rising_star

This is why I set either two or three alarms depending on how urgently I need to be somewhere.

I would use professors from your undergraduate degree and maybe one nonacademic LOR. The letters ust need to talk about your potential to excel as a graduate student. They don't need to be super-specific since you're applying for a master's. I wouldn't take another class with that person for $900, especially if that person does not already hold a PhD.

It really depends on where you want to go and what you intend to do. Check with the national association for your discipline (APA, ASA, AAA, etc.) and then the smaller groups within that association to see if any of those offer funding. You might also check with other graduate students in your program (whether in your dept or at another university) to find out how they funded their summer/short-term research.

Not really. Why do you need to include all the places you've lived? What does it add to your application? If it's really that important, find a way to include it in your SOP.

Often, area studies MA students find TA position in related language departments or for large general education courses. Also, depending on the university and the area, there may be opportunities for FLAS fellowships. None of the opportunities I've just mentioned are exclusive to the richest or most famous schools. You should look into them.

What really intrigues me is the selective enforcement by the police of the ordinances governing city parks. I actually did some research on this as a MA student so, I'm speaking here from the research I've done. Yes, almost all public city parks have ordinances that include park closure hours. The homeless, for example, are rarely evicted from the public parks they sleep in. If I were still doing that kind of research, I would definitely add a chapter or two to my thesis that relates to the selective enforcement of ordinances by law enforcement and city personnel. So the reports saying that there are groups of leaders that meet, make decisions, and communicate with the media are incorrect? Would you mind explaining this part a bit further? I'm curious as to why the non-profit stewards (I'm assuming it's a park conservancy in a public-private partnership with the municipal government) have been complaining and what, if anything, has been done to address their complaints.

I realize that the three states aren't all geographically in New England. However, they are three well-known states of varying sizes. Also, the vast majority of those schools cannot and do not meet 100% of a student's financial need. That is limited to a few extremely well-off universities (as in, endowment > ~$10 million) and doesn't even include all of the Ivy League institutions, for example. Do you frequently travel to the East Coast or Midwest? Because, if you do, you'll find that people there do not know whether the ASU you refer to is in Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, or Alaska. Just because they don't ask "What's ASU" does not mean that they know the full name of the university you're referring to, where it is, or anything about it. Just something to keep in mind. (BTW, I should point out that even "well-known" Ivy League schools like Brown are poorly known on the West Coast.) The idea of what? Your question here is unclear.

Note: I'm taking the Top 100 from the US News and World Report list of National Universities, just for the sake of making the point below. Also, I chose each of the three states because they are the ones that come to my mind when I think of New England. Massachusetts: Harvard; MIT; Tufts University; Boston College; Brandeis University; Boston University; Northeastern University; Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Clark University; UMASS-Amherst New York: Columbia University; New York University; University of Rochester; Yeshiva University; Cornell University; Fordham University; Syracuse University; SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry; Binghamton University - SUNY Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania; Lehigh University; Penn State; Carnegie Mellon; University of Pittsburgh; Drexel That's a total of 10 in Massachusetts, 9 in New York, and 6 in Pennsylvania. Together, these three states have 1/4 of the Top 100 universities. And that's before you include the SLACs in these states. A quick glance at the Top 50 National Liberal Arts Colleges: MA: Williams College; Amherst College; Wellesley College; Smith College; College of the Holy Cross; Mount Holyoke College NY: United States Military Academy; Vassar College; Hamilton College; Colgate University; Barnard College; Union College; Skidmore College PA: Swarthmore College; Haverford College; Bryn Mawr College; Bucknell University; Lafayette College; Franklin and Marshall College; Dickinson College; Gettysburg College That adds up to 6 MA colleges, 7 NY colleges, and 8 PA colleges, for a total of 21 colleges. That's 20% of the Top 100 found in three states. For reference, Aaron, none of the schools you mention in Arizona are in the Top 100 National Universities List. Also, jullietmercedi makes a great point about the affordability of these elite schools and their self-selecting nature.

I'm going to bring this conversation back to a point made pages ago. Sorry if this bothers anyone. There are numerous reasons why professors or TAs do not return papers in class and it is almost never due to laziness. To give examples from my own experience: because there are so many students in the course that it would take 10-15 minutes of class time away from instruction to do so; (in small courses) to give students the opportunity to review and discuss their grade; because there are problems with exams being stolen and given to future students so the instructor chooses to keep the exam itself in their office where it cannot be stolen; etc. These are just a few examples from my (admittedly few) years of teaching undergraduates. Rarely did students find these policies problematic. How will you know that you didn't know what you were doing on the assignment unless you get back an assignment telling you this? Also, there are many ways to learn from mistakes through graded work. For example, you may find that the professor comments telling you which parts of your paper were not as strongly argued as others. Knowing this can help you structure your arguments better and argue more cogently in the future. That is but one example out of many. And now for a funny student line in a paper (the paper was on how climate change and sea level rise would affect particular countries): "Bangladesh is a South American landlocked country whose agricultural fields will be inundated with seawater and rendered unusable." I love that line.

