perpetuavix

I don't think any type of graduate housing is set up to accommodate two students sharing a bedroom unless they're married. I also doubt that either school would be willing to house a student from another school in their grad housing. You can always ask, but I wouldn't be terrible surprised if the school said no. If you want to live close to campus, look for apartments in Morningside Heights (the surrounding neighborhood) or Washington Heights (about 30 blocks north, so a short commute). I would avoid between maybe 135th and 155th St (it's sometimes called Hamiltion Heights); it's probably one of those areas that will be really nice in 5 years, but I would avoid for now. You could also look in Central Harlem, but you probably don't want to be further east than maybe, 7th Ave just because crosstown buses on 125th St are a special kind of hell. Especially if you're planning to share a one-bedroom, you can almost certainly find something quite affordable.

Did you ask about assistance with paying for your visit? I think that visiting the department is pretty important. There's a lot of intangibles that you can't learn about on their website or by asking questions over email. But if you're already pretty decided on the department AND it's expensive/difficult to visit AND they don't offer money, then it's reasonable to not visit.

I recently visited a school and am leaving to visit another one tomorrow. At the first school, I had an hourlong meeting with one of the professors and I was totally certain I would not be able to come up with enough questions to fill an hour. It was my first visit, but it was certainly not his. He filled in any lag in the conversation and told me about all sorts of things I hadn't thought to ask about. Definitely come prepared with some questions, but remember that schools are actually trying to get you to come there, and professors have had these meetings before. Good luck!

Are you specifically interested in educational economic policy? It looks like that is the focus of the Columbia degree (it's listed as a Teachers College master program, in the department of education policy). But if you attend a one year program, you likely won't have the opportunity to have strong letters from professors at your masters' program if you do go on to PhD programs. What kind of job are you interested in?

The further away from undergrad you get, the less your grades matter. I also think that there are plenty of programs that look kindly on work experience. Could you talk about skills you've learned that would be useful in your intended field? Have you done anything outside of work to keep up with the field (reading articles, joining a professional society, attending conferences)? I do think not having any academic letters would be a problem, but I don't think you need 3 to be successful. You should try to get in contact with at least one, maybe two, professors and see if you can ask them for letters. As long as you're willing to take some time and catch them up on what you've been doing lately, and remind them of some of your best work (ie. send them a CV as well as a paper you wrote for them), I think you could easily have at least one academic letter writer. It sounds like you're looking to apply for 2015, so you've got some time to make that happen. Good luck!

1. In my experience, a good Master's gpa can balance out a lower undergrad gpa. I had a low undergrad GPA when I applied during my senior year and was rejected everywhere. I got a Masters in an unrelated field and had an excellent gpa since I left undergrad, and I now have two acceptances at good schools. 2. I'm not sure why you think two masters is worse than one? I assume you're enrolled in some kind of joint program since you're finishing them at the same time. I don't see why that would hurt you? 3. You should look at the requirements of the schools. If they require or even discuss that test on their admissions website, it would probably be helpful to take the test. if none of the programs require it or mention it as an option, it's probably not helpful. 4. Generally, it's more important to pick letter writers who can talk about you and your abilities from personal experience than writers who are well known. Academic letters are usually better than non-academic letters. If you have research experience that's relevant even if it's not strictly in the field, a letter from your PI probably would be valuable. But a letter from your manager at Chuck-E-Cheese (even if you're the most amazing employee ever) won't be as helpful as a good letter from a professor.

This sounds more like the advice that people receive before they go to the slums of Brazil. Your.... advice about 'youngsters' is particularly hilarious. I used to teach in two different NYC schools (one quite good, and one pretty bad) and I cannot imagine my students beating up some rando on the street for looking at them, even at the bad school. I know they get in fights, but it's with other kids from their neighborhood, and they generally try and hide it from adults. But, basically, teenagers don't give a shit about adults unless you give them a reason to. They aren't going to beat you up for looking at them or bumping into them, and you're a silly, silly person if you think so.

If you went to the first school, since you said you're currently attending and I'm assuming you mean undergrad, wouldn't that mean you received your BA, MA, and PhD all from the same school? I'm not sure if this is true in counseling psychology, but in philosophy, it's definitely looked down on to do your undergrad and graduate work at the same institution. It might be better to do the MA at the Ivy, just to give yourself more exposure to other professors/departments/methods/research/whatever.

I don't think sending someone the wrong admissions decision and expecting the school to honor it is all that similar to the ATM machine. To keep with the money theme, I think it's more like you receiving someone else's bank statement in error who has a much higher balance. Unfortunately, that money doesn't become yours just because you glimpsed the balance; that money still belongs to the other person. If schools make a mistake, especially if the candidates have very similar or even the exact same name, the school has no reason to honor the incorrect acceptance, since it already belongs to someone else.

Are you planning on teaching after you graduate? If so, you should consider which field you would enjoy teaching in more. In another form, would you rather teach Intro to Religion, or Intro to Sociology?

You can definitely get loan money to cover living expenses will in school. However, I'm pretty sure that you can only use federal loan money to pay specific costs (ie. actual tuition and fees). You can get private loans for living expenses. FAFSA's website says relatively little about it but it does say that private loans can cover living expenses: http://www.fafsa.com/student-financial-aid/fafsa-student-loans

You don't know bell hooks? Most of her writing is about race and gender. Her work on education is amazing; I read Teaching To Transgress before I started teaching and I was a million times better for it. She's more well known as a critical theorist, I guess.

