rising_star

Are you sure? Louisville is a decent-sized city and I'd imagine there is a scene for working professionals but it might not be where you think. Check LinkedIn, Facebook, and Meetup to see if you can find relevant happenings and connect with other young professionals that way.

You might also want to see about joining academic listservs on topics related to your research or subfield. Many people circulate cfps this way.

I had to write a 500 word SOP for one of my applications. And it had a slightly later deadline so actually just edited down a version that was about 1200 words. After doing that, I realized that the 500 word version was much stronger and only submitted a slightly longer (600-700 words) version for subsequent applications. It worked for me as I got into those programs.

I included a cover letter with all of my applications, even though none of them required them. In the cover letter, I listed the materials enclosed and reiterated my contact information and asked them to let me know if anything was missing or additional documents were needed. This is probably unnecessary in the era of electronic applications but was a good idea when you're mailing everything in.

There's a couple of things you could do. First, you could try reminding the students what time the lab starts and that their lab grades are a reflection of their work. If they want higher grades, they need to put in the work, ask for help, etc. and showing up on time is a big part of that. Second, you should let whomever your supervisor is know what's going on. Tell him/her that you think you lost the students and explain what's happening. Third, you should try talking to other lab instructors, more senior grad students, or someone in your campus teaching center to get ideas on how to turn things around in your course. Maybe you need to bring in someone to observe before they can adequately comment on your teaching and the classroom atmosphere. Last but not least, a student being rude/disruptive is not a reason to talk to their coach. Plus, if the student is an athlete, it's likely that you will have to fill out a progress report at some point during the semester. At that point, you can address the student's grade and attjtude towards the course at that time. But do so by conversing with the academic advisors for the athletics department, not with the coach(es). Whatever you do, don't give up. Your students will be able to tell if you do. Instead, you need to try to get control over your classroom, which you can have even if you have one (or two) disruptive students. Also, the more attention you pay to that student's misbehavior, the more the class will. If you ignore it, they will too eventually. That said, there's no way in hell I'd wait an hour for students to show up. If no one was there within 10 minutes of the start of class, I'd leave a note on the door saying that I'm in my office and wait for them there if they do indeed want to do the work.

This was *exactly* my experience when I started my PhD program. I found it really difficult to make friends as I was one of the few people starting the program that was both single and new to the area. There were three of us, out of 15, fitting that description. And the other two had connected over the summer and were roommates. So, yea, I definitely know the feeling of having to break in. But, over time, I became friends with a couple of people that had SOs/family and had already been in the area. It took time but now I have two close friends that fit that description. 100% agree with this. I'm a 5th year student now and hang out with a mix of people from my department and that I've met from other activities. Quite a few of the folks I hang out with are people I have met from capoeira or I met through people in my department and am now friends with. It's great to get to talk to non-grad students. I now regret not getting more involved in non-university activities earlier in my graduate career. This is fantastic advice that I wholeheartedly agree with. I think it's extremely important not to sacrifice yourself and who you are just to have friends.

I have to say that I'm surprised you would say that physics majors don't know upper division mathematics. The two undergrad physics programs I'm familiar with require their students to take so many upper-level math courses that they can complete a minor in math with only 1-2 additional courses. It seems to me like you need to get up to speed and quickly. If the material you don't understand isn't in the lecture or the book, it's quite possibly because the instructor assumes that you already learned it in another course.

amlobo's advice is good. But, I think you probably could go a bit more politically charged with it since many MSW programs explicitly state an interest in social justice, which your interest definitely touches on. Just something to think about.

I think it's worth mentioning. It shows that you've done research not only on the department but also on what the university as a whole has to offer you. Obviously, you don't want to go on and on about this person, but you could touch briefly (1-2 sentences) on how you might work with and/or take classes from that person.

You should list in on your CV under "Publications". You put the full citation information and then note that it is "under review".

