rising_star

I've spent most of this academic year applying for fellowships to fund my dissertation research. With the exception of the DDRIG from NSF, everyone has wanted to see my transcripts. Presumably, if they are requiring that I scan or send them, they do care about my grades.

You won't get more replies by posting in more places. In fact, I deleted the other posts since no one had replied to them yet. Go to the place that is offering you more money.

I included cover letters. Basically the letter just listed all the materials that were included in that package and had the names of the LOR writers so they would know to be expecting them. I also asked in the letters for them to email me and let me know if anything is missing.

This one is easy to do. Keep a log of your actual working hours on each project to ensure that you don't go over the 10 hours/week that each appointment is allotted. If you find that after three weeks, you've put in 40 hours of grading with no end in sight, let the professor you're working for now. Otherwise, you're just consenting to exploitation.

This discussion might be of interest:

There have been discussions of the Ford in the past. A simple search of the forum would have yielded the following results (one per year the forum has been around, in fact):

When is the visit scheduled for? How does this compare to when the program typically announces admissions to the program?

I would wear waterproof shoes, in case there's snow, slush, or ice that you have to walk through. It would be awful to be sitting through an interview with wet feet (plus, you're far more likely to get sick if you stay wet). And I second the advice not to wear new shoes because the salt used on sidewalks and roads can ruin them. For clothes, I'd bring a pair of dress slacks for the interview day and dark jeans for the other times. It always pays to look a bit nice for an interview, in part because your appearance affects your attitude. Definitely bring gloves, a winter jacket (wool is good), a hat, a scarf, and some accessories so you can dress outfits up or down as you move through the day or to take an outfit from day to evening. I'd wear/pack in layers, so that you can remove and add things as necessary to adjust to the temperature.

I wouldn't bother with a full suit and tie or even a sportcoat. Business casual.

I know lots of people that say they work 70-80 hours per week and can't think of anyone that actually does. I can't write during typical business hours, so I reserve writing for late at night (10pm-2am). I do put in a few hours of work during the day as well. I don't typically do lots of work on the weekends, particularly not in the fall. This has worked well for me, though I'm planing to tweak it this coming semester. Graduate school can consume all of your time if you let it. I personally refuse to let that happen.

N.B.: I'm in the social sciences and have never taught a lab. The YouTube thing totally works. You should also see if your library has any relevant videos. Our library has streaming videos online and I frequently used 2-3 min video clips from those or from YouTube to highlight important things or to bring some levity to the classroom. One thing I did this semester was start each class with a relevant comic strip that had a quirky sense of humor (like my own!) and also pointed out something about the day's topic. Another thing I wish I had done was make an outline of where that class was going on the board before each class. I do plan to do that next time I teach because I think it helps students to have a roadmap. FWIW, I started off teaching by teaching an upper-level course for juniors and seniors. I've now taught it twice (once in the summer and once this fall) and I can honestly say that you learn how to improve by doing it. One great tip I got was to take notes right after class about what worked and what didn't and store those someplace where you can reference them in the future.

I picked "rising_star" for a few reasons. 1) It's the name of an episode of one of my favorite TV shows, and a very powerful episode. 2) It relates to astrology (rising sign), which I've always thought is cool. I've been told by several users on this forum that I'm full of myself and think I'm the next greatest thing to happen to my discipline, which is why I picked the name. But, to be honest, that wasn't really what I was thinking of. It was more that grad school represents, for me, a chance in my life's direction and a chance to excel in ways different from the rest of my family. I have two pictures on the site, one here on the forum and one for when I comment on blogs. I can't remember where I found either of them. The one here has stars in it, obviously. I think it was an image labeled "celestial nights" that I downloaded to use on another website about 6 years ago. The story is basically the same for the other image, which says "You might as well take ALL of me. The parts you want aren't removable."

Totally agreed on the Joss Whedon suggestion. Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse (though I have season 2 in my Netflix queue currently). I'm into sci-fi shows, so I like Stargate SG-1; Babylon 5 (except season 1); Star Trek: The Next Generation; and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Oh, and Mutant X. As for movies, I'm a big fan of children's animated movies: Wall-E, Finding Nemo, Mary Poppins, The Aristocats, Bolt, and The Incredibles, are just a few. Everyone should see "The Lucky Ones". It's a fantastic movie.

