maelia8

The ETA that I did allowed me to list preferences for states within the country where I wanted to go, and unless you wanted a really popular place, about half of the people who applied got their first choice. There was the option to include a statement requesting a specific city if you had an important reason to be there (such as family or research), but I don't know anybody who exercised this option so I can't tell you what reasons were considered "worthy" enough to allow for placement in a specific city. Of course, these policies could be different for the country that you want to go to (which I suspect to be different from the one where I went). If it really is so important for you to go to a specific place, it might be better for you to apply for the Ph.D. now and use FLAS funding later to study this language.

There's a previous thread on this in the forums: "Sub-3.0 GPA Acceptance Thread." I'd suggest you start by taking a look there.

I second the seasoned posters above about time management. My day follows a bell curve in terms of productivity, since I'm one of those creatures that is neither a morning nor an evening person (at least for creative work like writing or research). In the mornings I do housework and answer emails, then head in to campus around 11am, eat lunch with other friends in the cohort, and then do research or writing (heavy thinking work) between 1pm and 6pm. I then head home or out for dinner, and once I'm at home I work on reading and taking notes for class (the less demanding work for humanities students). I go to sleep between 11 and midnight, and I wake up at 8 or 9am. I really value my sleep, so I try to make time for that or the rest of my day will be utterly unproductive.

Have you thought about using another program to go on a language study trip before applying to the Ph.D., if you believe that having this language will substantially improve your application? I agree with the above posters that using a Fulbright Research Grant before applying for Ph.D. is probably not as good as saving that grant for your overseas research year when you're in the dissertation phase, but if this colonized language is still spoken in the country you research, do they have any government programs that fund foreign students to come learn the language? Alternatively, you could apply for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship Grant instead and live in the country for a year, learning the language hands-on while you teach English to children in schools there (if this country is part of the ETA program). Just some food for thought.

Passed my foreign language translation exam, and I'm working on a big research paper, the first draft of which is due at the beginning of next week. Feeling okay about life, but I definitely have a lot more work to do than last semester.

My only advice is to think of the long term - financially, in terms of happiness, in terms of location, and in terms of the school's reputation. Make your decision based taking everything into account, and don't just follow the momentary impulse but think of where you want to be in 5-10 years.

@brookelikeshistory, I'm a native Californian and have never lived on the East Coast (though I've visited), and all I can tell you is is what you've probably already heard: that weather, when it exists, is very mild, people are very casual and very friendly, and rents in the Bay Area are crazy expensive, but, at least in my case, still cheaper than living in official grad housing. I recommend coming out for a visit to seek out housing, as it can be competitive enough in some student areas that you have no chance of getting a place without presenting yourself in person. I don't go to a private school, so my stipend is smaller, but in my experience, university housing comes with a whole other set of costs that are not present in regular housing, in addition to frequently being near housing occupied by fraternities or other loud undergraduate dorms. Every historian I've met from Stanford has been nice, although it's smaller institution than a UC and doesn't have such a large cohort to form cohesive buddy groups. If you go there, you'll definitely never have to worry about funding

I only spent five months of 2014 in California, but when I filed my taxes with an online service it still let me file a full-year return based on those dates. The first return has already been processed, so I could go amend it now, but you're right, I should probably email the residency office to ask if it will be a problem first and then amend if necessary.

I am attending a state school as a graduate student and need to apply for residency after my first year or be charged the tuition difference for out-of-state students during my second year, something that must absolutely be avoided. I filed my 2014 taxes a few weeks ago and filed a full-year return for this state because I was overseas until August, earning no money, and thought it was silly to file a return in my former permanent resident state since I didn't earn a cent there last year while I was overseas. I just found out from an email from the grad division that "it is strongly advised to file a partial-year return" because it will help my case for establishing residency, but I can't take back the return now as it's already been filed! When I upload my documents for my residency application, should I just include a note saying that I was overseas and thus filed a full-year return for this state as I made no money anywhere else (I can prove that I moved here August 1st, got a new state driver's license and address and registered to vote within two weeks, so the rest of the documentation will be no problem). Anybody have experience with this? Could a full-year return when I wasn't actually a full-year resident seriously hurt my chances of filing for residency for tuition purposes with the university registrar?

I love Resistance and Coup and Dixit for card games, and I've been playing a lot of Imperial Assault lately as well.

I recommend posting this in the individual city subforum for the city that you are moving to - you're more likely to find folks in the same area there.

