Jump to content

ThousandsHardships

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    204

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

 Content Type 

Everything posted by ThousandsHardships

  1. ThousandsHardships
    IU.
  2. ThousandsHardships
    @positivitize You guys have a recruitment day? Are all the admits from your program invited? I'm curious because I'm waitlisted for a fellowship and there's a good chance that the top candidate was from your department.
  3. ThousandsHardships
    I myself wore workout clothes to class all the time during my master's program. I knew another grad student who wore long dreadlocks and religious robes to class.
  4. ThousandsHardships
    If you're in a terminal master's program, then most programs will require you to apply and evaluate you along with the rest of the applicant pool. However, if you've already been working with an adviser who's willing and able to take you on as a PhD student, then your chances of getting accepted is much higher than if you were just any other applicant. In my previous program, I know of at least two students who did this. One had been uncertain as she wasn't sure her PI had a PhD-level project going, but it ended up working out. The other was a student in my own lab. She applied twice. The first time she was rejected, but she was only halfway through her master's anyway and was going to continue the following year, so the profs just told her to crank out a publication or something in the mean time. The second year she was accepted. Our adviser basically didn't even put her on her own project until the end of her second year. It drove her nuts because she kept being assigned to help with bits and pieces of other people's work and therefore wasn't sure she'd be able to pull off a master's thesis. Our adviser, on the other hand, was like, "oh, she's gonna do the PhD anyway so no rush..."
  5. ThousandsHardships
    First of all, not all schools actually make the decisions when they say they will. I would still give them a week or two if I were you. But most importantly, you said yourself that the main reason most students get accepted is because "enrollment is low" and not because they do a blanket acceptance. Translated, that means that in all likelihood, this could very well be a small program where very few students tend to get in at a given time, but because accepted students tend to decline, the end result is that most of their applicants get accepted. To put it another way, you might be waiting on someone else to decline and that's why you haven't heard back.
  6. ThousandsHardships
    Dude, I received an acceptance on January 30th and I still haven't gotten the official offer or financial offer. Dying here...
  7. ThousandsHardships
    Did you already decline? I'm secretly hoping that you're the person ahead of me on this interdepartmental fellowship I'm waitlisted for...ugh.
  8. ThousandsHardships
    Congrats, first of all! And omg...I have TOTALLY been checking out cat adoption sites too! I want a kitty for grad school round 2! I'm just super uncertain right now because it's been over a month and a half since my acceptance and they keep telling me "maybe we'll know more in a couple more weeks" when it comes to funding. Ugh!
  9. ThousandsHardships
    I know, right? I hate that too! People can be so judgmental about PhDs. I don't understand why people keep telling me that a PhD is 1) a waste of time that I could be using to earn money at a legit job, 2) a waste of time that I could be using to start a family, 3) not equivalent to success, 4) an excuse to do a bunch of impractical stuff and brag about it as if you were superior, 5) useless anyway because they happen to know a few PhD grads who struggled to find jobs, 6) something they couldn't imagine doing because the idea of being in school more than you have to is absurd -- and for all the other reasons you mentioned. I can't seem to convince some people that spending five years at a university doing something that makes me feel alive and keeps me going in the toughest of times - and that pays me enough to live on and doesn't get in the way of family - could be worth the time and effort.
  10. ThousandsHardships
    I'm with @fuzzylogician on this. Grad school statements are not the same as undergrad statements. The best advice I've received with regards to statements is the following: Use the statement of purpose to explain what you have done and what you will do research-wise, and how your skills and interests have evolved as you were doing that work. Think of it as a cover letter or elaborated CV of sorts. Pure anecdotes do not belong here, nor do personal stories that spiked your interest. Unless your political drama is part of your past or future research, then it does not belong in the SOP. The personal statement (sometimes called personal history statement) is not the same as the SOP. Not all schools require one, but if you do need one, the most helpful advice I've gotten is to treat it as a mini intellectual autobiography. Here you can include some personal details, but the focus is still on how you got to where you are academically. Here you can explain anything that you may expect to cause doubt and show the concrete steps you've taken to improve upon any weakness. It's hard to say what you should do without knowing the specifics of your situation, though. Note that political involvement, even controversial stuff, is not a bad thing. Unless your actions border on intolerance or hate crime, I really don't see why you need to mention it at all if it's not relevant to your application -- even if they do Google you.
