Andean Pat

All right...
 
It's been three weeks since I got here, classes only started last Tuesday. However, I had had orientations of at least three kinds, four dinner parties (with people in my department and people outside of it) and a huge party-party with people I've met at these other parties. I also have a pool and have been there a couple of times to read. So, I have enjoyed my time off before starting. 
 
Now... oh, dear. It's not the amount of reading what is stressing me. We have to read everything. It's impossible not to do so because we have written assignments/oral presentations for every week. Call me nerd, but I love it. I do enjoy the readings and if I am going to read, I am going to read with a purpose: respond in some kind of format (usually it's a very short essay). Fortunately, classes are not read-and-tell: professors are very creative and foster our creativity as well. They are a great fit for me, the challenge our ability to work collaboratively and that just rocks. 
 
In short, I have been enjoying this pretty much and I am intellectually motivated. 
 
My cohort is very diverse, which also adds to the intellectual thrive. We get along very well and can surely learn from each other. Moreover, one girl is my next door neighbour!!! My roommates are also awesome. Simply the best I could have ever asked for. 
 
Nonetheless, I do miss home. And kissing people for saying "hello" and "goodbye". Yeah, I miss kissing people. 
 
 
Do you have a car? 

All right...
 
It's been three weeks since I got here, classes only started last Tuesday. However, I had had orientations of at least three kinds, four dinner parties (with people in my department and people outside of it) and a huge party-party with people I've met at these other parties. I also have a pool and have been there a couple of times to read. So, I have enjoyed my time off before starting. 
 
Now... oh, dear. It's not the amount of reading what is stressing me. We have to read everything. It's impossible not to do so because we have written assignments/oral presentations for every week. Call me nerd, but I love it. I do enjoy the readings and if I am going to read, I am going to read with a purpose: respond in some kind of format (usually it's a very short essay). Fortunately, classes are not read-and-tell: professors are very creative and foster our creativity as well. They are a great fit for me, the challenge our ability to work collaboratively and that just rocks. 
 
In short, I have been enjoying this pretty much and I am intellectually motivated. 
 
My cohort is very diverse, which also adds to the intellectual thrive. We get along very well and can surely learn from each other. Moreover, one girl is my next door neighbour!!! My roommates are also awesome. Simply the best I could have ever asked for. 
 
Nonetheless, I do miss home. And kissing people for saying "hello" and "goodbye". Yeah, I miss kissing people. 
 
 
Do you have a car? 

Hey there,
 
It's Labor Day and I'm so grateful for the day off.  Last week was the first week of classes at my university.
 
Some thoughts:
 
- I've been pleasantly surprised by how nice everyone has been.
- I am walking way more than I have been in the last couple of years... this is a good thing.
- I may need to experiment with different bags for schlepping my stuff, because what works for short distances doesn't necessarily cut it for cross-campus treks.  (BIG campus!)
- The Chromebook is working out beautifully so far.
- Suddenly I am interested in everything. 
 

 
 

Aww. I know the feeling. The first year can be rough. Make sure you build a network for the holidays... other international students who are stuck too... even if in other disciplines. I know those in my program found those networks super helpful.

People who say X is "their passion" and that they can't imagine doing *anything* else with their life...
...Well, they lack imagination. 
 
I'd encourage you to take a break from academia and think up some Plan Bs. There are plenty of non-academic careers out there that require critical thinking & analysis, teaching/mentoring others, that require you to read & write. Philosophy is something you can ALWAYS pursue on the side - adjuncting night classes, joining an amateur discussion group. 
 
Think about it. Your posts about the MA troubles made you sound MISERABLE (hair going grey, you needed counselling, your mental health suffered). Try adding 2-3 years of that kinda stress *onto* your 3 years on the MA, because that is what your PhD is going to be like. Is that what you want to do to yourself? I sure as Hell hope not... 

