Between Fields

Speaking as someone who works in a graduate office, yeah, your money went to pay the person who opened the envelope, removed the staples, copied it, sent it to committees, etc., not to the admissions committee itself. Being rude to people at the university level is just going to mean that they stop reading your emails/put you at the bottom of their massive pile of work they need to get done. Put another way, admissions officers and graduate secretaries are not paid enough to care about your $100 when they have other things to be doing, and the tone you used in your messages is a guaranteed way to not get helped. Another possibility that you probably missed out on is that you were on a tacit waiting list. Some schools don't "reject" until the very, very last minute, so they can still offer people spots if they come up.

At the program I'm going to, about half of the PhD students have an MA from the same place they got their BA, myself included. It's pretty rare to go all the way from undergrad through your doctoral work at one place, though.

I'm pretty sure the FAFSA doesn't hold IRAs, 401Ks, etc. against you. That's one option, if you want to hold onto the money for a long time.

Being gay, you learn that you're constantly either coming out to new people, or closeting yourself. There's never going to be a moment where it's "done" and you're "out." Try to get a feel for people, and see if it seems right for you to mention your boyfriend. You may find that it's easier to come out to certain people, than to send an email to the listserv or something like that. I'm in English, which is one of the most accepting fields for this sort of thing, but I still don't make a point of mentioning it to everyone, especially since I'm single. In a few classes, I mentioned it when it was relevant, but most of my professors didn't know explicitly. (Probably implicitly, because I can be pretty sassy, and all that...) It seems like you think you might get a negative reaction from your labmates? You're the best person to judge that. Ideologically, I think everyone should be out all the time, but it's ok to self-closet if you feel like you need to for professional reasons. If people really want to spend time with you, though, and you don't want to leave your partner out, don't. Bring him along. See what the initial reaction is, and you can decide how much you want to come out, or if it's better to do something else. Also figure out what your partner wants; some guys are fine being introduced as the roommate or friend, but many wouldn't. As for your advisor, until you get to the point where you're talking in a more social setting, I personally wouldn't mention it. I don't really like my professors knowing too much about me, though. So, there's no easy answer. Do it on a case-by-case basis and trust your instincts. We always have to decide to whom and to what degree we're out of the closet, and you don't have to do it all at once.

What field are you in? Paying for a PhD out of pocket is unsustainable in most fields.

I use a binder for each section I'm teaching, as a previous poster mentioned, but instead of lecture notes, I have the course roster and a page for each student. I add their rubrics and research proposals into it as I get them, too. Anytime I meet with a student, I turn to their page and take a few notes. Students love it when you remember what they said, and you'll quickly find that even though you think you know your students' names, you're never going to remember which student asked for what in office hours, unless you write it down. I also do my attendance on paper in this, and keep copies of the syllabus and assignment sheets. Don't let them sucker you. Students will have trouble adjusting to college (especially in the first semester), but when a student comes up with sob story after sob story, refer them to the appropriate campus offices (disability services, counseling, etc.), because if you keep accommodating them without documentation, you're going to run into issues. This is going to sound petty, but don't loan books (or anything, really) to students. I let one of mine use a very expensive Greek history book my first semester teaching because the library didn't have a copy, and it came back with creased pages, a few stains, and a torn book jacket. Suffice it to say, it made it very difficult to be objective on his paper. When you're meeting with students, leave your office door open. I'd say leave it open, even if they ask for you to close it. Grad students are vulnerable to false accusations, and I know that most students would never do anything of that nature, but the wife of caesar must be beyond repute, right? (This is a tip I got from my supervisor.) If you're meeting with a student and you're concerned about their reaction to what you're going to say (i.e. if you're accusing them of plagiarism or something of that nature), it's ok to have a colleague with you "grading/reading/sleeping" in the corner, so that there's a third party witness. I did this when I had to confront a student about falsifying rough drafts. Don't assume that students can read, not even at an SLAC. Give your assignment a few different ways: verbally, online, and in paper. They still won't read or listen, but at least you can cover your bases. Monitor your international students' progress in the first few days of the course. Make it a point to talk to them and try to get a feel for their ability level in English, especially if you're teaching an English course. This really helped me my first semester, because I discovered that a student had skipped the required pre-req for international students to get into first-year composition, and had I not talked to the department, I probably would have had to fail her. (She got a very low grade the second semester, even with that pre-req...) At the PhD and MA level, most of us are not equipped to deal with TESOL issues, so become friends with the professors in your department who are certified, and get all the resources you can, if you need them.

I traded my 2010 Mitsubishi Galant for a 2013 Ford Fiesta after I got my MA. It's lowered my payment by $40 and the gas mileage is at least 25% better. It's also got a pretty ginormous trunk, for a compact, with rear seats that fold down. I was able to pack my entire office into it, when I had to clean it out in June. I got a really good deal on the Titanium trim package, because it's slightly used and it was part of a hail sale, so I'm a happy camper. Ironically, the Mitsubishi I had was built in the town I'm moving to, but the Fiesta was made in Mexico.

I'd agree with that, since it's so hard to get into them if you have perfect grades to start with. A mid-ranked program is still a possibility though, if some amount of amelioration is made.

