rising_star

The other thing to keep in mind with professional movers is that it can take 2-8 weeks for your stuff to arrive at the destination after they pack it up.
With moving cubes, you can choose local movers to load the cube. You then call the company and they pick it up and ship to to the destination (which can be their warehouse or your new residence depending on the company and the option you choose). Then, once again, you can hire local movers once you arrive to unload everything at your place. I've done three cross-country moves, all using a moving cube service (I'm most familiar with ABF U-Pack but have also looked into PODS and U-Haul). 

I just wanted to say I really appreciate what a great forum this is, and how much having a support network like this has made things so much better. 
This past academic year and a half has been exceptionally difficult for me. I entered my program full of beans and and have since felt like I've let my department and my supervisor down repeatedly. Life got in the way (changing doctors from moving, chronic medical condition deteriorating, spending weeks recuperating part of which was in the hospital, difficult supervisor, sexual harassment, death of a mentor, supporting mentally ill family member; you name it!) and it just spiralled out of control from there. I was / am the grad student department chairs cringe when they see because yet another something has happened. There are days I am convinced my department made a mistake and I just slipped in by mistake. (This is not a post asking everyone to reassure me I'm doing well and all that!)
I could not have done it without all of you, taking time to respond, support, encourage, and give perspective to strangers on the Internet. Many of you support each other without judging. 
A special shout out to the ?admin? and / or just really smart people like @TakeruKand @fuzzylogician and @telkanuru and @rising_star and  @Sigaba for replying to virtually every panic stricken, lost, and scared graduate student on this board. I am sure I've missed some people, but know I do appreciate you. My memory sucks from all my drugs, so I shamelessly blame that.
If you ever feel like graduate school is just too much and feel like quitting (that's me very often lately), come here. You are not alone. This community will support you...or knock some sense into your head.

I'd go do the research I want to be doing.

School A. The difference between top 5 and top 10 isn't that huge and working with someone who has grant funding to let you explore your research interests is always a good thing. 

Hmmm... well, I didn't have a lightweight laptop for most of grad school. I had a clunky older laptop that I either left at home (during my MA, when we were all provided with desktops as part of our GA positions) or that took up a semi-permanent residence on my desk (PhD program). I did eventually get a more portable laptop, but that was partially due to fieldwork and the travel that required. 

Um, why did you apply to these schools if they are "doing nothing" in your research area?
OK, so I think the I know the answer to this question based on your other posts. Let me start off by answering your initial question - $50,000 for Columbia is worth it for YOU and and YOUR SITUATION.
So here's my guess (and if I am significantly off, disregard the above advice). Since you are an international student who is not particularly interested in pursuing a career in research in the US (why else would you apply to schools "doing nothing" in your research area and salivate over Columbia which is pretty mediocre for Mech E), your primary goal is to get a prestigious sounding degree . Now, there is nothing wrong with this. A lot of foreign countries (well, companies in foreign countries) are overly fixated on "IVY!" and it makes sense to play to your eventual employers. Plus, there is the added social capital the accrues to someone with an Ivy League degree in Asian countries.
Thankfully, a lot of the lesser Ivies (not Harvard, Yale, Princeton) have noticed the opportunity to lend their prestige for a price of $50,000-$100,000. This is usually a good deal for the schools because it doesn't truly water down their reputations. Most of the people getting these degrees do not usually end up pursuing a career in pure research and ruining the school's reputation among academics and researchers. A good chunk of the students entering these programs already have their sights on management, finance, or the field-of-they day (data science/machine learning). Furthermore, the schools bank tens of millions each year in exchange for handing out glorified participation trophies (Columbia makes $50-100M/yr from its Masters students). The way you know a school fits this category is that they graduate 10 times as many masters students as they do PhD students. Columbia is something like 10:1 (1366:142, link). If you're a masters student looking to get an RA or a TA to defray your costs, you are competing with a ridiculous number of students who are in the same boat.
If the transaction Columbia is offering makes sense given your goals (prestige for foreign employers or employers outside your major field), go for it. Just don't plan on getting too much money out of them. I mean, look how they are treating you - you get two weeks to make a huge decision and have to pay a $1,000 deposit. No student on a research track is treated like this. They usually get funding, pay no deposit, and usually have months to consider their decision (April 15 deadline).

p.s: With a little digging, Penn (9:1 MS:PhD ratio) appears to also be offering similar M.S degrees and to a lesser extent Cornell (6:1). Harvard (0.5:1) and Princeton (0.3:1) are definitely not yet open for business.  Hope this helps.