1000Plateaus, I am very sorry that you are in this painful situation. It is very difficult to hear unfavorable assessment of your abilities and to realize the implications of having a unfavorable review from your supervisor and second reader. What follows may be hard to read and I apologize in advance, but after you calm down a bit you may want to seriously consider your professors' opinions of your potential to succeed in graduate school. From all I can gather from this post and your previous one, there was never any serious blowout between you and your supervisor -- the main problem seems to be your ability to do up-to-par work at a reasonable pace. (Yes, I understand that some of the blame for that is on your supervisor for letting you take on what turned out to be an over-ambitious project but no, I don't think there is any reason to think your supervisor was maliciously setting you up to fail). You took three years to do a two-year degree and you had to basically write your whole thesis from scratch after the first submission was rejected. You may have finally brought it to a satisfactory level for a masters and you were therefore allowed to defend, but that does not entail that you can or should continue on to a PhD program.
 
It appears that both of the people who know your work best think that you should not, and they will not write you strong letters of recommendation. I think you should respect this choice, or (as you are contemplating doing) work very hard to change their mind and persuade them that you deserve their support. As it stands, if they do not believe that you can make it in a PhD program, you cannot ask them in good conscious to write such a letter. They will have to lie, or the letter will not be good; from their perspective, it's their name on the line: they are vouching for you and your success, but they don't believe in it. Beyond that, if they are in fact correct, they are doing you a favor in telling you their honest opinion from the start. Certainly, the delivery was lacking and hurtful in your case and I am sorry that you had to go through that. But not everyone who wants a PhD can be successful at a PhD program. It's better to know that now than to waste several years before either dropping out or finishing the degree but failing to get a job. I honestly don't know if this is true for you, but sometimes you simply have to tell students the hard truth instead of letting them just struggle along and waste important years of their lives on an impossible mission. 
 
As I said, I don't know if what your advisor said was a fair assessment of your work at all. Either way, it's important to view it as an assessment of your ability to do the training for a certain job, not as an assessment of your personality or person. There are extremely bright and successful people who would struggle in a PhD program because the requirements are set up in a such a way that it does not play to their strengths. That doesn't make them any less accomplished, you just need a very specific kind of personality, abilities and strengths to make it through, and only a (small) portion of it has to do with your intellectual abilities. Maybe that's something to consider. If, on the other hand, the assessments of your professors are simply wrong, I wish you all the best in your battle to attend graduate school. I think your approach is the healthiest one: do your best to prove that you are able and willing, and earn the letter and the trust.

First of all, congratulations, 1000Plateaus, for finishing and defending your MA thesis – that achievement is a testament to your determination.
 
However, I must agree with fuzzylogician (though I’ll be blunter). Doctoral studies are not for everyone. Given your difficulties and the manner in which you’ve described them, I recommend that you follow another vocation.
 
Doing so will not diminish the work that you’ve just completed. A master’s degree in a discipline as challenging as philosophy is a very fine accomplishment.
 
My only intent is to help. Please take care.

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The url is:  https://www.udemy.com/teach-abroad/
 
I hope I can join you on taking the first step to teaching abroad!
 
-Josh

I've received an e-mail with all the cohort contact details and I'm travelling tomorrow! 

The board has a policy against advertisement. It's there precisely for the reasons that NicholasCage mentions. Just as an example, of the 5 reports currently open in my moderator panel, 4 have to do with ads or self-promotion (these reports originate from board members, not from us). We deal with these cases on an individual basis and in cases like the one in this thread, we normally let the poster keep their links provided that they actually participate in discussions on this board. The original post in this thread has been altered after I posted my reply so it's hard to discuss its exact content but what bothered me about it was that it was very simply an invitation to go read something off site and not a discussion here. As I said above, starting a discussion here that also links to the blog is different from forcing participants to visit the blog if they want to participate. I don't think it's the same as linking to a third-party article and discussing it here and besides, we're not talking about a regular poster who started a thread linking to some interesting article they would like to discuss, we're talking about a new poster who's started exactly two topics on the board so far, both simply linking to their own blog. A good outcome here is that the OP post a reply with some of their opinions about the question of "Why a Phd," and we can take it from there. I don't buy the reply that it's too long/complicated/whatever to discuss in a post here.

