dr. t

First warning. Don't be a dick.

On things to ask about: Ask about money. Do other graduate students think their stipends are enough? Where to they live? How do they afford healthcare (particularly vision/dental)? How much additional funding is around? How competitive is it? A particularly telling one, I have found, is asking your POI how their graduate students fund their research trips and their summers. Even the slightest of hesitations in response to this question is, as I like to say, not so much a red flag as a full on May Day parade.

It sounds like your doctoral PI was such that you didn't have to learn certain lessons, and now you're learning this the hard way. You need to consciously work at managing your PI. That's going to involve a lot more prep going into meetings. You also have to take more agency here. Remember, you are yourself an expert! You don't need to follow up on every suggestion. You can ask more specific questions that, taken together, make up a game plan. Another way to say this is that talks with a supervisor, in academia or outside of it, aren't like reading a game's how-to guide. They're actually a mini-game that you need to become adept at winning..

Sure, but is it presentable in time to send it to a journal and get reviewer's comments back, ie. at least a year out? Actual peer review is one of the best critiques one can have for a writing sample, but don't abuse your colleagues by sending them something that's not ready, is what I was trying to say.

Hm, that's not quite what I was getting at. Of course you should be a different applicant after completing your MA! What I mean is this: what flaws did you identify in your application the first time around, and what methods did you try to address those issues? Are any still outstanding? Do you think some solutions were not as effective as you had hoped? For example, when I got rejected in my first round and before my MA, I looked at other candidates who got accepted to the tier schools I wanted to go to, and decided that I needed to add a language, bring up my GPA by a LOT, craft a better writing sample which specifically made use of the language fluencies I claimed to have, and to aggressively consider my fit with the particular professors I applied to. So I came up with a plan. I took reading German, got a 3.9, took a seminar paper, presented it at a conference, and sent it to a journal (a GREAT way to get WS feedback if you have something presentable). My list of schools the second time around looked almost nothing like the first time, and I spent a great deal of time on the final paragraph of my SOP which argued for my fit for a particular school. So: did you have a plan? How did it work out? Do you have enough information to make another one? You shouldn't feel the need to answer such questions here! But this sort of rigorous self-reflection is immeasurably helpful in all aspects of adult life.

Yes, it's how they fund their PhD programs ?

What was different about your application between your first and second cycles?

Oof. Gotta send those emails before you apply.

I'm confused. Why would you apply somewhere which was clearly not a fit?

As a Yale prof told a friend of mine when he was a prospective, "You know, John, New Haven - it's not as bad as people say."

If you're lucky ?

I'm not very concerned with the institution, just the market.

That's because cohort sizes of 20 are quite frankly irresponsible.

Say hi to Precocious Charlie for me. (I'm committed to making this nickname stick across universities)

As far as I know, Brown's offers are at the graduate school right now, and have not been released. That doesn't stop a POI from reaching out, though. Then again, I'm in France (casual flex), so who knows.

They're not posted at once. I don't know of any graduate program that allows sub-fields of a department to make the final decision on admitting applicants. The department and then the graduate school universally does a full check. Some POIs will reach out when an app is sent on to the graduate school, which makes the notification appear to be early.

The latter.

No? Berkeley departmental funding offers usually hit right around now.

Same as everywhere else. Professors review the applications that pertain to them, send 0-3 promising apps to a dedicated committee, that committee whittles the pool down to what they want to take that year and sends the list off to the grad school for approval. The grad school sends out the admissions letters. Some professors like to reach out when they know a candidate has been sent to the grad school for final approval; others wait until the official announcement goes out. The rough dates when the official announcements go out have been very consistent from year to year, and can be found simply with a search of the results forums.

Nope. It's a pretty rare practice in history.

Brown will almost certainly come out in the 2nd week of February. If you have any questions about the program, let me know!

"Thank you so much! This is very exciting! I'm looking forward to visiting in [ ]!" They know the game.

Ah yes. I found this guide very helpful, myself.

Sure, but the people you'll be competing with for the slot will have a very good writing sample and a good GPA and good GRE scores. Why should a program take you over them? This is not an idle question. This is a question your application materials will need to both implicitly and explicitly answer.

Januar ist der montag aller monaten