It seems like option 2 would actually be a better fit for going on to PhD programs. From what I've seen, most don't require an MA thesis for admission, and will actually have you take extra classes to make up deficiencies in the breadth of your MA education, so it's to your benefit to take a wide range of courses (well, as wide as is prudent in your sub-field). Plus, as previous posters have said, it gives you more papers to draw your sample from and more experience adapting to the different writing demands of graduate courses. A one year program isn't a huge amount of time to write a 100 page thesis. It can certainly be done, but it seems like you'd be cramming research and writing into the same time-space, and it seems like your time for revision would be pretty slim. I wrote a thesis, but I was in a two-year program and I had a really strong desire to write one from the beginning. That IRP seems like a better use of one year, and a nice compromise among your three options.

Getting a master's first with a perfect (or near perfect) record can un-do a low undergraduate GPA. Mine was closer to 3.0 than yours, but I had some seriously bad semesters during my first two years of undergraduate, and one failed major course (due to a lot of reasons), but my SOP and master's grades were enough for the admissions committee. If you can develop it into a narrative of realizing your strengths and weaknesses and then dealing with them, that helps too.

Derek Walcott's Omeros and Assia Djebar's Fantasia are not theory books, but they do engage in reflection on the postcolonial experience quite explicitly. I'd recommend them, to help break up any heavy-duty theoretical reading binges.

I was worried about missing the deadline to turn in my thesis because one of my committee members is indisposed until after it passes, and then the graduate secretary mocked me for being concerned about deadlines.

My first priority is finding someplace to live. Since this is pretty late in the season for college housing, I might have to live in "real people" housing the first year, but that might be a nice treat to myself.

At my university we have an option for people still needing to research but who aren't on campus anymore, it's a zero-credit thesis continuation/research course that grants you access to the library resources. Maybe your university has something like that? Whatever cost it would be would likely be lower than subscribing to all the databases you would want to use. That way you could get in through a VPN instead of having to be there physically.

My undergraduate GPA was less than .1 under 3.0, but I have a 4.0 in my master's program and was elected to Phi Kappa Phi last semester. I got three funded offers and one unfunded offer, plus a waitlist, and only one actual rejection. My GRE scores are pretty good but not savant-level. I had (from what they told me) stellar recommendations, including one from a senior university administrator. My GPA suffered for a few semesters in my first two years in undergrad because of a lot of reasons, but mainly trying to mature as a young gay man in the rural Midwest and the challenges that brings. The main thing I can say to people with lower GPAs wanting into programs is to explain why you had that GPA and how you've grown from that point--one program told me that my personal statement's explanation really helped me get in.

Does anyone have any further advice about Bloomington-Normal? I'm looking for an apartment, but it's been tough since I accepted so late in the cycle. I'm considering on-campus housing at Illinois State... Is that an awful idea?

I've finally come to a decision: I'll be at Illinois State University in the Fall!!

Speaking as someone who got in off the list at several places... I haven't made up my mind, yet, and I'm sure a lot of others haven't since we've only had a few days. There's still hope! (And sorry, btw, I'm having an awful time deciding and generally being an impediment to others' happiness.)

No, changing your research goals doesn't make you a worse applicant--it means that you've carefully considered what you actually are interested and your perspective has evolved.

I've heard such good things, but I'm having a really tough time deciding--ISU's program is so pedagogy-focused with the benefit of having specific phd-level literary theory and literature courses in addition to my rhetoric speciality that BGSU doesn't, BUT the program is so much bigger so I might get lost in the crowd, BUT they're offering more money and health insurance than BGSU is...

Another acceptance off the waitlist, today. After the first one, I told the other two about it and they almost immediately sent me offers, which was a nice feeling. I've been sort of promised a fourth one, tomorrow. I was supposed to be making final edits to my thesis today, but that completely went out the window.

I think I may have gotten in to BGSU because of this, so yes it did help!

Finally in at Bowling Green, now. I'm so torn between there and Illinois State, though. They both seem to have excellent placement rates, they're similarly-sized, they're in similar Midwestern towns... I guess I'll have to learn to be less indecisive in the next few days.

I was accepted today off of the waitlist at Illinois State, and the letter said I had to reply by the 15th. My department chair and VPAA here advised me to ask for a little more time, and so I now have until Friday. (They actually said I should ask for a whole week, but I was being conservative.) I'm terrified and excited at the same time, because I'm waiting for three other offers that the DGSs have been very optimistic about over the past few weeks, but I also know I'd be stupid to turn down a fully-funded (for four years, five years if you pass your dissertation proposal) offer. I'm really excited by the program's focus on pedagogy and integrating it into all aspects of the curriculum, but at the same time I'm not sure if I want to be in the midwest for another half-decade (I was born here, but I'm one of those individuals who isn't a straight WASP, and so it's not always so fun to live here).

I'm gay, so maybe it's a little different for me, but I've not experienced significant differences between living with either gender. I've lived with neat freak guys and gals, though I do have to admit that girls seem to be messier than guys in the bathroom and in terms of clutter, but guys are messier in the kitchen.