  11. ThousandsHardships
    There's a state deadline (usually in March) and there's a federal deadline (I think in June). As long as we meet the federal deadline we should all be fine. You only need to meet the state deadline if you want to be considered for state-based funding. If you're entering a funded program and only need the FAFSA on file for logistic reasons, then there's no realistic need to worry about missing the state deadline.
  12. ThousandsHardships
    @Soleil ت I know you're probably no longer reading this anymore, but if you by any chance happen to do so, I'm curious to know whether Indiana did end up offering you funding. Right now Indiana is the ONLY school that I've been accepted to (and I've heard back from all of them), and I'm kinda in a similar situation with funding. I keep being told to wait it out and that the process is slow, but I'm having my doubts. I'm just about freaking out right now.
  13. ThousandsHardships
    @Sigaba It comes up because sometimes referring to a professor by their last name in a department where the norm is to use first names can come off as not fitting into departmental culture. It becomes harder to be a part of that community of scholars. Remember that these professors are introducing you to the academic community as researchers and scholars, and eventually if you go into academia, these will be your intellectual colleagues. It's a really hard transition sometimes, especially when the profs aren't more explicit about it. At some point I think we just have to ask. That, or design a T-shirt that says "Professor -- please tell me what to call you or else I might accidentally start avoiding your name" (hint hint to those creative souls out there).
  14. ThousandsHardships
    lol...I initiated one of the topics that @rising_star linked to and I still struggle with this. Nowadays, I call professors by their first names only if they explicitly instruct me to do so and it's convention to do so. Most others I would address as Professor or Dr. However, I really struggle when they sign with their first name and students in the department call them by first names, but they haven't explicitly invited me to do so. I hate that and I feel awkward no matter which I go with. Half the time I just go with their last name to be safe. Oh, and if a professor has referred to their colleagues as Prof. [last name] while in correspondence with me, then I usually take that as a hint that they want to be formal themselves, even if the majority of their students call them by their first name. I call my M.S adviser Dr. [last name] even though he's fine with me using his first name and even though we're so familiar with each other that I could probably call him Mr. Daisysparkles without him finding it offensive. This is simply because his own grad students tend to call him by last name -- he says it's because his lab is almost all international students, and those students tend to be uncomfortable being on a first name basis with their professor. And he doesn't push it. I'm simply following the norm in this case.
  15. ThousandsHardships
    @ellieotter Quite simply, if a program isn't paying you enough to live on, don't go there. This is what all students do, not just low-income students. It is absolutely the norm to have one of the three: 1) a research assistantship, 2) a teaching assistantship, or 3) a fellowship. Any one of these three will give you a tuition/fee remission (meaning you wouldn't have to pay your tuition or fees), plus a monthly stipend to live on. You should not consider any school that does not offer you one of these. The only exception is with professional programs like law school or med school, for which students often are expected to pay out-of-pocket. As far as cutting living expenses, many schools have a pantry of sorts to help low-income students. The school where I did my master's has one, and the school I've been accepted to for my PhD (still waiting on funding though) also has one. Basically, it allows you to get a certain amount of free food and personal care products. It wouldn't substitute for grocery shopping, but you could get a substantial amount of things, like pasta and toilet paper, completely free. Personally, I've always loved taking part in student leadership activities, and interestingly enough, that gets me more free food than I would have imagined. Student recruitment events, workshops, committees...often came with meals. I don't recommend doing any of these just for a food, but if you're interested in the activities, free food can often be a perk. Oh, and garage sales! Take advantage of those!
