rising_star

I'm not in anthro but, when I applied to MA programs (with funding), I had two acceptances before the end of January, and those were Jan 1 deadlines. For PhD programs, I had an acceptance at the beginning of Feb from a program with a Jan 15 deadline. What I'm saying is that not everyone meets as a full committee to make acceptances. Sometimes people are admitted before everyone sits down, but that isn't the case for every program.

You won't be left out of consideration for funding. If they really weren't interested in having the letter, they wouldn't have let you know that it was missing. Have it resent and you'll be fine. I've said this a number of times but I had a recommender send his letter 3 times to the same school because they kept losing it. Finally, he emailed (or faxed, can't quite remember) it directly to the DGS and sent it hard copy to make sure it got there. I was admitted with full funding there. Another school admitted me with funding before they had two of the three letters in (one was late, one got lost and was super late). They actually emailed me to say I'd been admitted, that the dept would fund, but that they needed two more letters (aka, a complete application) to nominate me for a university fellowship. My jaw actually dropped in shock and I laughed out loud. The point of those stories is to tell you that all is not lost.

Contact the program and ask them what the grace period is. Many universities are just returning from winter break, which might explain why your recommender hasn't replied to your email yet.

I don't know about your campus but, if I log onto the campus network, then I don't have to use a proxy server to access databases and journals electronically.

ALWAYS fill out the FAFSA. Otherwise, you're not eligible for student loans (which, even if fully funded, you might need to buy a vehicle, pay off your moving expenses, or in the event you get sick). Don't include your mom's income. Everyone is considered an independent student when it comes to graduate school.

The question in the title and the one in the post are not the same. Does it reduce the cost of living? Not really, unless you find ordering online is cheaper than shopping in a store for all of your needs. But then you have to weigh the costs of either living in a building with a doorman or being home all day to wait for the package to arrive. If you want to know about delivery costs, look at the Amazon website. You could've done that faster than you posted this question.

Honestly, when they write them isn't going to affect the quality of the letter. And don't nag them. They have plenty of time before the deadline to submit their letters.

My university says they won't accept scanned copies. But, they did once when the originals went missing and no one could find them. In that case, they made an exception and the scans were the only reason I got my money back. Otherwise, I would've been SOL. FWIW, this is the same reason that the admin people in my department photocopy professors' receipts before submitting them for reimbursement. Things get lost in campus mail and, if/when that happens, you're SOL if you can't produce another receipt. Depending on what the receipt is for, you might be able to get a copy from the vendor though.

Note: This is a great place to use your scanner. I try to scan all receipts I have to send in for reimbursement so that if they do get lost, I can still submit a version of them.

Yep, you can and people do. I think this might be something that varies widely from one discipline to the next. In the social sciences, it is very common for students to move with their advisors to a new institution and, depending on when in the student's program this happens, for those students to get their degree from the new university. During the first year of my PhD program I shared an office with another of my advisor's students that had moved with him when he came to the university 2.5 years prior. While she did apply, it was basically as useless/informal as when existing MA students apply to the PhD program at the university they're already at. She did not have to redo any coursework, nor did the other student that came with him to the new school. I can't say for sure how all of this was resolved since it's not addressed in our graduate handbook but it can and would be negotiated by the PI and DGS, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you've already done your exams, then you could move to the new school as a Ph.D. candidate and complete your research there while still earning a degree from the previous institution. But that is not the situation the OP is in so it doesn't make sense to spend much time discussing it here. Given that the job search and admissions application timelines are different, it is highly unlikely the department would hold it against the OP for not formally applying now. Much more likely is that the OP would want the advisor to include admission and funding for him/her in his/her job package negotiations. (Yes, students can be negotiated about just like start-up and moving funds.) So, I like Strangelight's advice about talking to the advisor to see what the overall situation is, how likely going to the new university is (or if it's just a ploy for a pay raise to stay where s/he already is), and how that would affect the OP's own graduate career. Framing it as a discussion about planning your own future is the best approach, imo. Once you understand what your advisor's plans are, you can then mention your openness/willingness to move to the new university and explain how doing so will benefit you and your career. This has been my experience as well. In fact, in some cases, the only application required is the official graduate school one that must be completed for anyone to enroll at the university. No recommendation letters or anything like that were ever reviewed by the department. My advisor brought along several students when he came to my university ~6 years ago. The ones that were beyond coursework and exams stayed at his old university and he flew back for dissertation/thesis defenses. Those doing coursework came with him to the new university, which accepted their coursework and didn't require them to do an extra year of work or anything. If the school wants your advisor and your advisor wants to bring you, everyone will work to make things go as smoothly as possible. I definitely agree with this. Given the budget situation at many universities right now, the only way for professors to get a raise is by looking for and being offered another job. They actually have to show the job offer letter with the higher pay to even be considered for a raise. My advisor is always looking at other jobs and has, in the past, applied for some. But we all know that we'd either go with him or stay behind but still be his student.