Na-scent. Naaaa-ssscccent. It is fun to say.

Hi again!!!
 
I am interested in nation-building in borderlands. I examine different identities that overlap in these territories, the meaning of an international/regional boundary and the role of nature in the construction of these ideas. As an 'excuse' to explore these questions, I study Latin American borderlands, especially the Andes (Hence, 'Andean'). Since my questions are not geographically based, I thought of applying for Medieval programs. The problem was my lack of Latin (which I wanted to do as an undergrad but could not due to overlaps in my schedule) and, besides, my research experience (and background) is Latin American.
 
I don't know what the hot topics are though... but trade sounds VERY interesting! (My final paper for that course had to do with the emergence of Italian cities due to trade).  

Yeeeeaaaaahhhhhhh another historian!!!!!!! Here's my advice:
 
1. Contact the department. Do not start choosing schools by their reputation, choose them by their department. It is nice to apply to an Ivy League school but if your interests do not match, it is stupid. I wanted to apply to Harvard, besides there is generous funding from my country to go there but my interests did not even come close to those of the department.
 
2. Do your research. This is connected to the one before. Really investigate where you want to go, not only for the academics but also for the place. I did not apply to a place I did not want to live in. Check if your hobbies are available, for example, I checked out for field hockey teams. Ask EVERYTHING to grad students, most are happy to help you and to meet you if they have a chance. Many will advice you one the mood in the department, funding, housing, etc. Furthermore, they know very well the departments rankings/interests focus and thus can advice you to also try elsewhere.
 
3. Take your time to prepare your app. I was working full time so I started in July with the contacting the department/POIs and preparing GRE. I finished my applications in December. Take your time to write your SOP, show it to professors/friends in grad school. Many grad students I had met were happy to read it for me, even though I did not apply to their school. Take time to prepare for GRE. Although it's rubbish, expensive and almost pointless, it is necessary and you cannot fight the system. I had an excellent private teacher who started with the writing section and because I could write logically, I could also read logically. I got excellent results. My advice here is DO prepare it, and choose your course wisely. Work on your letters of recommendation, do not just ask for them. Meet your professors/employers, tell them about your ambitions, be clear on what is expected from them. Your SOP and CV should show the adcomms how great you are and why making you an offer is the best decision they will ever make. Now, I understand that you Northamericans are quite skillful in "decorating" your accomplishments, especially (I envy this a little bit ) because ALL your accomplishments have names. So you won the "Robert Smith Senior essay of the Year on how to dehydrate an amphibian's limb". So, do not put yourself down here.
 
4. Narrow your choices. Many people may not agree with this. I believe you shouldn't apply to more than seven schools. First of all, its loads of money. Second of all, if you did points 1 and 2 thoroughly then you will not be able to apply to more than 6/7. I had an EXCELLENT fit with a program I really really wanted to apply to but the POIs responded my e-mail very late and then he did not answer again. I could have applied, but how much do I want to be accepted in a place where they did not show any interest? Mmmm, I don't know. Another example, I was a great fit with a professor in a program on the west coast. He acknowledged that and was happy to talk about my application, but advised me that there was no funding and it was almost pointless for me to apply. Finally, one professor directly told me he was not taking any students this year. So, communication is basic and although I would have applied to, say, 10 programs, I ended up with 5. Which programs? The ones that are best for you. 
 
5. Be confident. You will have an offer from a place that really really wants you. It doesn't matter how badly you wanted to go into another program. They just don't want there. I mean: be prepared for rejections but be confident that a rejection is not a bummer, it just means you did everything you had to do and the department had to choose. This is difficult because you feel stupid when someone else gets into a top school and you don't. In the end, all that matters is the acceptance, not the rejection. 
 
