shadowclaw

It is my personal opinion that you are stuck having to retake these classes, and getting a lawyer will be a waste of money and not get you anywhere. A lawyer may even cost more than taking on an additional semester to retake the courses, depending on the cost of your tuition. 
The information on the university's website is meant to be a quick and informative guide to the university's policies - not a complete rundown of every single detail of every policy. You are held to the policies of the official handbook, not the information posted on the website, which is why a lawyer will get you nowhere. This will sound a bit harsh, but it's really your own fault that you ended up in this situation. You alone are responsible for meeting graduate requirements and ignorance is not an excuse. Yes, graduate handbooks are long and contain a lot of information, but you should be aware of your graduation requirements and how failing a class will impact you. The purpose of taking a course pass/fail isn't so you can sit in a class and do nothing - the purpose is so that you can take a course that is difficult or perhaps outside of your field and not have to worry about your GPA being dragged down if you have trouble with it, but you are still expected to pass. Getting an NP is just as bad as getting an F in a graded course.
I also assume you did not communicate your intentions to your advisor or the professors of these courses, or they likely would have advised you to either just sit in on the class (without registering) or actually complete the course requirements so you could pass. Unfortunately, in the event that you did tell them your intentions and they told you it was fine, you still have no recourse because handbooks state specifically that you alone are responsible for meeting graduation requirements. However, it's possible that you could convince your department head to write you that letter on the grounds that your advisor told you it was ok to treat the course as if you were auditing it. However, because you already stated that you cannot get the letter, then I am lead to believe that you did not consult your advisor or anyone else about the matter prior to taking these courses.
My suggestion is to relax and learn from your mistake. You might not have to worry about graduate handbooks in the future, but there will certainly be times when you will be expected to be familiar with policies, and this should serve as a lesson to make sure you know those policies well. An extra semester isn't that bad, and it's only two courses. Since you are already familiar with the material, the classes should be a bit easier for you, too.

Hey, another person who maxed out on credits! I did the same, myself. It was actually incredibly annoying, because when I started undergrad, they measured these things by time rather than credits. So you had to complete a 4 year degree in 6 in order to get financial aid. Strictly speaking, I did attend for more than 6, but not at the school I got my degree from and that's all that mattered. So I was in the clear until they changed the policy to be credit-based, which messed up my last year. But I found money. 
Anyway, to actually answer your question, the whole number of credits thing goes out the window when you go to graduate school. There is of course still a cap on the total amount of direct loans you can borrow, although there is also the PLUS loan, which I don't think has any limits but does require a somewhat decent credit history.

Way back when, I remember this happening with Drexel University. I logged in to check my status because that's what you do when you're anxiously awaiting decisions, and there it was! I didn't actually get a letter or email from them for maybe two weeks. For my current program, I received an acceptance in like March from the department and the grad school sent me something else maybe 3 weeks later (at my school, the department notifies you of your acceptance first, then the grad school processes everything and makes sure you are eligible for admission and all that afterwards). I don't think I heard about funding until late April, possibly May. It's been a while, though, so I don't quite remember the details exactly!

thanks for sharing

That sucks! It's so obnoxious when an employer backstabs you and depending on the relationship with your employer, it can be really emotionally hurtful, too  When I was an undergraduate, I worked full-time at a sandwich shop. The pay was crappy, but the full-time hours made it work. I bent over backwards for this employer and came in whenever anyone called off, did all kinds of extra work that no one else would bother to do, and basically had no life. The owner got a new girlfriend who owned a few apartments and one of her new tenants needed a job. Guess whose hours got cut in half so this new woman who zero experience in the food industry could work full-time? I was so upset about it. About 2 or 3 months later, a friend told me about a server position that was opening where she worked and I was offered almost full-time hours there. The sandwich shop was so pissed that I was leaving, but I was like "you shouldn't have given away my hours if you liked my work ethic so much!"
My advice to you is to try to find something seasonal if you can so that you can keep your savings. Amusement parks, water parks, summer camps, wedding venues... even places like movie theaters often need extra help in the summer. Temp agencies may also be able to help you, too, and sometimes you can find short-term jobs cleaning dorms or doing landscaping posted on Craigslist.

