ArthChauc

It's great that they are both going to be helpful to you! Actually...is there a maximum limit to the number of people on your committee? My school actually only requires 4 but I chose to put 5 on my committee because after picking the first 3 I felt that I needed both of the remaining 2 choices in order to have a balanced committee. 
The big disadvantage is that it's far harder to find a time where 5 faculty members can meet together than a time for just 4. So adding another person is a big logistical challenge. Luckily, like your program, the committee for my annual thesis committee review does not have to be exactly as the examination committee at the defense. So, I might just pick 4 out of the 5 faculty members for the defense itself, if scheduling becomes an issue.

I'm with Cloud--enrolling in a program that starts here in about three weeks. I applied to three of the places you're looking at (and was ultimately unsuccessful), but I know there's a Saint Louis person around here somewhere who's starting this year. 
 
I would recommend taking a look at UNM--we have a whole separate degree for Medievalists. 

There was a girl in my master's program who didn't outright insult my intelligence, but would reply to my comments/arguments in class with this very dismissive, condescending tone--from the way she spoke, it was obvious to myself and some of my peers that she thought what I had to say was either irrelevant or stupid. It really good under my skin and made me feel defensive when I would speak out in seminar--I noticed that I would start to qualify thinks that I said (i.e.: "of course, this isn't always the case" or "generally speaking" or "from my experience") and use a lot more filler ("um", "like", etc.) as well as overstate my points, repeating myself unnecessarily. Needless to say, it made me seem a lot less confident and nervous, when really I'm exactly the opposite--I am very self-assured and articulate. 
 
The problem was quickly resolved with one off-handed comment I made during our shared seminar--after she'd used the tone, I replied and said "I can't tell if you're mocking me or you disagree with what I'm saying or both" and she quickly apologized and even came up to me after class, saying that she had no idea she'd been rude in her responses. A slightly tense moment in class was worth the resolution that came about. 

There was a girl in my master's program who didn't outright insult my intelligence, but would reply to my comments/arguments in class with this very dismissive, condescending tone--from the way she spoke, it was obvious to myself and some of my peers that she thought what I had to say was either irrelevant or stupid. It really good under my skin and made me feel defensive when I would speak out in seminar--I noticed that I would start to qualify thinks that I said (i.e.: "of course, this isn't always the case" or "generally speaking" or "from my experience") and use a lot more filler ("um", "like", etc.) as well as overstate my points, repeating myself unnecessarily. Needless to say, it made me seem a lot less confident and nervous, when really I'm exactly the opposite--I am very self-assured and articulate. 
 
The problem was quickly resolved with one off-handed comment I made during our shared seminar--after she'd used the tone, I replied and said "I can't tell if you're mocking me or you disagree with what I'm saying or both" and she quickly apologized and even came up to me after class, saying that she had no idea she'd been rude in her responses. A slightly tense moment in class was worth the resolution that came about. 

There was a girl in my master's program who didn't outright insult my intelligence, but would reply to my comments/arguments in class with this very dismissive, condescending tone--from the way she spoke, it was obvious to myself and some of my peers that she thought what I had to say was either irrelevant or stupid. It really good under my skin and made me feel defensive when I would speak out in seminar--I noticed that I would start to qualify thinks that I said (i.e.: "of course, this isn't always the case" or "generally speaking" or "from my experience") and use a lot more filler ("um", "like", etc.) as well as overstate my points, repeating myself unnecessarily. Needless to say, it made me seem a lot less confident and nervous, when really I'm exactly the opposite--I am very self-assured and articulate. 
 
The problem was quickly resolved with one off-handed comment I made during our shared seminar--after she'd used the tone, I replied and said "I can't tell if you're mocking me or you disagree with what I'm saying or both" and she quickly apologized and even came up to me after class, saying that she had no idea she'd been rude in her responses. A slightly tense moment in class was worth the resolution that came about. 

If you're thinking OSU for folklore, you're thinking of Ray Cashman--I had the pleasure of traveling England with him three years ago. Incredible, incredible person and scholar. I can't say enough nice things about him.

If you're thinking OSU for folklore, you're thinking of Ray Cashman--I had the pleasure of traveling England with him three years ago. Incredible, incredible person and scholar. I can't say enough nice things about him.

