iamjacksgoat

Hey, folks. Out of the blue UNC arranged for me to recieve a FLAS to study Russian at Indiana's SWSEEL. Anybody else going?

Come to think of it, why do you find the instructor's behaviour acceptable? Do you really consider that good teaching? Would you put down your own money to be taught like that? And just say, well maybe he had a bad day or he's overworked or he's new, but that's OK, I'll just work harder to overcome his weaknesses, that's totally fair and a good investment of my time.

If so, you are well-primed to be exploited by the academy.

Another example of people reading into posts things that aren't there. Maybe people on this forum are too invested in higher education? Still believe that higher education means higher intelligence, greater competence, more skill? Therefore, anyone who questions it must have something wrong with them. It couldn't possibly be that they are smarter or have more life experience. It's so much easier to cast aspersions rather than consider what they say.

(Yes, some people with less, or even NO, education are smarter than people with graduate degrees. Hope you were sitting down for that. And if you concede that degrees do not confer intelligence, competence or skill, then you must concede that it is possible that I am very, very smart. .Smarter than the bad instructor, smarter than the students who wrote those theses. And that's the reason for my questioning what I see. There are a lot of dumb things in the world, and academia is no exception. Doesn't someone have to see it?)

Let's face it, many of you are not going to become professors or even get jobs in your field. The oversupply of people with advanced degrees has been well-documented. Yet most if not all of you believe that somehow it'll work out for you. Why? Is it smart to believe that, despite all the evidence? How long till you start your own "don't go to grad school, it's not worth it" blog?

honourbal,
 
I am sorry to say I know little of the apartment buildings you are asking about. You would be better of talking to Pitt students who are NOT locals, as I am currently commuting in from my family home and have not had to research housing.
 
What I can tell you from browsing Meyers Management site is that the four apartment complexes you mention are located in Shadyside. Its a neighboring area to Oakland, where Pitt is located. Shadyside is historically home to many of Pittsburgh's steel magnates, and is currently a mix of upper-middle class families, young professional types, and grad students. The major business streets in Shadyside are Walnut Street (upscale dining and boutiques), S. Highland Avenue and Ellsworth Avenue (both less expensive than Walnut). All these streets are pretty close to one another, so if you are anywhere near those streets, access to shopping should not be an issue. And all the apartment buildings you mentioned say they are on the bus line. From Shadyside, a bus ride into Oakland takes 15 minutes at most.
 
As iamjacksgoat said, Squirrel Hill is quite nice too. It also borders Oakland (as well as Shadyside) and the business district there is located along Forbes and Murray. Again, its a very nice middle class neighborhood, known historically as the home of Pittsburgh's Jewish community, and is also located with a 15 minute bus ride of Pitt. Both it and Shadyside are far nicer than other places students live in like South Oakland, which while very close to campus is essentially a student ghetto, and South Side, which is more crowded and dirty and home to Pittsburgh's major center of nightlife in Carson Street (and all the loud drunks that brings with it).

Do what you can to minimize the temptation to reinvent the wheel.
Do your level best to learn from those who have gone before you and have asked similar questions.
Consider the utility of incorporating your questions into ongoing discussions.
When assessing the guidance you've received, consider the background, the expertise and the experience of the person who offered it.







If I sound snarky it is because this BB is going through a phase in which newer members are repeating questions that have been addressed many, many times. While this trend provides opportunities to get great guidance from experienced graduate students such as jullietmercredi, it also provides opportunities to miss equally sound guidance from experienced graduate students such as jullietmercredi.

IMO, this trend represents a "lost opportunity" for many of you to start the transition from being undergraduates to being graduate students. As graduate students, you will often encounter an implicit expectation that you are doing the leg work to find the answers to your own questions, and from there generating additional questions and answers. (In some quarters, this leg work is called "research".)

Additionally, some of you who are in your twenties may be walking into a buzzsaw as new graduate students. Your cohort is developing a reputation for having attitudes of entitlement and self-absorption. (Consider how members of the generation of 1965 talk about the OWS and Tea Party movements) Regardless of the accuracy of this perception (Christopher Lasch had the same complaints back in 1978), perception is reality.

While it is your choice as to what questions you want to ask and how you want to ask them, do not be surprised if those who are most capable of helping you decide to tune you out. If you think this can't happen to you, ask yourself why you're asking strangers on the internet for guidance rather than going into a professor's office and getting mentored?

My $0.02.

