rising_star

You could just say that you're waiting to hear back. You don't have to outright say that you have an offer.

If you don't have any short-term debts, then saving for retirement (even a little bit at a time) is a good idea. My monthly budget didn't include any debt payments because I didn't have any to make. I use credit cards to buy almost everything so I can get cash back or travel points then pay those cards off in full at the end of each billing cycle. As for the income boost, this is definitely field specific. There are lots of jobs in the humanities (especially NTT and visiting positions) which pay ~$40K. That's not a particularly huge income boost over graduate school, especially when one considers the "lost" earnings of being in the PhD program. YMMV obviously since I'm not financial consultant.

This might just be me but I find jeans harder to layer under than other kinds of business casual pants. Slacks tend to have more room, which makes it easier to wear long johns without anything bunching up.

Totally true that it's based on subfields and languages. But, my friends include people working on medieval Islamic history, 1500s eastern African history, a few Americanists, several Mexican and/or Latin American historians, a small handful of Russian historians, and Atlantic World stuff. The medieval person was also at a state institution so there were multiple semesters of teaching and some stress over summer funding. They did all know their main languages going in (and, in some cases, did summer programs to shore up those languages) and not all had a MA in advance. My point is that you can find ways to get through more quickly, which could mean being strategic about the languages and archives, finding archives to work in which are partially digitized already, etc. But, my sense from PhD students across fields, is that if you plan for 8 years, then it'll take you 8 years. Better to plan for 6 years and let the work expand if you have additional funding, etc. I originally planned on 4-5 years, which didn't exactly work out for me. The shorter timeframe meant that I had two different versions of my dissertation in mind and that I planned for fieldwork/funding to happen in multiple different ways depending on how the funding situation worked out for me. It's best to be prepared for a variety of circumstances, regardless of what the funding package you accept looks like.

@MarineBluePsy, check out options from the typical no-load places, like T. Rowe Price, Vanguard, etc. Or, check THe Motley Fool or more advice on retirement stuff. The minimums for a Roth IRA are typically set by the bank/financial institution you set up the account through. There's usually a set minimum to open the account, like $100, and then another monthly contribution amount. $50 a month doesn't seem like much but, 20+ years from now, it can be significant. Retirement savings are also one of those things which is really difficult to catch up on.

There are also dissertation completion (aka, writing up) fellowships. Some are university-wide (so internal) and others are national (external). Getting one of these can free you up to write and apply for jobs in your last year. That said, I don't know that any of my friends in history programs have taken 8 years to finish. Ideally, you'll finish sooner...

Does this include summer funding? That is, do both offers include full RA or fellowship status over the summer? If not, you'll want to find out what the summer opportunities are like and how much they pay.

Just ask them! Seriously, any prof worth their salt can provide you with names of their recent students. It won't be all of them but you can then expand from there.

Roth IRA is what I did. I didn't get close to the annual maximum contribution but, even being able to put in $50/month is better than nothing. As a grad student, I wasn't eligible to do retirement through the institution (no matches available) but, I went with a no-load mutual fund through a Roth IRA.

Without knowing your area, I'd actually suggest reading up on your area of interest from other fields/perspectives. So, for example, if you're interested in Victorian literature, I might read histories of the Victorian era, biographies of key authors, etc. It's not exactly what you'll be studying in grad school but the additional background information could prove incredibly useful in the future.

Budgets are really individual so it's hard to make a general one. But, for me, the main thing I prioritized while in grad school was not eating or drinking out unless necessary. So, I didn't go to the coffee shop and pick up a cup every day or go out to lunch basically ever. I brought my lunch in or went home for lunch every single day. Was it boring? Hell yes. But, I saved a lot of money by eating the leftovers from dinner as lunch the next day. I actually still do this even though my budget is less limited now because it's an easy way to save money. The main thing is to figure out what your fixed monthly expenses are (rent, insurance, etc.), set aside a certain percentage for savings/retirement (I always aimed for 15% but didn't hit it every month), and then divvy up the rest however you see fit. For me, I prioritized buying healthy food (so ~$100/month), good craft beer to drink at home (~$30-50/month), and travel (~$150/month). To save money on groceries, I split a Costco membership with someone else and would buy the basics which I used often at Costco, rather than anywhere else. For example, 1 pound of organic spring mix at Costco is about $4.50, which is less than my local chain grocery store charges for the 10 oz of the same thing. So, buying stuff like that in bulk to save money is a good idea. Now that I'm out of grad school, I also prioritize buying all of my meat and dairy from local and/or organic farms, which is more expensive but has reduced my consumption of those things. I don't actually have a set monthly budget but, I've heard good things about YNAB and Mint though I've never used either. I might one day if I end up sharing expenses with someone but, I have a system which works well for me, even though I basically never keep track of my expenses.

