lemma

Can you defer (or reject) the American offer, find work as a research assistant in Egypt and then wait for the outcome in Australia? Presumably if you don't get admitted (the easy part) and receive a scholarship (the harder part) you can reapply in the American system a year later. One year probably isn't the biggest deal especially if you can find relevant work in the interim to boost your CV. I'm not going to ask why you prefer the Australian program, because I assume you've done your research and this is something you really want. Australian and American PhD programs are very different structurally, and Australia and the US are also very different places to live in among developed nations, so I can see why you might have a strong preference even before research is concerned.

I think it really depends. I looked at three apartments before moving into my current one, but the current one was so much better than the others so I jumped on it. I think usually it would take longer. I think you need to move over somewhat early. Once we decided to apply for the apartment, we had to fill out a long application which took some time (maybe a week) because we needed professional and personal references and had to make sure they were OK to take the call. Once we signed, we had to wait 2-3 weeks to move in. Another major thing to think of is furniture! If you're buying new stuff it can take forever to arrive. We spent weeks without a bed and had to sleep on a mattress on the floor, but we actually arranged for the mattress to come as early as possible, otherwise we would have had nothing. We didn't have a microwave for the first few weeks, nor any cupboards... if you want to start out your PhD with a functioning home, I would try to arrive a couple of months early just so that the furniture can be delivered once you find a place.

I'm still fairly new to TA life, so here are some lessons I've learned so far: Be firm and consistent. When you start making allowances for one student, you start making them for every student, and this will blow up in your face if you're teaching a large class. If you're firm and consistent from the beginning, the students will do what they need to do to get their work in on time or to get feedback they need. Separate your impression of a student's attitude from your impression of their work. For students who have a good attitude and are engaged, spend the time giving them feedback so they can improve and properly earn a high grade. Our natural human instinct is to help out people we like, but especially for classes graded on a curve, if we bump a student up unfairly, another student is pulled down unfairly. Give feedback as soon as you can so that students have the time to learn. Save all of your materials down so that you can reuse them for future semesters. You might end up teaching content you never learned when you took the class yourself, especially if you're teaching at a new university. See if you can get materials from a previous semester to get ahead, and don't feel ashamed to reach out to the other TAs if necessary.

I got engaged yesterday!

Get physically fit and learn how to cook healthy and cheap food quickly (or in bulk). Your biggest challenge in graduate school will likely be staying in the best headapace you can, and eating well and exercise do help.

Get in early if you can! At my university, for regulatory reasons, TA positions have to be filled months before semester. This has meant that PhD students in my cohort missed out on being able to teach in their first semester. I would flag your interest in teaching to your supervisor or the PhD coordinator and go from there. I flagged it to my supervisor who it turned out was looking for TAs for his class - I got lucky.

Is there an Ikea near you? We got a lot of our stuff there (even random stuff like a teapot), and got the remainder for a discount furniture chain. We wanted to buy second hand stuff, but the problem was that the demand for stuff posted on craigslist and so on was too high... and we would send so many messages but not actually get anything. We were seriously running out of time. If you buy from chain stores like Ikea, be aware that they take weeks to deliver sometimes, so you have to plan ahead. You can survive without a bedframe for a few weeks if you have a mattress. I would also get a fridge and a microwave ASAP so you don't spend money eating out when you first move in.

I'm on the market to buy a house at the moment but we haven't gone to the banks yet to get a letter of credit. We will probably do that shortly, so I can loop back with my experience. We're not US based though, my partner is on a salary and we do have money saved up for a deposit. Maybe I'll pick up some tricks though along the way.

I've literally been told all of this BS to my face from people in academia, so even if this guy is a troll, there are a lot of people who legitimately believe this. (And yeah, it really hurts to be on the other end of this when you've worked so hard. It can feel degrading. I have an honors ivy quant degree, a perfect GRE, a first-author paper submitted to Science, olympiad background, years of research and industry experience... but apparently that's not enough and all the smart men don't get into programs because of the dumb women like me taking their place.)

I like my Oppo. Apparently the camera is amazing for selifes, but about a month after I got it I broke the screen right where the camera is, so I wouldn't know.

Maybe not the answer you were looking for, but I dealt with it by not going straight into a PhD program out of undergrad. I was terrified by the sacrifices an academic career contained and knew that I would be always thinking about what if I had gone straight to industry. Now that I've spent a few years in industry and am a few months into my PhD, I know what's out there and I know that even though a PhD program requires compromise, this is something I am willing to make. Something that might help: tons of people change careers in their 20s and 30s, so coming out of school aged 30 won't actually be unusual compared to peers who got jobs straight away. You can usually find other ways to earn money on the side, especially tutoring or proofreading essays (as long as it doesn't impede your PhD). You're not guaranteed employment with a PhD, but you're also not guaranteed employment in five years time in any job - you can be fired at any moment. You're getting the chance to get paid to learn about something you love, which isn't necessarily something you can always ensure in a professional job.

