herself the elf

Of course, it depends on how much time you want to invest and what your ultimate goals are, but I just want to throw out there that a lot of people who are interested in policy work end up in PhD programs in poli sci or sociology, for example, which are often free. SIPA was one of the things that attracted me originally to Columbia-- I attended a few classes at SIPA and they were incredible-- but it was a better fit for my long-term interests as well as my purse strings to go for a (free) PhD (in sociology). I can take courses at SIPA and work with the professors, many of whom teach courses both in SIPA and GSAS. I'm sure you probably already thought about all of this, so I'm sorry if I'm saying stuff you already know. It's just that, last year at this time I had my eyes at SIPA and for me, I'm glad that I did not go that route. (And I second the pre-2009 reputation of SIPA as a cash cow). In any case, if the MPA/ MIA route is the right one for you and you matriculate, maybe we'll be in classes together Though I anticipate that you and I, "le_neocon," might end up in a friendly argument more than once Best of luck to you in your decisions.

If you feel like you have to "settle" during your MA, you can still apply to go to your top school for your PhD. 1. It is the school where you get your PhD which is going to matter most in your career, and of course, 2. they pay you. Best of luck in your decisions, and congratulations!

I can imagine it would totally screw with the housing market (and the admissions process) if it was free housing in addition to stipend. I know several of my friends who would probably try to go back to school simply for that reason alone!! But it's not a dumb question at all. I forwarded the letter to my mother, husband, and mother-in-law (via email) and all three of them asked the same question.

Unfortunately, it just means eligibility to apply, and you have to pay for it yourself. I received the same letter (different department) and asked about housing on the visiting days. The housing seems like a pretty good deal if you don't live in NYC and don't have the ability to go apartment-hunting around Columbia. It is also subsidized by the university, so it is usu. cheaper than what you would pay in the private market. But from what I understand, no pets I have to call them though; keeping my fingers crossed!

Thank you for commiserating, Maya, as well as for the insider scoop from your experience last year. I, too, expect mine to be a rejection, but I'm actually glad to hear that it will be an email. 1. I can call them tomorrow if I don't hear anything, and 2. I get way more anxious opening thin, hastily-prepared envelopes. And of course, 3. Receipt, delete! I'm ready to put a nail in this coffin! PS- I'm not sure if the link in my prior post was obvious, http://sociology.fas.nyu.edu/page/graduate

It seems we weren't the only ones wondering! PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT THE SOCIOLOGY DEPARTMENT REGARDING ADMISSIONS DECISIONS. THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS & SCIENCE WILL HAVE ALL NOTIFICATIONS OUT NO LATER THAN MARCH 15TH. PLEASE READ THE PROSPECTIVE GRADUATE FAQ BEFORE CONTACTING THE DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES. Today, apparently? The Graduate FAQ says the "graduate admissions department expects to mail out decisions. . ."-- ugh! Does anyone have evidence to the contrary, that it will be email? Sorry if this freaks anybody out, I'm hoping that soon we will all feel some relief!

** I'm replying simply to revive this post, so it appears in "new content." Apparently new votes don't count as new content? Administrators, where art thou? **

I have two awesome Brooklyn Industries "large H bags," one all plain black (more business-y), one white w/ purple floral. The fabric patterns they have now online are not my favorite but keep your eye out for cooler ones or check out a store if there is one near you where there's more selection. These bags are ridiculously spacious (holds 14" redwell files comfortably) and incredibly durable. They are a bit pricey but have a lifetime guarantee. Imagine three years of commuting on the subway, over an hour each way, filled to the brim with files, books, ipod, lipgloss, etc., and the black one is still perfect; it is no surprise this company is booming among the commuter set. I don't own any of the other styles, but if they are produced in the same factory I bet the quality is excellent.

I think you should post this as a survey with score ranges; you will probably get more responses that way (because of the anonymity). Interesting question!

If funding is the main thing preventing you from attending, and you feel like the program is a great fit for you, I recommend writing a compelling email to the chair of the department making your case for why the program is right for you and how you will go there if offered funding. I do not know if this will make or break your funding offer, but I don't believe it could hurt you, and I believe that there is still some money floating around available to be offered to people (from other applicants turning it down). Best of luck!!

Dreams! 1. It's your dream, there is a certain amount of pricelessness to that. 2. It really isn't a huge amount of debt. 3. You'll happily pay it off, because you will feel like it is worth every penny. 4. You'll be so passionate about it, I'm sure you will do great research and get additional research grants, etc., along the way which will help pay it off. 5. Consider asking the school for more money, I don't think asking can hurt you. Congratulations, and good luck!

