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mewtoo

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  1. mewtoo

    Fargo, ND

    Thanks so much for the info!
  2. mewtoo

    Fargo, ND

    Hey, glad to see another person so recently posting on here! I may be going to NDSU in the fall as well to start my phd. I will find out soon as I have a visitation/interview there next month. My main concern is, however: I'm from the south and have never been in more than an inch or so of snow. WHAT IS SNOW? HOW DO I SNOW? (You know nothing, John Snow). I GET COLD IN 60 DEGREE WEATHER. AM I GOING TO DIE? Srsly, gais. Srsly. I'm not so worried about what y'all call a "small" city (the biggest city I would have lived in to date by FAR if I end up there) and finding things to do. I'm more interested in finding a nice, cheap, pet friendly place to live if I end up there and also, obviously, omg the weather. In March its practically already summer here. I asked if it'd be snowy when I visit then and the professor basically said "don't worry, we always drop everyone off by the door so just make sure to bundle up!" That was a terrifying response to me. This isn't just simply not being used to cold, but I don't know how to drive in snow, even really walk in snow, and I'm also clumsy as hell and have convinced myself I'll probably break my ankle for the 3rd time while there. If I get accepted with funding I'm 99% sure I'm going to go there, but I'm scared. lol Also, for the weather in the beginning of next month, is a normal thicker coat adequate or am I going to have to find a new jacket and go all out?
  3. Oh, I see the typo I made! I totally wrote stipend in the paragraph I wrote. I meant my waiver. I'll edit it.
  4. No, I know my stipend is being taxed and is supposed to, its a job. However on my pay stub it actually states in my earnings my tuition waiver. I'm only getting paid 900, but because of that it says I'm earning nearly 3k. They are taxing me on it according to my pay stub. " Description Rate Hours Earnings Earnings Teaching Graduate Assista 900.00 900.00 Tuition Fee Waiver 1,831.88 1,831.88 Total: 2,731.88 2,731.88 " " GROSS TAXABLE GRS TAX DED NET PAY 900.00 2,731.88 372.88 0.00 527.12 900.00 2,731.88 372.88 0.00 527.12 " See, they are counting my tuition remission as taxable gross income.
  5. I got my pay stub and it seems that they are counting my waiver as earned income and are taxing it, making it where out of my $900 paycheck, nearly $400 is being held out for taxes! I've looked up the tax code and it seems like if you are a RA or TA (I'm an RA) then your waiver should not be taxed. I'm very confused though (how could they make a mistake like that?). Am I right in believing that my waiver should not be taxed? I plan on going to the HR office tomorrow and asking about it so they can fix it before I'm to get paid on Friday if its messed up, but I don't want to be completely off base. Here is one document I found that leads me to believe that, as well as other school's websites I've seen. http://gradschool.utk.edu/files/graduate%20fee%20waiver%20faq.pdf
  6. I hate your signature so much. lol
  7. I just had this problem but my loans were reduced because of my assistantship. Are you out if state? Make sure they have your budget set up for an out of state person if so. They were only going to give me 1800 for a year and then I made them catch the mistake. Now I have plenty to live on. Go to the financial aid office. Loans is supposed to cover cost of attendance which includes money to live on. Even for masters level.
  8. No. I totally understand existential depression, I suffer from it quite often. If your suicidal ideation is that strong, seek treatment for it. Unless you apply to every single anthro program in the world and rejected from all of them, I see not point in killing yourself over your perceived failure as you do not even know if you are barred from everywhere. There are schools that will most likely accept you, especially if you highlight why your GPA is this low (struggles when you were young and first going) and highlight your current GPA. These schools will not be top schools by any means, but they can be reputable. Target small, regional college town schools. For instance, my undergrad university will accept nearly anyone, even sub 3.0-ers. Don't be fooled by this however, these are very reputable programs and people go on to good phd programs from it (one of my friends did). There will be plenty more schools like this. Just don't give up. If you are serious, get help.
  9. You will need more than a few months of research experience to be considered at any reputable phd program. We're talking at least 2 years and usually with a least a few posters. Places like Alliant are diploma mills. What are you wanting to do with this degree? If academia, you must go to a reputable program, the kind you need lots of research experience for. A phd in clinical psych is not a "last minute decision," its one of the most competitive types of doctoral programs in the country and takes a LOT of preparation. People come with killer GREs, GPAs, and publications and sometimes don't get in. If you want this, definitely put in the leg work. Start volunteering in a lab right now, do this for a few years. If you can one day, get a full time paid research assistant job, though these are very hard to come by and extremely competitive too! Any program you are considering, look at the admissions data. If its an APA accredited program (you shouldnt go to non) it will have it on its website. For example, here's the data for the program you want to go to: http://www.psychology.sdsu.edu/doctoral/Demographics.html Compare yourself to this data because this is about what it takes to get in. What it doesn't show is how much research experience is needed, unfortunately.
