SublimePZ

That's fine, it should be something you figure out soon though. As far as filing taxes go, look here: I know you don't pay taxes on all of your stipend, just a portion of it - you get some personal and other deductions, but I cannot recall how much those deductions are. I see. I remember talking to one of my GSIs who described a very similar situation of funding, so while the specific numbers might not be the same, the general feel is. Not very fun either way though. That first year might be a bit tight on your wallet, but you should be able to stretch it out if you have a little money saved up and/or are able to find a cheaper place to live (roommate!) with a good budget.

You want a spider horror story? Approximately 2 nights ago: I had just turned off the lights and slipped into bed, excited that I was going to get a whole 8 hours of sleep before work. My sleep habits are pretty awful (thanks college) and thus I usually don't get that much sleep. To celebrate, I decided to sing a song that's been stuck in my head recently - You and Me (but mostly me) from The Book of Mormon (I just saw it, would highly recommend!). As I stared into the blackness singing about something "incredible" (listen to the song), I noticed a part of my eyesight that was *darker* than the surrounding area. As the words "what in the hell...?" came to my lips, I felt... wait... is that... A SPIDER ON MY LIPS?!?! Commence Freak Out in 3...2...1... Immediate Spitting Start. I sprinted to the light switch, crammed my glasses onto my panicked face and went to survey the damage. Besides all the spit everywhere, I noticed not one... not two... but three giant ass spiders on my pillow + surrounding area. Based on this, I surmised that the three spiders were descending together, trying to land gracefully. One was positioned directly above my eye, another my mouth, and the third... I didn't care to find out. Needless to say, I didn't feel very comfortable sleeping in that same spot and spent the next 30 minutes moving my bed to the middle of the room under solid ceiling. How many hours of sleep did I get that night, you ask? Let's not talk about that... I'm honestly not that afraid of spiders (I put the three spiders on a piece of paper and released them outside), but that legitimately scared the hell out of me.

Only $1500? That seems pretty low. Why are you subtracting $300? I'm assuming for taxes? If you don't mind, it might be helpful to post full details of your financial agreement.

I would advise you to establish dialogue with the POI before asking about your chances if you think that questions about the competitiveness of your application are too intrusive. Emails to POIs are indeed very helpful and I would say that most POIs give very solid advice about your chances (which, just based on stats, look to be very good!).

My mp3 player (yes I use one) is changing genres at breakneck speed: Flobots - Handlebars Tupac - Ambitionz az a Ridah Avenged Sevenfold - Unholy Confessions Queen - Radio Ga Ga Jason Mraz - Sleep All Day

Unfortunately, finding a place in August is pretty tough. Most apartments have people sign leases starting in June (ish) so maybe you can try to find a roommate beforehand that can coordinate finding an apartment sooner? Not sure if you have any friends/family in that area or have connected to your cohort at all, but you could ask around and see if anyone wants to help you out in that regards. Don't do graduate housing. Very expensive for not a lot of space/stuff. Subletting is also a pain.

In regards to parking in Berkeley, you can apply to get a parking sticker from the City of Berkeley for $34.50 per calendar year. This is an extremely cheap option that few students know about. The only downside is that you're limited to areas around your residence. For instance, I lived on Northside with a car for 3 years and using an F (I think that was the zone) permit, was able to park within about a 3 block radius around my apartment. Source: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/Customer_Service/Home/RPP_Residential_Preferential_Parking.aspx Looks like they bumped up the price to $55.00 per year but it is still a good deal. Maelia8 is absolutely correct that the parking situation otherwise is complete garbage.

One of the schools I declined had a specific box that said "Where will you be attending instead?". Tempted to put Hogwarts but that probably wouldn't go so well.

Either the OP is not telling us everything, or is trolling. In either case though, there's really nothing else anyone here can say that hasn't been said already. This thread should be locked based on non-productivity.

Definitely. I didn't ask them all at the same interviews (I usually forgot, the conversation was going a different direction, etc.) but throughout the interviews I went to, I was able to ask all of those questions at least once. Certain questions may be more suited for asking the current grad students, however. Questions 1, 7, and 8 in particular. Some of my interviews just started with "I read the abstract of a paper of yours, could you elaborate on your research a bit more?" and ended with 45 minutes of the professor rambling on

Not silly at all! A couple of topics to definitely cover (but not in question form): 1) School area + city - what is there to do, how does that professor like it, etc. 2) Current lab projects 3) What past students are up to after graduation 4) Research + Collaboration opportunities 5) Professor's own research 6) If this isn't answered on the website or elsewhere, TA opportunities? Fellowships? Scholarships? Financial Aid? 7) How are advisor-advisee relationships established? How are advisors chosen/assigned? 8) How close knit are the students? Student groups?

I agree with lewin in the sense that consciously "lying" about your availability from the get-go is a breach of professionalism. This is further compounded by the fact that you'd like to use this job in the future as a connection (references, jobs, etc.). Ask yourself this: How would you feel if someone did this to you? You have to look through countless resumes, do numerous phone interviews, and create a project to work on for the established time only to not finish because the person you hired up and left 2 weeks early. I don't think it hurts to apply to the job, but I do think it's wrong to intentionally deceive your hiring manager. Is it possible for you to start a week earlier than listed + end a few days later than you want?

Definitely this. Understanding + memorizing vocabulary is certainly important, but don't get bogged down too much with absolute definitions and specific words. Especially for the verbal section, your ability to synthesize information and relationships between sentences is much more important.

For what it's worth, the three LORs I got was from an internship supervisor, a completely unrelated field (peace and conflict studies), and then an upper-division biochemistry class. I think the strength of your LOR matters a lot in this case. If you can get your physics professor to write you a really strong letter, I don't think an adcom would care about the fact that it's a physics vs. bio class.

Agreed. The areas that surround Berkeley (including Albany, Emeryville, Oakland, El Cerrito, etc.) are generally cheaper than Berkeley proper but definitely has less stuff to do. Additionally, everything is more spread out in those areas, so not having a car is super inconvenient. <$1000 per month is really only doable if you're willing to live with someone else and sacrifice space/distance. You're right though that food is more expensive in CA, but the trade-off is that it's usually fresher too.