How would the number of classes I take be cohort dependent? Again, I asked other GC people who are in my field their experience. I did not ask "who should I contact to figure this out" seeing as how I have heard people in my department do a variety of things and there isn't a hard and fast rule. Don't assume because I've posted a question on a website that I haven't done anything else. This is a bit ridiculous. 

Again, this is highly department and maybe even cohort dependent: You should be talking to your advisor and maybe the graduate program coordinator. 

Agreed - from my experience, a lot of people in academia are asked to draft their own letters, and I have heard this confirmed from a number of high-profile profs on 2 continents. This is not just potential grad students but also post-docs applying for their own grants for the first time, professors requiring endorsement for promotion, etc. I also don't necessarily agree that it is "academic plagiarism" - academics are busy people, and often don't have time to study someone's resume/accomplishments and draft a letter from scratch. AS LONG AS the professor looks at it, adds the necessary tweaks, and approves it, I don't see why it is such a bad thing. It's a win-win: the referee gets to prioritize what they want in the letter, and the professor saves (probably) much-needed time. 

Cherry-picked voices of dissent aside, this is a fairly common practice in many fields. Professorial time is at a premium, and while I wouldn't endorse the practice outright - it will almost certainly result in a lower-quality letter - I don't see any reason to get hysterical about it. 
 
With respect to the question at hand, I suspect one of the reasons the professor asked the student to write it is because a travel grant isn't exactly a high-stakes endeavor, and a fairly standard letter will do just fine. Just hit the high notes - why this is important, why you're qualified - and the letter should be fine.
 
On the other hand, if you know your adviser tells his students to write their own letters when they're on the job market...

Hmmmmm. So I personally took a lot of classes, sometimes against the advice of faculty; I took a semester with four classes a couple times. However, a) I was teaching only one class section, and it was freshman comp, which I've taught many times. Teaching two separate classes is a much higher bar to clear than teaching two sections of the same class. If you're teaching two different courses, my recommendation to you is to only take two classes unless you really feel that you will never have the opportunity to fit in these courses again. Especially because, as this is your first semester, you don't yet have the experience of past semesters to guide you.
 
Then again, if you decided to go through with it, I would understand perfectly.

Dissertating. Two and a half chapters down.

Are the two classes you're teaching two sections of the same course? Same syllabus? If so, my opinion, three is doable.

This isn't a good question for the forum, this is something that should be discussed with your graduate advisor. Only he/she knows what you should take.

Let me get this straight: You are upset because someone told you that you're not qualified for admission? He did you a favor by taking time out to respond to you. I tell people all of the time that they're not qualified for admission. What makes you a special snowflake?
 
You'll need to grow some thicker skin if you want a PhD. 

oh cool I have a hater!

Nothing irritates me more than administration folk who think they have some kind of upper hand over academics.

There was a girl in my master's program who didn't outright insult my intelligence, but would reply to my comments/arguments in class with this very dismissive, condescending tone--from the way she spoke, it was obvious to myself and some of my peers that she thought what I had to say was either irrelevant or stupid. It really good under my skin and made me feel defensive when I would speak out in seminar--I noticed that I would start to qualify thinks that I said (i.e.: "of course, this isn't always the case" or "generally speaking" or "from my experience") and use a lot more filler ("um", "like", etc.) as well as overstate my points, repeating myself unnecessarily. Needless to say, it made me seem a lot less confident and nervous, when really I'm exactly the opposite--I am very self-assured and articulate. 
 
The problem was quickly resolved with one off-handed comment I made during our shared seminar--after she'd used the tone, I replied and said "I can't tell if you're mocking me or you disagree with what I'm saying or both" and she quickly apologized and even came up to me after class, saying that she had no idea she'd been rude in her responses. A slightly tense moment in class was worth the resolution that came about. 

I just want to add to this already amazing thread with my own "graduate school LDR" story. Mine is probably a little different than those being discussed now, but I thought it might be worth sharing. 
 
I met my fiancé during undergrad while I was dating someone else--I was at a party at his house, I thought he was cute, he got my number and called me the next day...but I didn't answer. I was already in a relationship and didn't trust myself to be loyal because I attracted to this guy (now my fiancé), so I ignored his calls. Despite this, we were Facebook friends and I always found him to be self-depricatingly funny and found his humor charming.
 
