rising_star

TakeruK, I haven't heard of anyone asking for money back either but, as budgets get tighter, that could start to happen.

If they prefer 2 letters from an undergraduate professor, why are you considering anything else?

Which is exactly what knp's point is. If you don't know how many semesters of employment you have, it's really hard to plan for making student loan payments, among other things. I second everything knp said to you about figuring out how much money you need to live on, if only because I basically said the same thing to you a few days ago in response to another post of yours.

This is true. That said, some grants do ask or require you to submit at least one manuscript for publication or give a presentation on the research they funded within a certain time frame.

Yea, I always get mail for previous tenants. And I'm guessing people in places where I used to live get mail for me still. USPS mail forwarding helps but doesn't solve everything.

In your case, it wouldn't be a transfer so much as starting over. At best, maybe 9-12 credits of the grad work you've done could be counted toward the new degree, so you'd be looking at spending two years past this one to obtain the same MFA that you could finish at your current institution in just one more year. Have you considered trying to do internships and residencies which will help you expand your horizons and gain new experiences?

I mean, if you're contacting them to see if they have openings in their lab, then that makes sense. Trying to get them to recommend you seems very heavy handed to me.

If you're ambivalent about starting right away, you're going to have to be really careful about making sure that doesn't show in your applications and in any interviews you do. No one wants to admit someone that's already ambivalent because then there's a higher likelihood that they won't actually ever complete the program, which isn't desirable from the department's perspective. Plus, ambivalence really does often come through in applications, just in small things like your wording and expression of your interests. It seems like your foremost concern is money. Well, graduate school doesn't actually pay super well, especially not in anthropology at most places. I guess you might need to figure out how much money you're comfortable with having/making/earning and how much you need to live on. Would you be okay with $16K in Bloomington, Indiana or would it need to be more for you to support yourself financially? (FWIW, Americorps programs in many places have similar pay to grad assistantships in the humanities and social sciences.) If it's more, then you may want to eliminate schools from your list of 12 programs based on the stipend the pay compared to the cost of living in the area. Finally, I just want to say that you should try not to let fear of the unknown (in this case, what kind of job you might get) drive your life. I know it's hard but it's also really important if you're going to reach the goals you have for yourself.

No, it won't, especially since that professor has valuable things to say about your academic potential.

I am way too late to this but I really hope you didn't do this. Either way, let us know what's going on. I really do want this to work out for the best for you!

Go with the strongest letter.

bhr, I have to strongly disagree with you on this. I primarily teach first and second year students. What I've found is that many have no clue about what professional correspondence should look like, so I teach them that. When they lapse, I gently remind them of it in my reply before answering their questions. I spell out in my syllabus that emails should be professional (so not like that example fuzzylogician gave), not to expect replies outside of business hours (8:30-5:30 M-F), etc. I do this because students need to learn this before they start doing internships where people will expect them to know this. I mean, I had to explain to a student why choosing the username "psycho" for his campus email may not have been the best idea. His reaction? "I just thought it was funny so, I picked it when I realized it was available." As it turns out, none of his other professors or TAs that semester told him about how unprofessional it was and, he'd already been including it on his resume when sending out summer job applications. *sigh*

@Amelu, you may want to check out this recent piece in the Chronicle's Vitae, which is written from the perspective of a graduate advisor trying to prepare students for multiple careers.

The quick answer is not to fully read and annotate everything. Read for what you need, rather than just reading in general. For example, if you're trying to understand different methods used to study a topic, then you'll want to focus and take notes on the methods sections. If you're concerned with results, then focus on that, making sure to pay attention to any figures and tables included. Also, stop trying to annotate everything. You're better off writing a brief (1-2 paragraphs, 300-400 word max) summary of the article and its key points in your own words, so you can easily do a search to find the relevant stuff later. No one really reads every single article carefully from first page to last page.

Man, my MA thesis defense has a similar-ish story though not quite the same as this. What I learned something like 7 years later was that the fight that happened wasn't really about me or my project but an interpersonal and departmental conflict playing out between the faculty on my committee. I literally had someone who I'd repeatedly asked what I should do to address certain things never give me a straight answer in their office and then hammer me about not clearly addressing that in my thesis. But, it was also this year when I found out why that happened and learned it was never about me or my project. In general, I would say don't worry too much about it. If you had serious concerns about your methods, it might've been a good idea to discuss those with your entire committee at a meeting so you could write down what they said, then send it back to them in an email noting what has been agreed to. That's maybe the only thing you could've done differently and even that might not have changed the outcome.

