breakfast

You almost certainly won't have that kind of luxury in discriminating against certain positions if you want to end up with a job. The overwhelming majority of us who actually graduate and are talented enough to snag a TT job will not be teaching at a research university. I would recommend that everyone read Graduate Study for the Twenty-First Century: How to Build an Academic Career in the Humanities by Greg Colón Semenza. It is a pretty sobering read about the realities of the job market.

Not at all. You touched upon the unique situation Ivy grads find themselves on the job market. Just because they went to a university with a more known name ("better", as you wrote, is the wrong word here) does not mean they will do better on the job market. From what I understand, the Ivy league does a good job preparing their graduate students for research careers (TT jobs at Research universities). The reality is that almost none of us will get a job at an R1, if we get TT jobs all. When you apply for a job, the search committee is going to look at a few different things. Yes, they will look at the quality of your research, but teaching experience is also very very important, and you generally don't get the best training for a teaching career at an Ivy. At my public state university, I am getting a lot of direct teaching experience. My department allows advanced PhD students to design and teach their own courses over the summer, and even as an MA student I am given a lot of responsibility in the classroom. I've looked at Ivy funding packages, and they just don't have the support for teaching that a lot of other universities do. Search committees at teaching colleges or less "prestigious" universities might also pass over an Ivy candidate because of the belief that the Ivy hire might jump ship to "move up" to a better department if given the opportunity. You are approaching this from entirely the wrong direction. Before you even think about specific universities, you need to come up with a research interest. Once you have a research interest, you need to think about specific scholars whose research interests you and you would like to work with. You probably won't make it very far if you think you want or need to go to Harvard or Yale but don't have any reason to actually go there.

Like a lot of other people here on the grad cafe, you seem to be too focused on rank and some presumed prestige. Why top-10? What faculty are at each of the universities that you want to work with? You need to focus more on the name of your advisor rather than the name on your diploma. Ivy grads are not immune to problems in the history job market, and actually face their own unique difficulties in finding TT jobs. If there are actually relevant faculty at all of the top-10's, then go for it, but I'd be surprised if there actually were, especially in non-American fields.

I wouldn't worry about it. There are big name advisors outside of the Ivy League. I think sometimes people here get too hung up on status sometimes. I only applied to 4-5 and got a funded offer. It only takes one. I don't know how some of these people have the time or money to apply to more programs than that, to be honest.

That is very strange. There are quite a few people in my program who are spending the entire break back home with family, and nobody has suggested that doing your own things on your own time is "unprofessional". In fact, most people think it's pretty strange that I'm not going back to see family over the break. Maybe you're so stressed because you're making grad school a bigger deal than it actually is? I can't imagine your mentality during the semester if you think seeing family during the break is unprofessional.

Why did you even apply to these places if you don't think you can live in the climate? People (and it's not only you) seriously underestimate how important location is in graduate school. Sure, you're going to spend a lot of time at doing work, and whatever the other reasons for totally disregarding location are, but if you are miserable living in a certain place, your work is going to suffer too. I don't want to live in the south. I knew this before I was applying, so I didn't even bother to look at schools in that region. Sure, I might have not applied to a few good programs that way, but I also knew that I would be wasting my time and money by even applying - there is no way I would have accepted an offer to go live in the south.

I am an out of state student at a SUNY school with funding. My tuition was covered the first year at the out of state level, but I had to establish residency right when I got here so I would be considered an in state student each year after. Every year after the first, the tuition remission only covers the amount an in state student would pay. If you don't establish residency, you have to pay the difference. I assume CUNY would have the same sort of deal.

Moving was the worst possible part of this whole experience. I moved from one side of the country to the other, and after that experience, it would be incredibly hard for someone to convince me to move back to the West. My girlfriend and I moved with our two cats. We also flew, which was a nightmare. I don't know how long your flight was, but moving from one coast to another, with a multi-hour layover, was miserable. We had some medicine to calm the cats down, but even then they whined the entire 5 hour red-eye flight. Terrible. I wish I could forget everything about those two days.

You are good. I got a 590 and still got a funded offer. The GRE is probably the least important part of your application package.

