zigzag

Well unfortunately my problem was first that the *University*'s healthcare was unhelpfu under their insurancel, and then further that the local region's doctors were ALSO complicated -- wanting me to have had weeks of therapy before we even discussed medications whatsoever. I'm actually going to go out of state to meet with a doctor rec'd through family. :/ I haven't told my advisor, and frankly, I'm not sure how to? I didn't really feel weird about any of this until it suddenly became a massive issue. Now I'm very concerned that being neuro-atypical really will attract negative stigma in graduate school. (e.g. the adhd/anxiety/depression). I like my advisor a lot and they definitely seem like the type to handle personal issues well, but I feel weird now, even though I didn't before. And given the way I was treated and brushed off even on the non-regulated meds I take and really only warned repeatedly that only being suicidal was a real immediate issue, I'm not too keen to return to the student mental health center....ever. Logically I know it's not me making excuses, but it still feels like it.

You can't phone in adderall prescriptions because it's a [federally] regulated substance. All scripts have to be hand written by a physician and delivered in person. If I was close to home, I'd make the trip -- but I'm across the country, and need a new prescribing doctor. I expected this to be a little difficult given the medication, but it was way more complicated than I prepared for. Unfortunately, the health center here divides health issues into two separate buildings. For most issues, you have a doctor at the general health center. But for this, you have to go to the school therapy/wellness center. To recap what went down: Week 1 of orientation I made a health center appt for the 2nd week. Week 2 I was told I had to go to the psych center. I go, and they tell me they can't take me for two weeks. I stressed I would be running out of medications but basically the final word was unless I was threatening suicide, I had to wait two weeks to get evaluated to see if I even needed medications already prescribed to me, at all. (The non-psychological meds I take, of course, were immediately filled! Who'd've thunk?) I wait two weeks, and they have me meet with a psychologist as opposed to a psychiatrist who can prescribe medications. The psych explained that A.) i needed a diagnoses from a local professional for ADHD and something that might take months of testing and that B.) the only psych who could prescribe anything was constantly busy and often took weeks to get a chance to meet with. Even if I only wanted my anxiety medication renewed, it was going to take weeks. Basically getting anything prescribed by the school for mental health issues is next to impossible. I doubt they'd give me anything else, and have no way of contacting the people who do write scripts here. I haven't totally run out of adderall but I did run out of my SSRI I take for anxiety and that my home doctor was able to call in. I then emailed back the Psychological health center and explained to them how detrimental it was that they didn't take my health requests seriously from the beginning. You can't stop an SSRI cold turkey without getting very very ill. Any medical professional knows this. I now have zero interest in the school's therapy options -- they seem awfully helpful until you actually have a problem which needs something more than deep breathing and meditation. In the meantime I have nearby family in the medical field and cousins who also have ADHD, so I'm calling their doctor. I've been trying to get a hold of them for about a week but have either forgotten to call, called during lunch or after hours, or called when no one was able to pick up. Unexpectedly this has been my biggest complaint about my school, and there's not really anyone you can complain to when the therapy center is your problem. Hah.

I think the biggest problem I have re: 1st year exhaustion is that some of it is due to mental health. I have inattentive ADHD and while I can still do well in school/classes, it's a lot more effort. My new university had about a million hoops for me just to even talk to someone about my medication, and it all ended in them basically saying it was next to impossible to get my prescriptions renewed unless I had extensive testing only done by an ADHD specialist (instead of say, my home physician who has known me for years). I understand that people are prone to abuse adderall/ritalin but I was deeply frustrated. They also made it next to impossible to renew an another medication which cannot be stopped cold, but is thankfully not regulated in the same way so I had to call up my home doctor for a renewal. Basically I started off my semester strongly, with a regulated sleeping pattern, energized in the mornings and sleepy at night, and focused, and then...well, not so much because I'm running low on meds. I was actually more likely to do all the recommended things - take breaks, exercise, nap, participate in the department - before. I'm trying to supplement myself with coffee, but that doesn't help the ADHD, just the exhaustion. I'm currently trying to get in contact with a doctor out of town for my meds but (and you can laugh) I've either completely forgotten, misplaced the phone number, or called and been given a "please call back monday" message so far. I'm great at being organized, I just have this annoying roadblock in my way making me slump out.

