kaguyahime

Right here: https://fafsa.ed.gov/fotw1112/help/fotwfaq14.htm

Thanks for that, Sparky. Sorry to be slow, but can you point me towards the MLA blog archive?

Hello fellow grads, I'm working on dissertation research (humanities) and have been thinking creatively about my dissertation project. For example, I am interested in incorporating an unusual use of images, or perhaps having the structure be more episodic than the traditional format, etc. Both my project and my proclivities seem to lend themselves to such an approach. However, I am wondering how much opposition I might encounter from advisors (who I would say are not generally conservative). I have not discussed this with them yet because I feel my case for such an approach will be stronger if I have a well-conceived example to support it (perhaps one full chapter). I wonder if any of you have encountered either writing about creative dissertation formats, or any actual non-traditional dissertation projects? I'd like to know if this is something that has been argued for effectively by other grads already. Thank you for your thoughts!

Now that I have finally pushed the submission button (second time around), can I just pause to say: Seriously????? Statement of Purpose in Japanese? Applicants for other countries don't have to do this. *sigh*

When applying last year, I received good advice about thinking of the Statement of Grant Purpose and the Personal Statement as an interactive pair; things you can't quite fit into one essay can be strategically brought up in the other.

Depending on how your stipend is paid out, you will most likely be receiving a 1098T from your school. You can check out what the IRS has to say about this: http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1098et/ar02.html#d0e214

You may not be supplying enough information for anyone to answer your question. I applied for a FLAS through a university other than the one in which I am enrolled. The specific situation was that I applied for a summer language program at that university and they had FLAS awards available for that program. They supplied all of the paperwork to me so I didn't have to figure out how the process worked. I have no idea what your situation is but it is likely that the best source of info is going to be the uni through which you will be applying for the award.

Hello again, Not to second guess you, but are you sure that you correctly understand the aid you are receiving? In your previous thread you said you were getting fee remission AND a stipend. You also said that your TAship is quarter time, which may be part of the problem. Quarter time TAships seem to be not a great deal; half time is about the same amount of work for a lot more compensation. Any chance you could get it increased? Also, in case you haven't TA'd before, "teaching the discussion section" is not as intimidating as it may sound. You usually are supposed to review materials covered in readings and by the professor in lecture; this can be in the form of having students work together in small groups, writing activities, etc.

Hello ponponpon, I imagine that the process is different for you than it is for US students applying for full grants to do research overseas... However, to answer your questions: 1) "Recommended" means that the applicant made it through the first round of the application process. This means that their application was sent to the national commitee and then recommended to be sent on to the next phase: approval by the host country. 2) "Alternate" means that the host country did not reject them or accept them. They are on a waiting list, essentially, and may receive an award if someone else turns their award down (or, as I understand it in the case of ETAs, more funding shows up). 3) "Promoted" means the applicant gets upgraded from alternate to accepted. This all might not apply to your case? You might start a thread for Canadians applying for Fulbright to study in the US and see if you can get more info that way?

It seems as though we might not have enough info here, but I'll wade in anyways. This is only from my own experience but: In general, "compensatory stipend" and "fee remission" are two different things. Stipend = your pay for being a TA. Fee remission = the department is covering your fees. So the total amount of aid you are getting according to the information you have provided is $5850 in stipend + $5002 in fee remission. (Total aid from department = $10852) Full cost for attendance is always tuition + fees (this can be health center fees, etc.) They say that tuition alone is around $2127. So it seems that tuition + fees comes out to $2758. Out of this $2758, they are covering $2501 per semester (half of $5002). You will be responsible for paying the additional $257 per semester. If you are receiving a bill for $2728, this is because your department has not yet processed your paperwork and the billing department does not yet know that you are receiving a fee remission. When they do know about it, your balance will be adjusted accordingly. So don't worry about that too much, unless the tuition payment deadline is coming up soon. Sometimes you are charged for paying late, so if it's soon, I'd talk to whoever it is in your department that processes the paperwork and find out when they will be getting it done. (edited to add some figures I overlooked)

I see your point, ktel. But if that was the OPs situation, they would receive their financial aid at the end of August and not have any problem. Here they are saying that they won't get their aid until the middle of October, if then.

