rising_star

If it's your only offer right now, then accept it. You never know what else may or may not come. And, if you do get something else, you can always back out of this offer, provided you do so professionally.

What are you hoping the writing tutor will do, more specifically? Does your university have a writing center you could use?

Agreed with @OhSoSolipsistic. I always waited for an invitation to call people by their first name. See also:

@Asperfemme, a couple of ideas come to mind (though these might not work depending on where you are). For buying produce for less, I'd recommend joining/shopping at a warehouse club (Costco, Sam's, BJ's, etc.; I shop regularly at Costco) or a discount grocery store (Aldi, Grocery Outlet, etc.). My experience has been that something like a pound of organic spring mix which at my grocery store is $6 is $3.50-$4 at Costco, Sam's, and Aldi. The selection won't be the same but being able to save where you can never hurts. I'd also recommend checking the grocery store circulars each week to see what's on sale ("the loss leaders") so that you can shop those and stock up where possible.

If you really want to know more about teaching a student with autism in general, there are tons of resources online, often on the website of various university disability offices. That said, if the student hasn't requested accommodations, then I'd be concerned that offering them overtly will make the student feel more out of place and/or less like everyone, which is never a good thing when you're teaching. Do your best to treat them like all other students until told otherwise.

So in my experience this part is really institutionally specific. That is, there's no expectation that you'll be producing the amount of research that you would if you were at a R1. And, it's on you/your institution to tell your external letter writers about the type of institution you work at, the typical teaching load, the expectations about the involvement of undergrads in research, etc. Without that, then yes, you may find yourself being criticized in those external letters for not doing enough. But, I know from talking to my PhD advisor that he takes the person's institution as well as their teaching and service load into consideration when writing his letters as an external evaluator. YMMV obviously but it's definitely something to be talking to institutional mentors about how to handle once you're in the job.

It's great news, as are some of the other rule changes. Just want to remind everyone that the new rules go into effect into 2018 so don't expect your local IRB to make changes before/until then.

This isn't only in your field. This is the norm for people across the social and natural sciences who want to move up in rank. To show the R1s that you belong, you have to show them that you are already producing the R1 amount of research with less support and more teaching, ergo you'll be an even more productive researcher once you get a reduction in teaching load. And, even then depending on the field, it may not be possible. I have multiple friends with history PhDs and books published (as in, book went into production during their third or fourth year on the TT) and they cannot move up from directional state or R2 schools because 1) there aren't a lot of options and 2) there are sooo many people trying to make the same move with an equivalent or better publication and research background. It's one of the problems created by the replacement of TT jobs with adjunct positions across the academy.

It's definitely feasible, depending on how you do in the physics and calculus courses that you need to have under your belt. I'd also recommend taking an intro to geology if you haven't already... Your GPA may be an issue for some programs, but having strong grades in the pre-reqs for atmospheric science (and maybe taking some undergrad atmospheric science courses to shore up your background knowledge) will be a strong indication to the admissions committee that this is a field you belong in.

How was this? I've been meaning to read it...

Can you qualify what you mean when you say "lower your standards by a bit"? What does that mean exactly? I ask because this means different things to different people but also because, for some people, even doing that may not be enough to actually find a tenure-track job...

@M.omar, if you check the "City Guide" section, you'll find threads on both Gainesville, FL (where UFlorida is) and Irvine, CA.

It's definitely a risk that people should think about. It's not just the 5-7 years of research, study, and learning, but also the opportunity cost of those 5-7 years. By which I mean the lost earnings and missing retirement savings of being in grad school, which isn't something you can easily make up whether you end up as a professor or in the private sector. The starting salary as an assistant professor in the social sciences and humanities isn't that dissimilar than the starting salary in lots of fields where you could get a degree right out of college. If you compare to something like management consulting or investment banking, then yea, it's basically the same starting salary with zero chance of a bonus plus knowing that you could've gotten that job 5-7 years before and been saving money for a house, retirement, vacations, future children, etc. And I'm not trying to say it isn't worth the risk but I am saying that there's a lot which merits consideration.

