danieleWrites

My question would be: why did you apply to a program that you won't be very happy with? What about it makes you not happy? You don't give enough information, really. But, the Master's school received your rejection, looked up the person at the top of their waitlist, and offered your place to them. They may not have it filled, so you can try, but don't hold your breath. You make no mention of your choice of studies. If you're studying literature or philosophy or history or something, I'd say you'd be a serious idiot to get deep into debt for a masters when you can get a fully funded PhD. This is not to say that people getting a humanities doctorate can't get well paying jobs, in or out of academia, but it does say that the difficulties are enough that funding should be a primary consideration. You cannot get out of student loan debt. If you do not pay it because you cannot afford it, they will take it from you through things such as wage garnishment. Well, maybe if you moved to a non-extradition treaty country that has no real fiscal ties to the US. Before you make any decisions, find out the entry level pay people in your field with the degree you want will get. Do not tack on extra cash because it might be from Harvard rather than Podunk U. That doesn't always pan out. Use calculators at http://www.finaid.org/calculators/ to find out whether or not you can actually afford to go to your pay-through-the-nose dream school to begin with.

Take it from an old lady. (Oldish, at least.) Start investing for retirement as soon as possible. Check with a bank you trust to see if they have IRAs that don't require significant contributions to start (like the IRAs invested in mutual funds or stocks might), and start sticking in 50 bucks a month. If you can't afford it some months (summers with no job? Ah!), you don't have to put money in. The key here is to find out what IRA products are available with banking and/or investment firms you have reason to trust. Ask family friends and relatives who they IRA up with for names. Buying an IRA product is just like buying a car. You comparison shop.

You call and you ask them. You should start with either the graduate school or the university's human resources department. You might find it more productive to go to the university's website and find an email address for someone in human resources or for the department secretary of the program you're interested in and ask what the stipend is.

In composition courses? It's not about teaching the student how to do something the right way. It's about teaching the student how to consider their own draft and fix it. By the time they get to college, any grammar problems they have can't be fixed in a composition course, or other writing course. They have to learn to essayist literacy the same way they learned to speak. It takes years of daily practice, not a few essays. A composition course is about teaching process, rhetoric, textual analysis, self-analysis, genre, and working with secondary sources. It's about teaching a student to figure out the grammar on their own. NEVER EVER EVER assess a grade on a rough draft. The student isn't asking for helpful feedback; the student is asking how much effort they need to put into the essay to make the teacher happy. The student is asking for "correct answer." In writing, there is not such thing as the correct answer; the correct answer is the one that best fits the rhetorical situation (writer's purpose, reader's expectations, genre, medium). In comp, genre isn't like sci-fi or rom-com. It's essay, lab report, memo, research paper, and so on. Juliet, I think, has it right. Instead of giving the grade, ask them what grade they think they should have and why. They will fight because they don't want to figure it out themselves. It does them a horrific disservice to hand them these answers because they don't learn from it. They just make a paper that makes the comp teacher happy, then go on to other courses and write junk. Only 35% of businesses survey in 2006 thought college graduates were prepared to write in the workplace. It is waaaaay too much to ask for a composition teacher to explain how every part of an essay should be put together. The comp teacher's job is not to teach the student how to turn the professor into a crutch, but to teach the student how to use logic and rhetorical principles to communicate, and to figure out the writing process that works best for the student. It is also way too much to ask for the comp teacher to give individual grammar lessons. First, because correct grammar isn't always the right answer (not even most of the time), and second, because the student's future feedback will be in the "I don't get it" or "this doesn't make sense" variety, not in the clear specifics that comp teachers will use. Instead, students should be referred to the writing center (if there is one) because they won't have a comp teacher for every essay they write. It's about teaching the man to fish, not giving him the fish. In case your wondering, commenting on a rough draft of approximately 4 pages takes about 20 to 30 minutes. Of those comments, students will ignore 2/3. Students will ignore the textbook assigned (which explains in detail that a 14 year old can understand---I tested it) because it's easier to ask the teacher what they teacher wants to see than to figure it out themselves. I give my students with snarly sentences this essay: http://wac.colostate.edu/jbw/v1n1/krishna.pdf As far as fixing grammar, Joseph Williams "The Phenomenology of Error" explains it far better than I can. Here's the thing about writing. It's all rhetorical. The "best" essay isn't the correct essay, but the essay that feels correct. The "best" grammar isn't the correct grammar, but the grammar that feels correct. We have words like irregardless in our vocabulary. Language is messy and gets messier. Writing courses are not about teaching the "correct" way to write. They're about teaching students to think about the best way to present their ideas in writing and, since the best way to do that in the university is through essayist literacy, it's about assigning essayist literacy homework. There's the idea that this is "correct," but it's not. I'm going to go rant at a tree now.