I personally feel like my sub-3.0 GPA (as well as my bouncing from major to major and school to school) as an undergrad killed any chance I had of getting into a PhD program straight from my undergrad school. However, I had 7 years of flip flopping between majors (I switched 13 times) and schools (went to 4 different schools, one of them 3 times and one of them 2 times) intermixed with semesters of brilliant grades (we're talking semesters of 3.67, 3.8, 4.0, etc) followed by semesters with grades so low I'm ashamed to tell anyone. I think someone who just had 1 or 2 years of cruddy grades has much less to worry about than someone like me
 
However, the sub-3.0 GPA wasn't an issue at all when it came to masters programs. I was accepted to 3 programs, and none of them interviewed me or even asked about the grades. I assume my LORs, SOP, and GRE scores were sufficient to offset the problems on my transcript. Plus masters programs aren't putting as much on the line as PhD programs... they are shorter programs and lots of them don't offer funding, so they aren't really risking much by accepting someone like myself. Lucky for me, my masters program actually turned out to be a dream come true. It's a state school (cheap!) that was close enough that I didn't have to relocate for, my advisor and I had the same idea for my thesis project, he got me grant money for my thesis, and this year I have a graduate assistantship that both gets me free tuition and a paying job. Granted, it pays pretty poorly, but it actually pays better than the part-time job I had. To be honest, I'm actually glad I was rejected from all those PhD programs because I love my current program so much and I'm doing the research of my dreams (plus I got to travel overseas)! So don't fret if you're an undergrad and you think you may have to settle for doing a masters degree first. It may be the best thing that ever happened to you!
 
Now for some advice on pulling up grades... at the undergrad school I graduated from, I actually didn't mess up my GPA too much. When I entered the biology program, my GPA was a 2.83 or something similar, but I only had 3 semesters completed there at that point. It took one semester to pull my GPA above a 3.0. After 3 years, I got up to a 3.59. Had I chosen to repeat the courses I bombed, I could have graduated with something in the neighborhood of a 3.9 because my college used only the most recent grade for a course (as opposed to factoring both in the GPA). That might be something some of you might want to look into if you only have a few courses killing your GPA. Also, someone mentioned having your bad grades turned into withdrawals after the fact. While I'm not an expert on every school, that one might be tricky. One school I went to would only do that if you left for 7 seven years and didn't take any courses elsewhere. The school I graduated from would do it only under certain circumstances, and would wipe your entire academic record clean from start to finish, regardless of any good grades. So that really might not be a realistic option!

There are plenty of days when I am filled with self-doubt or there is a crushing amount of work to do, but graduate school is awesome and the good days way outnumber the bad. So my list in no particular order:
1. I get to travel to interesting places either for research or for presenting research.
2. I got to move to a cool part of the country for my PhD, and I have access to amazing places for outdoor recreation and sightseeing.
3. I have more free time than that article suggests I should have. I can do things on the weekends and go on vacation during school breaks. I even have time during the week to ride my bike or go for a quick hike if I want to.
4. I'm not locked into a 9 to 5 schedule. My schedule varies each day of the week, and I like it that way.
5. I get to go to talks or have guest lectures from amazing researchers in my field.
6. My school is huge, and therefore I can take classes in an extremely wide variety of specialized topics (sorry to those at small schools, but you no doubt have other benefits that I don't).
7. I get to teach. Not a plus for everyone, but I personally find teaching to be extremely rewarding.
8. I'm exposed to a lot of cool research in a lot of different disciplines either through interacting with classmates, fellow TA's, or checking out events on campus (this isn't necessarily limited to the grad student experience).
9. My research will increase human knowledge of environmental processes and my particular project will actually influence some environmental policy in the region.
10. I'm building up practical skills in communication, leadership, teamwork, critical thinking, etc. which are widely applicable beyond academia.
I'll also add that drinking is nowhere on my radar (and hasn't been since I was 21 or 22), but even if it was, grad school would not stop me from enjoying a beer/glass of wine/cocktail/whatever at the end of the day.
 

This whole "9 to 5" conversation is completely unwarranted imo. In fact, it seems like the people taking a dump on this thread have completely missed the point. This isn't about why we chose to go to grad school, it's about what we like about it now that we're here (or if graduated, what we liked while we were still there). If I wanted a job that involved travel, living in a cool place, meeting interesting people, etc., there are many routes I could have taken, including getting a PhD.
If you want to get into the why's, at least a masters degree was really a necessity for me if I wanted a decent job in my field. While there are exceptions, most people I know in my field who only have a B.S. are either working seasonal contract jobs (albeit in some pretty awesome locations around the world) that pay less than my GTA salary or are working full-time jobs that pay the same or only marginally better than my part-time GTA salary. I'm sure over time, their experience will lead them to a well-paying job, but for now, I'm getting the better deal, and when I graduate, I'm going to be qualified for much better jobs than them. There are a few people I graduated with who are making some pretty good money, but they actually aren't even working at jobs they went to school for, which is an unfortunate reality that many people face after graduation.
My own personal take on the 9 to 5... I am not generally opposed to working a block of 8 hours, but I hate having the same hours everyday and I hate mornings. Right now, I start at 8 am on Mondays, 10 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, whatever I feel like on Wednesdays, and 11 am on Fridays. I love that it's different from day to day and that I don't have to drag myself out of bed early everyday. It also varies from week to week. Some Wednesdays I do nothing related to school, and others I spend a good 12 hours working. The activities also differ from day to day... I worked for years doing the same thing over and over again, and it's crap. If I stay in academia, I won't have to worry about that, because classes and schedules change from term to term, and even new professors often have some degree of freedom in scheduling so that they don't have to work the same exact hours every day. If I don't stay in academia, a lot of people in my field have varying schedules. So yeah... the career path I'm on will probably keep me clear of boring repetitive work locked into the same time slot every single day.