  10. I believe she is in state because she actually asked me if I thought there was a difference between us such as out of state. I thought perhaps it was how much my tuition cost versus the $20k cap on finaid, but finaid is calculated based on how much your tuition should be, so a in state person would have a smaller cap on finaid, say like $15k instead. If that was the case they should be having the same problems as me. In the email she said the loan was "the biggest I've ever been offered," leading me to think that must not be the case. FWIW, my uncle who went to school in the same state was also an out of state resident and didn't have it mess with his loan amounts. I'm really starting to lean toward what I've heard others say that its probably a clerical error. In UG I was once charged out of state tuition when I'd lived in that state my entire life and a friend of mine somehow didn't realize until her senior year that she had been charged out of state tuition the entire time when she was a state resident all along, so I know that these errors are very common. I just wish my school would have been open today so I could get this taken care of, or if we were all wrong, go cry in the fetal position in the corner.
  11. This may sound super creepy but I may have met you irl at the Oklahoma State interview, although I was on the clinical side. Small world. o_O Pretty sure at $9k for the year my stipend shouldn't affect anything (doesn't pass the threshold for finaid), but my $18k in tuition waiver (I'm out of state) sure is trying to.
  12. I would assume its the same type of loan, unsubsidized. Not sure about masters vs phd, but the other GA is also going to be a masters student. I'm going to have fun calling today if they are open. I'll update here. Edit: Closed till Monday.
  13. I've had some people with doctorates tell me it shouldn't count against loans and it didn't for them. o_O Elli, it seems like that's what my school is trying to do but others say that's not how its supposed to work? Also, mine was estimated for just purely tuition and fees, no cost of living factored in at all. My adviser pulled through for me and emailed back, she didn't know but suggested people to call and she also forwarded my email to other GAs. One GA emailed back saying her waiver didn't affect her loan amount and hasn't heard that happening to other GAs. Ugh.
  14. I've received a full tuition waiver and will be getting a very, very, very small stipend at a regional uni. I need loans to supplement this as I like to eat everyday, I find its a very helpful thing to do. I also don't like sleeping under a cardboard box although I'm sure the night sky view is great. I accepted my loan amount, things were all good until my tuition waiver finally credited to my account and they changed my loan amount to where I only get 900 a semester! The financial aid office keeps enforcing that this is how its supposed to be, the waiver acts as a grant and thus affects your loan amount. I emailed the graduate program adviser but of course she's out until the 15th of this month. This is not correct procedure, is it? My uncle went to graduate school in the same exact state a few years ago and says that's not how it was for him! I just really want to know if my uni is apparently full of BS and doesn't know what its doing (which, although we like to think is not possible, totally is) or if I'm just screwed and have a high chance of not even being able to attend now. I'm prepared to rip the school a new one if they are trying to screw me over and are doing it wrong, but I can't seem to get a good answer one way or the other. Please help before I have a nuclear meltdown. I'm only partly joking.
  15. I've been having this going on all summer, but I had to write and submit a poster abstract the other day within 24 hours (my prof procrastinated herself and didn't give me the data till the midnight before!). Since then I've been able to start working on coming up with a proposal! It's like it broke through that "it's summer!" mental block for me.
  16. I'm talking from a clinical program POV, but I've heard its really dependent on the specific mentor you are applying to unless your scores are absolutely abysmal. I'm assuming I/O are also mentor based programs. 3.5 isn't an abysmal score, but I've heard that below 4 may raise some eyebrows as psych is such a writing intensive field. I wouldn't say retake, however. You can try to use your writing sample to your advantage and display your writing skills if they are amazing. If they aren't, combined with that score, it may not work very well.
  17. Donate to a women's center or goodwill type places (though I wouldn't give to goodwill personally...)? Or you could find out if an organization on your old university's campus might want them to sell or use. One I was in we would have a book sell a couple times a year and a garage sell so we always wanted used books.
  18. You might wanna take history and systems of psych as I've seen many programs want that, though these were clinical programs. Glad to help!
  19. I think you've more than made up for you not having a psychology major, except have you taken the prerequisite classes for admittance to most psych phd programs? Most require you having taken stats, research design, etc. or they require a certain amount of hours in psych. You should look at the programs you are interested in and make sure you reach those requirements. One of my best friends just got into the social program at NEU (his dream program too). It is really competitive but his stats are comparable to yours except he has no published paper. It depends on the mentor a lot, though. His particular mentor only invited one other person to the interview only expecting to take one (and luckily it was him!) but he told me another professor had invited 5 or so people for one spot! Just depends. Make sure to see if you meet the prerequisites if they have any. You may also want to refine your research interests. "Human behavior" is like the most general way to put your research interests possible besides just saying "psychology." That's how you are going to get help finding schools to apply to. Your stats don't matter if you don't have a good research match. My friend had an exact match with his mentor and had done research in the area, which is probably what cinched it for him.