There are lots of easy ways to transform whatever file you have into a PDF format. For example, you could download Cute PDF Writer or OpenOffice, both of which will let you create PDFs.

Actually, we did univariate and multivariate regression in STATA in my undergrad stats class. I think regression was almost 1/3rd of the course. (And I say this as a nonsociologist whose intro grad stats course didn't cover multivariate regression.) That said, I don't think we really learned the thinking behind regression (or, if we did, I wasn't paying attention those days).

Serious question: how do you demonstrate your knowledge of material that you never took an exam on? I'm totally curious about this because it's an argument I've heard from students multiple times (I know I didn't actually take that test but if you ask me all the questions I could pass it right now; The wording of the questions was confusing but I know the material and could tell you whatever you want) and one that I have never found credible. Okay, let me explain how that works in my world, with mock dates. Paper 1 is due October 19. Student mistakenly turns in paper 2, which is due November 12. Given that paper 1 is now several weeks late, and that the syllabus requires a deduction of 5 points per day, the highest grade possible is 23 days late, the highest grade that can be earned is negative. The student later comes and says "Oops" but (as you've stated) blames the instructor and/or website for confusing him/her about which paper was due on which date. And, somehow, the grade for the missed paper (which, technically, is the paper 1 assignment) should be dropped from the grade, according to you. Do I have it right, according to what you're saying? Do you realize how ridiculous you sound when you blame the website, the professor, and everyone but yourself for not only taking the wrong exam, failing to realize that you did this in a timely fashion (and, since I've taught online I'll go ahead and add that timely means within no more than a week during a semester-long course), and then for blaming the professor for not dropping the grade for Exam 2? And, Zimaleah, to address emmm's question: Did you directly ask if you could receive a B in the course in spite of missing the exam?

You can admit it here, but definitely not in your applications. You need to make it clear in your SOP that you know why that school is a good fit for you, so that you can show the admissions committee that. If you aren't familiar with the professors' work, how do you know the program is a good fit for you? Fit is often key to graduate admissions. I always recommend tailoring your SOP to each program. I believe in weaving in the "fit" throughout, rather than just putting it in one paragraph at the end. When I applied, I rewrote probably a third of my SOP for each program. It definitely paid off for me. These rewrites were to include related institutes/departments on campus I could work with and professors in those departments that could be on a committee, which helped show that I had done the research on not only the person I wanted to work with but also on the department and university to know that the program would be a good fit for me and my interests. If that's the only reason for picking a school, drop it from your list. You'll be doing yourself a favor by saving the money and time of an application. Grad school applications are about picking places based on who you will be working with and the resources available to you. Liking the area, while it can be a factor in your choice, should not be your sole reason for applying to a graduate program. That approach seems misguided, to say the least.

I would give enough background to explain how and why you arrived at your research interests (in an intellectual sense).

What do you mean when you say that the OP didn't have the information needed? S/he should be fully capable of calculating his or her grade in a course. It's really not that difficult if you look at the syllabus, the grades you have received, and put everything into an Excel spreadsheet. Unless what you're saying is that the OP didn't have the correct information because s/he didn't know exactly what the instructor meant when ze said improvement would be taken into consideration. Because, neither you nor the OP have any proof that the professor did not take this into consideration. So, how can you support your argument that "the instructor misled him with the response he provided"? For fun, I just recalculated the grade of one of my students from this semester. The student received a C in the course. If I dropped his lowest paper grade, arguing to myself somehow that he just blew the paper but it doesn't indicate his performance in the course, he would get a B. He is one of several students whose grade would be higher if I ignored either one of the papers. But, that's not how the course works. You get graded on the work you turn in. If you need an extension for whatever reason, you ask in advance. It's called taking responsibility for one's actions. I can't think of a single student where producing exemplary work for the remainder of the semester would cause me to discard one of their grades, without doing so for the rest of the class. And, by the way, if that's what an instructor is going to do, then students will not only take advantage of such a policy but there will be questions (from students, department heads, and administrators) about the usefulness of even assigning that work. I mean, if students can forget to submit a test but still pass the class, why should they take any tests at all?