This past winter, we ran into each other at a wedding of a pair of mutual friends--at this point, it had been five years since we'd seen each other and he was living across the country for work while I was in graduate school, midway through my masters. We ended up spending time together while he was in town and texted constantly after he returned to work eight hours away. From there, our relationship bloomed and between the research papers, mountains of books, and ridiculous schedule, we made something out of what seemed like nothing. 
 
This continued for a year and a half. Since, due to a lucky loophole with his job, he's been able to be here ("home" with me) almost every weekend. I know, in this way, I'm more fortunate than most but what I can say is this: we turned less than 15 hours of time together into a full-fledged relationship with nothing more than Skype, texts, and phone calls within the first three months of seeing each other. Sure, I procrastinated from time-to-time to see his face on Skype and yes, I made up for it with all nighters and too little sleep, but I did what I could to make it work. 
 
Now, as I'm finishing up my masters and will begin my Ph.D this fall, we are looking forward to closing the distance for good. I applied to places where he could transfer for work and, luckily, I was accepted to a fantastic program in a city where he'll be working in just a month. While I'm relieved that we'll finally get to do menial, boring things together like complain about bills and who's hogging the blanket because that means we'll finally be together for good, I know that I owe our relationship to the distance that separated us a year and a half ago. That distance meant that our interactions were always engaged and interesting because we had no other choice. It meant that we spent more time sharing and responding than we did staring at computer screens or TVs when we were both done with work. It meant that any "in person" relationship we had would have been first built upon communication and trust. 
 
I know things seem hard, impossible even, when you imagine distance between you and the person you love. Trust me, I've been there. But I also know that if two people are open, honest, determined, and committed, they can make things happen. I truly believe that if you have the wherewithal to get graduate degree, you have the ability to make an LDR work--all it takes is two people willing to try. 
 
That's my 2 cents, for what it's worth. 

I just want to add to this already amazing thread with my own "graduate school LDR" story. Mine is probably a little different than those being discussed now, but I thought it might be worth sharing. 
 
I met my fiancé during undergrad while I was dating someone else--I was at a party at his house, I thought he was cute, he got my number and called me the next day...but I didn't answer. I was already in a relationship and didn't trust myself to be loyal because I attracted to this guy (now my fiancé), so I ignored his calls. Despite this, we were Facebook friends and I always found him to be self-depricatingly funny and found his humor charming.
 
This past winter, we ran into each other at a wedding of a pair of mutual friends--at this point, it had been five years since we'd seen each other and he was living across the country for work while I was in graduate school, midway through my masters. We ended up spending time together while he was in town and texted constantly after he returned to work eight hours away. From there, our relationship bloomed and between the research papers, mountains of books, and ridiculous schedule, we made something out of what seemed like nothing. 
 
This continued for a year and a half. Since, due to a lucky loophole with his job, he's been able to be here ("home" with me) almost every weekend. I know, in this way, I'm more fortunate than most but what I can say is this: we turned less than 15 hours of time together into a full-fledged relationship with nothing more than Skype, texts, and phone calls within the first three months of seeing each other. Sure, I procrastinated from time-to-time to see his face on Skype and yes, I made up for it with all nighters and too little sleep, but I did what I could to make it work. 
 
Now, as I'm finishing up my masters and will begin my Ph.D this fall, we are looking forward to closing the distance for good. I applied to places where he could transfer for work and, luckily, I was accepted to a fantastic program in a city where he'll be working in just a month. While I'm relieved that we'll finally get to do menial, boring things together like complain about bills and who's hogging the blanket because that means we'll finally be together for good, I know that I owe our relationship to the distance that separated us a year and a half ago. That distance meant that our interactions were always engaged and interesting because we had no other choice. It meant that we spent more time sharing and responding than we did staring at computer screens or TVs when we were both done with work. It meant that any "in person" relationship we had would have been first built upon communication and trust. 
 