6. Be realistic. Do not yield to emotional stress and drama. If you get in, great. If you don't, it is not the end of the world. Be an adult in your application, show your real potential as a historian. Be prepared to make decisions. Save money. Have a plan B (a master's elsewhere? Year abroad? You name it). Listen to those who praise you and those who criticize your work. Learn from mistakes. Get yourself published, it's awesome. 
 
Mmmmm I sound to motherly, don't I? You get more or less what I mean right? 

I only work on the east and do not go out of the early middle ages, so I can hardly recommend the sorts of things "real" medievalists might be reading. Still, there is one notable absence on this thread, C. Wickham's Framing the Early Middle Ages. If you are interested in recommendations on Byzantium I can give you something there, however.

Cool cool cool. The language bit was just an FYI about something which had surprised me, although I had looked early enough. Italian would depend on where you really wanted to research. For economic stuff you'd certainly need it, the Italian city states being what they are. Not so much with studying religion in general though; everyone wrote everything in Latin. Since you're in New England I'd point out that Harvard Extension School offers French and Spanish for Reading on an alternating year basis, and Professor Thomas, the George Martin Lane Professor for the Classics and Harvard College Professor, offers intermediate classical Latin courses every semester (prose in the Fall and poetry in the Spring). This is how I assembled some of my language skill.
 
Trade is not necessarily purely quantitative. I would recommend McCormick iste above, although it's quite a tome, as a great way to see several approaches with that respect. 
 
I personally study high to late medieval intellectual and cultural history, and specifically focus on the interplay between the religious and secular. My master's thesis is on a Cistercian foundation in the north of France ca. 1200 and how it shaped a community identity in response to the broader social and intellectual milieu, which is to say the universities and the crusades.
 
As for hot topics, the current fad is "materiality", although I think that one is subsiding rather than growing at this point. Women's history is at a weird point where I think there might be a bit of a lull between second and third wave feminist influences. Within my own experience, which is strongly influenced by the professors I work with, there is a growing tendency towards recognizing that medieval history cannot be a purely textual field. Archeological, climatological, and microbiological approaches are being incorporated with increasing frequency. I can also say that Byzantine history is not very popular right now, with several universities having their resident Byzantinist retire and not replaced. As someone who just went through an app cycle, the field is really strange in general. All the current greats - Carolyn Walker Byrnum, Peter Brown, Beverley Kienzle, Thomas Noble, Bernard McGinn, to name a few - are retiring or retired, and it's not really very clear where the new lights are, yet. I'm also not overly confident in my analysis, and hope someone else chimes in 
 
If you want a larger reading list, I can PM you the whole syllabus. It's about 90 books 

Hello there!
 
I am not a medievalist, but had thought of becoming one for a long time especially because my research interests are not geographically based. Here is a list of books I think are BASIC for starting any serious study on the Middle Ages. However, I must warn you, I am an international student so my medieval course was very focused on Spain, Portugal and France (one of my professors was one the greatest Spanish medievalists in my country) and so you'll probably don't see some books that other people might mention or books you haven't heard of. Take it as my two cents, from an more latin perspective from a non-specialist (I am searching the books in my library, which is in Spanish, thus I have translated those whose title I did not find in English (as accurately as possible), then you can look them up).
 
