rising_star

Definitely ask to see the lease before you send the deposit. And, ask what, if anything, that deposit is applied to (does it become your security deposit? sub as your last month's rent? etc.).

Amogh, I never said anything about the cost of a luxury sports car, just offered some opinions based on driving them. Quite a few of them are well under $50K. But, if you're going for those cars, it's really all about the test drive and figuring out which one offers the combination of acceleration and handling that you like best. My uncle prefers Mercedes-Benz to Lexus, for example, but his wife is the opposite (hence, she drives a Lexus and he drives a Mercedes-Benz). A different aunt prefers BMW over Mercedes-Benz and Lexus, so that's what she drives. I've driven all of their cars and they each have their pros and cons, like almost any vehicle. It really depends on what you're looking for. bhr, the reason I was comparing older to newer Civics was because of something I (mis)read in RunnerGrad's earlier post where I thought the older Civic was being compared to the newer Civic. Upon re-reading, it was older Civic to newer Fit. I think the older Civic is actually smaller than the current Fit, but maybe I'm misreading the numbers or something. Anyway, I was trying to use those numbers to explain why RunnerGrad can fit a bicycle into the Fit but not the older Civic. Moving on... Also, if you're in the market for an auto and a credit union member, make sure to check both their rates and services. My hometown credit union (which I've been a member of for a long, long time) has an auto buying service where they assist you in locating the vehicle you're interested in and negotiate with the dealer on your behalf. They also sell cars they had to repossess and let you know what other banks/credit unions in the area have for sale. It's a great service that my family has used more than once to buy a car and it's free for members. So definitely check to see if you have access to anything like that as it can make the whole process much easier. I think I found my car on cars.com, though that was several years ago. If you're in the market for decent used cars, CarMax is a well-known retailer that may or may not be in your area. Alternately, if you can find vehicles that were corporate vehicles, you may be able to get a good deal. One of my friends that was looking for a car last summer ended up leasing rather than buying because the monthly payments are lower and they don't drive that much. Perhaps something to consider for those of you in the market for a vehicle.

If you're going to look at luxury sports cars, you may want to look at gently used ones that are 1-2 years old. I know BMW has a certified pre-owned program, for example. Keep in mind that if you go the luxury sports car route, your insurance costs will be higher and you'll need to purchase only premium fuel, which is something to consider when doing your budget. Personally, I've never liked Acuras because they are too similar to the cheaper Hondas, imo, and built on the same platforms. I haven't test driven one in a few years. BMWs and Mercedes-Benz vehicles handle supremely and have all these odd features that are surprisingly cool when you experience them. There are some of each in my family and I'm always amazed at how even though they're larger than my compact car, they are surprisingly easy to park in a parking lot because of their excellent turning radius. RunnerGrad, if you're comparing an older Civic to a modern Fit, then of course the size is different. The size of the Civic has changed over the years though, making it increasingly larger. The 1990 Civic has a wheelbase of 98.4 inches (per Edmunds) and the 2010 Civic's wheelbase is 104.3 inches (again, per Edmunds). If you compare the specs, you'll see that there's more interior room in the Civics sold now than there was in the past.

spectastic, the sidewall damage was caused by something that flew into my tire, I think. I can't really say for sure but it was pretty severe. I've also had some issues with dry rot in tires, which makes them more susceptible to blowing out. The dry rot came from living in the desert SW and it's fairly common there, especially if you don't drive your car multiple times per week. When I lived in the southwest, I usually only drove once a week, sometimes less (when gas was well over $3.50/gallon, I was buying $20-25 of gas per month). So yea, there are things that can go wrong with tires besides the potholes. I'm sad/glad others knew what I meant about the roads and the polar vortex. My friend's accident was while the whole thing was ongoing so it's no surprise the road hadn't been patched yet. I hope others have better luck than my friend did!

