rising_star

Why not just stop serving alcohol at events?

Honestly, I'd get the research grant and start setting your self up for alt-ac research positions at corporations or think tanks or the like.

This is going to vary from one university to the next. Some require you to submit original transcripts from every institution you've attended after high school while others only want transcripts from those you've graduated from. You'll have to contact the Graduate Admissions Office at each school you're applying to for more specific instructions.

I don't think any master's is worth $200K in debt. Or even $100K if that helps to know.

First, can I just say that none of this is your job nor is it your responsibility as a friend to any of the people involved? This is the kind of situation where professionals can and should be involved. In fact, they should've already been involved! 1) Don't involve the DGS or chair. This is way beyond their purview and doing so will have repercussions for people in your department (potentially including you). 2) File a Title IX complaint with the university. You can and should report incidents that you've heard about or witnessed, even if they don't involve you. You can make this report anonymously if you want. The Title IX investigator/coordinator will then reach out to the involved parties and investigate. The Title IX office has the power to get office spaces removed, to issue no contact orders, etc. 2a) If you want to be a good friend to A, I would encourage A to report what has happened to the relevant authorities (Title IX, women's health services in your city, police if desired). Good luck!

Honestly, when I lived about 1.5 miles (really, .75-2.5 miles depending on the year) from grad school, I rarely drove my car. Instead, I commuted to campus by walking or biking (or taking the bus, if that was easier) and only used my car when necessary. I found that a tank of gas would last 4-8 weeks depending on how often I left town. During my MA, I drove more on trips because my family was a few hours away but, during my PhD, I'd fly back and forth to home. If you really aren't sure about how much you'll use the car, I'd hold off on purchasing a new one. FWIW, my car is a 2001 that I purchased in 2006 and I have about 119K miles on it (many of which came from 4 cross-country road trips). This car has lasted me through a MA, PhD, and now the first few years of my post-PhD career. I'm not planning to replace it until I absolutely have to because I'd prefer to save up as much money as I can.

Some of this depends on the field. Having a POI whose interests are related to yours can help you write a stronger thesis, open up additional research opportunities, and give you the chance to TA courses related to your interests.

I would relax. Pestering your advisor isn't going to do anything to change what doctoral courses are offered and when. What I learned in my grad programs (MA & PhD) is that there's a lot up in the air about who will be teaching grad courses and in which semester, in no small part because faculty can buy out their teaching with major research grants, which then requires a lot of reshuffling of the teaching schedule. Are these specific courses that you have to take to graduate or courses that you'd like to take? If it's the former, then they will definitely be offered at some point or you'll be offered substitute courses to take. If it's the latter, consider that you may just need to learn whatever it is on your own, rather than relying on coursework to learn the material.

I'll just stick with bullet points. Make sure you find out if the post-doc has any dietary restrictions before you decide where to go for lunch. Don't get drunk at lunch. Don't order the most expensive thing on the menu just because your PI is paying. Read one (max. two) papers written by the post-doc in advance so you can ask questions. Be prepared to ask insightful questions about the presentation and/or the paper you've read. Don't monopolize the conversation. Don't be the annoying grad student in the bunch.

1) It's not rude for you to ask. In grad school, I only ever got final papers back with comments when I specifically asked for feedback. As fuzzy has said, they all know that some people are only writing the paper because it's required and not because they intend to build on it in their future work. If you are planning to reuse that work, you should let the professor know in advance and request a meeting later to review the paper, get comments and feedback, or talk through your ideas. 2) I'm over here laughing at the idea that grading and commenting on 20 student papers isn't an issue of volume. If you're at a research university, the amount of time faculty are expected to devote to teaching is typically 30-40% of their workweek (so 16 hours a week on the high end). Of those 16 hours, you're spending ~6 in the classroom if you're teaching two classes. That then leaves 10 hours for office hours, grading, class prep, etc. Could you do a good job reading and commenting on 20 grad student papers (which I'm assuming are 10+ pages each but 20-25 pages is more likely) in 5-6 hours? Probably not. And that's why you shouldn't be surprised that they aren't volunteering to give feedback to every single student in the course.

This is something to ask the second and third year students in your department. It also depends on the type of courses. GIS courses and graduate seminars have different types of workloads. In addition, will you be working as a TA or RA? You want to make sure that you leave yourself enough time to get started on your own research (by doing independent reading) because grad school really isn't about the courses you take.

I hate snow too. I currently live in a place with snow because it's where the job I wanted was. I deal with it by living walking distance to work so the weather never really affects my commute. There are ways to deal with almost anything. You just have to decide whether it's worth making those compromises to do so.

