actuallyatree

I agree with TheGirlWhoLived. If your choice was between Harvard and a school no one had heard of somewhere in rural Arkansas, I would say Harvard is potentially worth the debt, but NYU is a big, well regarded school in one of two Alpha++ cities on earth, and they've offered you a full ride, which is sweet. I don't think being in New York is going to hurt your career prospects at all. I can't really think of a situation where being in New York could ever hurt your career potential in most fields. There are lots of government agencies, NGOs and private companies in New York, and you would be well placed to get a job with one of them upon completion. Given that Harvard and GT haven't given you information on funding by now, I would hazard a guess that even if they do give you money, it won't cover the costs of both the program and living in Boston or Washington.

The reason rank can matter is because sometimes there are more opportunities at top schools. I am at a pretty unknown school for my MS but am working with an awesome professor in my subfield who is giving me tons of opportunities and really helping me learn material that will be helpful in phd interviews and research. I actually dont think that I would get this much help or encouragement at a top school so for me, its actually turning out to be better that I chose the school that I did.
 
I think you should compare opportunitites, not rankings. Money also should definitely factor in.

A visa is only required to enter the United States (or any country), so it doesn't matter if the visa is expired and you are already in the US. In fact, some countries have visas that are only valid for one single entry so as soon as you cross the border, it's expired/invalid. I know a lot of people with visas that are valid for just one year (so during the first year, you can enter/leave as much as you want, but afterwards you must get a new visa).
 
If you have an expired visa and you leave the US, then you must get a new visa before you can return, unless you are leaving to go to Canada or Mexico. So this means if a F-1 (or J-1) student goes to a conference in France after their visa has expired, then they cannot re-enter the US until they get a new visa. For some people, this is very inconvenient (and expensive) to stay in France and apply for a visa through the US Embassy/Consulate in France. So, what a lot of people do when they know they need to travel later is to go to Canada or Mexico or home (or anywhere else really) and get a new visa ahead of time. Or, if they want to visit home they will be stuck there until they get a new visa issued. 
 
I haven't known anyone to be extremely inconvenienced by this, though. One time, my TA was stuck for an extra week in China as he got extra paperwork to complete (or something) so he missed the first week of class. I think it will be a fact of life though. I can understand the extra security for someone to have to leave to the US in order to get their visa approved.
 
Also, I think this will create problems if someone's visa application is denied while they are already in the US. Unless the denial is an administrative issue (e.g. missing paperwork), the decision would make no logical sense, since how can you deny access to your country to someone already in it? At the same time, the US doesn't want to grant visas to everyone already holding a visa. Instead, it makes far more sense to only decide on the visa application when the user actually needs the visa to enter the US. It's far easier to keep someone out of the US than to remove someone who is already in the US.
 
And, I think approving visas within the US might encourage some people who get their visas denied to remain in the US beyond their F-1 or J-1 status because they know they won't be able to return. 
 
Maybe there are other arguments for allowing visa renewals within the country? I agree (and I think it is already possible) that one should be able to extend their I-20s or DS-2019s within the US if they end up needing more time to finish and so on. But visas (permission to enter) should be applied for and granted when the applicant is outside of the country in question!

Xanax is very fast acting, so it's used more for acute treatment of panic attacks and whatnot. Things like Zoloft and Prozac are much better for anxiety treatment in the longterm. And my Zoloft dose is perfect, thank you very much.

Jumping to a PhD program seems to be difficult even for those who just finished their BA... Maybe the reason why they want you to have the MA is to train you in art historical methodologies prior to the doctoral work?

You can always adopt a military mentality and leave behind everything that doesn't fit in bags that you can carry on your back. George Carlin said people have a lot of shit, and some Japanese historical figure (forget his name) said you can't bring your belongings to the grave. I have a backpack for my electronics and a duffle bag for my clothes. I might bring my bike too. Not sure about the plane policy on bikes.

That's a really upbeat view of how disability is approached in schools. I have a friend transferring from a CC to a 4 yr college and she frequently needs to use a wheelchair. She texted me yesterday that the college she was looking at had little to nothing in the way of a DRC for physical disabilities and that the tour group left behind her and her father while they were trying to navigate with her chair. 
 
For those whom walking is not easy, you can't simply just say, "I'm sure they'll be accommodating!" because they may, in fact, be the opposite of that. 

And people gave her good advice. They also threw in that she has time to get fit. You're quite the sensitive one. I see you've been vote-trolling my posts for a while. Anything that Jeff Foxworhty wouldn't approve of seems to offend you. 
 
By the way, your advice was great. We should close this thread now. You summed it all up. 
 
P.S. And the thread I was referring to (the one you quoted) was unrelated to "fat friendly" campuses. It was a thread about fitness and she was basically asking how she could avoid fit people. Obviously, since the topic of the thread and all the responders were fit, we were trying to give her encouraging advice. The only advice she responded to was from people saying how they hate "fit movements." 

How do you know which ones are undergrads? Haha. 
 
You give very good advice. I never thought about being in the same vicinity all day, but that does make perfect sense. It's not like in undergrad where you'll have random classes all over campus. You'll most likely be in the same building all day. 
 
Very good point. If you really can only walk 20-30 steps at a time, then I would consider that some type of mobility disability. Contact the DRC and they'll be able to better assist you than any of us will. 
 
I like your style, persimmony. 
 
