bakalamba

Yup. That sounds like what happens in this district. Lots of moving up in the system without the requisite experience or knowledge, or advancing to positions in the few years before retirement to boost the retirement payout. And students wonder why they have to stay an extra year or two at a supposed two-year college because they're unable to find spots in overfilled classes. I'm attending grad school in the fall. As much as I like the community college system, having studied there and now worked there, my interest in education is comparing across nations, particularly countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and I'm super lucky and psyched to be attending a program that focuses on that.

Yeah, that one is a pretty clear example of accreditation issues. Also my college got hit with the warning (the lightest one albeit), mostly due to budget issues. There's a perverse inverse relationship between classes closing and part-time faculty laid off while administration positions keep opening up. Makes for a top heavy pyramid.

Well, I certainly hope you have a different approach than this when conducting student affairs. Clearly there's a difference between "I have a hard time believing x" and "You're a liar". While, in my experience, Community Colleges in California do have high salaries and good benefits, the attractiveness of these positions makes them very competitive, even "secretary" jobs. And there's also the factor that a few institutions (including one I worked for) have budget and accreditation issues that lead to cancelled classes, hiring and promotion freezes, and increasingly reduced department budgets that make helping students very difficult. So there's more than just a salary number to consider.

Given that writing your own LOR is at most plagiarism and in the least unethical, how would you respond to faculty members who request a draft? "I'm sorry, that's plagiarism. You'll have to write it yourself." If that letter gets written, at all, I'm sure it would be a stellar recommendation. How do you confront unethical/lazy/uncomfortable requests in the power structure that is academia?

Seems like a desperate way of compensating for being unqualified for programs, or reaching too high for top programs and hoping an admissions committee will admit them based on face recognition. When I did visits before applications, I think it just raised my expectations higher than my qualifications were, and I didn't necessarily learn anything that I couldn't get by email or phone.

Hi Wendy, That, unfortunately, is about the standard rate for a room around LMU, since it's in an expensive area near the coast. I'm assuming you want a furnished room, since it would be a pain to buy furniture if your stay is temporary (unfurnished rooms or roommate situations would be cheaper, around $700, since an average two bedrooms is around $1200-1500 or more). However, you can find better rates south in El Segundo or north in Palms, or east in Inglewood. You can't think of Los Angeles as exclusively a car city, because it does have an extensive bus system and train (although the latter hasn't been extended to the west side yet). It's pretty difficult to find a place abroad. It is strange that they're requiring two months rent - usually a deposit and one month's rent is standard. The best part of the place you found is the month-to-month lease - that means you'll have a place to stay that's close to campus when you move, and you can actively find yourself a new apartment or room, and not have to worry about your lease. Good luck!

I'd argue that contacting faculty isn't just helpful, but pretty essential - at least when I was researching schools. They were able to elaborate about the program, the research fit, and some were pretty upfront about a lack of funding/resources or poor research fit, which saved me some money on applications and campus visits. You can also ask them about comparable programs or other faculty working in your area of interest, as it can be difficult to find and gauge programs which are outside of the top 10 Universities

Waiting for orientation, I'm not really worried about being unprepared. I was recommended to register early for classes, since I'm told they can fill up quickly, but there certainly wasn't any pressure to do so. Don't have a single syllabi or purchased any books. I did check out last year's grad handbook to get a brief overview of the program. Pretty useful, as it outlines some of the biggest questions students have. In past experience, most students don't really benefit from being overprepared early on, since most information you'll get during orientation or through talking with faculty or other students.

I can't really provide much experience, since I'm moving in a few weeks. However, I did decide on a moving pod, since calculating the gas on top of rental fees for a Uhaul truck made it cheaper to get a pod. After comparing the major ones in our area, I found Uhaul pods to be the best deal, because they let you customize how you pick it up and drop it off: you can pay more if you want them to drop it by your door (which is a lot for Los Angeles), pick it up yourself with a trailer or rental van, or load it at their warehouse. I'll have a moving story in a month, and will let you know if the price was worth it.

I guess every University has their own system for assigning email addresses, and I have a very obscure last name, so usually I get something that's easy to remember and give out, and somewhat resembles my actual name. But for my new school, I get something like blah001@school.edu - what's up with that? /rant

I'd worry less about choosing a school then casting a wide net and let the school chose you. In your search you'll compile a large list of programs, using research fit as your first criteria - is there faculty working in your area or even a program that encapsulates what you'd like to do? Then you'll have schools that are high ranked as a whole, lower ranked but have a strong program, and in interesting areas and less interesting areas. Start contacting the program for more information, and look into the application requirements. Narrow down your list as you go along. I used an Excel spreadsheet, and filled out the location, program, funding, application requirements, who I contacted or should contact, and the pros and cons of each program. I took it further and color-coded the most important aspects, especially funding - that way I could rank them by the possibility of getting funding, and it led me to find programs that had less of a research fit (or weren't top tier) but had very strong funding sources. Because in the end, money is a big factor in choice, unless you're already sitting on a big pot of it. I would take the GRE. For U.S. schools, having a GRE score will greatly increase where you can apply. When you're contacting schools, ask if you can talk directly with current graduate students, they'll be more frank about the research environment, personality of faculty, and funding.