Why are your BA loans not deferred? You may be able to ask for a hardship deferment if you have no source of income. If you just need money to survive, retail or fast food work would tide you over if you can find it. You could also try tutoring, babysitting, summer camp work, or nannying, depending on your skills and desire to be around youth. Last, but not least, there's the zero or low interest credit card option. This would be a last resort in my book because it can potentially put you in serious financial trouble. But, I've done it when I knew I'd be able to pay it back once I started earning money again. In my case, I got a credit card that was 0% interest for 12 (or maybe 16?) months, which meant I had about 8 months to pay it off once I started earning money. I also only put the bare minimum on it, to avoid having more to pay off later.

Correct!

Honestly, I haven't had great experiences with either of the big banks. I closed by Wells Fargo account last year because of their requirements regarding number of transactions or minimum average daily balance to avoid paying monthly fees just for having an account. My other issue with Wells Fargo in particular was a $5 fee if you used any ATM besides theirs (which is necessary sometimes when you're traveling, especially when outside the USA!). I use a big bank but not Wells Fargo or BofA. I can also honestly say that, other than closing my WF account last year, I haven't gone to a physical branch for service in about two years. Instead, I use online banking services, have my paychecks direct deposited, and use an app as needed if there are checks I need to deposit (like birthday/holiday gifts). This works for me just fine. Consequently, I use a bank that doesn't have any branches near me but has awesome customer service and consumer-friendly policies. So, if you're willing to do without being able to walk into a branch, I highly recommend Charles Schwab Bank. They don't have a minimum daily balance, they charge no fees when you use another bank's ATMs, they refund the fees those other ATMs charge (once a month they refund them all with no receipts required on your part), online bill pay is free, and you do earn a small amount of interest on your checking account. Oh, and I got 200 boring, plain checks for free when I signed up. The only requirement is that you open a brokerage account with them but you aren't required to actually have or keep money in that account aside from having it in there to open. I think it was $150 minimum to open. If you really need to be able to walk into a branch, you may want to go with a local/regional bank instead, since they're less likely to have fees. I've never lived in the DC/MD/VA area so I don't know any regional banks there but, other grad students hopefully will. Good luck!

Here's the questions I would ask myself. - Would having this research be published make a difference in the scientific community? - Would dropping out of the publication help or hurt any of the other authors? That is, are there other MS/PhD students in the author list who would benefit from this publication? If so, can they still pursue this without you? - Have you talked to your co-authors about potentially changing the order of authorship so that someone else handles these edits and takes over as first author? Personally, I wouldn't drop a manuscript that's almost ready to be submitted, regardless of whether or not I'm changing fields.

I use Word or Kingsoft (a free Office-like program) with the files backed up to SugarSync, which then gives me access to them across multiple computers. It's not seamless with the Chromebook but I also don't do a lot of writing on my Chromebook since the screen is only 11 inches.

How did you research fit into the schools and labs you applied to? How well did you explain this fit in your SOP? That's a huge factor in admissions decisions and one that isn't apparent from your test scores.

If it's a place you actually can't live, then that's one thing. But, because I've lived all over the place, including in places which don't have a Wal-Mart or anything similar, I've realized that the things I absolutely can't live without is a smaller list than I'd thought previously, at least if we're talking short-term (by which I mean 3 years or less). Have you actually met with your potential future supervisor and coworkers? Just because a place has a good rating overall doesn't mean that you would have a good experience working with those particular people. So I've spent time along the Mexican border and can say with confidence that some places are safer and more interesting than others. Same for places "in the middle of the desert". I'm not sure if you're into outdoors stuff at all but there's quite a lot to do in the desert or the middle of nowhere. Also, every city/town has some stuff to do in your free time besides binge on Netflix unless you seriously don't have any hobbies, interests, or desire to socialize with others. I really hate the attitude that living in the middle of nowhere means you have to be bored out of your mind all the time because that's only as true as you want it to be. Personally, I'd probably choose the job that pays more provided it'll give me experience needed to get the next job AND is within 2 hours drive of a major airport. Why? Because you can use the extra money to take weekend trips to all those other places you want to go, visit your friends and family, save for retirement or a major vacation, etc. I've found that living in a place without tons to do makes it easier to save money AND means I can really enjoy myself when I do travel because I don't have to worry about pinching pennies. All of this aside, in the end, a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush. The job offer you have is better than hypothetical job officers which may never come.

@Quantum Buckyball, are these hypothetical options or real options? There's a huge difference between the two. As in, for option 2, there's probably somewhere around there that you could live that would be safer, unless you're saying that this job is outside the Green Zone in Afghanistan or something like that (I say this as someone who has lived in a very dangerous country in the past and would do it again). Do you know much about the actual job you'd be doing and how those compare to both what you want to do and the kinds of things you like doing? What are the coworkers and supervisors like in each job? I ask because even if you love the work, the people around you can make a job absolutely miserable (I've had it happen to me before).