As someone that has gone on the job market, I'll just say that 80 jobs is a low number to apply for, especially for people in English. It can be an agonizing process because applying for jobs basically becomes a full-time job and then you hear nothing back for months on end, except when you check the wiki and learn that others have advanced to phone/Skype interviews or that they're being invited to campus. It really can be soul-crushing, especially given the sheer volume of work that goes into it. There's basically nothing else in grad school that prepares you for it, nor does having been un(der)employed before grad school because sending in 80 standard job apps is a lot less work than 80 academic ones which may require your teaching philosophy, teaching evals, research statement, statement about how you work with diverse populations, plus a 2-3 pg cover letter, each of which must be tailored to the specific institution. I thought I was prepared for lots of rejection and waiting when I went on the market but, having done it, I can say without a doubt that I was not. Others who have actually been on the market may agree with me. 

I actually think that Visiting Professor/Scholar positions are probably less rare than you think even in the humanities/social sciences. Their aim is to entice a top scholar to visit their institution for a semester/year and then hopefully lure them away from their current position. You probably don't hear about them much because of the stage you're at but they're definitely out there in all fields, not just in STEM.
Also, I'd push back on the "slightly more experienced" part of your statement. Many of the visiting scholar/professor positions (that is, those without "assistant" in the title) are very much looking for someone with years of experience. When they say that the title and rank depends on experience, they're explicitly saying that they are open to applicants of all career stages and willing to pay what it takes to get someone that's currently an associate or full professor elsewhere. 
This is so far away from the original thread, sorry. My recommendation to anyone and everyone applying to or currently in graduate school is to get in the habit of reading job ads regularly so you can identify trends and familiarize yourself with what's available, where the jobs are, and what materials they ask for in the application process. Anything else and you're doing yourself a great disservice. You can also then later follow up to see who got those positions (by checking the institutional/departmental website) and looking at their CV to get a sense of the qualifications needed. Obviously that won't tell you everything since much can happen on the phone, via Skype, and in-person but it will give you a sense of general expectations for those starting off in your field.

I use my Kindle when traveling to read for pleasure. It's awesome.
The only thing I'd add is that I keep a prepacked, 1 quart bag of toiletries on hand at all times so I literally just have to throw that into the suitcase and I know that the toiletries is taken care of in the TSA-approved way. It's made my life way easier. 

Is research fit really the most important thing though? As long as you can do the research and set yourself up for the career you want, I'd argue that personality fit with an advisor matters more than exact research fit.

I actually think that Visiting Professor/Scholar positions are probably less rare than you think even in the humanities/social sciences. Their aim is to entice a top scholar to visit their institution for a semester/year and then hopefully lure them away from their current position. You probably don't hear about them much because of the stage you're at but they're definitely out there in all fields, not just in STEM.
Also, I'd push back on the "slightly more experienced" part of your statement. Many of the visiting scholar/professor positions (that is, those without "assistant" in the title) are very much looking for someone with years of experience. When they say that the title and rank depends on experience, they're explicitly saying that they are open to applicants of all career stages and willing to pay what it takes to get someone that's currently an associate or full professor elsewhere. 
This is so far away from the original thread, sorry. My recommendation to anyone and everyone applying to or currently in graduate school is to get in the habit of reading job ads regularly so you can identify trends and familiarize yourself with what's available, where the jobs are, and what materials they ask for in the application process. Anything else and you're doing yourself a great disservice. You can also then later follow up to see who got those positions (by checking the institutional/departmental website) and looking at their CV to get a sense of the qualifications needed. Obviously that won't tell you everything since much can happen on the phone, via Skype, and in-person but it will give you a sense of general expectations for those starting off in your field.

You don't really need to flood their inbox (or even write periodically) to keep the lines of communication open. If you have relevant questions or think they'll be at an upcoming conference, send an email. Otherwise, no need to write.

