rising_star

This topic has been discussed multiple times: There are links to two other past posts on this if you follow the link above. I would also add the following: If you're looking at a condo, you need to check the history thoroughly so you'll know whether to expect an increase in the monthly HOA or an assessment to pay for a large project (repaving everything, new roofing, etc.). If you get a bill in the mail for a $10,000 assessment and it comes just after closing, what will you do? If buying a house, you absolutely need a reserve fund in case anything breaks. timuralp's point above about having to buy a new furnace is a good one. But other things can also go wrong and need replacement (air conditioning, water heater, plumbing, etc.) and not all of those things will be covered by a home warranty or a homeowner's insurance policy. If you can't afford the "Oh s$%*" aspect of home ownership, then maybe renting is better, especially if you will be cash-poor after making the down payment and whatnot. FWIW, I thought about buying a house/condo in PhD city and would have if I'd stayed in MA town for my PhD. At the moment, I'm probably paying more in rent than I would be for a condo. BUT, I'm also about to spend a year away from here doing fieldwork. If I were a homeowner, I'd have to find a renter or management company, and possibly pay my mortgage plus rent in another location. That would definitely be a headache. That said, given that I've moved 3 times in less than a year, I kinda wish I'd bought for the stability. Also, I'd look into the housing market more broadly. Are prices going up or down? (In my area, they are definitely going down.) How much work are you willing to put into a place? Will you be able to resell or rent it easily after you finish?

If you won't be able to afford it, don't go. Or, find a job on campus to pay for tuition or work off campus to make some rent money. Either way, you'll be taking out loans.

How are you ever going to make enough money to pay off $90K in debt?

Tickets aren't free for anyone, at least not for the major sports at any major university. You might be able to get free tickets if you go to an Ivy or something like that. This sounds a bit like my MA institution. There, football tickets were done via lottery with slots assigned based on the number of credit hours successfully completed. As first year grad students, we were able to get home game split packages (so half the home games) at a price of like $6/game plus a processing fee. My second year there, we got full home game packages. You needed something like 90+ credit hours to be eligible for away game tickets, so maybe at the end of your PhD you could get into those lotteries. Then, you had to go stand in line to get your actual tickets, which were assigned seats in the stadium. One person could go with up to 4 ID cards, which also guaranteed that you'd have seats with your friends. As for prices, this is what I remember (keep in mind these are 2007-2008 prices): $2/meet for women's gymnastics; $8/game for football; $2/4 game for men's basketball. Women's basketball was free. I don't remember about baseball but it was either $2 or $5. These prices reflect the relative popularity of each sport. As a counterpoint, my PhD university provides a set rate for student entrance to all athletics, but then an extra $50 or so to add men's basketball on to that. For football, there are 10,000 student seats, so it's definitely possible to have the student athletics thingy and not be able to get in. For basketball, you have to wait in line like 2 days before the game to get tickets or something. I'm a little unclear on all of that because I've never done it and neither has any of the grad students I know. The best thing to do would be to find the athletics website for wherever you're going and look up the student ticket prices.

In my experience, yes. I have had to send transcripts this year to apply for a number of fellowships and scholarships. I imagine they don't ask you to send them unless they plan to look at them. If you stick to applying for just the NSF DDRI, you should be fine. But other things I have applied for require "all graduate transcripts," "transcripts from the last two years," and "transcripts from every institution you have attended." In all of those cases, you would be sending them a transcript with a bunch of failing grades on it, which may knock out your application. Also, sometimes on internal fellowships (like travel grants), I have to list my graduate GPA for the last year or overall. Again, in your case, that would include a bunch of F's. Try to pass your classes. Maybe even take an incomplete or two so you can spend the summer doing as much as you can to get a better grade. Or withdrawal if there are no penalties for that.

I've only had one student (in 3 years as a TA) sign a FERPA waiver. In that case, it was because the student has several disabilities and wanted to make sure we could communicate with ze's parents in case of illness or other medical issues.

Yea, you'll have to pay income tax in NY. I am also a legal resident of a state without income taxes and have had to pay income tax (at the non-resident rate) in each of the four states I've worked in.

Unless the student signs a FERPA waiver, you cannot communicate with his/her parents about their child's work in your course in any way shape or form.

Why not just wait until 4:30pm EDT on April 15 to accept the offer that has funding?

It doesn't sound like you've visited the school in the South. Depending on where it is, you may have access to a better local food scene than you think, particularly because of the large number of co-ops, CSAs, and farmer's markets. Visit or, if you can't, have some frank conversations with current grad students about the quality of life. Having attended grad school in the South and out west, I can say that they each have their advantages and disadvantages.