Now my insight... Once again, you can only take 20-30 steps at a time. That qualifies, in my opinion, as disabled. But of course, it's a correctable disability. Grad schools don't start for another 6 months. I'm not saying you need to become an Olympian within that time, but you shouldn't just settle for 20-30 steps. You should make it your goal to increase your steps each and every week. Who knows, maybe by the time you get to grad school you'll be perfectly mobile. 
 
I see what you're saying about having seating, desks etc that are accommodating to your needs. To tie in to my previous point, you do have 6 months to work on your fitness. Maybe it won't be as much of a problem by then. But I don't see finding suitable seating to be such a big problem. I'm sure the disability department provides some sort of seating available and they can place it in the classroom for you. There is someone in one of my classes who has his own desk. I don't know exactly what his disability is. He looks fine to me. But he is an older guy and a war vet. Sure it has something to do with that. 
 
And as far as culture... We've talked about this in the other thread about fitness. You didn't really seem to respond to anyone's advice, or at least anything that wasn't what you wanted to hear. My points were that educated people seem to be more health conscious. You'll find way more vegans, yoga nuts, cyclists, mountain climbers etc on college campuses than you'll find anywhere else in the country. I know 70-year old professors who bike to campus every day. Even if they're not meat head gym rats, they can still be health/fitness conscious. I've noticed that younger undergrads are more into looking good and older grad students are more into being healthy. There's really no way of getting around it. I don't think there's such thing as a non-fit culture. You probably won't have a bunch of classmates being too vocal about their workout routines, but you'll definitely have a lot of fit classmates. 

Automatic transmissions.
Sculpture.
Lorde.
The British Museum.
 
Automatic transmissions are for people too lazy to learn to drive properly. Sculpture just really annoys me. It isn't interesting or exciting or capable of producing an emotional response. Lorde is a cartoon hedonist. The British Museum is way too crowded, with tourists taking selfies in front of the Rosetta Stone preventing you from getting more any more than a brief glimpse at the thing, and the rest of the museum is simply loads of stuff looted by British noblemen from the four corners of the globe.

If you can only walk 20-30 paces in between breaks, you need to get your health on track. Picking a grad school shouldn't be your top priority.

I certainly felt that way when I got accepted by one of my reach schools. They accepted me, so clearly they cannot be that big of a deal.

I think it's okay. You'll certainly get something out of the visit - you'll meet faculty in your field, other students, and see if the University will be a possibility in the future. And they'll benefit, because they can try to recruit you - and who knows, you might even be persuaded to go there.
 
I was in a similar situation - I was invited to a visit to my third choice - but the only reason I didn't go was due to the expense of the trip.

I can't speak for the rest of Canada, but at least in Ontario international admissions has gotten a little more difficult because the province decided they'd prefer to fund domestic students rather than international ones. So for a school to take on an international student, either they won't offer funding or the student has to qualify for some merit-based scholarships or bring external funding with them. 

I do greatly appreciate the insight! But, for those of us in the humanities, there really are not a whole lot of options. Either way, if we stop now, we are going to be working retail (if we are lucky to get a job at all over minimum wage) with our degree(s) in English, German, Religion, Philosophy, and so on. Again, for many of us, there is no pay cut. In fact, a PhD stipend is more money than I have ever made (I'm in my early 30's!). At the end of the day, if I end up spending the next 5-8 years of my life working my ass off at something I love and I can't even get a job teaching High School when it's all said and done, oh well. Again, given our options, and if we secure decent funding at a good program, why the hell not? If I'm going to be working at Taco Bell end game, I might as well get paid while I am earning a PhD before my career making burritos begins. Coming from someone who has spent time making burritos, working totally awful bottom of the barrel jobs, I can absolutely say IT IS WORTH IT. If you're paying for your PhD that is another story, of course. But for most of us, even that meager 15k stipend is pretty goddamn okay. 
 
cheers

There is still the "I can not believe they did not except me" response to being rejected after applying for a PhD in English.

Agreed! If anything, let the world be rid of the GRE.

Quote
 
 
We don't use it in Canada and we get along juuuuust fine. Down with standardized testing!

I don't agree with this at all.  It depends on what field you are in as well.  Many other Canadian universities are considered top ranked universities.  Just because they don't show as the top 4 on a list doesn't mean anything.  You certainly have a very close-minded viewpoint.

Sorry, I fail to see the usefulness of this thread.  Whereas posts about admissions communicate information about when schools have started announcing, posts about offer declination say nothing more than that people are declining offers, which is a foregone conclusion.  On one side, it's an opportunity to show off (hey, I'm declining all these great schools, I'm so awesome!) and on the other side, it's a desperate and misplaced attempt to mollify people who have been wait-listed.  While I am sure you had good intentions, the implicit point of this thread seems to be to pressure people to hurry up and dump their offers.  I think that everyone who has earned multiple offers should take all the time they need to make an informed choice, as I plan on doing.

Could also be a matter of the quality of statements, writing samples, etc. If a lower ranked program has an earlier deadline, you could easily submit documents that are just not as polished as those submitted to higher ranked programs with later deadlines.

There is still the "I can not believe they did not except me" response to being rejected after applying for a PhD in English.

There is still the "I can not believe they did not except me" response to being rejected after applying for a PhD in English.

There is still the "I can not believe they did not except me" response to being rejected after applying for a PhD in English.