Based on what you've written yourself, it seems to me that you didn't click with the folks at Stanford all that well and are only attracted to the school's reputation and money, a Johns Hopkins you're worried about the reputation and staying on the East Coast as well although you liked the faculty, while at UCLA you liked the school, the location, and everything except for the ages of the students and the larger department. It seems to me that UCLA fulfills your basic requirements the best and you have the least concerns, so let me see if I can assuage your doubts (as a current history Ph.D. student at another UC). I am 25 and about the median age for my cohort, but if you're worried about making other young friends, you shouldn't be. First of all, the "older" people in my cohort (in their 30s) are all really nice and engaging and we connect on an intellectual level. We've become good friends, and those in my cohort who are coming directly out of undergrad are treated as equals and don't find it hard to connect with the rest of the cohort. If you don't end up connecting with them, there's always the thousands of undergrads, who can be pretty nice and fun to hang out with - I've met a lot of them, as well as grad students in other departments, through campus clubs and associations (including sports groups) and grad division events. A lot of people at my institution get jobs back east after they graduate, and I've never heard that voiced as a concern. If you want to end up back on the East Coast after you graduate, it shouldn't be an obstacle that you went to a top West Coast institution. In terms of funding, the UCs are not rolling in cash like private schools, but I've always found my grad funding to be perfectly adequate for my living needs, and for me at least, it's guaranteed through for five years with inflation adjustment if necessary. You won't have a huge financial cushion if you rely solely on department funding, but if you apply for external/summer grants you should be able to live quite comfortably. Disclaimer: I don't go to UCLA, and I am somewhat biased towards West Coast/California schools as a West Coast native who's done all of my schooling here, but in my opinion, the weather and diversity alone make it worth coming out here for school

My idea of what is incredibly physically attractive is wildly different from what I see in magazines or on television ... for me, it matters very much whether someone has the right smell and that certain right way of moving (like an adorable way of swishing the hair out of their eyes, for example) that I find attractive, rather than whether their face is symmetrical or whether they have nice abs. I have dated people that I found slightly less attractive and people that I found slightly more attractive, but the differences was very slight - on a sliding scale, the lowest would have been a 7 on my scale and the highest a 9, so it's a pretty small range. I have never dated anyone that I found to be less than a 6 or 7 on my scale, and I never would, because it would make me uncomfortable - I would fear that they'd feel I was patronizing them in some way. Another thing that I find perhaps more important than physical attractiveness is sexual compatibility - if I have really great sex with them (not just their skill, but their scent and their vibe and ability to take instruction - the whole picture), they then become more attractive to me, while if we have mediocre sex, their attractiveness goes way down in my eyes.

1) I do martial arts (Taekwondo) for 90 minutes three times a week. It really helps me to de-stress and get out all of my pent-up energy after sitting still most of the day. 2) I drink lots of water, several liters per day, and the only other thing I drink is tea (mostly herbal or green). 3) I walk to and from campus (and everywhere else, except to the grocery store when I need to take the bus because groceries are heavy!) at least 5 days per week. 4) I don't drink any caffeine, do drugs, or smoke, and I never buy any sweets, candy, cake, or chocolate (I only eat it at parties or events). I do drink alcohol, but I try to keep consumption moderate. 5) I'm vegetarian and don't eat any prepackaged, processed foods (I only go out to dinner at good quality restaurants with local produce, and I usually cook dinner at home). 6) I don't eat late at night, and I don't eat any fast food at all. 7) I get a LOT of sleep - at least 8 hours per night, more like 9 if I'm really tired. I usually go to bed around 11 and wake up at 7 or 8.

I think classy is definitely a nice compliment. I'd like it if that word was used to describe me

Update: I ended up calling the hotline and getting a first (automated) deferment, but if it happens again I think I will have to talk to a real person if there's a serious time conflict. They should be summoning me again sometime in September, so we'll see how it goes then.

There has definitely been some research on Germans in Brazil, but research on New Guinea is very limited (this is something I'm considering incorporating in my dissertation. I do colonial border comparisons as well, at the moment mostly British/German, but as my language skills improve I'd love to do German/Spanish-Portuguese comparisons in East Asia/Oceania or South America, or German/French stuff in Africa. I just took my Spanish translation exam today, wish me luck!

I've heard of the Zimmerman and the Ciarlo, but not the other two, thanks! I hope some of my titles were useful to you