* Salvador CLARAMUNT, History in the Middle Ages. ISBN 8434465698 (I don't think this book exists in English. Claramunt is a typical author of Spanish Middle Ages, very easy to read and has written A LOT on several topics).
* Jacques LE GOFF, In search of the Middle Ages. (A must have)
* Jacques LE GOFF, Money and the Middle Ages. (More focused on the role of money and the different 'types' of 'moneys' that existed in Medieval times-- from your post I think you'll like this) This is also one the must-haves in medieval history (I hope the 'real' medievalist would agree ) He wrote several books on different matters of Medieval society and religion, you can look them up in Amazon. There is one that I had to read which I truly enjoyed: Intellectuals in the Middle Ages. I know he has also written some Saints' lives books, like the one on St. Francis.
* Claudio SANCHEZ ALBORNOZ studied Medieval Spain, which is very connected with Islam. I couldn't find any of his books in English. He is a little outdated, but worth the reading. In this line, there is another author, CARLÉ (don't remember her name) who also wrote on Spanish middle ages, but she tended to focus more on institutions and the Reconquista. A very good historian of Byzantium is Emilio CABRERA, but I don't know if his books were translated. I am sorry for this... Oh, another Spanish historian who wrote a History of Christianism is Mitre Fernández. For the emergence of capitalism, I read J.L. ROMERO, The bourgois revolution in feudal society (or something like that). 
* ABULAFIA D. y BEREND N., Medieval Frontiers: Concepts and Practices, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2002. Abulafia also wrote a history of the Mediterranean which you may find interesting. He also wrote on Medieval Italy, look him up, it's worth it. 
* Rodney HILTON wrote a lot on English feudal societies, but I think you are not interested in this. I only read some chapters from his book with Georges LEFEBVRE, The transition from feudalism to capitalism.
* Georges DUBY is also a classical author that focused on medieval economy and means of production. 
 
(There are many many others, buy I only included those that I remember! hehehe)
  
 
As far as the historical discipline per se, I love this topic and have discovered that I should have been given more to read as an undergrad. These are my four favourites:
 
* Jaques LE GOFF wrote several interesting books on how to write/do history. There are two that I like: History and memory and one that is something like "Thinking history" (Pensar la historia). I have it in Spanish. 
* EVANS, In defence of history. 
* Edward H. Carr, WHAT IS HISTORY? A real classic, especially in English-speaking countries. I used this one and one of LeGoff's for theoretical framework on my senior thesis. 
* Eric HOBSBAWM, On History. Fantastic thoughts by a fantastic historian. I think all history students should read this. 
 
Uff, I am exhausted but this is not exhaustive! I suppose other people will complete this list.

Read everything Sigaba wrote above carefully. He knows of what he speaks. I have two points of my own to add, but given my relatively meager experience they should be taken with a grain of salt.
 
First, it seems to me that the career path you envision is much more common among people who receive their PhDs in political science than history. Policymaking, like political science, is often based on prediction and prescription. Historians tend to be wary of those words. Likewise political scientists tend to have more connections to the policy world than do historians. While US foreign relations historians are off interviewing old Foreign Service hands, political scientists are milling about the Council on Foreign Relations. (I imagine the overlap between the policy and political science worlds has narrowed as political science continues on its latest quantitative turn, but I also imagine that institutional stickiness continues to hold the two worlds together.) Are you so wedded to the historian's methodology that you are willing to sacrifice your career goals? 
 
(Note here that there is a middle ground: you can decide to be the theory-minded person in a history department or a history-minded person in a political science department. Many schools will allow you to have a political scientist on your history committee or a historian on your political science committee.)
 
Second, if you decide that there is no question about your commitment to pursuing a doctorate in history, I would urge you to refine your description of your research interests. Cold War political and military history is an absolutely gargantuan field. In my limited experience, advisors want their applicants to write a clear statement of what they intend to research. So rather than say you want to research Cold War-era U.S. military history from a political standpoint, suggest a more specific project, narrower in its geographic, temporal, and thematic scope. Your statement of purpose almost certainly won't predict your dissertation, but it will show the admissions committee that you can ask new and interesting questions.
 
(Note here that thinking smaller isn't the same as thinking small.)

If you really want to incorporate Chinese, I'd start looking at economic history in general and the Indian Ocean trade routes specifically. Good intro description here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6XtBLDmPA0 . 
 