Yes. The magical power of the .edu address.

Yeah, I don't think it's a big deal. I'm sure this happens a lot - it's normal for faculty members to write a half dozen LORs to a dozen students. I haven't seen any of my LORs, but it's very possible there are wrong school names on some of them.

I think I did more research on POIs to see if the program was worth applying to, than I did specifically for my SOP. In the end, I really only had a few sentences about the POI, and a sentence or two summarizing the additional people in the program I was excited about working with. I read a few articles anyways, at least for the POIs at the top programs: faculty I was usually referred directly two by other faculty members. For the rest, I just read abstracts and looked at the titles of recent published work. The hardest part of the SOP was not about faculty, but identifying research centers or projects that I'd be a good fit in. I had to talk with faculty and current grad students to see what was out there - just because something's listed on the website doesn't mean it's still active or relevant.

I don't think there are really exceptions here. Just because there's a culture against attending the same school for grad doesn't mean it's a good or bad choice - it depends on the institution and the program. I think "trading up" for a higher tier institution without paying attention to the program, the research fit, or the faculty is a big mistake, in the same way that assuming that your top tier undergrad institution is also the best place to study grad (it may be, but it's not a given). In other words, the "Should I go to another school for grad or stay here?" is only one factor among many that should be taken into consideration, and, imo, certainly not the most important one.

I think in this country there is a big focus on new experiences and networking on a larger scale, which causes the difference between undergrad and grad institutions, and possibly a bias. In my experience, faculty will generally recommend other institutions for graduate study than their own to their undergrads, or even Masters students. I think we have a culture that sees 4 years at one school as enough time to take everything in, and as a preparation for the next institution. And there's also a high level of competition for graduate admissions, which may cause applicants to "trade up" their institutions for somewhere on a higher tier. Certainly there's nothing wrong with doing grad at your undergrad school, and there's certainly advantages: you are well versed in the institution already, and have a chance to form long term and meaningful relationships with faculty. And you'll probably be paying in-state tuition, if that's the case. But there's certainly a culture that prescribes the opposite. Really interesting to see the difference between Japan and USA in this regard.

Basically, everything. I think the more you do with it, the more it works. With the browser extension you can clip a selection or a picture, format an article for saving, take a screenshot, or save a bookmark. For example, when I click on it for this forum, it can give me all the content in an easy to read format, perfect for reading on tablets and phones. If I find a web article that looks interesting or is related to something I'm writing, you can highlight and add notes while you read, and save it with all of those attached. I have a bunch of folders for every subject or area I'm likely to want to remember stuff, and use tags to make notes easier to find later on. I'll take all of my class and lecture notes in it, so I won't have to wonder where they're saved. When I'm reading, I also like to have Evernote open and take notes with it. I use a technique a very pragmatic professor taught me, where for each journal article I read, I try to sum it up in 3-4 points to make sure I understand what it was about and that I didn't sleep read the latter half. I think when you pay for Evernote, you can upload PDFs and Word documents, and search through them. And, I have it on my smartphone, so I take a lot of pictures of interesting books or journal articles when I encounter them, write quick notes for later, and you can even record to it when you have a brilliant (or seemingly so) idea. I also have a IFTTT that automatically saves articles I really like in Pocket, and when I have a few seconds I put them in the correct folder. And when I'm writing or researching in a particular topic, I can open up a folder and get the content I need and even some inspiration from the past. A lot of people use Evernote for bookmarking websites, but I like Delicious for that because I've been using it for so long (and there's no official way to export from one to the other and keep all your tabs). It's a little dumb when you start using it, but it makes a lot of sense when you have a lot of notes added, in lots of different formats. Throw your chaos at it and see what it can do with it. Imagine all of your notebooks, clippings, bookmarks, and written thoughts in the same searchable place. danah boyd uses it. Here's a guide to using it better, which I found useful.

I think it's a move in a good direction, but it depends. I have friends in programs who are in the first two years and are missing out in funding that's being given to students in their 6-8 year who don't look like they'll be finishing anytime soon. Obviously this is a mistake by the program, and preference should be given to students who are on track, but a funding cap might help with this. The program I'll be attending has an 8 year cap, not just for funding, but as a limit for your degree studies. I think that's fair. The only issue in my field with a 6 year cap is that some students work quantitatively, and can finish earlier, and others work qualitatively, so they need a year or more to work in the field in order to gather enough data to write about. I'd be in favor if it made allowances for this.