Although I am entering as a new Ph.d candidate this year, I remember very well my MA program, and so I am basically taking some of my own advice, which I will note for you guys here in case you'd like to follow my example.

1. I always contact my profs in advance for any readings or assignments I can start in the summer. I am in English, so this is usually a BIG timesaver. During my MA program, I taught for a program which required us to read and lead discussions on a reading packet (which had over 500 pages!!). I read and took notes on the packet in the summer, so that when the fall semester hit, all i had to do was look over my old notes and I was ready to teach. Right now, I've already begun contacting profs, and they have been giving me suggested readings. I have the summer off, so I am planning to hit the books and get ahead, which has always been the secret to my success (I rarely get too stressed out).

2. TIME MANAGEMENT. Let me say that again: TIME MANAGEMENT!!!!! When I get an assignment (for an essay, say), I don't wait until a week before it's due to get started. I IMMEDIATELY go to the library (sometimes directly after the class) and start compiling the materials I will need. I keep a detailed planner keeping track of what assignments are due when. With good time management, you don't have to do any all-nighters or be miserable because you don't have any free time. Work hard, work efficiently, and you WILL have time for fun in your life, even in your first year. In my first year as an MA student, I taught 9 hours a week for the linguistics department, making all my own lesson plans. I also took 3 full seminars. And yet, I don't remember being particularly stressed out. I set aside my Saturday mornings for lesson planning, and I'd plan my teaching for the entire week, setting aside all the materials I would need and making sure to make any required copies. Then the rest of the weekend would be for homework, research, etc., but I'd often go to a cafe and take time to go to the gym or take a walk. For me, grad school has always been WAY easier than working a 9 to 5 in a cubicle somewhere. In grad school, you make your own hours. If you're nocturnal, you can work all night if you want. If you're a morning person, you can get up at 4am to study. Perhaps the freedom of it all is what gets people into trouble....

3. Do NOT procrastinate. In undergrad, you could get away with cramming the day before the test, or staying up all night the night before an assignment was due, busting out a 5-page essay in 8 hours. In grad school, your profs will KNOW sloppy work for what it is. Get working on stuff early.

4. Communicate. You may not like many of your profs. In fact, a great many of them are arrogant a-holes. They may be condescending, or treat you like dirt. This is irrelevant. You have to put your personal feelings aside and communicate with them in a professional manner. I absolutely loathed several of my profs in grad school, but I smiled and did my best to visit them at office hours and ask them for advice. Trust me. It works.

5. Make sure the people on your committee are people you respect, and who will help you. Don't just get anybody who agrees to be on your committee. Be very, very careful. These are the people who will approve or deny your thesis/dissertation. You want people who will help you revise, or guide you along the way, not a prof who is already mentoring 8 other people, is never around, is 8 months pregnant, is near death or chronically ill, is head of a department and exceedingly busy, etc. etc. etc. You are going to want to show your work in progress and get guidance. Make sure the people you choose are the right people.

And of course, take time to relax and have a little fun. Audit an undergraduate course in something that interests you (sorry, I'm a nerd, that's what I do for "fun"). Go camping for a weekend when you're ahead on your work. Go study in an outdoor cafe--get Out of the house/library, for god's sake! Life is short. If you're not having a good time, you're doing something wrong.

I agree about the importance of good chairs. I started this year with a $20 "task chair" from Target, which I used in front of my computer. My attempt to save money by getting a cheap chair COMPLETELY backfired, because after working on a paper for a while, I'd feel like my entire body was screaming out in pain, and I'd ache for days. In fact I stopped using my nice, big desktop computer because I couldn't bear the task chair any more -- instead I'd curl up in bed with my tiny netbook.

A few months ago I invested in a higher quality, ergonomic desk chair. It cost $300, but I feel like I'm sitting on a cloud. It gives me more stamina and energy for academic work.

In short, don't skimp on the chair!

(And by the way, just because a chair looks big and leathery doesn't mean it will be comfortable after 5 hours. Look for a chair that's recommended for all-day work, not one that just has an "executive" appearance. Here's my chair: http://www.officedep..._cat=2000000361)

My department has not been as politicky as some, but here's some general advice for the first year (and beyond, really):

Try not to say bad things about people. Anyone. Even if it seems like the person you're talking to won't care or won't know the person under discussion It's much better to avoid those tricky, facepalming faux pas moments than attempt to fix them once the words have escaped your mouth. Also, people may love gossip but they don't always feel the greatest when they realize that you might be spilling dirt on them at some point.

Listen more than you speak.

