Andean Pat

Interesting, atleast this may make the dissertation feel less daunting. Although, I am sure, it is a stressful task anyway.
 
I just re-submitted my master's thesis after revisions, and that thesis itself was a nerve wracking process.

Absolutely!!!!
 
Now, Sigaba, I did use the search engine, but came up with not very helpful advice. Maybe you are right, maybe what was said here is no different from other threads. But that does not give you the authority to be so harsh and condescending. In some threads I posted a question that had been discussed elsewhere and very kind people  only pointed out those threads. Finally, thank you for posting the URLs of those other threads, I am on them right now!
 
Juliet & the rest: I can't thank you enough. Graduate school here is completely different (you enrol in one university but you don't need to take all the courses there and, very often, your advisor  does not belong to that school). I am anxious, happy, stressed, sad for leaving, all at the same time (and doing what Juliet mentioned: lots of exercise). I'm sorry my post carries no advice, but I can't just sit and read and not be thankful. Really.  
 
AP

I just wrote a blog post about this yesterday! Check it out:

http://phdconfessional.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/impostorsyndrome/

You are definitely NOT ALONE! I know in my mind that "this too shall pass" but it doesn't make it any easier in the midst. If you are like most PhD students (myself included) this is the first real challenge we have come up against academically. We all performed well in undergrad and masters programs, that's how we got here in the first place. Then we get to the PhD and have a complete mind switch. No one cares about grades, they care about research, the one thing you currently DON'T know how to do. But again, that is why we have to go to school to do this, no one just knows how to do research. So from one impostor to another, good luck, and feel free to contact me to vent

I played field hockey in college. Several years later, I have found a field hockey league at a local gym. It's not the same as a collegiate team (where we devoted hours to exercise and to travel to universities), but the league that I've recently found -- it is a referred game, and the same length of time.
 
So, seeking opportunities at a gym -- or by meetup -- may not be a perfect, but it may be a source for playing sports, when your university is not an option.

In August 2010, Intextrovert (a user here), shared this article which I think it is still very useful for us newbies. Enjoy!

My department just sent out this Chronicle article aimed at new grad (especially Ph.D.) students, and though I'm sure a lot of you have heard a lot of this before, I thought I'd pass it along. I especially liked all the tweets offering advice (as much as I hate Twitter).

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/An-Open-Letter-to-New-Graduate/26326/

My coursework has been very tough so far, and I've felt overwhelmed, irritated, etc. almost every day. What keeps me going are these thoughts:

(1) Every upperclass student tells me that after the first year, it gets better. And I believe them!

(2) Grades really don't matter - what matters is effort and a good attitude. I realize how kindergarten that sounds, but I'm grateful that's the norm.

(3) I think about all the would-be PhD students who were less lucky than us and didn't get accepted. Even if the work is tough, I like and respect my professors and fellow students. I'm excited about the research that happens here. I'm happy to have the opportunity I wasn't sure I'd get.

I hope these thoughts are helpful for anyone else who is struggling...

Wow--such diverse experiences, everyone! Keep 'em coming--we all want to know!

Oh my gosh, I am choking on the irony of her post. This is so damaging to the feminist movement it's unbelievable.

Seriously?! I second missKira that one Student Can't have that much power. I also feel that a student with this Kind of language skills and impaired logic Cannot be on an Admission committee-

Dealing with my letter writers. Most of them were excellent-- I had asked them for letters well in advance and, when the time came, they submitted their letters to all of the schools before the deadlines. One, however, was the exception. He submitted his letter to all of the schools that I applied to except for one (which is strange, given that the deadlines were so close together and he was presumably using the same letter for each school). I contacted him several times as the deadline approached, but got no response. Then the deadline passed and I tried again, but still nothing. At the time, that school was also my top choice, so I really started to panic. It got to the point that the department head emailed me several weeks after my interview and basically said, "Look... we like your application, but we can't make a final decision on it unless you get your third recommendation in." At that point, I made one last effort to contact him, but it didn't go anywhere so I frantically called up another professor and he [thankfully] sent in a quick LOR for me. To this day, though, the original letter writer has yet to get back to me... not even an apology for ignoring me or a few sentences to let me know what happened.
 