Handling argumentative students over grading is actually very simple, for the most part. Instead of defending your grading, teach them how to advocate for themselves. The first step is to reassure yourself that you're human and you make mistakes and, more importantly, if you change a grade after careful consideration and acknowledging your error in a mature fashion that you can support with your course, you will get more respect from the students in general. To teach them how to advocate for their grade (because profs do make mistakes, or they grade when grumpy, or something), don't answer their question(s), ask them a question. For example, why did Joe get 20 points on this and I only got 19? Stop and look at it thoughtfully for a period of time. In composition, I spend about 1 minute of time considering a paragraph, no less than 30 seconds considering a sentence. In other fields, an appropriate amount of time. This has two purposes. One, it gives them the impression that you are taking their concerns seriously and they appreciate that. Two, it allows you to stop and really think about why you did what you did and how that relates to the assessment criteria you applied--not why they got the points the got, but how their work relates to the grading rubric/assessment criteria. The next step is to shift their work so you can both examine it, but mostly so they have a stronger view of it. Then ask them what grade they should have gotten and why. If you have a copy of your assessment criteria that they can view, get it out. Lead them into making a persuasive case for their grade. If they have a different grade for the exact same work, obviously you've got to fix your mistake. However, most grading isn't like a set of basic addition problems in base ten, where it's either a mis-mark or it's not. A lot of grading is subjective because no two answers will be the same. Even multiple guess problems aren't pick the correct answer, but pick the best answer. Teach them how to present an argument with supporting evidence. It should never be a case of Joe got a 20 and I got a 19, my answer isn't that different, it's not fair, you should give me a 20, too. It should always be: I think I should have gotten this particular grade/this particular problem right because of X, Y, and X (all taken from lecture notes, the text, other credible sources, and/or your assessment criteria.) Usually the first time you do this to them, they're completely unprepared. Smile. Tell the student that you'd like to give them the opportunity to prepare a bit with the text/lecture notes/whatever, so you'll see them in the next few days (name a day and time that would be convenient) to discuss the grade further. By giving them a specific appointment time, you focus their attention on when it would be good for them to come see you rather than on trying to argue fair instead of arguing the material. The key here isn't that you stop them from arguing with you, it's that you stop them from arguing stupid. You can't defend against a student's conception of fair because they've already made up their mind what the fair grade should be based on, usually, personal feelings. Instead, you teach them to argue with you based on course material, which you can defend because it's not about feelings, it's about the course material. I hand my rubric out at the beginning of the course, along with a four paragraph essay my then 14 year old kid wrote, and I teach them how I (and most people in composition) grade essays. I explain why I don't really care if they end sentences with a preposition, but their next professor might react any one of the more disgusting scenes from the Exorcist for the same offense. Then I tell them that if they believe the grade they get isn't what they earn, then they should come to my office hours with the rubric and their paper and make a case for the grade they should have. Of course, the first day of class, right after I pass out the syllabus, I sit on a table (if possible) and ask them how they know I'm qualified to teach the course. There are some students that this does not work for. They argue because they don't believe you have the right to "give" them any grade other than what they think they "earned." Be firm, but pleasant (as possible). This is the grade this work earned; see chapter two in the textbook. If they don't drop it, refer them to your supervisor. ALWAYS maintain a log. Date, time, potential witnesses, and the gist of what of you said without editorializing.

