rising_star

Deadally, it seems like there are two separate issues: 1) the fellowship and your progress; and, 2) your relationship with your advisor. Now, I'm not in the sciences so take all of this with a grain of salt. Re #1: The progress reports are not a huge deal. No one is going to cut off your funding if you haven't done everything you said you would have done by that point. People know that things go wrong with research, that projects morph, etc. That said, you need to make some progress so you can demonstrate that you're not just wasting away someone's money. Re #2: To me, it sounds like you're in a bad situation in that you're unhappy and don't see a way to meet your advisor's expectations. But, all is not lost! I think you need to communicate more clearly with your advisor, including in these weekly progress meetings. Here are some ideas, based on things people I know have done. 1. Before the meeting, set an agenda via email. With that agenda, you could include a summary of what you've done and what you expect to be doing in the upcoming week/month/semester. A short, bulleted list would work, with citations (and brief summaries of the main point of what you're citing) to support your course of action. This should help keep meetings on the topic at hand (what you're doing) rather than getting sidetracked into a conversation about what your advisor thought you would do. 2. Pay for the peptides you need out of your research funding. Sure, it's a sacrifice but the rest of grad school is too. 3. If there really is a problem with your advisor not reading the literature, why don't you stop spending all your time reading, finish the article, and submit it? I say this because, if the lit is really a problem, the article will either get rejected or get R&R with the reviewers saying that. Maybe hearing it from his peers will help your advisor understand. If you have independent funding, I don't understand why you couldn't join another lab by framing it as moving to a place where your research is a better fit...

Supernovasky, did you apply to programs that were a good fit? I ask this because you say UT-Austin doesn't really have any quantitative sociology faculty and yet you applied there anyway. Applying to schools that aren't a good fit will doom any applicant (there's a thread on the Education forum right now about someone with a 3.9 GPA getting rejected, for example). Fit really is key.

Actually, that's not entirely true. TurboTax just doesn't advertise it. If you go to the IRS website, you can look at all their e-file partners. It will tell you the criteria for using each. I have ALWAYS qualified for free federal and state filing (and this in two different states, granted using two different software providers). What you see on TV are the advertisements for the free federal that are available to anyone. The other programs have various criteria about state residence, income, age, and other criteria. What ends up happening is that I use the links from the IRS webpage to log into my existing TurboTax account (from filing for the last 3 years) and I'm able to file both my state and federal taxes electronically and for free. IRS link: http://www.irs.gov/freefile and http://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/jsp/index.jsp?ck Per the TurboTax Tax Freedom website: That's 22 states, which means half the country is covered if you count the states that lack a state income tax (FL, TX, AK, for example). For H&R Block: I chose these two because they're the ones Eigen referred to in his post. That said, there are a bunch of other providers listed on the IRS website so go check them out and see if they offer free state filing for your state.

OP, I was in your shoes more than once. My experience was like Penelope's in that they were calling to tell me about the nomination, to ask if I wanted to visit, and to put me in contact with others. In one case, they also pointed out that they were missing materials (a rec letter!) that they needed to send in with the nomination and asked me to have it sent ASAP. No one is expecting you to commit to a school without visiting. But, if you can't commit to giving the school a fair shake, then you should decline the fellowship nomination gracefully and probably withdraw your application altogether. No one wants to waste their time and money recruiting someone that has no intentions whatsoever of attending. If you want to go just to meet future colleagues, go to a conference, rather than wasting their valuable recruitment time and money.* That said, I want to point out that a lot of things can happen when you start visiting, talking to current students, and talking to profs in more detail. The program that was your #1 can quickly plummet and your previous safety school(s) can rise to the top. The program that was my #1 choice when I applied to PhD programs is not the one I ended up attending, even though I got into both programs with excellent funding. It came down to personality, the other students, and various other factors. balthasar, in addition to the excellent list of things Penelope gave to consider, I'd point out a few more. Conference funding (availability, how much), pre-dissertation fieldwork money (if that's something you'll need), language training funds (again, if you'll need it). Then there's the whole topic of tuition, fees, and benefits (ie, health insurance). To accurately compare packages, you need to know not only the cost of living, but also what's covered and what isn't. For example, is tuition $0, $25, or $1000 a semester? Are there any fees you have to pay on top of tuition and, if so, how much are these? (Example: We pay about $225/semester in fees at my PhD university. At my MA university, I was paying ~$600/semester. While I technically earn less money now, it comes out about the same because of the difference in fees and having health insurance for free, rather than having to contribute $75/month towards it.) ------------- *Note: My PhD department explicitly chooses NOT to use the funds at its disposable for recruitment because of too many experiences where students visited and basically said they came for the weather and weren't really interested (hey, I'll admit we aren't top 10 but we also aren't chopped liver). Instead, we use that money to provide travel funds for conferences to the grad students. At least at our university, it's the same pool of money.

That depends on what the email is about. If you are someone's TA or RA, you shouldn't wait days to answer their email because that's just plain rude. I respond to faculty as quickly as I can.

This really depends. I get my inspiration for research from all sorts of things and have several pages of alternate dissertation/thesis ideas that I discarded or decided not to pursue right now. Honestly, though, you don't need your advisor's help to find computer science journals. Figure out what you're interested in (in a broad sense) and start reading about it.

I would say thank you and ask about visiting. I wouldn't ask about prof's showing interest in my application. Just contact the faculty that you listed and speak with them directly. I wouldn't ask about a deadline because, if it's an offer with funding, the deadline is likely April 15 (per the CGS resolution).

