engguy

i am the rare case of a male applicant whose last name has been changed. my undergrad ts are under my old name. i simply appended a cover letter to my application, noting the change, and alerting the school to be on the lookout for transcripts under my old name. i never had a problem. i believe they are pretty familiar with this issue, and should be fairly competent in dealing with it.

you are accepted, so in that sense the pressure's off. however, you may still be in contention for some sweet fellowships, without your even knowing it. business casual sounds about right, but more importantly, make sure to be relaxed, confident, and curious -- chat up as many professors and admin / current students as you reasonably can, without seeming to brown-nose. you never know. some who already have f-ship offers may back out, and they will remember those who looked sharp and seemed genuinely interested in the program. good luck.

obligation by department as determined by original letter of recommendation the rest of the message you received looks very standard; the above seems somewhat strange. i would ask current students if they have any ideas about what this means. it does sound like they're giving themselves an out here. that said, i would think it quite odd indeed if a school arbitrarily yanked funding for TAs -- the program's reputation would go down the toilet. TAs are very cheap labor, it's a good deal for the school, and it's one of the main carrots they have to attract students. i would be more wary of rising student fees not covered by your tuition waiver, cuts to health benefits, and other ways they can and will try to sneak in pay cuts. again, ask around. my current school is trying to get serious about performance reviews of grad students, and this may be a growing trend... here it's mostly to ride herd on the many students who have actually gone far beyond the original 4-5 year deal with their funding. so i wouldn't worry too much.

I think Ferraro is having some fun. Don't pick six -- don't even pick four, in my opinion. My advice is this: first, pick only those you feel absolutely sure you can trust. Don't take a chance that someone you think thinks well of you will actually write an indifferent or lukewarm letter. Not all of them will be comfortable showing you their letters, so be sure. Next, pick professors who speak to the range of interests that you intend to pursue. If you have taught and you have someone who can speak to your teaching skills, or POTENTIAL teaching skills, use that person. Also, provide all your LOR writers with as complete a version of your statement as you have, along with a CV and list of classes you've taken. Some might also want papers you've written for them. good luck

Well, that's my question; I've never done this before. I've never filled out a FAFSA. I am eligible for loans -- some of my classmates have loans, in addition to TA stipend / fellowships. There's nothing at all that I can see on the eligibility requirements that prevents people who have funding from applying for a Javitts as well. I just don't know if they would look at that, and, as you have, wonder why i'm applying. Javitts is offered to incoming PhD's as well as those who haven't yet completed their first years...

The deadline for this is quickly approaching, and I wondered if anyone has any knowledge of this fellowship and can advise on whether I should bother to apply. My situation is this: I am in the first year of a PhD in English; I have the best fellowship the school has to offer, which amounts to $22k a year with TA stipend for 4 years; I have a perfect GPA from graduate school and a number of publications and awards. The main thing I'm concerned about is that my f-ship will, if not disqualify me, at least push my app to the bottom of the pile. I'm very busy, needless to say, and don't want to bother with this if I have no shot. Anyone know the ins and outs of the Javits process care to share? thanks

Question: My wife is a non-native English speaker who has a double degree from her undergrad in her home country in English and her native literature, along with an MA in Eng. lit from an American university. She has excellent grades, and the one weakness in her application to a PhD program is her GRE scores. She took the test without much studying to fulfill the requirement for her MA school and now must retake them in the hopes of improving her scores. She has trouble (like most eng majors) dealing with the math, and the high-level vocabulary on the verbal has also been tough for her. There are a number of classes available, but Kaplans is expensive and we were wondering if anyone has experience with any online courses that are a bit more affordable. How effective are they? Some offer "live coursework," presumably with someone on the other end of a computer tutoring a group of students, others seem to be simply online tutorials. Any recommendations / red flags on these would be most welcome. Thanks :!:

the best help that i got was from people who had already successfully applied to phd programs -- recently, and preferably to the same programs i wanted to get into. if you can't find those then surely you can cozy up to someone in your current school who's already in the phd -- and who likely got in other places as well -- and have this person go over it with you. i wouldn't post it here, not so much out of fear someone would steal it -- although there is that too -- but because you'd get so many different opinions on what you should or shouldn't do that it would ultimately be quite useless. everyone has a story of what worked for them, but you need to find what works for you; that may involve lots of personal history or an emphasis on wonky details. unless there are glaring mistakes i don't see how anyone here can help you. that said, from what you describe i think there IS one glaring mistake in your current SOP -- you don't seem to get into what you actually want to study until the very end of it. i think the specific topic should go right up top, and you can revisit it at the end. phd programs are not like applying to undergrad or even masters programs where you sort of sell yourself as a person; they want to know how you'll fit into a cohort and what resources you'll make use of there. but that's just my opinion as a dumb english major.