You don't really need to flood their inbox (or even write periodically) to keep the lines of communication open. If you have relevant questions or think they'll be at an upcoming conference, send an email. Otherwise, no need to write.

You don't really need to flood their inbox (or even write periodically) to keep the lines of communication open. If you have relevant questions or think they'll be at an upcoming conference, send an email. Otherwise, no need to write.

Admittedly, they're more common at SLACs than elsewhere but they definitely exist. See links below:
Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science: https://chroniclevitae.com/jobs/0000414779-01
Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry: https://chroniclevitae.com/jobs/0000414714-01
Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics: https://chroniclevitae.com/jobs/0000414802-01

@CulturalCriminal, the term "Visiting Scholar" might be more common in the humanities (e.g., this position at University of Houston: https://chroniclevitae.com/jobs/225511-33725)

Actually, there are "Visiting Professor" positions in the humanities. These are, as @TakeruK said, typically for faculty visiting another institution (typically as part of a sabbatical or research fellowship). The key difference here is the stage of one's career. There are also "Visiting Assistant Professor" positions in STEM fields (definitely in biology, chemistry, environmental science, and physics), which are for those in the early stage of their career. I realize that complicates rather than simplifies... I'd also push back against the idea that a VAP is the closest to ideal thing for those who don't land a TT job since there are certainly a number of highly exploitative VAPs out there (e.g., the legendary one from a few years ago that wanted applicants to teach a 5/5 for under $30K).

This also depends on your post-grad school plans. If you're planning to stay in academia, then going to the higher ranked program makes more sense.

I have a Brother laser printer that I adore. I also bought one with a built-in duplexer, so I could save on paper and not have to deal with reloading things. It prints like 20 pages a minute or something, though slower when you're printing double-sided. I adore it.

A funded research MA strikes me as a better opportunity to improve your application than trying to find a volunteer RA position. 

If you know there's no way you'll accept the offer, you might as well decline it now. Whether or not you get into your top choice isn't actually going to change the fact that the location of this program isn't one that works for you.

I had a fellowship which required that in grad school. What it meant was that I took "directed research" or something like that as my summer course. So it's a course but more akin to an independent study than a traditional graduate seminar.

Your university probably has resources for this so I'd start there. They may even have someone in the graduate school whose job is to assist with grant apps. That said, if you don't need external funding to do your research, then don't worry about it. For the record, research funding should be thought of as separate from a fellowship or stipend for your coursework.

You've already gone further than I and most others would. I can't remember ever sending those kinds of emails out when I was a TA. 
Honestly, nothing. It's not your job to try to make them care about your subject if they don't already. I mean, it's great if you can but there's no needs to stress yourself out over it.
If you haven't already, I highly recommend consulting with your university's teaching center and getting their advice. It may help you put things in context and gain more perspective on what you're doing.

I used to frequent this place, but haven't been in a long while. A discussion in another forum made me think about all of you over here preparing to make a big decision. I'm not sure if this is buried in other threads and I'm sure you've heard this advice before, but to reiterate, it is very important that you go to a school because of the program more generally and not for a professor.
Sure, you want to go to Duke in hopes of working with Steve Vaisey or Wisconsin to study under Eric Grodsky, but ask yourself if you would still generally get the education that you want if they left or if they were uninvolved with students? In both those cases, you'd likely be fine, even if you wanted to study culture or education, but it's important that you think through these things as you're making decisions. Faculties shift. Junior faculty don't get tenure, or move someplace as they're getting it. Commuting couples get tired of commuting and someone moves. More senior people are recruited by other programs. As morbid as it is, people also die or suffer profound health crises that render them incapacitated. Even if they stay, some faculty are very involved in departments while others only show up for visit day or on the faculty web page. Even for people who are generally involved, a need to care for an older parent or child who needs attention (whether a baby or a troubled teen) can also change the involvement of faculty.
You can ask about potential movement or involvement, but it's difficult to predict the future. The best thing you can do is to attend a place that you believe has a lot to offer you with or without the star that you might dream of working with.

Mod note: split these posts into a new thread to prevent distraction from the 2018 applications thread.