Minnesotan

If it makes you feel any better, it's not any easier for those of us who are already PhD Candidates. There's much more information out there for grad school applicants than for job, fellowship, or post-doc applicants.

If you can find a quiet area of College Hill, you're in business. I live on the side of the hill, on the second terrace of the "cliff," and I can't hear the keggers unless I walk out to the road. That, and a 10-15 minute walk to my office make it worth not living in Moscow.

I've rented from Midway Property since I've been here, and they are very nice. If you're walking to school every day, I would strongly suggest living on College Hill. It's bad enough going up the hill once to get to the CUB/Terrell Mall. Having to go up and down multiple times is the suck! Then again, if you're on a bus route, it's a quick ride from anywhere in the city. I prefer to walk, though. IT's the only exercise I've been getting lately. *bloat*

I've lived in both cities, and as much fun as I had in NYC, I would strangle puppies to get back to Oxford for another year of study.

While websites that do not provide owner info are sketchy at best, this fund is listed at the financial aid offices of multiple minor colleges in the U.S. and Canada. You'll have to draw your own conclusions, but I thought the info worth sharing.

There's no way to uninvite someone gracefully. As for the committee chair asking you to go another direction in your scholarship, you might want to at east explore the directions he advises. If the guy places new PhDs at such a high rate, maybe there's a reason for it. He might have connections, a nose for the market, or lots of experience training grad students. Anyway, giving the JIL a once-over might soften your stance a bit. There are very few jobs for queer theorists, and feminist theory has been over-producing PhDs for years.

Woot! I'm off the list! Now I feel guilty for doing my real work. You know -- the work I get paid to do. Well, kinda get paid. Aw, hell! I'm slave labor everywhere. I might as well keep posting.

Someone /priv me if you have something concrete to report. I've gotten a few generic "off topic" reports, with no attached explanation. From my scan of the thread, it looks like everything is on topic. If trolls are posting fake results, let me know. If the results could potentially be real, keep your panties on.

Lots of fresh-faced MA students think you have to give up your social life when heading to grad school. Resist that urge. When colleagues ask you out for a beer, say yes. In fact, when anyone at your school asks you to do something (legal), say yes. Yes is the best word you'll learn in grad school. Work hard and play hard -- you'll keep from burning out, that way.

Sorry - a few too many years of Latin makes me overcompensate for the stupidity of contemporary speakers. It drives me apeshit when people say "curriculums!" We won't even talk about the misuse of "phenomenon/a," "begging the question," or "disinterested." Pedantic Man rides again! =)

A fig for Foucault, says the RhetComp scholar! Kenneth Burke is our Foucault, I guess.

Fulbrightest is out of here! This is a place for semi-professional discussion. You don't need to be serious all of the time, but you do need to know when enough is enough. Hopefully this was just a troll issue, but to fulfill my duties as moderator I need to make two things clear: 1) Either it stops now, or I'm giving out more bans. 2) If this thread does not get back on topic immediately, it gets locked.

Seriously? Montana is so many worlds better than Manhattan, it's unfathomable. First, you might actually make enough money to survive on a TAship in Montana. I don't know what kind of background the rest of you come from, but my parents didn't invent Velcro, and my last name certainly isn't Kennedy. I don't know how someone lives on an assistant professor's salary in NYC, let alone a grad stipend. Moreover, as much as I love visiting Manhattan, there is no escape from it. In Montana (I'm assuming you meant Missoula), you have access to big city amenities, yet nature is only a fifteen minute drive away. Central Park might be nice, but it is not nature. The only real benefit to living in NYC is the proximity to other libraries, musea, etc.

Commoner, You should PM BGK about the re-app support group. I am willing to bet he'd provide space in the fora for you guys to have an area of your own.

That's a fabulous book that every person in the humanities should read. I also think you should enjoy your free time. Take a road trip, head to the beach, go shopping -- whatever it is that you love doing. You're not going to get to do much of it while you're taking seminars and possibly teaching. Get in your leisure time now, and don't start overworking yourself before you even have anything to work on. You don't want to be burned out before you even get to grad school!

Just so you know, I have three weeks left in the semester to get three papers and a massive research project done, in addition to grading writing portfolios at the same time. I thought I would let you know what you're missing, so you don't feel so bad: STRESS! Anyway, good luck to all who still have hope, however small.

I'm at an R1 land grant in the boonies. My stipend lets me live like a king.

Yay for Minnesota! ?

This post inspired me to write an impromptu poem. We are the intellectual elite: The economy is failing, We have no money, No prospects; So we decide to go To graduate school, Where we will perhaps: Get accepted, Get paid above the poverty line, Get a job. But this is all wishful thinking. We made the educated choice. We are the intellectual elite.

I'm not sure I understand the broken English above, but the other responders are correct. If not for the news media, we would not have experienced the horrible economic panic we've had to endure in the U.S.! Sure, Clinton signed a bad law into action, but we could have fixed the problem without forcing the executive to approve even crazier schemes. Poor Obama is grasping at straws, all because the newspapers said "Boo!" and everyone became afraid of spending. These vultures blow everything out of proportion and cause mass hysteria among the general public for the sole benefit of their sales figures. Drama sells papers.

Remember your Latin roots, and all will be well.

Safest bet is to leave out the flashy stuff. Rarely will it impress everyone, but often it will annoy someone. Stick to the basic questions: who you are, why you fit, what you want the degree for, etc.

Me too! Ageist bastards!

I'm not sure what Blah has invested in this debate, but in my experience most departments are susceptible to finesse. You just have to use what tiny bit of power you have, once you get an offer in hand. At this point, they just want everyone to accept and be done with it. Both my MA and PhD schools offered me more money to decide early when I asked for an extension to decide on other offers. It can't hurt to ask.

That looks extremely helpful, Justin. Even though I'm already working on a PhD, I might subscribe to the RSS feed just for fun.