Without going so far as complete suck-uppage, try to find something admirable in everyone, or at least something on which they deserve a compliment on any given day. Fostering an atmosphere of respect and courtesy, even if it's just a bubble in your immediate area, will win you more friends than enemies. Even in a toxic department, you need to keep your doors open for allies or at least neutral parties.

Ask around, feel it out, but find out the power structure of deans and heads and whatever other administrative/advisory people are in charge of things in your department. Know who is responsible for helping you with your problems, and who is going to really help or sympathize with them-- those are not always the same people, but I certainly hope that you luck out and the system is both functional and accessible to you in times of need and frustration.

Respect the people with more experience than you, but don't kowtow to them. They may have been there for longer than you, but everyone is both good and bad something. You're a new colleague, nothing more or less.

Don't apologize for everything, or people will start wondering what you're doing wrong.

My advice to first year Graduate Students: Change your mind and turn around. Don't go to grad school!

About your dog: I think that depends entirely on you and your program. I am in a social science program where the majority of my analysis and writing can be done from home, and I prefer to work from home or from a library (as opposed to my cube in the windowless cube farm). When I was taking classes I was generally there from 9-6 or so, but now that my coursework is finished I am rarely at the school itself. I go for meetings, seminars, interesting kinds of things and I do most of my work remotely. My time is verrry flexible, and if my building didn't prohibit it I would get a dog in a heartbeat. Another thing to keep in mind: a dog can be a great comfort when you're all stressed out over graduate school.

Advice?

Age:
-Don't feel like you have nothing to offer just because you are younger. I was 22 when I started graduate school. You got accepted to the program for a reason, and chances are you are just as equipped as any older students are to successfully complete the program, just in a different way.

-Your older classmates may be just as terrified as you. Talk to them. You have a lot in common. You are, after all, in the same place.

-You will feel like an imposter, like you don't belong, or like you are constantly behind. Or all three. It's normal. It will pass. (Well, sort of.) People of all ages go through this.

Adviser related:
-If you are lucky enough to get both research interest fit and personality fit perfect, congratulations! But sometimes, personality fit is more important than research interest fit as long as the research isn't too different. A great adviser is interested in your career development, likes you as a person, advocates for you, and wants to hear your ideas. Even if his or her research is quite different from yours, they may give you the autonomy to work on your own projects and just supervise you. A bad personality fit will drive you nuts, even if you love his or her research. Consider that when evaluating your adviser fit. (This will vary by field: research fit may be less important in the humanities, more important in the natural and physical sciences. Social sciences are somewhere in-between.)

-Don't be afraid to be straight up blunt with your adviser when it comes to asking about your progress. Ask if you are where you should be both academic program wise and getting-a-job-after-this-mess-wise.

-Be proactive. Advisers love when you draw up an agenda for your one-on-one meetings, come with talking points and progress to share, have concrete questions to ask, and have overall shown that you have been thoughtful and taken control of your own program. Of course, this won't immediately come easily to you, but in time you will work up to it. Every semester I type up my semester goals, and at the beginning of the year I type up annual goals. I show them to my adviser and we talk about whether they are too ambitious, or whether I need to revise them, and how I can meet them.

-Don't expect your adviser to actually know what courses you have to take to graduate. They will know about comprehensive exams and the dissertation, but a lot of professors don't really keep up with the course requirements, especially if their program is in flux. Get you a student handbook, and find out what you need to take. Map it out in a grid, and check off things when you finish them. Show this to your adviser every semester. You may have to explain how such and such class fills a requirement.

-Nobody loves you as much as you, except your mother. Keep this in mind as you take in advice from all sources, including your adviser. Your adviser is there to guide you, but that doesn't mean you have to do everything he says.

Studying:
-You will have to read more than you ever did before, in less time than you ever have before, and you will be expected to retain more than you ever have before. The way that you studied in undergrad may need some tweaking. Be prepared for this.

-Corollary: you may find that your methods change with age or interests or time. I preferred to study alone in college, but in grad school, I prefer to study in groups. It keeps me on task and the socialization keeps me motivated. You may find that you shift from being a more auditory learner to a visual learner or whatever.

-You will feel behind at first. This is normal.

-At some point you will realize that your professors don't actually expect you to read everything they assign you. This, of course, will vary by program, but there will be at least one class where the reading is actually impossible to do in one week. The point is to read enough that you know the major themes and can talk intelligently about them, and then pick some of the readings to really dig into and think more deeply about.

