Between Fields

Not tailoring the statement to each program would be a bad idea.

I'd say it's worth the money. There are several discounts it gets you, plus having something to put under the Honors section on your CV can't hurt.

Someone stole my keys.

There's a not insignificant amount of information out there that says our brains aren't completely finished forming and maturing until we're 25 or possibly later. You actually have a lot more in common cognitively with teenagers than those 30+ year olds that you've been dating. I'm too lazy to go check JSTOR, but there are some popular press articles: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=141164708 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24173194 http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10000872396390443713704577601532208760746 So to claim you're 23 and you're an expert on relationships or are significantly more mature than 18-19 year olds is problematic. With that being said, many, many people date younger and older than themselves. College students are going to date and hookup, and most of it won't lead to marriage, so I'm not sure why you brought that up in your last post... But, it is possible; my grandparents had a 17 year age gap, and then went on to be married for 55 years. But why does it matter if it wouldn't last long term? Did she say she was looking for a husband? Wanting to go on a date doesn't mean she wants to get hitched.

Well, think of it this way: Why would you do anything less than what the admissions committee is recommending, if you're wanting to get into a 'top' program?

Maybe start by avoiding evaluations like that in anything you write... Why do you want to get a PhD from a 'mediocre university'? But to answer your question, things like your ability to connect to students, your demeanor in class, professionalism, etc. are all things they would be interested in.

No, I don't think it's a good idea to quit your job. Have you taken the exam in a practice form at all? If you got into a PhD program before, your grades are obviously good. I wouldn't stress out about the GRE too much. Studying can only do so much, anyway, as it's a test that's designed to evaluate your entire pre-graduate experience. You're not going to want to not have that source of income. If you do get in again, you're going to wish you'd had the money for any number of reasons. Many, many MA/MS students are teaching, taking classes, and possibly working second jobs as they work on their applications for PhD programs, so it's definitely possible. I was also working on my thesis at that point. It really isn't that much work, if you're good at managing your time and can get an early start (i.e. now or earlier) on working through the materials. It seems stressful because of the desired outcome (i.e. a PhD and then job satisfaction for life) more than the actual input required, and because of the general type-A personality types that most of us have.

Just to complicate matters: if they're going to read it on a computer, Chadillac is correct; sans-serif fonts are easier to read. If they're going to print it out, serifs are easier to read. This has to do with the DPI of the screen, as even my fancy Macbook has insufficient resolution to make the serifs help you. (The link posted also showed that.) http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2013/03/serif-vs-sans-the-final-battle/ As with any other design choice, though, it's going to come down to specific font vs font comparisons for your application.

The above is great, but I'll also throw in my two cents. I've never TA'd in the traditional sense, so some of this might not apply if you don't have control over the assignments: I never assign rough drafts as something that's going to come to me, get feedback, and then go back to them before the final draft. Reading a paper twice times 50 students isn't something that I have time for, but it's also something that steers students into a pattern of only addressing the things you come up with, and then assuming it's A material, which isn't always the case. What I do offer, though, is to let students bring their rough drafts to my office. When students bring a draft to my office, I have them read it to me. This has two effects: it keeps there from being an awkward few minutes where I'm reading and they're silent and it lets them hear any sentence-level errors that might crop up. I refuse to edit student papers for grammar and spelling before the final draft; getting into the nitty-gritty before the final structure and idea is finished is like polishing a car before you put the fenders on it. While I set the assignment's boundaries, I don't give out rubrics and I ask them to come up with the criteria for self-evaluation sheets as a group. Part of what they turn in is an analysis of how they've succeeded or failed at what they've been assigned to do. This really helps with curtailing anxieties about evaluation. (I think. It has so far, anyway; I'm still experimenting with how this actually works in practice.) As an in-class activity before the rough draft is due for workshopping, I ask students to think about one aspect of the paper they think they're doing well, and one that they think they're doing poorly, according to the criteria that we've agreed on as a group. Once final drafts are in, I agree with what proflorax said above. Keep things brief. Focus on global comments.

My advisor insisted on 10. The school I ended up attending was the 10th, that I scrambled to find to make her happy, and actually ended up being the best fit I could imagine. Push yourself to find a lot of schools and you might discover programs you'd never even thought about.

How does continuing to quote this refute the arguments being made? Also, it's entirely plausible that they review all of the files even after the slots have been filled to account for people deciding to attend elsewhere and to construct their waiting list.

