Eigen

Just another note: For all of you saying you re-submitted an app that was reviewed with high marks in a past year that did worse this year, remember that each year the standards to which you are held go up quite sharply, as does the competition. It's not necessarily just a reviewer difference.

For industry? From the talks I've had with industry recruiters, the name of your PhD granting institution doesn't mean much. Your resume, patents, and ability to show the skills you've leafed does.

Just because there are signatories doesn't mean it's more than a general, tacit agreement. It's just a formalized general, tacit agreement. That said, I'd say it depends to some degree on what accepting the offer means. Did you sign something with the school, and that funding won't be able to be given to another applicant? That can happen, depending on how the University is structured. That said, if you've got an offer that is much better for you, then go for it. You might upset someone, but it's a risk you have to occasionally be willing to take.

Based on past years, I'm pretty sure the "feedback" is the notes the reviewers made to help them remember what stood out about the application. Hence the repetition of words or phrases from the applications themselves. I'll also reiterate the advice that if you feel like someone completely missed your point, it's worth thinking about how to make sure that doesn't happen again. For grant proposals and review in general, there's no such thing as being too clear, obvious, and to the point. Most real grant proposals make liberal use of underlining, bolding, italics, and the consistent repetition of important phrases to make sure that the reviewers get the most important, crucial points of the proposal.

I would argue that while in some cases, it's like a job market, in others it's not. In a typical job market, if I leave for another job, the amount of money that was going to my paycheck is immediately available in my budget to hire a replacement for me. That's rarely, if ever, the case in academics- either faculty positions or grad students. It means that the ethics behind the decision are more important in this case. Also, outside of STEM fields (such as yours and mine), graduate students are rarely getting "paid" due to "work", but are given funding packages to help with the cost of education with very little expected in return (numerous threads on the CHE discuss this). Accordingly, you have to consider not only the ethics of the damage you might do to the institution, but also to other applicants who may not be able to receive funding. For example, our school can apply for, and receive, funding for fellowships from our state board of education. That said, if we have students on those fellowships not attend, there's no way to transfer them- the school just loses that money. Similarly, the board has at times refused to give fellowships the following year due to poor retention the previous year. I understand the core point that you should do what's best for you, but I don't think this is a comparable situation to a "free" job market- it's more complex, and there are different issues at stake. I think this also goes to a "good faith" acceptance on the job market. If I accept an offer for a position, it's considered good faith to remove myself from consideration from other jobs, and no longer interview/pursue those. It's different to choose to go back on the market later, and another ethical consideration. You can find an abundance of threads talking about this on the CHE- you'll earn yourself a bad reputation, and it can be considered a breach of contract to continue to interview/visit schools after signing an offer with one. If, in the case of the OP, he has no offers on the table by April 15th, but is still interviewing/in consideration for a job (that he will take if he gets it), then I wouldn't consider that a good faith acceptance, and I would say ethically, he has to either choose to remove himself from consideration for the job after accepting the offer, or not accept the offer and remain in consideration for the job. Also worth considering- if we want the schools to start accepting more responsibility for (and shielding themselves from) things like this, I would assume we'd see a move to a system where there were fewer and fewer funding offers given out until people had actually started/enrolled in the fall. And that's not a system that benefits students, but it protects the school against the risk.

No, they likely can't transfer the funding. For many schools, once the funding is allotted to a particular student/employee, the University frequently won't let it be reallocated, and it will go back into the University (rather than department) funds. To be honest, unless you have a major shift in life situation, you shouldn't be attending for a semester and leaving for a job either. A PhD shouldn't be a "temporary backup" to a job search- you're screwing over the school and other applicants that actually want the PhD when you do it that way. Choose now to either go on the market or get a PhD, don't do both and screw the school over if you get a good job offer.

There are always reasons why it's understandable (health problems, visa issues, family problems that necessitate a break from grad school, etc, etc.) but in general, yes, rescinding an acceptance after April 15th can really cause problems for schools, and frequently will result in them not being able to bring in a student to replace you. This screws over the school, who had put aside the funding for you, and will likely lose it, as well as another applicant who could have had that funded spot. Some schools also have stipulations about having to pay back at least a semester of stipend, depending on how close you cut it.

If you're looking in Canada vs the US, the two systems are very different. I'm sure our native experienced Canadian (TakeruK) will come in at some point to answer more fully. In the US, it's a complete range- from no funding at all, to partial funding (tuition waiver but no stipend, for instance) to fully funded (tuition waiver + fees + a generous living stipend). In the US, such support is usually either a fellowship, and not tied to teaching/research, or a teaching/research assistantship, in which case it is tied to teaching or research, usually ~ 20 hours per week. In the US, in the sciences, it's rare for any research money to be funded by the student or by grants the student writes. This isn't the case (as mentioned above) for social sciences, or humanities. I think you're looking for specific answers to a very broad question- it's different country to country, school to school, and discipline to discipline.

The same thing happened to me- I greatly sympathize.

When I had a similar choice, I went with option B. It hasn't been the smoothest path, it was a leap out of my comfort zone, and there are always roadblocks in really new areas of research, but it keeps me engaged and interested, and I find that worthwhile. Also, I now have a CV full of varied and interesting things that I can do, and the confidence that I can teach myself how to do pretty much anything.