Things to read (taken from the syllabus of a course I just finished which was essentially Generals prep):
 
-Pirenne, Henri. Mohammed and Charlemagne. New York: Norton, 1939. -Leclercq, Jean. The Love of Learning and the Desire for God; a Study of Monastic Culture. New York: Fordham University Press, 1961. -Smalley, Beryl. The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages. NDP 39. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1964. -Classen, Peter. Kaiserreskript und Königsurkunde: diplomatische Studien zum Problem der Kontinuität zwischen Altertum und Mittelalter. Vyzantina keimena kai meletai 15. Thessalonikē: Kentron Vyzantinōn Ereunōn, 1977. -Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel. Montaillou, village occitan de 1294 à 1324. Ed. rev. et corr. Paris: Gallimard, 1982. -Powell, James M., ed. Medieval Studies: An Introduction. 2nd ed. Syracuse, N.Y: Syracuse University Press, 1992. -Kantorowicz, Ernst Hartwig. The King’s Two Bodies: a Study in Mediaeval Political Theology. Princeton Paperbacks. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1997. -Brown, Peter Robert Lamont. Augustine of Hippo: a Biography. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. (Second edition is important here) -McCormick, Michael. Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce A.D. 300-900. Cambridge, U.K. ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. -Philippart, Guy, and Michel Trigalet. “‘L’hagiographie Latine Du XIesiècle Dans La Longue Durée: Données Statistiques Sur La Production Littéraire et Sur L’édition Médiévale.” In Latin Culture in the Eleventh Century: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Medieval Latin Studies, Cambridge, September 9-12, 1998, edited by Michael W. Herren, Christopher James McDonough, and Ross Gilbert Arthur, 281–301. Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin 5. Turnhout: Brepols, 2002. -Davis, Jennifer R., Michael McCormick, Angeliki E. Laiou, Jan M. Ziolkowski, and Herbert L. Kessler, eds. The Long Morning of Medieval Europe: New Directions in Early Medieval -Studies. Aldershot, England ; Burlington, VT: Ashgate Pub. Co, 2008. -Brown, Warren, Marios Costambeys, Matthew Innes, and Adam J. Kosto, eds. Documentary Culture and the Laity in the Early Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. -Clanchy, M. T. From Memory to Written Record: England, 1066-1307. 3rd ed. Chichester, West Sussex ; Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013. -Kienzle, Beverly Mayne. Cistercians, Heresy, and Crusade in Occitania, 1145-1229: Preaching in the Lord’s Vineyard. Rochester, NY: York Medieval Press/Boydell Press, 2001. -Kieckhefer, Richard. Unquiet Souls: Fourteenth-Century Saints and Their Religious Milieu. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. -Tellenbach, Gerd. Church, State, and Christian Society at the Time of the Investiture Contest. Medieval Academy Reprints for Teaching 27. Toronto ; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press in association with the Medieval Academy of America, 1991. -Head, Thomas, ed. Medieval Hagiography: An Anthology. New York ; London: Routledge, 2001. -Vauchez, André. Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.   I have a larger list if you want 
 
One thing I would mention that is not immediately apparent to many, but may become obvious from this list, is that language skill is the most important aspect of medieval study. Regardless of program, you will need a solid grasp on Latin, French, and German. If you want to specialize elsewhere, you will need to add specific languages to the list. You've been warned 

I also got the same advice, twice! When I started my MSc and when I was visiting PhD schools. I heard it from both profs and current graduate students. In my current MSc experience, it's definitely true and good advice. I also learned that it is MUCH easier to say "I'm going to prioritize" than to actually sacrifice effort. But I think I've learned to do it by now

Sometimes the advice comes with further details, like -- grad courses can sometimes be taught by profs that don't give a damn about the course. They just want it over and done with and you're not going to get anything out of it. So just get that minimum pass. Similarly, if you are taking a course that is just to fulfill a requirement but doesn't help your research or career, then just get that minimum pass. Save your course-related efforts for subjects that are interesting to you, or for courses that your adviser is teaching.