This class is a mathematical statistics class for those of us in mathematical finance, econometrics and actuarial science. It was a brutal awakening when the professor handed out the first assignment that day. I had been in the workforce for a few years, and had also completed my undergraduate in a different (though related) major). I hadn't rearranged an equation in a long while, let alone do pure math proofs....

It didn't hit me until I walked onto campus and got my office. That first day. It really hit me after the first coursework seminar.

I'm a first year (in a 3-4 year program). The main difficulties I've had relate to the exhaustion of commuting, as well as the mental tax when the commute doesn't go well. Train delays and cancellations are extremely common, especially as I take three modes of transport to get in. I've also heard that people driving run into similar frustrations, because traffic delays at peak hour (particularly if there is an accident) can be frustrating. Also, not all students on my campus can purchase parking permits, due to supply and demand imbalances. The social part is an interesting one. I live with my partner, whereas pretty much everyone else in my year is single (most have never been in a relationship). I'm also the only domestic student, despite living in a lot of different countries prior to coming home. So far, I haven't felt any social issues, but my program may not be the most social one (the people are lovely though) and I've made an effort to initiate some social stuff. I can see that there could be issues down the line, because pretty much everyone else lives in the same suburb, so if people organise get-togethers it's too far for me to travel on weekends. Or if people do touristy stuff, I'm not sure I'd want to join. I spend most of my time with my partner anyway, and I have childhood friends and family in this city, so even if my program isn't all that social, I have that to support me. Commuting also means that I can't work in my office on weekends, so have to make sure that my partner gets that I have to focus at home (we live in a one bedroom apartment with little space). He's pretty good about that, but he's human, and sometimes doesn't realise whether I'm under a lot of pressure. I try not to make him stressed on my behalf (he has enough in his work life), so I don't talk too much about my workload to him, so that's probably on me.

I commute for about 50-70 minutes each way, because I don't drive. I don't have kids, but this sort of commute is hard for me, because I spend very different hours in the office to my colleagues (they leave at 7pm or later, I leave at 5pm so that I get the peak hour trains. I get in at 8-8.30 in the morning though and am always the first person in by a long way). Commuting that much will be exhausting. It has been for me. As an English PhD, I'm guessing you can do your homework for coursework at home and also can conduct research outside of your office? Flag this early on. One of my supervisors doesn't care when I'm in the office so long as I get the work done, and the other supervisor is adamant that I spend most days on campus. If I had the flexibility to move closer to campus I would, but that wasn't really an option.

This this this. I was a salaried employee, but I was still junior (the head of the division was in her mid 50s, and junior staff were in their 20s and 30s). Professional life can be very hierarchal, but as a PhD student you have 100% ownership of your project. You don't get that level of responsibility as a professional until you are right at the end of your career.

Yale G&G has an awesome culture, enjoy! (Not going to Yale for a PhD but have a lot of familiarity with that particular department.)

In my family, we have a competition to see who can accumulate the most letters after their name. Said competition is ongoing. I think my Dad is leading the pack with his BSci (Hons) MBA, with my sister just behind at BA LLB (Hons). If I complete everything I've started, I think the most I would be is BS AMusA PhD CFA. I got the AMusA when I was 15, but it has been a very slow burn since then (one letter every five years!). But yes, medical doctors seem to gather a lot of certifications, probably because of the way the colleges of medical fellows work.

I'm on $42,500 in Australia, which is large (most PhD students here are on $27,500). I find it very comfortable and am able to save more than half of my stipend. I would say I spend about $10,000 a year on accommodation and utilities (one bedroom in a good area that I share with my partner), and I cook most of my meals at home, though do go out with friends for lunch and also buy tea once or twice a week. Public transport is also $1,500 a year. I live in a major city where the cost of living is extremely high compared to the US. Even though I save most of my stipend, before that we also manage to be able to go away every now and then (we're staying in a cheap airbnb in the countryside soon), and I think since I accepted my PhD offer we've become more in tune with free and low cost leisure activities. I choose not to go to the gym because the cost is so high though. I also have large medical bills despite socialised healthcare here, which sucks but I still feel I can afford it. My partner does earn a solid salary, but we split our bills 50/50 (though sometimes he takes me out to dinner) and I haven't felt it dig into my salary. We are both very careful with money on the whole, though, and never buy more than we can afford. This means that we earn some interest on our savings accounts. Based on my experience and the numbers above, I think I would also be able to live comfortably on the standard $27,500 stipend with enough money left over to save or to go on an overseas trip once a year. None of the stipends here force you to TA, but I do that on the side and it pays well on top of my stipend. I think things would be much tougher if we had kids or a mortgage. We have neither though, which does help. We don't get help from our parents (I feel like we're too old for that) but they've said they can lend us a lifeline if things get dire.