Said example high school counselor didn't even know there was both a Penn and a Penn State whatsoever to even be confused. Even supposing you are right there is also two Columbias, on any account. One is in Ohio, I believe. So again, I maintain that I've met plenty of people (non-academics usually, but also school administrators) who might have heard of Columbia insofar as they know that it's a college of some kind, some people who know it is an Ivy, and some people who have never heard of it at all on the west coast. This is just simply my lived experience having moved from West to East. Plenty of people just have never heard of the school outright. It's not personal or denigrating for me to say so, it's simply what I have experienced from multiple people in multiple west/south west cities. So I absolutely don't find it unusual at all. When you grow up much further away from regions which have 10 or more good to excellent schools or universities within a day's drive, "name brand" schools mean much less. The amount of students who applied to out of state undergrad universities in my state was so low that my high school simply didn't track them, but told me they guessed it was less than 10% of grads in a school of 3,500 students. And those who do know what Columbia is -- well the west coast in many areas has subsets of people who are staunchly anti-elitist, older, old-fashioned "boot-straps" folks. To boil down stereotypes which often do show up on the East and West coasts, the west is "self-made" and not everyone appreciates what is assumed (sometimes wrongfully) to be a person who has simply had their lives handed to them. Of course, this is not true of every Columbia or Ivy grad -- but an assumption is made and there are certainly also people who may know what Columbia is and what that means....and will act as if it is meaningless information to them or pretend they don't recognize it, until they know the kind of work you can do, or because they find the name dropping distasteful. Whichever way you figure the reasoning is, you'll find that for the most part, the west coast (in broad generalized terms) has less engrained cultural self-consciousness about any elite East coast schools, which I imagine would feed into a deflating of the ego to an east coast transplant simply because less people care. I know that in reverse, I am certainly becoming more and more aware of how elite everything is over here, how strong "old money" is entrenched in everything, how there are simply things I never even considered important before that everyone where I am at is intimately aware of and cares about. So I suppose that yes, this is a completely understandable thing - the lack of recognition - might be upsetting. However, again, the attitude towards this kind of behavior (especially on the West coast) is that this behavior is crass, immature, and frankly looking to demand ass pats for being "special". I don't think calling someone a troll (e.g. someone looking to cause knee jerk reactions) is mean because it's certainly a preferable option to "well they're serious and actually trying to insult everyone who is so much lesser than them." This kind of embarrassment is irritating for pretty much anyone who doesn't have this "problem". It's an embarrassment that really says "I went into massive financial debt so people would oooh and ahhh over my degree and now I'm frustrated not enough people care and fawn over me for it." - and not many people will feel sorry about that. It sucks to go into big debt for school, it sucks to have that debt a lot. It sucks to feel like you worked hard and don't get recognized for it. But - and here's the kicker - with an attitude like the one shown, absolutely no one will feel sorry for you simply because it predicates upon insulting everyone else. There's some good advice in this thread interspersed in between the "wow, you need to fix that attitude because it's definitely not going to help you, and even convinces us that you are utterly unserious and just trying to rile people up for fun to be a jerk." comments. See a counselor about this feeling of inadequacy. Talk to someone. Reconsider your stay in graduate school after the MA is awarded -- or earlier, if you are actually miserable and this is just a misplaced feeling of upset. Frankly, it matters very little if the average joe recognizes UCSD as long as it's highly respected in your field (which apparently, it's the cream of the crop) and those people recognize it or know people at the institution (or vice-versa). It all ultimately boils down to a lot of choices but a very firm recommendation and general rule of thumb: if the way you express your upset, anxiety, or embarrassment intentionally insults other people, or demands ego-stroking, or makes people believe you are trying to be intentionally inflammatory, perhaps you need to speak more carefully about what is bothering you and fix your attitude so that people aren't immediately annoyed when they might otherwise be sympathetic. Communicating your problems and distress without insulting a broad range of people or acting above everyone else is just a good life skill to have in general and will certainly fix the issue regarding "no one recognizes Columbia or understands why it's so expensive and why I took all that debt" and make it easier to maturely seek help and advice re: "I'm in a lot of debt, in a new place, I'm stressed, I don't think I was ready for this, and I feel like I should have done better or accomplished more somehow, even though I know I'm at an excellent school -- probably the best in my field. How do I handle feeling inadequate/dealing with people not understanding my debt/school when I'm not sure I was ready/should I transfer/is this the right thing/why don't I feel satisfied with the top program?" All of which sound infinitely more genuine and less rude than what was actually posted. People assumed the OP was a troll because they were basically rude in a manner that seemed like it was trying to spark upset.

I find it VERY easy to believe that people would have no idea Columbia is an Ivy in large swaths of the West Coast. My High school counselor in charge of arranging college admissions information sessions, and inviting recruiters didn't know (and couldn't name) the Ivy leagues but did know the Big Ten (and then, the Pac-10) schools. I found this out because I went to a University of Penn session, which the counselor thought was actually for Penn State, and introduced it as one of the Big Ten (sports) schools. Both I, and the UPenn rep had to correct her that it was actually not part of the Big Ten, but UPenn is an Ivy. Stanford was simply a much bigger deal because it was closer by, and frankly, almost no one I knew cared about Ivies, baby Ivies, or otherwise. Certainly some of the students cared, but other than a passing "oh that's really cool" comments, the East coast held little caché for most of us. Simply put, while rank and so on is important - not everyone cares or has the Ivies memorized by heart. eta: i have this saved for such purposes.

