roguesenna

1000$ per month after rent? welllllll ~120$/mo on metro card (fixed amount) ~250$/mo on food (slightly more than I spend between my boyfriend and I, but we always go over) ~100$/mo on various utilities (depending on what your apartment is like) ~100$/mo on phone (my phone bill with an iPhone on Verizon) ??? -- health insurance (depends on you) ??? -- fun money (bars, eating out, etc.) ??? -- previous student loan bills? So I'd say it may be manageable, it depends on how tightly you control your finances. If you eat out a lot, your food bill will be way higher than that. That is my very strict allowance and I only eat out about once a week and then it's usually under 10$. I usually buy the 30$ weekly metrocard but it ends up being the same cost. If you only go directly to class once every weekday and then directly back you can save 5$, but you literally can't go anywhere else. Your utilities may be less than that, or they may be a lot more. Basically, you will almost certainly not be flying home to London every month. I can tell you I barely afford to get to Michigan (about 10hrs away by car) once a year. Also 1100$ for a one bedroom is really low. See previous post. HOWEVER. If you were to take that same budget and live in a two-bedroom with a roommate, get your rent down to somewhere between 700 and 900/mo... You could be fairly comfortable here on that income.

Don't know anything about student housing around here unfortunately, but anything under 1500$ for a one bed you should be skeptical of. There will be other detracting factors like distance, location, etc. etc. Also, apartment hunting in NYC without living here is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. Most of the things you're looking at will be snapped up very quickly. I've been lucky in that I knew the pre-existing roommate in each of the places I've lived in, but my current roommate says there's no point in even bothering more than two weeks out. Also, keep in mind that when they say 1500$ (or whatever), they are expecting you to hand them as much as 4500$ before you move in (that's first, last & deposit with no broker's fee). I don't know if you can do student housing one term at a time, but I would recommend it unless you can come out here and scout for apartments for a few weeks before the term starts. Otherwise you will have all the stress of apartment hunting/settling/etc on top of all the stress of starting a new degree program at a new school in a new place. Also, student housing will have a lot more amenities than an equivalently priced apartment. If you absolutely can't stand the thought of student housing, I recommend having at least one roommate. Every person you add to your apartment is a significant decrease in the rent and utilities you have to pay. I make about 1200$/mo and I live in a two bedroom with my boyfriend and another couple. We live in Washington Heights, our rent just went up and I'm really barely making ends meet. Keep in mind that food can be stupidly expensive here too, especially if you don't like cooking. Also add this to your budget: MetroCards are 30$ for weekly unlimited or 120$ for monthly. Set that money aside right now because you will always need it.

AUGH that is criminal! I will fight them for you. Watch me. --- once again, for those who don't know me, I have an MFA in Dramatic Writing and am just lurking cause I'm interested to see what happens. And in case I can answer any questions that come up. Fave Playwrights: Stoppard, Vogel (jealous of you future Brown students!), Ruhl, Shakespeare (obvs). Fave Plays: The Balcony -- Jean Genet, Six Characters in Search of an Author -- Luigi Pirandello, Othello -- Shakespeare, more if you're curious. Also, I don't post my work online in segments of more than a couple pages because I don't have any of it officially registered. If you're going to post work online, I recommend visiting the WGA website first. I'm not sure if they do plays or not, but definitely screenplays and teleplays. If not, mail yourself a copy of your play in a sealed envelope and don't open it. I'm sure you all know this crap, but just in case you don't. That said, if people want to start a thread to exchange work I'd be down for that. [oh. FTR, I am a Theatre PhD applicant, not just a random creepy lurker]

still waiting over here. looks like I don't have any apps in common with anyone on this thread, but in case anyone's curious, I just got an email from NYU last week stating that they're holding MA decisions a week or two and that the PHD app reviews are going as scheduled. Curious: Other PhD applicants, do you have MAs? I have an MFA but am considering NYU's MA in Performing Arts if I get rejected from all my PhD opportunities. What do you think, worth it?

pot head

meadow spring

food poisoning

good point. I hope it's true!

friend zone

check the results page and just search UCB or your department (not sure what EECS is). It goes back several years so it should give you a good idea on what the average timeline is like.

LOL, I've finished like... probably about 10 books, a full video game (start to end 100% completion) & countless TV eps and fanfics. Anything to keep the brain busy!

fast food (joining Team Take-It-Away-From-Math!)

I see one of the schools I applied to in the results search sent out a rejection but it's been some time since that person got rejected and i haven't heard from the school yet. Is this a good sign? A bad sign? Or not even worth trying to analyze? [EDIT:] ::facepalm:: that entry was from last year. it showed up on the first page because that's how few people are in my department. I'd delete this post but I can't figure out how. smh.

love hard cider. have you tried Magners or Strongbow? Those are my favorites.

speed limits

actually I've read the exact opposite of that. If you read the entire thread from the linked article that started this thread a lot of the profs say that maybe the student got some bad advice that would apply better to STEM students and not humanities students. STEM students need to contact POIs so they can start to figure out if research interests align for potentional research assistant grants. since most humanities students are supported through Teaching asistantship grants -- which the individual professor has little control over -- POI is not as important in those fields. I think it has mostly to do with being knowledgable about how your individual field and individual schools do things and what they expect. You have to be able to adapt your behavior to that because that's what they'll be expecting in grad school. My rule of thumb is that after turning in the app I will not contact them again unless they contact me.

Ahhhh. that does explain it. Sorry friend. In that case, I agree with peachypie. Pay the 68$ because if you don't, you'll always wonder if you might have gotten in if you'd just forked it over. And if you do get in, that 68$ will pay itself off pretty quickly. It sucks now, but it's a worthy investment.

vent frustration

doesn't look like you applied to UCLA but they aren't accepting any students this year.

I only applied to three as well. My reasons also have to do with location. I can't move outside of NYC or LA or it's going to put a lot of undue strain on my relationship of 4 years. My boyfriend works in film and television and there is basically little to no work outside of those two cities. There were two more I was considering, UCSD and CUNY, but I ultimately chose not to apply to UCSD because the commute to LA was just unrealistic and I didn't apply to CUNY because their application process was kind of a mess and I just didn't have a lot of money to apply to extra schools. If I don't get in (and I can afford it) next year I will reapply to Columbia, UCLA and NYU and add UCB, Princeton, CUNY and maybe Yale.

Jealous of those of you who only had a month or so to wait. I just found out from NYU that I will probably not hear back for sure until March 15th. My application was due December 1st. I'm nowhere close yet.

My mom: "You know [my alma mater] has one of the best programs for this in the country. You should apply there!" 1. No it doesn't. 2. She knows I am only applying to schools in NYC and LA. Her alma mater is in southern Michigan. Even if I was applying to schools in Michigan, I wouldn't apply to that one (I'd apply to UofM!).

high holidays

Happy Days

Call the school and talk to them, clarify exactly what they need, whether it can be electronic, whether they need official copies, etc, etc. Even if you already know, just call them to be 100% sure. Also 68$ sounds absolutely RIDICULOUS for a transcript. That is prohibitively expensive and makes no sense. By comparison my grad and undergrad transcripts together cost me less than 30$. My first official transcript out of my grad school was free. If you never received a free official transcript from your school you should call and see if you can get one. Otherwise you can still call and plead economic hardship and see if that will get you anywhere. If you have a recent FAFSA on file, that might help. Good luck!