DespSeekPhd

Well, now I know (at least some). Guess my app wasn't as mediocre as I thought Accepted at UMass (funding decisions to come) and Tufts (funded) Rejected at Pitt Waiting on BU, BC, Temple, and Georgetown Yay!

I'm not worried about my GRE - 680V is actually slightly above what Berkeley lists as the average for their grad history students (PhD). And I'm only applying for MA. I very truly cannot pull together any prof letters besides the one. I went to community college for 2 years (a long time ago), and as you know, the turnover at a CC is very high. Most of the profs I had are gone, and the couple that are still there could not say more than, "She got an A" even if they did remember me. I had a small undergrad uni, and of the 3 profs in my major I had classes with, 1 has written a letter, one has left the country and cannot be located, and one has died. Of my other profs, one has left academia and cannot be located and the other has died. That's it. So I really had no choice in the letters I got. By the time I apply for PhD, I will have letters from my MA program, so that should be vastly improved. Thanks all for the comments!

Nah - many people post chances on there, but few are well thought out. I was hoping someone had insight into any of these unis particularly or history generally.

I'm stressing a bit. I originally got a funded MA spot a a particular uni, but because of my husband's change in job location, I had to give up the spot. So this is round 2. I'm applying for MA to: UPittsburgh UMass-Amherst Boston University Boston College Trinity College (CT) Tufts UConn We will most likely be relocating in either Springfield or Pittsburgh, hence the geographical locations. I have absolutely no control over which place we go, so that bugs me a bit - if I get a spot in one region, but not in the other, and I have to move to the other, well... My area of study is medieval European history. Here's my stuff: *Undergrad BA in social science-history at small LAC *GPA 3.83 *Taught secondary school social studies for 5 years *GRE: 680V, 620Q, 5.5AW *Good writing sample and personal statement *3 letters: one from undergrad advisor, who supervised my thesis and allowed me to teach a couple of his classes as an undergrad; two from coworkers (no choice there - I've been out of school 6 years and went to a small school - other 2 profs I worked closely with are unavailable for letters) that did speak to my academic abilities in researching for lessons, etc. (I tended to treat my class prep like prepping for a term paper - what can I say, I like to research) *Finished first semester of Latin as self-study, will be continuing it and taking classes in French (2 semesters) before beginning MA in fall Not stellar, but I'm applying for MA, so, hopefully I'll get in somewhere. My first choice would absolutely be UMass - because of the 5 college, there are a lot of profs that match my research interests. Anyone have any comments? Do you think I have a shot at UMass or any of the others? Thanks!

That's a question you would have to ask your institution. You can ask your grad office if they can access the GRE score report when it is sent to your undergrad office. Some will, some won't.

It depends - are you taking it overseas? Is it paper-based or computer? If you're taking the paper based test, the score reports aren't mailed until 4-6 weeks after the test, so it probably wouldn't get there on time. for the computer based test, scores are supposed to be mailed 10-15 days after the test. if they are mailed on time, they should get there, but many, many people have had delays and problems with ETS getting scores out in a timely manner. I would also guess that if you are taking it in another country, it will slow it down as well. If you do take the computer test, be sure to stay on top of ETS - check with them 10 days after the test to see if they have been mailed. If not, check again in another 5 days. No matter what ETS says, check with your programs 20 days after the test to see if they have gotten it yet or not. If not, nag ETS again. Also with the computer based test, you can self-report the verbal and quant sections to your program awaiting official results.

For physics in a top school, I would try hard for a 3.5 at least. The general rule of thumb is a 3.5 for sciences and a 3.8 for humanities. Being Hispanic will not help you at all in grad school applications. Unlike undergrad, grad schools do not base decisions on a "mix" of students or boosting minorities. It's just straight "who can do the research better?" You're a rising sophomore - you have plenty of time. Boost your GPA, but don't forget that you will need good research experiences (your junior/senior years, likely) and excellent letters of rec (ask people who have supervised research).

No, there isn't one website that sums it all up - you have to look at each individually. Usually the financial aid section for the department website will list it, otherwise you will need to contact them to find out. As a grad student with 2 kids, it would have been absolutely impossible for me to stay afloat on grad school money if it wasn't for the additional salary from my husband. Even at that, the financial aid was necessary.