This whole "9 to 5" conversation is completely unwarranted imo. In fact, it seems like the people taking a dump on this thread have completely missed the point. This isn't about why we chose to go to grad school, it's about what we like about it now that we're here (or if graduated, what we liked while we were still there). If I wanted a job that involved travel, living in a cool place, meeting interesting people, etc., there are many routes I could have taken, including getting a PhD.
If you want to get into the why's, at least a masters degree was really a necessity for me if I wanted a decent job in my field. While there are exceptions, most people I know in my field who only have a B.S. are either working seasonal contract jobs (albeit in some pretty awesome locations around the world) that pay less than my GTA salary or are working full-time jobs that pay the same or only marginally better than my part-time GTA salary. I'm sure over time, their experience will lead them to a well-paying job, but for now, I'm getting the better deal, and when I graduate, I'm going to be qualified for much better jobs than them. There are a few people I graduated with who are making some pretty good money, but they actually aren't even working at jobs they went to school for, which is an unfortunate reality that many people face after graduation.
My own personal take on the 9 to 5... I am not generally opposed to working a block of 8 hours, but I hate having the same hours everyday and I hate mornings. Right now, I start at 8 am on Mondays, 10 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, whatever I feel like on Wednesdays, and 11 am on Fridays. I love that it's different from day to day and that I don't have to drag myself out of bed early everyday. It also varies from week to week. Some Wednesdays I do nothing related to school, and others I spend a good 12 hours working. The activities also differ from day to day... I worked for years doing the same thing over and over again, and it's crap. If I stay in academia, I won't have to worry about that, because classes and schedules change from term to term, and even new professors often have some degree of freedom in scheduling so that they don't have to work the same exact hours every day. If I don't stay in academia, a lot of people in my field have varying schedules. So yeah... the career path I'm on will probably keep me clear of boring repetitive work locked into the same time slot every single day.

When I was in my masters program, I was basically forced to walk a continuous loop around the lecture hall (with about 150 students) along with the professor and our lab coordinator for an hour. I was specifically required to scan the crowd for any signs of cheating and I was allowed to answer student questions (however, I usually deferred to the professor, as I was proctoring for a class that I had very little experience in and typically had no idea how to clarify questions). I did the same thing for the 2-hour final. The professor would always make a statement about cheating at the beginning and make everyone remove their hats. Students also had to "check out" if they wanted to use the bathroom - they had to leave their exam with me and show that their pockets were empty (so they weren't just going to the bathroom to look up answers on their phone) and were given 5 minutes. So the pacing behavior of your co-TA is perhaps not entirely uncalled for, particularly if he/she went experienced this kind of proctoring as an undergrad. However, the constant time reminders and weird statements would be a bit distracting, along with the pencil grabbing. Providing a statement about cheating at the beginning of the exam also isn't out of the ordinary, but turning into something weird and uncomfortable is. I would probably let the TA know that students are not responding favorably to this and that they could try limiting their announcements and pacing.
At my current school, I do not pace at all and instead hang out at the front of the room. I also only have about 40 students to proctor, although last year we had closer to 400 students in one room with 8 TA's co-proctoring - however, the professor decided that was terrible and spread out the students this year. I have to read some announcements at the beginning and make students have their belongings tucked under their desks, hat brims turned backwards, and are seated with empty seats in between them. I also cannot answer any questions aside from English language questions. I am also not supposed to let anyone use the bathroom. I bring up a clock on the big screen and remind them of how much time they have left at about 15 minutes and 5 minutes. I generally spend my time working on my laptop while occasionally checking on them.
Last term, I co-proctored with someone who insisted on talking to me the whole time. She whispered, but I'm sure students could still hear her sometimes. She also brought her dog and left him in the car during the exams, so she would be constantly worried about how he was doing. It was really annoying and I'm so glad to proctor alone this term.

