rising_star

You may want to take a look at geography programs as well. Anna Secor at the University of Kentucky does research on Turkey, though I don't know the specifics. Sorry I don't have any specific programs to suggest. Good luck in your search!

Then you should apply to the program that will best prepare you for this. I think which program you go to really depends on what interests you want to pursue. And that's great that she's a star. But, as a star, how much time do you think she has to work with MA students? To teach classes they take? You want an advisor that will really mentor and guide you and help you develop as an academic. As great as it is to have a well-known advisor (and I have one now as a PhD student), they are *busy* and thus can't give you the same time and attention as someone else that's a great scholar but has fewer things on their plate.

I think the question is whether you ultimately want a career as a geographer or as a sociologist. Within geography, the Ohio State name and department have a lot of cachet, much more so than Columbia. If that's the career path you want to pursue, going to Ohio State won't hurt you because it's a top 5 program. Columbia, however, is a virtual unknown within geography, even though I think it has a graduate program in the discipline.

Depends on whether you have a car. It'll take you three trains (SEPTA R7 to R1 [i think those are the numbers. One is for Airport, one for Trenton] plus the NJ transit northbound on the NE Corridor line) to get to the New Brunswick station. From Newark, you just go southbound on the NE Corridor line to New Brunswick, which takes less than an hour. Weirdly enough, the SEPTA-NJ Transit combo is probably cheaper than the Newark option, but that's because of the weird access fee they charge on airport train tickets.

I've heard good things about UIC for planning, plus you wouldn't have to go into debt. You'd be able to afford the $150-200 r/t to fly to NYC sometimes to see your SO. Plus, a master's is only two years, after which you could move to NYC. Plus, I think you could get better internships in Chicago.

My mom is like t_ruth, in that she'd had three kids before she went back to school for her PhD. Two of the members of my lab are female PhD students with young children (~2 years and ~1 year), both of whom had those kids while in graduate school. There's another grad student with two kids, both under the age of 6, and she manages. If you want to have kids, it's not like you have to wait until you get tenure. You can have them while in graduate school, while working on the dissertation, or once you get a job. Whether you can stop the tenure clock really depends on when you want to have children. If you feel like you're ready now, then have them now. If you want to wait until you finish coursework, do that.

It will be hard to find funding for either a JD or a MA in any of the fields you listed. Not impossible, but definitely difficult. I agree with teaganc about keeping your debt low.

Honestly, you could ask about the scholarship now and it wouldn't matter. If it's from the university and was solely a tuition scholarship, the tuition portion of the award will probably be replaced by the GSA position, since it offers more. For example, I have a fellowship that pays all but in-state tuition. My TA position gives me a tuition waiver. I don't get the money the university (through the fellowship) would be using to pay for my out-of-state tuition (otherwise I'd make $20K more than I do!).

Seriously. I feel like I hardly ever post here and yet I keep being on or close to those lists. It's kind of embarrassing since I should be doing research or grading papers or something.

I would say that you can probably keep him on a committee, even if you decide not to have him chair that committee. Definitely wait and see. It's okay to listen to other grad students, but you should also listen to yourself. People tried to steer me away from my MA advisor and, at one point I almost quit the program because some advice she gave me backfired, but she really came through for me in the end when it came to my thesis and LORs for PhD applications. I would have a frank conversation with this guy about where you see your research going. Maybe even come prepared with a written outline/memo and citations to show that you know what you're talking about and how you want to approach it. Then, take it from there.

I would check the terms of your fellowship to see if you're even allowed to keep your PT job. If you are, I would. It's good to do something different, especially if it's something you enjoy. As long as you keep it to 15 or so hours per week, it probably won't interfere with your work.

Not in literature but... my MA thesis and PhD research have very little to do with one another, other than that I sort of used the same framework in my MA thesis that I plan to use in my dissertation. It wasn't a problem in terms of admissions, I think in part because though I was still in my MA program, my thesis was completely drafted by the end of January.

Colorado State leaps to mind due to its strength in environmental policy but I know nothing about their IR program. You may also want to look at Columbia.

Craig's List, the local alternative weekly newspaper (how I find the best roommate ever), the school's newspaper, the offcampus housing website if your school has one, a grad student listserve...

Sure, there's a journal called Applied Geography that you may want to check out.

That doesn't make the fear that they picked you by mistake go away.

The most I've taken is 4 classes at a time, plus whatever 1 credit thing we have to do. So I think the max I've been enrolled in is 14 credit hours at a time. It was a pain come finals because I had a lot of long papers to write.

I think it depends on the school. BUT, I've always heard that it's a bad idea to get all your degrees at the same school plus doing so can make it even harder to get hired there in the future. Personally, I chose not to go to the 2 PhD programs at schools where I would like to work one day. Hopefully this will pay off in 5 years...

Then you should read cultural ecology and political ecology. A good place to start is Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction by Paul Robbins. You might also try googling for syllabi (undergraduate and graduate) to see what they have on the reading list.

It would help if you narrowed it down a bit more. Is there a specific area of human geography you want to read more about? I'm posting a general list off the top of my head... Capital by Marx; Limits to Capital by Harvey Uneven Development by Smith The Right to the City by Don Mitchell The Colonial Present by Derek Gregory Lawn People by Paul Robbins Anything by Mark Monmonier (he's a cartographer but it's important to understand maps regardless of what your specific work in geography is) Justice, Nature, and the Geography of Difference by Harvey Anything by Ellen Churchill Semple or Carl Sauer (because it's a classic) Theory of Development by Richard Peet with Elaine Hartwick Production of Space by Henri Lefebvre Power/Knowledge or Discipline and Punish by Foucault Gramsci Political Economy of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries by Blaikie (foundational text in political ecology) Resurrecting the Granary of Rome by Diana Davis City of Quartz, Ecology of Fear, or Planet of Slums by Mike Davis On the Plaza by Setha Low Growing up Global by Cindi Katz For Space by Doreen Massey Orientalism by Said Work on food by Julie Guthman or E. Melanie DuPuy Uncommon Ground by William Cronon The list would probably be better if I were looking at my bookshelf. Alas. There are a lot of classics in geography but this could definitely be narrowed if you posted more about what you're looking for.

I had no summer self-discipline. I think I read 4 books that people had bought for me off my Amazon wishlist that I'd wanted to read for months. I wish I'd read 6 now. These were books by my favorite authors and had nothing to do with grad school.

I would contact the graduate school's Office of Admissions and let them know.

Congrats! Just remember that you should go to at least 1 football game and 1 basketball game during your time there. The women's gymnastics team is really good too. ORANGE AND BLUE! ORANGE AND BLUE! ORANGE AND BLUE! Hey! Go Gators! (can you tell I grew up a gator fan?)

I don't know much about IR but what you're describing to me sounds like a dissertation you might find written by someone in a geography department..

I totally agree with Stories. Getting recommendation letters would definitely be tricky if you aren't planning on telling anyone that you are leaving. The other issue is the academic faux pas factor as Jackrabite has said. The only situation that I can think of like this where it would be ok is the following: You apply to master's program. School admits you to PhD program with funding because their standard policy is not to fund master's students. When I asked them, they said that it would be ok for me to leave with a master's because that's what I had applied for and wanted to pursue. They explained that the PhD admission was for funding and that they did it because they wanted to fund me. See the difference between that situation and what you're describing, case?