I wonder if this is a "Euro/American" history vs "Asiatic" history/studies/sub-field thing. There are simply so many more scholars of the West, so I can imagine dealing with that kind of overload would be more stressful (as a POI). But in any asian-studies related field (from my experience) connecting and contacting people is extremely important. Sure there might be 500 applications total, but maybe a small fraction of those in any kind of department (excepting JUST asian studies depts I'm sure, rather than say, soc, history, art history, philosophy, etc) are asian-focused. Contacting people can be a HUGE gain in that respect. If they're taking any asian studies folks, you would want your name to be recognized one out of 20, vs the one out of hundreds. This is just a wild guess...?

Haha. I used to go to a school where a similar color was the school's official color. TONS of people wore those sweatpants, at least especially for undergrad. Personally, the idea of wearing cute graphic tees to class has made me uncomfortable; although I don't think there's any sort of dress code, my field tends to joke about being best dressed. I have loads of cartoon shirts & whatnots, but I wear them on the weekends/at home. it also helps me feel a better work/play divide. Of course, to me, clothing is less "text" and more art . So for my field: what is its style? form and shape? are there patterns? what colors are used? complimentary or contrasting? what about sizes of the outfit - cropped, oversize, fitted, etc? what about the textures and textiles at play -- leather, suede, silk, cotton, wools? is it symmetrical or asymmetrical, does your line flow? is there volume, and does it vary? how do the shapes and colors complement your body? is it modeled after a stylistic period? e.g.: 20's "flapper" style, 80's angles and colors, etc. What imagery are you recalling, and how are you seen? Who will be seeing you, what is going to be looked at first, is a unified 'style' evident in what you wear? What ornamentation have you added, and of what kind -- jewelry, bags, shoes, watches, etc. I wear something close(ish) to business casual, though am decidedly more liberal with the fashion aspects: I stick to slacks, ponte pants, chinos, and dark/black jeans. Sometimes I'll wear a lighter washed jean. Ponte pants are thicker than leggings and have the nice stretchy-ness of them. They look a little more polished than a general legging, and can be warmer for those worried about fall/winter chills. My jersey tees are usually classic cut/solid or patterned, fitted rather than "boxy". I also have blouses (button up and otherwise), patterned and solid print dresses -- I'm most fond of wrap, a-line, shift cuts, pencil and a-line skirts, scarves of various sizes and colors/patterns, and i have three bags: one in dark brown, one in red brown, and one in tan. I'll probably add a black bag so that my neutrals are "covered". Then I have flats, loafers, oxfords, and motorcycle boots. My shoes/bags tend to be neutral so that I can show off colors in my clothes. Nice colored chinos are great for that - gold, navy, maroon,etc. This may sound "boring" but my department is fine with fashion -- I spice up with tights, jewelry, scarves, I think i can get away with more in this respect because it's so "artsy", and I can be more colorful and daring than say, the law students or MBAs. Some of us go for chunky knits and leggings; denim button downs and gold bracelets, etc. These are all fine...but I think looking "schlubby" for class would stand out in a bad way here. Although apparently one (woman) professor looks down on high heels. Some sort of assault against "feminism" in her mind, I guess. I'm hoping to add to my exercise wardrobe however, I need a good few changes of clothes to hit the gym with.

