[Mac or PC?]

Once you go Mac, you'll never go back.

[Applying for Fall 2012 Admission. Blah.]

I've wanted to get a PhD in history ever since I was 12.

Also, not to be a downer, but, whatever you do, don't open your SOP with a line like this. It's okay to be anxious or overwhelmed even this early in the process... You have a couple of months which can be spent looking into programs so if you can only do 1 per day, that's fine (as long as you don't procrastinate). Like vtstevie, I'd look over various departments' pages for fun, sometimes for hours.

[How to cope with forced schooling]

[quote name=hello! ' timestamp='1301210721' post='232697]

She is now ecstatic because she has convinced herself that I've "saved" myself throughout undergrad so that I can go to grad school at an Ivy league and find me a nice husband there. Can we say "delusional"?? haha The twist is that I do not plan to marry a man because I like women!

[Best software for annotated bibliography?]

I need an all-in-one kind of deal myself. I keep moving through different programs to try them out, but never settling on any of them. Pages seems pretty solid, as does Bookmarks. I haven't really given Endnote much of a chance yet, but it seems very popular. Scrivener, as far as I know, is mainly for composition of papers. I gave it a shot and I liked the concept, but I'm not sure it works well for annotated bibs. Its main focus seems to be collating ideas and turning them into a bigger project.

I'm actually looking into similar software to database reading notes in a way that can be tagged and cross-referenced. Haven't found anything that seems specifically designed for this yet, but am looking into building something that would work in FileMaker Pro. there's got to be something out there that covers all of these basics?

You could try Papers2 or DevonThink.

[for those accepted into grad programs straight from undergrad]

Generally, I think as long as you get your degree on time, that your offer is safe. Though I have seen some schools make conditional GPA requirements, but that seems to have been on an individual basis.

I'm fighting this problem as well. Though mine is compounded by the fact that I am taking 19 credits in order to graduate on time, having already been accepted to my top choice. 6 of those credits are independent studies and I'm also taking an honors research colloquium and writing my second honors research essay. On top of that, I have economics and lit classes which I put off to the very end and could not care less about. I'll probably still get A's in them, but they will be the cheapest A's I've ever gotten. I really couldn't care less if I got C's in them since my GPA is strong enough that I'd still graduate summa cum laude even with the two C's. The most troubling thing is that it feels unnatural or out-of-character to me to feel so ambivalent toward my schoolwork, even though they are non-major-related courses.

One thing I did do to make it more interesting... I have a large lecture economics class and found out that Michio Kaku is teaching Astronomy in the same room right after my class. So after my class is over, I go up to the last row of the lecture hall and watch him teach the Astronomy course.

[Keeping stuff organized]

Holy cow natsteel! If I used as many programs as you I think I would need a program just to keep track of all my programs! You sound unbelievably organized

Kathiza, I have not heard anything about Mendelay but have you considered Zotero? A girl in my group doing her PhD swears by it. I'm pretty sure she will abandon it for Papers2 now that it's out but with Zotero you can organize and cite with it. Also, it's FREE! And it's built into your browser. I could be wrong but I think you can only use it with Firefox. The good thing is that I'm pretty sure it's also available for Windows.

Ok.. my statements are becoming wishy-washy. I need sleep.

And if all else fails, just get a mac. You know you wanna...

HA! I guess it does sound like a lot of programs, but I think I've developed a pretty efficient workflow, so it all seems pretty seamless to me. Being well-organized basically means that my bad habit of procrastination costs me less than it might otherwise.

About the Mac... many (though not all) of the programs I use are only for Mac and that is why I bit the bullet and bought a MacBook Pro. I got the cheapest one available at the time and even though it was more than I should have spent on a new computer, I haven't regretted it for a moment. I would never willingly go back to Windows now. That said, Scrivener is coming out with a Windows version soon (if you haven't seen this program, check it out). And there is Mendeley instead of Papers. Evernote is available for PC, there is OneNote instead of Notebook, and Things also has PC equivalents.

About a year ago, I set out to really nail down my workflow before I started graduate school. I began doing it when I was writing my junior honors essay. Now, I'm doing my senior honors essay and I have the flow down pat. I can honestly say that my efficiency and productivity have improved significantly from getting organized and designing my own workflow.