I'm a huge advocate for capoeira! I have several great friends that I've made because we train together, which means we get to see each other a few times a week whether for practice or for social time. Definitely try to see if your advisor will be available next semester while on leave. If not, try to see if you can find a temporary advisor. TBH, I didn't need my advisor much during my first year. But, this gives you an opportunity to get to know other faculty, which you need to do anyway since some of them will be on your committee later on.

How do you make the classroom "an overtly value neutral setting"? Do you imply to students that letting the hungry die is okay because to say otherwise would be an expression of values? Here's what I would do. If someone brings it up, say that politics and the professor's political views aren't on the agenda because you're there to discuss X, Y, and Z topics. And point out to them that X, Y, and Z will be covered on the exams and that if they get sidetracked in the conversation, they're making learning the material more difficult on themselves.

Okay, I've seen this kind of thing happen in a couple of classes I've been in and in one book that I read and assigned to my students. Keep in mind though that I'm in the US, not Canada, so all of this could be off for your situation. The book, FWIW, is On the Make and it's about college students and their nightlife experiences in Philadelphia. Basically, the author had his students (from his courses) record notes and answer questions about their own nightlife experiences and then used that data as the basis for his analysis and the book. I can't remember the details of IRB but, if you can get a hold of the book, there's an appendix that addresses methods. My library has a copy of the ebook so maybe yours does as well. In the course I took, the instructor got the class IRB approval to do interviews. But, while the interviews were used for a classwide collaborative project, they weren't used for anything else. That said, we did need IRB approval to do them but didn't have to apply individually. I'd imagine that such a procedure exists for this class. Also, depending on how long this whole project has been in the making, it's possible that the larger project already went through IRB and got approval for what the students will be doing in the course. But really, there are two things that I think you should do. 1) I don't think you should do the work of a TA if you're not being paid as a TA. If you're just there to mark papers, then this whole REB concern falls away. But, since I already know you're going to do the work anyway (you've basically said as much), I'll add this: 2) Talk to the course instructor about the REB and your concerns. Lay it out as being concerned about your ability to explain things to students and/or wanting to understand this process for when you'll be teaching your own courses in the future.

You know, it's funny. I did a bunch of things the OP mentioned (going to Broadway shows, studying abroad in Europe) but it's not because my family was wealthy. Privileged and given certain opportunities, yes, but not wealthy. It's because I worked my ass off to get scholarships in college (making the most of the opportunities presented to me) and then used that to study in Europe. And yes, I went to Broadway shows but that's because my university offered subsidized tickets and transportation to students, making it affordable as long as I scheduled my part-time job around the planned trips. But seriously, this is an interesting discussion and I'm glad people are having it AND being respectful of one another at the same time. Let's keep that going!

I think everyone has some regret when they initially begin their program. It's buyer's remorse or the grass is always greener. But in reality, you made a choice and you should try to honor it, at least for a year. If things really don't work out in terms of research, then that's a good reason to transfer elsewhere.

This has been really interesting to read, I have to say. I wish I'd chimed in sooner but, better late than never I suppose. Anyway, I'm surprised by how much controversy the idea of sharing written summaries of an article has generated. A summary in your own words is usually like writing a slightly longer, more detailed abstract than what the article came with. I can't imagine that sharing these in a group would backfire on any one individual, since there will still be your own analysis of the article to discuss in class. But, this could be because I've been in a different kind of graduate program where collaboration is encouraged. In one seminar I took, we were all required to write a one page reaction to the week's readings and bring in enough copies to share with everyone. We then took the first 10-15 minutes of each class to read everyone else's and get some idea of what we wanted to focus the class discussion on. Just food for thought. That said, I get what people are saying about not sharing your analysis beforehand, though sometimes it can be beneficial to do so since one of your colleagues might reveal a place where your analysis falls short or where the article addresses your point that you might have missed. I used to have lots of informal conversations about the readings with my colleagues back when I was doing coursework. Oh, and about sharing ideas: It's going to happen. You are going to be in a situation at various points in your graduate career where people can steal your ideas. That's a fact of life. Whether it's because you workshop seminar papers in class or because you want to get feedback on an article draft before you submit it or because you want to practice your conference presentation or whatever. You can try to eliminate all such situations but, if you do, you're going to get labeled as the uncooperative colleague. You can try to manage those situations but, even then, you have to realize that there will always be someone in a position to scoop some of your ideas.

