rising_star

Serious questions. How many other applicants do you think have the exact same idea? And, what are you expecting to accomplish in one semester that will make you stand out?

This, to me, suggests that this is a bad idea. Why would you want someone that doesn't know you very well calling up someone on your behalf? If he really want to call, he'll do it on his own without you suggesting/urging him to do so.

Is there any way that you could get a mentor or two from outside of your program and just remain in your current one? Having an outside reader is pretty common, so you could probably bring in someone else pretty easily for your dissertation committee. You might also see if your department has any exchange programs with other institutions. My grad department did and students could spend a semester or year at another institution, working with the faculty there. You might want to see if there's an option like that available to you. I suggest both of these because you seem worried about getting a positive recommendation out of your current program.

It's not conventional and it can either go well or backfire. Since you have no evidence that taking this approach helped you before, why try it again? If you have a rec letter from that person, then the POI knows they can pick up the phone and call that person to learn more about you and your application. It definitely happens, so I'm not sure why you'd want an email in addition to the recommendation. For all you know, the POI has some sort of unfavorable personal relationship with this recommender and is disinclined to do what s/he says or wants. In that case, the extra email could actually hurt your candidacy.

Of the choices you've listed, #1 is the best. If you're applying to a professional program, maybe you could use a work reference as your 3rd letter? That might be better than some of the options you've presented here.

Hopeful One, isn't occupational therapy more of a professional program? If that's true, then I'm not sure you need to get research experience before going since you won't be doing research once you're actually in the master's program. Doing more shadowing and getting whatever hands-on field specific training you can is probably more important. And yes, the GRE is only one component of your application. If you're super concerned, can you talk to your professors about your scores and whether or not you should retake the exam?

If your scores are within the competitive range for the programs you plan to apply to, why retake it? It might make more sense to focus on other aspects of your application instead.

Honestly? Stay out of this. It is WAY above your pay grade. The guy that isn't moving his stuff probably knows the consequences of his decisions and is choosing to do it anyway. The reasons why aren't your business. So, stay out of it and try to cultivate other people in your program to work with. Best of luck!

I work at one where there are very few adjuncts that aren't in full-time positions with benefits. I don't count those FT positions as adjunct because they come with at least a one year contract (and also come in multi-year form). We, for example, hire one-year visiting people as a sabbatical replacement, rather than using adjuncts/part-time faculty. The few adjuncts we do have are primarily the spouses of TT faculty on campus. But, I can't give you the specific numbers because we don't get them until October. I did a quick google search for exactly one school (Swarthmore) and found this: http://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/swarthmore-college/academic-life/faculty-composition/# . 85% of their faculty are full-time, with the remaining 15% as part-time. I assume the latter are adjuncts.

Have you thought about finding ways to integrate your research projects into your coursework? That might help you strike more of a balance.

1) Email is fine. Be polite. Remind them of who you are. Explain why you want to go to graduate school. You should be fine. 2) When they say yes, they know they're saying yes to submitting for multiple programs. 15 isn't more than some other fields (clinical or social psych, English, history) so don't worry too much about the number. But, keep in mind that if you decide to go the Interfolio route, they can't tailor their letter to particular programs and you will pay a fee ($6?) each time a letter is sent out on your behalf. That will add up really quickly. Some of my faculty (not MFA folks) refuse to use Interfolio for those two reasons. Best of luck!

Struggling with being a TA doesn't mean you aren't suited for a PhD. A PhD is a research degree, not a teaching degree. If you're struggling with the teaching, you either work to improve it or you buy yourself out of it through grants/fellowships. I highly recommend that you talk to your university's teaching center and see if they can either observe you or have one of your classes recorded and then watch it with them. They can help you identify what you're doing well and what needs work, plus it's an outside evaluation that you can include in your departmental file and your overall teaching portfolio.

What I meant is that the foundation texts in social theory are books. I mean, the work of Max Weber, Karl Marx, Edward Said, Karl Polanyi, Frantz Fanon, Spivak, Stuart Hall, Immanuel Wallerstein, etc. are found in books. While there have been riffs on and texts about the shortcomings of these texts published in journals, it's important to read these theoretical works for yourself. It may not be the best way to generate ideas for new research but, it is important for understanding how the field got to this place. Also, in many social science disciplines (anthropology and sociology come to mind, but this is also true of history and many MLA fields), books are a requirement for tenure. So even though early-career scholars do some publishing beforehand, the book must contain substantial new material that hasn't been published elsewhere or it won't be published by reputable academic presses. Consequently, 1-3 chapters may have appeared elsewhere (as book chapters or in peer-reviewed journals) but a lot of the material will not have been published elsewhere and thus would otherwise be inaccessible. For example, there are a couple of anthropologists and sociologists whose work greatly informed mine in the first two years of my PhD. None of these people had the substantial ideas that I was working from then in their journal articles since they'd saved the juiciest materials for their books. I recognize this as a key difference in scholarship and publishing across the disciplines. I was tailoring my advice earlier in this thread (including my reply to Miraly) to the OP's statement that they are in a social science PhD program. Had they said they were in the natural/physical/life sciences, I would've said to focus on journal articles, especially things published in the Annual Reviews and not mentioned books at all.

I actually disagree with this. In the social sciences, many of the foundational theories are found in books, not articles, so if you want to read most social theory, you have to read books. You'll find articles which use the theory but, you really should try to read up on the theory itself at some point. Also, some journals are more conservative than others, which you'll discover by reading articles in them and talking to others about the journal. In my area of the social sciences, there are several journals which explicitly seek to publish "radical" or "nontraditional" scholarship while others hew much more closely to the traditions of the discipline which are over a century old at this point. Those journals don't contain the fresh ideas and opinions that Miraly is trying to get you to find. Knowing the differences between various journals will be an important part of your development as a young academic.