Last year, this same professor wrote a bad recommendation for me which, according to my POI at the time, directly caused my application to be rejected before interviews were even set up. I didn't find this out until after he had submitted letters to some of my schools this year; fortunately, either his letters were better this year or they were simply overshadowed by my other letters (which I know were strong). But still... it was a pain to deal with him during the application process. It was also surprising considering that we worked closely together during my master's program and he never even once made any hint that he was upset with me.
 
So, yeah... deadbeat LOR writers are at the top of my list. But there are a couple of other little things that I didn't like:
 
-- Admissions websites that don't let you check your status and websites that don't email you when your status changes
 
-- Ordering transcripts. My master's school required me to mail a form by snail-mail to request them, and took over a month to process my request.
 
-- Interviewing with professors who obviously didn't want to interview me. At one school, I had to meet with six professors aside from my POI. One of those professors started the interview by saying, "I'm not taking any students this year and we don't have any research overlap, so I'm not sure why we're meeting. Tell me about yourself."
 
EDIT: Wow, I sound like negative Nancy. For the most part, I didn't think the process was *that* bad... mostly just tedious because of all of the waiting. The only thing that I'd say truly annoyed me was that one letter writer.

Thanks a lot for yiur advice. It is a very good approach which I use often-albeit in a different manner- An update, just heard from the expensive place that they are out of 2 BR app for june and they will try to place me inAugust! So it is out of the equation at least for now. On theother hand, A friend agreed to travel to see the other apartment this weekend. However, the owner just mentioned showing the place to a few other people. I think I am going to have to look for new alternatives, which is really daunting with the clock ticking.

These are tight! 
 
I see what you mean with your savings decreasing in value, mine have decreased even more, so I basically count on them for my first month before getting my first stipend. 
 
Now, as a girl, this is what I'd do (and what have done in my last move): make a list of all the assets that you take into account when assessing an apartment, given them a weigh within the total and then awards points. For example:
 
Proximity to school (10%)
Price (20%)
Roommates(5%)
Utilities
Amenities
etc etc etc
 
Then you add up, and tata! You've got your choice. If you feel that winner is not 'right', it means deep down in your heart you want to live in the other place. 
 
This is only an approach  
 
Hope you can make up your mind!

I agree with many things said. I understand that being a foreigner is more exciting and you probably did not realize that you were wrongdoing. I also sense that there is some exaggeration in your reaction (do not worry, we are girls and we overreact sometimes) so be careful not to see ghosts everywhere. Besides, you are leaving later on. However, as you've said, you are both adults. If you feel you should talk to this man, go to his office, knock on his door and tell him that he inspired you but you feel things are awkward. If he takes it the wrong way, he is the child. 

I agree, I think it's important to contact POIs before applying, but for any discipline. It shows that you are committed to your applications and helps you make sure that you're applying to the right places. My point was more along the lines that an applicant shouldn't expect an enthusiastic or detailed response until accepted to the program.

I agree with many things said. I understand that being a foreigner is more exciting and you probably did not realize that you were wrongdoing. I also sense that there is some exaggeration in your reaction (do not worry, we are girls and we overreact sometimes) so be careful not to see ghosts everywhere. Besides, you are leaving later on. However, as you've said, you are both adults. If you feel you should talk to this man, go to his office, knock on his door and tell him that he inspired you but you feel things are awkward. If he takes it the wrong way, he is the child. 

Pick a random number, find the corresponding bus route, and see where it takes you.
Write a journal about the last year, the transition, your choice, and why you want to be in grad school. You can re-read it when you can't remember what the hell you're doing there any more.
Find the library, figure out if they have any incredibly beautiful rare books in special collections that you can at least tangentially connect to your research, and spend a blissful afternoon in a reading room.
If you already have a student card, check out the pool/gym while the lines are still short.
Google "Historical Walking Tour of [your city]" and see if there are any online maps/booklets.
Call family and old friends. Send long e-mails to someone you've been meaning to get back in touch with.
Check out all of the grocery stores near you, then once you've found the cheapest/best, make yourself the most satisfying meal you can afford.
Scroll through the local radio dial and find a good station.