I assume you're referring to my earlier post. Do you mean Friend 2's two blowouts? It was both tires on the passenger's side of the vehicle. The polar vortex jacked up the roads pretty bad, leaving them with lots of potholes. At night, in the dark and when there's snow/ice on the road, those are more difficult to see. He basically hit a couple giant holes with one side of his vehicle and it blew out the tires on that side. Is it unfortunate? Absolutely. No one expects to get less than a month of use out of brand new tires! Or, as he put it, driving in Cleveland can be hazardous. Personally, part of the reason I have tires installed at a shop is because I can purchase a warranty/insurance (I can't remember exactly what they call it) on the tire such that the shop covers any kind of problems I have. It's definitely saved me money because I've twice damaged tires by getting a puncture in the sidewall, which is not worth repairing.

This has definitely been covered in the City Guide for Tucson and also in other threads about roommates and housing around the forum.

The teaching grant is definitely not as prestigious as the research grant if you're applying to PhD programs. That said, it can be an excellent way to gain teaching experience, to learn about another country and its literature, etc. Even though your specialization is in women, gender, and sexuality studies, you may find that your time abroad changes your specific focus and/or gets you thinking about these topics in new/interesting ways. I wouldn't back out personally, though it's a very individual decision.

I bought my car in a private sale from someone that sold cars for a dealership. The car had always been maintained at the dealership and came with a full set of maintenance records, which was nice. I bought it with part of a subsidized student loan. When I bought it, the car was 5.5 years old and had 53K miles on it. I still have the car now, more than 6 years later and it's been a great car. My insurance is low because it's bundled with some other stuff and due to a good student discount. Now that my car is older, I don't have comprehensive coverage on it, which also lowers insurance. Average annual maintenance costs have varied because I tend to do long cross-country road trips but not much everyday driving. Consequently, I end up getting some sort of large preventative thing done nearly every summer (one year was the timing belt and water pump, another was new tires, another was new belts and hoses plus some other stuff), but I'd say that I spend only a few hundred a year outside of these major things. As for the tire blowouts above, my friend and I went on a road trip a few months ago and experienced one. He hit a pothole in the road or something and it blew out the tire in a way that wasn't even repairable. It was his car, not mine, and he ended up having to buy a new tire. Luckily, there was a tire shop within 3 blocks of where this happened, so we put the spare on, went there, then waited about an hour (they inspected the old tire first before my friend picked out the new one and they installed it). This car, including the tires, was inspected before we went on the trip. While on this trip, I met with another friend for a smoothie. Friend 2 had put four new tires on his car to meet inspection, drove out of town to see his girlfriend, and hit a rough patch of road at night. Friend 2's car ended up with two blown tires. So, he literally put 6 new tires on his car in a month. Blowouts can and do happen even if you inspect the tread and keep your tires inflated so I'm not sure why people are suggesting otherwise above.

I only belong to the major national association for my discipline. I've previously been a member of regional associations and might be again this year, but I only join when I'll be going to their conference too. I'm just not that concerned with professional memberships and don't list them on my CV.

The public library can be a fantastic resource, depending on where you live. Where I did my PhD, I got entire seasons of TV shows from the library, rather than watching via Netflix or cable. They had all sorts of shows, like True Blood, Girls, The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls, etc., not to mention a great selection of movies and documentaries, and you could check out a season for 3 weeks. I would even place the next season on hold so that I could get it when it came in without having to rush to the branch. I have since moved to an area without a good public library and it makes me sad from time to time.

Step 1: Spell the city's name correctly. Step 2: Post your query in the "City Guide". Alternately, you can try going through your department or the university's graduate student association. If you're looking for roommates, check the ads for housing offered and also those posted under roommates. I've posted a housing wanted ad in the past and gotten some decent responses and some crazy responses (places that were over the budget I listed, for example). YMMV obviously.

