rising_star

Honestly, you don't even need to read the full papers of the professors you're meeting with. Reading the abstracts (and maybe the conclusions/discussion) of each paper so that you can get a sense of their research and its trajectory should be more than enough for your interviews. For the grad students, you really want to focus on understanding what it's like to be a student there, to work with various PIs, where to live, etc.

My solution was not to graduate until I had solid job prospects lined up...

This is really hard to answer without knowing more about what you're studying, your other job experience, and what you hope to be doing after the PhD. You could potentially teach at a private or charter high school, work at a museum, get a job as an archivist for a local or state government, work as a historian for the National Park Service, etc., depending on your interests and skills.

I think the thing is that you're giving the professor both too much information and not enough, so it seems like you're making excuses. What I would've done in your situation is just not replied right away until I was more sure about my schedule. That said, the professor is right that you're probably going to need to rearrange your schedule some to make this interview happen, if you still want it to happen. Maybe that means calling in sick or getting someone to cover for you at one of your part-time jobs but, you do what you have to do. If the interview isn't that important to you, then withdraw your application.

I would tell myself that maybe money is more important than you think it is when it comes to funding. And to relax because it all works out in the end.

How much you should layer really depends on personal preference. If you're not used to cold, then silk longjohns are a good idea since they'll give you warmth without being bulky. Good quality, waterproof boots would also be helpful. If you don't have a solid winter coat (down is wonderful), you might find yourself chilly. I would probably wear a tank top, long sleeved thin shirt, dress shirt, blazer/jacket, and then a winter coat. But, I also get cold pretty easily. One tip is to check with your friends to see if they have anything you can borrow. I've borrowed clothes from friends in the past for campus visits and it's been a great way to save money and have what I need at the same time.

It's not a conflict if you haven't even been invited to the other visit weekend yet. The old adage "A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush" comes to mind.

I have definitely heard that there can be funding issues for PhD students at CUNY GC. NYC is expensive, which presents its own set of challenges. A lot of PhD students adjunct at various CUNY campuses, which adds to your commute time and can delay progress on the dissertation.

If this is your effort at being more considerate, you may want to keep working on it. There's actually a reason fast food workers are rarely high school employees anymore. The job isn't as easy as it looks. If your goal is to make a lot of money without having to work hard, maybe you should go play the lottery or something. Also, if you're going to look down on people and their work, make sure you also don't require their work for your life. That means no more eating fast food or anywhere else where the workers make minimum wage, no shopping at grocery stores because the stockers likely make minimum wage and, to use your words, have a job that "any high schooler could do with a little training", etc. I think you'll need to start growing and cooking your own food, brush. Good luck with that! Edit: In all seriousness, @brush, I hope your recognize how lucky you are to be able to live with your parents and not need any income. There are many people here who take a gap year before applying who are struggling to make ends meet, find work that enables them to pay rent and put food on the table, etc. I do hope you're appreciative of your privileged position, especially since it's clear that you look down on the work done by others.

I never applied to grad school in the field of my undergrad degree so I can't say how that affected my applications or anything about the acceptance rate. I wrote a coherent SOP explaining what I want to study, how it related to what I'd previously studied, and why I wanted to attend that program for each school (heavily tailored). I had great success with admissions and funding both times (MA and PhD). You show them you'll be successful by talking about your background and how that has helped prepare you for the research you want to do. If you can do that convincingly, then you should be fine. There have been related discussions about this before: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/22991-any-successful-grad-applicants-in-programs-they-didnt-do-their-undergrad-in/ http://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/68447-choosing-a-major/ http://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/55537-different-major-in-grad-school-from-undergrad/

I'm just popping in to say that I find it really disrespectful and immature when fast food places get labeled as crappy and their jobs as beneath someone. But, I'm biased because I spent 7 summers and winters working in fast food. It's hard work that really forces you to get better at your people skills, gets you used to being on your feet all day, and can teach you a lot about the world. Not that you'll likely care, OP, but I figured I'd say it anyway. To answer your question, I would look at local temp agencies and see if you can get a job through any of them. The local universities might use those temp agencies or have their own, which is another option. If you just want side money, you could try babysitting, nannying, or tutoring. If you can get yourself set up doing afterschool homework help a few days a week with a family, you could make some decent money. Another option might be to contact the local home schooling group to see if there are any parents who might be interested in having you come in for special topics lessons every so often. If you have language skills, those are definitely marketable to parents in general and home schooling parents in particular. A friend of mine teaches weekly foreign language lessons to little kids (5-8 years old) in their homes for extra cash and likes it a lot.

@onceinalifetime, I wouldn't start stressing out just yet. You'll discover that academics sometimes only give people a couple of weeks to travel for an interview. This is especially common for postdoc and faculty positions. They'll call you right before Thanksgiving and ask if you're available for an on-campus interview 10 days later. It isn't great but, it happens. Try not to freak out just yet. Good luck!

I separate "teaching experience" and "classroom experience" on my CV, if that's helpful. I only list the courses where I was instructor of record under teaching experience plus my experience tutoring (this was tutoring done through a resource center for undergrads on campus, not on the side). The times I was a TA, I have under classroom experience because I don't want to imply that I did more than grade papers, answer questions, and give guest/substitute lectures. Maybe having different kinds of teaching headings will help you figure out how to break up your CV? P.S. I don't follow a bunch of Kelsy's "rules" for the CV and no one has complained to me about it yet. I mean, I got/get interviews for jobs so it's obviously not totally offending people, you know? For example, I have italics for things other than journal or book titles, don't have all the years left justified, and have a description of my tutoring job (because it wasn't a standard tutoring job and I tutored like 4 different subjects), don't have my home address on there (why on earth would I put that on there??), and I give course numbers in addition to titles (to show that I've taught courses at a variety of levels). Kelsky is so rigid and it irks me.