Wait-- weren't you the person who asked about scores a few weeks ago? I think you should take it again. Study your ass off on the vocab and, as I mentioned previously, get it to where you can roll through five or six verbal sections in a row without missing more than 1 or 2 each. This will reduce anxiety and give you confidence going in. I scored 790 verbal and felt the opposite of you before pressing the "view score" button -- I thought I was toast. A friend of mine scored 590, had no time to re-take, and had a really tough time with admissions (but did finally get in off the waitlist at one of his top choices). I say the anxiety of not hitting 700+ and watching your application fees go down the drain (my friend wasted $1000 or more) trumps the anxiety of retaking the test. As for stipends, I got 22k/ four years guaranteed at a big state school. In a part of the country that's not too expensive (knock wood / pray it stays that way!). And I, too, have a family, so that was a big deal to me. Take a good hard look at program web sites to see what kind of funding's possible. Then do a comparison to find out what the relative cost of living is, etc. http://www.bestplaces.net/ Also, take a look at private schools. Many of them are not highly ranked simply because they're smaller, but they have very generous funding and are fairly well respected. I could give you some suggestions for English lit if you pm me. Good luck :!:

Let's think about this rationally for a minute. What school in its right mind would promise reimbursement funds and then not give them? It makes no sense. Perception and reputation are incredibly important to them when it comes to recruiting. If word got out -- and obviously it would -- that they stiff students for visitation money, they would have a hard time getting students to come visit at all. Like others have noted, it took some schools longer than others to pony up, but all of them did, regardless of whether I'd already declined the offer. Admittedly, I'm just the type to get paranoid about that sort of thing, but I managed to hold my fire and was glad for it.

sounds like you're gonna do fine. since you're so far out front of the process, you can take it over anyway if need be. you should be confident. i don't know which practice tests you're taking, but as i'm sure you know the computerized gre will weight the early questions much more heavily than the later ones in each section. that's why, i think, your scores could swing so far from one test to the next (and from practice to the real thing). as a rule, i would say that you should consistently get no more than one or two wrong per practice section. and pound that vocab! best of luck.

18's definitely too many. Had a friend who applied to that many and only got into one w/ full funding -- at least partially, I think, because his app's ended up being so diluted by how many statements he had to write etc. Not to mention that he spent I think $2000 on all the fees and sending scores and postage. I applied to eight. There was only one that I felt was a super-reach, and I didn't get in there; only one safety -- and I barely got in there :!: All three of the schools that I really wanted to get into, I did -- again, I think, partially because I really took the time to investigate their programs and write a very focused statement for those schools. Then, of course, that led to a terribly difficult decision to make, which I gather was the case for many folks here. That's yet another reason to sort of narrow it down before you get started. (Both my friend and I, btw, were applying to PhD lit/english programs.) Best of luck.

Look, the system is so #$%@-up that it's a miracle it works at all. (I'm procrastinating from writing my final paper, by the way.) I had the same issue with my safety school -- got in, finally, but it was the last school I heard from. My theory is that some schools approach admissions based on who they think will actually accept and thrive there, not necessarily on numbers or letters, etc. In other words, yes, they might suppose that you are likely to get better offers elsewhere and turn theirs down -- rather than waste an offer on you, they turn you down. Counter-intuitive, but possible. As for the admissions fee angle, perhaps that's the next frontier for a CGS-like agreement to cover. It doesn't seem unreasonable to expect at least a yes or no for your money. But I agree that as things stand now, while you might be tempted to demand your money back, it's probably not gonna happen and it won't win you any friends. Perhaps one final, carefully worded, polite but firm letter to the DGS of the school, cc-ing any names you can discern on the admissions committee, would at least open their eyes to the problem or even get some result.

My thoughts exactly. I got burned on this because I didn't really look over the practice materials too carefully, and was embarrassed to get a 5.0 -- especially since I knew the people grading it were basically my peers, graduate student TAs. Luckily I aced the verbal, and figured my writing sample and SOP were really what they'd be looking at. In contrast to this, I had a friend who got 6.0 on the writing but gagged on the verbal, and had a much tougher time with admissions this year. I didn't take the subject test, but I wouldn't recommend doing this. I managed to get accepted at 2 schools that required it, but there's no telling whether my not taking it factored in to getting denied at some others. If you are applying at 7-10 places, there's simply no way that some of them won't require the subject test. And if you do get in, you'll have to take it anyway. But I'd agree that the actual score is not terribly important. Also a good point from the previous two posters -- your practice scores are not necessarily a good indication of how you'll do on test day. You could do way better or much worse depending on how nervous you are and what kind of Q's they throw at you. That's why you should practice until you are consistently getting no more than 1 or 2 wrong per practice unit. ALSO-- because of the computer-based testing, you can take it pretty much anytime and have your scores instantly. I didn't take the GRE till the end of November. So there's really no hurry.