How fundamental are these changes? Are they ones necessary to have your work taken seriously? (Also, how on earth did you write 80 pages before being told this?) I've never known anyone to change advisors at this point, at least not without incurring a significant delay in finishing the thesis and graduating. To me, this is a time when you should be meeting with the rest of your committee to see what they think of the changes your advisor is asking you to make. If your committee also thinks those "very fundamental changes" are necessary, then you're going to have to either make them or scrap the entire committee. Or, perhaps you can find a way to get one of your committee members agree to be your advisor and then all you have to do is find someone else on the faculty to join the committee. What you don't want is to piss anyone off in your department. You're going to need every single ally you can get, especially if you end up having to either reshape your committee or form a completely new one. Why are you going to talk to the dean? The first person you should talk to is the Director of Graduate Studies in your department/program. If that person is unavailable, then meet with the chair of the department. Only after you've used all the resources in your department should you go see a dean.

Honestly, you could move and just stay at a hotel or with another grad student for a 1 week and easily get your bearings on the city, find a place to move, etc. If you contact the current grad students in your department, they can give you a sense of areas to avoid, places to live, etc. Use the resources at your disposal. This is the same advice that gets posted in every thread on "City Guide".

SusieQ, has anyone in your department ever defended their MA thesis? If so, ask them what they did to prepare and what happened during it.

God. I've now seen this post *three* times. You could wait and see if you get a response in one place before just posting it over and over. There's no reason to do a PhD without funding, unless you just like being massively in debt.

Depends. Have they given you any sense of whether funding might be available later in the summer or once you arrive in the fall? Do you know if there will be funding available for subsequent years even if you can't get funding for your first year? Are tuition waivers available even if you don't have an assistantship? I think you need to know the answers to all of these questions.

I would be more concerned with my advisor's placement record than the school's overall placement record.

I got two rejection letters from a school that then admitted me with funding.

Well, they say the dose is minimal but they refuse to allow independent testing of the machines. Most people wouldn't trust the pharmaceutical companies to give them medicine whose testing wasn't overseen so I'm not sure why I should trust the TSA to do so. The other issue is that comparing the radiation to specific x-rays is a bit misleading since dental x-rays target my mouth whereas a full-body scanner targets my entire body. As someone that flies frequently, I'm wondering what the effects of all of this will be when I'm 50 or 60.

Given the history of cancer in my family, I worry about the cumulative effects of increased exposure to full-body radiation over the course of my lifetime. Since TSA has admitted that the machines may emit more radiation than they originally said but have not said how much they do emit, they have done nothing to assuage my fears in that regard. That and I'm really not comfortable with being felt up in public. I bought TSA-approved locks at Target. I think it was about $10 for 4 bright green luggage locks. To answer your other question, the locks have a small number engraved on them to tell TSA which of their master keys to use. Given that there are supposedly only 9 types and the locks have been out for a number of years, you can assume that the less scrupulous people already have numerous copies of these master keys.

There are lots of reasons to live close to campus. It's easier to get to/from classes or the library, easier to run home when you forget something, etc. I've never lived more than about 4.5 miles from campus in my life and, when I lived that far, I lived on three bus routes that would take me straight to campus. I did get some reading done on the bus (~15 min ride) but that was always reading that was for fun since there are so many distractions when you're on the bus. Where I live now is about 1.5 miles from campus and I ride my bike there pretty much every day. If I wanted to, I could just as easily take the bus (which goes by about every 10 min during the day). I frequently do work in the morning, come home for lunch, then do work at a second location (park, coffee shop, outside on my patio) in the afternoon. If I had a longer commute here, I would probably have to drive, which would end up costing me a lot more in terms of gas, parking, and frustration. In a nutshell, no, it's not 100% necessary to live close to campus but it does make a lot of things easier. I agree with everything Sparky has said (is that the first time this has happened?). But, I quoted this part because I most especially agree with it. If you have a dog and are living an hour for campus, it will make it a lot harder to join people on that after class impromptu beer and bitching session. Or to coordinate group presentations. Or really, just to hang out with the people that are in your cohort. But, that to each his/her own.

The final transcript is usually just to confirm that you've received whatever degree it was you said you would have before you started. What about taking summer research hours or a summer course? I'm just saying that that could (and probably should) be your backup plan in the event that you don't pass this class. Talking to the prof and explaining the situation (worried about whether or not you will be able to graduate) seems like a good idea. Just don't make it come across like you're begging for a grade.

I used to have a pair of London Fog winter boots and they were great. Fleece-lined, thick sole, etc. They probably kept me from dying on black ice numerous times. Then, one sad day, I split the part near the toe and they were no longer waterproof so I had to toss them.

I'm not really clear on your question. Why would a bad grade in one course cause them to revoke your PhD acceptance? Do you know this for sure or are you just guessing?

Actually, this varies a bit by discipline. In mine, most MA/MS offers come with funding and it's actually not the norm to be admitted to a master's program without funding.

What do you plan to do once you get the degree? Will you make enough money to live decently and pay off the loans you would have to take out if you went to Bard? Who would you be able to work with at each program?