geek who can also read and write! He won't embarrass us after he gets his degree if he starts publishing papers in his field..."

[WarpGirl]

Hence the reason why it's good to be a well rounded geek! But I object, I'm a geek and I am terrible at math.

[Alelou]

How are you a geek, then?

I define a geek as someone particularly gifted with math or science. It helps if one is also a Trekkie, of course.

I, alas, am not a geek, though I did win the silver bowl for chemistry in high school so I once had some geek potential that I never followed up on. Therefore, I am just a nerd.

[Elessar]

Oh no! Not necessarily!

[WarpGirl]

I am definitely a Geek! But seriously, Elessar I really, really, really, really, hope it all works out the way you want. I'm cheering for you.

[Aquarius]

Good job, Boss!

[justTripn]

I, alas, am not a geek, though I did win the silver bowl for chemistry in high school so I once had some geek potential that I never followed up on. Therefore, I am just a nerd.

Alelou, how can you be not intelligent and write so well? I suspect you are pretty intelligent. Obsessed? Obviously. YOU are a geek. I'm just obsessed, but am a huge fan of geeks. And since I am so competitive I have to brag that in high school my chemistry class gave me an award naming me "Ion of the Year." I don't really know what I did to qualify, but I have to guess it has to do with being unusual or independent. As for Elessar, he is the definition of a geek.

[WarpGirl]

Yeah he is, but he's a badass geek with all those guns! I'm just a teeny bit scared of him actually. Good thing he's very nice.

[Alelou]

Since when isn't a nerd intelligent?

I don't buy that particular Venn diagram, though it's awfully pretty. But maybe I'm out of touch. I still say a geek has to have some serious talent in something on the left side of the brain to qualify for the term. In other words, you can't be a literature geek or an artist geek.

Of course, originally a geek is a sideshow performer who eats live animals.

[WarpGirl]

I don't think the graph means neards aren't intelligent. But have you ever heard the term "Theater Geek?" Being math oriented is not a measure of a geek.

[Aquarius]

Got a couple of minutes to kill before computer class starts, so here I am!

When I was in high school...back in the Stone Age...the 80s, that is...is when terms like "nerd" and "geek" were first born and being regularly applied to people. I can's speak to how they evolved into their use today, but back then it seemed we ascribed "nerd" to someone who was smart, got really good grades, was not so much a mover or shaker in the social world but had reasonable social skills--IF you had the vocabulary to keep up with what they were saying to you!! They were maybe more oriented toward science and math and computers, but got good grades all around.

Geeks, on the other hand, were maybe equally smart, but not necessarily. Their geekly status was determined by comparatively lacking social skills, an obsession with Star Wars or Star Trek (though others may have liked these franchises, the geeks were fanatically out there and in your face about it), and fashion sense and often hygiene were worse than questionable.

The big dividing line: Nerds would eventually get dates and have sex if they weren't already (usually with other nerds), but with geeks this prospect got more and more dubious as time progressed.