Hi! I can see loads of other people have ALSO responded already but I am going through the EXACT SAME THING right now. Well, sort of. See, growing up my family had cats all my childhood (and later a dog, then a move and more dogs but no cats. Our last cat was given to a family friend.), and I technically had my own cat but didn't have to be fully and totally responsible, since I was only a child. I did chores like cleaning the litterbox and such, but didn't have to take them on vet visits, etc. Now, I had completely intended to get a cat but I went and did it way earlier than expected. I also got two cats a little over a week ago. I went to the SPCA with my roommate, and a lovely little lady sat in my lap, rested her head on my knee, and began purring contentedly. She had a sister, however, and I couldn't bear the thought of separating the two of them since they're barely a year old. The SPCA said they were three years old and fully adults but looking at them in person, I knew there was no way they were already 3. The vet agreed with me and said they were maybe a year old at most. I went in wanting an adult or black cat who wasn't likely to be adopted -- and ended up getting two all black one-year olds who had been at the shelter for months already. Her sister was smaller and equally sweet and gave me little kitty kisses. I got a memorial weekend discount so adopting them both was only $10. And they both explored right away from their single room, so I let them out really quickly. They use their litter boxes, have good hiding spots, are healthy (although one is a little thin, I'm making sure she eats. I think the stress of a shelter made her lose a little weight), the Vet adored them, etc. But I'm INCREDIBLY anxious about them. And I've had cats before, albeit not since HS. I panicked that one was underweight by a few ounces. I panicked that one of them didn't feel "loved" enough because she was more shy and therefore I cuddled her less/on her own terms. I panicked that one of them drools a tiny bit when she purrs -- I was CONVINCED she was poisoned somehow, but turns out that some cats happy drool when you pet them. It's actually not much drool and doesn't leave marks so I find it charming. I'm also worried because my roommate is/was a dog person. while she helped pick my cats and loves them a lot, I don't want her annoyed or frustrated because of them! They definitely had the 5 AM running around shenanigans the other day and woke her up before she had to get up to go to work. She was tempted to put them in their little room/area out of her sleep space but I played with them extensively last night and so they were much more relaxed this time around and didn't run up to her and wake her up. I have a friend who is a two-cat cat mom and has cat rescue experience so I talk to her about everything I worry about. I also found catster.com which is nice w/ resources. Basically I'm sure the first few days your kitty was just SO HAPPY to have a home and to be loved that she ran around in excitement. It sounds like your feline loves you tons, and if you play with her when you get home/before bedtime, I'm sure the night crazies will be less noisy. ALSO: while the laser toy is cheap AND lets me wear them out pretty easily they can stress out some kitties because they can't "catch it". This can be avoided or solved by also having a physical toy they can catch/pounce on. Just give them a chance to pounce on a toy mouse or something so that the hunting instinct is fulfilled. A scratch post is ALSO necessary, and/or any sort of "high perch", whether it's a window perch or a cat tower, or on top of your kitchen cabinets like my cats like. I'm a STRONG recommender of keeping shots updated even if your cats are indoors. It's for their health. My vet also recommended heartworm prevention meds which -- they can be transmitted by mosquitos and also they're not treatable easily like dogs can be treated for it. I love them so much I couldn't bear to have them accidentally get heart worms. Find a feline-oriented or feline specialist vet if you can! If you ever get really worried or haven't taken your furbaby in for a checkup yet, do so and feel free to ask a million questions. Domestic cats are social creatures and they DO want attention and love and affection. If you feel comfortable with it, let them sleep with you at night. Mine like to curl up at the foot of my bed c]v\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\;' (cat addition, thanks to a keyboard walk) and i pet them and cuddle with them whenever they come up to me. Cats also miss you when you're gone so it's true they may misbehave a little or ignore you when you come back because they were anxious. You can get feliway (a synthetic cat pheromone) to reduce anxiety in some instances, like in cat carriers on trips to the vet, while you're out, etc. Pre-introduce them to cat-sitters if you can! so they like the sitter. Mine chat and meow and sometimes trill at me which isn't overly loud or too much (I'm also the bottom floor next to the laundry room so there's not much to bother) not encouraging the excessive meowing is good though, so you're doing great. Also I firmly believe that when a cat has chosen YOU, you are more likely to do well. They put their faith in you, so you can have faith in yourself. Caring is the first step to being the best cat mom you can be. I have anxiety and can sometimes freak out too much, but you cat will continue to love you. I promise. I felt particularly stressed the other day, and it was really rough and I just felt the full force of grad school crazies -- but my more outgoing cat came to snuggle up to me while I laid down in bed, and soon her sister joined her. They sensed I was upset and made my day so much better. You can't be too anxious or neurotic for a cat. If you think your stress is upsetting your cat or making them anxious or act out, you can work on re-directing that stress, but usually cats sense you need a good cuddle and help out. Cats usually react to human stress if it changes their schedule (like erratic feedings or shouting or snapping at them, etc.), but that's about it. You should be good! Also get acquainted (if you haven't already) with important sorts of things to know, most of which are found on catster. Learn how to avoid household poisons, what you can't feed cats, (make sure they don't try to eat your hairbands which mine try to do), learn signs they need Vet attention for (just in case), and most fun of all, learn how they show you love: bunting (head butts), kneading (paw massages), love bites, exposing their bellies (a word of caution, most kitties don't want to be pet there. Mine LOVE it weirdly enough since most cats hate that but trying it may lead to scratching and biting), rubbing against your legs, elevator butt (tail and butt raised up), snuggling or napping on you, tail up greetings, meowing, purring, staring at you or slow blinks (cat wink kisses), licking you, rolling around near you, or rubbing their cheeks on you. Some cats who have hunted and killed something may try to "gift" you with it. It's a sign of great (but gross) respect and they're trying to care for you since you weirdly fail at hunting. I promise you: your cat is super happy to have a home, loves you lots, and you can definitely take care of them just fine! whew. after all that tl;dr here's my furbabies:

