University of Minnesota - Fall 2017

[boscojoba]

Hi everyone! 

I was accepted to the PhD program in Curriculum and Instruction and I was wondering if there were others on here who were too! It'd be nice to chat about our thoughts on attending/funding/etc.!

[MTAdventuress]

2 hours ago, boscojoba said:

Hi everyone! 

I was accepted to the PhD program in Curriculum and Instruction and I was wondering if there were others on here who were too! It'd be nice to chat about our thoughts on attending/funding/etc.!

Hey there!  I was also accepted and am planning on attending the weekend event at the end of February.  Have you heard anything about funding?  Where does it rank on your list of schools?

[songofgallifrey]

hello! which programs were you both accepted to? and how did you hear about the weekend event? i was accepted to the second language education phd but haven't heard anything about funding or a visit. i'm still a bit undecided on where it ranks among my other schools, since i applied to a few different types of programs. what about you?

[boscojoba]

I haven't heard about the weekend event either, but I'm an international applicant who's currently outside the US, so it's possible I wasn't emailed about it for that reason?

I was told by my POI in September when we first connected that funding would be a challenge, and she reiterated that when she wrote some weeks ago to let me know she'd accepted me. She's currently looking for TA/RA opportunities outside the C&I department as I don't qualify for TA positions in their own teacher prep programs like other phD students (I was a teacher, but my foreign teaching certifications aren't recognised in the States). I applied to a Fellowship at UMN itself meant for those whose research will deal with issues related to the global south and I expect to hear back from them about it later this month/early in March. Separately I'm applying to a few grants in my home country that fund grad students abroad.

@MTAdventuress - pretty high up the list, I'd say. The Twin Cities seem like a fantastic place to live in, and the potential for rigorous interdisciplinary research there seems high (provided I receive that Fellowship, since it comes with courses and seminar series seriously relevant to my focus!). What about you? Have you heard about any funding?

@songofgallifrey - Literacy education! Do you mind sharing where else you applied to? I've gotten accepts to UW-Madison and UConnecticut in addition to UMN, but am pretty much in the same situation funding-wise with all three just right now! I'm also thinking this could be because it's still only February... the student jobs websites at all unis seem to list TA/RA positions only for Spring at the moment (many of them lapsed, naturally, it already being a few weeks into Spring Semester)

[songofgallifrey]

@boscojoba I also applied to two linguistics programs (Stanford and Georgetown) and two social policy programs (Harvard and Princeton). I wasn't admitted to Stanford, but that's not super surprising, and I'm still waiting to hear anything from the other three. I reached out to my POI at Minnesota about funding and the weekend event, and she said 1) they're currently working on funding decisions and will have those sometime in March and 2) there's no event weekend for the SLE program, so there may also not be an event for your program.

[boscojoba]

@songofgallifrey ah that makes sense! fingers crossed for getting funding!