rising_star

I dunno but I wouldn't write a report for my advisor that doesn't serve my research if it doesn't also benefit me in some way (line on the CV). So I'd half-ass the report if I'm not getting any credit for it but, then again, my advisor would never ask for that kind of thing in the first place.

Why not take the job and defer your applications for a year?

It does happen. But, you should be prepared to have to pay at least some of the expenses upfront and then wait 2-8 weeks for reimbursement. When I applied, some schools offered travel subsidies (up to $X for your flight and hotel) while others were willing to reimburse whatever it cost. Some booked hotels on my behalf while others had me stay with grad students or gave me a choice. It really depends on the department, the school and how deep their pockets are. You're right about the first part but not the second. I applied to lots of schools and then was recruited by departments and universities. How? By having my name put into contention of university-wide fellowships for incoming students, many of which allot departments money to fly in the candidates in an effort to increase the yield. So just because you're applying doesn't mean that you won't be recruited and offered money to come visit the campus and department. My field is similar. We don't do interviews. Some departments fly out top potential students while others do not. My PhD department, for example, never does (though PIs can if they have the grant money available and want to). My MA department, on the other hand, flew out their top applicants, primarily those nominated for university-wide fellowships. They didn't all come at the same time since the department was subsidizing travel and letting applicants make their own arrangements. That said, when I did do visits, I did end up spending money out of pocket a few times to get flights that didn't involve obscene hours (because if you're staying with grad students, you shouldn't be arriving at 2am or needing to be at the airport at 6am) or for other things that mattered to me. It was worth it, even if I didn't end up going to any of those schools. (I visited nearly every PhD program I applied to, on their dime, and then went to the one I didn't visit.)

You're going for a professional degree so it's less important that you have a research match with particular faculty since you won't really be doing research anyway. You might consider talking about the internship opportunities available through the department or something like that, but even that probably isn't necessary.

If you've already been doing work in the admissions office, your best bet is to do an informational interview with one of the admissions officers.

No. Abstracts do not belong on a CV. What you could do is a create a professional web presence for yourself, post the abstracts there, and include the URL with your application materials.

Definitely list it. I always list the amounts because the amounts vary widely and people should know whether I got $500 or $5000 (both of which have happened).

I gave some more thought to this. Your second section likely gave you better evals because you actually do a better job teaching. Think about. When you write something, is the first draft awesome? Is your first practice conference presentation awesome? No, right? So, there's ample reason to believe that you are actually doing on-the-fly improvisation and fixing things that didn't work in the first section when you teach the second section. When I used to teach discussion sections, I always felt bad for the first one of the day because based on what didn't work in that section, I'd teach the subsequent sections differently. My friends who teach several sections of English 101 say the same thing about their first class vs class two. All of this is to say, maybe you could reflect on what you do in the second class that is going over well with the students and then try to bring that into the first class somehow.

Whoa, New England Nat. You're a woman? I had no idea! OP, I'd think writing about how you moved abroad would qualify as diversity if you wanted to write about it.

Before you go talk to someone in your department, go find yourself a counselor or therapist to talk to, preferably one that has done a research degree so knows what you're talking about. That person should be able to help you sort through what you're feeling and thinking and assist you with developing a plan for how to proceed from here.

If you're going to have to be a TA anyway next year, I wouldn't bother trying out the second lab, but that's just me. It probably depends on where your interests lie...

I would maybe vary the order more. Have you thought about chunking and the whole 8-minute attention span thing? Because maybe some of it is that you need to move between types of tasks more often. Also, perhaps instead of just having them answer discussion questions, you could give them problems to solve or work through in groups? Or any other kind of group activity really. If your library has it, Student Engagement Techniques has a lot of ideas for activities. You can quickly skim through the chapter titles to see which ones appeal to you and then read each chapter (they're like 4-7 pgs each) to see what you'd need to actually implement the activity.

You should always list the journal where it's under review. In my field, what you've done would be considered a R&R (revise and resubmit), which would be listed in this case rather than "under review". Also, in my field, it's formatted in the standard citation style and you just add the review stage at the end.

If you're really confused, go talk to your professor instead of asking people on the internet to do your work for you!

My experience was similar to TakeruK's. I applied to work with someone that was on sabbatical and it was fine. He was still able to review my application and even called one of my recommenders to tell him to give me a heads-up that I was going to be accepted. He wasn't available when I visited but that's because he was actually out of state for his sabbatical. Still, it was fine.