I also specialize in German colonial history (as I believe we've discussed ), but more with an emphasis on empire than diaspora immigration, although that has come up in my work is well. Here are some books that I really think are important (more than 5, I hope that's alright): On Colonialism/Empire, with a few more general works on 19th Century Germany: 1. Blackbourn, David, The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany, 1780-1918 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). 2. Clark, Christopher, Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2006). 3. Conrad, Sebastian, Globalization and the Nation in Imperial Germany (Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010). 4. Conrad, Sebastian and Jürgen Osterhammel, eds., Das Kaiserreich Transnational: Deutschland in der Welt 1874-1914 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2004). 5. Friedrichsmeyer, Sara, ed., The Imperialist Imagination: German Colonialism and its Legacy (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998). 6. Hull, Isabel V., Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005). 7. Osterhammel, Jürgen, Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997). 8. Smith, Woodruff D., The German Colonial Empire (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1978). 9. Wehler, Hans-Ulrich, “Bismarck's Imperialism 1862-1890” in Past & Present, No. 48 (Aug. 1970), 119-155. 10. Wehler, Hans-Ulrich, Das Deutsche Kaiserreich, 1961-1918, 7. Auflage (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994). 11. Zantrop, Susanne, Colonial Fantasies: Conquest, Family, and Nation in Precolonial Germany, 1770-1870 (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1997). 12. Bechhaus-Gerst, Marianne, and Mechthild Leutner. Frauen in den deutschen Kolonien. Berlin: C.H. Links Verlag, 2009. 13. Boxer, Marilyn J., Jean H. Quataert et al, eds. Connecting Spheres: European Women in a Globalizing World, 1500 to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 14. Naranch, Bradley, and Geoff Eley, eds. German Colonialism in a Global Age. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014. 15. Perraudin, Michael and Jürgen Zimmerer, eds. German Colonialism and National Identity.New York: Routledge, 2011. 16. Wildenthal, Lora. German Women for Empire, 1884-1945. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001. 17. Reagin, Nancy. The Heimat Abroad: The Boundaries of Germanness (with Renate Bridenthal and Krista O'Donnell. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005. I hope this list is helpful! If you know of anything on the subject not listed here, please share with me, I'm always looking for new material

I'm going to try calling the courthouse hotline and getting ahold of an actual person to tell them about the exam and see if I can get it deferred later today. The problem with showing up and getting dismissed is that it takes me so long to get to the courthouse and go through the admissions procedures and get back to the university (a couple of hours at least) that I'll miss my exam anyway

I've been called up for jury duty on the day of my midterm this week, and I'm not sure what to do. I tried to file for postponement online, but the system wouldn't let me and said I wasn't qualified. I need to call the courthouse to report the night before, and i emailed the professor to make them aware of the situation, but i was wondering if anybody has any experience with this/knows if asking not to participate due to an exam is valid/knows about university policies on this. Thanks for any advice!

I agree with the above responses. At my institution, all of the first year students have exactly the same yearly package (except for a couple with external summer funding), and we're happier because we know we don't have to compete with each other. Our funding is guaranteed for six years, and after that, there are still more opportunities if you are willing to dig around a bit. I wouldn't go anywhere with such a "survivalist" attitude of weeding out the supposedly weak candidates.

I want to echo Ashiepoo in saying that I'm at an R1, but teaching is still super important here, and we as Ph.D. students in the humanities are expected to teach or read for courses during at least four or five semesters as part of our standard departmental fellowship package. Some semesters it's more stressful/more work than in others (such as during orals), but I've never heard anyone say that it wasn't valuable or that it detracted from their job prospects.

When I moved for grad school, I had to spend a month at home finally going through all of the things I'd had in storage at my mom's house during undergrad and while I was living overseas, and it was a lot of work. However, once I was done (I got rid of boxes and boxes of books and clothes), everything I was taking with me fit in a minivan with the back seats down - about eight boxes of clothes and books and shoes and bedding, plus a couple of bookcases and lamps. When I arrived here, I went to Ikea and spent $700 on a double bed, mattress, chest of drawers, and small desk with chair, and I'm happy with the result I got. If I'd had more time, I'd have spent time combing free stuff/garage sales/student resale groups, but I didn't have access to a car for moving things after my initial arrival, so I needed to get things together quickly. I've never owned very much stuff because I've always been on the move, often overseas (moving on average once every 10 months for the last five years!), and I'm not very attached to my cheap furniture and would get rid of it if I were moving far away. I should however disclaim that I was lucky enough to choose roommates who had a fully furnished living room and full kitchenware before i arrived, so I didn't have to buy any of those things. This made my move a lot cheaper and meant I had (and have) a lot less stuff.

@wildviolet, if that's important for you, then I don't think you're overreacting to be considering whether this is a path you want to go down. I'm a grad student dating another grad student (completely different field), and I love the intellectual stimulation I get from talking to him about research and even just the daily grind of grad school in general. Like you, I really like smart, academically successful men, and the times I've dated men who didn't fall in this category (in my case, a musician, a cook, and an outdoorsman), I felt like something was missing because they didn't really "get" what I do, and I worried about talking about academics too much and sounding stuck-up or superior (these were people who didn't even necessarily go to college). It's all about whether you feel comfortable with him, but if this disparity is making you uncomfortable, feel free to take a step back and reassess.