rising_star

I strongly disagree with this statement. The criteria aren't the same because the norms aren't the same across fields. In some fields, unfunded programs are the norm (think med school, law school, and other professional programs). In others, an unfunded program offer is a borderline rejection. Similarly, the amount of debt one could or should take on varies across fields because of vastly different employment prospects and future salary ranges.

@compscian, I wasn't trying to say that the advice above is blanket advice. It was and is actually tailored to the OP of this particular post because considered their field before posting. My understanding of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) is that the main priorities are going to a program where you can get licensed/certified afterward, which means being able to complete the right coursework plus a clinical experience. In that sense, prestige may be less important. From what I've learned here, SLP programs typically do not have TA positions because of the need for internships, not all of which are paid (though it seems like some programs can sometimes arrange paid field placements for their students). In addition, I thought about the discussions on here about the wages SLPs earn after graduation. It's nowhere near what people in CS earn, which could make paying off debt more difficult or burdensome. Median pay for a speech-language pathologist is $58K according to a quick Google search. Taking on two years of student loan debt to attend a program would likely involve taking out at least that much in loans. compscian, YMMV obviously but I think that CS and SLP are pretty different fields.

You should see if there are non TA positions that are graduate assistantships. Often these are in areas like student affairs but, they would provide you with a stipend.

Glad it worked out for you!

Whether or not you can finish in two years is going to depend on how disciplined you are and what kind of dissertation you're writing. If you're working with an existing data set, then it may be easier. If you know you'll be able to dedicate 1-2 hours each night plus a day on the weekend to the dissertation (so a total of ~20 hours/week), then your timeline might be doable.

full ride + stipend. Unless you like being in debt.

I actually taught an article last semester that took a multi-methods approach and used Wikileaks stuff for the document analysis portion.

The one where you think you'll fit in better with the advisor and research group.

All of this assumes FSU = Florida State. #1-3 are going to be about the same. New Orleans might have more safety issues but this would be highly neighborhood-dependent. The cost of living and weather will be pretty similar. #4 is going to depend on what specifically you're interested in.

Given the ridiculous timeline (imo) timeline for school B, it seems like you have three options: 1) Accept School A and go there regardless of what you hear from School B. 2) Accept School A and then retract your acceptance if you get into School B. 3) Decline the offer at School A while you wait to hear from School B. Personally, I'd go with the first option. If School B is going to potentially wait until September, it sounds like it's an unfunded PhD offer.

If they aren't funding you, then they aren't that invested in you. Just something to consider.

Honestly, this is probably NOT a good idea. If they didn't want you to have a deferral, they wouldn't have granted you one. Don't try to figure out how they feel about it. The priority is you and your family. Doing even one semester as a single parent in a new city and without the benefit of starting with your cohort will be incredibly hard and potentially not worth it financially or academically. I strongly urge you to take the full year deferral since they've already said you could.

They both sound low for a PhD student but I have no idea what the cost of living is in Hattiesburg. Are there opportunities to do research or teaching in the summer to earn additional money? Because $11,500 over 9 months is going to be under $1K/month after taxes.

The MA is more about what you do during the program than it is about where you go. If you go to Georgetown but don't become a better writer, write a good thesis, or take advantage of opportunities to share your work at conferences, then you're no better off than you would've been if you hadn't gone at all.

Except that by making that statement you did invalidate the experiences of my friends and my family. If you weren't trying to, then you wouldn't have made an entire post just to refute the points I made. It's entirely possible the educational system in Texas where you've lived and worked is better financed than those in other places. In states like PA and IL where the state has taken months to pass a budget, public school teachers are in a precarious situation. The same is true of states where education budgets have been slashed. Unfortunately for my friends and family, they work in those kinds of states. And, to be fair, this has been the case for a while. See here, here, here, and here for some examples of teachers being laid off and told to apply for other jobs in the district. I'll also quote from a relevant public media blog post: "It’s tough running a school system. It’s tough being a teacher, even if you’re not getting jumped while trying to break up fights. Around this time every year, you have to wonder whether you’ll have a job in the fall. And, presumably, you have to ask yourself whether it’s worth it to try to hang in for three years when the protections of tenure kick in." You're actually quite unwilling to see the points others have made in this thread, which is fine. I just thought that a dose of realism about what public school teaching is like would be helpful for others. For me, teaching K-12 isn't an option because it isn't what I want to do. I would rather find another line of work altogether, mostly because parents really annoy me.