[LOR: academic vs. professional]

Awkward to ask someone whom you haven't talked to in 3 years?

Not.

I met with an old professor of mine last fall after not really seeing him or being in touch for 2 1/2 years to get some advice. He ended up being fare more helpful than I could ever expect.

Don't underestimate professors. You never know who can surprise you.

And yes, anyone who writes a letter fro you should have a PhD and can judge whether or not you can finish the diss. They know it's hell and if they don't think you can do the diss, they won't recommend you highly. or at all.

StrangeLight and ticklemepink are right. An LOR is not a character reference. It is an assessment of your suitability for graduate school, and, most importantly, your potential to complete a dissertation. If you have a professor that you haven't talked to in a few years, it is still appropriate to ask them to write you a letter. However, you should have available for them some of the work you did in their class as well as a draft of your personal statement to help them write you a more focused and personalized letter, which is crucial.

[I got into grad school]

I have a similar problem, though in reverse. I am finishing up my last 19 credits this semester including a few core requirements which I put off to the very end. At the same time, I am writing a second honors research essay. Unlike the OP, I am having no trouble getting motivated to work on the research paper, but to get up for my economics and literature classes is taking some real doing. I even feel like, for the first time, I could care less what grade I get in those classes as long as I pass and get the credits needed for graduation.

[Safety w/ Funding or Top Choice Waitlisted for Funding]

Thanks mom. You think I'm not aware of my debt burdon? What is one supposed to do when one goes to a private school and plays football so that he is barred from having a job and whose parents hadn't been able to saved anything for college? Maybe you should think twice before self-righteously casting judgment on fiscal (ir)responsibility in a public forum. Just my 2 cents.

I didn't cast self-righteous judgment in that post. Anyone will tell you that $100k in debt for an undergraduate degree is a bad fiscal decision. And for anyone to say that $24k/yr in debt repayment "isn't unbearable" leads me to believe you are fiscally naive. Which is why I took a few minutes to run those numbers for you, just in case you happened to be unaware of them.

Since you asked "what is one supposed to do..." One can do what myself, and many others, have done. Go to a school you can afford, do extremely well there, and then get a fully funded offer to a top 5 PhD program, like me. That would have been the more responsible move. I went to a public university where tuition was $5,000/yr. I didn't have parents to pay for school and I have a wife and two kids to support. So don't act like going to a PRIVATE school and wracking up $100k in loans to play football was your only option. If you had a football scholarship which barred you from working, why would you have needed $100k in loans, in the first place? Maybe you should think twice before being so self-pitying when many others on this public forum don't even have a funded offer and/or are coming from much more difficult circumstances than yourself.

[Safety w/ Funding or Top Choice Waitlisted for Funding]

5-Figure? At $10k/mo. that means it'll be paid off in 2 years. Most student loans are 10 or 20 yr loans so I'd pry be payin $1500-$2000/mo. which is a lot of money no doubt. But a starting assistant econ professor salary is right about $90k-$110k, and if I go to the private sector I could make much more than that, so even $24k a year wouldn't be unbearable. But you're right, $200k is entirely too much to pay for education.

The median (not starting) salary for an assistant professor of economics is under $70,000.* A more realistic estimate would be around $50,000. And that is only IF you are lucky enough to get out of your program right into a TT position. If you had no debt from undergrad, it might be more possible, but $100k is alot of money.

You didn't say how much of that is private and/or unsubsidized debt, but, even if the entire $100k was from a Direct Loan, at 6.8%, payable over 20 years, you're still looking at $763/month.** That's $9,100 per year. You would pay back $183, 201 for that $100,000. If any of it is unsubsidized or from private lenders, those numbers would go up SIGNIFICANTLY. A good rule of thumb is to not take on more debt overall than your expected STARTING salary upon degree completion. Of course, you are already well beyond that. I've read so many stories by people being crushed later in life by student debt repayment (many whose debt load was much less than yours is now).

Taking out $100k in loans for undergrad was a very fiscally irresponsible decision, which will affect you negatively for decades for to come. Don't make it worse. If you were to take out another $100k for a doctoral program, then you would have to double the numbers above and you could very well end up owing upwards of $25,000 per year in debt repayment. I would just encourage you to strongly consider the ramifications in the events that things don't go perfectly according to your plan (i.e., get PhD, get job for $70,000+ yr right away, etc...), as they often do.