Well, most people used to learn languages by themselves, until the 20th century. We as a society have gotten used to people "teaching" us and seem to have forgotten how to "teach" ourselves. That having been said, some people just struggle with languages and need extra help. I'm generally pretty good at teaching myself as long as I keep up with it. But again, if I'm struggling with it, I can always take a class as a refresher. Plus, French is notoriously difficult to learn on one's own, because the pronunciation is so difficult to master. Most languages (at least the European ones I'm familiar with) are far easier.

I have to learn Latin for my MA in medieval history. I'm going the independent learning route, though - at least for now. Wheelock's is great for self-teaching, and the advantage is that you can fit it in where you want. The entire book is supposed to be equivalent to a year of college Latin, so I figure that I'll learn it, test myslef, and if I still need help, I'll take a class (which at that point will be review and hence less stress). I have the book and workbook, but I didn't get the guide, which some say is helpful, but I haven't needed it yet. Just as another option...

I just looked at the readerware site, and they currently have free bar code readers if you order the software. So I would guess that would save you a lot of time.

That's your decision. I didn't feel obligated in the least - as far as I'm concerned , it's not their business until I'm ready to mention it. At the same time, if you feel at any point you would like to share the information, given a particular coversation or professor, go for it. I mentioned it to my advisor, because it was ftting in that converstation. A general rule of thumb, I think, is to not give them something arbitrary to hold against you, but not keep it a closely guarded secret, either.

I just looked at that delicious library thing - that is really cool! That would have been especially helpful to me when I was a teacher, because it was a pain in the butt to keep track of all the classroom books my students borrowed. It almost - ALMOST - makes me want to get a Mac. I said almost.

Ah, the mark of a true academic - books and books and books and the dream of a home library. I'm darn close to it, too - yay! I think PhD programs should skip all the rigamarole, visit an applicant's house, look at their books, ask them to design their dream home, and from there can probably tell whether they'll be accepted or not. You can't walk into a room in my house without books visible - they're stacked everywhere. We've run out of bookshelves, and that's saying something, because we have a bunch of those, too. Visitors sometimes seem rather intimidated - it's kind of funny. The bonus is that my kids think this is normal and have good-sized book collections of their own (my 1000 book count doesn't include their books - they each have probably 50-100 books - one kid's 9 and the other is 3!). The most excited reactions I get from them is when I say we're going to either the bookstore or the library. They're going to be crazy academics too, I fear.

Wow. That's far too much work. We own approximately 1000 books in all different catagories. They're looosly grouped, but ther's still a lot of scatter. I know what I own, and I know where it is, and if it isn't, I check the other places it might be. Inefficient? Probably. But it never takes me more than 10 minutes to find something, and usually less. You'll probably find that you know exactly what you have and where it is. Incidentally, I have bookshelves EVERYWHERE. Can't wait to get bigger house and centralize everything in one room.

Yay, another medievalist! I think a lot of women profs become authoritarian because they have to deal with a lack of respect, as Cheryl says, although it's probably not limited to older profs. It's still tough sometimes for a woman to command respect from a class. Personally, I taught high school for 5 years between BA and beginning my MA, so I'm not in the least bit worried. Still, I look a lot younger than my age, so I expect to have issues. I just act like there shouldn't be issues. Supreme confidence works wonders - even when it's fake, but preferably if you really are comfortable with yourself.

Your age is not their business anyway. Personally, I'd tell them that I don't share my age. But if you can't do that, then no, I don't think there is anything wrong with lying about it. Honestly, what undergrad is going to find out, and if they do, who cares? Most of them are lying about their age every weekend at the bars.

You do not have to gain weight if you move to the US. We eat tons of fresh veggies - they may not be out of a garden, but produce in the grocery store is almost as good. We eat red meat perhaps 4-6 times a month. People who gain weight when they come to the US or start living on their own usually do so because they're eating too much junk food. Man, I don't even BUY junk food. My son's friends' parents complain all the time about how they can't get their kids to stop eating so much junk food. Um, don't buy it? I've seen them at the grocery store - half the cart is chips, pop, cookies - they're always shocked at my cart. Fruit, veggies, a little chicken, fish, pasta, milk and juice. Done. My favorite cooking magazine is Cooking Light. I highly recommend it. I've never been overweight in my life (high metabolism - lucky me!), but all the meals are really healthy and really good. I'm Italian, so I grew up cooking, and now I just collect new recipes. Wish my husband cooked sometimes to give me a break, though...