I've been meaning to reply to this post for about a week. So, here goes in a nutshell. (TLDR version is to relax, don't panic, you're right where you should be.) I would NOT worry too much about not knowing what your specialization is going to be just yet. You're a first semester MA student! You'll figure it out more as you take more classes, begin doing more research on your own, and work on your MA thesis. My own story is that I actually studied two pretty different things (think apples and orangutans) for my MA and PhD and it was fine. The background theory I learned during my MA served me well when I did my PhD even though the topics (and really, the subfield) were different. As for whether or not something matters, some of that might be up to you. There are people in my discipline who don't think that my topic "orangutans" really matters but, I see it as part of my job as a researcher to show them how and why it matters through the research I do. Some of that comes from the specific things I highlight in my research and some of it comes from placing my research in the appropriate broader context. Learning the big(ger) picture now as a MA student will help you do that in the future, regardless of the topic you choose. And, can I just be honest for a minute? If all of the "hot topic" convos in your discipline aren't ones you're super interested in, don't force yourself to do a project involving them. A PhD is enough of a slog that you shouldn't also do it on a topic you aren't passionate about. If you're passionate about multiple things, then you have options. You can try to do several and link them with some sort of connecting thread (theoretical, topical, temporal, etc.). Alternately, you can make one the focus of your thesis/dissertation and leave the other ideas for class/conference papers (or, as you advance in your thinking in these areas, for collaboration with other grad students or faculty with similar interests). That said, it does make sense to stay abreast of the current trends/discussions in the field (which you can do by skimming ToC and abstracts of journals) so that you can find ways to connect what you are doing to these bigger and broader discussions. Finally, don't compare yourself to the PhD students. Assuming they've done a master's, they've got at least a couple of years of graduate training on you! You're not in the same place in terms of your intellectual development in the discipline so you shouldn't be expected or expect yourself to be doing whatever groundbreaking thing they're doing. And, newsflash: most of them have had the same concerns and struggles, likely when they were where you are right now. Comparing yourself to others is really a path to frustration in grad school so I strongly advise you against it. If you insist upon it, I'd say that you should have one-on-one conversations with some grad students to see how they developed their topics/interests, what led them to where they are, etc. You may be surprised by the answers. Good luck! Keep us posted on how things are going.

Go to higheredjobs.com and click on the "Administrative" category under Jobs. That'll give you a very broad sense of what positions in academic administration are like. I don't know that I'd describe the salaries as high though... (A lot of the jobs on Higher Ed Jobs have the salary range listed so you can get a very clear sense of this.)

This forum is for those applying to graduate, not undergraduate programs. Consequently, it's not a good place to get an answer to your question. You can always contact the admissions office to ask them what the deadline for replying to an offer is.

I think your best bet would be to call programs and ask. That way you aren't attaching your name to the inquiry but can also get the information you need. I have no idea if schools would rescind your admission over that but, it seems odd to me that anyone would. (The only somewhat similar example I have is that I changed the graduation date for my MA from May to August, in order to be able to TA in the summer and earn some income. No one cared when I got to my PhD program because all they needed was a final transcript showing that I'd graduated. YMMV obviously.)

How is it a misrepresentation if it was accurate at the time you applied? At the time, you were intending to graduate with an Honors Math degree, right? So there's nothing false about your application if you submitted it December 1 or even Jan 1 with that information.

If you need to drop out of Honors, do that. That doesn't make you weak. It means that you're knowing and putting yourself first, which is important and an invaluable life skill. But, I'm confused about why you'd go back and update all of your applications...

Are you guaranteed to get into a REU? Will there be other paid summer students on campus who you could live or socialize with? The real advantage, imo, to doing something like a REU is the extras outside the research--the field trips, professional development, grad school application advice sessions, etc. But, if you need to decide now, go with the old adage "a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush".

Depending on how your school deals with retaken courses, you may be worse off by retaking it. I say that because at some schools, when you retake a course, it shows that you've retaken it and doesn't show what you previously earned in that course. Consequently, someone looking at your transcript wouldn't know that you got an A- the first time and might (quite logically) conclude that you performed quite poorly (C or lower) the first time, which is why you decided to retake it. And I say they might logically reach that conclusion because typically students don't retake a course unless they earn a C or lower (in fact, some schools prohibit retakes from students who aren't in this position). The A- is the least of your worries. The fact that you're worried about it suggests to me that you may have some underlying doubt/concerns or imposter syndrome. All of those are things you should aim to tackle before applying as grad school will only exacerbate them.