The negatives have been plussed out

First of all, congrats on getting in, that's awesome. And one of the top 20 programs in the country! I wouldn't call that low-ranked, you should be proud of yourself! Anecdotally, I know of one student who "followed" a professor from one ranked ~20 program to another ranked ~10 program after his MA, not because of the rankings, but rather due to a lack of general support of the sociology department and his research interests specifically. So I suppose this shows it may be possible to switch if you have a professor behind your research and you can show the new school exactly why your research belongs with them and not at the other school. If you would want to leave specifically due to the rankings, I don't really have enough information to say for sure whether that is wise or unwise, but I think the consensus on this forum is generally that if you go to a good program that supports your work, and you produce good research, then the specific rank is not going to prevent you from teaching just about anywhere, except at perhaps the very top top schools. That being said, it can't hurt you to go to the (I'm assuming funded) MA and leave, right? I guess the only thing would be, if somehow you could foresee that you could not get in to the school you wanted in 2012, would you still go to the school at all?

I've become mildly obsessed with the whole Seadub v. GenomicRepairman / Lily / the medieval lady (et al) ongoing debates in multiple posts on this forum. It is like a bad movie that I know is a waste of my time, but I just can't leave! I keep clicking refresh! Yesterday, I started imagining what it would be like to put everybody in a room (insulters and insulted, 1600 GRE and 1000 GRE, etc.), of course in the live bodies that I imagine you all to have. . . it would be like horrible-slash-awesome reality TV. I'm sorry to have reduced you all to this in my mind, believe me, you are providing me endless hours of entertainment, and in a sick and twisted way, I thank you for it and hope you do not take offense. Q: what do people think about all of this, are people's personalities the same in "real" life? Would the "good guys" and "bad guys" still play the same roles?Or is this online posting business just a way for people to let all of their aggression out in an anonymous way? Could Seadub and GenomicRepairman / Lily / the medieval lady (et al) end up getting along if they unknowingly found themselves at barstools next to one another? Also, please dear lord let me not be the only person sick and bored enough to be obsessed with this. . . PS, to the OP-- I agree with DrFaustus that the Powerprep software is both useful and informative, and though the appearance is a bit outdated, it works.

Thanks for posting this question-- I'm in a similar situation myself. This website has contact info for entering CU students without IDs who are buying Macs: http://www.columbia.edu/acis/sales/ "Entering students without an active UNI: Email or call Ronnie Peters at Apple (ronnie_peters@apple.com, 646-256-9421) for special pricing and directions for ordering."

I agree that there is some ETS/GRE thing going on. I have actually really enjoyed getting them simply for humor's sake. One particularly memorable one, from a place where I had never thought about living, made me imagine myself in a re-enactment of Children of the Corn. Hilarious. Of course none of them were anywhere close to my research interests or suggested that they would pay for me. Please, let me move to [insert your least likely to live place here], so I can uproot my family from our home and pay you tens of thousands of dollars! Perhaps I'm being unfairly judgmental, I suppose they must get some sort of response from it, otherwise they wouldn't do it.

I think that this letter perfectly describes the stereotypical characteristics of a professor. So, while it may not be something that you would want to be on match.com, I think it is perfect for what you are going for, which is presumably to be an academic. After reading this letter, who wouldn't want you? What an odd, wonderful LoR. Thanks for posting and good luck to you.

Thanks for raising this issue on Gradcafe, it is a really important topic. I think visiting her is a great idea. Swing by her office hours, tell her you like her course and ask her how you are doing and how you could improve. You might even be able to pull off saying something like, "I'm having a hard time getting into class discussion, what do you suggest?" or something. You could also lighten the conversation with something like, "I saw on your CV that you are researching X, that sounds really interesting, could you tell me about it?" But I agree with another poster who mentioned that a lot of professors are socially awkward; sometimes they need a little help to normalize a weird relationship. You may or may not get the response you want, but at least after she knows your name she will notice you more and be more likely to include you. After many years of fighting disappointing battles, nowadays I am mostly resorting to charming my enemies, and it generally works.

