rising_star

I heard from some schools with Jan 1 deadlines in late Jan and early Feb when I applied in fall 05.

It really depends with the Fulbright. Some people do them before, others use a Fulbright-Hays to do dissertation research abroad... Then the question becomes whether or not you want to delay grad school to do the Fulbright or decline it. Anyways, welcome to thegradcafe forums! I don't know diddly squat about criminology other than that it sounds interesting and like something I wish I'd taken an undergrad course or two in.

Phedre, I don't really like where I'm living right now for my PhD and I don't have a sense of camaraderie like I did in my MA program. I even left behind my boyfriend to move, which certainly doesn't endear me to the new city and program. That said, I am there to work with an amazing advisor, who decided to work with me when people are clamoring to work with him. So, I throw myself into my research. I save money so I can take trips to visit my friends that all live 2000 miles from me. Personally, I've made the decision that I'll only leave if I can't get funding (university budget situation where no one knows what will happen). If I don't have funding, I have three programs in mind for a transfer (which would happen really late in the game). I would say try to give it another semester just to see if you like it more. Try and get out and explore things. Do your best to meet people, within your program and beyond it. You have to try before throwing in the towel, especially if it's the right academic fit for you.

Honestly, several other states and/or public universities already have hiring freezes. I know they're in place in Florida and Arizona already and have been for a while. The hiring freezes aren't what stops grad students from getting admitted with funding though, or at least they haven't in the past. The new issue is the budget shortfalls, which the hiring freezes are designed to help.

To what garbage are you referring? All I did was ask a question, primarily to see if the OP's interests might be met in a program not labeled "African-American Studies", particularly given the difficulty ze seems to be having in finding master's programs. As someone in an interdisciplinary degree program, I know what you're talking about. If people are employed in other departments that have an AAS background, why wouldn't I or anyone else encourage the OP to look at those departments/programs?

This varies by program. At my school, if you apply to and enroll in the PhD program, you're a PhD student or doctoral student. Once you pass qualifying exams, you become a PhD candidate. So you can be a PhD student without taking quals.

Please don't post in more than one section of the board. Thanks!

Personally, I wouldn't make a decision about a scholarship without knowing all of my admissions options. When is the deadline to reply to the scholarships?

Honestly, I didn't save up much money for moving. I used graduation money to move from NJ to GA when I started my master's. I was lucky in that I was given a headboard and dresser by my family. All told, I probably spent around $800 on the move. Why? I was moving out of a dorm room so I had no furniture. I moved all my clothes in suitcases, with the help of my family that came to graduation. I bought a discount mattress, which I sold two years later for more than I paid for it, a desk, and a desk chair. I moved in with someone that already had furniture, dishes, etc. My cross-country move was more expensive. I drove with only what fit in my car, other than shipping 7 boxes of books and my mom flying out with a suitcase. I bought a mattress, dresser, and shelves for my room, along with a bookshelf. The drive cost me maybe $400 on gas and food on the road and $100 on hotels. The furniture I got cost me maybe $1K (mattress, dresser, shelves, nightstand, bookcase, and some small stuff), and again, I moved in with people that already had a house setup so I really only bought things for my bedroom. I hope that helps give you an idea of what things cost me. Obviously, a cross-country move would be a lot less gas this year, since it's less than half what I paid in August. Honestly, credit cards are your friend. You apply for FAFSA so you're eligible for student loans, use the credit cards to pay for the move, then pay off the balance as soon as you get your student loans in August/September (preferably with subsidized loans).

I started my applications in October, both cycles. Worked out just fine for me. I would caution against having everything finalized too soon simply because faculty move from one institution to another, faculty decide not to take students, grants don't get renewed so there's no funding, etc.

Eh, it all depends on how far you're planning on moving.

Lots of fields don't require writing samples. In doing 13 applications (6 for MA, 7 for PhD in two separate cycles), I think I only had to submit writing samples to 3 programs.

I did the same thing. For the record, a few small typos won't keep you out. Everyone makes mistakes. And nearly every prof you meet can tell you about the typos in their dissertation, which was read by their entire committee and often their peers. My mom jokes that the first typo of her dissertation is on the third page, which is why she's never re-read it.

To those wondering about schools forbidding applicants from calling: My former graduate school did not have a listed phone number. As in, the Graduate Admissions office, for registration questions, etc. The actual Graduate School did NOT give out their phone number. It wasn't on their website and even our department's grad program secretary did not have it. When they moved to a new building, they waited 6 months before sending department heads an email telling them that the old phone number belonged to the math department and to stop using it. Seriously. You want to know why they did this? Because of applicants calling all the time, which inhibited their ability to get their work done. For the record, I'm not talking about my department. I'm talking about the University's Graduate School and its Office of Admissions.

