rising_star

You'll have to get a written release from the first school. Check out the CGS resolution.

It's hard to do enough advance research to know whether you will fit in socially with the people in a department. That's one of the reasons people go on visits. And, you can do tons of research on programs and potential advisers but not know, until visiting, that one or the other of them is a better fit for what you personally want in an adviser. Email and phone calls are not always enough, and it doesn't mean that someone hasn't done enough research before applying.

meat market

pjnut, there's a great post on this topic here: http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2007/04/23/grad-skool-rulz-7-picking-the-adviser/ It may help you think about things.

They expect students to apply to more than one program. Most of what they do is alter the name of the program and, if they know someone at that school, they may reference that person in their letter. But, once they've written the first one, subsequent ones are much, much easier.

Serious question: Will having a degree with the exact right focus open doors for you that a slightly less focused degree with 2 years of additional work experience cannot? Like, will the School 2 or 3 degrees help you get a job that the School 1 degree can/will not? If the answer is no, then I think you already know what the right answer for your career is. Then you just have to decide whether to prioritize location or your career. A master's is 2 years, maybe 3. But if you choose something now that will not improve or will narrow your career options, that can follow you for years to come.

In my field, there tends to be no distinction between MA and PhD students. We take classes together, have group weekly meetings with our advisers where MA and PhD students are alongside, and the funding is comparable. I imagine this is different in other departments on campus.

Will the small size of Yale's department hinder your ability to study what you want? And what do you mean by "faculty care unsatisfied"?

I think you can do the move in 6 days, you just have to do advance planning. First, move the day after your contract ends. You'll have to have already done all the packing, arranged to ship things, etc. Cancel anything that accrues a bill on the day your contract ends, since you'll be leaving in the morning anyway. Line up a grad student couch/futon on or an inexpensive hotel to stay in once you arrive in Knoxville. Before you get there, be in contact with grad students about where to live, where to look for housing, etc. Ideally, you'll find another grad student in your department or another to have as a roommate. Why? This will cut down on your upfront expenses when you move. You may even be able to find a place with a furnished room, where you just move in your stuff. FWIW, I moved like 1400 miles to start my master's. I graduated on Day 1, moved on Day 2, and started in the afternoon on Day 3. It was a whirlwind and I wasn't all moved in when I started but it got the job done. Agreed with all of this. Make sure you are interested in doing research at attending this school and that it will support your interests.

I imagine Duke is better known in Chile, though I could be wrong. jmfriz, are there particular faculty you are excited about working with? Courses you're excited about taking? Research projects you want to get involved with? If yes to any of those, then go to the school that has the opportunity you're most excited about, assuming the finances are the same at each.

I would say NYU because there are probably more/better opportunities for internships while you're in the MA program.

There are a lot of pharmaceutical companies in NJ, so you may not have to travel far for internships. Just one thing to consider.

I'm not in lit and have never taught comp but, I have to say that I'm surprised to hear people label a 1:2 or 2:1 teaching load as onerous. If you're teaching the same thing twice, then it's only one course prep. Sure, it's grading 50 papers or whatever at a time but, anyone that's a TA has that. In my program, this is the workload for one course as a TA: attend 2 lectures a week given by the lead prof, teach 4 discussion sections per week, grade weekly discussion section homework, grade weekly quizzes, grade exams (3 per semester, plus a final), grade 2 essays (first one is 4-5 pages, second is 7-8 pages). Number of students per TA? 90-100. So, I'm not really sure that having a 2:1 load is any more than that, especially since it'll only require the same number of hours in the classroom as I already spend. But, more importantly, the decision you really need to make is about whether or not you want to write a master's thesis and how it will look to PhD programs if you don't.

An old thread, like may be of use to you.

I agree. I would ask someone in the department about the feasibility before sending a random email or letter to someone in the graduate college. Also, you should ask about whether the department has bonus scholarships, whether the university has them, or both or neither. While the bonus may not break or make an adjunct line, it may affect other areas of the budget like operational expenses, travel funds for either faculty or grad students, or other intangibles.

Goodness Gracious

Last year, letters went out by mail. I'm not sure if they've fancified to email for this year but someone who actually applied (ie, not me) should call and find out.

My advisor does this all the time and I find it incredibly annoying. But, it's not personal. He does it to all of his students. I wouldn't call it negative in talking to other students, just something to be aware of. Definitely do this!

Probably because the fees are outside of their control and are charged to all graduate students, whether they receive a stipend or a tuition waiver or not.