I'm so sorry to hear that your child was in an accident, but am very glad they are okay and not seriously injured. I honestly recommend EVERYONE carry around a few very important things in their wallet, on their person, at all times. It can be written on a blank business card or index card. Any thicker piece of paper will do: At the top of the card highlight it in lime green (or something distinguishable) and write MEDICAL (this part should be visible from its pocket in your wallet) Name, and emergency contact(s). Your DOB should be on an ID card anyways. Medical conditions (any/all). Include disabilities or other health concerns. Asthmatic? Diabetic? Panic disorder? Epilepsy? Pacemaker? That goes here. Blood type (I have a rare and weird blood issue so I have that listed in the odd case I need a transfusion.) Allergies (any and all) important medical history (e.g. had a heart attack, stroke, surgery on something major, etc) Prescriptions -- FULL name, dosage of the Rx in mg, and how often you take it. Include the "as needed" prescriptions. Insurance name. THEN, list pets [if you have no roommate/they aren't your emergency contact] and/or another emergency contact or school/department. An "If hospitalized, please call/email ____ department." Your emergency contacts should include at least ONE local person (roommate or otherwise), and THEY should be given a similar card with your medical information, your family's contact information, and a list of top priority things to be done (feed your pet), and people to contact, probably your advisor -- with the name of your hospital/ER room/etc. If you don't have a roommate, and DO have a pet/home things which need taking care of you can pre-emptively give your emergency contact a spare key to your apartment, provided you trust them. Otherwise, I would speak to your apartment's landlord/on-site manager/whatever and make them aware of your emergency contact, their name, and that you've instructed this contact to get in touch with the manager/landlord in the case of a dire emergency in order to feed/water/whatever. If your roommate is one contact, have a second one in case you were both in the accident. This card can be incredibly helpful, and I actually learned this from my 75 year old grandmother. After donating blood one day, we took her out to lunch, and she began to feel woozy and faint, as well as clammy. We were lucky, there was a woman at a nearby table who gave us medical advice, and the EMTs showed up fairly quickly to assess her. But when they started asking me what prescriptions she took, I didn't know the answer. My grandmother was too woozy to think of specific names, but said they were in her wallet. I found the card very quickly, and gave it to the EMTs which made their inspection and checking her vitals much easier because it took out all the guesswork. She was fine (low on fluids, otherwise healthy), but being able to have everything on one card made the entire scenario less terrifying and more efficient. More than just a contact (which can sometimes be garnered from your phone or ID, or other things in your wallet), you also need vital medical information. I have family nearish (about 20 minutes away, and a Doctor), but I still carry the medical card at all times and have a second contact listed.

If the program you're applying to specifically wants to know who you have gotten in contact with, it's in your best interest to get in contact with someone. If you feel worried about it, tell your advisor that this particular program requires or suggests it on the application itself (show them if necessary) and state that you understand the cold-email can be annoying but is perhaps a required irk of this particular program's admissions. See if your advisor has specific suggestions then, or just email this POI and explain your connection, your interest in the program, and that you'd initially been advised not to contact, but saw the part on the application form asking who you'd contacted, etc. Thank them for their time and try to take no more than 4-5 sentences to say it all. Maybe another if you follow up with "I understand you are probably very busy." Being polite, concise, and honest will probably get you far, or at the very least you're going to be a rather minor annoyance on the scale of things that a potential POI will probably forget about if you didn't make any egregious errors. I contacted people at 4 schools. One POI said they weren't taking any PhD students so I saved myself $75 in application fees. One was polite but also busy traveling so not much was said (rejected later in the process), and the other two school whose POIs I emailed both accepted me. One POI at one of these places also told me to email and discuss my interest in the program to another POI at the department -- in fact, encouraged my contacting them. You might get "pre-rejected" by a school for contacting a POI -- either because you're rude and memorably so, because they can't be bothered with potential students, or because they simply aren't taking students. I assume it's more likely that prospective students viewed as minor annoyances are just ignored rather than written into a "REJECT THEM" pile, but I tend to think the best of people. Even if that was the case, would you really want to work for them -- especially when the school predicts and/or expects you'll have made such contact? Your advisor is right that your main concern is the actual application, but contacting a POI should take about 15 minutes tops, especially if all you're going to say is: "Hello Dr./Professor ______, My name is ____ and I'm an MA student in ______ at _______ University advised by ________. I'm hoping to apply for a ____ PhD [program degree] at ______ for this upcoming fall, and was particularly interested in your work in ______. I am interested in/am researching _______, and saw that the application asked who I had gotten in touch with at the department, and so I thought I should email professors with whom I shared research interests. I am interested to know if you are potentially accepting or looking for PhD students in the upcoming year [, as I would enjoy working on _____/hope to work on _____/ would like to do _____/think ______]. I understand you are busy, and thank you for your time. Best, ___________. Alternately: Hello, Dr./Professor, I am an MA student in _____ at ____ University. My advisor, Dr. ______, recommended I apply to ______ University for a PhD due to my interest in researching ______, [and suggested I might fit under your research interests/look into what you do/etc.] After some research of my own, I became interested in your work on _____, and was wondering if you[/the department] were potentially able to take on doctoral students in the fall. Thank you for your time, _______. Which is more or less the same thing I said in an actual email: Dear Professor/Dr. ________, My name is _________ and I am a ____________ at _______ University. One of my professors, Dr. _____ attended the ____________ for their PhD some time ago, and after some discussion we agreed the university seems like a potential ideal fit for my graduate studies. I was most interested in the ________ and the emphasis on _______. In particular, your work in ________ and _______ fascinated and intrigued me, as I am currently [in a class on related thing] ____________, and doing research on _______. I was wondering if you were taking or looking for doctoral students for Fall of _____. Thank you for your time, _______. It's such a short and formulaic email that honestly it could be done in between breaks or classes and should in no way cut into the work you put into your applications. If you spend more than 30 minutes trying to write one, you're honestly stressing out over what is essentially a short cover letter/a 3-4 sentence statement of interest and should just let it go and focus on something else. If you already have a SOP or have drafted it, just use the information there to fill in blanks.