Separate workspace for sure. It makes a huge difference, as others have said, in helping you separate "work" from "fun/sleep/relaxation". Keep the bedroom as free of distractions as possible!

It could come back and bite you if you aren't able to get enough courses/hours in future semesters and end up falling a few credits short of graduation. I'd also enroll in the required courses until you're told otherwise. Just because you can request to swap something doesn't mean that your request will be honored.

@vonham, you could consider volunteering once a week at a local animal shelter to assist with the cats. A key part of what they want is well socialized cats so they often have volunteers take them out to let them run around, interact with someone, etc. That would let you get some of the benefits of having a cat without owning one or having to date someone with a cat. Also, the travel thing is something I was very concerned about as a grad student. But, you find (and pay!) people to watch your pet and it works out just fine. In the first 5 months of this academic year, I took 6 separate trips out of town, the shortest being 2.5 days and the longest 11 days. I traveled less than this during grad school so it was less of a concern. How do I manage? I have a regular dogsitter (the same person who walks my dog during the week) who watches her when I'm out of town. I give them the dates in advance, it goes on both of our calendars, and I leave money for them when I head out of town. My dogsitter actually thinks it's a win-win for them because they get the enjoyment of having a dog while getting paid for playing with the dog. Long-term fieldwork is a whole 'nother ballgame but I know people who have managed it. My coworker was 3000+ miles from home for 5 months for their fieldwork and let their dog behind. So, again, it is possible if you want to make it work. YMMV obviously but I just wanted to put some perspective on the travel part you mentioned

@AKJen, sorry to hear about your mother's illness. I wish you all the best going forward!

Are we talking dog or puppy? If we're talking about a puppy, keep in mind that puppies can only be trusted to hold it for one hour per month of age (so, 2 hours when they're 2 months, 4 hours when they're 4 months, etc.). Even if your partner has a job with regular hours, one of you will need to be coming home throughout the day and waking up during the night, unless you're okay with the puppy having "accidents" all the time.* In addition, puppies have more expenses (so many rounds of shots!) and training a dog is a lot of work, especially if you've never done it before. Ideally, a puppy would go to puppy obedience classes for socialization and to learn basic obedience skills. I highly recommend that anyone considering getting a dog in graduate school try it out by fostering through a local rescue group first. Fostering is less of a long-term commitment (a puppy is a 12+ year commitment so you'd be tenured before the dog passes away from natural causes), lets you experience what it would be like to integrate a dog into your life, lets you try out training, etc. in a much lower-stakes environment. That is, if it's really not working out when you're fostering, you can, with notice, return the dog to the rescue group. Once you've adopted a dog, things are very different. I fostered dogs during the second year of my MA and during the second year of my PhD. Why not the first year? I had WAY too much going on between school, wanting to explore my new area and make friends, and trying to adapt to grad school (or a new grad program in the second case). Could I have managed it with a dog? Maybe but I probably wouldn't have made as many friends because I would've been worried about getting home all the time. I didn't consider actually adopting a dog (despite the years of fostering) until I was ABD and at the writing stage. Why? My schedule was much more flexible, I had a better sense that I would be able to financially care for a dog in the long-term, and (I thought) I had an idea of where I'd be living and working next. I'm now out of grad school and in the academy and can honestly say that having a dog does help with work-life balance but it also necessitates certain sacrifices. My dog is very active (herding breed mix) and thus requires a lot of playing/walking/exercise each day. For the first year I had her (she was 8 months old when I got her), we'd walk a few miles a day plus go to the dog park for 90-120 minutes 5-6 days a week. Now, not every dog is that time-consuming but it's definitely a possibility you should consider. Because of the way my class schedule is now, I have long days 2-3 times a week where I'm gone for 7-8 hours and there's basically no chance for me to come home to let the dog out. Consequently, I have a dogwalker who comes on those days to walk and play with her. Could I do without it? Yes, certainly. But then I'd be committed to spending a few hours walking the dog in the evening when I'm tired and want to relax. Sorry for the long post. This is obviously something I thought about a lot throughout grad school. I wanted a dog from the time I started grad school but waited and then fostered because it made the most sense for me financially and in terms of the time commitment. Fostering also helped me realize that I could and should get a dog of my own but I then waited for the right opportunity. I don't know that the first year of a new program is the right time just because of how many other commitments (academic and social) there are on your time. I'm glad I took the time to socialize with people in my program during year one because I built lasting friendships and collaborations that way, which I'm not sure I could've built if I always had to rush home after seminar to walk a dog. *I put that in quotation marks because it's not an accident if they are physically unable to do what you're asking them to.