I've had two Brother laser printers, both of which automatically duplex, and both of which I've loved. The first one is still being used by my sister. While toner may seem expensive, you can print 3000-5000 pages on one cartridge (so almost an entire case of paper) so it works out value-wise, I think. I recommend looking into them. You should be able to get the basic model with wireless connectivity and duplex capability for around USD$100.

There's also a different level of competition and prestige. NSF Fellowships, for example, are highly competitive national awards that, when awarded, show that an external committee believes your research idea(s) are promising. Also, there's things like dissertation research fellowships, which pay for fieldwork or equipment to help you complete your dissertation. Again, these are competitive awards that typically are awarded from external groups or are at the university-wide level.

Fuzzy, I'm not sure if it's field-specific as much as it is region-specific. In the part of the US where I grew up, you just don't refer to an adult by their first name unless you've been given permission to do so. FWIW, I tend to be much more strict about not switching to first names in email correspondence (because it never hurts to be too formal basically) than I am in person. But that's also because in person people will say "Call me Bob" whereas that basically never happens in email.

I decided to go to a conference right before fall break to ensure I'd get an actual break and it's awesome. I fully recommend this strategy to those who aren't tied to labs...

I always adopt "Dr." until I'm told otherwise. I don't take one email signature (because really very few people sign emails "Sincerely, Dr. X" even when they want to be addressed as Dr. X) as an indication to switch to first name.

I wasn't thinking urban studies. I was thinking like the environmental politics folks at Colorado State, the environmental behavior folks at CUNY, or any number of anthropologists or geographers across the country... It also depends on whether you're leaning more towards the natural hazards/disasters or towards the sociology of tourism...

Does it have to be a sociology program or are you open to other social science fields as well?

What hesadork said. We're in different fields but my recommenders thought I was being nuts for applying to 8 programs and all of those were actually good fits. If I looked across the US now, I'd have fewer programs than that because some of my POIs have moved and are at the same place as others, so a school would actually drop off the list. 19 is nuts. 19 in the top 40 is even more nuts. Pare down your list.

ArrowFletch, I didn't say anything about going to generalized workshops. I meant going to talk to them specifically about the class you are teaching, the evals you gave, and how you can respond to them. Get specific assistance from people that are experts in this. You will, in all likelihood, get insight into your teaching and your students that you would otherwise not get. You can even have them observe your class and give you direct feedback on your interaction with students and how to improve that. I'm not surprised at all that different classes have different takes on your teaching. That is common and the first class of the week often gets short shrift since you then refine the lesson plan based on how it went with them. That said, I urge you not to ignore their feedback and just go with the other class that was more in line with what you thought. They are giving you feedback that could potentially be very useful. And, if you ask and then don't make any changes at all, don't be surprised to have students note that on your final evals (along with comments like "Why ask if you don't really care what we think?").

It may not be what you're doing but your tone of voice and body language while doing it that is leading them to think you don't care about the material. That would be my guess, rather than all the examples you've given as to what it might be. It's probably something you don't notice but that they pick up on, in part because it might be really different from what they get in the class before or after yours. Regardless of the level of the material, you should make it sound and seem like you're interested in it in tone/attitude, as well as in what you actually say. As for the comments that you don't know how to teach, I hate to be a downer here but it's probably true. How much teaching experience have you had? What kind of pedagogical training have you had? I think this is one area where academics actually fail to act like academics. They don't seek out the experts (university teaching center) or follow the best practices identified in the research. There are entire journals dedicated to teaching, many of which focus on higher education. For example, College Teaching, Journal of College Science Teaching, Journal of College Teaching and Learning, Chemistry Education Research and Practice, and so many more. If you don't want to reach out to the teaching center (which you and every grad student should, especially if you will be teaching in the future and/or will be pursuing academic positions), then start by looking through these journals for ideas on how you can better handle what the rote memorization or other less fun/interesting parts of class. More generally, consult Google too for tips on how to make those just as fun as everything else. I hope this helps. The truth is that grad students aren't given much training when they're thrown into the classroom. I know I wasn't. And, it was only after taking my university's college teaching course (note, I'd already taken the departmental course long before this) that I realized how insane it is that we'd totally reach out to the expert on X in our department but we don't reach out to the experts on teaching on our campuses. These people have years of experience, Ph.D.s in teaching, and lots of collective experience (gathered from talking to those that seek them out), which you can and should take advantage of!