Guys, I'd point out that you might want to be in school for about a year before you even think about getting a new dog. First, you have no idea until after teh first semester how much time you'll have. All dogs are pretty social - they need people and attention and aren't generally happy when left alone all day. if you have apuppy and it grows into an adult dog with you and is really secure with you, that's a bit different. But puppies (dogs are considered puppies until age 2) cannot be left alone for long period of time, it's really bad for their socialization. And rescue dogs, although theyare adults, have insecurities because most have been abandoned. If you leave them alone all day, they relive that feeling. If you get though your first year and think you'll have the time, get a dog at the beginning of the summer so the dog can bond with you and become comfortable with your house. You just won't be around enough during the school year to do this, but if you are home more during the summer (as is likely), you can bond appropriately. Dogs who are left alone too much (and "too much" can really depend on the dog - it can mean 8 hours or 15 minutes) can develop separation anxiety, become destructive, and develop all kinds off fun habits that will take you years to break (like gettting into your trash for a mid-afternoon snack - I have a friend whose dog still does this unless she watches like a hawk - and it's been YEARS. The cat idea was the best - they just aren't as socially needy. If you're allergic, get a hamster, rabbit, or something else. We have a Siberian husky puppy (8 months), but I've been home all day since we got him in December, and for my MA program I'm only really going to be gone maybe 3 hours at a time, which he can handle. Library time I can schedule when my husband is home. BTW, purebreds are not necessarily less healthy than mutts - it depends on where you get the dog. We got ours from a reputable breeder, because I know huskies are great with kids and I know their personalities well. A purebred puppy was the best way for me to guarantee that the husky temperment was what I would get. Reputable breeders don't inbreed so much, and they screen for genetic disorders before breeding. Plus, a mutt can get some terrible disorders if it's something genetically dominant, because you just don't know where the heck he came from. If you get a dog, be sure you can afford ALL the vet bills - because man, it can get expensive. I highly recommend pet insurance.

It's nice to hear people who won't look at me like I have three heads when I tell them I'm in grad school AND have children... 1) We have two kids - 9 (almost 10) and 3. Husband is entering medical residency in Kentucky, so that narrowed my choices of grad programs considerably. I decided to do my MA while in Kentucky and then do my PhD after when we can move wherever. We are actually going to have more kids, but our last will be at least a year old when I start my PhD. Since I juggled full time undergrad, full time work, and a toddler as a single mom, I'm not too stressed about the whole thing. 2) I'm not sure about the seriousness of your relationship, Bianca, but in Massachusetts you and your partner can be married. I'm not sure, but I would think that a "civil union" like you can get in Vermont would work the same. 3) Schools - what a headache. The thing is, when you look at schools, they all use different criteria for determining rank, and not all goive you equal information. One state will list according to their state test, one will give you information on national tests, and some use a combination of criteria. Upon moving to Kentucky, we were told this certain district was one of teh best in the state, and one list bore that out. But then I looked up the data on individual schools based on a national test, and I found out that a couple schools in the district were skewing teh data pretty heavily - and some of the schools in the district just downright sucked. So be careful. Also look at what the school offers - is it just math and reading, all day all the time? If they don't offer at least some of these: enrichment for gifted students, foreign languages, wide range of extracurriculars, field trips, etc., it's not a good school. It's teaching to the test to get high scores, but it wil probably make your child hate school. The best place to get information is the department of education in each state (look at their website). They list score information and rankings. Ignore anything about awwards the school has received - most are meaningless. There are tons of "Blue Ribbon Schools" (through the US department of education) that are actually failing schools by the same criteria, so I don't know what the awards are for. use your graduate student ability to analyze data, and be vigilant. Some states, like Texas, have notoriously troubled schools throughout the state, some states like Massachusetts or New York are pretty safe bets no matter where you go. My advice would be to find the good schools nearby, then look for housing within those areas.

Wrigleyville? Blech. Unless you like loud drunk people at night in front of your house, no parking, and people peeing in your yard in the afternoon...

