Eigen

I'll also tag in that I think the personal relationship is more important than the exact research area. Someone that you can learn from and work with on a regular basis is a huge boon, and a relationship that you will carry through to the rest of your career. The exact research field, on the other hand, is something that will most likely change several times through grad school, post-docs and faculty positions. In fact, it can often be great if your real passion is close to but not exactly what you work on in graduate schooll. There's an expectation that you'll change topics to avoid being too derivitive of your advisors work/your graduate school work, so it can be nice to be able to shift slightly into something you're really passionate about. Working with someone that you get along with but has a slightly different focus can also help limit micromanaging, and really help you develop your own independent research, as they can be there to be supportive and helpful but not overshadowing every detail of what you do.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. I think there are some possibilities for it to be akward, but (espescially in the sciences) the grad student-professor relationship seems a lot more relaxed. I'm married, and we enjoy doing things with my advisor, his wife and their children when we can, and we also enjoy doing things with my wife's advisor and family. We have several grad students in my department that are mid-30s in age, as well as several that have kids and a number that are married, but it hasn't really seemed to effect the relationship dymanics hugely.

There's already a whole thread on this. See the NSF GRFP 2011-12 Thread. The NSF GRFP 2012-13 thread will be for those people who apply for it this fall. But the fellowship results are usually released sometime in April.

Using RMP to look up prospective professors for grad school is even worse than using it for undergrad.. It's a site where the bottom really seems to rise, and reveres very little useful info there. RMP is pretty good about removing profiles at a the professors request, usually due to some stalker ish/unfactual posts on them.

I'm gathering from the OP that the hourly pay isn't so much the question as what a decent total is- since the prof offered to pay by hour, and they aren't sure how many hours they spent working on it.

Easiest way to determine it is to use an online tax calculator. The most heavily determining factors are the individual ones- how much you give to charity, medical expenses, do you own or rent, are you married or single, do you have kids or not, etc. With that info, it's really easy to see where you fit on the tax scale. I'd recommend TurboTax's online calculator myself. FWIW, it seems like somewhere between 10-15% is most accurate, depending on the specifics of your situation.

It's good. Probably means either trying to round up the funding, or problems awaiting on adminstration to approve your admission so they can make it official. Definitely means they want you, if they can make it work, it sounds like.

There's a huge difference, here- the OP is talking about a 3.1 in a Masters program, which is a completely different ballgame than a low undergrad GPA. OP: A 3.1 in a masters program is more equivalent to a sub-2.5 GPA in a bachelors program, imo. Since many graduate programs consider anything under a B average grounds for expulsion/academic suspension. You definately don't want to take undergraduate classes to try to bring this up. For one thing, they won't effect your GPA. Graduate and undergraduate GPAs will be calculated from graduate and undergraduate coursework, respectively. If you do, what you're basically saying is that you can do OK in undergraduate coursework, but start having real problems in graduate coursework. I think what you will want to highlight more than your GRE scores to balance out the low GPA is research experience.

I'd say a 25 minute presentation, making mostly new figures, would be a solid 6-9 hours of work (a full day). I'd charge accordingly.

Eh? Who are you making this for? I can't tell if you're the one giving the keynote presentation (in which case you would most likely be offered an honorarium) or if you're making this for an advisor (in which case, charging seems over the top). Some more clarification would be helpful. I've never charged for making a presentation, so I'm not really sure the motivation behind it.

I'll also add one other factor to consider: If you ask for more funding, it will get around to the department as a whole. And you will probably be thought of as "that guy", as mentioned. If you really can't live decently on what they're offering, then sure, say that. Otherwise, tread carefully.

I chose the lower-ranked school with a better research fit, and I have yet to regret it. In fact, I think it was a great choice. Some of this is very field dependent, however- I think in some ways it matters less in the sciences where you do your PhD than where you do your post-doc, and it seems well possible to get into good post-doctoral positions from lower schools if you've had great research output. I'm not sure what the situation is in Pyschology, however.