There are plenty of days when I am filled with self-doubt or there is a crushing amount of work to do, but graduate school is awesome and the good days way outnumber the bad. So my list in no particular order:
1. I get to travel to interesting places either for research or for presenting research.
2. I got to move to a cool part of the country for my PhD, and I have access to amazing places for outdoor recreation and sightseeing.
3. I have more free time than that article suggests I should have. I can do things on the weekends and go on vacation during school breaks. I even have time during the week to ride my bike or go for a quick hike if I want to.
4. I'm not locked into a 9 to 5 schedule. My schedule varies each day of the week, and I like it that way.
5. I get to go to talks or have guest lectures from amazing researchers in my field.
6. My school is huge, and therefore I can take classes in an extremely wide variety of specialized topics (sorry to those at small schools, but you no doubt have other benefits that I don't).
7. I get to teach. Not a plus for everyone, but I personally find teaching to be extremely rewarding.
8. I'm exposed to a lot of cool research in a lot of different disciplines either through interacting with classmates, fellow TA's, or checking out events on campus (this isn't necessarily limited to the grad student experience).
9. My research will increase human knowledge of environmental processes and my particular project will actually influence some environmental policy in the region.
10. I'm building up practical skills in communication, leadership, teamwork, critical thinking, etc. which are widely applicable beyond academia.
I'll also add that drinking is nowhere on my radar (and hasn't been since I was 21 or 22), but even if it was, grad school would not stop me from enjoying a beer/glass of wine/cocktail/whatever at the end of the day.
 

There are plenty of days when I am filled with self-doubt or there is a crushing amount of work to do, but graduate school is awesome and the good days way outnumber the bad. So my list in no particular order:
1. I get to travel to interesting places either for research or for presenting research.
2. I got to move to a cool part of the country for my PhD, and I have access to amazing places for outdoor recreation and sightseeing.
3. I have more free time than that article suggests I should have. I can do things on the weekends and go on vacation during school breaks. I even have time during the week to ride my bike or go for a quick hike if I want to.
4. I'm not locked into a 9 to 5 schedule. My schedule varies each day of the week, and I like it that way.
5. I get to go to talks or have guest lectures from amazing researchers in my field.
6. My school is huge, and therefore I can take classes in an extremely wide variety of specialized topics (sorry to those at small schools, but you no doubt have other benefits that I don't).
7. I get to teach. Not a plus for everyone, but I personally find teaching to be extremely rewarding.
8. I'm exposed to a lot of cool research in a lot of different disciplines either through interacting with classmates, fellow TA's, or checking out events on campus (this isn't necessarily limited to the grad student experience).
9. My research will increase human knowledge of environmental processes and my particular project will actually influence some environmental policy in the region.
10. I'm building up practical skills in communication, leadership, teamwork, critical thinking, etc. which are widely applicable beyond academia.
I'll also add that drinking is nowhere on my radar (and hasn't been since I was 21 or 22), but even if it was, grad school would not stop me from enjoying a beer/glass of wine/cocktail/whatever at the end of the day.
 

There are plenty of days when I am filled with self-doubt or there is a crushing amount of work to do, but graduate school is awesome and the good days way outnumber the bad. So my list in no particular order:
1. I get to travel to interesting places either for research or for presenting research.
2. I got to move to a cool part of the country for my PhD, and I have access to amazing places for outdoor recreation and sightseeing.
3. I have more free time than that article suggests I should have. I can do things on the weekends and go on vacation during school breaks. I even have time during the week to ride my bike or go for a quick hike if I want to.
4. I'm not locked into a 9 to 5 schedule. My schedule varies each day of the week, and I like it that way.
5. I get to go to talks or have guest lectures from amazing researchers in my field.
6. My school is huge, and therefore I can take classes in an extremely wide variety of specialized topics (sorry to those at small schools, but you no doubt have other benefits that I don't).
7. I get to teach. Not a plus for everyone, but I personally find teaching to be extremely rewarding.
8. I'm exposed to a lot of cool research in a lot of different disciplines either through interacting with classmates, fellow TA's, or checking out events on campus (this isn't necessarily limited to the grad student experience).
9. My research will increase human knowledge of environmental processes and my particular project will actually influence some environmental policy in the region.
10. I'm building up practical skills in communication, leadership, teamwork, critical thinking, etc. which are widely applicable beyond academia.
I'll also add that drinking is nowhere on my radar (and hasn't been since I was 21 or 22), but even if it was, grad school would not stop me from enjoying a beer/glass of wine/cocktail/whatever at the end of the day.
 

There are plenty of days when I am filled with self-doubt or there is a crushing amount of work to do, but graduate school is awesome and the good days way outnumber the bad. So my list in no particular order:
1. I get to travel to interesting places either for research or for presenting research.
2. I got to move to a cool part of the country for my PhD, and I have access to amazing places for outdoor recreation and sightseeing.
3. I have more free time than that article suggests I should have. I can do things on the weekends and go on vacation during school breaks. I even have time during the week to ride my bike or go for a quick hike if I want to.
4. I'm not locked into a 9 to 5 schedule. My schedule varies each day of the week, and I like it that way.
5. I get to go to talks or have guest lectures from amazing researchers in my field.
6. My school is huge, and therefore I can take classes in an extremely wide variety of specialized topics (sorry to those at small schools, but you no doubt have other benefits that I don't).
7. I get to teach. Not a plus for everyone, but I personally find teaching to be extremely rewarding.
8. I'm exposed to a lot of cool research in a lot of different disciplines either through interacting with classmates, fellow TA's, or checking out events on campus (this isn't necessarily limited to the grad student experience).
9. My research will increase human knowledge of environmental processes and my particular project will actually influence some environmental policy in the region.
10. I'm building up practical skills in communication, leadership, teamwork, critical thinking, etc. which are widely applicable beyond academia.
I'll also add that drinking is nowhere on my radar (and hasn't been since I was 21 or 22), but even if it was, grad school would not stop me from enjoying a beer/glass of wine/cocktail/whatever at the end of the day.
 