Hmmm... the downside to UCSB is I don't see how anyone could live in Santa Barbara on $12K/year before taxes.

Think about where you'll get the best opportunities and have the best chance to grow as a researcher. If you're worried about money, will you be able to grow as a scholar?

Which program has a better ranking? Which one has scholars who you are more excited to work with? Where will you have better opportunities to pursue the research which interests you?

Yea, it's definitely gotten me interested in doing some MOOCs or taking some undergrad courses to gain more experience. I'm more likely to take actual courses because I've never been successful doing courses online.

This depends on what field you'd be teaching and where you'd be working. I have many friends who teach high school. Some of them have to deal with getting pink slips at the end of each year because the district isn't sure they can afford to keep them. They then spend their summer scrambling to find another job or hoping the district will ultimately find the funds to rehire them. In some cases, this means being shuffled to a new school in the district every couple of years or having to move out of town/state altogether. I wouldn't say that's a great situation to be in, especially if you have a family or dependents. And then there's all the standardized testing-based pressure, the increasing amounts of paperwork, etc. My aunt has been complaining a lot about the latter lately because the extra paperwork is adding a couple of hours to her workday and she can't see the benefits to her students. I trust her on this because she's been teaching HS full-time for over 40 years.

You do realize that people do research as part of a master's right? What I was really asking was why you wanted to pursue a PhD when you don't have a clear background in the field and, as you already know, will need to complete additional undergraduate coursework to be competitive? I'm just wondering if there might be another way to get where you want to be without spending another 5-7 years in school. It's worth thinking about and possibly doing informational interviews to help you figure out.

This is an old post but it is the first thing that came to mind when I saw your post. I'm pretty sure there are related ones floating around somewhere...

Before asking, I wouldn't compare just the face value of the two stipends. As others have said, take into consideration things like health insurance. To that, I would add that you should seriously look into things like fees which are charged in addition to tuition and wouldn't be covered by a tuition waiver. I've seen those fees range from $150 to $700 a semester depending on the institution. If the school offering less money in the stipend also has lower fees, you could come out financially ahead by going there whether or not they increase your stipend. As others have said, you can ask but the flexibility to actually increase stipends varies widely. My PhD department didn't increase someone's stipend ever. The only way to make more was to get an outside fellowship which paid you more. They did this because they wanted everyone to be treated fairly across the program. That said, they were given money by the university to offer bonuses to certain students. That money was redistributed to all grad students as conference travel money (as in, the total pool of money was divided by the number of students presenting at at least one conference and then each student was given the $X for travel, regardless of the conference's cost). I have no problem with this approach however, if you read some of the posts on here, people will suggest that a department which isn't willing to give you more money to attend isn't really that interested in you, even though this may not be the case.

1) Totally depends on the department and the course. It also depends on whether you're instructor of record or not. Without more info, it's impossible to say. 2) Not typically. It's more likely that you would get a laptop as part of a research assistantship. In both my grad programs, all grad students had an office. One of those provided desktops to everyone while the other had a grad student computer lab which anyone could use. 3) Depends on the course, the department, and the university. I've had extremely committed/interested undergrads and those who couldn't bother to come to class even on exam days and after repeated reminders. Again, impossible to say. 4) Some ways? Depends on the course and the material. Games, small group discussions, 1 minute papers, hands-on activities, field trips, YouTube videos, etc. Just google "active learning" and look at some university teaching center websites if you want to get a sense of what people are doing.

Your plan sounds like a good one to me. Is there any particular reason why you want to go straight to the PhD rather than doing a related master's?