Telkanuru isn't wrong, even if you want him to be. I read a couple of things happening here, so I'll discuss them each in turn below. 1) You want to teach. This seems clear and there are many ways to do this. But, let me be absolutely clear: very few people at any level have real autonomy over everything they do in the classroom. You may be able to choose what you teach to some degree but not have control over other course materials. See below for examples of this. 1a) A friend of mine is a US history professor on the tenure-track. At his university, all faculty are required to use the same textbook because they have a textbook rental program to make books more affordable for students. Consequently, if he wants to change the book used in his survey, he has to either use no book, find something available for free, or convince all of the faculty in the department who ever teach that course to agree to the book change. 1b) Faculty don't always have a huge amount of choice in what they teach each semester, especially at a more teaching-focused institution. If that's where you want to end up, expect to spend most of your course load (5 classes on a 3/3, 6-7 classes on a 4/4) teaching survey and introductory courses which meet the requirements for general education and for those considering the major. If you don't believe, check the schedule of classes for such institutions and see both how frequently you see someone's name and what they're teaching. At many such institutions, you get one or maybe two upper-level courses each year and even then you might not have free choice about which of those you take. That's kinda how it goes. None of this is to say that high school teachers have more or less ability to do this. I just wanted to point out that there's this myth that college professors just get to teach whatever they want however they want. 2) You aren't sure whether or not to get a PhD. If there's any doubt whatsoever, then it's probably not a great idea but, don't let that stop you. The thing is that you might, given your interests, be better off doing a History MA + secondary school certification program, rather than a PhD. That would prepare you for both of the paths you're currently considering. 3) To teach high school, you actually need to obtain a certification, certainly for public schools and even for many private schools. This is likely going to require an additional time and educational commitment from you. Many states will let you pursue an alternative certification route where you teach while also taking part-time courses and being mentored by a more senior teacher in the school/district. That said, such programs show a preference for math, science, ESL, and special education instruction, which doesn't sound like what you're interested in. It'll be on you to figure out how to get into the K-12 classroom without a full teaching certificate or to figure out the optimal way to obtain that certificate. 3a) Also, there's a whole lot of folks with PhDs that decide to teach at the high school level. Many independent and private schools actually prefer to hire those with advanced degrees (incidentally, these are also often the places which don't require a full teaching certificate from applicants). So, your fallback idea is one that a lot of people are doing, which is making those positions more competitive. I hope this helps! This is what came to my mind as I was reading your posts and the replies to it, Amelu.

Honestly, late LORs aren't typically the kiss of death for an application. They happen all the time, to be honest.

Hi Chopin, I suspect you haven't gotten any replies because you asked two incredibly vague questions. 1) Honestly, if you want to know the best places to do a MPH, just google for a list of programs. Best of course depends on how you value program ranking, cost, and internship opportunities, so you may want to find a ranking that puts those in the same order as you do personally. You should have a reason for applying to certain programs beyond just ranking and cost though, which will require you to do research on programs and departments to see what meets your needs, desires, and requirements. 2) Work experience is never a bad thing and might help you get into a top MPH program. Check Emory's SPH job board for potential jobs you could do with "just a bachelor's". You might also be able to do Americorps or Peace Corps and do something which interests you.

I mean, yes and no. I do a lot of human subjects research so an undergrad could potentially breach confidentiality or disclose individually identifying information which should be kept confidential. I work with sensitive information all the time, some of which could result in social, cultural, or legal repercussions if it were to be released by anyone, including a careless undergrad. So no, I don't want undergrads doing everything by themselves at first but, I also do care quite a bit about their training even though no expensive equipment would be broken. That said, I probably should've added that my perspective on working with undergrad RAs comes primarily from working with them as a faculty member, rather than as a graduate student. Everyone knows that taking on undergrads for research is a lot of work but, at the same time, we are all expected to do it as part of our teaching (even though it's not a course) and research. If we aren't working with undergrad RAs, we get dinged during our reviews.

Why are you so obsessed with university rank? If the top-ranked universities aren't doing the research you want to do, then it's a waste of your time to go there.

For November 1, you should have already asked and it should already be on their to-do list. I have a long to-do list, which I prioritize by deadline. If there's someone that has missed deadlines in the past, you can fudge and give them an earlier deadline potentially, just so that they can get it in later. I don't always recommend this but, in your case, it might be a good idea.

TMP, I'm so sorry to hear that things have gotten very complicated. If there's anything we can do to help, please reach out either here or via PM. Best of luck!

Not in your field but, I clicked the link and that sounds like an amazing conference. Not sure if I can swing attending but, maybe in a future year. Thanks for tuning me in to this!

Agreed. I think this is pretty common. The only way to keep this from happening is if there's provisions in the fellowship/scholarship which prevent this from happening. Such provisions are rare and, where they do exist, they tend to address tuition and tuition waivers, rather than the overall stipend paid to the award recipient.

Honestly, the best answers are going to come from the website of each graduate school. In my experience, the information you seek isn't readily available so you'd have to send emails or make phone calls to find out what you want. In addition, I'd add that many internal fellowships aren't things you as an incoming student can apply for directly. Instead, they're things for which the department can nominate an applicant they plan to admit. When I applied to both master's and PhD programs, what I learned was that it's the decision of the adcom whether and who they decide to nominate internally though typically it's their strongest applicants and those they most want to recruit. There may also be university-specific internal priorities which never get advertised, like supporting diverse applicants (underrepresented minorities or women in certain fields, or perhaps nontraditional students or those returning to school from the workforce) or those with specific research interests. Since none of these are a thing you can predict, I wouldn't put all my eggs in the university-wide fellowship basket. Alright, answers to your questions, in order. 1) Nope, there's no good aggregate data on this, in no small part because the type and criteria of the awards varies from one institution to the next. 2) Criteria vary widely. The university's graduate school often has an overall allotment of these fellowships (which could be 10, 20, 50, etc.) and either departments or candidates/applicants must compete for those. So, one department could end up with 5 while another department ends up with none. The specifics of how this happens are going to vary from one school to the next, so there's no way to really generalize about this. 3) I don't think the department's ranking matters vary much. Such awards tend to be about the applicant more than they are about the department, unless it's something related to increasing the diversity of a department. P.S. Not that you asked, but I'd also point out that not all university-wide fellowships pay especially well. For example, one of the KU internal fellowships pays a minmum stipend of $16,000/year. (Note: that page also has information on some of the criteria by which that particular award can be granted