dmmar

When you submit an abstract to a conference by email, what do you include in the body of the email? I'm assuming "hey, here's my abstract" isn't enough, but I have no idea what kind of information to provide, or in what format, etc. Help?

I exercise, go to plays, hike, and do nature and theater photography (my fiance is an actor and playwright; I'm the photographer for his theater group). Making time for exercise has not only kept me physically healthier, but helped me stay sane and not totally over-stressed during school, too.

During the visiting days, the DGS said that he didn't think they would be going to the wait list this year—but, that was, of course, two weeks ago, and things could change.

I will be attending University of Michigan in the fall! Woo!

Okay! I've made my final decision to go to University of Michigan, so I just sent out notices to the schools I've declined: (recently): Case Western, U Illinois Chicago, and Iowa. The DGS at UIC was a bit aggressive in asking for my decision this week, claiming that they have students on the wait-list for whom UIC is their top choice. SO, I'm assuming that my notice will mean good news for someone there. I also received an email the other day from Pittsburgh, asking if I still wished to be considered from their wait-list. Since I've just accepted at Michigan, I told them to take me off—but that means that they will probably be going to their wait-list, and someone else will have a spot. That's all my news!

Just declined U Rochester's offer. I know there were a few people on here on the wait-list, so I wanted to post my update. Hope this means good news for someone!

Purdue doesn't have a formal wait-list, so I think what they do is only admit the number of students that they actually want to attend that year. Each time a student declines an offer, they admit another student (which is basically how a wait-list works; Purdue just doesn't tell anyone that they're on it). At least that's what I gather from their emails. So if you haven't heard back yet, you're still under consideration/on the secret wait-list. I was accepted to the PhD program early on and declined a while ago, and it seemed like they admitted a new MA student a few days after.

I would avoid going through a rental company. My fiance has lived in Ann Arbor longer than I have and has experience renting from a few of the Ann Arbor rental companies, and his general opinion is that the companies kind of screw over the tenants. I would try to go through individual renters instead, if possible.

As far as I know, there aren't any *bad* areas that you should absolutely avoid, at least around the immediate neighborhoods in/surrounding the town. Areas might be better or worse based on your personal preferences though. For instance, I actually don't really want to live in the places more heavily populated with students, and that's something that one could choose to avoid. Not that there's anything wrong with the more heavily student-populated areas—in fact, the town is far less segregated (in terms of students and non-students) than many college towns I've been to. There's areas that are more student-y, but not overwhelmingly so and they blend in with the rest of the town. Ann Arbor has a decent bus system, so one thing you could do (if this is important to you) is check potential apartments against the bus lines.

If anyone needs help or advice with moving to Ann Arbor, I actually currently live there and would happy to help! As an admitted student, I know as much about the program as any of you do, but I have some perspective on the town itself, having lived there for a while as a non-student.

YES Who is going to the visiting days?

OMFG I had a nightmare that this happened! I went to a visiting day for one of my schools and the DGS was like "ehh, so... we kind of changed our minds and don't want you anymore."

Thought I'd add my thoughts here: 1.) My undergraduate GPA was not stellar; not terrible, but definitely not competitive. I also studied Philosophy and French, and didn't take any English courses. So, the first time I applied to PhD programs, I was rejected everywhere, and offered two MAs: one from NYU, one from my current university (which doesn't have a PhD option). 2.) It's not super common, but some MA programs, like mine, offer teaching assistantships, which will also help your application. My TAship covers tuition and a small stipend. Although the stipend isn't enough to actually live on, I've had support from my parents and my fiance to help get by. 3.) This is my last semester in the MA program, and I'm so happy that I did it. I've learned so much, have a much better idea of what I want to go into, built solid relationships with my professors who gave me a lot of support and advice before and during the application season—and who also wrote me excellent letters of recommendation, and ultimately put together a competitive application (and have received great offers from PhD programs this round).

Not really—especially if they don't allow you to transfer any/many of your credits from the Master's degree, because then you have to go through their program anyway.

As others have noted here, I think it depends on your relationships with your LORs, but that you should definitely always tell them about acceptances! I'm extremely close with my professors, so I've basically had a mass-email going throughout the decision-season. I had four LORs, plus another professor with whom I had only taken one class and wasn't in my field of interest, but I'm also close to him and he helped me a lot through the application process. The mass-email approach worked for us because I updated them all with decision notices and questions I've had about the schools, making my final decision, and whatever else has come up along the way. They would "reply-all" to the emails so they could see each other's responses and add or qualify things. I see them all pretty regularly, but not all together at once, so I've really benefited from this method of communication. Thanks to everyone who has suggested gift ideas. I'm also thinking about bringing in cupcakes for the whole department toward the end of the semester, too.