Here's some good news. It was easier to get into Harvard than it was to get a job at one of the two new Walmart stores that opened up in Washington DC. But here's your answer: no one can answer your question except the admissions committees (adcomms) of the schools you're considering. Sure, maybe one of the PhD students in CS at Duke can toss a number out at you, or work the Lickert scale, or say pretty good or meh. But the odds? If you want to stack your odds of getting into the right program, look for the right program that has people and facilities doing research into what you're doing. Don't look for the name on the school and try to tweak your application to make you look like you'll fit in with them. It would be kind of like playing up your abilities to develop web apps simply because MIT is all about web apps when you really want to research the semantic web. You are, in essence, asking the exact wrong question. The question you should be asking is: I'm really into researching A, and University X has Dr. P and Dr. Q who are tops in that field. What are my odds of getting into University X? Should I focus my senior thesis/project on A?

Slate has a thing hijacked from a book about this very question. Should you go to grad school? A Choose Your Own Adventure: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2014/05/whether_or_not_grad_school_is_right_for_you_a_choose_your_own_adventure.html It made sense for me.

The key words I'm reading here are "independent study course". I have no real idea what that means, but it's not a master's thesis. It's a course project. Even PhD students don't get hours upon hours of professor time to "work with them" on a course project. If you're having difficulties with this project for a single course, you should take part of the project or a similar project for the independent study course and reserve your current research goals for your thesis. So, no, it has nothing to do with your MA status. It has everything to do with the fact that you want more effort than your project has value (in terms of the overall scheme of a program). Every semester, I write two or three papers (sometimes four) that have the potential to be published in a journal or presented at a conference in some fashion, providing I can kick out some quality work. With that kind of professional pressure on me, I would want to spend an hour or so a week with relevant professors trying to get my best work, but that's not going to happen. Not to me, not to anyone. I can get help, but the help will be of the set me on the right track and offer a suggestion or two here and there variety, not the kind of guidance that I would have for my dissertation (or had for my master's thesis). Your first step should be to put away the sense of discrimination. Your second step would be to visit your professor during office hours to find out if he thought you were collaborating with him, or if you were doing an independent project with his oversight. You seem to think that you're working with your professor and he seems to think that you should be working on your own. This clash of understanding is causing your problems, not your status as a master's student. Without really knowing much about the situation, I'm assuming that you want far more from him than someone in an independent study course should want.

If you're an international student, get in contact with the school's office for international students. You aren't the first person to have this problem! If nothing else, they will be able to put you in contact with people who can help you search for housing. Many schools have an off campus housing office, or at least person, who handles available listings for such accommodations. Further, if you make contacts with people who either are international students or work with international students (many universities have local students as ambassadors or helpers), you already have someone you know before you get there. I'm not a Craig's List fan, so I would never use it. However, I've yet to find a town that has a university large enough for a graduate program that doesn't have a newspaper. Look for the local newspaper online and look at their classified ads. You may have to pay a bit for a peek. Many of the larger towns are serviced by real estate websites that will look for rentals for you. I've never used one, so I have no recommendations, but a few that I'm aware of are zillow.com, rent.com, hotpads.com. There are many more. Many people don't think of this, but you can contact a real estate agent in the area. Realtor offices are often property managers for various rentals. A final thing to consider is finding your ethnic community or an ethnic community of your neighbors in the town you're moving to. America is the melting pot because we have communities from everywhere! Even if you aren't religious, you can find help from the local churches, mosques, temples, synagogues, and so on. They have contacts in the community that they can put you in touch with. You can use yellowpages.com and look for churches or worship services. These communities take care of each other. They may help you for free, or they may ask for donations, or they may charge for services, but they may help. If nothing else, you have a contacts with people who understand your culture before you even get on the plane. I worked for a Korean family for a while and for a month or so every August they would have a couple of university students live with them until they could find their own place to live. It was in one of the more expensive locations in the US.