Two of mine were just "let us know if you accept" things. I was worried and double checked both places to see if I needed to sign or anything else. One was fine with just a phone call saying I accepted.

You should probably elaborate a bit more. What do you need help with? What field of study are you in?

Go into another field with a decent fit to my skillset- web design, programming, financial analysis, etc. Or make use of any of the practical skills- electrician, electronics repair, plumbing, equipment repair. Or go back to working construction.

The answers you don't want to hear are really, honestly, the answers. You have to set concrete priorities, and convince yourself that your health (mental and physical) is the most important. And then you make concrete guidelines. I don't always get enough sleep in a given night, because I'm a bit of an insomniac since grad school, but I try to make sure that I get at least 6 hours, since your health deteriorates rapidly (generally) with less than 6 hours of sleep a night. Similarly, get exercise. A PhD and then dropping dead from a heart attack in your 30s isn't worth it. I'm not sure what you want in the way of specifics, there really aren't any other than planning out your day and sticking to it. Decide when you're going to eat, when you're going to go do social things, how much you're going to sleep, and when you're going to exercise. And then do that.

Honestly, the not-online part is what I like about Endnote. I didn't want to have my reference manager be browser based. One other you might give a try is the free Reference Manager from the American Chemical Society- ChemWorx. While made by the ACS, it's not chemistry specific, and is pretty decent and improving rapidly. Alternately, on a Mac, I hear a lot of people who like Papers.

I think the field distinctions can be very narrow here, as in the US I've heard pure Humanities faculty recommended away from being committee chairs (although they *can* be) pre-tenure, while in social sciences and sciences, it's strongly encouraged.

I haven't personally finished, but I've got 20-30 friends who've graduated while I've been in grad school, and all of them have found jobs. ACS is very detailed, it's not just ACS members. They track statistics overall. Can also check the department of labor.

You don't mention what area of chem you're in, which makes it harder. But I don't know anyone with a chem PhD that's had a problem getting jobs. Pre-Med is a bad track right now if you want to make money, just because of the dropping income and rising cost of med school. Pharm's not bad, but most PhD chemists (in industry) will make as much or more. I'm not sure why you're skeptical of ACS job stats, they're better than almost any other field has, and are exceptionally comprehensive. And the hatred of pre-med undergrads? It's justified, although hatred might not be the best word. General frustration, maybe? Just wait until you have to teach them. But hey, I'm sure that's because I need to "validate my decision". I mean, once you cut out the major professional organization, professors and grad students, who are you expecting to get any information from? That's pretty much it.

Sciguy- Also note that the CGS resolution is not some sort of legally binding document. It's a resolution from schools saying they'll do it, but there are always cases where they don't. It's not a document that gives you leverage over the school, although it can be helpful to remind them in requesting an extension. The only thing that can happen from a school asking for earlier commitments is a bad reputation. Ie, it doesn't "allow" or "disallow" anything, it's just a bunch of schools collectively agreeing to hold to a date for their mutual benefit.

I use Endnote, but that's largely just because it was what my department had available for free. I do like it though, even if I'm about 5 versions out of date. IMO, what you choose doesn't matter hugely, as you can pretty easily import/export libraries between most of the main ones. So using whatever you have easy access to gets your library started, and you can swap down the line.

Rent really depends on where you live, and how open you are to roomates (and how many). Utilities, anywhere from $100 (Water/Trash/Electric) on the really cheap end, to around $300 a month. Groceries, my wife and I did pretty consistently on a ~$70/week budget, and that was with lots of fruits and vegetables, and also including other necessary household items.

Oh, here's my other, major, suggestion for starting to read papers: Get a citation manager. Use it. By the time I realized I needed one, I already had ~150 PDFs in folders to go back and organize. It would have been much easier to have been organizing them and annotating them from the beginning!

Biophysics is a bit outside my area to give specific recommendations, but here are two more general ones: 1) Read papers by your PI. And your PI's PI. And other potential committee members. 2) Pick a couple of journals that are consistent cornerstones of your field. Subscribe to ASAP e-mail alerts (most support this or an RSS-type feed). Spend a bit of time each morning catching up. 1 really helps ground you in the immediate work you're likely to be doing, while 2 gives you a good, consistent look at what's hot/trending in your field/subfield. I don't get as much time to read the literature as I'd like, but I used to keep up with 5 or 6 major journals my first few years, and it held me in really good stead.

I'd ask for an extension to April 15th, since that's the usual deadline to accept. It may or may not help your situation, since wait list decisions can often be made after April 15, but it will give you a shot.

Why must you rain on everyone's parade when they talk about family life and dating? It's possible to just not read these topics, you know. To the OP: My wife and I had been married a bit over 2 years when we moved. It was definitely an interesting experience, but we'd already been living together. She didn't have work the first year or so we were here, but we were able to live off my graduate stipend pretty well. As TakeruK mentioned, I try to be fairly consistent in my work so that we can have regular time to do things together. In general, most of my department is very understanding of trying to keep a work-life balance- we have a lot of dual career academics.