In a nutshell, yes, that is a competitive offer, though I'm more accustomed to seeing offers for 4 or 5 years in the social sciences. A 3 year offer means not only will you need to find your own funding for dissertation research, but you'll also need to find funding to support you while you write your dissertation. These funds are out there, however. I realize this is going to resurrect a very, very old thread but, it should be useful. There was a lengthy discussion about from 2006-2009. Actually, I sort of hope it does get resurrected because there's some good information in there. See also: If you're still not satisfied:

Yes, you can find out from the website before you get an email. Different departments handle things different ways.

Yes, but that doesn't mean you can't still start with one of these papers. You can do a deeper exploration of the ideas and find evidence to back up your argument. Alternately, you could go with something based on the internships that you've done...

There are several things you could do, but it all depends on knowing how you work best. For me, I like having a list of what I need to do, broken down into steps (for example, "summarize sources A-D to integrate into lit review" rather than just "write lit review") that I can cross off once they're complete. I also like working with printed out journal articles and quotes and tend to have a stack of papers and books around when I'm writing. I also prefer to carve out a few hours each day for specific tasks, to ensure that the task doesn't fulfill all the available time in my day. I work better when busier so I took on additional work and home responsibilities while writing my thesis (as in, a part-time job and two foster dogs that needed to be housetrained). But, YMMV.

I remind myself that my mom dealt with WAY more while getting her PhD and finished and has had a successful career. Or I go work out and try to forget about it. Or I indulge in one of my hobbies or grab a drink with friends.

You can also do this via email/phone/Skype WITHOUT visiting. TBH, I've never discussed funding when someone was actually visiting but have numerous times via email. At the same time, it can make it easier for people to decide they don't want to work with you. Were it me, I wouldn't visit until I knew I'd been admitted with funding. An "open house" sort of thing is too general and may not give you facetime with the people you want to meet.

Have you thought about taking one of the longer papers you did write and expanding it?

I have to agree with StrangeLight. I don't like all of my colleagues and avoid spending time with quite a few of them. But, if I see a new article that's in their area of interest or a grant that person might apply to, I send it along. Some--though definitely not all--of them thank me and an even smaller number send me things. BUT, I know that being professional and cordial is the way to go. One day one of these people could be in the position to help me get a job, grant, or publication, and I want them to remember me as the person that was always professional, nice, and tried to be helpful to others.

It varies. I collected data for profs as an undergrad, largely by administering phone surveys. And yet, for whatever reason, I've never listed it as "research experience". Maybe I'm weird.

I would LOVE to go diving in various places, like the Channel Islands, CA, the Great Barrier Reef, Indonesia, cenote diving in Mexico, swimming with whale sharks in Thailand, etc. But, time and money prohibit the majority of these trips, at least for now.

Join VersatilePhD.com and read the posts there. Many of the questions you've asked about alternate careers have been addressed there in detail. You might also want to check out the blog "Beyond Academe".

My understanding has always been that the April 15 CGS Resolution applies only to offers with funding...

It's sort of funny to hear the cubicle farm being described as a bad thing. When I was a MA student, almost all the grad students had their offices in one of two rooms, with each person getting their own cubicle. I really enjoyed this because it was easy to lay low with headphones on and work but also easy to socialize or borrow books from people. We also each had our own computers, which were the old lab computers from our department. Adjusting to my PhD program was a pain. Offices are assigned to 2-3 grad students and people never know if you're in there unless you leave the door open. There's maybe two computers in an office, but most only have 1, and those computers are 6 years old and can't run all of the software we use on a regular basis. This is part of the reason I had to buy a netbook...

What you did is both rude and immature. What you should have done is asked School B (the one you say you like more) if you could interview on a different weekend, rather than backing out of School A's interview after committing. If I were you, I wouldn't even bother interviewing at School A at this point since you have already shown them you don't really want to be part of their incoming cohort.

Plenty of people do that. You just apply in the fall of your senior year, graduate in the spring/summer, and start grad school in the fall. I started grad school literally 2 days after I got my BA.

In all likelihood, enough people reported it as spam that it was automatically removed...

Don't be so sure! You only know if you contact the departments and ask. You might also check the school of public health, the math department, etc. You may find that someone needs a grader or people are being shuffled around and things open up. And don't count out interdisciplinary studies type stuff either (ie, sociology of science). 100% agree with this suggestion. I'm in the social sciences. Once, for a course with 6 TAs, we had 3 different departments/programs represented (sociology, anthro, and Middle Eastern studies, along with our department). Ask around and see what you can find. Also, check and see if Student Affairs has any positions open like in the Student Union or with various centers on campus. Really, even a part-time position is better than nothing so see what you can find.

Honestly, it depends on what you mean by "well". As a PhD student, you don't need to know where most things are on campus. After 3.5 years, I can honestly say that there's a whole section of campus I've never visited and others where I bike/walk by but don't know the name of the buildings. Things I can find: library, science library, my dept's building, the buildings where I've had classes, the buildings where the profs for the classes I've had have their offices, the gym, the health center, the registrar's office, the student union. That's pretty much it. And, if I wanted to learn about those things as a visitor, I could see them all in one day, via a campus tour plus walking around a bit with a map. To me, the only reason to spend 4-5 days would be to get to know the city, figure out where you'll live, and/or job hunt for a partner. Otherwise, it doesn't take that long to meet faculty (even from two depts), walk around campus, and drive around the area. And really, hardly anyone ever wants to spend 5 days in New Haven.