seeingeyeduck

I'm moving tomorrow and then the first orientation event is in a week! It'll be insane - we'll have to unpack, assemble new furniture, pick up the inevitable household stuff we forgot to buy beforehand, avoid the kitchen til the landlord is done replacing the countertop in a couple of days, spend the weekend cleaning the old place and picking up stragglers, and arrange for furniture donation and junk pick up. I'll have a week after orientation before classes actually start but that'll be spent at workshop orientations and moving into the school workspace. My plan is to stock the fridge with ice cream and revisit my tradition of watching the X-Files from the beginning while unpacking to power through!

I agree with perhaps pursuing options outside the dept first, but you really should do this soon. Do stop responding to his emails. Any further response just gives him something further to engage with. He sounds a bit delusional - what you say isn't getting through in the way you intended it. I will say that don't think restraining orders are the end all be all. They are in reality not terribly helpful at times since they can only be enforced after the fact. Sometimes they just antagonize a person without giving the harassed any iota of actual protection. If he was sensitive to what he is SUPPOSED to do, then he wouldn't be doing this stuff in the first place. Good luck!

I wish I were more bored! Then I could've followed my plan of independent research and reading before school. Instead we had to move despite me getting into a local program so all our time has been consumed with finding a place, packing all the stuff we accumulated over 6 years and now moving. Then we'll have to unpack, buy some necessities that we're missing and move more stuff into my office-studio space at school. I wish I had some time to relax instead! I really hope we finish before school starts so I can concentrate on that.

I'm looking at getting the livescribe 3 and wondered if you guys could answer a couple of questions I can't quite find clarification on - when you archive files off the iOS device, are they in proprietary format? I assume that you need to eventually take the data off your device to prevent it from filling up but if there is no desktop software, how does that work? Can you just open up an audio file in, say, iTunes, or does it have to be through their software? Also, has anyone used the Skitch app? I think evernote owns it. It's good for annotating images and PDFs but I haven't had a chance to really try it...

you do also want to talk about the ideas and motivations behind your work too. I would connect autobiography and themes in your work. Did the places you lived in and the people you knew influence how you thought about art? What's the role of art in your life - why is it so important to you? And of course, how does grad school fit into all this?

I think whatever you cite as the cause of your bad grades, it's important to take responsibility for your actions and note that you have learned from the experience. Don't foist responsibility onto others, admit you may have made bad decisions but emphasize that you learned how to deal with bad situations and have become a stronger or smarter person because of it. Just don't say "oh, it was a freak accident and will never happen again." Demonstrate some self insight and say why you reacted the way you did and why you would not react that way now.

I think you would be competitive if you simply explained what happened with your home situation and the hold you had to pay briefly. As long as they see an upward arc, I think they are willing to consider lower GPAs. You may also want to contact a professor you're interested in working with or admin at the relevant dept at each place you apply to asking specifically about whether you should apply if you have a sub 3.0. If some places just weed those apps out, there's no point in applying, but if they consider extenuating circumstances, then you're good. It sounds like you have been doing a lot and that's great. Who knows, maybe you'll pull it up to 3.0! Did the 3.73 semester raise your GPA? Have you also consider getting an after the fact withdrawal on some of your bad grades? Sometimes the university will allow one due to distress over bad external circumstances if you petition. You'd probably have to talk to the student center or even disability office (esp if you have ADHD or panic disorders) to figure that out but I've found that removing bad grades has more impact than getting good ones. It does take a lot to raise a GPA that many points.

I think it's also a lot easier to find a room in a house than it is to find your own place right now. It also is easier as a single person. I think part of the reason we've even having trouble is that we're a couple and people either think couple drama or that they'll have to pay more for two people's water if that's covered in the rent. Bring your credit report and any pay stubs if you're looking for your own place but people tend to be more off the cuff with rooms. You could bring it just in case since you're not local and don't want to be stuck trying to figure out where to print them.

Yeah, I googled around and turns out no one knows what a broker is around here. That might change if this is the way it's going though! If any budding rental brokers are reading, there's an unfilled niche developing out here! Lol We may just try a higher price bracket too. The stuff we were looking at could still be considered affordable by HUD standards but screw it, we are on a deadline and need to find something for the year so we will pony up 40-45% of income. Hopefully that cuts down on competition, but I'm afraid that just puts us in competition with richer people... Sigh. It seems like it's a lot harder to find an apt than to find a room. Maybe we will resort back to house sharing worse comes to worst. Some of the places we've been trying to see are so small that they prefer single tenants and don't even agree to show it to us. We are also expanding our search to an hour away, which is terrible but at least the places there are decently sized!

I'd go with the second too. I feel like you'll meet more people who are your age in the second situation and inevitably you'll be asked to do things for the old lady. Not that that's a bad thing but maybe you won't have the time. It's also been my experience that sometimes older people watch tv really loudly cuz they can't hear well and don't necessarily have hearing aids! That's obviously not always true but it seems simpler to room with other students, especially if the elderly person is also the landlord. Who knows though. It all depends on the vibe you got from each of them.

Yikes, I'm pretty sure some of these places are picking based on income and whether they have a good impression of the tenants. I mean, we have no way to prove what criteria they're using and what their metric of "afford" is. One if the places just updated their ad on craigslist despite having just received at least ten apps over the weekend. We know we could afford it as if was < 3x income, but we didn't get it. They must be waiting for a more ideal candidate. That's illegal, you say? But I guess they can get away with it in a competitive market where there will always be more applicants...

