Creffecreve

Thanks, everyone! raneck: yes, I feel like most options I've looked at so far require earned income. I also looked at saving accounts with online banks that have a higher rate of interest, and that is a potential option. The problem is that in addition to being a graduate student, I am also an international student (but I do have a SSN). So I am not even eligible for a lot of these options! I think I should be able to save. My stipend is generous as stipends go, and I think I've been managing fine during my undergrad years. So yes, I'd like to start investing, instead of letting the money just lie in my account. I just need to figure out how!

Do any graduate students contribute money to IRAs or any other form of investment while in school? I really would like to start saving money now, but since I'm going straight to grad school from undergrad, and a lot of the options out there seem to be for people with income, I don't know where to start. Any ideas/suggestions?

I am! PM me, biisis, or anyone else still looking for a roommate for the end of august onwards.

You might want to look at Cornell, and Liz Anker specifically, as she also does postcolonial studies within a legal framework (just based on your background, I don't know if that would interest you!)

Im finishing up my undergrad there, feel free to PM me, I'm happy to talk about the program.

I just emailed either the DGS or professors I'd been in touch with to tell them I was considering other offers and wouldn't be going there in the fall. If you're sure you won't go somewhere, then I'd just tell them. I felt kinda bad doing it for some schools, but frankly, they'd rather know now and it's better for anyone waitlisted. Of course, if there's even the slightest chance you might change your mind, you're well within your rights to hold on to the offer.

Ah, okay! Yep, that's what I got. Congratulations on your Columbia acceptance though! Sorry to hijack this thread-- but yes, usually colleges have offered to pay transportation and put me up at either a hotel or with a graduate student. Cornell being the only exception to that so far.

Hi ReadingLisa-- just curious, did Cornell offer to pay for your transportation? I wasn't really sure with them, and I don't know if I should ask or not.

I'll chime in, if you'd like. I got into 4 top 20 schools, for what it's worth, although I'm still kind of meh about rankings. I go to an average state school, but our English department is wonderful (I gush about it whatever chance I get) and I had recommendation letters from two full professors who are really well known in their fields (which were not related to my field of interest) and one assistant professor who was in my field, sort of. Close to a 4.0, although I definitely had a couple of Bs in English classes during sophomore year, GRE scores, subject and general in the 90-95th percentile. I personally think there was a huge correlation between colleges that I thought I were a better fit and colleges that I got into. Like jazzy above, I didn't look for people specifically doing what I want to do. In fact, I realized early on that there were very few people doing EXACTLY what I wanted, so I branched out, both in trying to research POIs and in terms of how I framed my SOP. For instance, I realized that I'd only taken maybe one course in my area of interest, so I started looking for intersecting interests in other classes/periods that I had studied to tie them into my interest. Actually, what was extremely helpful to me as I wrote my SOP over the fall semester was that I began to also simultaneously choose paper topics for my seminars that were in some way related to my theoretical and thematic interests. This made everything come together a lot better, and made me more well rounded I believe. Finally, my writing sample. I was planning to submit a really strong paper that I'd been working on for a while, but which was only tangentially related to my area of interest. I asked a bunch of people their advice regarding this matter, and they all strongly indicated that having a directly related paper would be much more helpful in the application process. Luckily, my senior thesis was pretty much on the exact topic that I was interested in-- and I'm really glad that I put in all that effort to complete it and submit it. In fact, I had a professor say that the former paper was better overall, but that I should go ahead and submit the second one because it would just make my application more cohesive. So all that. And the fact that my professors were incredibly supportive, and read over all my materials numerous times. Hope this helps!

Ah, yes, an acceptance letter that misspells my name. Awkward. ETA: But I'm not complaining!

You might want to look at Emory, and Pittsburgh. I applied for postcolonial too, but with a different focus.

Me too!!!

I haven't heard anything from them (UIUC), and there are no results posted on the results board. Also, previous years indicate they notified around the end of February. So I'm guessing most applicants haven't been notified.

Thanks, guys! The problem is that they kind of have their visiting days on the same weekend!

I was delighted to have been admitted to NYU's English PhD program. However, I've been speaking to professors, and some of them seemed to hint that the students were not fully funded/dissatisfied with the program. I do believe that NYU recently changed its funding policies, because it seemed like all the PhD students receive the same funding, and the amount seems pretty reasonable to me. Does anyone know anything about the strength of NYU's program/these concerns that some people raised? Also, does it make sense to consider a program like Wisconsin over NYU? They're ranked roughly the same, but NYU seems to be a stronger program, and plus, its new york. I'd be glad to hear any opinions/first hand accounts/second hand knowledge!

I would also consider looking at what current students are doing. If a couple of them seemed to be doing related stuff, I figured that was a good sign. You could also look at the kind of classes that have been offered over the past couple of years to see how many would be of interest to you/related to your research.

Thank you, this is super helpful! On to making some phone calls now!

As happy as I am to have been accepted by a program, there's always something to worry about, ha. Basically, what sort of questions are appropriate to ask when a professor at a school contacts you? I do have general questions about funding details, cohort size, interdepartmental classes... but is there anything more that I should be asking about at this stage?

It also doesn't help that sherlock doesn't come out till the 19th of january. where is timely distraction (aka benedict cumberbatch) when you need it?

we have winter break till the end of january. i literally have nothing to do.

I literally cannot bring myself to buy anything (as in, clothes, or a laptop, even though mine is more than halfway dead) because I keep thinking about how I will have no job/prospects if i don't make it to grad school. ugh. this is awful. how on earth are we supposed to just wait for two months?

So, since all of my schools had mid-december deadlines, they won't get to see my grades from this semester since they'll come out maybe next week or so. I would've really liked for them to have seen these grades because I studied abroad for a semester last year, so they only have one set of grades from the last two years of college-- they are good grades, but since I think I did well this semester, I would've liked them to have seen those grades as well. Would it make sense to mail out official transcripts to my schools after my grades for this semester come out? Or would they not get looked at/be perceived as annoying?

^What happens when I get rejected from everywhere though is anyone's guess.

^Here's a strategy that I did decide to follow: Do not have a top school. Just don't. I made that mistake in undergrad, and was way more heartbroken than I needed to be. I'm very happy with where I ended up, and all the places I applied to are places I can see myself going and that have strong programs. Do not pin your hopes to one program.

Trust me, I've got a huge list of books on my to-read list, that's basically been untouched since this summer. I just read Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland over thanksgiving, and that was the first non-work book I'd read in so long (especially since I took the subject test, and felt obliged to read stuff that might be relevant to that all summer). As for not being on gradcafe in february/march- I want to say that I might try that, but truthfully, it ain't going to happen. Not after the long month of January which is basically winter break and will be spent huddling in the cold imagining up worst case scenarios.