I think this vastly depends on your field, the school, and who wrote these letters (and what they said). Obviously you should get the best letters you can, and the best all-around application otherwise. But when talking amongst my new cohort I quickly realized that all or most of us had recommenders who were in some way connected to our new school. One had a letter from the same Prof who was advisor to our new DGS, others of us had alumni letter writers, or faculty who were friends with faculty at our Grad department, or the faculty at the grad school knew of our advisors for what they do/did/produce(d). In my case, I had one "friend of the DGS" letter writer, one "long ago alumni, got-their-PhD-there-in-the-70's" writer, and one "my-potential-advisor-admires-this-UG-prof-I-have-in-the-same-field" advisor. Obviously that's not the only reason I got in; none of my writers would have gone to bat for me if I hadn't in some way earned their highest recommendations, and the school wouldn't have accepted me if I didn't have an otherwise great application. But I won't pretend like having great writers, or well-connected (even if by happenstance) writers wasn't a huge help to me, or anyone else in my program. So I wouldn't write them off as "not-really" important. It might be less the content, however (if it is positive) than who wrote it. I know one of my writers offered to call/email her friends about my application. This may be a more humanities thing, but a really strong letter writer can go to bat for your acceptance before your application even hits the committee tables. Or it may just be an exceptionally good and happens to be connected to someone at the school you're applying to thing. I know mine did, and I also know that my (now) grad advisor explicitly told me if one of my letter writers ever wanted to lecture at my new campus, to tell her that my new advisor would orchestrate the whole thing because she'd love to meet/talk to them and saw them give a talk once. This significantly helped me when I was otherwise coming from a decidedly non-elite public school with strong professors (but a weaker grad program). I was also told by a different visiting prof (with a grain of salt and some tongue-in-cheek humor) that the currency of academia amounts to: publications, connections, and academic ego. FWIW: I gave my writers two thank yous. One just for writing letters -- small potted succulents ordered from Etsy. It was like $15 for three plants so about $5 each. They were small and desk-worthy, plus low maintenance. Then upon acceptance (and my formal enrollment/acceptance of the offer) I bought stationary from the new grad school and wrote them handwritten thank yous. Don't stress out, but do try to do the best you can, and even ask if your writers have any connections to schools you're interested in.

My requirements actually say: "The Master’s Paper may be, indeed most commonly is, an amplification of a research paper initially undertaken as part of one of the regular seminars." But this early on, I hadn't exactly planned how I might tackle a paper topic my first semester that would lead to an MA paper that also served for my seminar topics. I'm thinking my current paper for my advisor's seminar is best approached as something to prove my skills and abilities, and then my independent study next semester can build towards the "seminar paper" that becomes my master's paper. I just have to figure out a solid "topic" for my independent study next semester to work within. I guess the biggest concern I have is creating this proposal before I've even submitted my proposal for the seminar paper for this semester.

Yeah this sounds in many ways a STEM quandry. There are plenty of humanities obligations which might keep us close to campus, (our advisors, the facilities we can access, nearby internships, localized research materials, etc) but I can pretty much pack up my stuff and go. This still means I have to work, of course -- and carefully select the days which I don't have to work at all, so that some are true vacation and others are work/play.

