fencergirl

Hey DBear, thanks. I did successfully complete the application process luckily haha. I think in the end I edited for length for some schools and went over on length for the schools that were more flexible in their requirements.

I submitted part of my undergrad "thesis." The original was about 50 pages but I had already edited it down to about 30 for an undergrad publication. For those that allowed 25+ pages, I used that version. Technically it went over the page count for a few schools but that was really only for the appendix (images) and bibliography. One school asked for 10 pages so I made a completely different edited version for that. And one school required two 2,000 word excerpts so I used that paper and an excerpt from an earlier paper from my junior year. Neither of the samples I used were written for a history class. My thesis was pretty interdisciplinary but included a historical element and the other paper was for a sociology class but also related back to my interests in history. Neither, unfortunately, used foreign language sources so I was a little nervous about using them, but I had pretty good success (accepted to 6 out of 9 schools). So quality of writing and thinking is definitely important, and I'm sure using foreign language sources would not hurt either. Use the paper that best reflects your abilities to think, research, and write well.

I asked about Chromebooks and got some good reccs starting on page 13 of this thread

Very helpful, thank you! Will keep reading and plugging away. I'm a bit worried about disappointing my advisor if my idea isn't well-received but I'll get over it haha.

Hey Vialy! I'm also a girl (if that wasn't made clear in my username ) I'm looking at places on my own if I can afford one but if that doesn't end up being possible perhaps we can talk some more. I'm also meeting my advisor-to-be soon and am excited but quite nervous! I've been living in Japan the past two years and will be studying Japanese history this fall I'm definitely still polishing my Japanese to be honest though - that's great that you have such an interest!

Not to hijack this thread completely but since it might be helpful to OP anyway, what are your suggestions for developing research ideas? I'm in history, and my advisor has asked me to begin thinking about first year paper/possible thesis topics before I start my Ph.D program this fall. I have several specific interests and have been doing a lot of reading in those areas to see what has been done and what hasn't been done, and have found somewhat of an idea for a paper. But how do I know if my idea is workable or not?

Clark's are my go-tos for shoes like this, but I've also had good luck with Naturalizers and EasySpirit.

Yeah apparently it's because my last name has a space in it. A bit silly - I'm sure I am not the only one!

Anyone been able to make an email address yet? I got the info and link but keep getting an error message ;(

Leggings as pants? Never acceptable in my book! Leggings with a nice skirt or dress, totally fine.

The fact that he is suggesting a meeting makes me think it isn't good news. It's unfortunate that he suggested the meeting for after the drop-date. You probably should have asked to meet earlier. I would drop the course at this point unless I was very confident in my work.

Why would people say gifts are a bad idea? I mean, you want to be careful to get something appropriate of course but I think gifts are fine. Just be careful not to spend too much or give something that looks like it might be worth a lot of money as professors may not be allowed to accept those. (Personally I'd also stay away from food and alcohol unless I really knew their taste). I gave my LORs a card and a small canvas print I made on Snapfish using photos from my time here in Japan. They seemed to really like it and one said it was the best thank you gift ever so it was well worth it for me! (Snapfish often has 50-60% off sales, I'd definitely wait for one of those if you want to go that route).

Hey @scrivere! I'll be in history too! What area are you doing if you don't mind me asking? I'll be doing modern Japan. There are at least a couple other of us history peeps on this board (Buzz and Momo above). You can PM me or Buzz if you wanna be added to the Facebook group It's kind of quiet now but we can probably use it to find roommates and such when more peeps join.

Yeah mine is 15.6 inches which is already on the large side for finding bags to fit it in etc. I carry it to work everyday now (but have a car) and it is manageable but very bulky and I am clumsy so I often accidently hit it against desks/door frames/etc while carrying it which I worry will damage the computer. So I feel like a Chromebook for when I am on campus and the bigger laptop at home might be a good solution! Now just have to figure out which chromebook. I'd like to keep the cost around $200 I think. I don't care too much about the touch screen part but would like a decent keyboard. Thanks for letting me know about your experiences, @rising_star , @A blighted one and @CBclone!

Hi @roshaniitd88. Did you try the search bar? I looked and didn't see anything on this forum which is not surprising since it just one degree with presumably a fairly small cohort and most people are probably not a part of gradcafe. You can always start your own thread though! Otherwise, maybe look for a facebook group?

Ah, so you've already waited 14 of the 15 days then?? That is tricky... You probably should have asked have for an extension from school B earlier. Perhaps you can call them and ask now though? Say you are waiting to hear from another school and want to consider all your options, and you thought you would have heard by now but you haven't, or something like that? That still seems preferable to accepting an offer and then later backing out. Accepting an offer from one school and then turning it down later is very bad form (and will reflect badly and you and maybe even your letter writers) and should be avoided if at all possible. On the other hand, this is a pretty tricky situation considering B is your dream school and they say you are high on the list. Maybe some more experienced people can weigh in. Good luck!

Hi Buzz, yeah I was accepted for the History program. Hm okay I thought we were just supposed to email that we had filled out the online form, not forward the actual confirmation. Did you get your email address then? Yes, definitely PM me about the Facebook group please! Thanks a bunch!

