Antigone

Yes war costs a lot (billions actually) but defense costs are paid through national debt, not through the rest of the federal budget that goes in to all of the agencies, departments and programs that we all think about when we think about government funding. It's not like it's coming out of the same proverbial bank account. Anyway, the "real" costs lie in lost labor, veterans' benefits and other related physical and human resource drainage. It is what it is, like any extended military engagement.

Heh, well, assuming I hope correctly that you are yourself male, you automatically benefit from having a same-sex mentor. And this and all that stuff you made note of in your edit is what we wimmens call "The Patriarchy."

There is a study that shows that women are far more likely to underestimate their intelligence and men more likely to overestimate: http://www.newsweek.com/id/101079 Among other things, this fact plays out in to a very particular dynamic in places like academia where, yeah, a lot of times it's a matter of how smart you think you are, rather than raw intelligence. Women come off as having "inferiority complexes" for that reason. Also women prefer to work with women often because often then it eliminates a lot of these social assumptions that come from the fact that male leaders in academia are the rule, and women are the exception (mostly, depending on the field.) When everyone is female, the fact that you're female stops becoming your discerning feature among your peers and to your mentors. And, when you're in a classroom and the person leading, like a TA, is male or female, it makes a difference because even your peers will alter the tone of the class themselves depending on who is up front even if the TA themselves doesn't do anything differently one way or the other. I say this from the point of view where though many of my classmates were female, most of the ones that were the "big fish" are definitely male and I had no female professors or TAs in either of my majors.

Go where you're going to get the very best education and will have access to the most resources, material and human, that will enable you to do something remarkable with yourself. You'll get a chance to meet amazing people and use immense libraries and be able to benefit from the intensive research others have already started at places where your area of study is established and well-defined. The cost of DC is exorbitant and I personally couldn't go because for me it would be too distracting, but sometimes it's worth the extra money and extra headache to get the most out of your time there. I say go to AU.

Is it just asking for trouble to take on a part-time job while in grad school (no funding for non-academia focused masters students in the humanities, boooo)? I worked all through undergrad and while I know my grades would have been better if I hadn't needed a job, I managed to make it work. I'm just concerned that because grad school is going to be well, harder that I'll end up hitting a wall and bursting in to flames. Likewise, and this is a "I really don't expect anyone to know but might as well take a stab at it" question, I've worked in higher education administration for like 2 1/2, almost 3 years now and if I did get a job I feel like there's no way in hell I'd take a student work job. I'm not some snotty elitist (we were all copy-monkeys once) but I have a lot of experience and would love to get a "real" part time job in one of the administrative offices, because the work study $8.50 per hour will not cut it. Would the fact that I'm a grad student kind of slide me to the bottom of the list because they know I'll be really busy? Is this uncommon? Would it be worthwhile to sort of blind email my department or the larger humanities department with a resume asking if there are any such positions available?

I was always around these people in my department in undergrad that live these cosmopolitan lives where they flitted around the world with their parents and had private tutors that taught them Arabic and French and Russian and they're fluent in everything, and here I am, the non-native speaker clumsily trudging my way through the last two and a half years of Arabic. I was praying that I wouldn't get invited to visit anywhere because what if they tried to hold a conversation with me in it? I mean I got straight A's in my classes for doing all the work, passing written exams and trying my damnedest to keep up in class. But this language is so hard! Harder than any other I've studied and I'm so afraid that someone is going to start in on me with all this conversation, and I'll have to turn bright pink and admit that I caught maybe 30% of it. I'm studying like crazy but I already know that I'm going to be the poorest speaker there because unlike my classmates I didn't grow up hearing it, and they'll wonder why the hell they accepted me. I even had my Arabic professor write one of my recs, and he couldn't have possibly thought it would be a good idea to lie about my ability, could he? Either way I'm terrified that I'm going to get an embarrassing score on the placement exam and totally humiliate myself. Gah!

Quitting my job, attending my graduation ceremony (graduated early so it's funny that I'm doing this so far afterwards), tropical vacation with the family, the long and arduous process of moving all my earthly possessions and getting another job wherever I'm going to school, and maybe working to save up more cash if I can. And oh yeah, rereading all of the "essential materials" for my field and reviewing my languages lest I sound like an illiterate moron when I arrive to take my placement exam.

Haha, thanks! And not a moment too soon, my nerves were reaching critical mass. I somehow knew that it would be very unusual for me to not get anything back around now.

It's interesting reading all of this, because my boyfriend and I came to the consensus quite a while ago that no matter how far away I go, we're both in it 100% for as long as it takes. I've been in long distance relationships before and I'm not particularly concerned. The ones I had ended for normal reasons, not just because one of us got too lonely. Then again I get free airfare as family of an airline employee, and the prospect of being able to visit monthly and on all holidays makes it all seem a lot easier. We've also been together for several years, and I think both of us would see it as a wasted investment to after this long just throw up our hands and start over with someone else just because it got difficult for a while.

Well I can finally stop hyperventilating and thinking what if I don't get in anywhere. I got accepted at U of Chicago for the Masters program. Hooray!

One school just emailed and said decisions will be available on the site after 3pm on Friday. Ugggggh I feel like I'm going to barf. I need at least one acceptance or a horse tranquilizer, plz.

Hah, well that's the funny thing, I used to work in the front lines admission office in my school for undergrad and because I hated when people called to prod us for information every four seconds I now have a morbid fear of being "that person," especially as everyone in the office joked about wishing they had the ability to reject "that person." Basically I'm a weenie and need to get over it.

I hope so, because otherwise I'm going to get an ulcer from all the fretting. The thought of them only postmarking stuff by the 15th seems worse though.

I feel nauseous all the time now because out of the 5 programs I applied to I have heard absolutely nothing. No rejections, nothing. It feels both statistically unlikely and getting a wee bit late for me to not have heard a peep. Is it maybe because I'm applying for an MA and they tend to wait really late for those? How long after PhD decisions do they typically start handing out MA decisions?