See, I can be all whimsical when it comes to suggestions for other people, but I know that my time between moving and school starting will look more like:
Play Rock Band.
Entertain the cats.
Think about painting.
More Rock Band.

So atlanta???? Me too!

Thanks Pat
 
That settles the question for me as to if I should email POIs in advance!

hi Tup!
 
I emailed them telling about my interests and how they would fit would theirs. I had three pre-application interviews: one skype, one phone, and one live over a cup of coffee (this POI happened to be in Argentina when I contacted him, of course, I knew that ). Another one responded such a detailed e-mail that we didn't need the interview (although he offered to have one). Of course, these were four out of ammm... probably ten POIs I contacted. 
 
See you in Vegas! jajajaja

Since you mention "research abilities", I'm assuming you're applying to doctoral programs or research intensive masters programs. This post is going to seem harsh, because it seems as if you're going about your preparation in the wrong way.
 
 
Just remember that the GRE is much less important than you think. It's good to do as well as you can, but it's generally not considered all that much when it comes to the actual decision makes. That said, you want to at least be in the ballpark of the schools you're applying to so you're applications aren't thrown out by administrative staff.
 
 
Complete and utter waste of time. A blog will not "reflect your research abilities". Admissions committees will not consider a blog as evidence of such, and will likely find it humorous that you think it is if you ever list it as a thing in your applications. What you need to demonstrate your research abilities is actual research experience. Research experience that will allow you to get strong letters of recommendation and that you can write about in your statement of purpose.
 
 
I'm not in the history field, but "extra-curriculars", volunteering etc. generally isn't considered at all for the graduate level. Can you get this museum to officially designate you as being part of an internship program? Are there PhD level respected researchers working at this museum? Would you be working closely enough with them that they could write you a letter of recommendation? Can you actively participate in research work that can be written about in your letters and statement of purpose? If the answer to any of these questions is no, it's also a waste of time.
 
 
Strengthening your base application (the people giving you recommendations, your actual research experience, published papers, your statement of purpose etc) is much more important than the things you're mentioning. The blog thing in particular would likely be a net negative against your application. It says you're passionate enough to have written thoughts on various topics, but not good enough to have had those thoughts published. It's also so unusual that they'll think you aren't a serious applicant if only because you thought it was a good idea.

It's about a 24-hour door-to-door trip for me, so I'll probably only be able to afford a trip home once every two years.  But there's so much I want to see and do in the US I'm sure I won't be ready to visit home after only a year!

This has been hilarious!!!!  

hi Tup!
 
I emailed them telling about my interests and how they would fit would theirs. I had three pre-application interviews: one skype, one phone, and one live over a cup of coffee (this POI happened to be in Argentina when I contacted him, of course, I knew that ). Another one responded such a detailed e-mail that we didn't need the interview (although he offered to have one). Of course, these were four out of ammm... probably ten POIs I contacted. 
 
See you in Vegas! jajajaja

I want to help people without working directly with people.  I'm a behind-the-scenes kind of person; I really wanted to work on issues of human interest and impact, but I didn't want to be a doctor, nurse, counselor or clinical social worker.  Then I discovered public health, and especially applied public health research.  I'm really passionate about a variety of health issues and I want to continue to use the research tools I'm learning to solve those health problems - but in a very applied way.  Public health is a really applied field, and I wasn't interested in discovering basic theories about human behavior.  I wanted to use those basic theories and apply them to work within health and health care, and use my research to influence policy and legislation.
 
My goal is to work for a government agency or think tank as a researcher or research consultant.  I want to do that for 10-15 years, and then pursue a degree in public policy or public administration and run some research agency(ies) or go into policy analysis.