Yea, I did and do. I was totally upfront with grad students and faculty that asked on post-acceptance visits. Totally upfront with my own program (to which I'd applied to stay) about the fact that I was very seriously considering going elsewhere (and duh, they knew because one of my LOR writers was on our department's adcom last year). Then again, I'm in a relatively small discipline (national membership 10K) and my subfield is specific-ish. It was pretty obvious to people where I was going to apply, just in making inquiries to potential adivsors. Granted, there were a few programs I didn't apply to that were on everyone's list (like Wisconsin but I hate snow) and one that no one expected (apparently it's MUCH lower in ranking than the other schools). So yea, the secretive business? Wouldn't have worked even if I tried. And, honestly, it didn't affect my admissions or funding at any of those programs.

I think this was addressed recently on applyingtograd. Honestly, if your research interests are fairly specific, it'll be pretty obvious what other programs you might apply to when your prospective advisor reads your application. In all of my correspondence with them before applying, they were suggesting other programs that might suit my interests, telling me about their colleagues (on campus and otherwise) whose work I should look into, etc. So I think that even as much as we like to pretend like schools don't know where else we're applying, they can make educated guesses. I listed my other schools when I applied for MA programs and again when I applied for PhD programs. I doubt it hurt my applications or funding since I had great success both times. If you don't tell them, they may find out if a letter writer doesn't change the university name in the letter, if you accidentally have the wrong name in your SOP, from your GRE scores (though this is a rumor I read over on applyingtograd. My point is that it's not a secretive process, even if you want it to be. And really, if you're planning to bargain for funding, they're going to find out where else you applied. When you get to your program (either on visits post-admission/pre-decision or after enrollment), people are going to ask where else you applied and why you picked where you did.

The posters who have told you not to apply are being too harsh. If you've gotten good feedback from the program directors, go ahead and put in an application to those programs.

This forum is for graduate school applicants, not undergraduate applicants. If I've made a mistake, please click on "PM" and send me a message.

drpsych, I really am trying to caution against assuming that what the undergraduate program is like has anything to do with the quality and training offered by the graduate program. Sure, it has something to do with teaching. But think about it this way: what's the likelihood you're going to end up teaching at a university that isn't known for its partying, has brilliant undergraduates, and fills your classes with students that are dedicated and passionate about learning? Slim to none, right? So why not go ahead and get experience teaching students similar to what you'll be teaching in your academic career (assuming you pursue one)?

Rankings for undergrad have very little, if anything, to do with rankings for grad programs. Both of my graduate programs are at universities known more for partying than academics. That said, the graduate programs are highly regarded by those within my academic discipline, which is what matters most.

cordelia, I'm not so sure it's elitism. Some of it is pragmatism. Graduate programs have been churning out students because they want the relatively cheap labor of having graduate students teach introductory courses, rather than having to pay adjuncts or hire full-time faculty. The consequence is the surplus of PhD graduates and, likely, several that should not have earned a degree at all. Basically, what I'm saying is that the mismatch between jobs and graduates comes because of the system. The system where graduate students are cheap labor, preferred by universities that don't want to spend money on things like classroom teaching but don't object to new, flashy buildings on campus. The only way for the system to change, imo, is for there to be fewer funded slots so that only the most qualified and/or most determined students pursue the degree.

Perhaps the issue is that you think you need to do all of those things. I changed my methodology and area of focus dramatically from MA to PhD and applied to MA programs with a BA in a separate and totally unrelated discipline. Any kind of blip in your application (anything negative) shouldn't be in your SOP to begin with. And the rest is really about deciding exactly what you need to convey. They don't need your whole life story or even your academic history. Of course it will be "more limited and less informative", they already know that when they ask for 500 words instead of 1000. I don't understand why people fight so much against the idea that if a school asks for 500 words, they may not want something more than double that.

At my undergrad and MA schools, graduate students teach all the introductory courses in common languages (French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese) so I'd say your experience is NOT common.

You know, I thought a 500 word statement was unreasonable until I actually did it. Ended up with 499 words and it basically says the same thing as all of my longer statements do it. Part of being an academic is being able to be concise. Submitting more than twice the limit shows: a) you can't follow directions, you're unable to be brief/concise, and c) you think guidelines don't apply to you. The question is whether it's worth conveying that to people who only know you based on a folder of paper. I always went with an adamant no.

Will you have at least 18 graduate hours in history?