My experience in trying to start such conversations here and elsewhere is that people have vastly different ideas of what "realistically" is. My guess is that VM thinks that their way is the way to have a realistic conversation. There have been other attempts to be realistic without being apocalyptic here but they generally contain very few suggestions of what people would, could, or should actually do if/when they finish their PhD and are unable to find the tenure-track job they desire. This isn't to say that VM's approach is the best one, just to say that many people here have vehemently argued with those that have been on the market that their perspectives on the market are skewed/flawed/unrealistic as if they know better than those that have just gone through it. So if that's the basis of a realistic conversation, then I'd say that whatever is happening probably isn't actually realistic. Also, 1Q84 and BooksCoffeeBeards, bumping this thread may in fact bring it to the attention of lurkers but putting it at the top of the forum where newcomers will see it first rather than a "What are my chances?" or "What schools should I apply to?" type post, rather than a page or two back.

I'll just interject briefly to say that this site has MANY more lurkers than it has active posters, sometimes numbering in the hundreds online at the same time. So just because everyone posting acknowledges the lack of academic jobs doesn't mean this thread isn't informative to others. There may very well be people who read TGC discussions and decide maybe graduate school isn't for them (because of the job market, the length to degree, how hard it is to get into a good program, fear their GPA isn't competitive, etc.) without ever posting or even creating an account.

I wouldn't send a follow-up email yet, especially since your POI was traveling. I always get WAY behind on school emails when I'm traveling and try to catch up in order of importance. Give it a few more days.

You might want to consult this recent, very similar, discussion: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/68889-signature-for-ta/

Possible the following, depending on your specific interests: Psychology, Evaluation & Research, Sociology, Education

1) Google is your friend here. A resume focuses on your work experience. A CV focuses on your research experience. That's a coarse summary but really, there's lots of info both here and on the internet about the differences between a CV and resume. If you are confused about the format, look up the CVs of grad students and faculty in your field. You'll notice that most are more than 1 pg. That said, many applicants don't have CVs of over a page simply because they don't have lots of publications or presentations to include. 2) What do you mean by level of depth? My CV offers very little description of any of the projects I've worked on because the outcomes for most are evident from publications/presentations. I don't list job duties underneath positions like "Graduate Teaching Assistant" or "Research Assistant", if that's what you're asking. Though my sense from TakeruK and Eigen is that this is different in the sciences than it is in the social sciences. 3) CVs are the convention for academics. Again, google. There's a bunch of advice about what a CV should look like when you're applying to grad school and don't have a bunch of publications, for example.

1) Why wouldn't you email Prof B for a meeting? If you no longer wish to work with them, then send an email saying that your interests have changed. If you do still want to work with them, then try to get the meeting. 2) You might offend ProfC now. But, if you aren't willing to wait to see if she's available, then just say that. But waiting a few weeks probably isn't going to kill you. Also, have you considered talking to Prof C about possibly going overseas with her? 3) You should probably be talking to your general advisor about your interests and who it makes the most sense to work with on your thesis project. If your interests aren't the same as Prof D's, then they won't be surprised that you're looking to do your thesis work with other people.

Indeed it is a great reason. But I don't know that I'd be this honest about it because it could be interpreted that something is wrong with the applicant which is why the funding ended. That said, leaving with a MS as someone who did a 2 year degree program shouldn't look too bad. What you'll want to do in your SOP is point out how the new school can help you further your research, gain new perspectives on your field, etc.

Get some books on teaching. The classics are McKeachie's Teaching Tips and then maybe Barkley's Student Engagement Techniques or other titles by her. There are also some great books on surviving your first semester/year of teaching, though I can't think of any titles offhand. Check your university's library catalog and I'm sure you'll find some either in hard copy or as e-books. As for when students are talking, how I handle it depends on a variety of factors like who the students are, if they're repeat offenders or not, and what's happening in the class at the time. For example, if a group of students is noisily talking and it prevents me from hearing a question or comment from someone else, I'll ask the student making the comment to repeat themselves and, while looking at the chatty group, say something like "I couldn't hear you over all the other people talking, so can you repeat that for all of us?" That both calls out the offenders and refocuses everyone's attention on the question being asked.

Interfolio gets expensive quickly. While you may want to make it easy on people, recognize that they understand that it'll be a bunch of work for them and they will get it done (though you might have to nag/remind them a bit). In the grand scheme of things, 17 really isn't that many. I say this because, once in grad school, you'll need letters for lots of things. Toward the end of my PhD, each of my letter writers probably had to send WAY more than 17 a year on my behalf when you consider grants, fellowships, jobs, and postdocs. I'm pretty sure they sent about 40 each when I was on the job market. The real disadvantage to Interfolio is that you aren't giving your recommenders the chance to tailor your rec letters to specific opportunities (whether that's schools or fellowships). You might also find that some people (*cough*my advisor*cough*) refuse to use Interfolio unless it's required because they want the option of tailoring their letter, even if they rarely use it. But that doesn't answer your question. The Chronicle of Higher Ed's Vitae is supposed to offer something similar to Interfolio but at no cost to the applicant, or at least that's what I've heard. I don't know of anyone that uses it though. If you do decide to use it, please post here and share your experience with others.

You might want to contact them to see if they have space/funding in their lab. Some science programs require students to enter into a specific lab, rather than doing rotations. So, if you email and find out that the lab(s) you're interested in can't take you, you might be able to save yourself some money on the application fee.