rising_star

You definitely don't have to work during the summer if you set some money aside during the 9 months you are getting paid.

You can always politely ask if you can get more money...

Funding is usually decided later than acceptances. Don't panic!

The ability to do this is very much discipline-dependent.

Use a credit card to pay for the visit. All of my visits were reimbursed by the schools. No one ever gave me the money upfront.

Yes

Brandeis announced plans to sell part of the art collection it currently houses in its Rose Museum.

This is a *huge* what if question. The answer is nearly impossible since presumably it's something you and your partner would want to discuss. Not to mention that there will be a lot of variation depending on career goals...

Is that fellowship from the NSF K-12 thing? If so, I'd look into how many years you can receive the fellowship b/c usually there's a cap (and/or the fellowship period ends). Then, ask if you'll be done by grad school by then and, if not, look into what the department usually pays it's students. Alternately, go where you can have the best advisor and/or work in the best labs or on the projects most interesting to you. Fit, which you won't know until you visit, has a lot to do with it. If you don't like the labmates in one lab or the other, that'll kinda make up your mind, right? FWIW, you can live pretty damn well in Tallahassee on $15K (which is what you're looking at after taxes and fees). And remember, no state/local income tax in Florida.

For all of my visits, I arrived on Thursday (midday) and left sometime on Saturday, usually early afternoon.

AFAIK, married students max out at the same amount of federal loans as non-married students. If your partner is working, it's actually to your benefit that you aren't counted as married (because then that income would be part of your household income, which would decrease the amount of federal aid you're eligible for). If they aren't working, then it's the same as being single, no? So what's the issue?

Always ask if they'll help pay for a visit. You never know, they might offer you $200 or more.

At every school I looked at for a PhD (7 total), there were/are student fees that are not covered by the tuition waiver. The cost per semester ranged from $75-$560. Also, not all schools cover health insurance though some mandate it so make sure to consider that when figuring out your pay. Like engguy, I learned the hard way to ask after my master's where I paid the school over $1K year for health insurance plus another $1K+ for student fees. If you're looking at state universities in places with budget cuts, I wouldn't be surprised if student fees went up...

I seriously need to post less. *sigh* And I'd thought I was posting less...

My field is broad and so departments that are great in one specialty can be awful another. And I've found that every one has different opinions of different programs. Like a few people were surprised that I picked the dept I'm in now *until* I told them who I'd be working with. So that's more about the advisor than it is about the department. *shrug* Take that for what it is. Personally, and yes I plan on working in academia, I didn't give a flying flip about rankings. What I did care about is finding an advisor that works with students on publications (including helping the students get single-authored pubs out), is available as a mentor, willing to work with drafts and make things better, and whose students are successful at getting dissertation funding. Oh, and I picked someone I liked and got along well with. A bigger factor for me was the grad students, dept culture, and location. There's no sense in going to a top-rated department if the people make you miserable, the location makes you miserable, or the dept atmosphere is toxic.

I think you're reading way too much into what Option B has said about funding. Lots of universities don't know about funding for next year yet because they're still finalizing budgets (due to loss of state income, fewer donations, lower endowments, etc). If you asked my program, they'd say "We don't know" which is just code for "We haven't a fucking clue what our departmental budget will be for the upcoming fiscal year so we can't say that we have funding for anyone or anything". So, don't interpret a "We don't know yet" as anything more than that (unless you're just looking for reasons not to like Option . FWIW, (and I didn't read all the other comments), I'd give Option B a fair chance. Visit with an open mind, rather than having already pretty much decided when you visit.

I pay no attention to rankings because they are hopelessly outdated in my discipline.

If by U of A, you meant Arizona, it was one of the last schools to notify last year.

Just want to chime in and say that sometimes you can have a fellowship and a TAship at the same time but it's only when the fellowship doesn't pay much. t_ruth, at UGA, if they offer you a fellowship, you can't also have a TA/RA position. Why? Because with a fellowship you already make $200-500 more than the other students in your department (depending on the department) so it really wouldn't be fair to TA/RA on top of that. Not to mention that the point of having a fellowship is so you have additional time to work on your research, coursework, publications, etc.

Adjuncts don't have benefits. They don't have contracts specifying a teaching load. And, oh yea, they cost less per course.

I wore jeans every day of every visit to other schools. I tried to pick the nicer shirts/sweaters out of my wardrobe and a decent coat and that's about it. Once you're already in, you might as well just show them what you will look like if you attend.

gracieh, just because your school doesn't take taxes out of the fellowship doesn't mean you don't owe them. Trust me. From the IRS (http://www.irs.gov/publications/p970/ch01.html): "A scholarship or fellowship is tax free only if: * You are a candidate for a degree at an eligible educational institution, and * You use the scholarship or fellowship to pay qualified education expenses. ... Qualified education expenses. For purposes of tax-free scholarships and fellowships, these are expenses for: * Tuition and fees required to enroll at or attend an eligible educational institution, and * Course-related expenses, such as fees, books, supplies, and equipment that are required for the courses at the eligible educational institution. These items must be required of all students in your course of instruction. However, in order for these to be qualified education expenses, the terms of the scholarship or fellowship cannot require that it be used for other purposes, such as room and board, or specify that it cannot be used for tuition or course-related expenses."

Also likely gives them an out in case of a severe budget crunch.

Doesn't matter how they're paid out (other than for personal budgeting purposes). They are taxable income unless used to pay tuition. Stipends usually have the taxes taken out by the university. Fellowships may or may not. You'll owe city, state, and federal tax as applicable. No, they don't pitch in with moving expenses. That only happens when you get a "real" job.

t_ruth, people do move with their advisor. My advisor has only been at this job for 3 years and he brought some of his grad students with him. The ones that were further along stayed put and defended at the previous institution. He was sort of considering taking a different job this year and he told me repeatedly that I could go with him if I wanted but could stay too. So, I think it sort of depends. And another, related story, at my old institution, a new prof started the same year I started my MA and he brought one grad student with him. His other students were at the fieldwork/dissertation stage so they stayed and he traveled back there for their defenses and that sort of thing. As far as new professors, it depends. My MA thesis advisor was an untenured (though TT) assistant prof when I started. She got tenure my first year (I think). I never considered it an issue because she didn't think of it as one. She was the best person in the dept to advise me on the work I wanted to do. But, given the bleak academic job market, I wouldn't be worried too much about young profs (or even more senior ones) moving.