neuropsych76

It is scary to think that I'm going to be looking for a place to live for grad school soon... I was wondering what you guys think is the best/ideal option for housing in grad school? I know it varies immensely but what kind of things should you look for? Should you only rent an apartment for 9 months at a time? 12 months or more at a time? Buy a house/townhouse? Really all I know now is that I will not have a car and will have to live close to campus. But i'd like to hear any suggestions people have for housing at least for the first year or so. Thanks!

I don't think there is much competition on here. People have been generally nice even if they are applying to the same schools The forum is chalk full of information for interviews and stuff (really helped me through this process).

I think (from my limited knowledge) that sounds pretty standard but I might be a little wary if they don't explicitly say they have had success funding students after the first year. I've seen some other programs that state things like "guarantee funding for five years" or "To date, we have consistently funded all students in good standing during their first five years." but it could just be different wording for the same thing.

I agree with this. I applied to one school that accepted about half of its applicants and there was a decent research match there so I was like "awesome, at least i have a good shot getting in somewhere!" but realistically I would have dreaded if that was my only acceptance and I would have been in a predicament on whether to apply again or not.

I agree with much of what HyancinthMacaw said. I was in about 6 honors societies as an undergrad and it was most likely a complete waste of money. No graduate school professor cared and some schools didn't even ask for that information. Looking back I wish I would have saved my money, I just wanted to join them because I never joined any honors societies in high school.

I haven't heard anything at all from two schools. I'm guessing both are rejections at this point but I'd like to know so I can go ahead and accept another offer. I don't like the idea of emailing a program and asking them what my status is, but is this acceptable this late in the application process? I'd like to formally cross off every school before I commit somewhere...

So you're saying that it is more important to "adjust" one's research interests so that they "fit" whatever is popular for a highly ranked program? If I interpreted this correctly, it goes against pretty much everything I've heard about graduate school admissions and graduate school life in general.

I agree with this. I wasn't wildly successful in the admissions process but I've had a few interview/visits from some pretty solid schools as a senior in college. I didn't have any super star recommendations but I knew my professors very well and I think that allowed them to write good letters. I had an average GRE score and an above average GPA. But, I went out of my way to obtain lots of research experience, including working at other institutions when needed. That is what I think separated from other applicants (a few professors told me this) and it really wasn't that hard to do since I love research. Additionally, it isn't that hard to present at conferences if you make the extra effort to obtain good research experience. Motivation and work ethic are important components of graduate school admissions success.

Those do sound like positive replies after your interview so good job!! But yeah, the waiting afterwards is tough because its completely out of your hands. I'm just deciding between two possible schools now. One I have an acceptance (yay!) and one I have an interview (i'm at right now lol) Best of luck to everyone!!

The unproven reputation may be the factor preventing you from getting professorships or good jobs afterward though. I think that's the main issue.

Its not that bad if you block out time everyday. I did it for about half an hour for 3 months or so. So if you start relatively soon you should be fine. You will see several of the words you study on the actual GRE.

My advice is pretty lame but it worked for me. Get a GRE vocab book (like Barron's with the 3000 words list) and go through all the words over and over again making notecards with the ones you still dont know. I increased my score 100+ points by doing this but it took a long time (440 on practice to 580 on real thing). Best of luck!!

what?! there has to be some catch somewhere...

It's hard to say without knowing more about your profile. Were your GRE/GPA high enough? Did you have clear research matches and glowing LOR's?

I think since you mentioned both professors in your personal statement its fair game to ask about who would you be working with. Besides, neither professor confirmed you'd be working with them for sure right? You could also bring up being co-advised or having prof A or B on your thesis committee.

Definitely agree with all of this. I'm another anecdote of sub 1200 not keeping me from interviews. Clinical is different because they have SO many applicants they need a screening tool. But for experimental programs, research experience + fit is what really matters assuming the rest is fine.

i would chose school A from what you described as well. feeling like a "superstar" might feel nice but i'd rather go to a better school and not be the best there then go to a more average school and be the standout grad student. you don't want to standout from your cohort too much, that means you're probably at the wrong place. plus, the feelings of "superstarness" will quickly vanish once you're competing against other super stars for professor jobs.

Don't you have to pay to see the full list anyway? Besides, I keep hearing rankings of grad schools don't matter much, its more important how good the advisor you are working with is.

Congratulations on your interviews and I'm glad they went well!! I was in a similar boat with two interviews and I decided to turn one down and go to the other for many of the reasons you mentioned. The one I turned down was my very last choice but a part of me does wish I checked it out at least (though i would feel bad taking another students spot since I wasn't really interested)

Hi, Welcome to the forum! I don't much about law or history degrees so I'm sure others will post with more knowledge than me on this matter. BUT, I think you should definitely pursue whatever makes you the happiest. You don't want to finish law school and be miserable your whole life. If you looked into history phds and you think you would enjoy it, than go for it! One thing to keep in mind, however, is that it can be hard to obtain funding for grad school in general and especially in the humanities. Since you have law school debt already, I would try to only apply to funded programs so you dont accrue more debt good luck!

I wish I could share some motivating thoughts but I also have senioritis Last semester was hell because I had so much going on along with the whole grad school application process and I somehow managed a 3.9. This semester after I have SO much free time with just 2 easy classes but I probably won't get A's in either of them just because I have zero motivation after my first acceptance. I think it's a natural feeling but not just limited to those who are going strait to grad school.

I agree with the above posters. Luckily, when I told a school that I was withdrawing my application after an interview invite I didn't receive any follow up email wishing me good luck or inquiring about where I was accepted

Definitely agree with all of the above points, especially fit. I know my GRE scores were not the best but I applied to several programs (and got rejected) because (most likely) of a lack of fit. Really, I should have applied to less places looking back but I wanted to see if I could get in some more prestigious places with less fit. It's funny, the one place I was officially accepted at so far was the first school I definitely knew I was applying to since it had such a great research match.

Wow, after reading these I feel lucky. All my rejections have been pretty standard (we regret to inform you...) and my acceptance email was titled "offer letter"