Hello, You don't elaborate on the type of aid you are receiving, but in my experience the situation you describe is very unusual. At the schools I have attended, the aid is disbursed before classes start. Sorry to ask a silly question, but have you spoken directly to someone in the financial aid office at your university? I'd double check and make sure when the aid will be disbursed. Also, there are cases in which you can receive advances of financial aid or of your TA salary. You could ask the fa office about this as well. Good luck!

I think that contacting current grad students is a great idea; they will be able to offer you the best advice. But just so you know, the SJSU campus is about a 15 minute bike ride from the Caltrain station. Caltrain runs all the way from SJ to SF, runs frequently, and has a bike car which makes it very convenient to take your bike along. This means you can open up your housing search to other nearby cities, like Mountain View (which I know from experience has much less in the way of "bad areas" than San Jose does). Hope that this helps! *edited to add: Have you already looked at this? http://as.sjsu.edu/asts/

My situation is not the same as yours, as I have not asked an overseas academic to collaborate with me on research. However, I have been in contact with a number of such professors for both research advice and in order to establish an affiliation for the purposes of fellowship applications. In my experience and opinion, I would approach such communication with a high level of politeness and humility. If you express a familiarity with their work, an awareness of their elevated position in the field, and present your own work in a way that will pique their interest, they are likely to be willing to help you in some form, even if is not as a long distance mentor. Unless you have input from someone who has worked with this professor, it is probably dangerous to count on such a professor for a significant role in your research. There are many great academics with good intentions, but who are ultimately so burdened with their own research and responsibilities that they won't be able to give you the support or responsiveness that you probably need (I know some of these!). Honestly, I can't imagine suggesting to an overseas academic that you are presenting them with a great opportunity to work with you; this seems like an egotistical approach that is likely to turn them off, especially if they are a really well known expert in their field. If they do agree to work with you, they will be doing you a favor - they probably have many demands on their time. You are not likely to be the one doing them a favor (no offense!). I hope you will get a response from someone whose experience more closely mirrors your own...

Hello again, If you have the film script, it will include all of the dialogue spoken in the film. However, when subtitles are made, some of the dialogue is left out. This is because if all of the dialogue was included in the subtitles, the subtitles would often be too long. Also, if people are speaking quickly or having a fast conversation, the subtitles would have to come and go too fast for people in the audience to read them. If your research plan is to compare the English subs as the SL and the Indonesian subs as the TL, I think you might need to look at the actual subtitles on the film instead of expecting them to be the same as the script you have. The people who translated the Indonesian subs probably based them on the English subs, and not on the film script. So if you are analyzing the quality of the Indonesian sub translation, it might not be accurate to base your analysis on the script instead of the English subs. Good luck!

Hello again, So, your research involves the analysis of subtitles for the film. The film is in English, so are you analyzing English subtitles, or some other language? Do you have a script for the subtitles, or for the actual dialogue? Of course, a lot of the actual dialogue in the film gets left out of the subtitles. In my opinion, metaphorical/figurative expressions would be easier for a non-native English speaker to understand then idiomatic expressions. It is possible to understand the meaning of many metaphorical/figurative expressions from the words alone, but there are many idiomatic expressions that you will never be able to understand without a good idiom dictionary. And as you say, sometimes it's hard to even tell if something is an idiom. However, this is just my opinion!

Your research sounds interesting, but you may not be providing enough information for us to answer your question. It isn't clear what kind of analysis you are planning on doing. From what you say, your research involves the translation of figurative and idiomatic expressions, and you are trying to decide which of these two to focus on in the case of "V for Vendetta." Since you say that you want to collect as much data as possible, you will want to determine which of these two appears more frequently in the film. Your question is if this will be easier for one or the other, but it should be the same; you will probably have to either watch the film many times and write down the figurative/idiomatic expressions, or obtain a copy of the script and see how many of these expressions appear. You also ask which will be easier to write about, but since it is not clear what you will be writing that's impossible to answer. Maybe you could provide more information?