But, if you can avoid going through a management company, this may not be difficult. My first year of my MA and the first two years of my PhD I lived with roommates who either owned the place themselves or their parents did. I didn't have to do a credit check or even provide references in either case. In both cases I did have a lease.

I realize this is harsh so let me preface this post by saying Happy Holidays (sincerely). I'm going to offer different advice than what you've gotten here and, to be honest, I wish I'd offered it sooner since you should lose your appeal of this grade. Why? Because there's no reason for your grade to be calculated on a different basis than that of any other student enrolled in the course. I am absolutely and completely serious about this. If a student came to me and said "Hey, I misread the syllabus and missed an exam. What do I do?," I would reply by telling them that all they can do is excel in everything else and I would take the missed exam into consideration. Why? Because that's what you always say. It's polite, it's nice, and it's honest. You can consider it when doing the final grades. But here's the thing, you can't just throw out the exam grade for one student and not do it for every single student in the course. Did you really think a 73 would magically round to a 79 which would then round to an 80? For the record, my advice comes on the heels of numerous students asking me to "be nice" as I calculate their final grades. And, I did try to take improvement and demonstration of course knowledge into consideration when giving students their final grades. But the grade you get is the grade you earn. I can't magically decide that somehow your 73 is worth a B when someone else's is worth a 73. If we (as instructors) did that, then there would be no reason to assign work and every incentive for students to "forget" to take an exam, write a paper, etc. (Note: I am not saying that you did not legitimately forget.) There is absolutely no way that I would give a student that earned a 73 a B in the course. I'd consider rounding up a 78 from a C to a B, depending on the student's performance on other assignments, level of participation, and overall improvement in the course. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that this is what your professor meant. Now, if you're angry that he (I think it's a male prof, right?) didn't more accurately calculate your potential to receive a B, I would flip that around and say that the onus is on you as the student to calculate your grade and know how well you need to do to receive the grade you want in a course. I, and most instructors I know, never calculate final grades for students. There's a syllabus that tells you how much each thing is worth, right? And you know what grades you've gotten, right? So then you can calculate the grades you would need to get an 80% in the course pretty easily using Excel. So why exactly is it your professor's fault that you didn't do what you should have done? Basically, Zimaleah, you're asking for special treatment because "My GPA is better than this and I would've dropped the course (except I couldn't because it's after the drop/add period)." This is completely unacceptable in graduate school. And, to be honest, I'm surprised the professors of the university you used to attend actually encouraged you to appeal this grade due to the community college wanting to keep its customers happy. I truly hope that you remember this when your future students approach you with the same attitude and sense of entitlement. In a nutshell, grow up. Take responsibility both for what you did (miss an exam) and did not do (figure out for yourself whether the grade you wanted was achievable). If I were you, I would withdraw that complaint ASAP. P.S. Just because you won't have that particular professor again, does not mean that others in that department and/or who are friends with that professor will not hear about this.

Is there any chance you can talk to them about keeping your part-time status?

Always send a thank you note. You'll see those people again at conferences and don't want to have made a bad impression.

I think it depends on what your school colors are and how good you look in them (which, btw, is something you should consider when picking a program because you don't want to have to wear ugly regalia for the rest of your life).

Ummm... I've lived in places with both warm and cold weather. For my PhD, I didn't even look at many schools in places with cold weather. That's a personal choice, I realize, but I know I don't like snow. It also helped that the programs in super-cold places (Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc.) didn't really have anyone for me to work with. So, yea, weather would be something I would include on the pro/con sheet when deciding between schools. But, for me, there are plenty of other important things about the location including arts offerings (dance, theater, art galleries, music), recreational opportunities (hiking, skiing, swimming, hanging out at the beach, etc.), airline options and cost to fly to particular places, cost of living, and diversity of the area I would be living in.