rising_star

I wouldn't do it on your birthday or the anniversary, to be honest. You don't want to ruin or mar either one of those days. Definitely do it when it feels right though. Just saying that you love someone doesn't obligate you to have a whole long conversation about your future, as I'm sure you know.

I don't but I'd love to hear what others thing of the Yoga 2 or Yoga 3. I've also been looking at the Acer Aspire R13 but, some of the reviews about the keyboard are leaving me reluctant to pull the trigger.

Honestly, I don't know that I'd go with either option. It seems like you'll be going into either some debt or a lot of debt, neither of which is desirable.

If you identify schools that offer only the master's and not the PhD in history, you may have better luck finding programs with funding. That said, UTexas is pretty well known for Middle Eastern Studies and appears to have TA funding available: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/history/graduate/support.php

Honestly, AuldReekie, it's hard to get published in top-tier journals for your very first publication. You might be better off trying to get something into a second tier journal so that you can go on to the job market showing that you have and know what it takes to get published, even if you aren't in APSR or whatever yet.

This is a common topic around here. See the following: That should give you some insight. Or, use the search feature.

If you have funding from the school to do the master's, then I would choose one of those programs. If not, do the gap year.

You might get some responses over in the "Government Affairs" section if you were to ask there. Newark isn't the world's nicest city but it does have some cool neighborhoods and you can easily get into Manhattan from there, which is a nice bonus.

Hmmm... I think I'd narrow it down to Indiana vs. Yale. Bloomington isn't the most exciting city but there's plenty to do. The same could be true of New Haven, to be honest. In terms of funding, would you be getting any teaching experience at either place? I think getting some teaching experience is important if you want to go into academia but, at the same time, you don't really want to be teaching labs or classes every single semester if you can avoid it. In re-reading what you wrote, it seems like Indiana is the best fit for your academic interests but you're concerned about living in Bloomington and wary of turning down more money. As someone that turned down more money, I can tell you that money shouldn't be the most important factor in your decision-making process once you have a stipend that's sufficient to live off of. You should instead focus on things like research fit, placement record, research opportunities, etc. Check out the thread on Bloomington over in the "City Guide" to get a better sense of what the town is like.

If you want to go into academia and Pitt alums aren't doing well with that, then don't go to Pitt. Yes, Pittsburgh is fun but, you'll find cool things to do in the Stony Brook area. If you get really bored, you can always take LIRR into Manhattan and hang out in NYC for a day.

You might have better luck talking to those that have applied to either program over in the "Philosophy" subforum. I tend to think of the New School's MA programs as cash cows, not as something that students really benefit from.

Are either of the offers funded? If so, I'd go with that one. If not, my inclination would be VCU but that's because I think Richmond is a fun city with lots of cool things to do. (Keep in mind that I know absolutely nothing about your field.)

I would go to Maryland. I don't think that simply having a degree from Columbia will really help you that much on future Ph.D. applications. The Maryland degree might also be a broader degree, which could ultimately make you more employable. Even if it doesn't, having less student loan debt will enable you to take jobs you might otherwise have to pass up.

What are your career goals? If I were you, I'd think about the range of things I might want to do after (teach, go into industry, open your own consulting firm, etc.) then look at where the recent graduates of each program are currently working.

Cornell actually has a very strong engineering reputation in the US. I would say it's on par with Berkeley as someone that isn't at all an expert in that field. Also, because engineers have quantitative training, they can get jobs as consultants or business analysts, especially with firms that specialize in technology, science, and engineering work.

The Nicholas school is great but tuition there is expensive. I would probably go to Utrecht, which is also a decently well known school.

I'd go with Michigan. The budget cuts to the UW system right now are a bit scary (think $300 million).

There are several different models. For example, the Summer Academic Working Groups model is a virtual one where one week you send in something and then the next week, people give you feedback on what you sent. So, you might send in 1000 words and then get about the same from each of the 3 others in your group to review. Because it's done via email/dropbox, you don't have to worry about having a defined meeting time. If you're really worried about working with your cohort, you might decide to form a group that spans across disciplines. You'll also want to schedule meeting times in advance and just meet anyway even if 1-2 people can't make it.

Actually, it might not be that much each month. You'd need to know whether you're being paid over 9 months or 12 months to assess that. Also, you could look into whether health insurance is included and what, if any, fees grad students are responsible for paying for. For example, at my PhD program, grads paid about $400/semester in fees but in my MA program that was $800/semester.

Delete the first three sentences in that email before you send it. Prof X isn't angry, just trying to recruit you into their grad program still. You didn't piss them off.

spunky, in my experience, it does work. You ask them (or look at prof's CVs) to see how many grad students they've had. Then, you ask where those students are now. My advisor was quite honest with me about where his former students were working, including citing a student that dropped out and worked a "manual labor" type job these days. I never inquired about the department as a whole because I was going there to work with one specific person and mostly cared about his track record since he was a fairly recent arrival to that program. At any rate, if you know how many students are admitted each year, you can figure out if they're only giving you placement information for some. If you have their names, you can use google, LinkedIn, etc., to find out where they are working now.

Ah, now I see what you mean. Try to have at least 2 letters from current professors. If the AWA cutoff is 3.5 and you're above that, retaking the GRE doesn't make sense.

kotov, that is *plenty* of time in my experience. You'll probably need fewer than 15-20 hours of actual time to make the revisions they ask for. Good luck!

The abstract is just like any other abstract. You want to explain the background, methods, results, and conclusions but briefly in 150-200 words (or whatever guidelines the conference has given you).

Try to contact the programs where you were rejected to get feedback on your application. Perhaps they can tell you that it was your personal statement, your GRE scores, or something else, which will help you figure out where to go next. For the type of programs you're applying to, no one will care about your AWA score, though they may care about your quantitative GRE score. I'm not at all sure why you'd want to find new recommenders unless you think one of your current ones deliberately sabotaged your applications.