rising_star

I said I wasn't going to comment again but, I kind of have to. Umm, seriously? There are plenty of gun carriers that intend to use them. Case in point: Jared Lee Loughner. He didn't just carry the gun to Safeway because the laws in Arizona allow him to do so. He carried it there intending to use it to kill someone.

Honestly, I'd just spend the $150. Considering parts and labor, you'll probably end up in about the same situation. I paid ~$100 for my bike and the guy I bought it from had already fixed it up. I went with a friend that is very knowledgeable about bikes and who checked it out for me before I bought it. If you have a friend with any sort of bike repair knowledge/skills, you might be better off taking him/her with you and then buying something that won't need a lot of upfront repairs. At this point, I've spent way beyond the initial purchase price on various repairs (rear brake cable, new tubes [multiple times], Armadillo tires, new bike seat, new bike basket) but, I like my bike and it's not so nice that people feel like stealing it, which is wonderful. Oh, I meant to add this before. If you keep an eye on Craig's List (and also places like Play It Again Sports and thrift stores), you may be able to find something even cheaper. I looked on CL for weeks before finding the bike I now own. The CL market is always in flux.

Good news: Comcast is trying to improve its customer service. See here for more information.

Google Calendar (for things like classes and appointments), Google Tasks (for to-do lists), and paper. I like crossing things off and email drafts just wouldn't give me the same level of satisfaction. I also keep a monthly calendar in my office and at home and I write important deadlines on them (green for grants/fellowships; red for articles/CFPs; black for conferences and other things).

Alright, since environment is now in play I'll say what I think. Keep in mind, btw, that I was raised in a town with a big gun culture where something fun to do on the weekends was to shoot soda cans with hunting rifles in the woods. (Yes, I'm totally serious and yes, I did do this.) I'm against guns on campus for one main reason: there was an incident ~10 years ago at my university where a student held a gun to a professor's head in the professor's office while demanding that this grade be changed. I realize that no one here is thinking about those kinds of extreme situations but, they happen. Given the sense of entitlement around grades (and also around guns), I would not at all be surprised if such incidents happen again if guns are allowed on campus. I'm weighing in mostly to say something that I haven't really seen expressed here thus far. And now I think I'll go back to just reading this discussion.

I've had the same phone for 4.5 years. It is one of the first flip phones with a full keyboard inside. Sometimes I wish I had a smartphone to look up sports scores or double-check an address but, I don't wanna spend the extra money. If I were to get one, I'd get a prepaid plan with Cricket, Boost, or Virgin Mobile. A LOT cheaper.

SugarSync will allow you to upload up to 5GB for free (with an account). You can upload files and then get a private link that can be sent to others so that they can access the file(s).

I've had lots of headaches with EndNote and, consequently, have mostly switched to Zotero. The most annoying was when EndNote deleted a reference from my paper, causing all the other references to shift around. I caught the error, luckily, but it was not good. A friend has been using EndNote for her dissertation and came out of her office the other day screaming about how EndNote was f*$%ing up her references again... I wish Zotero had more output styles though.

You don't have to say you love research if you are honest about wanting a job at a teaching school or community college...

Florida State University fired tenured professors. See here: http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/11/fired-tenured-faculty-members.html and Here: http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/11/fired-tenured-faculty-members.html

Umm, we have both brown recluse and black widow spiders where I live. While you may say they can't significantly hurt a person, authorities seem to disagree with you. What I killed was probably a Wolf Spider, rather than a Brown Recluse, but you have to get pretty close to them to count the number of eyes and really be able to tell the difference.

True story about two friends of mine that have been dating and living together for several years. He got a postdoc. She's a nurse so you would assume movable ambitions but, she's locked into a contract (which basically guarantees her work hours and pay rate) so she can't move with him. Even "movable amibitions" may not always be enough. Why does the thought of dating a professor weird you out? I mean, if they're your age and you have common interests... Think spousal hire!

Well, you're automatically an independent for the purposes of graduate school, so your dad's income will no longer matter. I recommend filing the FAFSA and then going to meet with the school's financial aid office to discuss your options. If you have to go with a bank loan, try to get one through your local credit union.

