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 Is it common for offers like this to be rescinded by the college after you are accepted by the department?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.

I would say just be patient with yourself and do your personal best. College students often change their mind about their goals. If you are unhappy with your GPA, you could consider cutting back from 5 classes to 4, though it could harm your chances of graduating on time, depending on the number of credits you are taking. Additionally, graduate schools often weigh the last two years of college more heavily than your first year. People don't always meet their full potential as freshmen, and most programs understand that. You have three more years to raise your GPA, and studying hard for finals could raise this semester from a 3.0 semester to something much higher. Good luck!

I agree with what everyone else has been saying about living on campus. Financially, it would be fairly close, but then when you consider the need to pay for a meal plan, the cost stops being as comparable. I would rather be able to cook my own meals rather than have to rely on meal plans and restaurants. Additionally, a lot of dorm living arrangements close during winter break, and I wanted the convenience of never being kicked out of my home for the holidays; however, my undergrad adviser, who is an IU alum suggested living in dorms.

Are you planning on living on campus? If you plan on living on campus, all you really need to worry about before you get your stipend is getting around, but if you need to find a place off campus, you are going need more than $500.

If you check the GSPO's housing website http://www.indiana.edu/~gpso/housing.php you can sometimes find housing that is shorter-term. Good luck!

You may want to consider reposting this to languages section. There are some Arabic specialists floating around the boards and they might have better insight. I would say if can set aside no less than 15 hours a week aside, teaching yourself to read Arabic over the course of two years would be doable, especially if you started off with one of those intensive summer courses offered by the Critical Language Institute or a number of other institutions around the country. Unfortunately this might not fit into your life as I seem to remember you have a wife and a child. Being that Modern Standard Arabic has been deemed a "critical language" by the government, there are resources out there for teaching yourself; however, I am certain there is someone on this board far more qualified than I am to talk about them. Best of luck!

I will be accepting Indiana's offer tomorrow. Has anyone else made their final decision about where to attend?

Usually tuition and fees are deducted out of the money on which you pay taxes. Your university will issue you a Form 1098-T which will indicate your paid tuition and the amount of scholarship and grants you received. Taxes are only paid on the difference. At least that is how it works with undergrad, I assume graduate school would be similar.

One question I would look into if I were you is how much it is going to cost for housing in Seattle. From reading your post, I am under the impression that not only is UW not offering you tuition, but you will also have to come up with probably somewhere around $20,000 a year for living expenses. I'm also wondering if you are going to have enough free time to justify the extra expense of living in Seattle while pursuing your graduate degree for the occasional night out? Also, is there a way to give yourself a hospital connection while at Purdue, perhaps through a summer internship or something similar?

If you qualified, this loan would be better than a Stafford loan. Eventually, Stafford loans accrue interest. So if you took out a $10,000 Stafford loan for ten years at the current 6.8% interest, you would ultimately pay back $13809.60. This means you spend $3809.60 on interest payments, even though the loan did not accrue interest while you were in school. As for your other question, I don't know how much financial need you need to qualify for Perkins or the Evalee C. Schwarz, but I was under the impression that Stafford loans were available to cover any need you had not covered by your EFC or other aid. Good luck!

Still trying to figure that out... I just have to figure out if everything I would replace would cost me more than $1500 to replace. If yes, then it is all going in a Uhaul and coming with me, if no, then I guess I will store it with my parents for 2 years until I finish. For me, it is really an issue of cost and time. I suspect that taking the time to go out and find new furniture will not, for me, be worth the stress of shopping on a very limited budget. Good luck with whatever you decide. I look forward to hearing what others are doing.