Minnesotan

Please do not set your topics as announcements.

Santana, not all schools have the same practices. It's silly to make generalizations about the admissions procedures of all schools.

While I wouldn't expect people to think it's an online university, it's also not nearly as well known in the States as UofT, UBC, York, or Western.

I think we passed the point of no return long ago.

I would only contact them if you've made up your mind. If that's the case, then ask them to remove you from the list. Otherwise, why not wait and see what kind of offer they give you?

I thought it was because academia breeds pompous windbags. =)

If you have any particular questions, I can try to help.

I find that being a TA is all about approach. You get out of it exactly what you put into it. The first time I was a TA, I was extremely nervous, but luckily my responsibilities were mostly behind the scenes -- I only had to lecture once per term. I've been lucky enough to be able to dip my toes in a few times, and gradually get wet before being tossed into the deep end this year. Nonetheless, I have had a great time with my kids these past two semesters. Once you realize that teaching isn't that stressful, it becomes a lot of fun. Most of your students are there voluntarily, which helps a lot because they actually want to learn. If you can get them to look at the world of ideas in a new way, and maybe improve their atrocious writing skills (grr!), then you have done a better job than most TAs before you. It's really that simple. You don't need to be Robin Williams shaking things up at a snooty prep school to be a good teacher; mainly you just need to care about your students. But I'll echo what people said above -- put yourself first. Yes, it's great to leave ten pages of helpful comments on every assignment. Boy do I feel conscientious when I do that! However, you're lucky if you have three students read them. Don't waste your time getting too cute; instead, save your energy for the very few students who care enough to visit you during office hours, ask you to look over early drafts, and generally go out of their way to improve themselves. These are the kids on whom you're going to leave the deepest impression. Try to get the others excited (and don't ignore them by any means), but the folks who want to fail are going to fail. You have to get over that little factoid early on in your career. It will save a lot of heartache later on.

While this is true, one has to consider the placement records of potential programs among the more important pieces of the puzzle. Sure, there's likely very little difference between a top 5 and a top 20 school in that regard, but when you start to consider a top 20 versus a top 50, some investigative work is necessary. Do the people at the top 20 school get a leg up on the competition? Possibly. Is this everything? Of course not! Either way, one must be a productive, well-rounded job candidate to find placement, but if we take (for argument's sake -- I realize people will object to the idea of similarity) two people with otherwise equal resumes who attended schools of vastly different rankings, I would be willing to bet that the person from the more prestigious program will have the advantage. There are, as has been said earlier in this thread, two types of prestige, though. The first is of the more general sort. We'll call it university prestige. University prestige is meaningful if one is planning to head into the public sector, but it means very little indeed if one stays in academia. If Harvard has a horrible program in underwater basket weaving, then you would be poorly served by completing your degree there, if you plan to profess. Department prestige (my second category of prestige), on the other hand, works in the opposite fashion. If someone in the public sector hears that you went to Southern Podunk State University for your degree, they will hardly be impressed. However, if everyone in your academic field realizes that SPSU has one of the top programs in underwater basket weaving, and you want a job teaching underwater basket weaving in academia, then you will probably receive more careful consideration when you apply. My point made brief: I would replace concerns about ranking with concerns about placement records. Yes, prestige is something to keep in mind, but it is not a universal desideratum. Or, at least, it is not equally applicable in the job-seeking process; you need to consider the perspectives of the people whom you want to impress.

Duplicate locked. Please refer to this thread: viewtopic.php?f=56&t=13590

I was referring to your colleagues who are waiting for you to accept or decline an offer, not the schools. By holding multiple offers you know you aren't going to accept, you're making other people wait to plan their lives because you want to word things properly or explore your emotions, as you claim. This seems a little egocentric to me. I've declined the offers I know I won't accept. I'm also holding one (my favorite so far) until I see what happens with a couple of waitlists. If I get in off a waitlist, I will decide as quickly as possible which of the two remaining offers is the best, and inform the other that I won't be attending. I think that's the responsible thing to do -- I hold one offer at a time, not three or twelve. =) Do what you want, but you can only attend one school. Dicking around with multiple offers, when you've already made up your mind, is just plain selfish. I'm not pressuring anyone for personal reasons, because all of my history programs have informed me under no uncertain terms that they either want me or they do not. I'm just trying to point out that people seem to forget that there are others whose lives they are affecting by waiting to inform for no legitimate reason.