I think it would be fiscal madness to take out another $100k on top of what you already owe for a PhD in Economics. But that, of course, is just my .02... Best of luck to you, jblsmith!

*http://www1.salary.com/Asst-Professor-Economics-salary.html

**http://www.finaid.org/calculators/loanpayments.phtml

[Keeping stuff organized]

You must MUST check out Papers2 for mac.

+1 I've been using Papers for over a year now and just upgraded to Papers2. I don't know what I'd do without it. I also use an app called Notebook for Mac which I use to take class notes. I generally record my classes with my iPod while taking notes with Notebook and then afterwards I drop the audio file right onto the Notebook page for that class session. I use Things for Mac as my task manager and to help me plan and keep track of what's due and when for each class and paper. That's been indispensable as well.

I also use Scrivener when writing a long research or historiographic essay. If you haven't seen this application, google it. It's incredible.

I use Evernote for random or on-the-spot notetaking and Curio for mind-mapping/paper conception. Of course, I use EndNote for citation management and DevonThink Pro for having one searchable database of all my files.

I backup most of this stuff to my Dropbox account, i.e., email archives, calendars, contacts, tasks, EndNote libraries, Notebooks, etc.... I also keep my main semester folder with subfolders for each class in my Dropbox folder so it's always backed up along with all my "project" (essay) folders. I also just got a Kindle which has been really good for reading journal article pdfs since I spend a lot of time traveling during the day. And, almost everything above is also synced to my iPod.

I have been considering getting an e-pen as well... the Livescribe looks really interesting.

[Decisions, Decisions (for historians)...]

@Herodotus

Pro: It's Harvard!

Con: It's not Yale!!!!

Sorry. Couldn't resist...

[The art of declining an offer]

It's not required that you decline all your other offers before accepting the one you want. If you had accepted A's offer and then emailed the other schools and told them that, they would not have bothered to come up with extra funding. Your best bet is to accept the offer you want, and then inform the other programs that you "have already accepted another offer." You're not required to give reasons but if you don't want to take a chance on alienating the other POIs, you can always say something like jpufrock said, "After much deliberation, I must decline your offer of admission as I have already accepted another offer." Don't forget to thank the POIs that gave you extra time and departments which gave you a second, improved offer for doing so. They know how it is... most, if not all, will not hold it against you. But it's better to decline their offers definitively sooner rather than later, because they may have a waiting list. Good luck!!

[CUNY Graduate Center]

hey. I am also accepted for the CUNY GC for a PhD in history. However, I am an international student and was wondering if someone knows how that goes?

I also have a masters and was wondering if a students with a masters can start teaching already in the second semester?

And... of course I havent heard anything about funding yet? When and how is the history (or other departments) giving out the news!?

Finally, I am trying to contact someone at the CUNY department to ask all this questions - they seem to be a bit hesitant to help you out. Does someone know a good contact whom I could bombard with my questions!?

Thanks!

You should contact the Department's secretary: beinerman-AT-gc.cuny.edu. She's very nice and very helpful, as well. As for those asking about English teaching load... Expect to be teaching Comp 101, which generally have anywhere from 25-40 students. So you won't be teaching a section of 60+ students... I've been at CUNY for four years as an undergrad and not until my last semester did I have one of those big 100+ lecture courses and it was macroeconomics. That said, much depends on which of the eleven CUNY senior colleges or 7 community colleges you are assigned to.

[No Funding Does Not Equal Death]

I'm one of those who believe an unfunded admission is the equivalent of a rejection. The problem is some people really think it's their dream school or nothing else. For example, there's a post in another part of the forum where someone is considering taking out $100,000 in loans for a Master's in Education (of all things) because it's their "dream school." I'm sorry, but that's just ludicrous...

[Can filing FAFSA hurt your admission/aid]

If you got accepted into PhD programs with funding, FAFSA isn't really required but it is always good to have a back up.

Filing a FAFSA will not affect admissions decisions in any way. Many programs I applied to required students to fill out the FAFSA even if they were getting University Fellowships or other funding. It won't hurt... you might as well just fill it out.