Hi @Sety. So just to clarify you are thinking of either going straight into a Masters program for Japanese Language (in the US or Japan?), or doing JET or similar first to increase your language skills? Also, I guess I wonder why you want to teach Japanese language as opposed to something else related to Japan? It seems like you want to go down a teaching path - what are your feelings about doing ESL or TEFL in the United States? As to whether your goal is realistic... Unfortunately I'm going to have to agree with some of the others above and say no. Possible, maybe, but realistic, no. As others have mentioned, you will be at a huge disadvantage not being a native speaker. Furthermore, even native speakers with excellent qualifications in teaching Japanese language often cannot get a tenure-track job but adjunct or teach at community colleges. If you are open to those kinds of positions, there's (maybe?) a chance. But is that really a worthwhile payoff after the years of hard work and the expenses of a graduate degree? I'm not so sure. But if you think if is, you will definitely need to improve your language skills first. You say you have taken 2 years of Japanese level Japanese. To be honest, that's not very much. I remember reading that for English speakers studying Japanese without any kanji background, it takes on average something like 6 years to achieve proficiency in Japanese versus only 1-2 years in a language like Spanish or French. (Of course you can definitely do it faster depending on how many hours you put in per week, such as in an immersion program). And that's to achieve proficiency, not the kind of fluency you would need to be Japanese language professor at university. Just to get an idea of your ability, have you taken the JLPT? I think you need to get experience living in Japan. The best way to improve your Japanese is by living in Japan, and (this is coming from someone with experience) realizing what a huge gap there is between a couple years of college Japanese and actual fluency. Also, language is intimately related with culture and there are certain things you will not be able to understand without having the experience of living there. An intensive language program like the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies would be ideal, but that has a pretty hefty price tag. On JET at least you are actually earning money and still should have plenty of time to study. There are also some Master's programs in Japanese Studies these days where you can take Japanese culture/history/etc classes while also taking Japanese language classes. This would also be another option, and is less expensive than a Master's program in the U.S. Definitely look into the Monbukagakusho scholarships as well for graduate study and language study in Japan. Perhaps you can try out one of those options while keeping an open mind about your career path. After a couple years you may find you want something different than you thought, like government work or translating. As far as applying to graduate schools in the U.S., you definitely need 3 recommendations but not all 3 have to be from Japanese language professors. Academic references are generally better though unless you have an a really strong professional reference (ideally from someone in a related field). Anyway, these are just my recommendations based on studying Japanese for ~6 years and living in Japan for 3 of those years (btw, I'm not fluent yet though I passed JLPT N2 and can converse comfortably on most subjects). Seems like the best thing to do would be to get advice from someone who has actually done what you want to do, like your professor. I hope you don't feel too discouraged but rather are better aware of your options.

@drivingthoughts Yeah I'm thinking about going for it... Will wait until I'm back in the US and can look at them in person and maybe there will be newer models by then (or current models will get cheaper). They seem pretty practical all things considered. Seems like they are also Mendeley compatible. Dunno if the word processing software will be able to incorporate Mendeley citations though?

If you just emailed them about this I don't think I would email again so soon. I'd wait a couple more weeks when people may have declined their offers. Personally I would not pass up a funded offer at Chicago or another school to try again next year. What if you end up with no funded offers next year? Of course you want to be happy in your program but can you only be happy at Yale?

So I have a rather large-ish laptop, 15.6 inches and about 5.5 pounds. Not a total monster but I carry it everyday now and it's pretty heavy for me. I am thinking about getting something like the Asus Chromebook Flip (combo of touch screen tablet and notebook computer) for bringing to school when I need to do basic research and word processing, and keep the bigger laptop at home as basically a desktop. Does anyone have any experience with the Asus Chromebook or similar Chromebooks like the Acer one? I like the idea of a very small, light computer that still has a full keyboard. I'm not usually a power-user and just need something for reading PDFs, surfing the web, and word-processing. I have heard that the touch-features are kind of glitchy on the Asus though... I do also have a Nexus 7 (the original) which I use to watch videos but I've never found it convenient for typing so mainly use it for entertainment when traveling. I'm trying to decide if something like the Chromebook would really be useful or not.

Hey @carlsaganism I accepted my offer a few days ago and haven't gotten my email yet. I hope we will get it soon as I do want to look into the graduate housing at Northwestern and join the facebook groups and such @MrMomo, I'm glad you ended up accepting! That's exciting. I'm sure we'll be taking classes together! @Portmanteaujam, That's a really good tip for us out of country/out of state people. Thanks very much!

Hi @dreambabydream, I see, those are fair points on the MAPSS program. BTW I noticed in the EALC thread that you were actually offered 20k at Yale (not 2k as you typed above) which is pretty great for an M.A. program. But of course I understand the desire not to go into debt for a graduate program and I think that is very wise. Are the Oxford and Cambridge offers fully funded/better funded than the Yale offer? If so you can maybe mention it in a diplomatic way but I don't know that it will affect their funding distribution process. I don't think that being an international student is relevant because Yale is a private school and I assume the funding is internal rather than from a governmental body. (But I could be wrong). They just don't/can't fund everyone. I don't think your plans to enter academia or not are relevant. There are several threads on negotiating offers so you might want to look at those for more advice! Sounds like you have several funded offers so while I know making a decision is stressful, that's really not a bad decision to be in. I've decided to attend a Ph.D. program at Northwestern. It's a great fit for me.

They are both really great programs. MAPSS is very well known so I don't think you should feel it lacks prestige. What do you like better about the course at Yale? I think I would old on a little longer to see if the funding situation at Yale might change but if it doesn't I would take the Chicago offer and run with it. (It seems Yale funds only a couple students in the program each year, but a couple people have posted on the results page that they had been offered full funding and planned to decline so there is a CHANCE this funding may be passed down. But I don't think you can count on it).

@westy3789There are many reasons that taking on a ton of work may not be possible for OP right now so this answer is neither helpful nor kind. For example, maybe OP is already in a full time graduate program and is prohibited under their terms of financial aid from taking on additional work. Or they are an international student and same problem. Or they are taking care of a sick relative. You don't know, so the judgement is really not necessary or useful. And while I admire your work ethic, sleeping 2-3 hours a day is obviously not healthy and can be very dangerous. The other advice in the thread is much more realistic and useful.