rising_star

It's really not that detrimental. I never visited my PhD program until after I accepted. I went like 6 weeks before moving to look for housing and that was it.

GradSecretary definitely is NOT a troll. That said, I also laughed when I read the original question. I know people that have struggled to move with what they're offered for a postdoc or a job in terms of moving expenses. Many federal government jobs specifically say that no relocation expenses are available. So, given that, I find the idea of asking for what could be 10-25% of one's salary to move to be absolutely ludicrous. Feel free to downvote me for saying the same thing GradSecretary said.

I'm late to the party, sorry. I've had plenty of students try to tell me how to teach my class. They like to tell me how much they are capable of reading, how busy they are doing their work for other classes, and how I'm wasting their time by teaching them core courses for the major. Because, obviously, 19 year olds with their first crack at a subject are the expert, not the grad students or PhDs in the room. This isn't to say that students are always wrong. It is to say that I've found many 18-20 year olds that have no real clue whether they're learning useful things or not because they don't have the appropriate context. Agreed with this. I have a statement about civility in my syllabi, which says that we talk about controversial topics but we must be respectful of all views, not just those that align with theirs. It also says that I reserve the right to ask students to leave the room if they fail to discuss things civilly, if they make harassing remarks, or if they are otherwise completely inappropriate.

Using your ex's login is probably unethical and a violation of the university's policy. Aside from that, the situation you described is precisely when ILL is used. Why would anyone need to have an article loaned if the school's library already subscribed to that journal? And yes, it will probably seem like brown-nosing at this stage in the game.

You could. Or, you could make sure they aren't available via Google and then request them using your library's Interlibrary Loan service.

You could get them from anywhere, but you didn't. You should cite that book since you're using their idea of social network analysis, not your own.

lxwllms, Worcester, MA is now leading the Golden Snow Globe Awards. The Boston area has really stepped up its game in the last 2 weeks!

If you're in anthropology, many faculty probably do research (especially overseas research) during the summer so contacting them then may not be the best idea. I would wait until September, personally.

Kenjamito, take a look at the qualifications for a role like that. There are several currently advertised on higheredjobs. While many require the PhD, they're also interested in a candidate having experience in student affairs, management experience, and experience with diversity programming. So just having a sociology PhD, even if you focus on diversity in your research, may not make you qualified for such positions, at least not starting off. People that go that route tend to enter the field with a master's (in higher ed or student affairs or college student personnel), work for a few years, then return to school for a PhD. An example would be this ad at Denison for a Vice Provost. "Minimum Qualifications: *Doctoral degree or equivalent terminal degree in a relevant discipline. *Minimum of 8 years experience in higher education or 5 years experience in developing, implementing, and evaluating diversity programs. *Comprehensive knowledge of the broad range of diversity issues in higher education, including but not limited to faculty recruitment, retention, and development issue" Those aren't things you're necessarily going to get in a PhD program without gaining additional experience.

Different programs definitely have different protocols. My PhD program doesn't do much recruitment but people are more than willing to be helpful if you reach out to them. Our conversion rate (people accepted that enroll) is so high that we don't bother to do much recruitment (we also don't pay when people visit for the most part, which hasn't seemed to affect that conversion rate at all). If it's the norm for that department, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Also, be careful about negotiations. Make sure that what you're asking for is reasonable. For example, one school offered me a few thousand less than others but, their package included covering all student fees and health insurance, plus the school was in an area with a very low cost of living (you could get a 1 bedroom apartment for $400/month). $20K in Athens, Georgia goes a lot further than it does in NYC.

It's probably worth recognizing that you still need to go to a highly ranked program if you want to work at a LAC. See, for example, the faculty at Oberlin, which includes grads from Yale, U Chicago, Harvard, Minnesota, Columbia, and Berkeley. Wellesley is similar: Princeton, Columbia, Duke, Harvard, Stanford, U Chicago, UNC-Chapel Hill. Alright, those two are pretty elite. So maybe a less elite LAC is what you're interested in. Well, how about SUNY Purchase, #171 in the US News and World Report rankings for National Liberal Arts Colleges? UT-Austin, University of Houston, UNC-CH, Rutgers, the New School. I listed them all since they only have five faculty. New College of Florida is tied for #87 in those same rankings. The faculty there are from Duke, Michigan State, Indiana, and UC-Davis. I say all this to point out that it's a fallacy that you can go anywhere and end up at a liberal arts college. (BTW, it's a good exercise to look up the CVs of folks working at places you think you might want to work at. It'll help you see what the qualifications for that job might be, assuming such a job is available in 5-7 years when you're on the market.) The Chronicle has a bunch of threads on this. Such jobs look for elite scholar-educators, often who have attended a LAC for undergrad and thus know what it's all about. And, if you don't love teaching, you'll hate LAC life with it's 3/3 (or more) teaching loads, 25-50 advisees (at a minimum), and expectation that you are in your office and accessible to students from basically 8am-6pm on weekdays.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Look for past threads on this topic. Some departments (like my PhD department) give everyone the same stipend and the only way to get more money is to be awarded an external fellowship. Others are more likely to negotiate.

