Eigen

Not needed, IMO. I don't expect it from people we pick up and take around. One thing I do really appreciate, however, is hearing from prospectives after they leave. Even if they decide to go elsewhere, it's nice to hear.

So for my cohort, first semester was 3 classes, plus about 30 hours a week in the lab. We all had differing amounts of TA work, so that made more or less hours in the lab, by a bit. My friends and I generally did a normal work day in the lab, with a few hours while we were in doing problem sets, projects, etc. And then we did the majority of our studying in the evenings/nights. Since then, some of our more recent cohorts haven't been in the lab almost at all their first semester, and sparingly in the second.

More expensive per credit, sure- but you have to compare full time tuition to full time tuition. Fewer classes per semester for grads and smaller class sizes means increased cost per credit hour, but roughly the same cost per a full time load.

Can't do it based on credits, though. You don't usually take the same courseload between grad and undergrad. Both of those costs are for full time. It is interesting to see the ~20% increase though.

Here's the thread I was thinking of on CHE: http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,86811.0.html A few others I'll dig up when I have the time.

Wait, you have a tuition/fee increase for grad Vs. undergrads? That, I'd be really interested to see. We've been collecting data to try to get our fees lowered, and every school I've run across has had much lower graduate fees and tuition than undergrad. I guess grad students *could* join undergrad clubs here, it's just that they don't, usually. I'm the advisor for at least one undergrad club, so to me, joining them would be a bit strange. Similarly, I'm friendly with most of the undergrads in our program, but I'm friendly with them more as a mentor than a buddy.

Just posting to remind myself, there's a great thread on the CHE forums on this topic- I'll dig it up and post it.

So my wife's pursuing her PhD as well, and we're both in STEM fields. At least at our institution, at this level, I don't really notice much difference between the two programs, or how we're treated. Or even how people treat us when we're together.

As to whether or not it's ethical... I'm not sure exactly how this would become a question of ethics at all. Just like with jobs- some people have the same job, but get paid more due to better qualifications/competing offers/better negotiating skills. And in labs, it's rare that everyone is even working the same "job"- maybe a PI has someone they really want to recruit into the lab with a specific skillset, and are willing to pay more for it. And, as mentioned, there are fellowships, seniority, etc.

4.0? 3.95? The grading range for (most) graduate programs I'm familiar with is a 3.0 to 4.0 scale- lower than 3.0 gets you kicked out. Accordingly, you see very few grades lower than an A-, with B+/B being a warning grade.

It's been a while since I've used it, but you would make it as a form. You should be able to do scales as pull down menu's with values, blanks for short answers, and multiple choices as well. Once you make the form, you can use it as a template for each person you want to give the survey to.

I haven't found our dining area all that useful. Even if we have a bunch of people over, we often sit on the patio or in the dining room to eat. My kitchen, however, I couldn't live without. We cook a lot.

Wait, why can't you use Bento? I got my copy for $4.99, and there was no monthly fee attached. I've got it on my iPad 1, and it runs fine. You should be able to update the iPad without updating iTunes, you can update it over wireless from iOS 5 on.

The first thing that comes to mind that you might try is Bento 4. It's the iPad version of the Bento 4 database app for Mac, and you should be able to configure it for what you need. http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/45531/ipad-app-for-collecting-door-to-door-survey-information Is a similar question, seems like other people have tried it and it works. You *can* set up forms on the iPad (I've done it for biological sample management databases), but it's much easier to set up the form on your Mac, and use the iPad to collect the data. You can add almost any type of field to the form, so you should be able to do multiple choice, scales and a signature spot, but I haven't tried those, exactly. And it definitely can upload the data for analysis (database program). For the first 3 options, but not the spreadsheet upload, you should be able to use Adobe Pro to make a PDF form, and then use something like GoodReader to get people to fill it in.

A good sign, but not a sure acceptance. Depending on their funding situation, it may be that they would need you to win the university wide fellowship, or they might still be reviewing things. I say to be cautious, as I did have a friend who was one of a small set of graduate students nominated for a very prestigious university fellowship who ultimately didn't get accepted to that same institution. But on the whole, it's a really good sign! Congrats!

So just for reference, is her other student an MS student as well? Since you mentioned grant writing, I'm wondering if they're perhaps a PhD student, or planning on working towards one with her. It's a bit hard for me to separate out the pertinent parts of your problems (your advisor and your committee's treatment of you) from the unrelated issues (your advisor is friendlier with another student). Favorites happen- it can suck when it's not you, but I think it happens with every advisor. Your advisor giving another grad student a christmas present and going out for drinks with them really has no bearing, but her telling them about you is a separate issue, at least in my mind. Also, could you clarify what you mean by "against the law" for her to discuss why you didn't graduate on time? FERPA doesn't cover that, from my recollection. That said, it sounds like your situation sucks- I've had friends in similar places, with there always being one more thing to do before the committee is happy- one had to take an extra year.

It's also worth noting that frequently, at least in STEM fields, when people talk about academic jobs, they're really only paying attention to schools with graduate programs, R1/R2 institutions. That's only a fraction of the colleges and universities out there- about 300 out of 4300. If you're really interested in teaching, mentoring, and working with undergraduates, there are a lot more available options than the ones people frequently look at.

Adobe Illustrator (and the rest of the CS series) are what I see used a lot. You can even use them to render data from non-graphical statistics programs. They produce absolutely top quality figures, but have a pretty steep learning curve, and can be expensive if you can't get them through your department.

I'll respond here, because I think it's worth discussing: I think faculty responses here are very helpful, and very pertinent. I also think it's good to get used to the fact that what you post online isn't private, when you're posting it publicly. And I'm also of the perspective that you shouldn't be posting in a way that you aren't OK with other people finding out about. Candor is well and fine, but there's productive candor, and the much less productive variety we've seen here of late. Also, for prospective graduate students, being "comfortable" talking around faculty is a good thing to get used to.

Didn't catch the phone number change. Bond is obviously a made up name, but the course, school, department, GPA are probably not changed. Which makes the letter very obvious to the writer.

Temporary Lock while we assess what to do with this.

Definitely remove the identifying information. I'd be really pissed if I was a professor, and a letter of rec I posted showed up online, including my phone number! That said, this isn't a bad rec, but it's definitely just a DWIC letter (as mentioned). It pretty much just regurgitates things that would be found through your CV and transcript.

40-70ish, depending on the week.

Those are very divergent paths, imo. Also, "best" is a very subjective term, and quite dependent on the specifics of your situation.

Then your connections with Industry during your PhD will be far, far more important than the "rank" of your school. That said, this thread is directly concerning the schools of tenured faculty, so it might be better to start a parallel discussion on the effect of school rank on your chance in industry.