Yeah, there was an article about it in the Chronicle, too, that was anti-blog. I guess they had googled someinterview candidates (or gone directly to their webpages that they provided - stupid thing to do) and decided these people were all screwed up. I think it's a bit Big Brother, myself, to be googling people without their knowledge and basing job decisions on what a person may vent or act like outside the realm of work. I certainly act differently outside of work than at work, and if I want to vent or express political views or comment on any other inane parts of our universe, that's my business. I guess I would just recommend that if you blog, make sure it's anonymous and can't be traced to you through the things you say. They also pointed out that stuff is cached on google, so even though one person had taken their name off their blog before job hunting, it came up through the cache.

BTW, read this - read the whole thing, it's not as anti-academia as you think at first, but embedded in the sarcastic humor, he has a strong point. http://www.giantflightlessbirds.com/CCdropoutnow.htm

I think the the kind of year off JM was referring to was the year off where you work in a career type job or something related to your field (heavy research, Fulbright, etc.). At the risk of being flamed, I agree with him. There are plenty of people who "knew" they wanted to be in academia forever, until they got partway through their PhD. And there are lots of people who do want to be in academia, but after some outside experiences change and refine their focus. After I left my undergrad, my focus was solidly modern Europe and conflict studies; after five years of independent study while spending time in my career, I realized I'm very much a medievalist, and I am more passionate about that than I ever was about my previous interests (don't get me wrong, I was very passionate about my previous topic of interest, too, I'm just more so about this.) One of the reasons adcoms love people who have spent some time outside the ivory tower is that those people KNOW they really want to be there. They've been to the other side, they've experienced it, and they chose to come back. People who have spent at least a year outside have, in general, far more perspective on grad school than those who go straight through (I realize there are exceptions, but the person that does not benefit from a solid, well-spent year off is rare indeed). Heck, I left a $50,000 a year career to go back to grad school for $10,000 and tuition. And if asked, I can specify exactly why. Not only is that desireable for adcoms, it's desireable for me, because I know I'm not going to be partway through wondering, "Why am I doing this again?" Besides, then you don't have to apply for grad school while finishing up your senior thesis/master's thesis.

I've lived in or around Chicago my entire life, so here's my 2 cents. We're leaving Chicago around the end of June, and we live in Hyde Park (UChicago). We rent a 3BR townhouse with 2 parking spaces from some very nice doctors for $1500/mo. We used to live in an apartment closer to the hospital (a few blocks away), but we got really irritated with the rental company, who utterly refused to fix anything, and the other tenants, who were all undergrads and had loud obnoxious parties (even during the week) and were generally loud and obnoxious even when by themselves (apparently no one told them that UChicago is the place fun comes to die). If you have a family or roommates and want a quiet place, you're more than welcome to come see our townhouse (I promise I get absolutely nothing for this - I don't get any money and our lease goes through the end of June, so we don't need to sublet). I'm right next to the grocery store and the Metra, so we can get downtown pretty quicky. If you want to know anything about rental companies in Hyde Park, let me know. Be aware when it comes to public transportation in Chicago - it's not that rosy, unless you live on the line that you need to get from Point A to Point B. My husband used to take it places, and it was a huge hassle, as he needed a combination of two trains and two buses, and he had to walk several blocks between train stations. The walking wouldn't be bad if it wasn't so freakin' cold here in the winter. And if you have to take the buses at the same time as the high school kids are going to school, it's an absolute nightmare (all the high school students take the city buses - there are very few "school buses", so they're overcrowded and you have to put up with the kids - as a former public school teacher, that's no picnic, I assure you.) I can't remember if this was mentioned, but also be aware that Chicago is very spotty as far as safe neighborhoods/unsafe neighborhoods. A few blocks will be beautiful, and then you cross the street and it's ghetto, then a few blocks later it's fine again. I can't stress the importance of not renting a place until yougo see it. Hyde Park around the university is OK (I'd say from 50th to 59th and from Cottage Grove to the lake) but anything beyond there you need to check out. In Kenwood (just north of Hyde Park, around 43rd to 49th) there are TONS of old mansions - yes, mansions - where all the rich people in Chicago used to live. But in places they abut apartment buildings that are not, shall I say, the kind of neighbors I'd like to have. So please visit anyplace before you rent. The "safe" area I mentioned, though, has tons of police presence (both Chicago cops and the university police). I still wouldn't walk around after dark anywhere that wasn't the main streets, but I can't think of anyplace in Chicago where it's truly safe to do that.