rising_star

Sigaba, I'm not entirely sure I follow your argument. Actually, what most universities are doing is cutting down on journal subscriptions, limiting access to recently published articles (for example, having new articles become available one year after publication, rather than immediately), and making other changes within library operations. I highly doubt that the financial pressures libraries are facing (which, btw, are not limited solely to journal costs but also to factors like the increasing need for technology) have led to decreases in financial support for graduate students. I'd be curious to see an example of where this has occurred. Actually, with the whole Elsevier thing earlier this year, I read a number of lengthy email exchanges among academics that were concerned about how difficult it is becoming to access their published work. The suggestions for how to respond to this varied fairly widely, with some suggesting that people only publish in open access journals, others advocating making final paper versions available on their personal websites, and others encouraging their colleagues to freely distribute copies of articles upon request via email. FWIW, the "economic model of the Ivory Tower" that you seem to believe exists is heavily reliant on research-labor that is either subsidized by universities, the federal government, or the researcher's own wallet. Think about it. Peer-reviewed journals don't pay their reviewers, academics do that as part of "service", which universities only minimally value (both in terms of tenure and in terms of remuneration). Then, you have to pay (either directly through a subscription/membership or indirectly through a library) to access the very article that you donated your labor to to see that it would be published. Is that really an economic model that should be sustained?

I don't see how that would be plagiarism...

Okay, here's something to think about. Faculty move all the time, whether it's as a result of a tenure review or due to other factors. My advisor is a full professor and he's moving to a new university this fall. Fact of the matter is that one cannot foresee or predict these things in advance. Which is all a way of saying that I wouldn't worry too much about a person's title unless the department or university has a track record of denying tenure to faculty. Only then would I care. But that isn't the norm in most departments, which means you have very little to worry about in that sense. Otherwise, focus on how well you will work with that person, both in terms of their research interests and expertise AND in terms of personality. It's far more important to have an advisor you work well with that's interested in your work than almost anything else.

I'm jealous of you guys and your small cohorts! My incoming cohort was 15 for my MA and 16 for my PhD, though both times I was my advisor's only incoming student. The downside of being in a large cohort is that you never really get to know everyone because there are just too many of them. Of course the downside of a small cohort could be that you get to know everyone too well or don't get along with someone and can't really avoid them... Hmmm. Definitely something I gave no thought to when applying to programs.

Okay, a small piece of advice. Don't just buy the cheapest mattress. Buy one that you will be comfortable sleeping on and that won't hurt your back/neck/joints. Seriously. I was going to get a cheap mattress when I started my PhD program but my mom wisely convinced me otherwise. I went with a slightly more expensive mattress that is perfect for me (in terms of firmness and whatnot). It was on sale, which helped, but was definitely a few hundred more than I intended to spend originally. And it's been completely worth it.

Katieh, I don't know of any programs specifically because I haven't looked at study abroad prices in a while. But, your school's study abroad office should be able to help you. You might be able to find a program run through a state university in whatever state you have residency that might be more affordable as well. The key elements are classes in the language (ideally with locals) and a homestay. Excursions that they plan are nice but you'll likely be able to go on plenty of trips on your own time and money, and possibly at a lower cost than those organized by whichever study abroad outfitter you're using. As for volunteering, it's great. But, it won't be on your college transcript. There are a lot of health-related volunteer programs that you could look into. Remember to see what they include. Many programs include your lodging, but not things like health insurance, language classes, etc. And that lodging is often not a homestay, but staying with other volunteers, which will not increase your language skills as much.

The best experience I had as an undergraduate was studying abroad. If you can figure out the finances, you should definitely do it. But, let me say that I think $9K is a lot, especially given the number of Spanish-speaking countries you could potentially go to. Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama*) tends to be less expensive than a lot of other places. Mexico also has lots of inexpensive areas that are safe and good places to really learn the language as well as attend classes. If you do decide to study abroad, I recommend that you find a program that will let you take classes at the university directly, since that will greatly improve your Spanish. Keep in mind that that will be more academically challenging though. Oh, and definitely try to go to an area where there aren't many people that speak English if you want to maximize your language-learning opportunities. *Yes, I left Honduras off that list. There are reasons for that, which I can tell you via PM if you'd like.

I slept on an air mattress for a week or so when I first moved to PhD University's city. It gave me a chance to find furniture locally, and often at prices lower than I could've found via the internet or ordering in advance. That may be a good compromise since you're likely to have office space on campus and thus not need a desk right away.