That is always the case when applying for any sort of funding. Granting agencies (i.e., NSF, Mellon, NIH, etc.) change what they're offering, the requirements, and the amounts. That said, the reason I recommended doing your own searches is because there are also new opportunities or revisions to previous opportunities that you may be eligible for and that you might not find out about otherwise.

MFAs and PhDs are both terminal degrees. A MA is not a terminal degree. You definitely don't want someone without a terminal degree writing your recommendations for graduate school. Someone with a PhD is typically considered better because their experience in a research-oriented degree program gives them the experience needed to evaluate your ability to successfully complete that program. But, especially in English, there's no huge problem with having someone with a MFA write a letter of recommendation but you wouldn't want all of your rec letters from MFAs unless you're applying to a MFA program.

A bunch of questions but I'll answer a couple. 1) Will you be more prepared to email after writing your SOP? Probably, in all honesty. I say this because writing your SOP helps you craft a compelling narrative about who you are and what you want to study. POIs are going to want you to get straight to the point about what you want to study and why you want to work with them. Drafting your SOP can help you be more clear about these things in your head, which will probably make them come across clearer in your emails. 2) Don't visit or even ask about visiting unless you're already going to be in the area. You'll get flown out for an interview or for an accepted students' visit and that will be your chance to visit the campus, meet the faculty, etc. No need to spend money on that when you'll already be spending plenty on applications. 3) When to email really depends on your field. If the POIs are likely to be in the lab all summer, rather than out in the field, then it probably doesn't really matter when you email. In my discipline, people use the summer to do fieldwork so they may be away from email for days/weeks at a time. So, I don't email in the summer unless it's important (and I mean not even with my committee). If you have grad student contacts in your specific field, ask them about emailing now vs waiting. Definitely don't email in late August/early September when people's semesters are getting underway, since that's a busy time and your query may get lost. I'm actually going to disagree with gellert about the papers thing. I didn't read the papers for nearly everyone I applied to work with (this was 7 years ago, btw) and it was fine because I knew what I wanted to study and I knew enough about their work to know that they'd be able to advise me. I say this because there's often a lag where publications reflect what someone used to do, rather than what they're doing or working on right now. For example (with specifics changed), when I applied, the person who became my advisor had published extensively on youth development in Africa but was now working on responses to climate change in southern Canada. Now neither of those was/is my area but, the methodology and theoretical framework were the same in both of those projects and that's the same stuff I knew I wanted to use in my own project (which, when I applied, was studying tiger hunting in India). Because I knew what I wanted to study AND knew how my planned future work intersected with theirs, I was able to present myself as an interesting, compelling candidate. If you need to specifically read their work to do that, then read it. But, keep in mind that what the lab is currently working on is probably not reflected in their publications. In your case, reading lab websites and the websites of grad students in that lab can be helpful in figuring out what the lab is currently working on. Good luck!

I'll be quite honest: I applied for a bunch of these when I was heading toward the writing stage. The way to find them is to use google/bing/yahoo in all seriousness, as well as the more typical grant/scholarship databases (UCLA GRAPES, Cornell, Duke, etc.). I unearthed ones via google that I hadn't found anywhere else and which I wouldn't have otherwise known about. As far as I know, there's one or two compiled lists out there that you should be able to find easily but a lot of this will really be on you.

If you're really interested in mythology and Germanic folklore, you may want to look into literature programs, in both English lit and in Comparative Lit (esp if you have the language skills). That might help you find additional options and places where you can pursue your research interests. Good luck!

The diplomas from my bachelor's and master's are actually in beautiful frames. My mom had it done years ago and surprised me with them. I think they're really nice and I'm planning to hang them up in my office this fall.