Hello Malphaba, Well, I am certainly no expert, so I can only tell you what I have experienced. I hope it will be helpful in some way. 1) In my experience, they do not take out your "expected contribution" from your loans/scholarships. This only reduces the total amount of aid that you are elibible for. For example, if they say that the total budget for one year at BU is $60,000, and your estimated contribution is $2,000, then you will only be eligible for a combined total of $58,000 in financial aid from all sources. 2) The financial aid office usually applies your direct loans and scholarships towards your tuition and fees first. If you are eligible for $23,000 in grad plus loans, it is likely that this will all be over and above your tuition and fees. 3) Have you checked on the possibility of being a TA, graduate researcher, or graduate reader? Sometimes these options are available in departments other than your own, too.

Yikes! You're right, OregonGal. I apologize for posting inaccurate information. I have obviously not been paying enough attention to these bad developments on the grad school funding front.

I'm sure that your FA office will tell you all of your options, so it is a great idea to go and talk to them. But just so you know, grad students are certainly not only eligible for unsubsidized loans. Once your FA office processes your financial aid package for the Fall (which they proabaly have not done yet), depending on the results of your FAFSA, you should be eligibe for subsidized loans, unsubsidized loans and Graduate Plus loans. That being said, your concern seems to be whether it is possible to get only a part of your loans now, see how things go, and have the option of getting more later. It is very likely that this will be easy to do, as loans are distributed at the beginning of each quarter or semester. So you would just accept all of the loans that they offer, and as the new quarter/semester approaches, if you decide that you do not need the additional funds, you can elect to decline one of the loan awards you have already accepted.

Sorry to say this, but it is very unlikely that you will be able to get an "advance" from your university. They usually have their disbursement systems set up in a way that prevents this. You might investigate the possibility of a short term loan from family, since you know you have money coming to pay them back. Or you might consider a short stint of living on a credit card. I realize that this isn't a pleasant thought, but you know you have money coming and would be able to pay the card debt off soon. Personally, it doesn't seem realistic to work part time if you will also be in the process of preparing to move and actually moving. Especially as you are unlikely to make enough money in a few weeks to finance your moving and startup costs.

Oops, sorry Eric Bee, that wasn't complete geographical ignorance - I forgot where you were heading. Guess that isn't very useful after all.

Eric Bee, is this near you? Sorry, I couldn't get the pdf to open for me for some reason. https://docs.google....FTzTmyWV7e5Azdg Also came across these, perhaps of use to someone here: Taiwan ETA: http://www.fulbright.org.tw/dispPageBox/CtEn2.aspx?ddsPageID=FOSEENGBCEADONBOR1& India: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:wAEq-UMa9vIJ:fulbright.state.gov/uploads/e9/c3/e9c3c2871e8ffeaadea288b6f224820d/India-Orientation-for-US-Grantees.pdf+fulbright+handbook&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh0sisSlhUfm1hy3p6AoK7Kr2_OfRCbROMjpQf4qADlaCYCZwkLmKVC-9JpbNpsogDCuF_ETJCHbjcrNbWE2YvcQvpX8vMo-KTJ80IwFb52BXvq1ZQUIiWuHokh0PSGyjCyv8y5&sig=AHIEtbSbD8R8JL5IOp6S2nDg8Ekg1Ga7mg

I just wanted to post this information from the website noted earlier; it will be useful for future applicants who come across this thread: FYI for future applicants - when they send out offers a few weeks ahead of rejections they ask recipients to keep their offer confidential until the formal announcement is made. They also ask that offers be accepted or rejected within just a week or so, which leads me to think that they leave themselves time to make offers to alternates before sending out any rejection emails.

I'd certainly be interested in more information about how this alternate business works (for full grants), if anyone knows anything...