ProfessorChaos

I studied at the Goethe Institut in Bonn for a 5 week course. It was pretty expensive, but a great experience overall. Obviously it's not as good as studying abroad for a semester/year, but it worked great for me. I earned b2 certification, which set me up for a different program the next summer. While I haven't heard of that course, it's probably conducted in a similar manner. The only drawback came years later when I had to get officially translated official transcripts for applications.

Being married has brought its own unique challenges to applying and choosing programs. I sent applications anywhere I thought I could fit, but I really gravitated towards programs in larger metro areas towards the end. For my wife's career, it would be much easier to find a job in a place like Minneapolis/St Paul or Austin than a smaller college town. Plus, the location of her family affected my decision making quite a bit. While the school in her home state was definitely among my top choices to start off with, it became almost impossible to turn down once I got a great funding offer. So it's kind of nerve-wracking in a way, because I feel like I got stove-piped into choosing a particular program, but on the other hand it really does help her out quite a bit, and her family couldn't be happier. It's probably the least I could do, since she'll be earning way more money than me for the next several years. The ironic update to all this is that she got offered a great job in an adjacent state, so now we're going to be doing the distance thing after all.

I thought about mailing a tshirt or something or sending a coffee mug of the school i eventually attend. I imagine it couldn't hurt. Plus, if I was a professor who wrote a bunch of recommendations, it would be kind of neat to see a "trophy wall" of where my students ended up.

Agreed. I got a 4 on the AW section and submitted a satisfactory verbal score and got into some of the programs I really wanted. I definitely looked at it as a way to explain myself and overcome a mediocre GRE score. Going into a languages/literatures program, it was a little embarrasing to get that score, but a good SOP can definitely overcome it. In the end, I got the results I wanted.

I know what you mean. Granted, I'm only coming off a 4 year ROTC commitment, but it still feels like you're competing against students coming right out of UG who have better access to application resources. I honestly think I was able to frame my experience in a relevant manner for grad study. At the very least, I think the work experience helps you stand out a bit. I heard nothing but positive things during interviews.

I grew up in Southern California and have been working in Northern North Dakota for my job the past 3 years. Believe it or not, you really do get used to it. It really just makes you appreciate the warmer days rather than being completely miserable in the cold after a while. I wouldn't reject a good offer from a good program over climate issues.

I think it might depend on the department, but I had a similar concern as well. Congrats on the offer! It's definitely worth it to ask the Grad Chair of your department, mine has been really straight forward about the issues they've been having. I understand the new chancellor they have has really been fighting for more graduate funding.

Just accepted their offer in Germanic studies! I'm super excited; I love the twin cities. Their program has exactly what I'm looking for. Ski U Mah! Oh, and @Zabius, they're hard at work connecting the Minneapolis/St Paul campuses with a light rail line which will be free for students I think. I think it's supposed to be done within a few months or so.

So not to detract from the experience you're going through, but please tell me you caught your students plagerizing in some kind of religion course

I had a professor flat out tell me that he wasn't going to send a letter to what I considered safety schools because he didn't want me there. Since it was pretty late in the process, I got to email the GA reps and ask for my applications to be withdrawn. Looking back on it, he was right. I wouldn't have enjoyed being there, and there aren't really "safety schools" for my program.