Emotions don't excuse discourtesy, and it is quite discourteous (not to mention unprofessional) to jerk multiple colleagues around just because you don't want to give up offers you have no intention of accepting. Sure, it's different when you have yet to make a decision. However, once you've decided where you are going, and have even notified a school, all you are doing is making other people's lives more difficult by holding places in multiple programs you do not wish to attend. I do not see how being a woman or having emotions plays any part in this. Men, too, have emotions (gasp!), but are you saying we should be expected to "be men" and "suck it up" in our society? Isn't this just as damaging a bit of gender essentialism (i.e. men are confident and unemotional by nature, and therefore should not be allowed to demonstrate indecisiveness or anxiety about their future)? Hiding behind one's gender and one's perceptions of unequal treatment in society does not excuse a lack of professionalism. When it comes down to it, you need to realize that being an adult is about taking responsibility for yourself, and making the difficult decisions in life without attempting to excuse yourself on the basis of some self-imposed sense of otherness. We're all unique, as our kindergarten teachers told us; that does not mean we get to claim special treatment. Again, this issue has absolutely nothing to do with gender, and I strongly encourage everyone to get back on track. Tangents like this, where people inexplicably bring race, gender, religion, or politics into unrelated conversations, are apt to get heated, and I think that is unnecessary in this situation. Let's try to work this out through a discussion of gender-neutral ethics, not snipe at each other over gross generalizations about how society (whoever that is) treats (every member of?) certain genders, religions, or races.

That's what happens when you choose to write your dissertation on the history of NASCAR. lol Anyway, I'm glad you finally informed your other schools. Having moderated these fora for the last couple of years, I have seen the toll that waitlists (and the people who "collect" acceptance letters, not bothering to inform their departments until the last minute that they've accepted another offer) take on people's lives. There's always a 'next person down the line' who is desperately hoping that someone will inform their department, so they can finally plan the next 5-8 years of their lives. I honestly don't understand the people who have 3-15 acceptances, and want to hold them all until 11:59pm on April 14th.

Are you implying that girls are more personable, or that they have more time on their hands? =)

Please see the deferral thread for this information. Locking the duplicate.

If you're having trouble motivating yourself, think of the poor folks who are sitting on waitlists, no offers in hand, who are not sure whether they will even be accepted anywhere. Your decision seems pretty easy when you consider the situations of those who are less fortunate than yourself.

I'm going to go ahead and start locking posts like this. I understand how difficult it is to be waitlisted, but this type of post will not help your case. It will just clutter the forums when everyone else starts mking these posts, too.

Please do not turn this thread into another discussion about the validity and usefulness of standardized testing. There are ten other threads that have been hijacked thus.

I blame the fact that there are 90 gajillion posts that contain people's GPA and GRE scores, along with a desperate plea for everyone to rate their chances. You can't rate someone's chances of getting a job at Perkins with just their numbers, let alone assure them that they'll get into grad school, and that it's all going to be okay once they stop hyperventilating. Thus the topics veer quickly toward stupidity.

It's only sexual harassment if you get turned on by it. And she doesn't.

This appears to be the one he meant: http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/t ... 889.0.html

I think being excited about one's program is a good sign. A lot of people on these forums are dissatisfied with their dream schools before they even get there, and I've seen how miserable these people become after a year or so in. Maybe the application process, and all the pressure they put on themselves to find the "perfect" program with the right level of prestige, embitters them. I don't know. All I can say is that the people who are genuinely excited to be going where they're going (regardless of perceived prestige) seem to have a better time during grad school.

I would just be thankful for his/her honesty.

Oh, the hours one has to spend on subway and bus to get to and from York, compared to anywhere remotely livable! You will learn to dread the sight of Downsview Station (especially when the 196 is done for the night). I have some friends in the joint Ancient History program at York/UofT, and they are getting bedsores on their butts from riding public transit. It probably won't be so bad in 2010, when they extend the subway, but until then it's a crappy commute. Anyway, I hear that York has a well-respected communications program. I'm sure you'll have plenty of good faculty to draw on there.

Haha! It says a lot about a university when they turn off their ringers when their potential grad students want help.