Re: everything Paperchaser said-- I could not agree more. If you are a smart person who generally likes to think within the box, and a person who wants a profession to make your parents proud, go to law school. It is a lot of hard work for not a lot of payoff, and right now the profession is suffering from an excess of attorneys, including from abroad (!). If you want to make money, go into finance. If you are the type who dreams of being in academia, researching interesting topics and being around creative thinkers, being a lawyer will feel like your intellectual soul is rotting. That being said, I think being a lawyer made my PhD application a lot stronger and will bring something else to my research. But unless you get tons of scholarships it is too expensive to do it for that reason. I'm sorry if I come off as cynical, I just wish someone had said these things to me 10 years ago. **edit, post-script** when I say "from abroad," I literally mean outsourced legal jobs at small fractions of what lawyers in the US are paid for the same work. I welcome people who want to come from abroad to be US attorneys in the US

Unfortunately, I don't think it really matters which of these classes you take, they will all provide a refresher but none of them will prepare you for the test. The algebra on the GRE is certainly introductory algebra, but that only covers a portion (1/3 maybe?) of the questions, and it won't prepare you at all for the real thing that is important: learning to take the test. The real way to study for this test is to learn how to practice question types, both in timed and untimed settings. Yes, unfortunately, it is testing your ability to take the test. Over and over again on these boards there are people who are in some math field who get in the 600s in the math section. I am a lawyer, have not been required to do more than basic math for 10 years, and I got a very high score. Why? Not because I'm better at math, certainly not. Why did I do better? I learned how to take the test. Is it fair? Well, I studied my ass off for three months, so, I think I earned it. Does it accurately measure math ability. God, no. Like one of the other posters said, the questions types, in some instances, require you to take the best guess at what you surmise to be the closest answer, in a situation where you would have to be a super-whiz to test all 4 answers in time. School math is not like that and requires precision, showing your work, etc. (at least it did in the classes I took). And when did any of us ever learn 3-4-5, 5-12-13, things like that? I never did, not in school, that's for sure. I didn't take a review class, I just bought books and actually did them, every single question. I spent the first month and a half completing the main Kaplan book, the math Kaplan book, the Kaplan words book, and some other words book, I think Barron's. (Total cost appx. $80). I made words flashcards (appx. 2000?). I did the flashcards all the time, took them to the beach, etc., they were always in my purse, even at parties. With the math, every time I missed a question I looked up the answer and went back and did it again. For the last month and a half, I went back through the entire math book and the math section of the main book and did all of my wrong answers again, making sure that I had learned how to do them. Then, the last three weeks, I also integrated taking every test that you can take online that Kaplan offers. Every one. Five? These are timed. And all of the Kaplan quizzes. Then I took the three (?) that are offered by ETS for free with the PowerPrep software. Then I attended a free live test offered by Kaplan. Every single time I took the test my score went up. And this is, remember, after I had already spent a month or two learning everything I could. Yes, by the last month, I was studying every single day for several hours. I cannot stress enough that if you can already do basic arithmetic and very basic algebra, taking a math class is not going to prepare you for the GRE. I hope that this information is helpful. If you have more questions about the math or verbal sections, do not hesitate to PM me. Best of luck to you!!

I can't speak to what the OP wrote on what it is like in neuro-psych, but of course, all of us, if the choice were between someone who was intelligent/qualified and someone who was "dressed up all pretty," of course, we would all choose the intelligent/qualified person. I don't think anyone would disagree with that. The concern I think is that if one is both intelligent/qualified and "dressed up all pretty" that one will be dismissed as a flake/not serious. I have experienced this firsthand, but in most of my experience I have had the last laugh, and it has worked out fine. It is interesting to hear your position jsenert1, and hopefully what you say is true. LadyL- sorry for butting in to this and bringing up these gender things if it wasn't what you were intending, I just thought it was an interesting conversation I personally am on my way this evening to a recruitment dinner at a school and BOY did I dress dowdy today

This seems like an incredibly gendered bias, no? (i.e., it has a greater adverse impact on women than on men) Further, I wonder, if what you say is true (and I have no reason to doubt it), what message it sends out to young women entering the sciences.

By "street prices," do you mean drugs? Seriously?! If so, wow! That takes some serious chutzpah! I can't help but wonder what discipline you are in and what drug they were asking about. Is habitual drug use common in PhD programs? I know that in law school, many people quit pot and take up cocaine (all the reading); personally, I just drank an unhealthy amount of coffee.

I'm in a weird situation too, having switched jobs within my company after applying. I had to interview for this new position, knowing that I might leave, but also having no idea whether I would even get in anywhere. Some people in my old group know about my applications, but no one in my new group. I'm going to wait to give the 30 days notice required in my contract. Aside from the fact that I think my boss will be very unhappy with it, a close friend warned me not to make myself a "lame duck" for too long. I thought that was a good way to think of it. It is hard to keep it in, but I think it could be harder in my particular circumstance if I tell. I feel weird in meetings planning about the future, but it is what it is-- we certainly aren't the first to change careers, and if they aren't happy for us that we are following our dreams, well, that's their problem. Hopefully they will take it well, and we can make the transition as easy as possible for them.

Thanks for the pointers hip2b and socialcomm. Hip2b-- I'll be in touch!