Actually, it's probably more like this. Ad-com: "He's a really well-qualified applicant, but he's only applying to prestigious schools. Let's reject him because we're probably his safety school and he won't enroll even if we do admit him."

This is just bizarre to me as a comment. Because no one told you to look for it or warned you about it you decided it's not an issue? FWIW, I'm not in a STEM field but am in a male-dominated discipline. Not all of the grad students (or faculty probably) are aware of the biases of particular faculty. That said, I know many grad students are warned about avoiding certain faculty because they have tended to treat their female grad students worse than their male ones. Those that get the warning are lucky since they avoid putting themselves in a bad situation. Those that don't? Well, I try not to think about it. I'd be surprised if there are ANY disciplines where sexism is not an issue. If there are, I hope someone will enlighten me and everyone else on the forum.

Afternoon power nap of 30 minutes. Seriously, there's nothing wrong with taking a siesta in the middle of the day. Alternately, dedicate 1 hour in the middle of the day to not focusing on work before shifting back into work for the rest of the afternoon. Oh, and 6 hours of sleep really isn't enough.

You can copy-paste bibliography entries from Zotero or EndNote into any word-processing program you want. I've been using Zotero for the past year and I really enjoy it, for a variety of reasons.

This is interesting advice. I highly doubt the OP can publish the book chapter in a peer-reviewed journal because journals require authors to stipulate that the material has not been published elsewhere. This is why people commonly turn published articles into book chapters and not the other way around. Furthermore, depending on the work done during a master's degree, it may not be worthy of a publication. There is no sense in trying to publish something that either isn't ready or isn't good enough to be in a journal that people might actually read. It's the mentality that you have that leads everyone to believe they absolutely must publish, regardless of the outlet. Will you be embarrassed by either the article or the journal 15 years from now? If so, don't even try to get it published.

You don't have to do anything to "hold" an offer. Per the CGS resolution, you have until April 15 to make a decision. Reply thanking them for admitting you, saying that you would like to visit, and asking them if they have any dates in mind.

edie, the grants are taxable just as stipends are.

I've wondered but not enough to look or even ask to look. I had the chance to look once, when I collected letters for something I ended up not applying for, but I didn't actually look at them.

Your reasons are valid. But, honestly, it doesn't matter whether or not we think they are. What matters is what you want to do. Everyone takes classes outside their immediate subject of interest (that's part of the breadth of earning a degree in a particular field), so going elsewhere wouldn't change that. You could try to do independent studies so that you have fewer classes, or maybe take things outside the department that are also connected to your interests. As for the personal, let me be blunt. Will you ever be prepared to move far away from your family and friends? If the answer is "no", then you should figure out what careers/jobs are viable in whatever location that is and pursue those. If I were you, I wouldn't do that. Just because you aren't in love with a particular location doesn't mean that moving home is the only/best option. I've found that I've only appreciated some of the places I've lived after moving away from them. At some point, you will have to make compromises. The question that remains is this: when are you going to do this? Obviously, you're not ready to do it now. Maybe you will be at 28 or 32 or 35.

It varies. At my PhD institution, the graduate student council (which is university wide) organizes social activities periodically. These tend to be either happy hours or speed dating events. My department's grad organization also organizes social events, like holiday parties and park picnics, in addition to having a weekly happy hour. I'm a regular attendee at all of these sorts of things. I also participate in some club things that have helped me meet a lot of people I might not otherwise now. Only a few of my friends are actually in my cohort. My other friends are other students of my advisor's, others in the department but not from my cohort, and people I've met in other ways (going to social events, going to concerts, through mutual friends). Oh, and that's not counting my myriad conference buddies, who I'm friends with but only see once or twice a year. They are great for commiseration and for complaining about one's department/university.

There are two ways for your recommenders to find out: 1) You tell them. 2) A friend of theirs at the program you applied to tells them. I should mention that the second one isn't all that common. That said, when I applied to PhD programs, one of my letter writers knew about my acceptance to a program before I did and actually told me to expect a call from them in the next few days. (Even weirder, he got the info from a prof that was actually on sabbatical at the time. The world is bizarre sometimes.)

Yes. You should include it if it is available. If it's not available, you should include some explanation (ideally from the Office of the Registrar) that explains why.

Call them up and ask.

Honestly, I wouldn't bother at this point. The school is probably on--or about to be on--winter break.

Usually, out of state tuition is waived if you have an assistantship. For example, my current university provides tuition waivers to everyone with an assistantship. These cover both the in-state and out-of-state amounts. But, you should apply for in-state tuition status as soon as possible (and assuming you're attending school in a state where such a thing is possible).