For a masters degree, no, I don't think it's that unreasonable since you'll only be there about 2 years. For a PhD program, I think you'd get real tired of that drive after a while - but then again, there are people who commute to New York City daily who have over an hour of travel time.
I personally stayed at home with my parents while doing my masters about an hour and fifteen minutes away. It was way cheaper to pay for gas than to pay for rent in my school's city. The first year I felt went really well. I was on campus two or three days per week for classes and meetings and worked part time near home on the other days. My research was done off-campus over the summer. The second year I got a graduate assistantship and had to be there five days a week. That got old very fast, but at least it was only two semesters. In terms of social life, my program at the time was pretty small (under 20 students) and students didn't really interact with each other all that much outside of the classroom aside from our monthly get-togethers. So lack of socialization wasn't really an issue, since it wouldn't have happened if I lived closer anyway. I personally don't see socialization as a big issue in graduate school anyway - even now in my PhD program, I rarely see anyone in my program or friends from other programs on a daily basis (unless I have a class with them) because we're all much too busy with class, research, studying, etc. We do like to go out on Friday nights for dinner or some other activity (we went bowling last week), and that isn't something that would be hindered by living far away. However, I think this would ultimately depend on your program and the people in it. I'm sure some graduate students spend more time together than others.
I will say that having an excessive commute can affect your academic life depending on what your workload is. In that second year, it was at times a struggle to get everything done. My assistantship took up around 20-25 hours of my time each week and driving ate up 15 hours per week (plus any additional driving besides commuting to school). I then added one or two classes per term on top of that along with working on my thesis and it could get rough. But I did it, and I also finished my masters on time, unlike the rest of my cohort who took an extra term or two, despite living right down the road from school. 
So to sum up, living an hour away might not be a problem, but there are multiple factors at play and you will ultimately have less time available to you each day to get things done.

@Cheshire_Cat I'm not sure Illinois counts as the frozen north!  
I'm very sorry to hear that you have the responsibility of putting your dog to sleep. Although from personal experience, it's better to be the one who takes the pet in. My parents put my first dog to sleep without even telling me AND they didn't even stay with the dog - just dropped her off. I held it against them for years and I felt very guilty about not being there for the dog in her final hours for quite a while. When it came time to put down our second dog, neither of them wanted to do it, but when I stepped up, I think I shamed my father in going with me. I ended up taking my old childhood cat to be put to sleep myself. It's extremely rough, heart-breaking, and otherwise painful beyond belief. On the plus side, the vet does give your dog a sedative to calm them beforehand, which hopefully makes it a little less terrifying for them, and they have you to hold them as they slip away. However, it was hard to think of them for a while because my mental image immediately went to their death, but after a few months I could look at photos without weeping and I could think of them in their youthful glory instead of in their old, sickened state. Although to be honest, I'm balling my eyes out right now and it's been 7 years since my cat died and almost 12 years since my second dog died.
My parents are moving also (or at least are trying to move). However, they are taking the warm weather route! 

Over the years, I've personally learned to write an A-grade research paper by emulating what I see in journal articles to the best of my ability. So that's the number one piece of advice I can give you for learning how to do it. Read papers in your field and pay attention to the writing style, and pay particular attention to the introduction and discussion, as these are areas that are easy to fill with unnecessary or extra information.
As for what actually goes into a research good paper, here's my two cents as an ecologist. For the introduction, you want to provide a good background to set the stage for your research, but you also don't want it to be sprawling. When reviewing past research, make sure you include relevant papers (and be sure to look for papers that have contradictory results so that your review isn't one-sided), but don't try to cite every paper ever written about the subject and remember to have a critical eye when reviewing. The goal is to briefly summarize past research relevant to your study. Also, keep your audience in mind when writing - if you are writing for a more general audience, you might need a bit more information in order to bring the reader up to speed on different concepts and terms, while a paper targeted for a specialized audience can skip over this kind of information.
I've always found methods easy to write, but just make sure you are concise but have all the information necessary to repeat the study, and be sure to describe your statistical analysis well. Results can sometimes be tricky for people to write up, because I've found that my peers often fall into a redundancy trap or want to put information into tables or figures that would better placed in the text. Don't be redundant with information - don't put the same information in two places (see what I did there?). If your data fits nicely into table and makes the most sense in a table, put it there and don't also make a chart that shows the same information just because you think the paper needs a figure. If you can report your results briefly in the text, don't put together a space-taking figure. It seems like common sense, but I've seen too many papers where students put the same data in multiple places or wasted space with a table or figure when they could have reported their results as one line of text.
The discussion is another area that can easily become sprawling. You might want to compare every little result of your study to every other study out there, and that's just going to take up too much space. Yes, you want to address all of your results, but you want to spend the most time and space on the results that show us something important. You also want to make sure you explain how your results fit into the big picture and expand our knowledge. Do more than say "this is cool." Say why it's cool, and be critical of both your own research and that of others. Talk about how your results can be applied and why we should care. Write about future directions for the research to go.
Review-style papers are a somewhat different beast, but generally follow the same principles. You define a topic that you want to explore, report the results, and discuss.  You find out what information is out there and then figure out what questions the research doesn't answer. You point out strengths and weaknesses of the studies and recommend what we need to do to fill in the gaps in the knowledge. I've read some pretty bland literature reviews that regurgitated what was in the studies and didn't treat them with a critical eye. It's one thing to just summarize literature - it's another thing to review it. You need to show some critical thinking, or else your paper will end up like a glorified annotated bibliography. 