9 months is pretty common. There are summer positions available at most universities, whether those are TA or RA positions, or some sort of summer conference or new student orientation assistant positions. Apply for any and all of these if you really do need the summer funds. But, OP, I don't know that you can realistically plan on going back to your home country for 2-3 months each year. I don't have to go that far to go home (only ~2000 miles), but I spend a total of a month home over the course of the year (one week at Thanksgiving, one week at Christmas, two weeks in the summer). The rest of my summer is taken up by summer teaching, conducting fieldwork, and focusing on getting various things done (conference abstracts/presentations/papers, journal articles, book reviews, prepping for whatever I'm teaching, getting started on grant/fellowship apps, etc.). The latter you could potentially largely do from anywhere but, I find it's helpful to be where most of my books and notes are, which is at my house. If you do decide to go home for an extended time, try to sublet your place. This can be difficult and there's definitely some risk since you'll have no way to be sure the subletter doesn't abscond with your stuff while you're out of the country and/or that s/he pays in a timely fashion. I've never gone this route so I don't have much advice there. Best of luck!

I had housemates my during my MA and the first two years of my PhD. They were a mix of experiences and, during that time, I lived with both undergrads and grads. Surprisingly, the best situation of all of those was the year I lived with an undergrad senior. We're still friends years later. That said, finding a good housemate can be tricky. In my case, I was typically moving into a place that was already furnished because I didn't own anything and/or didn't have anything worth moving. I found my most awesome roommate through the weekly alternative newspaper (you know, the kind that's available for free on newsstands and has a classified section) but since then have relied more on Craig's List. The upside is that you can post a "housing wanted" ad and specify exactly what you're looking for. BTW, if you do this, I recommend going with a CL anonymous email and using a separate email account to reply to people, especially at first. It also means that you can browse the ads and reply to them with specifics about who you are. Have a good idea of what you want in a roommate and don't settle for anything else, even if you start to panic. When I first moved to PhD city, I had signed a month-to-month lease with someone I met via Craig's List. The situation turned out to be a disaster and I gave my month's notice about two weeks after moving in. But, via a housing wanted ad, I was able to find a new place to move into before the lease even expired. So, if you can't get to know someone super-well before moving in, try to get a short-term lease, even though it may initially cost you a little bit more.

If I can't read it, I can't grade it. I tell my students this on day 1.

In my department, the guys typically wear jeans and t-shirts. Granted, these are usually jeans that fit decently and don't have any holes in them. They save the khakis and polo shirts for conferences or if they want to actually impress somebody. The male faculty wear a more diverse range of clothing, but this is their personal preference more than anything. My advisor, for example, wears jeans and a collared shirt when he's not teaching and khakis/slacks and a collared shirt when he is. But he dresses more formally than basically anyone else.

God, I'm jealous of anyone that can lose a full clothing size after 6 weeks of working out! FWIW, I work out several times a week. I train capoeira 2-4 times/week, lift weights 2-4 times/week, and then do other cardio (elliptical, treadmill, run outside) another 1-2 times/week as my normal routine. I've been off that routine for a while due to a number of circumstances and I can feel the differences in my body and my mind. To the OP: Remember to start off slowly. I recommend the elliptical as an easy way to fit in cardio, which you should do in addition to weight training. If you don't have a background in weight training, definitely find some books/websites that can help you develop a sound and safe routine. Oh, and consider meeting with a personal trainer or a more knowledgeable buddy the first time to ensure that you're lifting weights correctly. You don't want to hurt yourself when you're trying to get in shape! My basic weight lifting routine is actually super simple, though I do vary it up periodically to challenge my muscles and keep it interesting. Here are the basics: Leg press, calf raise, lat pulldown, bench/chest press, upright row, tricep extension, bicep curl... Alternating between pushing and pulling exercises.

I did pre-dissertation fieldwork after each of my first two years in my PhD program. I do my research in a site distant from where my university is so the summers allowed me to actually go there and get the data I needed, which I would then analyze in the fall and use as the basis for writing subsequent grants. It's good that you're already identifying funding opportunities. I was lucky enough to be able to have two separate 6 week research periods that were funded by a combination of grants I won. Best of luck to you!

Do it! Nothing wrong with auditing a fun course or taking it pass/fail. It may even make you more productive with your other work.

You should do as the email suggests and contact faculty about RA possibilities. What the department is telling you is that they don't have any money (TA funds) to offer you.

Honestly, I'd focus on research during the summer, rather than getting more teaching in, especially if you already have teaching experience. Teaching a summer course doesn't provide that much useful experience because you have to greatly condense and, typically, dumb down the material due to the compact nature of summer courses.