Hi everyone. I guess I'm not sure what advice I'm looking for, but basically I'm a humanities MA/PhD and got told by my department's DGS that instead of completing my MA thesis paper by NEXT spring, I should have it done by THIS summer WHILE I am also interning (or working). This is a 2 year MA, not a one year, so I'm a little nervous, although I know it's completely possible and achievable. The reason she told me to get most or all of it done over the summer is because my advisor is going to be on leave next year. This doesn't pose a huge problem otherwise -- I'm a 5 year student, and it's not a "crucial" year for me, aside from writing the MA thesis paper, which they have to sign off on. My advisor seems very nice, and so far (with having only known them a few weeks) I feel they're a good match for me -- we're both very driven and expect a lot, but they are also supportive and helpful. The criticism and high expectations are from a place of wanting me and others to succeed. (They're also the professor in charge of the undergrads in our department, hence the nice, but firm personality.) I think they will be very supportive, and honest with me -- and they already offered to do an independent study with me this Spring, and even work with me throughout the summer. I'm their only PhD directly within the department, so I can and will get "them" without having to fight for time or attention with other grads. I am fairly positive I will be supported and helped -- and I might even be able to find a summer internship which could supplement a possible MA paper topic. But I'm also not quite sure what to do yet. I've begun to collect a folder on my computer of articles that are related to my area of specialty, as well as a list of monographs. I've got a few ideas, but it's a little difficult to figure out what is a good MA paper vs what is better for my eventual PhD dissertation. So I have "loose" directions (the topics and sub-topics of my interest), but obviously something has to be selected -- and faster than I anticipated. What are the best methods of brainstorming? So much advice online seems directed towards STEM or Social Sciences students who might have lab work, but this isn't my problem. How can I condense my timeline (i.e. not have the semester of thesis research and then the semester of thesis writing next year, but next semester and this summer)? Basically -- help, how can I do this much faster and just as well as if I had two whole years to develop it? How did you find your perfect topic? What's the best way to pin it down?

Thanks. I showed up today for our "meeting" with one of the PIs who said I would (probably) be able to be paid for the work I'd already done but they didn't know if I could continue to be paid for the summer. He spoke to HR but I said I wanted it solved by the end of the week. One of the undergrads is really stressed - she doesn't know if she'll be paid before her rent is due on the first (and I don't either). The grad students are potentially getting their pay worked out but it might also accidentally be applied to their tuition, since the Uni applies charges for the upcoming fall semester during the summer. (They do this for spring, too. Nothing said Merry Christmas and Happy Finals! like seeing a $10,000 tuition charge added to your account before you finished the fall term.) Seems like the administrative mismanagement is in part due to the fact that one of the PIs is on as his first year at the DGS, is moving, and is scatterbrained in general. (For instance, he still hasn't entered grades for one of his spring semester graduate seminars which is holding some students back from finishing up classes and applying to comps. I'm grateful he's neither my advisor nor even in my field.) Apparently the choice to not hire recent grads is to "prevent the uni from taking advantage of students." Regardless, I have to wait out the week to see what happens. I spent today playing bejeweled, mostly so I wouldn't lose my temper at the casual "oh don't worry about it" attitude the PI gave us.

I read apartmenttherapy.com religiously. They have great set-up photos and tips for tiny apartments, studios, etc that people have fully furnished and still made comfortable. Plus they advertise weekend sales and while some stuff is obviously out of my budget, other stuff makes sense. I'm going to be like 40 min outside philly proper, so I'm going to definitely go thrifting/hit estate sales.

I'll clarify it's not a STEM lab -- it's a soc sci/humanities office/research project. There's no threat of me taking my petri dishes and walking off or anything. But no, we (as of yet) don't have IRB approval, so instead of moving forwards on part of the project, we're just doing research. Which is fine -- the thing we need IRB approval for is very complicated in terms of legality & can change, and the goal for the summer was mainly to start the foundations of the project. (Honestly though I can't say what we're researching, I can say it is painfully ironic that they're not paying us to do this). Unfortunately I know for a fact I can't be hired as a student because I graduated (I had two jobs prior to my graduation date on campus) and the PI's have told me I can't be hired as an independent consultant because I used to work for this Uni. I spoke with a friend who also used to go to my UG Uni and he said that in a completely different school on the campus, he ran into the exact same problem in that he couldn't be hired since he'd worked for the school in the last six months. It sounds crazy and pointless to me, but apparently this is simply how it works on the academic side of things (it's different for other places of employment on campus as far as I know). A $500 debt seemed worth it for the $3,500 that I need, as silly as it sounds. It seemed relatively better to get $3,000 (or have the single credit taken out of my income) than nothing at all. The PI who was supposed to be in charge of paying us is apparently, finally going to be available, and I got an email today at noon telling me to head into the office tomorrow for our big meeting. I'm going to explain the 3-4 days resolution thing, because I desperately need the money, and unlike the other members of the team I A.) am not staying at this institution or even in this discipline and these PI's don't have any bearing on my Academic career and B.) my parents can't help me out if I say I ran into money problems so it's not "no big deal" for me. This whole thing has been incredibly frustrating and trying, since this was a job I'd been offered months ago -- back in late Feb. and had planned to have (thus I didn't look for summer employment elsewhere) since this was supposed to be a guaranteed thing. Thanks, though. I'm going to see if the money/income can be salvaged. If it can't, I'll walk away.