Posted this on the Waitlist thread, but wanted to leave a message here too: If anyone is still waiting to hear from Purdue, I've just declined their offer. Hopefully that will mean good news for someone here!

If anyone is still waiting to hear from Purdue, I've just declined their offer. Hopefully that will mean good news for someone here!

There are several factors that I'm weighing/juggling, and I'm not always sure how much weight to give each one. Important factors to me are: -Fit (with professor research interests) -Fit (with general atmosphere of the program) -Funding (and the form it takes--fellowships and assistantships, what the teaching load is like, etc.) -Placement rate -Program prestige -Location (if I have to uproot my fiance, I'd like there to be something of interest for him in the new location) How are you all weighing factors in your decision-making process? How much weight does each factor carry for you?

Here's my take: when professors contact me to say that they're enthusiastic about my scholarship, I respond by feeling super excited and more interested in their program, because they've made a minimal effort to be friendly. None of this is mysterious—any DGS will know this, and if they care about recruitment, then they'll make some kind of effort. Faculty become aware of you either because you mentioned their name directly in your personal statement (or elsewhere on the application), or, I think more frequently, because your stated interests fit with theirs and the DGS gives them your contact info and asks them to email/call. Obviously, making a minimal effort to be friendly isn't really indicative of how friendly a program will be; however, it does make a difference to the student. All but one of the programs that have accepted me have had at least one professor contact me—and the one that hasn't contacted me, I've basically written off. Whether or not they contact you isn't necessarily indicative of how much they want you—there could be a number of reasons, or that they just don't contact admitted students in general. Because if they admitted you, then they want you, so I look at it more as a reflection on how their department works rather than their interest in me.

I might want to come off as a foppish dandy.

Same here. I turned in most my applications either the day of or the day before the deadline.

Not sure, but I think NYU mails out their rejections, which might explain why it's taking them longer. Sticking things in envelopes = slower than pressing "send."

I don't think money should be the factor, but certainly a factor—I mean, you have to live on your stipend. Starving brains aren't studious brains.

That's an insane schedule! Visiting seems so important, though, so I'm sure it'll be worth it. Wedding planning is SUCH a time suck, but I'm really lucky to have a fiance who's willing to take up doing more than half the planning so I don't go totally insane. He works full time, but has way more time than I do—I'm in a MA program with a teaching assistantship AND converting to Judaism in less than a week. I applied everywhere thinking that I would get in nowhere, so some of my acceptances are from schools that I'm less enthusiastic about (although if those had been my only acceptances, my perspective would be totally different), so I'm definitely trying to prioritize where I actually go visit. Right now I have plans to visit U of M on the admitted students day (since I live in downtown Ann Arbor, I'm, you know... just walking there) and to visit Iowa toward the end of the month. I'd like to visit Rochester, but their student visit days don't work for me, so I haven't figured out if I'm going to do an individual visit there or not. I'm undecided about whether I should visit Case Western and Purdue. I actually really like their programs, and they've both been very welcoming and enthusiastic about my scholarship. But, I've been offered significantly more in funding elsewhere; their funding packages aren't bad at all, it's just I've been given really phenomenal packages elsewhere. And funding obviously isn't the only determining factor here, but it is really important—especially when it comes to funding conference and research travel, fellowships that don't involve teaching for two or more years (first year and dissertation years), etc. My professors have encouraged me to contact them and ask if they can make their funding packages more competitive, which I'm still planning to do, but at the same time, I'm aware that they simply have fewer funding resources than places like U of M. SO, there's that. I'm also just worried about being able to get work done while going on these visits. My semester ends early—April 17th—so I'm already starting to hit the craziest part of the semester. A few of my programs that can't fund for visits have also offered grad student couches to crash on, and I can't decide whether I think this is way cool, or if it would be really awkward.

A PhD from Queens would definitely have a LOT more prestige than one from Wayne State. I don't think having slightly less teaching experience from Queens would really hurt you in the job market. I don't really know much about Ontario, but I live in Michigan and used to go to Detroit fairly often, so I can tell you a little about that location at least. Detroit is a really interesting city, but it's not for everyone. If you do move there, you should definitely live in the city proper, and check out different neighborhoods because some of them are really dangerous. Rent is often really cheap for great places, if you can find them (a lot of the loft apartments in Detroit are amazing). If you like places that are in a state of post-apocalyptic ruin so far advanced that nature is actually taking over again (lots of big empty lots that look like prairie's, pheasants and coyotes wandering the city), then Detroit might be a good place for you (I'm saying these things as a positive actually, because that's what Detroit really looks like, and I think it's beautiful. It's actually somewhat quiet there, the streets are often empty, lots of post industrial looking "ruin porn"). Detroit is starting to get some decent restaurants again, and I know that if they haven't already, they're at least trying to get some real grocery stores. But it's not the kind of place that has traditional "city life."