I'm FB friends with several faculty from both my MA and PhD departments, as well as faculty that I've met at conferences. I'm lucky in that there's a similar political bent among those that I'm FB friends with (and I know this before adding them) but I also keep my FB status updates to a minimum. I actually wish FB were more like Google+ and made it easier to post something to several lists/groups of friends but keep it from others. In that sense, I find G+ more useful but, alas, so many people aren't on it. I also use FB to keep in touch with people I meet while doing fieldwork (people traveling, people doing research, people that helped me, etc.), which is nice, especially when you return to the field later. That said, I sort of wish I had a separate account for that but FB doesn't make it user-friendly to do that. Fieldwork and my main hobby (capoeira) account for at least half of my friends on FB at this point. (It's probably worth mentioning that I have a separate FB account I created in college that I don't friend anyone on that I didn't meet in high school or college. So all the crazy stuff that's easier to find with Timeline? That's buried via a separate account.)

So, you work for free and take away a position that would otherwise go to someone that needs a TAship. This is precisely why we are not allowed to TA for free in my department, regardless of your funding situation. As an example, I have am fully funded in the fall so I don't need a TA or RA position. Consequently, my name was removed from the list of available TAs/RAs.

Yea, this is my feeling about this too. When I was a 2nd year MA student, I took on a part-time job. It was easy work, basically sitting at a desk for 12 hours a week, sometimes answering the phone or responding to emails. I had a lot of free time while I was there, some of which I actually used to work on my MA thesis. And yes, I was fully funded. People knew I had a job and didn't care and it didn't affect my funding. The money I got from that job was what I used to pay for my cross-country move for my PhD program (plus to cover expenses on program visits that otherwise wouldn't have been covered). If I hadn't had the job, honestly, I might not have finished my thesis on time. I had WAY too much unstructured time before that and having the job (plus taking on two foster dogs) provided the structure I needed to be productive. For example, I'd work 8:45am-2pm, taking some time to browse through articles or data relevant to the chapter I was working on or edit something I'd written the day before. Then, once I got home, I'd sit down and write the section that I'd been brainstorming while I was at work. That is an assumption on your part. This varies widely from one individual to the next. Just because I'm not working an outside job doesn't mean that I'm going to be devoting that time to work. There are only so many hours one person can reasonably work in a day/week/month. Assuming that working 10-15 hours a week as a waiter means that the person is losing 10-15 hours of productive work just isn't the case. It's far more likely that the person will prioritize their life and free-time activities and only lose a few hours. In my case, working 12-16 hours part-time resulted in losing maybe 10 hours of time I would've spent watching TV or surfing the web, not in losing 12-16 hours that I could've spent on research or coursework or whatever. (Actually, since I could surf the web at work, it made my random web surfing financially advantageous in a way it would not have been if I'd been doing it in either my home or campus office.) That's definitely crazy. It also wouldn't be allowed in either of the graduate departments I've been a part of. The reason being that when people work for free, they take away actual/future positions from those who would need to be paid for that same work. Yea, I agree with this. People understand that many students, even fully-funded PhD students, need to make extra money for various reasons (family, medical, etc.). Or, that some people like me, need the structure provided by having to be at a place at a particular time for a few hours.

Sort of. I know what times of day I work best and I try to do most of my work during those times. I also have set time for working out, relaxing, etc. Key example: I do very little work on Saturdays in the fall because I am watching college football. I may do some light reading or grading, or edit a paper or make an outline, but I don't do anything that requires real concentration and I don't feel guilty about it either. I take that day off because I deserve one day off a week, as does everyone else.

This sounds pretty similar to what happened to me. I don't really have any advice for you. I was lucky in that my orals were at the end of the semester so I basically checked out for finals (all I had to do was grade) and for the summer, then headed to the field to do my research. I haven't talked to most of my committee about the experience or how stupid they made me feel or their disappointment in my performance. I probably never will. :/ All I can say is that you have to move on. Focus on you for a while and what made you study this field/topic in particular and use that to get interested in what you're doing again. And don't rush it.

Option 1. Having to worry about money will lead to lots of stress that will affect your studies and your family.

I have a Brother laser printer that I adore. I also bought one with a built-in duplexer, so I could save on paper and not have to deal with reloading things. It prints like 20 pages a minute or something, though slower when you're printing double-sided. I adore it.

How likely is it that you would get funding for subsequent years from Berkeley?