Ah, I meant asking for the loan once I started the semester -- to pay off the credit card debt. That said, I see what you mean and I'll wait & see how this all pans out re: the second card. I may talk to my bank to see if my stipend (change of income) can increase my credit limit a little. I've been meticulous about paying things back. I already spoke to the secretary in charge of the pay (she couldn't do anything) & whatnot so I'll try to ask her who HR even is. To be completely honest, I've become aware that some of the runarounds they're doing aren't technically legal and I'm just not really satisfied with any of this so despite how badly I need the money, I really don't relish the idea of continuing to work with these PI's. The thing is, we've emailed, called, and spoken in person (the secretary and PI are literally across the hall when they *are* in office). I've even gotten text messages and this still isn't solved. I think I'm going to talk to my bank first, and then HR and see what happens. I'm not holding my breath though.

I'm still in a 12-month period from my card as of december. I just don't have a limit higher than $2,500 and I'm worried this is cutting it close, especially since next month's rent is $500 alone. Still, would asking for student loans at my Grad program to help pay off my credit card help? Or are you just suggesting I apply for another card? (I don't really want to have more debt).

I have a massive headache from this whole situation, and I'm not sure what I should do. This spring semester I took a 300 level UG class with Professor M to fulfill a final gen-ed credit before my graduation. Professor M teaches in a different school at my University, in a similar but different field from my own, in a different area of focus. I did really well in M's class, however, and have some expertise in a related area. He asked me if I would be willing to take on a paid internship under him over the summer, and if I had any plans. At that point, I had already been accepted to a fully funded PhD in my field, and knew I would be staying in my UG uni's town until August 1st, when my lease ended. A paid internship sounded like a great idea! I was going to be able to work in a similar discipline but learn things about a different field and method of research, and best of all, I was going to be paid $3,500 to do it. I said yes. I liked this Professor M, I liked his class, and the subject was of personal interest, if not professional academic interest. Also I really needed that money to move across the country. That was then. Now, it's mid-June, and the job I "started" working on and training for in May still hasn't officially, legally hired me. Why? Well, I graduated in May - not a surprise. But this meant I couldn't be a student worker, so I've lost both my campus jobs, and this job can't pay me as a student (they apparently didn't account for this even though I explicitly told them I was graduating ahead of time). They also can't hire me as an independent consultant for some reason -- because I worked for my UG Uni in the last six months. I sent an email asking if signing up for a one-credit summer independent study (paid on my credit card) would allow me to be a student worker, and get paid $3,000. All I got a week ago was "We're still talking to HR." Meanwhile, my now alma mater is still having me work....and not paying me. The graduate students at my Uni are upset and frustrated -- because they're also not getting paid for this when they told they would be. It looks like they might not even get paid until the fall, and their payments are strictly speaking, coming out of loopholes of money the department has for funds it was supposed to offer incoming graduates (they apparently "forgot" to entice applicants with these grants). The difference is, they are stuck with this school and department, and the PI's on this research team. At the end of this summer, however, I'm going to be on the other side of the country, and in a different field, studying a different subject. Professor M has some contacts I would like to "have" just in case, but they are also contacts I am 100% certain I can get through my PhD program through more relevant to me means. In other words, M is not the only opportunity I'm going to have to connect to this other place. I'm not eager to burn bridges, even if we aren't really in the same circles -- not by discipline, subject, geography, time, etc. But myself, and the other people on the team (two graduate students and two other undergrads) all are not really pleased with the idea that we're supposed to be working 30 hours a week on the chance we might get paid for it. Frankly, I don't see any reason to work for this, especially when I could be preparing for my own grad program. It doesn't help that we don't yet have institutional approval for the research to move forwards, and that we also don't have the necessary tools to conduct our research in the first place - because they were ordered late. I've emailed both of the PI's and the person in charge of payments. I've emailed them again. I've suggested solutions. The deadline for summer class registration comes at the end of the month, and when it passes, my "loophole" suggestion for student hiring will have passed. I don't have any real answers, and I'm not getting paid. Should I quit? The PIs are the DGS and the head of the department. I don't have any "overhead" to go to. I'm also no longer a student. I have less of a reason to "stick it out" than the graduate students on this team, who are being advised by one of the PI's. I have next month's rent, and electricity bills to pay, plus the cost of moving across the country, and the security deposit and first month's rent on my next apartment (with a roommate to help defray costs). This is really overwhelming, as I'd planned to have $3,500 to cover some of these expenses. I can put some of it on my credit card, but I'm really pushing how much I can afford since I have no new income until I start my program. (I usually pay off everything in full immediately). Finding a job right now would be really difficult, and travel isn't easy for me. But if I quit, I can certainly try to find someone to give me temp work for a month. Is it nuts to ask my grad program if there are loan options for me, even though I'm fully funded by a stipend - since this fell through? (just to cover my moving expenses?) I filed a FAFSA just in case awhile ago. I feel embarrassed to have to ask this to the grad student coordinator, but I feel like I'm running out of options. What's the most professional way to handle this -- and budget savvy way? I feel like my alma mater is really screwing me over one last time.