My university considers PhD students as employees. We have the same annual leave as administrators and professors, our email structure doesn't trigger student discounts, we are invited to all staff events and are allocated office space alongside postdocs. When I leave in the morning, I tell my partner that I'm going to work. When people ask me what I do, I tell them that I teach and research at a university, and that I'm working on my PhD at the moment. I spent a few years in the workforce and the PhD feels similar in many respects. It feels more like a professional job than an undergraduate program.

I have disability registration. My accommodations are minimal for the moment, as my psychiatrist does not want me sitting any assessments if very unwell (I have bad cognitive effects when symptomatic and have been hospitalised several times in the past). I have discussed this with disability services, so we have a plan of what to do should I have a major relapse. The everyday accommodations I have are flexibility in assignment deadlines (the specifics are negotiated with the professor), and exam accommodations. I requested bathroom breaks as lithium makes me need to drink a lot of water, and if I don't I start vomiting. I'm also allowed to take anxiety medication and food into the exam. Other accommodations I considered were extra time in exams, but my psychiatrist said that if my thinking is impaired I should not sit the assessment, and the disability office head agreed. If I end up having exams scheduled for the early morning, I may request to have them moved, as I'm on a maximum dose of a sedating antipsychotic. They also mentioned that if I'm too unwell to attend class, they can organise a note taker. I also have access to additional supplementary exams than usual if I'm too sick to take my final exams. The way my university works, I think they notified my supervisor, PhD coordinator and coursework professors with a form from the disability office in their template. The diagnosis was left off, but symptoms were included. I am trying to not use my assignment accommodations unless I need them because I don't want to be "that student", given the professors I'm dealing with will be my colleagues. But I have no shame in asking for help when I need it.

Hundreds of students register with the university for mental health reasons (often severe), and some apply with equity considerations due to the disruptions these have caused, making these diagnoses very public. I know some universities suspend undergraduates following severe mental illness or suicide, but these policies tend to be very different for graduate students.

Good luck with the program! Has your psychiatrist or therapist ever spoken about sleep cycles to you? Apparently it's the number one trigger for bipolar episodes. I learned that the hard way with some severe mood episodes with psychosis. These days, I prioritize my sleep, and if the other stuff doesn't get done, it doesn't get done. I do have provisions through my school's disability office though for assignment deadlines, so I have some flexibility (I would recommend getting this if you can). I go to bed at 10pm every day on the dot, and the alarm is set for 6am. This and medication for me are necessities to stay stable, and the sleep part does help a lot. In terms of how I am? Mood-wise, I am doing well, but I have severe functioning issues when I'm sick so I am always thinking of what happens if my bipolar relapses. On the other hand, the GAD is not good - I push through my day-to-day but feel terrible, and have had to see other medical specialists over the physical effects the anxiety has on me. My psychiatrist said I should be on serotonin medication for my anxiety, but the bipolar means that I can't tolerate antidepressants full-stop (I've tried). Overall, things are the best they've been for years, but very anxiety-ridden. My psychiatrist says things have to get better, but I'll take what I can get. I survived undergrad by chance, and when choosing grad programs, I promised myself that I would minimize the chance of that happening again. A 6 year program away from my support and treatment team wouldn't have been a good choice for me now. Things are still a little too recent. I'm hoping to have more years of stability under my belt for postdocs though, and maybe I can push these illnesses to the edge of my thoughts then.

Hey, I have bipolar I and generalized anxiety disorder. I also took time off during my undergrad. I don't have much to add as I'm at the beginning of my program, but posting for solidarity. I recently saw a GP for physical health stuff, and after we spoke about my history he mentioned that a lot of graduate students don't do well with the pressure of a PhD. The advice he gave me was to manage my sleep strictly: block off sleep time and fit everything around that.

I'm just so overwhelmed. Most PhD students at my university take no classes, don't have to teach and spend all of their time on their thesis. Due to my departmental requirements and my supervisors' preferences (mostly the latter), I'm taking three classes, teaching two and trying to fit in my research. I don't know if I should talk to them about what they want because I'm not sure how I'm going to carry off everything. They're such great supervisors... maybe we're just supposed to do all of this?