All host countries/cities are ripped off. This is actually one of my research areas so I'm quite familiar with it. To get you started, here are a few links: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/02/03/270950685/did-london-get-an-economic-boost-from-the-2012-olympics http://www.opb.org/news/article/npr-the-games-are-a-great-party-but-not-a-great-investment/ http://news.yahoo.com/brazils-wcup-anger-over-waste-poor-planning-143713966--spt.html http://www.maskmagazine.com/the-post-friendship-issue/struggle/brazils-fight-against-the-world-cup-continues There's actually entire books on this topic. For the Olympics, the general consensus is that the host city may improve its name recognition (Atlanta/Salt Lake City) but that broader economic benefits from hosting are nearly impossible to realize. The facilities have ongoing maintenance expenses to be borne by the host city for years/decades into the future (note that the last Summer Games with a really good facility reuse plan was Atlanta). In Athens, facilities built for the 2004 Olympics are literally falling apart 10 years later. Taxpayers are typically the ones paying (Sochi had lots of corruption but also lots of private investment, making it atypical in that regard). Note that these don't even touch on the environmental issues. Here's one on the environment: http://www.thenation.com/blog/179389/brazils-world-cup-will-kick-environment-teeth http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/world/americas/memo-to-olympic-sailors-in-rio-dont-touch-the-water.html?emc=edit_th_20140519&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=23470553 I actually spent several weeks covering these topics in my spring course. We had a lot of fun. But, hosting these events is generally a bad idea economically. In Soccernomics, they make the argument that hosting makes people happier, which is harder to measure but for which there is some evidence. Some places are recognizing that this is a bad investment, with two cities cancelling their bids for the 2022 Winter Olympics (which is fairly historic and HUGE news): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Winter_Olympics#Cancelled_bids. In Krakow's case, it's because they didn't get the benefits that people talk about after co-hosting the European soccer (football) championships a few years ago. In Stockholm, the citizens voted against going forward with their bid.

Yes, there are lots out there though some are specifically for underrepresented groups (whether the applicant or in the applicant's research), specific research areas (countries, time periods, fields of study), and some are open to everyone. Google to find the names of programs and check their requirements to see if you're eligible. Your university/department might also be able to provide a list of what's available or what people have applied to.

It's not about Chile looking good, at least not at the moment. I'm wondering how on earth Spain has given up so many goals???

Alright, I just got home and turned on the World Cup. What in the world has happened to the Spanish side? Serious question.

If you have absolutely nothing, you might want to consider moving into a place with a roommate so that you don't have to buy everything right away but still get to enjoy having those things. That's what I did when I started grad school and then I gradually bought enough stuff to furnish my own apartment over time.

I'm suggesting you apply for another card. Asking for a loan is taking on debt. But, it's super difficult to get a student loan if you don't actually have student status. The school might tell you that you need to either enroll in a course or seek a private loan on your own. Another option would be to ask for an increase in your credit limit... As for the actual work situation, I wouldn't work for free, especially when I've been promised money. Rather than waiting on emails, go talk to the HR person directly and find out what's going on and if/when the situation will change. If the answers are unsatisfactory, then tell the PI that you can no longer work on the project because the promises made are not being kept (or however you want to say it).

The most budget savvy option is to apply for a 0% interest credit card. You should be able to get one if your credit score is good and that will help you pay for your expenses. I got one last summer that was 0% for 12 months, which would definitely give you time to help pay it off.

I'm in the social sciences and all of my fieldwork/data collection was done outside the USA in a particular country. My advisor is not at all familiar with that country/context and neither was most of my committee. Two of them were familiar with the region, but neither with that country in particular. An example may help. Let's say that my work is on Cyprus (it's not, but we'll pretend). My advisor's specialties were USA and Brazil and two committee members were specialists in southern Europe or the Mediterranean. Does that make sense? So no, I don't think you have to go to a school with an Ecuador specialist to study Ecuador because I went to a school without Cyprus specialists and did just fine. That said, and this is important, my advisor is one of the top people in my subfield. Theyliterally wrote the book on it and it's cited by everyone all the time. Their name is perhaps even more important than the university's name, at least in my field, though my department is well respected as a PhD program. I went there to work this specific advisor but I also only applied to strong programs.