@Cheshire_Cat Your professor sounds like one that my teaching intern last term had for one of her classes. She showed me some of her tests, and the professor took off points for "not enough detail" when her answers were correct and adequately answered the question he was asking. I recall a policy class I took that really aggravated me when it came to our exams - we were learning about different laws and were given a situation and had to explain under which laws the people in the case study could sue each other. It ended up that we had seven or so laws to choose from, and one didn't apply. So I didn't address it in my answer and I lost a lot of points because I didn't write "this law doesn't apply." At least I still did well in the class.
I'm a little annoyed today because I've been working on a side project with several other people for over a year. I did all of the data analysis in February of 2016 and basically had the bulk of the paper written up by the summer. The other people on the project were responsible for putting together an introduction and adding some information to the discussion section. The literature review was basically finished before last summer started, but it's taken them this long to get everything typed up and to make a few conceptual diagrams. The person leading the project basically ignores it for weeks on end and occasionally sends out emails asking everyone to hurry up, even though she is working on the part of the paper we're waiting on! I will be glad when this finally gets out the door so I don't have to deal with it anymore. 
 
 

I was in your position when I was accepted into my PhD program. I had to move 3,000 miles from the east coast to the west coast! Everyone has given you great advice, but here is my experience with long-distance moving:
First, I had a tough time trying to rent from independent landlords. They had the most affordable housing in my area and all of the features I was looking for. However, none of them would rent to me unless I was willing to fly across the country to meet them first. They were "uncomfortable renting to someone so far away." I didn't have the funds to make a trip like that, so I missed out on some potentially good apartments.
Second, even some of the bigger rental companies and complexes would not rent to me unless I saw the apartment first. One company was willing to let me have someone else look at the apartment for me. However, like you, I felt really weird about emailing students I never met asking them to go look at an apartment for me. In retrospect, this was an error, because there are lots of cool people in my program and several of them would have been happy to do this for me had I asked. 
What I ended up doing was renting from a complex. Several of them had apartments available for when I would arrive and were willing to hold it for me with a deposit. This could have ended poorly... my apartment could have ended up being a complete dump. However, none of the complexes actually wanted me to sign a lease until I got there and did a walk-through. So if it was truly terrible, I did have the option of saying "nope" and heading to a motel, although I would have lost the holding deposit and been stuck without an apartment for a bit. Truth be told, I was a bit disappointed with my apartment. The website and craigslist ads for the complex make this place look like a beautiful park filled with beautiful townhouses with private yards. Turns out there's only one tiny spot that looks park-like and the interior of my unit left a lot to be desired. The private yard is actually decently sized, but it's surrounded by a crumbling brick wall. Yet I'm still here, so it's really not that bad
Some other strategies used by other members of my program who moved across the country:
One had a friend living about an hour away. He put all of his stuff in storage and stayed on his friend's couch until he found an apartment.
Another found someone looking for a roommate for the fall term only and decided to do that so she could look for apartments when she got here. However, her roommate turned out to be a demon, so she found an apartment really fast.
My only other comment is that it's really early for apartment hunting. You're not likely to find anyone advertising leases for the fall until June or July. Also, if you are planning on bringing a lot of stuff with you, look into different options for moving trucks and shipping containers. For me, a shipping container was the most economical and I originally could get two of the u-haul containers for a very good price when I checked into it in early June (for a September move). However, when I actually went to reserve the containers in August, the price had more than doubled, so I could only afford one from a different company (ABF) and had to leave some things behind. So the moral of the story is reserve early!