Avinson2, with written permission from Alabama, you can decline your offer and accept Tennessee's. Actually, since it's before April 15, I'm not even sure you need permission. If you want to go to Tennessee, act now and take advantage of the offer.

I just want to say that I think you'll be amazed by how quickly that "free" time disappears. I'm actually more productive when I have a very busy schedule than I am when I have a lot of free time on my hands. It actually led to me getting an offcampus job during the second year of my MA because I was done with courses and needed something to structure my time. I would definitely check with current students, particularly those who have taken the language that you will be taking at that university. I know I'm always amazed by how much work Intro Spanish is here, particularly compared with Intro Spanish at my undergrad. And then there's the differences in work between Spanish and Arabic, for example. Before deciding to enroll then later drop, you may want to check and see what the deadlines and financial penalties are for withdrawing from a class two weeks in. Here, you would have to pay a fee and the course would appear on your transcript as a withdrawal. Something to keep in mind.

Idiot savant

Yea, I live comfortably on my grad stipend. I do have roommates, which minimizes the bills (I pay under $500 for rent + utilities + internet + cable and have for the four years I've been in grad school in two different cities). I also avoid eating lunch out. At most, I'll eat out for lunch twice a month. Seriously. Eating out for lunch is like $7/day, $35/week, or $140/month. That's the same as my monthly grocery budget! As someone else said, I also don't eat a ton of meat. I eat either scrambled eggs, omelets, cereal (Raisin Bran bought for $2.50/25 oz box at Target), or oatmeal (from rolled oats, with brown sugar and raisins added) every morning for breakfast. If I eat meat, it happens at dinner. Another pro of having roommates is that my current roommates hate eating leftovers, so they often just let them sit in the fridge. So, I'll ask if I can have it and they say sure. Last week they had a Passover Seder with beef brisket, and there were leftovers to feed me lunch and dinner through the weekend. Huge cost-savings for me because I didn't have to cook and got to eat something delicious. Entertainment: I always have a budget when I go out. Fridays, the budget is $20. That covers drinks at happy hour and dinner if we go out to eat afterward. If I go over, it comes from my grocery budget. I have a Netflix subscription, which isn't included in what I consider the minimum monthly bills. Does fostering dogs count as entertainment? I have to keep the foster dog supplied with toys and treats, which I pay for out of pocket. I also buy her food even though I don't have to. Transportation: I have to keep my bike in decent repair since I use it to get to and from campus every day. I ride a late 70s Schwinn, which is a beast of a bike but I love it dearly. If it's not ready to roll, I walk (20 min) to campus. I never pay to park on campus. Campus parking is $9/day here, which adds up quickly if you have to do it frequently. Travel: I also travel a good bit, not just to conferences but also to see my family. My mom does help out with that sometimes, but I apply for grants when it comes to conferences so that I can maximize my travel dollars. I actually got enough grants for a conference in October that I *made* money while there. When it comes to conference travel, always check your friends/facebook/LinkedIn/MySpace to see if you know anyone that lives in the area. If so, ask if you can crash for free or at a low cost. If you travel a lot, you might even want to look into couchsurfing. Or, in plenty of places, it's actually cheaper to rent a place for a week than to get a hotel for 4 nights so keep that in mind when planning your housing. For summer, I teach a class which earns me some income. I also am out of the country doing field research. I set aside some money during the semester to pay for things over the summer, like rent, that my research grants won't cover. FWIW, I have a colleague in my department who lives with his wife in a 2bd/1ba apt in a relatively safe neighborhood that rents for $525. They don't have cable, though they do have internet. They save fully 25% of their biweekly paychecks, and are able to use that to max out their Roth IRAs each year. And no, they aren't suffering by any means.

Why pull an all-nighter when you can stay up until 4am, sleep 3 hours, then have another long and hopefully productive day? When I was in undergrad, I could basically do that for all the weekdays, then sleep 8 hours a night on the weekend with no real problems. And, the day without sleep, I was always really chipper and productive and people never believed that I didn't sleep and wasn't caffeinated to the gills. So far, I've been able to do a two-day stretch like that in grad school, but it always peters out before morning #4. At any rate, I'm posting this at 4:18am (in bed, just finished writing a conference paper), and I'm hoping tomorrow will be a good day since I have a lot of work to get done.

All of this is a reason to start reading the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett immediately. Go and get Colour of Magic!!!