The probability is already astronomically low, domestic or not. The semantics of the word review aside, putting the applications in two piles -- domestic and international -- is part of the evaluative process. Like it or not, being an international applicant makes you more expensive to support, and that is a legitimate reason for considering your application less highly. Even with similar educational qualifications, a domestic applicant is always going to have that edge. With that being said, it is entirely probable that the domestic applications don't contain enough qualified applicants to make a cohort or that the research fit just isn't there. Totally. The review process is done by a committee of faculty members. Faculty members hate being rushed and don't often give updates on their process until their done. It's completely possible that a secretary or director wouldn't have any idea on the status until it gets back to the department-level approval process. Eigen didn't say that at all.

I'm going to New York with the money they're giving us to reimburse us for the health insurance premium at the end of the semester. (The plane ticket, anyway--I'm staying with a friend, so I don't have to pay for lodging.) I haven't been on an honest to goodness vacation in probably 7 or 8 years, so it will be nice to travel somewhere and then not have to present anything or chaperone anyone.

Since English departments have so many TA's teaching composition courses during the day (at least at medium-large institutions), grad classes are often in the evenings for scheduling reasons. Maybe see if that's a possibility where you're applying? Honestly, I'm not sure a totally online degree program would be the way to go, if you're wanting to go into teaching and maybe eventually a PhD. The in-person relationships you develop with professors are what get you recommendations and things like that.

Well, basically any laptop with a 1080p screen is going to work well for you. Test a few out to see if you like glossy or matte better--if you work outside a lot or in a sunny room, matte is a better choice. 4K is the new thing, but very few laptops have it yet, and those are mostly gaming laptops. I just got a Macbook Pro with Retina Display, which has a much higher pixel density than most laptop screens. The idea is that the pixel density of the screen approaches the human eye's threshold for seeing pixels, i.e. they're so closely packed that you couldn't see a pixel at all ever with normal vision at the normal viewing range. The resolution's also a little bit higher. But the price point on these machines is also higher. The retina display is also only glossy, now, so keep that in mind.

I've never had to use a paper journal for a class. You can get almost anything (Except perhaps stuff published within the last two or three years, but this is changing now) on the internet, either through a database or as a PDF given to you by your instructor. If you do get something in paper, you can always scan it and make a PDF yourself, then toss the paper copy.

No worries. He's changed his location to Uganda and gender to Female. That ought to throw them off his trail.

If you're thinking about cheating before you're even in grad school, maybe it's not the right path for you.

ETS is a for-profit company. When their tests are done in a university testing center, the university isn't making any money, they're doing it as part of a service to their students and the community. ETS gets all the money from the testing fees (or certainly a huge proportion of it). If the testing center there is a also for-profit organization, it makes total sense for them to charge more money, so that they can afford to operate, since they're not getting anything (or very much) from ETS. That's not fraud, it's capitalism.

Yeah, they're just standard Intel computers under the hood. There is no longer a hardware difference between Mac and PC, just a software one. It used to be that the hardware architecture was also different, so you really couldn't put Windows on a Mac, but now it's really easy to have a dual boot solution.

It's really unlikely that you'll need all of your books for each class all at once. Ask your professors which ones they're going to assign first.

This might be helpful: http://www.finaid.org/calculators/mastersadvisor.phtml Education, especially at the master's level, rarely has funded degrees.

Not really. It's certainly a professional grey area, but not an academic one, especially since he's only asking for a draft. Presumably, he'll read it and tweak it before signing it.

One tip: If you're going to use a Uhaul (especially around the first of a month), reserve it 3-4 weeks in advance. My dad and I tried to get one a week out, and it was impossible, even given that we had the major metro area I'm from to look in, plus the town I got my MA in. My dad and I thought we could do it on our own, loading up his truck and his cargo van in KC, driving to rural MO the next day and loading up my apartment, and then driving to the middle of Illinois the next day, but we were completely worn out. He and I got one chair up to the living room, and I gave up. Luckily enough, the first moving company we called in the phonebook was available right then and there, and unloaded everything in about an hour. There was a three-hour minimum, so it cost us $150, but considering we didn't get a U-Haul, it was a pretty good deal. The best cost-effort ratio is probably loading up your own vehicle, if stuff fits, or a UHaul, but paying someone to unload, as you'll probably be too worn out to want to even think about unloading it yourself, if you drive. A full-service company could run into the thousand dollar range, or more. (The office I worked in handled faculty moving reimbursements, and even assistant professors without families (and thus little stuff) complained that our ~1500 allowance was way too low...)

IIRC, grad students aren't eligible for subsidized loans. (I googled it, before posting, and I was right: http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/paying/articles/2012/03/13/grad-students-to-lose-federal-loan-subsidy) I have some unsubsidized loans. My undergraduate debt was very small, and I needed them for various reasons. It is what it is. Better than private, but still a loan. It -is- as simple as you understand it, mostly. You have a six month grace period from the first point you graduate or drop under half-time status to begin repayment, and there are a number of different payment plans you can look into.