Pretty sure this is going to vary more from school-to-school than state-to-state, since it seems like you're primarily talking about federal taxes here. Either way, funding can be broken down into: Assistantships- you work (teaching or research) for pay. Fellowships- you're paid, but not directly for some work. Tuition Remission- counts as a fellowship. For assistantships, they act as normal income, and it shows up on your W2 most places. For fellowships, they may or may not be reported as income by the school, but you still have to report them on your taxes. Here, however, you can directly deduct *required* school expenses from your income, and report the net. For tuition remission, this usually shows up on your 1098, and while it counts as income, it's almost always equally displaced by the tuition of the school, but still must be reported. 1099s are forms that you get from your financial institution, showing interest gained over the last year/income from financial transactions. I'm sure there are cases that don't fit into the above, but that should cover most of them. The IRS has a good publication on this as well. Since by and large funding is counted and reported as income, you pay the same percentage on it as you would any other income, which is in turn dependent on the total amount of income you have.

Some of this depends on school and field... But my school, as a general rule, doesn't allow outside employment for students receiving any kind of funding (including tuition breaks) without express approval of the advisor. And that's usually for part time work. Some schools and disciplines, however, are much more open to their students working, or have programs set up that allow you to do both. You might get a bit better advice if you said what field you're in, I'm sure that will make a difference.

I started in late June, and it was really nice to get a jump on research, etc. before the actual school year started- by the time everyone else in my cohort arrived, I knew the city, the department, had already been checked out on all the shared instruments, and had a couple of months to work on readings to get in the groove for grad school.

I realize how frustrating it can be, but the same is true for job applications, post-doctoral position applications, etc. The primary focus is to let the people who have been accepted know, and then to work on getting them to accept the offer. At least you got prompt responses when you called, and didn't get put off with a maybe.

Following up on what ANDSI asked, is the funding low in the sense of being really hard to make ends meet in that area? Or is it just low compared to your other offers?

From what I hear, a lot of departments at my school aren't interested in taking someone with no research experience. Our department wants people to be able to mostly step into a lab and get started. As mentioned, it's not just about saying you have it, but being able to discuss it in detail in your SoP, and in your interviews, and to have your LoRs discuss your aptitude in the lab.

I'd say if you have to, it's doable- but much preferable not to have to. Lab sciences often require odd hours, and the farther you live away, the more than can translate into "spending the night in the lab". I also know people who do it, but have a friend that lives close to campus they can crash with if they need to.

I'd say be honest about the class, but being honest doesn't mean you have to mention his lack of knowledge in one specific area. Cover how the rest of the class is going. If you're a 2nd year and up grad student, chances are you'll know more in some areas than a number of the faculty they have, especially if it's not right in their area of expertise. And just because it was a technique that someone else in the department was instrumental in developing, doesn't make it any more likely that they'll know it if it's out of their area of speciality. Getting used to gracefully handling people when you know more about what they're talking about than they do is a good skill to gain, because it's just going to happen more and more often from here on out. Heck, as you dive into your dissertaion project, there will be a lot of areas within it and the literature surrounding it that you'll probably know better than even your advisor. That's part of the point of getting a PhD, to become an expert in a field.

I think we're talking about different types of pipettes. I completely agree about the disposable variety- I often consider that false savings, for the very reason you mention. I was talking about my good set of micro pipettes that I keep clean and calibrated.

There's a difference between releasing bits and pieces of it over 1400 posts and having someone directly post it all without asking me first. I think I could probably figure out who a lot of the "high" posters are exactly if I spent the time on it, but that doesn't mean I'm going to just post it- that's just rude it's up to them to decide what information they want to release when, and in what context. Message boards like this don't leave people existing anonymously, but rather pseudonymously. Semitones can figure out who you arid they piece together enough of your posts, but most people respect that veil between you, the person, and you, the poster.

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, I took your last post as an "always" kind of thing. I think it's also worth getting used to weathering being chewed out for leaving an "important" article out. My experience (and what I've been told) was that almost every review process, someone thinks that there's some seminal paper that hasn't been accounted for. You just add it, and roll on.

Sports coat sans tie would be my suggestion. If you feel overdressed, you can take it off easily, and it's a bit more "academic dressy" than the tie/no coat option.

If you accept an offer and then renege, you will create hard feelings, definitely. Also note that the policy *only* relates to some schools, and only to financial offers, not to offers/acceptances of admission. If you aren't sure, then wait until you hear from your top choice and then make your decision. Making your decision and then taking it back later will make a mess that you don't need to.