@TakeruK's advice is great for those in fields where papers are the main currency. But, in anthropology (as well as many MLA fields), the real measure of publication success is books (you turn your dissertation into a book and you need at least one book published with an academic press to get tenure). Consequently, looking strictly at article databases may not be the best way to find out about track record. Similarly, in turns of track record, I'd also think about the funding the grad students are able go get (SSRC, NSF DDRI, NSF GRFP, IAF, CAORC, etc.) since most graduate students in cultural anthropology have to find their own funding for dissertation fieldwork.

I would be honest. It's likely that you're in a narrow area so all of the POIs will know each other anyway. In other words, the person asking you could probably find out without asking you if they really wanted to.

I got assistantships or fellowships plus tuition waivers from the universities. There's no way I would've attended an unfunded graduate program.

The difference in stipend is probably due in part to the big difference in cost of living between the St. Louis and Chicago. Have you actually checked to make sure the stipends are livable in each place or are you focused solely on the dollar amount?

What field are you hoping to go into? If it's International Development, then I doubt there will be any science requirements for you to meet prior to enrolling. Check out the websites of some specific programs you're interested in and see what they say about prerequisites for admission.

As far as I know, there's no quick and easy way of doing it. You can definitely ask directly but doing your own research might yield additional information.

Advantages: You get to have some one-on-one time with a current graduate student and a chance to ask questions in a less formal setting. You have the chance to get additional insight into what it's like to be a grad student there (where you might live, what amenities you can afford to have, etc.). It's also probably less than 30 minutes away from campus, shortening your commute in the morning. Disadvantages: Sharing space, having to "on" for longer, an additional chance to make a fool of yourself.

I'd actually disagree somewhat with @pterosaur. If you're really not used to the cold, you may want to bring long johns because the temperatures everyone else considers comfortable may result in you being cold. You don't want to be shivering or uncomfortable so pack and wear layers of clothing so you can add or subtract layers as needed.

During part of my PhD, my advisor was also department head and would tell me to meet with him during his office hours, if possible. This wasn't because he was a bad advisor, imo. I have always figured it was because he had a very busy schedule, undergrads often didn't come to his office hours, and so it was time that he knew he had available. Forgetfulness is definitely a problem but, you can either find a way to help him remember OR use his forgetfulness to your advantage (e.g., he asks you to take your research in a direction you're not convinced about but then he might forget that he asked which lets you off the hook for actually doing this). At this point, I'm not sure what meeting with the director of the graduate program will do to help you, especially if your official thesis proposal is due next week. If I were you, I'd focus on trying to repair this relationship with your advisor and make it into something at least semi-functional. You have to handle this professionally, which means not making excuses, sending long emails, etc. Keep the conversations focused on your research and where it needs to go.

Yea, that will never stop. I still have faculty from my PhD department wondering if/when I'll move to a major research institution. They really don't understand that I have zero desire to work at an institution like the one I went to, in no small part because I like having a life. There are things besides work which are important to me, like being able to read a novel for fun at night, being able to leave work after 8-9 hours, having free time on the weekends to travel, etc. It probably doesn't help that I can't imagine myself ever being wedded to one consistent project for several years or doing the NSF funding grind to pay for said research. Don't ask how I managed to pull off a dissertation because my research interests are all over the map. Yep, all the time. See what I said above about non-work commitments. I also have a strong desire to choose where I live, which probably means leaving academia at some point unless I get really lucky. I've given myself a timeline for making that happen and, starting this summer, will be laying some of the blocks down on this path so that I can pursue it if I want to. One of my friends talks about how you have to be authentic to yourself, which is hard to explain. But, you want to be true to yourself and not do things just because it's what society/your parents/your advisors/your friends expect. So, for me, the "end all be all" of getting a PhD was never a tenure-track position because I grew up knowing people with PhDs who didn't work in academia (my mom being one example). There are definitely positions outside academia I could see myself holding, just like there are positions within academia I could see myself holding. I also recognize that what I'm doing right now may not always be the thing I want to be doing so I'm trying not to close any major doors. And, even within my job, I've changed my approach to it so that it works for me and I can do it without compromising myself, my values, my soul, etc. I wish I could explain the authenticity thing more clearly but, I can't figure out how to put it into words. I just know what I need to do for myself and I make that happen as best I can and within the limitations I have. As my friend points out, laziness can be a constraint on doing what we want but, that's something you have to recognize and accept as part of being authentic to yourself.

I wouldn't email anyone new at this point. Wait to hear from the department about your application status.

Definitely a granola bar or two and some mints. I always have more than one pen. I hate clipboards so I'd carry a notebook instead.

That's a whole 'nother can of worms. If you want some job market support, we're happy to help!

@bechkafish, that sounds like a miserable experience. In the future, I would definitely encourage you to try at least to find a place via couchsurfing or AirBnB or other grad students who live in the area, rather than taking an overnight bus and having to leave right after your presentation. It's also possible that you could've gotten a new credit card with a 0% interest rate for 6-12 months and used that to pay for things, so that you'd have several months to come up with the money rather than having to pay for everything all at once upfront. If you do have to travel that way again, I highly recommend packing sandwiches and trail mix to ensure you have the energy you need to make it through the day.