I was in your position when I was accepted into my PhD program. I had to move 3,000 miles from the east coast to the west coast! Everyone has given you great advice, but here is my experience with long-distance moving:
First, I had a tough time trying to rent from independent landlords. They had the most affordable housing in my area and all of the features I was looking for. However, none of them would rent to me unless I was willing to fly across the country to meet them first. They were "uncomfortable renting to someone so far away." I didn't have the funds to make a trip like that, so I missed out on some potentially good apartments.
Second, even some of the bigger rental companies and complexes would not rent to me unless I saw the apartment first. One company was willing to let me have someone else look at the apartment for me. However, like you, I felt really weird about emailing students I never met asking them to go look at an apartment for me. In retrospect, this was an error, because there are lots of cool people in my program and several of them would have been happy to do this for me had I asked. 
What I ended up doing was renting from a complex. Several of them had apartments available for when I would arrive and were willing to hold it for me with a deposit. This could have ended poorly... my apartment could have ended up being a complete dump. However, none of the complexes actually wanted me to sign a lease until I got there and did a walk-through. So if it was truly terrible, I did have the option of saying "nope" and heading to a motel, although I would have lost the holding deposit and been stuck without an apartment for a bit. Truth be told, I was a bit disappointed with my apartment. The website and craigslist ads for the complex make this place look like a beautiful park filled with beautiful townhouses with private yards. Turns out there's only one tiny spot that looks park-like and the interior of my unit left a lot to be desired. The private yard is actually decently sized, but it's surrounded by a crumbling brick wall. Yet I'm still here, so it's really not that bad
Some other strategies used by other members of my program who moved across the country:
One had a friend living about an hour away. He put all of his stuff in storage and stayed on his friend's couch until he found an apartment.
Another found someone looking for a roommate for the fall term only and decided to do that so she could look for apartments when she got here. However, her roommate turned out to be a demon, so she found an apartment really fast.
My only other comment is that it's really early for apartment hunting. You're not likely to find anyone advertising leases for the fall until June or July. Also, if you are planning on bringing a lot of stuff with you, look into different options for moving trucks and shipping containers. For me, a shipping container was the most economical and I originally could get two of the u-haul containers for a very good price when I checked into it in early June (for a September move). However, when I actually went to reserve the containers in August, the price had more than doubled, so I could only afford one from a different company (ABF) and had to leave some things behind. So the moral of the story is reserve early!

@Skyride Season and @Sleam
Oregon (and Corvallis) is a great place to live. It IS quite rainy in the winter, though! The upside is that there's rarely any snow on the valley floor (making getting around in winter easier) yet snow is a relatively short drive away. Summers are full of sunshine and are very rain-free (I think it rained twice last summer). The coast is about an hour away from Corvallis, forest hiking is just a few minutes away, and you can even get to the desert in about 3 hours.
Finding housing in town can be challenging at times. There are always lots of places for rent, but if you have any specific requirements (e.g., garage, pet-friendly, washer/dryer hookups), it can get expensive and difficult to get. I don't know what Michigan prices are like, but you can find 1 and 2 bedroom apartments (no pets) for $500-$600. Once you add pets to the equation, that price range changes to closer to $1000, although there are definitely pet-friendly apartments around $800, but they aren't always available. A solution to this is to live outside of Corvallis. Philomath is a good choice because there's regular bus service into Corvallis and it's right next door. All Corvallis Transit buses are free, by the way. The lowest prices I've seen are in Albany and Lebanon, but they are each about 10 miles from Corvallis. This wouldn't work well for you, Skyride, although there is a bus between Albany and Corvallis. However, it only runs until 6 pm and depending on where you are in Albany, you'll have to take an Albany bus to either the Amtrak station or community college to catch the bus to Corvallis (Albany buses are also free to OSU students). Sleam, this might be a good option for you if you're willing to drive. There are a number of pet-friendly 2 bedroom apartments in both Albany and Lebanon between $700-800, and you might be able to find cheaper ones if you search Craigslist daily. I live in Albany, and it takes me about 20 minutes to leave my apartment and get into a parking spot at OSU, so it's not a long drive at all. However, I'd also like to point out that Albany isn't nearly as nice as Corvallis, but it is next to I-5, which is great for trips to Portland and elsewhere.
Personally, I would use Craigslist to find an apartment over something like Realtor.com or Zillow. They mostly only give you the big apartment complexes (which are fine) and you miss out on the little guys who only have a few units. Something else about finding an apartment in this area... many landlords are wary of renting to someone not already living in this region. I came from the east coast, and was turned down by several people because they "felt uncomfortable renting to someone who currently lives so far away." I assume they were concerned that I wouldn't actually come. Also, one of the rental companies that manage a lot of the properties in Corvallis will not let you apply for an apartment until you've gone to see it first. That works if you come for a visit and can tour several apartments (or just show up and stay in a hotel until you find something).