Oh - if you own a bike and use it for commuting, find a bike coop or bike center at your University and take a class in bike maintenance. Invest in a multi-tool, but also find out if you can borrow tools or do repairs in-house at the center or coop. It will extend the life of your bike and save you money on repairs; also, a bike that's been tuned up and continuously loved is a much better ride. And, if you know basic things about bicycles, you can buy a decent bike for cheap on Craigslist that's been sitting in someone's garage, and repair it and tune it up for use.

When shopping, I immediately go to the back of the store and find the sales rack or shelves. For clothing stores, I'm not really aware of anything that's not on sale; also for clothes, I try to buy out of season and anticipate what I need (in moving across the country to an actual seasonal climate, I bought a bunch of sweaters last month in H&M for around $5 each). Watch out for psychological tricks, especially in advertisements. Just because it's on sale doesn't mean it needs to be purchased. I learned this lesson from my dad, who goes crazy with coupons and sales and stockpiles items. Open a cabinet anywhere in the house and thirty toothbrushes will fall out. Don't focus on the amount of savings; instead, think about how much the item actually costs and whether you need it. Does the item cost $15 and you walk away? You just saved $15. Most grocery stores have manager's special on meat that's near expiration. I buy it and freeze it immediately, or cook it in the next few days. I cook a lot, mostly because I enjoy doing it, and have adapted to a much lower grocery budget. If you have a store where you can buy dry goods and spices from bulk bins, do it. I refill my sea salt container for a few cents, and have large containers to store rice, flour, beans, etc. which are great staples to integrate into every meal. Eating out is fun when you don't do it all the time; and, since it's an occasional luxury, I can go out to a decent place with good food. Although I've never done it here, but from living abroad I learned you can shower with only a few gallons of water. If I wanted to save more, I'd get a plastic bowl, fill it with water from the tub, and bucket bathe with the shower turned off. You'd be surprised how little water it takes to clean you. Get a family plan for your cell phone. I know a lot of friends, not even families, that are on one together. Recruit more friends for more savings. I try to use open source software whenever possible. I have an old laptop that stutters through Windows, so I prefer to dual boot it with a very lightweight Ubuntu. Don't go crazy with time management schemes. It's good to be organized, but there's definitely a bottomless pit when it comes to lifehacking and productivity boosting - are you really saving time if you spend hours in the week finding new apps, new systems, new ways of saving? Get a spouse that has the same attitude towards money (I like to save, but I also don't feel guilty spending a little on something I enjoy). My wife has been a student longer than me, so we're definitely on the thrift bandwagon. The most persistent fights I see in couples revolve around finances (and not always shared money).

I was in a similar situation last year, where I was applying for "real jobs" while putting in graduate applications. Now I have a job I'll be leaving soon; my former supervisor knew about the applications and acceptances, but my new one doesn't. It's not a job I see myself doing much longer, but it's at a college, so there's some level of - how can I say it - stickiness to the job. Other people in my position have been here 10-15 years. I'll end up just clocking one year. I live in an expensive city as well, and wasn't really make it with odd jobs. If you're already interviewing for jobs, I would continue. Having a salary with benefits means you can grow your savings a little bit more for grad school. And, in the end, you don't really know how your applications will end up, and having a stable job means: 1) you have a fallback if you don't get in anywhere, 2) you can be selective with programs, i.e. you won't have to desperately choose an offer with little or no funding. And I'm sure getting a job isn't guaranteed either, so it's good that you're already considering a fallback plan from that, which is to work short-term.

I agree with MAC2809, a PhD is a better path to becoming a professor and/or department head. However, I think these positions are only worthy goals if you're interested in research: a professor heads the department after a long career of research projects, published papers, and student advising. If you enjoy research, that's great; if you don't, it doesn't make sense to spend a decade or two doing that to get to your end goal: it would probably be better to take your MS and see what you can do with it, and avoid the years spent on the PhD. Just out of curiosity, why isn't the GRE an option? The GRE is a norm for most programs, so you'd be missing out on quite a few potential options.

It would be hilarious if all his son got for that was a free pass to the Brown swimming center. If only karma existed.

I second holding on to it. You never know when you'll be applying to something strange in the future that requires it; I occasionally work in other countries, and more emphasis is put on the diploma itself than transcripts, as we do here. Probably less chance the High School diploma will be needed, but your question includes PhD and Masters, which I think would be useful to keep. And then there's that unwritten law that the moment you throw something out, someone will suddenly need it. I have my degrees in their original manila envelopes in a file box with other important documents - that way, they are really only taking up an extra few milometers in my life.

I believe Princeton Review and Kaplan have one free online GRE practice test each.