[CUNY J-School (and others!)]

I'm not in journalism but for what it's worth, I know a few people who turned down Columbia for CUNY's J-School.

[Ohio State]

That was me. I got an email from the DGS saying I had been waitlisted...

[What software do you use/find indispensable?]

Do both programs have the same function?

I am seeking sexiness during graduate school, and am sincerely interested.

Check it out at mekentosj.com.

The major upgrade to 2.0 just came out and it's really good. And you can get the student discount just by scanning or taking a decent pic of your school ID and emailing it to them, IIRC. It also now has CiteWhileYouWrite and integrates with Word so it has basically obviated the need for EndNote or Bookends or Sente. It also has a really cool social component called Livfe which lets you add your own brief reviews and ratings of articles and see those of others who have done the same. It also can pretty much find the metadata info for most articles downloaded from the major databases and also lets you search those databases within the application via EZProxy.

[What software do you use/find indispensable?]

I will get this EndNote everyone is suggesting. It sounds very sexy.

Disappointment is in the air!! EndNote is the farthest thing from "sexy" I can imagine.

I also just upgraded to Papers2 and THAT is sexy. Absolutely fantastic piece of software.

[Buying new laptop]

Points well taken. I am from a family of PC techs and IT support and used Windows since it came out. Last year, I bought a MBP and have loved every minute of it. I appreciate the person above who has had a good experience with his Dell laptop, but generally the advice I give is to avoid Dell laptops (though not their desktops). If I had to buy a Windows laptop right now, I would probably go with an HP, though a lot of people seem to like ThinkPads as well.

I'm in the Humanities so I mostly use my MBP for the basics: email, internet, and writing. However, I also use it for watching movies, TV shows, etc... and so they graphics are a nice bonus. Of course, there are plenty of good laptops for much cheaper that will do all that, but I have really been won over by software for the Mac that is not available for Windows. Not incredibly important stuff, but the kind of stuff that is fun to use and/or makes tasks easier and more enjoyable. Then again, there are Windows alternatives to most of those programs. If you don't have that "I-really-want-a-Mac" feeling, then it's probably not worth the extra money. Of course, if the software you use for research is not available for the Mac, it's not worth getting one just to run Windows on anyway. Though I spent more on the MBP than I probably should have, I have never regretted it for a single second and would definitely do it again. At this point, I personally would dread having to go back to Windows full-time. Just my .02...

[Is paying full-price worth a MA degree?]

I have to join the "No" camp... 80k in loans even for PhD program is insane, unless it's in a STEM field, in which case it's just ludicrous. That amount of debt and monthly payment is just unrealistic for someone in your field, even if you did secure a top PhD offer and then a tenure-track job when you were done. But I am one of those who thinks that no graduate degree is worth paying for in the Humanities. These unfunded MAs are cash cows for schools.

[It's Finally Over!!]

I applied to 11 schools and only got into 2 (though I still haven't heard from 2 of which I have reason to believe I will be accepted to 1 and rejected from the other), Yale and the CUNY Graduate Center. I was wait-listed at William and Mary, as well. I had thought I would get 1 or 2 more acceptances but having the Yale acceptance I obviously can't complain. Also, Yale was the place where I had the best fit, by far, and so not getting into other schools where my fit was not as good makes a lot of sense.

[Decisions, Decisions (for historians)...]

I don't have much to base this on (just two schools) but of the two, it's actually the more prestigious school has been much more assertive in contacting me. I got a long and personalized email from a professor asking when they could call me, and then later I received an email (with an offer to talk on the phone) from a second professor in the department, plus they assigned a student finishing up her dissertation to contact me...and she really took a lot of time to answer any questions I had.

I've had the exact same experience. The POI from the more prestigious school contacted me the first week of February and I also received emails from current grad students and other professors in the department. And then a few weeks later, my POI came out to dinner with me, my wife, and one of my mentors. All the tangible stuff like fellowships and the like are important, but I found that the feeling of being wanted was in some ways just as important.

[Ohio State]

I still haven't heard anything either. Maybe a week or two ago my status changed to something about my application having been sent to the Graduate School for review.