-For most programs, don't worry so much about grades. If you stay on top of your work and do what you're supposed to, you will probably get an A. How much grades matter varies from program to program. In some programs, a B is a signal that you are not up to par, and more than a few Bs will warrant a discussion with your adviser or the DGS. My program isn't like that - A, B, it's all meaningless. My adviser doesn't even know what my grades are. But at almost all programs, a C means you need to retake the course, and two Cs means you have to convince the DGS not to kick you out.

Extracurricular activity: What's that? No, seriously:
-A lot of your time will be unstructured. You will have coursework, but most grad classes meet once a week for two hours and you may have three classes. You may have meetings with your adviser every so often and some seminars or things to catch (like we have grand rounds and colloquia that are required), but a lot of time will be unstructured. However, since you have so much more work than you had in undergrad, you actually will have less free time than you had in undergrad. This may initially cause you great anxiety. It did for me. Some people love unstructured time, though. (I don't.)

-Because of this, you'll have to be planful about your non-grad school related stuff.

-TAKE TIME OFF. DO it. It's important for your mental health. However you do it doesn't matter. Some people work it like a 9-5 job. Some people take a day off per week (me) and maybe a few hours spread across the week. Some people work half days 7 days a week. However you do it, there needs to be a time when you say "f this, I'm going to the movies."

-Find your happy place, something that keeps you the you you were when you came in. I love working out. It gives me energy and I feel good. I stay healthy. I also love reading fiction, so sometimes I just curl up with a good book, work be damned. You have to give yourself permission to not think about work, at least for a couple of hours a week. You may also discover new hobbies! (I never worked out before I came to graduate school.)

-Your work will creep into all aspects of your life, if you let it. This is why I hate unstructured time. You will feel guilty for not doing something, because in graduate school, there is ALWAYS something you can do. ALWAYS. But since there will always be more work, there's no harm in putting it aside for tomorrow, as long as you don't have a deadline.

-You may need to reach outside of your cohort for a social life. None of my close friends are in my doctoral cohort. I've met master's students in my program, master's students in other programs, and I know a few non-graduate students I hang out with, too. Go to graduate student mixers. (If your university doesn't have any, organize some, if you like planning parties.) Join a student group that doesn't take up too much time. I had a doctoral acquaintance who kinda laughed at me because I joined some student groups other than the doctoral student one, and I was usually the only doctoral student in those groups, but I met some close friends (and future job contacts) and had a good time.

-DO NOT FEEL GUILTY FOR WANTING A LIFE OUTSIDE OF GRADUATE SCHOOL. This is paramount. This is important. You are a well-rounded, complex, multifaceted human being. NEVER feel bad for this. Everybody wants some kind of life outside of work. Yes, you may loooove your field, but that doesn't mean you want to do it all day long. Some other doctoral students, and perhaps professors, may make you feel bad about this. Don't let them. Just smile and nod. Then disappear when you need to.

Career:
-This is job preparation. Remember that from Day One. Always be looking for ways to enhance your skills. Read job ads and find out what's hot in your field, what's necessary, what's in demand. For example, in my field statistics and methods are a hot commodity, and they're not a passing fad. I happen to really like statistics and methods, so I have pursued that as a concentration of mine.

-Don't be afraid to take on volunteer work and part-time gigs that will give you skills that will be useful both inside academia and out, as long as it's not against your contract. Your adviser may be against it, but he doesn't have to know as long as it doesn't interfere with your work.

-If you want to work outside of academia - if you are even *considering* the possibility - please please definitely do the above. Even if you aren't considering it, consider the possibility that you won't get a tenure-track job out the box and that you may need to support yourself doing something else for a while. You will have to prove to employers that you have developed usable, useful skills and this is one of the easiest ways to do it. But don't overdo it - get the degree done.

-For more academic related ones - always look for opportunities to present and publish. Presentations look good on your CV. Publications look better. When you write seminar papers, wonder if you can publish them with some revision. Write your seminar papers on what you maybe think you may want to do your dissertation on. Even if you look at them three years later and think "these suck," you can at least glean some useful references and pieces from them. Discuss publication with your adviser early and often, and if you have the time and desire, seek out publication options with other professors and researchers. But if you commit to a project, COMMIT. You don't want to leave a bad impression.

-If you can afford it, occasionally go to conferences even if you aren't presenting. You can network, and you can hear some interesting talks, and you may think about new directions for your own research. You can also meet people who may tell you about jobs, money, opportunities, etc.