Do not do anything related to school unless specifically told to by your advisor. Do something fun. It will be the last time you have that much free time to do anything you want for a long long time. I was told that by some of the older grad students in my department, and even though I'm only a few months into my first year I am incredibly grateful that I didn't spend all of that time reading.You might think starting a few months early will give you a leg up when you actually start classes and research, but it won't. No matter how much you think you are preparing you will still come in and be overwhelmed. So, if it's a choice between research and traveling, go traveling and don't even think about the upcoming semester.

Care to share where you are planning on applying? I'm currently in grad school (funded MA student) studying, broadly stated, the same thing as you. I can recommend some scholars/programs if you aren't quite sure where you are going to apply yet.

The only reason you should ever audit a class instead of taking it for credit is if you have already completed the coursework component of your PhD, but still want to sit in on a course closely related to your work. Even then, you could just as easily ask for the syllabus and do the readings on your own (if you are studying for your comps).

All of your stories about having no time to get your apartment/house/living situation organized make me grateful that I moved to grad town more than a month before courses started. I had my new state license, bought a car (and got all of that paperwork and registration stuff done), got internet set up, got all of my university paperwork done, got my ID, and was able to familiarize myself with my new home. A lot of my cohort only moved here a week ago (classes started yesterday). Getting set up here was a huge pain (especially the license part, since our state DMV has the most ridiculous requirements for getting a new license in this state), and I feel bad for all of my fellow students who are going to have to deal with all of that on top of coursework. So for anyone reading this that is going to be starting grad school in Fall 2011: Move to your new grad town/city more than a week ahead, especially if you are moving to a new state where you need to work on establishing residency in your new state. A month was a perfect amount of time. I'll also share my car experience. I moved here without a car, assuming I would be able to live without one. That was a mistake. I quickly realized I would need a car, and luckily I had plenty of free time to look. I wouldn't have been able to do that in the few odd hours I have free now that I have started my courses. Getting the car inspected and registered would have been a nightmare during school too.

I'm not in your field, but I have some words of caution regarding ASU. I grew up in Arizona and did my undergrad at ASU. Before you accept any offer, make sure that your funding is guaranteed for x amount of years. The state legislature has been and is cutting the education budget at every chance they get. During my last year or so at ASU, the university had to take some drastic measures to survive. They got rid of departments, consolidated departments, and forced unpaid furlough days on all university employees. So, if you get a funded offer from ASU, make absolute certain that you are guaranteed that funding no matter what else happens to the education budget (it isn't likely to get any better, thanks to a terrible governor and state legislature), and make sure that whatever program you are going into will still exist in time for you to finish (although I don't think you have anything to worry about in the education field. The university is very proud of its education programs).

Again, I'm not sure if this is entirely true. People graduating from top-10 programs are having trouble finding jobs just like everyone else, although for slightly different reasons. Less "prestigious" programs can sometimes be wary of hiring someone from an elite program because they may assume that the candidate will bolt as soon as they have an opportunity to move to a "better" program. This isn't always the case, but I have heard it from numerous professors. That is one reason you need to think about the type of career you want when you apply to grad school.

Is this really true? I've been reading "Graduate Study for the 21st Century" by Gregory Semenza (a prof in the english department at UConn). In the book, he makes it a point of letting the reader know that only 10% of universities are classified as research universities according to the Carnegie Mellon classifications. Most of us will probably end up at institutions where teaching is the priority and mision of the college. He says that is why it is so important that every graduate student serious about an academic career get as much teaching experience possible while in graduate school. Research is still important no matter where we go, but it is not always more important than teaching.

I'm just sitting around waiting for the big move (2,300 miles). A lot of my stuff is already packed (books and movies), but my day-to-day stuff is still all around the room waiting to get packed. My girlfriend and I are flying to our new home on Wednesday with nothing but our cats and clothes. We have to buy furniture when we get there and get the rest of our stuff shipped out to us. This next week is going to be pretty hectic and stressful.

Most airlines allow you to take your pet as your carry-on. Sure, it will be annoying for everyone else in the cabin, but I would never fly with my cats as checked-baggage.