I have a couple of friends at Wellesley and Middlebury and, at least in my field, they teach a 3/2, not a 2/2. Those schools are still all about the student experience and want to make sure you get their culture, their focus on undergrads, etc., so you'd want to make that clear in your letter. Some of that is likely in how you tailor your research statement, which should ideally talk about how you might involve undergraduate students in your research if you're applying to a teaching-focused institution. Similarly, you'll have to temper your expectations for getting major research awards (R01s, major NSF funding, etc.) and show that you know this when you apply, if you want to maximize your chances for success. SLACs, especially those in the top 100, don't want to be an obvious stepping stone on your way to another position.

This is exactly what I came here to say. There are LOTS of paths to certification for those without an undergraduate major in education, some more controversial (Teach for America, The New Teacher Project) than others. For example, to address teacher shortages, many community colleges have started offering pathways to certification which you can pursue while teaching on a provisional certificate. There are also statewide models which are similar (Georgia's TAPP program comes to mind). If your goal is to get into an elementary school classroom ASAP, then I'd recommend going that route. Instead of the GRE, you'll take the Praxis or whatever state-specific exam there is for the state you want to work in. Doing that and then pursuing a master's degree later is going to result in less debt for you.

Unless you're actually providing information about which studies, what stage of preparation, and where those manuscripts will go, then yea, it is a pretty useless thing to include. Everyone knows that you're going to try to take the research you've done and publish it in journals so why bother saying that if you aren't going to be explicit about it?

THIS. I have several rec letters to send out tomorrow/Friday but, none of the students who need them are sending me a bunch of emails about it. They sent me their stuff, checked to make sure I received it, and then asked if I needed anything else. If I had to guess, they'll wait until the day before or the day of the deadline to send me any sort of inquiry about whether or not it's done. Why? Because just like I trust students to meet the deadlines I set out in the syllabus, they trust me to meet the deadlines I have. If you're stressing out about it @Syedahum, then you need to do something to help yourself relax. The rec letter process is so frustrating because it's one of the few things about your application that you cannot control. Remember that life is full of things you can't control. Figuring out ways to deal with the stress this loss of control produces is going to be key to thriving in life.

It's very vague and thus pretty useless, imo. You may want to specify how many of the studies, what you mean by "stage of manuscript preparation", where these manuscripts might be sent, and what kinds of studies these are. As has already been pointed out, the second half of the sentence is repetitive and unnecessary.

@Syedahum, you do realize most colleges and universities are closed right now, right? That faculty may want to spend a few days with their family and/or friends WITHOUT also having to do work? It's not unprofessional to not answer your email or phone when the entire university is closed. The polite students (and the ones I appreciate the most) are those who at least acknowledge that there's a winter break for faculty and staff, not just for students.

There's nothing wrong with reapplying to the same schools, especially if that includes your top choice. I would not recommend spending money to visit the program before applying. Save your time and money for visiting after you've been admitted. That's what I did as a master's student and it totally paid off in terms of saving me time and money. If you do, keep in mind that the spring of your second year will be busy with visits and plan accordingly by getting a full draft of your master's thesis done as early as possible (before mid-February if at all possible). That will ensure you have time to visit programs while remaining on track for graduation. It may be worth contacting POIs though, just to share your interests and see if they are accepting students. One easy way to do this might be to reach out to them at a conference sometime in 2016. If you see that they are presenting and you're already attending, send them an email inquiring about meeting for coffee and explaining that you intend to apply to the PhD program in their department. This would get you the face-to-face time you seem to want but without a huge expense. That said, I think emailing POIs and perhaps talking to them by phone if that's what they want is all you really need to do. The rest is really about making yourself a more compelling applicant, as @fuzzylogician has already pointed out. You want to write a strong master's thesis, present at a conference (ideally national but regional is fine too), and be thinking about which of your seminar papers could be developed into a more complete research project or publication in the future. You'll want to make strong connections with the faculty in your MA program and solicit their advice about where to apply, how to present yourself in your materials, etc. Good luck!

Is your old statement really the best SOP you could put forward? My guess is that you've grown as a writer since then, done different things, and possibly even refined your research interests. Because of that, I'd probably write a new statement, rather than just recycling the old one.

One typo is not going to sink an application! I've gotten job interviews at places where there was a typo in the cover letter. Everyone makes small mistakes or "fat finger" typing errors. It's okay. For your own peace of mind, I urge everyone NOT to read through their submitted applications. It'll just make you even more stressed out or nervous.

To reply, see here: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/71809-bad-second-year-transcript-for-applying-to-grad-school/

That's probably because no one here can tell you whether or not you'll get in anywhere since we aren't on the adcoms of the programs you're applying to. Your research experience, publications, and strong recommendation letters should provide strong evidence of your research ability and potential to the admissions committees. But, there's really nothing else you can do at this time, especially since you've already applied. You'll just have to wait and see what happens. Good luck on your applications!

It's always easier to please one boss (or PI) than two. In that sense, I agree with the advice of @St Andrews Lynx, in that being answerable to only one PI is preferable if at all possible. I definitely know of people who have had co-advisors for their PhD or Master's, though none of those were in the lab sciences.