Seems to happen every year as a new crop of applicants finds the site.

Not a historian but, just a couple of thoughts. - Some language training probably wouldn't hurt and could come in handy depending on where exactly in the 20th century your focus is and if oral history may play a role in what you do - Work on the math for the GRE so that your school isn't terrible! It won't take loads of time and is something concrete you can do to improve your applications. - I would seriously look at the placement history of the schools before applying to them. But only after taking some time to think about what it is you want to do in your career. Best of luck!

I use one when I'm teaching with the following format: rising_star Instructor, ABCD 1234 Dept Name Email address Office Location; Office Days and Hours I find that it helps with student questions since they'll often ask questions, which I answer, and then send another email asking if they can come to my office hours. For the rest of my correspondence, I write a signature as needed, deleting from the above signature.

Everyone says it's a big no-no. My point is that I did it, without having read any of the things that tell you *not* to do it, and it had no ill effects. In fact, when I visited, a couple of profs pointed out to me that I'd done a good job explaining why they were my number 1 choice and that it convinced them I'd done my research on the department. Granted, I never tell anyone to do some of the things that I did but, I want to put out that breaking the so-called rules does not automatically get your application placed in the (virtual) circular file.

I took a course overload (by one course) three times. And, each time that it seemed manageable during the semester, it became a serious issue of crunch time at the end. Whether or not it's doable depends a lot on you. How much reading will you have? How much writing? Will taking all of these courses distract from your research? Because really, research is important and if the courses are going to distract from that, you might not want to take them.

You can be successful by breaking the "rules".* In your case, the adcom is likely to wonder how you acquired your language skills, particularly if your transcript doesn't indicate courses in that language. That's when mentioning where you grew up will be an asset. Just don't make it the central focus of your SOP and you should be fine. *True story: I told a school they were my #1 choice in my SOP. They admitted me with the top funding they had and nominated me for an award at the school-wide level. Embarrassingly, I also pointed out that I wanted to go there in part because I like their football team. Note that they admitted me anyway.

I think it would be okay to mention this, provided you don't turn it into a sob story. Just use it to explain how you got interested in the topic, and perhaps to say something about the perspective that your experiences will lend to your research.

Make sure you aren't missing out on any colloquiums, brownbags, or other talks on the days you plan to be at home. I know that these have been really important in my grad programs and, while you think no one is keeping track, there's always one faculty member (at least) that is and will bring it up at an annual review or when any kind of departmental decision has to be made. As a first year, I made also made an effort to go to relevant/interesting talks in other departments. That said, I've basically always also worked from home, sometimes a couple of days a week and it hasn't been a problem, in large part because I go to all the extras so people see me and know that I'm involved.

Okay, so there have been discussions about the various pushes throughout 2012 for increased open access. Lately, editorial staff of prominent journals have been publishing their own reasons why there needs to be more open access, though they're doing this in subscription-only journals. The current editor-in-chief of American Anthropologist, Tom Boellstorff, published an editorial on this in the most recent issue of the journal. In it, he calls for "gold open access" for American Anthropologist once its current contract with Wiley-Blackwell ends. He summarizes his entire argument, in brief, at the beginning so, just read that if you've got the time. I've pulled out one quote that I find particularly interesting. He writes, This, I think, gets to the heart of some of the economic practices people find unsettling. Do you think his potential model involving payment is viable? Why or why not? Here's the reference info so you can access the full article: Boellstorff, T. (2012), Why the AAA Needs Gold Open Access. American Anthropologist, 114: 389–393. doi: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2012.01440.x