Normally, I would say probably not. However, you're moving into one of the most expensive places to live on the entire planet. What you'd pay for a year in rent for a single bedroom apartment would pay off half of my mortgage. When it comes to living situations like these, it's a matter of starting with boundaries. Get it in writing. What areas are you permitted to use? Can you put a lock on your door? Do they have a curfew in mind? And so on. If you have a specific list of chores you're required to do on specific days (with a possibility of negotiation to be accepted by both parties), then you have a base with which to deal with problems. Make it clear that you extras will be required for non-listed work (such as they go on vacay and you have to mow the lawn) and it has to be around your schedule, not theirs, and so on.

We spend about 70 bucks, US, a week, but we cut down on meat to actual serving sizes and replacing parts of serving sizes with canned beans where appropriate. Taco meat, for example, can be doubled or more with a can or two of black beans. It actually tastes better because of the texture. Some weeks are more because we like expensive cheese and yogurt. And ice cream We do a lot of stir fry. Whatever veggies, meats, beans, and starches we have on hand with a dollop of whatever marinade, sauce, salad dressing we have on hand, topped with a sprinkle of cheese and whatnot. We get the bulk style bags of cheap-ish rice rather than minute or seasoned rice. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes to make a pot of rice, so we tend to keep a bunch in the fridge for later. We don't buy in bulk because it gets pitched out. It didn't when I was hosting Plagues of Locusts (aka teenagers), but now that we're older, we don't eat as much. I don't buy something just because it's got a coupon. I don't buy something that's cheaper just because it's cheaper. If we won't eat it, we don't buy it. Best Choice canned veggies go bad in our house, so that 50 cents to a dollar we save on the can is just wasted money. One thing I learned: when it comes to bringing food to school to share? Don't make it a habit. Don't bring treats just because. Don't bring treats for students (if you TA) because it doesn't make them like you more (you can accomplish the same amount of goodwill be letting them leave two or three minutes early once in a while). Many restaurants around campuses will have specials throughout the week, lunch specials and dinner specials for off days. I often take one of my poorer fellow grad students to the lunch special. I buy the entree, my friend grabs a side/dinner salad, and we split the thing.

I realize this is late. I don't have suggestions, but I have questions. Why were you interested in freak shows? What part of freak shows were you interested in? Why did your supervisor think that you would be interested in negro genitalia in museum exhibits? You have an interest in the system pedophiles deal with in America, but what relevance does that have to what you intend to do in the future, once your thesis is written? What do you want to do with your MA and how will your thesis help you get there?

I do literature and sociology (sociology of literature, specifically). I have a 17" laptop that I very occasionally carry to school when I need the big screen. I have a tablet with a keyboard that I bring to school for regular use. Some days, I just use my smartphone and keyboard. I've used my tablet to conference with students about their lengthy essays and doing research through library databases. I don't find the tablet useful for spreadsheets. However, my department has a computer lab for TAs and the campus is covered with general computer labs. I dislike laptops in class because they don't leave much room on the desk for anything, like the text we might be working with. Also, I'm short so the screen gets in the way. The tablet doesn't. But this is me, and my research is all qualitative, so applications that need a big screen aren't necessary for me in school. When I work with things that do need a big screen, and can't do it at home, I use school computers. Frankly, carrying a heavy computer and books really sucks. This place is like the frickin' Andes. Everything is uphill.