-Always try to get someone else to pay for conference travel before you come out of pocket. Including your adviser. Do not be shy about asking if he or she can pay. If he can't, he'll just say no. Usually the department has a travel fund for students, but often it's only if you are presenting.

-If you are interested in academia, you should get some teaching experience. There are two traditional ways to do this: TAing a course, and teaching as a sole instructor. If you can help it, I wouldn't recommend doing a sole instructor position until you are finished with coursework. Teaching takes a LOT of time to do right. You should definitely TA at least one course, and probably a few different ones. But don't overdo it, if you can help it, because again, it takes a LOT of time. More than you expect at the outset. If you are in the humanities, I think sole instructor positions are very important for nabbing jobs so when you are in the exam/ABD phase, you may want to try at least one. If your own university has none, look at adjuncting for nearby colleges, including community colleges. (I would wager that the majority of natural science/physical science students, and most social science students, have never sole taught a class before they get an assistant professor job. At least, it's not that common n my field, which straddles the social and natural sciences.)

-Always look for money. Money is awesome. If you can fund yourself you can do what you want, within reason. Your university will be thrilled, your adviser will be happy, and you can put it on your CV. It's win-win-win! Don't put yourself out of the running before anyone else has a chance to. Apply even if you think you won't get it or the odds are against you (they always are), as long as you are eligible. Apply often. Apply even if it's only $500. (That's conference travel!) Money begets money. The more awards you get, the more awards you will get. They will get bigger over time. If you are in the sciences and social sciences, you should get practice writing at least one grant. You don't have to write the whole thing, but at least get in on the process so that you can see how it's done. Grant-writing is very valuable both in and outside of graduate school.

-Revise your CV every so often. Then look and decide what you want to add to it. Then go get that thing, so you can add it.

-The career office at big universities is often not just for undergrads. I was surprised to learn that my career center offers help on CV organization and the academic job search, as well as alternative/non-academic career searches for doctoral students. In fact, there are two people whose sole purpose it is to help PhD students find nonacademic careers, and they both have PhDs. This will vary by university - some universities will have very little for grad students. Find out before you write the office off.

-It's never too early to go to seminars/workshops like "the academic job search inside and out", "creating the perfect CV," "getting the job," etc. NEVER. Often the leader will share tips that are more aimed towards early graduate students, or tidbits that are kind of too late for more advanced students to take care of. This will also help you keep a pulse on what's hot in your field. It'll help you know what lines you need to add to your CV. And they're interesting.

Other:

-Decide ahead of time what you are NOT willing to sacrifice on the altar of academia. Then stick to it.
I'm serious. If you decide that you do NOT want to sacrifice your relationship, don't. If it's your geographical mobility, don't. I mean, be realistic, and realize that there will always be trade-offs. But you have to think about what's important to you for your quality of life, and realize that there is always more to you than graduate school.

-If you don't want to be a professor, do not feel guilty about this. At all. Zero. However, you will have to do things differently than most doctoral students. Your adviser will probably never have worked outside of the academy (although this may vary depending on the field) so he may or may not be able to help you. But you have a special mission to seek out the kinds of experiences that will help you find a non-academic job. Test the waters with your adviser before you tell him this. My adviser was quite amenable to it, but that's because I told him that my goal was to still do research and policy work in my field just not at a university, AND because it's quite common in my field for doctoral students to do non-academic work. If you're in a field where it's not common (or where your professors refuse to believe it's common, or it's not supposed to be common)…well, you may be a little more on your own.

-Every so often, you will need to reflect on the reasons you came to graduate school. Sometimes, just sit and think quietly. Why are you doing this to yourself? Do you love your field? Do you need this degree to do what you want to do? Usually the answer is yes and yes, and usually you'll keep on trucking. But sometimes when the chips are down you will need to reevaluate why you put yourself through this in the first place.

-To my great dismay, depression is quite common in doctoral students. Graduate work can be isolating and stressful. Luckily your health insurance usually includes counseling sessions. TAKE THEM if you need them. Do not be ashamed. You may be surprised with who else is getting them. (I found out that everyone in my cohort, including me, was getting mental health counseling at a certain point.) Exercise can help, as can taking that mental health day once a week and just chilling. Don't be surprised if you get the blues…

-…but be self-aware and able to recognize when the depression is clouding your ability to function. Doctoral programs have a 50% attrition rate, and this is rarely because that 50% is less intelligent than, less motivated than, less driven than, or less ambitious than the other 50% that stays. Often they realize that they are ridiculously unhappy in the field, or that they don't need the degree anymore, or that they'd rather focus on other things in life, or their interests have changed. All of this is okay!