Not in history but, there are tradeoffs to working with a "big name". As telkanuru pointed out (as I was typing my reply), face time may be a huge tradeoff. To compensate, be prepared to take any and every grad seminar your advisor offers, even if you're not super interested in the topic, and possibly to be their TA. My advisor is a big name in my subfield and I saw him the most when I was also his TA. That said, you have to decide how independent you are willing to be. I knew going in that he was hands-off and had to make sure I could handle that before I decided to go work with him. The email thing really, really varies. My advisor has always been pretty fantastic about email, even when he's across the country or the world. When he can't reply quickly, he'll let you know in advance (for example, writing to say he'll be away from email for 3 weeks in about 3 weeks so you can ask for whatever you need in advance). I work internationally and my advisor made the time to talk with me on the phone and Skype while in the field, which wasn't always the chase for my friends who had less well-known advisors. If you're going to be away in archives working for a while, it might help to talk to their current students about the contact they have, if it's sufficient, etc. Not all well-known advisors publish with their grad students. Some do, some don't. Check their CV and ask their current grad students to find out more about this. For me, what I really wanted was an advisor that would help me secure grants and write a strong dissertation. My advisor is pretty much a genius when it comes to editing grant applications and his students have a fantastic track record for securing more grants (NSF DDIG, SSRC IDPF, and other similar grants), which was something I knew I'd need to do the research I wanted to do. Depending on your research interests, that is also something to consider. What hasn't been mentioned here is the cachet that you get by being able to say that Big Name Person is your advisor. If your advisor is a rock star, people will be impressed that they're working with you at conferences, for example. I personally have always thought that part was weird but, it happens to friends in other fields too that have rock star advisors. People are impressed and that can help you in various, often subtle ways. If you can get that advantage, you might as well. There's also the opportunity for face time with other big names at conferences because your advisor introduces you. That's happened to me multiple times and it's always fun and exciting. At any rate, when I decided where to go for my PhD, I decided to work with Big Name, rather than anyone else in the subfield because I wanted his name attached to my degree more than I wanted all the others. Don't get me wrong, the other POIs are great people, many of whom I talk to at conferences and who I respect a great deal. But, I turned down better financial packages to work with Big Name and, most of the time, I don't regret it.

Not in your field but here are some answers that might help. Re #1: It partially depends on the school's deadline. If you wouldn't have your fall grades until after the deadline, you're taking a huge gamble that they will let you add that transcript to your file. If your deadlines are Jan 1 or Jan 15, you might be okay. But, if they're Dec 1, it's unlikely the grades from your MS would make a difference in your application. Also, think about your recommendation letters. Is a one year MS at a school you already went to going to lead to any improved recommendation letters? Given your inconsistent undergrad transcript, strong letters could make a big difference in your applications. I doubt you'll be able to get stronger letters out of the faculty that already know you after a few more months there. In addition, any kind of impressive thesis work you might do wouldn't be done in time to aid your applications, unless you wait until after your MS to apply. Re #2: It's unlikely that all of your credits will transfer. The norm is for 9 hours to transfer, so 3 courses (1 semester in many programs). Some programs don't even allow that though. You'd have to look specifically at the program handbooks of the departments you are considering to see what they allow.

The difference between #1 and #6 really isn't enough to matter when it comes to looking for a job. I wouldn't worry about pictures of running keeping you from getting a job 4-6 years from now. Many faculty are athletic. I know some that do triathlons, some that run marathons, etc. Everyone knows you'll have nonacademic pursuits and that's fine.

Get publications. Present at conferences. Develop research collaborations with grad students and faculty at other institutions. Apply for and win competitive grants from major national foundations. Oh, and maybe gain a bit of teaching experience. The extent to which you need to do each of those will depend on the type of institution you want to work at after you finish your Ph.D.

Have you double checked the program handbook of the potential new program to ensure that no credit would transfer? That would be my first step. Then, think about what the funding situation will be if you move to the new institution. Would you be funded? Is that funding enough for you to live comfortably? Then there's the educational aspects. Would you have to do rotations again? Is the new institution more prestigious than your current one, equivalent, or less prestigious? If you stay where you are, will you be able to find a new advisor easily? If not, then you may need to go with this person to the new institution. These are just some of the things you should be thinking about.

It is now. It wasn't in 2006... Back then, the interest rates were about the same or a bit less for a Perkins loan. Plus, grad student loans were subsidized then. Now car loans are very affordable, assuming you have enough income to qualify for them. Coming out of undergrad, there was no way I would qualify for a car loan without either absurd interest rates or a co-signer (which I didn't have).

Pay attention to how students interact with one another. Are they happy? Competitive? Have no time to think/breathe? These are all things that matter.

It really depends. I didn't take out loans to pay for grad school but did get a student loan, which I ultimately used to buy a car. I bought that car in the first year of my MA (2006) and am still driving it. I'll probably drive it for another 3-4 years unless I'm in a car accident. So, given that, I'd say that I wouldn't take out more than $10-15K in debt. But I'm also not in a subfield with lots of high paying jobs.

In a class on environmental issues: "We don't need to study how it affects people. We just need to study the ecological effects."

Interesting, autumn. I taught as a grad student at two different institutions and at one the students asked and at the other they didn't. I've also had students ask whether I was a master's or a PhD student before. There are obviously some differences between schools here but I still thought it worth mentioning since it helps to have multiple data points for this kind of things. OP: You may also want to look into the literature on the scholarship of teaching and learning. Most disciplines have a teaching focused journal, which can help you figure out activities or strategies to use in the classroom.

I would go with trying to get more research experience (as a research assistant in a laboratory, lab manager, or something similar like the "clinical interviewer" positions at Emory) and retaking the GRE to get a higher quantitative score. Doing independent studies and an undergraduate thesis really isn't the same as working in a lab full-time simply because of the hours involved and the training you'd receive.

Do you mean continuing ed courses that aren't part of the normal undergraduate curriculum?

Go with fleece-lined tights or buy long underwear. You'll be walking in and out of buildings and you don't want to be cold. If it's a snowy location, you may want to consider the amount of traction those boots have when you buy them. I live in a snowy area and I wear my snow boots basically every single day lately, at least when I'm going between buildings.