This is going to be a quick reply (sorry!) but I can elaborate more if you'd like. Reading: 1) It's not necessarily about skimming but about reading effectively. There's a chapter in Hacking the Academy about how to read an academic book in an hour. The chapter itself is two pages long so, even if you don't like their method, you won't lose much time reading about it. Another option would be to check out this PDF by Paul Edwards at the University of Michigan. I'm actually assigning it to my students this semester so they can learn more about how to effectively read a book (most of my undergrads have never had to read a book cover to cover before). 2) For a lot of books, you probably really only need to read the intro, conclusion, and then the intro and conclusion to each specific chapter IF there are parts particularly relevant to your research/interests. Only read the entire book if you really have to. 3) There's lots of info out there about how to increase your reading speed (e.g., by not reading each word aloud in your head). YMMV but you may want to look into some of these techniques. Dissertation: 1) The best way to get a sense of what a dissertation should look like is to read some. I recommend reading (okay, well skimming) at least five. You want to read 1-2 written by students of your PhD advisor (regardless of their topic) and another 1-2 recently completed ones from your dept (again, topic is unimportant). This is to get a sense of what your advisor and department are expecting in terms of length and depth. It'll also give you a sense of how people in your program structure their dissertations. Then, read another 2-3 written on your topic in the last five years. There's two reasons for this. First, a lot of the most recent scholarship can be found in dissertations that haven't yet been turned into books or articles, so you may get a better sense of what is cutting-edge or unknown in your area (and, as a bonus, avoid rehashing something someone else just did in their dissertation*). Second, it'll give you a sense of whether the way people are writing dissertations in your department is what's common for your topic/area. Plus, you know, you'll have a great bibliography to mine. *The logic here is that you'll end up competing with that person for jobs and to get your book published and they've already got a head start on you. 2) There are a bunch of books on writing your dissertation in 15 minutes a day and that sort of thing. I never read any of them. Instead, I gave myself specific word count targets for each day and made sure that I met them. 3) It's difficult for any of us to tell you how to approach the actual writing because we don't know your typical writing process. Did you write a MA thesis? If so, use the same techniques if those worked for you. Personally, I made a detailed outline of the entire project (really, the Table of Contents), then decided about how long each part needed to be, then decided what to work on. I ended up not writing my chapters in order (that's never been my style so I wrote Ch. 3-5, then ch. 2, then the conclusion, then ch 1) because it made the most sense to me when I was writing it. I think I also ended up shuffling the order of the chapters around at some point. 4) If you want to finish in a year, set up a timeline and work backwards to ensure that you give yourself sufficient time to complete everything. That is, if you have to defend by X date to file, then you want to make sure your final draft is to your committee about a month before that. From there you can figure out what targets you need to hit and by when. 5) Whether or not you can keep working while various committee members are reviewing chapters is entirely dependent on your committee. No one on either my MA or PhD committees wanted to read anything until I had a full rough draft. That meant that I didn't have to wait for feedback all the time but it also made it nervewracking because there were fewer checks to make sure I was on the right track. So, after your orals, I'd ask your entire committee how they want to proceed in terms of chapters and drafts, as well as what you can expect in terms of turnaround. You'll also want to ask how frequently they want progress reports/updates, if they want the entire committee to reconvene every few months, etc. All of these things vary widely based on who is on one's committee. Good luck! You can do this!

I'll just say this. I have a number of rec letters due in the next week that I haven't started... much less finished and sent in. They'll get done though. Probably tomorrow because, really, profs do end up working at random times.

Why should you do it? Because it's proper etiquette. That's really it. No one's saying you have to effusively praise your advisor or talk about your awesome late night chats in the coffee shop, but you should acknowledge and thank him. Because, let's be honest, if you advisor doesn't sign off, you don't have a completed thesis and a degree, right? So follow proper etiquette.

I would definitely not skip the social. It's your chance to get to know the grad students informally and you may even have conversations which are helpful for your interview and for ultimately deciding if you want to go there. Also, it looks kinda bad not to go to events that all of the other applicants will be at...