If you really want to teach philosophy, that's great. That's my end goal, too. But as competitive as PhD admissions are in philosophy, the job market is even more so. The college that I graduated from, which is unranked in US News and is basically unknown outside of New England had 500 applicants for a tenure track position. The marker is extremely saturated with qualified candidates. This doesn't mean you shouldn't get a PhD. But if you're considering reapplying next year, think seriously about how you would feel if after 5-9 years of study, you didn't find an academic job. If you decide it's worth it, then you should try to do whatever you can to make yourself more competitive. Increase your GRE scores; philosophy students have some of the highest scores, and unlike many humanities, your quant score does matter. Stay in touch with your letter writers and make sure they can give you the best recommendation possible. Really spend time on your SOP; fit is hugely important for most schools. They also generally like to see a very focused interest, which sounds like it might be ancient philosophy for you? Make sure you talk in depth about your previous experience with that (your thesis, classes you took, etc) as well as some ideas about future research in that arena. You might find this thread helpful:

Usually, Masters programs in education are unfunded by the school, but you can find outsides sources of funding. I got my Masters almost entirely funded by an outside program. I know of other teachers who got their entire program paid for. I only know of this for teachers in high need areas, like math, science, or special education. Every English teacher I know has paid for their Masters. If you're doing ESL, though, there might be funding opportunities for that. There are definitely more funding opportunities for the PhD level. Not sure how many schools you applied to, but did you cast a wide enough net? There's always some amount of randomness in PhD admissions, so it's best to apply to a solid mix of schools. If you plan to wait another year, it's also a good idea to use that year to make yourself a more competitive candidate. Retake the GREs, if your scores are a little low. Take some classes as a non-degree student at a local university to show that you're serious about the subject matter. Go to a conference and network. Good luck to you!

I did this and it was super stressful and terrible most of the time. But my professors were particularly awful and most of our classes devolved into old dude story time. So hopefully your experiences will be better! But to anyone looking for part time work while in grad school, I'd recommend tutoring/teaching for SAT/ACT. You generally set your own schedule and decide how much you work. Generally, summer is the busiest time which means you can take on many more hours if you don't get a summer TA job. If you go through a company, you make less but the work is more reliable. If you can find students to work with on your own, even better. Most companies require you to have 90+ percentile scores, so if you meet the cut off, I recommend at least looking into it.

My boyfriend is at NYU for a social science Masters. He discovered that if he were to continue at NYU at the PhD level, none of his masters' classes would transfer towards his PhD requirements. I don't know if that's a school-wide policy, but you should definitely find out if you hope to end up in their PhD program.

Do you have a common last name? I was just reading a blog about PhD admissions from the view of the ad comms, and one of them said he's had actual nightmares about mixing up applicants with the same last name.

Thank you! New York is by far the safest city of its size. There is some variation in this by neighborhood, but even the worst neighborhoods are still better than many other cities. Midtown does in fact have the highest crime rate in the city, which is mostly explained by low population and a large amount of theft. And Bushwick is definitely a quickly changing neighborhood, as are many places in New York. I haven't lived in the city for that long, and I feel like I have a very different experience of the city than people who lived here was legitimately dangerous (in the 80s and early 90s).

Padmapper is my favorite place to look. It's the easiest to sort and look across multiple neighborhoods at once. It has a commuting distance function, but it doesn't work with mass transit (although it can easily show you where the subway lines are). It pulls from Craigslist as well as a lot of other places.

I'll be in the philosophy department, if funding comes through.

I tailored my statements quite a bit. I always talked about my primary interest (philosophy of science) but I swapped out my secondary interest based on the school (feminist philosophy or philosophy of language, depending which one was better represented at the school). I also looked at the percentage of fellowships vs. teaching assistantships and included an extra paragraph about my experiences teaching for the schools with mostly assistantships. My last paragraph was always specifically about the school and included specific professors. I usually didn't talk in depth about the work of the professors, although my statement for Seattle included details about a professor's work, because I had seen her speak at APA East.

You should probably post this in the religion subforum. I'm sure someone there can tell you about some programs for you to look into. They can also tell you if your lack of languages is an issue (although I think a lot of programs don't expect extensive language study beforehand). And I'm going to disagree with the poster above about including your story in your SOP. Or at least, minimize your story in favor of talking more about your research interests and experiences. The SOP is there to prove to programs that you are ready to undertake graduate level work in a specific field that you have at least some knowledge about. You can definitely have your letter writers talk about obstacles you've overcome, but the SOP isn't really the best place for that.

Yes. Hiring committees, especially at smaller schools, look very favorably on Ivy degrees, because people who don't know anything about your field (ie. higher education administrators) are impressed by the prestige. That doesn't mean you couldn't get an academic job without an Ivy degree, but it might make it easier in some places.

If you definitely want to live alone and plan to spend $1000-$1200, you can look in Bushwick. I know someone who lives in a (tiny and awful) studio for $800. It would probably be a 45 min-1 hour commute. You can also look in the Bronx along the 4, 5, or 6 lines. Astoria is also an option, but I don't know if you could find something that cheap there. Maybe somewhere along the 7 in Woodside or Jackson Heights would work. As long as you live near a train that connects easily to the 4-5-6, your commute will likely be less than an hour.

Ok, thanks for the info!