maroonwings

I have two bachelor's, one of which is semi-related to sociology, a good undergrad GPA, and good test scores. For reasons unrelated to any of those things, I chose to get an MS in sociology before applying for PhD programs. Because you have been out of school for some time and because you don't have a sociology background, I would suggest getting a master's first. Doing this gave me a much stronger sociology background and (I think) made my PhD applications look more attractive to potential schools. Doing a master's first would also allow you to meet and work with professors who can write recommendations for you. PhD programs really do want to see strong academic recommendations, and it will be much easier for professors to write them for you if they have recently worked intensively with you (for example, on a master's thesis committee). I don't recall having to write very much for my applications, although some schools did want a copy of my master's thesis. I believe that may have served as my writing sample. The most writing I had to do was for a fellowship application. Personally I don't think that your undergraduate school alone will doom your chances at a PhD--it's one of many factors on your application. But getting a master's from a respected school should help offset the weak undergrad program. Don't worry about your age or family status. In my master's program there were people who were well over my parents' age, married people (with and without children), single parents, etc. Of course you will have to juggle school and family time, but with your career, you probably already have a good idea of how to do that. (Also--funding for master's students isn't impossible to find, although in my experience it was harder to find than funding for a PhD. My husband and I were both fully funded for our master's programs. The secret to this was that we both were hired on assistantships in non-academic departments that were related to our disciplines. If you do need funding for a master's, ask around--you never know where funding might be lurking.)

If she'll fit in a three ounce container, you might not have any problems getting her onto the plane (Don't worry, I'm kidding!) In seriousness...maybe there's some sort of courier service? My fiance, who used to work at a PetSmart, says it's possible to ship fish, so theoretically I suppose you could ship other aquatic animals. There's a discussion over in "The Lobby" about moving with cats, but I imagine a newt would be more difficult. How are you moving the hamster? Nice to meet another UCI person

I would call them to ask whether it arriving on Wednesday is a problem, and see if there's a way to get it back to them more quickly if they want (email? fax?). I only received my formal offer letter on Friday (problems with coordinating my fellowship funding between the different offices involved, but it's all settled now), so I sent it back on Saturday via priority mail, and also scanned the signed contract and emailed a pdf version to the grad school. I had already emailed them to let them know I was definitely accepting, and I had already spoken to the graduate director about the details of the fellowship offer, so the letter's lateness wasn't a big concern for anyone involved. But I just wanted to be safe about it and get it back to them asap. Personally, I'd probably overnight it. But I'm overly cautious about most things.

I'm also going to UC Irvine in the fall, with my husband and cat (although we're both US citizens, so we don't really have that problem). Will you be living in the on-campus housing? Since there is housing specifically for families, hopefully it'll be easy for your partner to meet other students' significant others. I don't know if you've seen this, but UCI offers some ESL classes. Here is the website: http://unex.uci.edu/international/. Maybe they have some sort of discount for spouses of students? There are probably less expensive options out there. Feel free to send me a message if you want to talk about UCI

She'll only go into the carrier to get the treat if we're not around. I can throw in a treat, it'll stay there for hours, then if we leave the house and come back, it'll be gone. She must have figured out one of our strategies: throw treat in carrier, wait for cat to enter, close carrier door. Unfortunately her favorite blanket fits a full sized bed. She generally loves any blanket she can find, though, so I might get a baby blanket and see if she takes to it. She's not declawed, and I agree with you that we wouldn't do that to a cat, so hopefully we can make the trip with as few scratches as possible. She's not exactly good with new people/places as it is. She hid behind the toilet for two days after we brought her home from the shelter, and she still hides whenever we have visitors. I hope the transition to a new place goes smoothly. She wouldn't fit so easily behind the toilet anymore

Hmm...would that be expensive to fly her out? I'm not sure if I could trust airline baggage handlers with our little furball. I'd hope they're more careful with animals than they are with luggage. I'm thinking that we'll get her a new, roomier carrier for the trip, and drive her around town in it once in a while to get her used to being in the car. We've been leaving the carrier out for her to investigate, hoping she'll decide it's not so bad after all. Occasionally we throw treats into it so she has to actually go in to get them. She doesn't sleep in it or anything, but she doesn't panic and hide at the sight of it anymore. She loves cardboard boxes and would probably be completely happy if she could travel in a moving box. We're going to have to check every box before we close it to make sure that the cat hasn't jumped inside.

This is the policy at the school I'll be attending. They will only give out-of-state tuition waivers for one year, so you have to establish residency there. They did tell me this up front in the email detailing my funding offer, but you should check with your department if they didn't mention it. Anyway, I'd planned to establish residency anyway since I'm going to be there for six years and I'm moving across the country. It would be a real pain for me not to be a California resident.