Citing sources incorrectly is not plagiarism, even if the writer intentionally cites sources incorrectly. It's misattribution. Plagiarism is claiming the words or ideas of others as one's own. The OP did not do that. It's academic dishonesty, which is not interchangeable with plagiarism. I cannot tell you how much trouble I've had teaching students about plagiarism, only to find out that some people in academia are using academic dishonesty and plagiarism interchangeably. They're not. Undergrads can easily think that the only thing they have to worry about in terms of academic honesty/integrity is plagiarism, so if they aren't plagiarizing, then they can do it. Writing courses are where students are directly taught, in class, what plagiarism is. That's the textbook they read that explains what plagiarism is. However we in grad school use the word, that doesn't change how the word is taught. The OP can whangle some fake notes to get her/himself out of the situation, and out of plagiarism trouble. However, that will not change the simple fact that s/he committed academic dishonesty. The integrity of research is paramount, and that means honesty about the data. Andrew Wakefield of the vax/autism research did not plagiarize, he flat out lied about his results. It might seem like a trivial quibble, but it's not. Teachers that misrepresent plagiarism because for whatever reason can have some serious problems should some enterprising loop-hole looker snoop through the university's academic honesty/integrity policy. It has happened, not often, but it has happened. Frankly, as disgusting as I find plagiarism, I find other forms of academic dishonesty far more disgusting. Plagiarism just passes someone else's work off. Academic dishonesty has far more profound effects, even when it's not discovered.

If it makes a difference on your transcript, then yes, approach the professor. If it doesn't make a difference on the transcript, let it go. You can approach the professor without seeming like a grade-grubber simply by being confused. Bring the appropriate, relevant stuff with you (graded exams, essays, whatever), if there is any, be casual and smile. Hey, Dr. X, I'm kind of confused. I was looking at my grade and I thought I had a 96 but it says it's a 94. Did I make a mistake somewhere? Now, if there is no difference between the grade on the transcript, then don't bother the professor because, no matter how you phrase it, you'll look like a perfectionistic grade-grubber. In my university (and most that I'm aware of the in USA), there are only letters. There are no pluses or minuses on the transcript. An A- has the same value as an A+ because the only listed grade is an A. Other universities are different, of course!

While the stigma thing is important to consider, it still comes down to a cost-benefit. If your problem is interfering with your academics, or you have a strong indication that it will likely interfere with your academics in the future, then you should bring it to the attention of relevant people and only relevant people. If you're having problems and need an incomplete, for example, your professor is more likely to think well of you if they know that you're having problems, are doing something to fix the problem, and have a specific plan in mind when asking for accommodation. Kind of a Hey, Dr. X, I've been having some problems with depression and I'm seeing a counselor about it, but it has interfered with my ability to turn in quality work. I'd like to revise my essay/project/report because I can do better, and will be doing better work in the future. Otherwise, don't bring it up. It's not about stigma, so much as it's about the answer to one simple question: what do you want them to do with the information? If you don't have anything specific (such as help me find a way to solve the problem or adjust my academic plan), then they don't need to know. If you do have something in mind (other than keeping them informed), then tell them. However, the best person to ask would be your therapist. S/he may not know the answer, but s/he can help you figure it out.

While this is an academic board and this is a serious academic problem, it's not a uniquely academic problem. We've come a long way from George Eliot, but not all the way. I've been a victim of race and gender bias in the past, but not with academics. Also of height bias (shorty here). And, oddly enough, sexuality bias. Apparently, aggressive women are all man-hating lesbians. I resent that for all women. OWGs (Old White Guys). Go figure. Being of typical Hispanic shape, I've fielded my share of inappropriate, ah, appreciation. The nice thing about being old (women are "old" after the mid to late 20s) is this quits happening. Then it's ageism. OWGs want "fresh" ideas (code for you're old and we want a hot coed to decorate our Token Woman position). There's not much women can do directly to deal with OWG harassment and bias, especially those in the sciences and technology areas. I'm in the humanities, where I'm far less likely to get hit with OWGism. I feel for the women in computers of some sort. However, I was in the military. Knowledge is power. Before meeting with anyone who may have the ability to use OWGism in deciding your future, find out the regulations that govern that person and find out the names of the people they are accountable to in terms of OWGism. Know Title IX. The department chair is not the person to speak to about sexual harassment; it's often the provost. Additionally, find out the most likely news outlet to which you would take your story and learn the names of one or two reporters that you could immediately speak with. The high school paper isn't such a good idea, but there are news outlets that these people would fear having their names dragged through. Be prepared to back it up. Lastly, know the names of the Board of Regents, particularly the one most interested in Title IX complaints. Um, yeah, this is a USA perspective, but other places have rules, too. I also suggest krav maga lessons, or, if that's unavailable, kung fu, (the real) tai chi (not the exercise crap they do at the fitness center), or one of the Japanese soft-styles, like judo. Hard styles are fine, but they teach students to meet force with force. Soft style teach students to meet force by deflecting it. Nothing wrong with hard styles, but soft styles work better for women.