Are you paying out of pocket? If so, then go with the one year program since it will cost you less.

This may vary by program. In my MA program, we were flat-out told that all of our term papers should be seen as drafts of journal articles and they were to be written as such. So, they were expected to be things that, with a little bit more work, could be sent out to journals (and we were encouraged to have a journal in mind when writing them). YMMV, obviously.

You might want to look into first-time homebuyer programs wherever you're moving to, as they often have more flexibility than going directly through the bank. Also, Usmivka, you could look for a short-term lease (semester or 6 months), if you're sure you'll be able to get the income requirement situation worked out in time to buy a place once the short-term lease ends.

That only works if they are non-poisonous. I killed a huge one in my bathroom last night, mostly because I didn't want to get close enough to figure out whether it was poisonous or not.

The advice above is sound. You should always list your previous landlord, even if that's a university housing department. Alternately, find smaller complexes or a private landlord. Now, it's possible you could get a slumlord this way but they are often less concerned with things like rental history. In fact, in the 5+ years I've been renting, the only time I had to produce references was the one time I rented from a management company. The rest of the time the landlord knows where to find you so they don't care as much provided you seem nice and trustworthy. Also, be prepared to have to undergo a credit check since you won't have references.

I would only go if I could secure an assistantship in another department. The reality is that the department you're joining doesn't want you quite as much as they want some of the other students, which is why they have assistantships and you don't. If you can't get funding besides loans, defer for a year.

I would keep an eye on the course (maybe once a week over the summer) but otherwise would wait until August to contact the professor.

My first thought is don't buy a car. Does the city where you're moving have ZipCar, Hertz Connect, or other car-sharing programs? If so, go with that. It will save your hundreds a year in maintenance, insurance, and registration costs. This makes even more sense if you won't use a car every single day (and, since you say you won't need it to get to class, that seems quite likely). I second the CarMax recommendation if you're not comfortable with cars. They make it very, very easy to buy a used car. I also agree that you should get a CarFax report regardless of where you buy your car. You'll want to read used car reviews on edmunds.com and from Consumer Reports to get a sense of what cars are a good value to buy used and which will generally be nothing but trouble. From there, you have to check Blue Book values to see what you want that's in your price range. I recommend that you start doing the research part now, so you can get a handle on what a fair price for things where you'll be living is. Oh, and find a good mechanic that's willing to check out the car for you. It may cost $50-75 up front but can save you from buying a complete lemon. FWIW, it took me over six months to buy the car I have now but, a lot of that is because I am very picky and knew exactly what I wanted in terms of make, model, mileage, and features. Being flexible can help you buy something more quickly.

Internship. It'll help you advance your career, unlike the TA position.

Honestly, I've never registered for classes as an incoming grad student before August. At both my MA and PhD programs, part of orientation was sitting down with your advisor, the DGS, and the grad program secretary to work out a course schedule for the fall and spring. After that, the secretary registered us for classes (PhD program) or we were cleared to go online and register ourselves (MA program). Sure, you can ask your advisor. But, grad classes rarely fill up and, when they do, professors typically let interested grad students enroll anyway. So I guess I'm not sure what the rush to register is. Just because you can doesn't mean you need to. In fact, most of the students in my current program and in my MA program only registered for one fall class in the spring and then figured the rest out in August as school started.

I wouldn't do it. A lot of people in my department cycle to campus, so there's a lot of hat/helmet/wind-blown hair. Even so, people take off the hat and try to at least tie their hair back for class. How much time would it take you to throw your hair into a ponytail?

I think this is the best advice I've seen in this thread. I had a Dell business laptop that lasted for all of undergrad until the day after I turned in my senior thesis. I replaced it by buying another Dell (Inspiron 1500 series) that I have had since May 2006. I had a few parts (heat sink, fan, thing holding the screen on) replaced while it was still under warranty and it has served me well for the 5+ years that I've had it. I'm hoping to replace it next year, but that's mainly because I want something faster and with more than a 60gb hard drive! Honestly, asking for more than 3 years out of laptop is asking for a lot. A lot depends on how you plan to use it. The more you lug it around, the more likely you are to have problems.