dr. t

I didn't, actually! I wanted to, but I focused on courses in my subfield (medieval) instead. I ended up doing most of my coursework through the SSP, etc.

I want to preface this by saying I'm not trying to pick on you. This response is towards the large number of this sort of post that are around the forum. And I also want to say that I got my BA degree from night school after flunking out of a traditional school twice, so I know about working schooling at the same time. To be clear, there are two factors against you: that it's an online degree, and that it's from a minor state university. If you take an MA in history, you've either got way too much money and spare time or you're trying to set yourself up for a PhD program. For the former, who cares what it says on the degree? For the latter, the prestige of your MA program and the prestige of your letter writers matters a great deal to the final result. The online degree hurts you, even if "online" doesn't appear on your application, because your letters won't be as good as someone who had regular, face to face interactions with their professors, and because online courses tend to be taught by relatively junior faculty. Moreover, more prestigious programs usually come with some form of funding, so that you don't have to work full time, which in turn leads to stronger work and a better application. And so $600 a course isn't worth it if it doesn't get you into a good (i.e. top-20) PhD program, which it, to be brutally honest, probably will not. But the $1000 a course I paid at Harvard Divinity (after partial funding) netted me an Ivy admission, so the investment was worth it. Neil Gaiman once wrote, "Sometimes I suspect that we build our traps ourselves, then we back into them, pretending amazement the while." I've found this to be generally true, and particularly so with the pursuit of higher education. The "real option" was not to go. It often is.

I am a Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies with a focus in Medieval Studies, a Master of Theological Studies in the History of Christianity, and a regular old Master of History. The absurdity of these titles has not affected my career, as far as I can tell. I do think that @ctg7w6 is correct, though. If you have a problem, it's because you have an online degree from a minor state university, not because of the particular wording on that degree.

Why didn't you use one of your publications as your writing sample?

I would first ascertain the precise relationship the potential PI has with your old one. I think it's unlikely that your previous PI would say anything negative about you, as that would force the question and spread the fact that there is some disquiet in their lab, so your main goal should be presenting yourself positively. Until you get to know your prospective PI better, I would try to find some simple answer to why you left your last lab that does not involve Sarah or reflect poorly on your previous PI. Glad to hear you're landing on your feet!

Sounds fairly typical. I think it's stupid and useless, but it's still typical.

You couldn't find more red flags at a May Day parade. Flee.

It is.

You need to have multiple conversations that aren't you asking for a raise, but which prepare them, mentally, for the question. But it sounds like there are some other, more toxic issues at play. It's much more difficult to give any advice on those via internet forum. With what you've said in your last post, your intended approach seems fine. In some situations, you can't really mitigate the other person's reaction. You can only seek to insulate yourself from it as well as possible. FWIW, don't rely on Glassdoor. Do your own research as to what your peers are making.

I'm not sure you can accomplish both your goals if you mean "apply this coming year" as putting your application in next month. You haven't laid any groundwork here to let your PI know about how you feel undervalued. No, asking once a year ago doesn't count. So if you drop a request for a huge raise, your PI will (rightfully) feel blindsided, and even the most objective person would have some difficulty writing a good letter. In other words, the situation is extremely volatile, and the best approach to achieve your goal (getting into grad school) is to not play with fire. If your applications are successful, you will have some more leeway to make demands (even the most outraged PI probably can't get an offer pulled), but your work will also have less incentive to acquiesce. If you intend to apply next cycle, then you have some time to lay the groundwork over the coming months. Plot a campaign of careful conversations over the coming months. You need your PI to know you're unhappy without thinking you're whining - a delicate balance to strike. Again, be prepared to give up this fight. Even if you win it and get into grad school, the victory could well be Pyrrhic as the PI is, I assume, in your field and thus will probably be able to have a hand in everything from your job searches to tenure review to grant committees. Do not make an enemy without need.

If it were me, I would already be running.

This has always struck me as a strange bit of the hard sciences. If the average student in your class can correctly answer 50% of the material on a test, there's something wrong with the teacher.

You know, next time you think that maybe we should give Trump the benefit of the doubt or look for ways to work with him, or that we should look on the bright side, or that he's not as bad at all that, I want you to stop for a second. I want you to stop, and I want you to imagine you're one of the women whom he sexually assaulted, who came forward to accuse him of sexual assault. I want you to imagine that woman on election night at the moment she hears Trump declared to be the next president of these United States. Tell her he deserves the benefit of the doubt. Tell her he's not as bad as all that.

I am not a PoC, but having consulted members of my cohort who are, they suggest this is a query which one should bring up with other graduate students if and when you're invited to visit.

Late Antique Mediterranean, Medieval Europe, Early Modern Church History

Just because something occasionally works out really well does not mean it doesn't occasionally turn into an unmitigated disaster. The social entanglement inherent in the situation makes those occasional disasters much worse.

Your current professors should also be able to give you a sense of who's well-respected as an adviser, as well, though it may take some careful work to extract this information.

Yes, exactly.

Ah, one of my favorite academic past times: the "yes" couched in a flurry of caveats that render it an effective "no".

Department booty is bad booty.

You're month into a new program at a new school in a new town. Slow down and take a breath.

NB: All of history is bad, but AmHist is particularly bad.

I've always had a soft spot for the theological constructions of Anselm of Canterbury, who was very interested in solving the loose threads Augustine left.

Are the students afraid you can't teach, or are you afraid? I feel like it's a very strange way to phrase the question, and it's left me unsure as to what you're really asking.

With rental prices around me, that would be maybe a 2% increase in my rent, which doesn't seem particularly extreme. But YMMV, I suppose.