My girlfriend and I are doing the same. Moving from AZ to upstate NY. We sold or got rid of all our furniture. We have two cats we're bringing with us, so we're just going to fly out there when we move. Her mom is going to be taking a working vacation about a month after we move, and they will be driving out to bring us what we couldn't ship out there. We plan on just renting a cargo van from a car rental company and driving to the nearest IKEA (a few hours way) and replacing our furniture. It's a bit more complicated than a traditional move, but it is going to be so much cheaper than renting a truck or a pod.

I'm going to be going to Binghamton in the fall, and although I haven't visited yet myself, I can share what I've heard from other grad students and friends living in the area. As a grad student, you will probably want to live on the west side. From what I hear, most undergrads live downtown, although there are some on the west side. I'm going to be flying out in June to find a place for July, or if money doesn't allow it, I will fly out in July to find a place for August. So far I've been looking on craigslist and on the universities housing list (just google "binghamton university off campus housing list"). From what I can tell, most of the cheap apartments are in Endicott or Johnson City, but I hear those places aren't too nice or convenient for grad students.

I agree with all of this. Yes, my post was hostile, but at the same time I think the question being asked is so ridiculous that it doesn't merit a legitimate response. I think one of the best things you can do before applying is determine fit (both academic and social). You should talk to potential advisers, and more importantly, talk to your current professors who like you and know you well. The best advice I received was from one of my undergrad professors who I have a lot of respect for. In our many conversations about graduate school never once did rank come into the conversation. I think people focus too much on the USNWR rankings to determine where they will apply. I've said it before, but it seems like the only people that actually care about rank are hopeful graduate students applying to or accepted to a "top ranked" program. Who you work with is infinitely more important than the rank of the program you came from. Yes, sometimes the highest ranked programs have super-star faculty, but "lower ranked" programs are home to super-star faculty as well. I don't begrudge anyone for applying to Yale and/or Harvard if they are actually a good fit with the program and a potential adviser. The real problem is when people apply to those programs because they are Yale and/or Harvard.

Wow. What a thread. I'll begin by saying congratulations to your top-20 admit. You were clearly fishing for compliments, so I won't let your efforts go unrecognized. You are much better than all of us who accepted offers at schools ranked "way down there" in the 60's and 70's according to USNWR, and you were too good a candidate for these programs. One wonders why you even bothered to apply. I mean, surely you could have gotten accepted to any top-10 program of your choice. Or rather, seeing as how completely transparent your writing is, perhaps the admissions committee at these "low ranked" schools saw right through your statement of purpose. Pretentious? Check. Pompous? Check. Thinks she is too good for our program? Check. It's clear from your post that you didn't want to go to any of these. They were merely a back-up in case of a rejection from one of the "better" ivy programs. Enjoy your top-20 program. You'll probably fit right in. Don't worry about the rest of us plebs in our terribly low ranked programs. I just wanted to agree with this. Fantastic post with a lot of great information.

I'm spending my whole summer working as much as possible to save up for the cross-country move. I don't have enough savings yet, and it's going to be a really tough first few months if I'm not able to get some more saved. Luckily I'm going to be doing the census this summer. It pays well and its temporary so I don't have to worry about hiding the fact that I'll be leaving in a few months to live in New York.

I love the Discworld series. I read a lot of them a few months ago, but right now I'm taking a break from the series. I'm currently reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X. Next up I'm planning on finishing The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon. After that I'm probably going to read some Chomsky (haven't decided what book yet), then I might finally get back into the Discworld series.

I think you're misunderstanding the whole visa situation. You are right when you say that with a student visa, you are limited to 20 hours a week. However, the PhD in Denmark and the Netherlands (and possibly other countries like Sweden and Norway) isn't exactly a student position. If you are accepted at one of these PhD programs, you apply for and get a full visa (one with no restrictions) since you are being hired to do research. The PhD is more of an employee-type situation than a student one in some of those countries, and as such, you get the same visa that any other person being hired to do full-time work gets, not a student visa. It's not the same throughout all of Europe though.