You sound like me, except that we'll be moving 2000+ miles with a rambunctious 1 year old cat. We are thinking that it'd be cheapest to rent a moving truck and tow the car, rather than paying for gas for both moving truck and car. This of course means that we are stuck in the moving truck for several days with a very upset cat. She HATES being in her carrier, and the longest she's had to stay in it so far is 15 minutes--long enough to get from home to the vet's exam room. I am beginning to think that I'm not opposed to asking the vet for something to calm her during the trip. It seems better than the alternative of listening to her crying to be let out of the carrier. My husband's also looking for jobs, lots of applications but only one phone interview so far. He's stressing about it, although I think he shouldn't have any problems finding a job as we get closer to our move date.

Well, Blacksburg is probably going to be very different from LA I visited the USC campus once, about 10 years ago, and it was very pretty but I wasn't seriously considering moving to California at the time. Other than that I haven't spent a lot of time in LA. I remember that the traffic was bad and that the weather was pretty nice. In Blacksburg you'd have four distinct seasons, leaves changing color in the fall, snow in the winter, etc. LA would be warmer and probably wouldn't have all the seasonal changes that we have here. Blacksburg is a somewhat rural area in the Appalachian Mountains, and it's pretty quiet here. It's also easy to do outdoor activities like hiking and camping in this area, but if you like having a lot of nightlife or shopping, you might get bored. In Blacksburg you'd get more of a quiet, laid-back small town experience. In LA you'd be in one of the largest cities in the country. It just depends on which is more appealing to you. I love Blacksburg, but it's really a matter of what you like to do and what sort of environment you want to live in. I'm sure there are people here who can tell you more about USC since I haven't spent much time there.

There's a new movie theater in Christiansburg, the next town over. It takes about 10-15 minutes to get there by car. You can take the bus, which is of course slower, but it'll get you there. Downtown Blacksburg has the Lyric, which is a small theater just off campus. Downtown also has the usual bars, restaurants, a few small shops. The nearest city, Roanoke, is about a 45 minute drive from Blacksburg. Most likely you'll be flying into the airport in Roanoke when you come here. The weather is crazy I've seen some relatively heavy snowstorms, but not recently...I guess that's climate change for ya. There's the occasional day where it's beautiful and warm in the morning and snowing by afternoon. Keep an umbrella in your bag--they don't call it Bleaksburg for nothing Mostly summers are pretty warm, and winters are chilly but not too bad. It's really not hard to find housing. You'll want to find a place that's on the bus line, but most apartments are. VT has an off campus housing office that can help you find a place. Most people do live off campus and take the bus/bike/walk to class. Don't worry about not having a car, parking on campus is a pain and you'll probably have friends who have cars anyway. You can take the bus to the grocery store and to the mall in Christiansburg. The bus system is pretty good and will get you to most stuff in Blacksburg/Christiansburg. The bus fare is included in your student fees, so you can just show your student ID and take the bus anywhere you want. Blacksburg is a pretty small town, but most people here seem to really love it. I've been here for seven years and I'm going to miss this place when I leave.

I sent you a PM, but short answer is I'll most likely choose UCI. They just have a lot going for them, great faculty, great award package, being in sunny southern California rather than snowy New England (well, maybe the last isn't as big a factor, but it helps). We'll see if Pitt accepts me and if they can match UCI's funding package, but most likely I'm going to UCI. I'm visiting campus this weekend so we'll see how that goes.

I'm also interested in social movements. I thought we might be doing similar things since we applied to two of the same schools I'm really sorry you didn't get into UCI, but I hope you hear good news from Pitt and UConn soon.

I got an acceptance from UCI several weeks ago, around the beginning of February, and have already gotten my funding offer. Sorry--I hate to be the bearer of bad news. Perhaps you're on a waiting list? I'd give them a call anyway, just to make sure. I haven't heard anything from Pitt, though.

I'm going to my department's open house March 6-9th, so we'll see how that goes. If I go to Irvine (which seems very likely at the moment, as it's currently my only acceptance), I'd be living in the university-owned housing with my husband and our cat. I'm used to a relatively rural area, so anywhere is going to be a big change for me. (I did my undergrad at Virginia Tech. There were barns at the entrance to campus, for the agriculture department's livestock, and you'd often see people jogging around the fields of experimental crops.) I did get my offer of funding from Irvine; it's not bad. My fiance is looking for IT jobs in the area, and the job market for him seems pretty good. He is going to have to be the one earning lots of money, because we know it won't be me By the way, is anyone here vegetarian/vegan, and if so, how are the food options in Irvine and the surrounding area? They're surely better than Blacksburg, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Is it possible to live semi-comfortably in Irvine/OC on a grad student's budget? UCI says they should be able to fund me (although no official word yet), and my husband-to-be is applying for jobs, but I was just wondering how expensive the area really is. The offer of on-campus housing sounds like it would really help.