rising_star

We had a discussion about summer reading a few years ago:

Here's another discussion we had on this:

We're in the process of rolling out several new subforums for those already in graduate school. "Exams" is one of those. More are coming.

Given that IIE is administering the program for the Mellon Foundation, they would certainly know if you received a Fulbright. And, since you can't accept both and most people with Fulbrights have already booked their tickets, presumably those applicants would be eliminated from consideration.

Agreed. But I miss the ability to give posts a "-1".

This is really country-specific. In Latin America, I've found that there's a lot of respect given to those with degrees and people will even list "BA" or "BS" after their names. I tend to list my MA when corresponding professionally or with students. Here's an example: Rising Star, M.A. PhD student X University

What's the difference between the two?

Hmmm... I'm intrigued by this new software. Not sure how I feel about it... Questions: - We can only vote posts up and not down? - What's with the symbol that appears with the tab in Firefox? Can you change that? It reminds me of Transformers for some reason...

Honestly, you'll find reviews like that for *every* external hard drive. Some people swear by Western Digital, others by Seagate or even Toshiba. You can get a bad drive from any of those companies. I've had a Western Digital external (160gb) for the past 5 years and have had no problems with it. I'm going to order a WD 500GB portable external HD in the next few weeks to back up my research while I'm in the field. If something is really important, you should have four copies of it: hard drive, external HD, cloud (DropBox, SugarSync, Google Docs, etc.), and flash drive. At least, that's my opinion having had flash drives and hard drives fail.

I find it much harder to make pretty presentations in Impress (OpenOffice) compared to PowerPoint, especially the newer versions (2007 and 2010). I have one computer that runs Office XP and one that has OpenOffice. I'm getting a new laptop in a few weeks, so I'll probably spring for a MS Office 2010 license and install it on all of them.

But you will be a resident once you move, right? If so, then you'll be eligible. Also, there are many CUs that do things based on employer (state university) or residence (like you have an address within the city or county boundaries). Only checking out the two biggest CUs doesn't really make sense. You're probably better off doing a google search and looking for those with branches close to campus, as they are most likely to let students join.

Personally, I couldn't handle a 20 minute drive each way every day. But that's because I hate driving. I currently commute via a 10 minute bike ride to campus, which is easy and healthy. I guess it all depends on how you can use the time of your commute. Can you catch up on the news or listen to an audiobook or something while you drive? I used to commute on the bus and I'd read magazines or skim the reading for class during the 20 minute bus ride.

A lot depends on where you will be and which bank has ATMs and branches closest to you. I was a long-time Wachovia customer but, am leaving because they were bought by Wells Fargo which has not so great customer service. I've had some bad experiences with Bank of America as well. If I were you, I'd try to open an account at a credit union near campus or where you'll be living. They often have free checking and solid customer service. The downside can be that they may not reimburse the fees for using other bank's ATMs, which can happen when you travel (for conferences, for fun, etc.).

I don't know about your field but, I sometimes download journal articles that you cannot copy and paste from because they don't have OCR (that is, the text itself is not searchable/scannable). Sometimes, I can run OCR in Adobe Acrobat Pro successfully but other times it is still impossible to cut and paste from the article itself. But, given what Eigen just posted on another thread about EndNote X5, I may look into getting that once I return from the field. As for notetaking, same as any other purpose. I use a notebook plus EndNote plus Zotero (don't ask) to take notes on things related to my dissertation. It's a pain cross-referencing all of them but, that's mostly because I've used three different systems in my five years of grad school and each has its role in my life. Just be systematic and organized. Make sure you have full citation information (especially if it's a book chapter) so you don't have to go back to the library and dig out the book later for something silly (but necessary) like the page numbers of the chapter.

Personally, I wouldn't bother. Most of my graduate classes have been seminars and, quite frankly, not all of the three hour discussion is relevant to my work so I don't really need to listen to it again. There was a grad student that recorded the seminars for a class and everyone thought it was kind of weird. I would just take notes and, if you think you're missing something, compare notes with someone else later.