If you want to get into a top tier program you need to do better than 700 on the verbal part of the GRE, in my opinion. Why take it now? I would consider using the summer to bone up on the vocabulary and push that up 50 points or so. (Maybe not the whole summer, but enough time to study without it taking over your life.) The quant. score is great but pretty meaningless to phd programs in lit. I know others will disagree -- there have been battles about scores on this forum before -- but all I can say is that if you have the time and you're not applying till next fall, why go in with a potential weak spot on your app.? Everything else looks good. I came out of an MFA and got into 5/8 schools. What you don't mention, but what will be critical, is your SOP. It has to really make a good case for you and why you are a great fit for this or that program. There are a million different approaches, but all things being equal, that and obviously your letters are key. best of luck!

First thought: This director sounds like a bit of a weasel. That was two weeks ago! Second thought: They've accepted you. They're not going to rescind the offer. If funding is important to you, don't accept anything until you get an answer. I don't know about that. Maybe, maybe not. Once they've got you as a student, who knows if they'll be in a hurry to fund you. At this point, a phone call is not out of line. The DGS should at least be able to explain where they're at in the funding decision process. Get him on the line and let him do the talking. He's got some 'splaining to do.

If you are a writer you should prepare to be poor -- not just for two years, but your whole life.

That makes no sense. My wife was an internat'l student and she said that she can't remember the exact percentage, but it wasn't that much and she thought it should be the same as regular taxes in terms of how much you pay. Talk to someone at the international office of the school who deals with these things. You may even wind up saving money because some countries have a treaty with the US that allows up to a certain amount each year completely tax free.

I think it's inevitable. In my case it's especially excruciating because I felt like I was choosing not only between two programs, but two entirely different career paths in the academic world -- both of which I find inspiring and exciting. (And I do mean different -- completely different fields of study working with completely different kinds of faculty.) I made sure to visit both schools I was seriously considering, talked it over with advisers and family / friends and people I knew who'd attended both schools, went through every possible scenario, made lists.... and still I felt that I ended up making a snap decision. But I keep telling myself that if I had gone the other way, I'd be feeling the same sense of loss for the other school. And as many told me as I went through the process, there was no bad decision here -- at the school I chose I have great support and it's a fine program for what I'm doing. My question for you folks is: if you feel this regret, what was the "tipping point" that made you choose as you did? Was it something that came from your head, your heart, your gut -- or what? For me, it was partially the voice of the woman in HR I called to ask a question about health insurance. I will have almost no interaction with this woman, but her Midwestern accent and her helpful, friendly tone just sounded like home to me. I started to think of all the people like her that I'd end up meeting and interacting with, and it just nudged me the rest of the way towards making the decision. You might think that's funny or just dumb, but I'll bet others were brought around by even dumber things. At any rate, just live with the regret, and let it go -- this too shall pass.

if you're employed as a TA the school should take taxes out for you, so it will depend on what state you're living in and how many dependents you have etc. The rest (insurance / tuition remission) is not taxable. You will get a W-2 form at the end of the year just like every other working stiff. You will also likely get a 1098-T detailing the tuition remission, but you don't need to file that. If you are international then of course you'll have to deal with the headaches around filing for that, but ultimately it shouldn't be much different tax-wise than a normal filing.

See if there's a junkyard anywhere close to you. They would probably be willing to send a wrecker out and tow the car and even give you $25 for it. I've had several beaters and never been able to pawn them off to a charity, but junkyards usually will take them for scrap and parts. I looked into the PODS thing too when I did my last move and found, as you did, that it's actually more expensive. As I mentioned on a different thread, if you keep all your receipts and keep track of mileage, you can claim moving expenses on your taxes, assuming that you are working as part of your grad school move.

Well, not in mine, and neither in the master's program I'm just finishing. I'd be surprised if a PhD program requires incoming TA's to take a practicum in addition to three graduate seminars + teaching, but I guess it depends on how intensive the practicum is. It seems to be a trend that they're getting longer and more intensive, thus being offered for full credit.

It's standard to take three classes -- usually it's required, with TA -- and that translates to nine credits. Any more than that and you risk being seriously overwhelmed. One of those classes will also most likely be a TA practicum, which is beneficial in two ways: it will cut down on the "real" work you have to do, and it will give you strategies for teaching -- some of them too late to implement in the first semester, but still.

Sorry -- you're not gonna get me on that one. I did study for 10 years with teachers and fellow students in private classes before coming back to school. Those classes gave me absolutely no "credit" in the eyes of the academy or my field, yet were invaluable for my personal knowledge and growth. Paid for it by working a series of crap jobs. In my case I came back to school because I realized there was money available to continue my studies / avoid working crappy jobs while doing it. In that sense, you're right. But if I didn't have "love" I never would have gotten to this point. Don't make assumptions about people you know nothing about. It's this kind of zero-sum thinking that ends up making many good, smart people skip out on grad school, or feel guilty about it once they do go. Just because you enter a PhD program doesn't automatically mean you're a sellout. It's a deal you make with the world -- and if you go in with your eyes open and find the right situation for yourself, you will be fine.

I'm headed to SUNY Buffalo / poetics. Turned down UT Austin, UC Santa Cruz, Denver, Wayne State. Turned down by Princeton, Washington, Temple.