  20. I'm going to be living on my own for the first time (lived with family throughout UG) with my pet bird and dog. As others who commented, I am very introverted and abhor the thought of having roommates. My dog and my bird are enough company for me when I get home after a tiring day! Luckily the cost of living where I'm moving is really low so its not so bad. I'm basically getting a small townhouse like apartment (2 floors and 1.5 baths) for way less than half what one would pay for a small, crappy apartment with roommates in places like Boston (I almost had a RA job there and looked, so I know)!
  21. I'm a shy female so I may not be able to give input like a shy male, but I would say he probably doesn't get it. I wouldn't. I'm rather clueless. lol I don't recognize when I'm being flirted with unless someone else points it out. He may be the same way. Asking him to talk about research and then actually talking about pretty much just research, I would think that's all you want! You might want to make the next move. Even if he does get it, shyness can be overwhelming and he may be too intimidated to ask you out (assuming he is single). I personally would think the best course of action would to first find out if hes in a relationship. Maybe add him on facebook first and see? If not, just ask around. If he is single perhaps try to hang out with him a few more times with a solely social intent if you think you could swing it, or just ask! Some of us are just shy and some of us are shy and kinda socially awkward. You gotta help us combination people out a bit. Good luck!
  22. I had a manuscript submitted and didn't get into a clinical program. I know someone with not even a manuscript in prep that got into a top social program with his dream mentor. Pubs are not the end all be all.
  23. As someone who lived only 30 minutes away from my university throughout the entirety of my undergrad, DON'T DO IT. Have you ever had to commute much before? If you have you will know what an utter annoyance it is. First off, it will cost you a LOT of money in gas. Think about how often you will have to fill up your tank every week just going to class. Unless you have a car with amazing MPG, you will practically be wasting money. Then there's the problem with being stuck at school if you have gaps between your classes or duties. You'll be stuck at school instead of being able to go home for a while to relax, make your own food, etc. Also, your social life will most likely suffer. You'll be a hour away from everyone else in your program and it will make it hard to socialize. If you want to hang out with a friend or go to a social event it will become a battle between having to hang out in town or on campus for hours and hours or going home and then having to use more gas and waste more time if you want to go home first. Or you might just say screw it and go home and stay home. As someone else said, that option will become easier and easier to choose after a while and you grow weary of commuting so much. If making friends with your cohort isn't that important to you and you decide to make friends in the city, just realize that will keep you away from your program even more! You'll just want to stay in the city all the time instead of going to your program a hour away. It will become so easy to just skip everything not absolutely required because it costs gas (money) and a LOT of time. You realize you will spend at least 2 hours a day commuting? What else could you be doing with that time? Relaxing? Studying? Having fun with friends? Working on your thesis or dissertation. Do the math of how much time you will be wasting in a car each week. Also keep in mind, if you leave your house just 5 minutes late, it will usually end up compounding and make you even later. You may be a person to take care to leave early every day, but you can't plan for accidents on the road or construction or even just forgetting to set the alarm one night! I also live in the south and my university was in a small town. I actually commuted from an even smaller town to it! If your town has a uni in it, I know it will at least have some forms of entertainment like movie theaters or bars so there are things to do if you cant steal two hours to go to the city. Its not like you will be living in a place like where I live now that just has 5 gas stations and some train tracks. I will be starting a masters program this year and I cannot tell you how incredibly excited I am to only be living five minutes from campus, especially since I have a dog who will need to be walked! Honestly, why not just commute to the city when you want to have fun and experience the city life again? Even if you end up commuting there quite a few days a week you will still come out cheaper gas wise. You will save a LOT of time too. Having experienced just a 30 min commute one way for 4 years I can tell you I've been way past sick and tired of it for a very long time. Even if you think you won't mind, just give it a month or two... you'll grow to hate it. If you really must live in the city to be happy, by all means go ahead. It's your life. I'm just giving you some more info to mull over to help you decide, and from someone who actually has some experience with it too. And as others have said, why not trial run a year living in the town and if you really can't stand it move to the city? You've been to grad school before but we never know just how the phd will treat us or how we will cope. Its always described as a whole 'nother beast! To me, living in the town for at least the first year will make it easier for all the reasons above. I wouldn't personally want to compound it with a horrible hour commute. I wish you well and hope you will make the right decision for you! Just keep in mind the sacrifices you will have to make and that you can always commute to the city whenever you want to experience city fun when you are deciding!
  24. I've never seen any of the websites of schools I applied to say that. Maybe its field differences since you are in i/o and me clinical.
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