  16. ThousandsHardships
    @underscore_frosty Good luck, then, in that case! If you don't get in this year, maybe also work and save some money so you can apply to more programs. Don't worry about your recommenders. Most of them don't change the letters much if at all. As long as they've written one letter, they can submit all of them in very little time.
  17. ThousandsHardships
    @underscore_frosty I've honestly never heard of programs getting as many applications as CS graduate programs tend to get, so if you get rejected, it does not necessarliy have anything to do with your applicant profile and more to do with competition.If you to get rejected from all schools and intend to reapply yet again next year, I would recommend applying to more schools if you can afford it. Sometimes it's all a matter of chance, and three schools sounds risky.
  18. ThousandsHardships
    I don't know about the religious studies program in particular, but UPenn is a very prestigious school that's incredibly well-known and well-respected in general, up there with Harvard and Yale (though with slightly less of an international name). In my field, it seems like most of the professors got their PhDs from one of these five schools: Princeton, Yale, UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins...and UPenn. There are obviously exceptions, but it's definitely a very good school where the name alone gets you an advantage in a lot of places.
  19. ThousandsHardships
    There are tons of countries that will allow you to teach internationally for a year or two. If that's your objective, then there's no need to limit yourself to those where the culture and laws don't agree with your lifestyle. I mean, I don't know your particular situation. For all I care, you could have personal reasons for choosing these countries. But in general, there are lots of opportunities to teach abroad in gay-friendly or at least not too homophobic nations.
  20. ThousandsHardships
    @HiFiWiFi Yay! Congratulations!
  21. ThousandsHardships
    I think of these years as a time when I will get to enjoy everything that I want in a job (research, teaching, leadership, campus activities) and be paid for it. If I only get 5-6 years of it, then so be it. It's still better than nothing. And the writing, teaching, and leadership skills that we gain will be applicable to the job market even if we do not succeed in finding a faculty position in the long run.
  22. ThousandsHardships
    Not entirely hopeless but I'm stressing quite a bit as well. I applied to ten schools, was rejected from eight, waitlisted for one, and was accepted to one with no concrete word about funding thus far (it's been a month and a half since my acceptance). I was so excited to be accepted, but the more time passes, the more I'm panicking. I can't attend without funding, and if I don't get it, it would be the equivalent of a rejection.
  23. ThousandsHardships
    @HiFiWiFi If you've completed the DPD program, you could also take that exam thing (I forgot what it's called - it's been five years since I last touched dietetics), become a DTR, and use that to work a few years before going back to school. I mean, as a backup, of course, since you're clearly applying to schools now and application season is far from over. The Peace Corps is another great backup.
  24. ThousandsHardships
    As long as they're giving you a tuition/fee remission and enough of a stipend to live on, I wouldn't even take money into consideration when making a decision. It's your life and future at stake. No amount of money is worth not being in a place you like that gives you the support you need. I mean, if one is hazy about future funding while another guarantees you for X number of years, then by all means choose the one with the guarantee provided you'd be happy there. But apart from financial security, I can't think of another reason to even consider the funding. Personally, I wouldn't care if they gave me $20,000 a year or $80,000 (yes I know an exaggeration) a year. I don't even care about summer funding (though I totally understand those who do). I'd simply choose the school that's best for me, provided it's paying me enough to live on.
  25. ThousandsHardships
    I was rejected by several schools with a 50% or higher acceptance rate while I'm top of the waitlist for a school that seems in past years to have had one of the lowest acceptance rates of all the schools I applied to (and I might have even gotten in if I hadn't butchered my interview so badly). Don't lose hope in your top choice! It's your top choice for a reason. If the reason is that the program is a great fit for you, then chances are that they will also find you a great fit for them. Remember sometimes fit is everything. In my case, having cited the professor I intended to work with in my writing sample probably didn't hurt either.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

  I accept