My response (even when they ask where I'm attending now): I'm a congenital Husker fan, so it doesn't matter where I go, my family is very disappointed because it's not Nebraska. They always say we're so proud of her! Even if she didn't get into Nebraska.

I've got a Kodak inkjet all-in-one that I've had for years. Didn't get a laser printer because of the price tag for an all-in-one and the replacement cartridges. Regretting it now! Kodak inkjets apparently hemorrhage ink when they aren't used daily or so. And they totally can't print black and white without the color cartridge being full, too. Why do I have black ink if it has to use color to print the black ink? Waste! Of course, now I don't have a landline, so I can't fax with the machine anyway. I've been using an app on my android phone to fax when necessary. My university's main library (and maybe the others, I dunno, haven't been) has this very cool scanner machine that is made to scan books, even the super-large variety, straight to .pdf, which can be then stuck on a flashdrive or emailed to oneself. I haven't used my home scanner since. Of course, I like to lurk in the library late at night, after most of the undergrads have taken off.

If you haven't already, get your free credit report and see what's on it. (I always go through the ftc.gov website to find the annual credit report website so I don't accidentally try to get it from one of those fake free credit report websites.) Anyway. Landlords check your credit report because they want to know if you're stable, have a history of paying your bills, and can afford the rent. They credit score itself isn't as important to them as having a history at living in one place, paying your bills, and so on. You can get reference letters from your current landlord, if you have one that isn't your parent, or other creditors. People with bad credit do get into apartments (homelessness tends to be about not having money rather than not having good enough credit), but you may find yourself paying more for security deposits and whatnot. You can get around that by having someone with good credit sign the lease with you (if you can find someone willing to stick their neck out for you). Since you live close by (relatively), you should spend as much time as you can looking for un-advertised rentals. These are often well priced and away from the party-central that is a college, apartment complex. You should check into roommate situations, as well. This can involve driving around and looking through the local newspaper. You can do some double duty here by renting a storage space and bringing stuff down with you every trip. Landlords in the area know college students. They've been renting to people like us for a long, long time. Show up like you're ready for a game of golf with your boss (khakis and a polo shirt), in a clean vehicle, without music playing. Shut the ringer off on your phone. The image to project is mature adult; the image to avoid is college student.

First stop: department secretary. S/he knows how the schedule runs or, if s/he doesn't, s/he will know who you can speak with about it.

This is one of those things that varies widely from school to school and department to department. You would be hard-pressed to find an English department that doesn't offer assistanceships to first years, MA, MFA, or PhD. I know that KU, in English, used to accept more students than they had assistanceships for and farmed students out to local community colleges as adjuncts for teaching experience and a paycheck (no actual help with student expenses). I'm not sure where you're headed, but you can check into the community college teaching thing.

You might find Ken Hyland's Disciplinary Discourses: Social Interactions in Academic Writing, 2004, of interest. He did a corpus analysis of various disciplines (via computer) to analyze how the different disciplines construct their texts. Sociology has an average of 107 in-text citations per paper while Physics has 12. I so totally geek this stuff.

Books on composition pedagogy.