In addition, your grad school grades won't count for very much. Most post-doc applications won't really look at them, but some fellowships/scholarships might. In undergrad, the point of school is to take courses, and learn. In graduate school, many people (profs and students) view courses as a formality, something to get out of the way. Like a driving exam, first aid certification, safety training, etc, the goal is to demonstrate that you are proficient. (i.e. courses are still important, but for different reasons than in undergrad).

A related piece of advice is knowing when to ask for help. Sometimes students want to impress their supervisor by trying to solve the problem all on their own and spend weeks doing so. Sometimes the problem is something that the student couldn't have possibly known (or would have taken a long time). Knowing when to balance asking for help to save time vs. still being independent and learning on your own is something I'm still trying to figure out too.

And finally, grad school is really a place where "you get out what you put in". You can easily devote all your time to grad school. You will probably be rewarded too, with high grades, good research etc. But the cost is high! You need to know what you want to get out, and how much time you're willing to spend on school. If you don't draw the line, you will end up spending all your time doing work. A lot of students find it useful to log their hours and note what they were doing (just in general, e..g. research, courses, teaching, etc.) and then review it to see if they are spending time the way they want to. For me, a ~50-60 hour work week is what I've been aiming for.

I gotta disagree with Decaf.... I've lived in Atlanta for about 5 years now, and there's not much I can think of that would make me move OTP (outside the perimeter). To each his own, but please, please take warnings to "avoid such and such at all costs" with a grain of salt. As a single female, I live in an area with a less than stellar rep near downtown Atlanta, but I've never had any issues with crime or felt unsafe. 
There are so many really great neighborhoods in this city! I recommend checking out Candler Park, Inman Park, Oakhurst, Decatur, Grant Park, Cabbagetown/Reynoldstown, Kirkwood, Edgewood, West Midtown, etc. The trick is to visit these places, look around the area, take note of things like abandoned buildings, if people are loitering in areas, etc. Talk to the neighbors and ask about their experiences. If you find a neighborhood you like, ask for input on it in a forum like this one. And, of course, use common sense and take basic safety precautions: be aware of your surroundings, don't take unnecessary risks, get an alarm system and/or dog, etc. But if you're going to school at GSU or Tech or Emory, you don't want to live OTP; the commute will not be fun and you'll miss out on all this great city has to offer. At least, that's my two cents.

Living alone is a luxury that at your current income, you just can't afford.  So if you want to keep on living alone, you need to shoulder the financial burden - not have your parents lifting that load for you especially since they have their own debts that they are not paying off to help you out.  So if living alone is a high priority to you, you need to find a way to increase your income either by getting a second job (if allowed by your department) or taking out loans. 
 
Personally, I would just take the smaller room in the shared house and see how that works out.  It is certainly more affordable and it is unlikely that you'll spend a lot of time at home given the responsibilities that you'll have on campus.  The other concern I would have is the rent on the one bedroom will increase over the length of your PhD causing you to borrow more and more money from your parents to cover the increased rent -or- it will force you to move out because the rent will just become too high. That just doesn't seem sustainable in the long run.

Not even in Europe?? Strong English influences and yet the league isn't in Europe! Well I'm stumped! Altho I won't give up that easily. Let me get into detective mode and use the powers of deduction (a la Sherlock Holmes ).
 
Going by your profile name, 'Andean' Pat: that seems to point to the Andes region. One of the South American leagues then? 

Ohhhhh you guys thnx!!!!
 
That's the most basic reason why I have several male friends. I've been looking into it and it seems my city has some good teams, will see! However, I tend to ask a lot of questions so sometimes they just avoid watching games with me 
 
 
hahahahah Not in Europe!
 
I will be practising field hockey, thus sports + team spirit are things I want in my life in the US. Especially with the upcoming World Cup.  

hey we have the MLS, is that so bad?
 
It's got Thierry Henry! He played for Barcelona, for like 2 seconds.

Oooh so the suspense continues. Hmmm, let me take another shot at it.... Well i'm not British, so from my limited knowledge of British leagues, is it the Scottish League?