Russophile

I accepted an offer to start a PhD program in the fall. Today, I was rereading my letter and came across this: I have forwarded your name to the College of Arts and Sciences requesting that you be admitted beginning in the fall semester of 2015-16. Although this decision is subject to final approval by the Dean's office... Is it common for offers like this to be rescinded by the college after you are accepted by the department?

Teddy, I suggest looking at Cedar Gate or Fountain Park. When I first moved to Bloomington, I lived on the south side of town, and I will say that is about as seedy as Bloomington gets. They are both close to bus routes and close to campus. Fountain park is right on the 6 route, but as a previous poster noted, the 6 route is cut back during breaks. Cedar Gate is in the middle of the 6 and the 9 routes, and the 9 is definitely a more frequent route during the off season. Cedar Gate is a little more affordable, but they are under new management and a little further away from both bus routes.

I will be 32 this fall.

I checked my email a lot before the waiting game began, but now it has become an obsession. Even knowing that I am unlikely to word until the beginning of March, I have probably checked my email 200 times a day since the beginning of the month.

It is what I really want and I am feeling a bit more confident about the decision to try again next year. This is a situation where funding is offered to incoming students, but only for that year. When put into perspective, taking the GREs and going through another year of applications will be far less stressful than finding out that I didn't get funding for my second year of coursework. Thank you all for your comments!

If they contacted you asking for further documentation, I would think that is probably a good sign. At the very least, I cannot see why they would have you initial documents unless they were considering you for something. Best of luck!

I would say that it depends upon where you are hoping to go after your PhD. If your safety school can get you where you want to go, then it may be worth attending. You post does; however, remind me of this article I read the other day that indicates that faculty jobs in English depends on where you earned your PhD. Best of luck!

As one first generation college student to another, first, congratulations on being the first to brave this territory. Second, before you worry too much about taking more student loans out, I would look into the terms of your current student loans. If your loans are federal, there should be a forgiveness clause in them for going into public service. I think with Stafford loans, if you go on Income Based Repayment after you graduate and work full time for a variety of public service organizations you can get whatever you have left on your debt forgiven after 10 years. I would absolutely recommend looking into any additional funding you might qualify for and braving whichever school offers you the best funding (here's hoping for someplace warm), but there are clauses in your loans that should make someone like you who is going into public service a bit less terrified about taking them if you need them.

I was thinking the same thing, it just isn't pleasant to think about going through the application process all over again, particularly when it means retaking the GREs.

Honestly, it seems like these days anything that gets you ahead with the company you want to work for is worth it. Will an internship with them make you more likely to get a job with them afterwards? If they tend to hire from their internship ranks, then it seems to me that it might be worthy of your consideration.

Fed up

I applied to one PhD program because it seemed like a perfect fit (I also did my MA here, so I know people here and am comfortable with the town, etc). Also, I took my GREs a little over 5 years ago and while they GRE company would send the scores out until next June, a lot of universities I was considering wouldn't take them. A week ago someone posted a rejection from the program I applied to, and I got excited thinking that I would at the very least know something soon. So yesterday I started getting impatient and decided to talk to my advisor who was also my POI. She told me that the university is cutting back on graduate students in the department and that she actually has no say on whether or not she even takes on new phd students because there are now many more faculty members than spots in the PhD program. She suggested that it might be to my advantage to retake the GREs and look at other departments or other universities, even if I am admitted because of generalized uncertainty about university funding. I'm not even sure what to do about this at this point. Is this suggestion something I should take seriously?

As far as I can tell, the smaller stipends are decent for areas such as Bloomington, where the cost of living is low. Funding at schools like Harvard and Columbia seem to be less generous given the area, and I suspect that most people who choose those schools either end up sharing an apartment with several other students or taking out significant loans to make up the difference.