I initially considered the idea of packing up the car, shipping a few items, and buying all new furniture. It seemed like it would be cheaper than $2000. Then I realized how much stuff we actually have that we can't just get rid of... my husband's insulator collection would cost over $600 to ship, and that's probably a conservative estimate. I have an armoire that my grandmother gave me which will take up a lot of space in the car or be expensive to ship. One of the dressers is old but high quality. It would probably cost close to $1000 to buy something comparable, and even replacing both of our dressers with cheaper ones would still cost $500. A queen size bed frame and mattress would run us for at least $500 (if not more), and we'd also need a couch. Plus not all of my books, camping gear, etc. are going to fit in the car. It would be cheaper to ship than rebuy many of those items. Depending on if we decide to keep both cars or not, I would also have to ship my kayak, which I'm sure would be expensive due to its size. My canoe can go on the car roof.

So yeah, if I was 22 and heading across the country, I wouldn't have accrued much stuff yet, nor would I have a husband who also accrued a bunch of stuff. It would easy to just pack up the car and go. But I'm almost 30 and married, and I have a lot of things that have sentimental value, aren't made anymore, or are expensive. It's hard to leave that stuff behind, and what can be replaced would still cost a good chunk of change. Used furniture is actually a great way to go (pretty much all of my furniture is used aside from a walmart desk and entertainment center), but it's not always easy to find everything that you're looking for, and if you don't own a truck (or know somebody with a truck) it's hard to get some furniture home.

Today was another reminder that social anxiety never really goes away. I came to school at the usual time for my morning class, but instead of there being lots of open parking spots in the lot I'm permitted for (like there usually is), every single spot was filled. About 12 other vehicles were searching the lot like vultures. I get so annoyed when this happens. The school hosts various conferences and meetings, and they always let the public park in my lot, including buses which will take up 4+ parking spaces because they park sideways. In my year and a half here, they have only made an announcement about one of these events once. Today was not that day. Anyway, after driving around the lot for 5 - 10 minutes, I decided to head over to the crappy gravel parking lot which anyone with any permit can park in. It's far away from everything, but there were spots. There's a bus stop right by the lot, but the bus went by as I was parking. So I walk to my usual parking lot to catch a bus there, but I just miss it. So eventually a bus comes and it's exactly when class starts. I'm hoping the bus will get up to my building quickly, but no. There were people at every stop along the way and it took forever. So when I finally get to the building, I'm already 10 minutes late. 
Up until this point, I was fine with walking in late. But then I thought about the layout of the room and how everyone sits towards the back and close to the door. If I went in, I'd essentially have to ask everyone in one of the rows to move their chairs in so I can get to the other side of the room. It would be a huge distraction. After thinking about this, I suddenly felt a wave of anxiety wash over me. I resisted the urge to vomit, but I just stood there outside the building staring at it, trying to reason with my brain that being late is better than not being there at all, that a few seconds of making people move wasn't so horrible, that other people are often late to class and no one says anything to them. But no, my brain was having none of it. So after about 5 minutes of standing there like a weirdo, I turned and headed for the library. Sigh. I feel quite bad about myself now. I'm supposed to have this under control. Granted, I didn't vomit or cry and I don't have the shakes, but I still let it get the best of me.

I'd never heard of Google metrics for journals before, only impact factors. Thanks for the link! Looking through the journals in my field and their rankings according to Google, it greatly pleases me that the journal I recently published in has a much higher ranking than a journal I submitted to whose editor was a condescending and perhaps sexist a-hole (impact factor-wise, they are similar). You made my day.

My department and teaching situation makes this very easy for me - I teach the lab component of science courses, and the professors who do the lecture component have all made it clear that graduate teaching assistants are the instructors for the labs. We even get our pictures on a wall with our programs, research areas, and fun facts about us. I don't think this has much of an impact on how the students view me or if they are more likely to challenge a grade. However, the lab setting where a large chunk of the grade comes from just showing up and doing the work is a bit different than TAing a composition course where virtually all of the grade comes from writing assignments. 
That said, I think it's perfectly ok to not say anything about being a graduate student if you don't want to, just as it's ok to inform the students that you are. You might get a few students who won't take you as seriously I suppose, but as previously mentioned, those students probably have some issues of their own. If you do encounter any challenges to your grading, stand your ground. Of course you should be able and willing to explain why you assigned a certain grade, but never feel pressured to change it. One thing that maybe I wouldn't do is mention that it's your first time teaching (or that you're new to the school)... I think that could open yourself up to some grief depending on the personalities in the classroom. Granted, if someone directly asks you in your office or something, I don't think you should lie, but don't broadcast it.
As a few posters already mentioned, being female might result in more issues than being a graduate student. Personally, I have seen very little sexism from my students, but others here on the cafe have. TakeruK also hit it right on the nose about women of color, too. My current school is extremely white in terms of the student population, and this past year we only had two people of color on our teaching team of 20 graduate students. One was a woman, and she told us about her first day and all of the whispers when she walked up to the front of the room to load her lecture on the computer. The students apparently had difficulty believing that a black woman would be their TA. Hopefully their attitudes changed over the course of the term!