Two things: 1) It's highly unlikely that you'd have to read 25 TOC a week since most journals are published once a month or less frequently. 2) Searching one database may cause you to miss articles that are not indexed in that particular one. Just two things to think about when trying to work smarter. Also, don't forget about getting things from/to your colleagues. I pass along links to articles that I think my peers might be interested in based on their projects and they do the same for me. They may well be monitoring articles/journals/search terms that you aren't or hadn't thought of.

Email the IRB office at your school. They should provide you with templates that you can use. These templates vary from one university to the next, so you'll want to get one specific to your institution.

How much I save depends on how much I know I'll need for summer. We get paid from late August to mid-May. That means I have to set aside money for expenses in June, July, and August, and I do so assuming that I won't have a summer paycheck. In reality, I often end up teaching a summer class so the summer savings pile gets used for conferences and whatnot. I don't know what the percentage is, so I don't know how to answer the question in the poll. Suffice it to say, I get paid twice a month, and I set aside money from each paycheck for savings. It's a necessity given my contracts.

Check out VersatilePhD.com if you want to learn more about nonacademic career paths and how academics think of them.

New flavor based on SNL skit. Apparently, it's not a joke. Someone should try it and let us know how it is (assuming you can find it since it's a limited edition with limited availability).

It depends on how similar their interests are and how closely their interests relates to your own.

Like others have said, ask around and try to make plans several days in advance about what to do after class. That said, yes, the first few weeks are busy. And also, it really depends on your cohort. My cohort wasn't into going out after class, even if you asked and tried to make plans a week in advance. People had other things going on (spouses/partners, volunteering, other jobs, etc.) and just weren't into it. Sometimes that's the way it is. And yes, it sucked at times, especially since a friend and I would often be the ones trying to organize things that only 3-4 people (in a cohort of 15) would attend.

My facebook URL is quite simply my name, the same as it is for Gmail and Skype. That's the one I use professionally as well. As for the employment thing, my job title is Teaching Assistant so that's what I would list. My email signature specifies my status and the course (e.g., Teaching Assistant/TA, DEPT 101 or Instructor, DEPT 301).

Conferences really are a good time. I end up drinking far too much but it's great to see people and catch up, learn about other people's research, and explore a new city with a whole bunch of other people visiting. I've been to 8 conferences and I've only stayed in the conference hotel once. Usually, I end up either staying with friends in the area or splitting a hotel room at another hotel with other grad students. I try not to share with more than three other people and I avoid hostels, just because I like knowing that I have a quiet place to sleep and relax and prepare for my presentation. Obviously, staying with friends (sometimes those in grad school or attending the conference, sometimes not) is the cheapest option and often comes with the ability to cook dinner/breakfast and save money that way. In fact, I sometimes decide to attend one conference over another because I know I have a place to stay inexpensively. That said, I almost always end up eating out for lunch and dinner so I can catch up with people. Honestly, you have to think of attending conferences as an investment in your career and as an important part of professionalization in your discipline. Seriously, there's a guy that I met at a conference and have kept in touch with for 4-5 years now that has helped me think through my post-PhD plans and is giving me the opportunity to be a visiting scholar and adjunct at his university. This probably wouldn't have happened if we were just communicating over email.

There's no advantage to early submission if there's not a rolling deadline. It means they intend to review all the applications at the same time.

You don't need your own auto insurance policy for ZipCar or Hertz Connect. The cost of insurance is included in the rental. Seriously. Look into it.

I've never gone to workshops but I attend my discipline's annual meeting every year. I also attend one other conference (either regional or specialty-based). Yes, it is expensive. But, it's also worthwhile. I get to see friends and colleagues, network and meet potential future collaborators, get advice on my career, etc. To me, it's absolutely worth it. It does help that we get some travel money from our department and that there are university-wide travel grants we can apply for as well. As a result, my out-of-pocket expenses are pretty minimal each year. Even so, it's one of the things I just set aside money for to make sure it can happen in case something happens with grants. Oh, and I use it as an excuse to go visit cool places.

I really like the Boston Creme Pie! I actually wrote an ode to ice cream as an assignment in my high school English class. It listed lots and lots of flavors but, I don't remember them all.

Yea, a hotel may be the best idea. Your parents don't allow you to drive? Assuming you're over 18 and have a license, it's not really their call.

I would say rent a car via a traditional rental company, Zipcar, or Hertz Connect.

Honestly, I think you're overreacting. If the class is scheduled to run to 10pm and you didn't want to stay that late, you shouldn't have signed up for it. Asking someone to take off work because you won't stay as late as the course is scheduled to run is ridiculous.