I read an interesting thing about an Arizona politician pointing a gun at a reporter this morning. You can read it here. The highlights are below:

There are plenty of geography and interdisciplinary programs you could/should look at, though it does depend somewhat on which qualitative methods you want to use. For example, CUNY (esp. Environmental Psychology), San Diego State/UCSB, Kentucky, Arizona, UNC, Washington, Berkeley and Clark could all be good places for you to study. If you go to the AAG's website, you can search by specialty groups and use their websites to locate potential advisors. See here: http://www.aag.org/cs/about_aag/specialty_groups_2. Actually, geography is pretty vibrant in the US. See http://www.aag.org/. Last I heard, there were more than 10,000 members of the AAG. I agree with the suggestion to look at "human geography" programs. The phrase "social geography" just isn't used much by US academics. However, "cultural geography" is much more commonly used. Again, looking at the names of the specialty groups and their descriptions can help you identify how geographers talk about what you're interested in. Not sure I understand this point of yours, GardeningGrad. Geographers are definitely NOT pigeon-holed as map people. GIS and mapping are tools that geographers, sociologists, political scientists, forest scientists, ecologists, and many others use in their work. Also, given the interdisciplinary nature of geography and the multitude of post-grad school options people pursue, I highly doubt you would have been pegged as a "committed academic" if you applied to non-profits.

Start here: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/84-interviews-and-visits/

A lot depends on where you're going and how easy it will be to buy supplies there.

That may not meet with TSA approval, if you're going through the US at all. They can and do open checked luggage at will.

Be careful with boxes. I have seen many destroyed boxes come out on the luggage belt.

Some journals actually specify how this should be done. Typically, in my field, people list their current institution and list the one where they did the research in the acknowledgments.

Consulting about classes is a reasonable idea, but make sure you also consult with the DGS and your handbook so that you understand what's required of you in terms of coursework. You could definitely ask your advisor to look over conference papers before you present them, though this is something that I've never done. Job market is an area where you DEFINITELY consult with your advisor. S/he will be writing letters of reference that will get read and can help you with understanding what particular universities and departments are looking for, in eliminating places that won't be a good fit for you, etc. Fellowship and grant applications are another area where you'll want your advisor's feedback on your materials before you submit them. Admittedly, almost everything above is also something that you'll want to get feedback on from your colleagues/peers/advisor's other students. I pretty much always run my stuff by one of my advisor's students before sending it to him, just to ensure it's in the best possible shape when he sees it. Keep in mind that different advisors have different styles. Some won't let their students present a conference paper without having read the paper and seeing the presentation. Others might not care what you present and not even attend your conference talks.

As someone who has lived in Arizona and does feel uncomfortable when people are carrying everywhere (for example, at the grocery store, in a bar, or in a coffee shop), I do wish you wouldn't generalize to include the entire state's population in a statement like the one quoted above.

I have a car. I drive it well under 3000 miles each year, and that's including a few trips out of town each year. What do I use mostly? My bike. You just become more like Europeans, making short trips to purchase the groceries or other items you need rather than stockpiling stuff in your house/pantry. You might also want to look into ridesharing programs (which I feel like I've suggested to you before) since you could just use those when you need them to pick up large items or go out of town. Also, you can make friends with people in your program and go with them if they're going to the grocery store or Target (give them some gas money if you do this). Just because your roommate won't have a car doesn't mean that you should feel pressured to buy one. If your roomie wants a car, then that's his/her problem, not yours. And, last but not least, I wouldn't rule out the student loan route. If you borrow a few thousand, you can do it with a subsidized loan and start paying it back while you're still in school if you want. Moreover, even if you do by a car, you might find yourself needing a loan to pay for repairs if something expensive breaks. There's also the expenses of insurance, taxes, and registration that you will want to consider if you decide, at some point, to purchase your own vehicle.