I know things seem hard, impossible even, when you imagine distance between you and the person you love. Trust me, I've been there. But I also know that if two people are open, honest, determined, and committed, they can make things happen. I truly believe that if you have the wherewithal to get graduate degree, you have the ability to make an LDR work--all it takes is two people willing to try. 
 
That's my 2 cents, for what it's worth. 

So I got the OG bag by Lo & Sons in the mail on Thursday and have been using it non stop. It's an addiction, really. The bag is large, but not so large that I feel like I'm hauling luggage around all day. I got a navy blue one with gold hardware and a brown strap because I thought it read more "work bag" and less "carry on". It has an interior flap pocket specifically for a laptop (my 13-inch MacBook Pro fit perfectly) as well as a few more smaller interior pockets (I use them for my phone and sunglasses). There is plenty of room for a significant amount of library books (I returned six today and they fit perfectly but were, obviously, heavy) and there are two large exterior zip pockets that are good for anything else--I actually tucked a folder in one and left it unzipped and it worked really well. It comes with a thick, adjustable vinyl strap so you can wear it as a messenger and has a zip pocket on the bottom for storing things like gym shoes or whatnot (since it doubles for a gym back); I stuffed a bottle of water and Polar watch heart monitor in it with a pair of shoes and had room to spare. 
 
I think the best thing about the bag is that it doesn't read "this is my school bag"--it's exceptionally functional and still very stylish. I know that style matters less to some people out there, but I can say that I've owned a NorthFace backpack as well and I'd pick this bag over it any day. It's so much easier than carrying a purse and a backpack and is perfect for commuting. What I will say is that I will not do a significant of walking around campus--I'll be taking public transit from my apartment--so a heavier, less ergonomic bag isn't too huge a detriment to me as I will be doing ten minutes walking to/from the bus stop and not hitching a ton of stuff (since I'll have an office on campus). 
 
A couple of you said that you have Longchamp bags, so I thought I'd do a comparison. I've been carrying the medium sized Longchamp that ​everyone seems to have. I've had my bag for about four years now and love it for days where all I need is a notebook, wallet, and laptop/charger. This bag is only comparable in that it's made from the same exterior material--nylon. The inside, however, is lined (mine is a gorgeous lavender color) and it is extremely padded so it protects the contents and also gives the bag significant structure--with nothing in it, the bag still stands up and holds shape without drooping or falling over. Also, there is a lot more storage with the Lo & Sons bag (much better than the droopy, single interior Longchamp pocket that holds nothing) and the extra cross body strap is nice to have. 
 
All in all, this bag is worth the money if you have it and want something that is fashionable and still functional. I would feel perfectly comfortable carrying this bag to a conference or even dinner with my friends because it reads as a messenger-sized bag. I actually would go as far as calling this my "holy grail" conference bag because there's tons of room for anything you might need, including the countless number of books I tend to pick up at conferences. It's also nice because I don't have to move my stuff constantly from one bag to another; with my Longchamp, I was always taking out my computer and school stuff anytime I wanted to put anything else in it (sweater, more books, etc.) and having to carry two bags. This bag is large enough that it fits a spare change of clothes plus everything I need on campus. 

No idea why this post got down voted. I up voted because that's ridiculous. 
 
I'm getting married this winter and I'm in an MA program now and will be starting a Ph.D program four months before the wedding. I'm inviting two people I know from grad school plus my advisor because they're good friends of mine. For everyone else, they know I'm getting married and it's fine--I'm sure none of them expect an invitation so I don't feel bad not giving them one. I've learned to use the line "we're on a budget and having a small wedding" to get out of the awkward people-inviting-themselves weirdness--I have friends from high school that assume they're going to be invited and who'll be shocked when they aren't. It's no hard feelings, it's just all about money. If someone asks and you aren't inviting them, tell them something like "we've had to make a lot of sacrifices with our guest list due to money". At the very least, it will key them into the idea that they might not be invited. 
 
Also, thumbs up to the Emily Post reference. I read her stuff on Slate twice a week!

Wow you're still going on about me?? Thanks:) and interestingly enough I actually haven't talked to my pregnant friend in a while, since she asked me to help her pick out a middle name... Ummm no thanks dude figure it out on your own. Also, I will be 26 when I graduate or pretty close to it.

Haters gon hate haha and you can't even see that lol