-You will, at some point, be like "eff this, I'm leaving." I think almost every doctoral student has thought about dropping out and just kicking this all to the curb. You need to listen to yourself, and find out whether it is idle thought (nothing to worry about, very normal) or whether you are truly unhappy to the point that you need to leave. Counseling can help you figure this out.

-Don't be afraid to take a semester or a year off if you need to. That's what leaves of absence are for.

Lastly, and positively…

…graduate school is great! Seriously, when else will you ever have the time to study what you want for hours on end, talk to just as interested others about it, and live in an intellectual community of scholars and intellectuals? And occasionally wake up at 11 am and go to the bank at 2 pm? Sometimes you will want to pull out all of your hair but most of the time, you will feel fulfilled and wonderfully encouraged and edified. So enjoy this time!

I think there's a lot of over-thinking going on in this thread. Grad students at my undergrad/future grad dress worse than the undergrads. Frumpy, nothing fits, old things from the 90s when we were freshmen in high school.

I think anyone who's worried enough to still be reading Grad Cafe will be juuuuuust fine.

Plus, remember how so many of the posters on this forum showed up to campus visits wwaaaaaaayyyyyyyy overdressed? We'll all be fiiiine.

Last year, I got a couple pairs of skinny, non-jean pants (Banana Republic, Urban Outfitters, and Old Navy). Now I just wear those with tunic/belt/sweater, or with hipster blouses, or with a fitted and/or embellished t-shirt. Think the cheaper side of Anthropologie (same shapes, but not as much silk/expensive prints). It works for my casual university jobs, and I'm SURE it will work for grad school. I was middle-of-the-pack dressed up at my department visit weekend, and more dressed up than the grads normally dressed (...I took a class in their building).

So my advice would be to go a step up with your pants/skirts and see how you fit in. You'll instantly feel more adult, and you'll probably realize you're fiiine.

The lofts in the Strip definitely look cool, but are way off limits on most student budgets. The strip district is great for going out to dinner or for their Saturday morning farmer's market (cheap, fresh produce!) but I would shy away from living anywhere downtown. The first time I visited Pittsburgh, I thought it was the most boring city on the planet because I only visited downtown. I assumed that in a city, most exciting things would occur where the actual city is. In my experience of Pittsburgh, this is not the case. Downtown is mostly just the business district. Living there would make things like grocery shopping a bit difficult. The surrounding neighborhoods are where the majority of graduate students live. Most graduate student life also takes place in these neighborhoods.
 
Shadyside and Squirrel Hill are definitely the two neighborhoods that I'd recommend but Regent Square is also nice. It's a bit more residential and not a ton of grads live there, but it is definitely a pretty area and very close to Frick Park. It's about a five minute drive from Squirrel Hill so you would never be far. If you do end up checking out apartments or houses in Regent Square, don't forget to visit D's Six Packs and Dogs! It's like a hidden beer treasure in Pittsburgh. They have over 1,000 beers in the back that you can use to mix and match your own six packs. They have everything from Miller Lite to rare Belgian Tripel Ales. It's awesome. (I'd recommend staying away from the Miller Lite and diving straight in to the better beers!) I looked at apartments with Franklin West. They were very kind when I was looking but I never did rent with them so I'm not totally sure. They seemed very expensive, though.
 
 
If you're looking for an apartment, there are so many different agencies that it's pretty easy to take a few days to come to Pittsburgh on your own without the use of a realtor. If you really want to use one, though, I have no idea if it is free. I don't actually know anyone that has ever used one for apartments! If you're looking for a house, on the the other hand, that's a different ball park.

I'm in the same boat with FLAS alternate status at UNC. I know at least one person turned it down at UNC last year. It's not as unlikely as your probably think. However, while I have not lost hope, I am currently planning for life without it. Anyway, congrats on Pitt and good luck!

The FLAS is a good sell, and in many situations, it would be foolish not to take it. However, if someone was awarded a FLAS for a MA program at one school and a fully funded PhD track at another, it might be quite reasonable to turn it down. 
 
There's no reason to lose hope, but it's definitely less ideal than getting the award without the drama.

From what I understand, funding letters will be emailed on april 1st. Scholarship recipients must confirm enrollment by the 15th...then the school might extend other scholarship offers later in april depending on the response.
 
It sucks! I'm in the same boat. Just try not to think about it...nothing we can do now.