We are in the Bay Area. How does the broker help you cut through the masses though? Is it that you hire them to find a place for you and to apply for you? If there's a limit on the move in time do they guarantee getting you something acceptable? I've never used one and have no idea what they cost. It's not that we'd be liquidating our assets since we have enough in our bank acct for a year's rent anyway but it just all feels like a zoo. Do they take apps in the order people turn them in? Do they read them all and pick the richest or do they just sift through til one qualifies? Who knows! But we've been mostly looking on craigslist and maybe we should go through rental agencies directly? Whatever happened to seeing a for lease sign, then walking into the office and them running your info right there and signing the lease on the spot if you qualify? Sigh.

In terms of paperwork to bring, what do you guys think is reasonable vs too much? We're looking in a really competitive market and there are probably 15-20 apps for every decent place. It's just swarms of people every place we see. The owners keep telling us to give them as much financial info as possible and are asking for bank accounts and possibly bank statements. Since I'm about to be a student and not earning a super competitive income, do we go as far as to include statements of our savings and investments for retirement so that they know we are stable and have a plan? That makes me nervous to tell people where and how much money we have but honestly it seems like they are looking for the most financially capable people to rent to. I thought verification of a sufficient income was enough but I guess when they can afford to be choosy, anything goes?! We have heard of people offering higher than the listed rent to get a place. It feels more invasive than the FAFSA! I'm not even sure all of it is legal?? Is there a downside to letting them know you have money? Does it lead to landlords being stingy with fixing things?!

Can you spell out your thinking on this a bit more? Can you apply to funded program next year? What are your reasons for going to school? What job do you plan to get to pay this off after and will it be an art job? Will you be okay with that if it isn't? It does seem to be a lot of money for an "almost free" program. I personally wouldn't do it either. It wouldn't cost you that much to just keep making art on your own. I have a friend who has six figure loans and she is really stressed about it all the time, and she is even in a "practical" career. Maybe if it could be forgiven in 10 years, but 25 is more than half of your working life! Saving early makes a huge difference in retirement investing due to compounding interest and waiting 25 years before starting will really ding you in the long run. I don't think art and a secure future are at odds with each other - if I really had to choose I'd pick the financially practical option since that means I can keep making art instead of picking up jobs to cover the loans.

They should mainly care about your portfolio, then your show record. I had a horrible cumulative GPA and still got into the program I wanted. I would mention it briefly (like a sentence) in your statement just in case but play up the fact that you did it because you were dedicated to art and prioritized art. Also, I think your GPA is still very respectable so don't worry too much. I don't think committees even look at that stuff much at first. Focus on the portfolio!

Just keep in mind that there is always an inherent disadvantage to being poor since rich people don't have to reconsider going straight to college or not having a family or house. Wealth makes very thing affordable and manageable since you can simply buy mobility or child care services freely. So it's a bit contradictory to say that Lowe income folks have the choice to succeed and all they have to do is to limit and narrow down their life choices in a way that affluent people don't have to. It's not much of a choice!

Have you tried googling the name of your school and "webmail"?

We had to activate and choose our email too. Or rather choose our student access login and that becomes the email address

I think it's highly dependent on the amount. It may be a good idea to take on $20k of debt for grad school, but $100k is a whole other matter. Yes, some have no choice if they want to go to school but then they have to get a job that pays enough to handle that amount of debt after. While that's possible for some, it's not likely for most. People are just trying to point that out. If you're going to school to try to better your life and you come out with unmanageable debt, that isn't going to better your life, so what's the point? In fact it may make your life more stressful than it would be if you just hadn't gone to school. Student loans aren't even forgiveable in bankruptcy, am I right? The debt will really be with you forever if it's a lot of money. There isn't any one general way to think about it. It all comes down to whether you think you can really afford to pay it back after.

But then what if you're already at a top tier school? Is that the exception?

This looks great! I don't really do hot drinks on the go but this looks killer for hot days where I'm always wishing my water stayed cold. On the other hand, no more using the bottle against my forehead to cool down...

We are looking too and what we realized is you have to sell yourself to the landlord by highlighting your good points (ie quiet, more mature than undergrads, long term lease since you'll definitely be in the area for years for school...) and just being professional and personable. And if you really like a place, say so and be willing to move in ASAP or on their schedule. They'll always take the ones who are wiling to move in fast unless they have terrible credit or something.

^ This is great advice. It sounds like you are waiting to take your cues from him right now. Instead, try "here is my plan, please approve it." Maybe he is just worried that if you go now you're unlikely to return and finish the work. You can allay those fears with a detailed timeline. I don't see why you have to stay now if the university has people to take care of the trees.

I do a lot of photo and video work so I have an iMac and we received an iPad mini for Xmas so I plan to use that for school along with my keyboard from the iMac. But that's because I don't need to run any special programs on it. I wouldn't use an iPad for school without a keyboard and if you have to carry that, you may as well just go with the smallest Air. I've seen people with the iPad in a keyboard case and it is just as big as a laptop, though probably lighter. You'll get more use out of the laptop.

I've heard that too, but why is it that there is this bias? What's the basis of it?