random_grad

Summer language learning is usually funded by the grad school you will be attending (FLAS is a scholarship). As an undergrad you are not expected to do that, just take a course or two with A grades to show you can learn a language.

Languages: wouldn t you need to learn a Native American language if you chose that path? That can be much harder than just learning European languages. Language learning can be achieved quite fast with FLAS and other summer programs. 3 languages from more or less the same language group is doable. But you should show aptitude by taking at least 1 course in each, to be admitted. I confess that languages were a consideration for my choice of historical period at first. While I would not want to go into too much detail on that (trying to maintain anonymity) , I can tell you that the language requirement scared me as much. It turned out easier than I thought. So, frankly, this should be the least of your concerns in terms of decision making. Now things that really influenced my choice and which I still consider important: - historical issues explored by historians in my specialty appeal to me more than any other. it gives me immense pleasure to read their work and think about these topics. I even enjoy the way they write, which is no minor consideration because you ll be reading a lot of articles. Such beautiful minds... I want to become one of them! - on the other hand I ve always been interested in the era I study, so yeah I could say "I always knew" - just did not dare until late in my undergrad. - availability of materials was of some importance, but not huge. - political atmosphere in countries I considered studying and how they deal with American researchers - simple enjoyment of primary texts and materials. Love them! I could decorate my entire place with the art of the era XD Search your feelings, compare to other eras as well, totally outside the two you mentioned, and consider looking at interactions Between the two. unless you are certain, don t specialize too early - leave yourself a choice. But do get some languages under your belt, to test if you can potentially do it.

If he is going on sabbatical during your masters, consider taking a sabbatical too if working with him is the only option. If he is going on sabbatical after your masters it might not be that much of a problem as any prof would be on sabbatical at some point during your phd. if your phd has a course load component, the issue will be minimal. If not you might need to take a year off school. But that does not mean the end of your career. If the prof is interested in working with you, he will be able to work something out.

Yeah, the decision moment (month in my case) was very emotionally drainig (although also one of the most awesome times of my life). It fwlt like being in love with several people at the same time! I almost stopped eating and slept very little.

Congratulations! This sure is exciting. Will keep that in mind for the future, thanks a lot for sharing the link and experience!

How do you organize all these bits and pieces?

First things first: Hiding is never a good idea. If it comes up that you did not submit all your transcripts from the past, it's an academic offense. Now, to answer your question, you should not worry so much about your early academic years. It happens all the time and schools only care about the final years. An acquaintance of mine had a very mediocre start in her philosophy degree but did well in the 2 final years (so, btw, the overall GPA wasn't that high) but still got into top schools for her MA. Chances are, nobody will even look at the old records. Ask your professors whether they feel you should mention personal difficulties in your SoP at all (and, of course, show them the transcripts so that they know your full situation). imo you shouldn't unless the school asks you to (some have extra questions in the online application directed at failing etc.). If the school you're applying to has a question like that, use it to your advantage and turn your response into an "overcoming adversities" blurb: succinct, frank, unashamed. Also be ready to talk in 30 sec about that during interviews. You are mature now, you know how to work hard, you came back and kept trying despite all odds.

So true! I've had that quite a few times, sometimes at a very late stage of writing the paper. It's devastating to not have the time to develop that new idea and it never works to put it in the conclusion as an after-thought... At the same time, it provides a basis for a continuation of the project in a new context.

Considering that you have not worked for this company very long, the likelihood that they will go out of their way to accommodate your situation (that is, keeping you on staff for the duration of time that _you_ need) is slim. If I were in your situation, I would wait 'til the end to give the 2-week notice. The only things that might entice me to consider otherwise are: a. The employer is a really nice, genuine person, whom you don't want to hurt, b. You will be in touch with this industry later on, c. There is a likelihood that word of your grad school acceptance has already leaked, d. You can survive if you loose the job, e. To continue you would need to sign a binding contract. Otherwise, imo employer-employee relationships are more often exploitative then not, therefore I would exercise my legal right for a 2-week notice without hesitation.

This is awesome!! There should be a thread for pitches (is there?)

As a person in the humanities, the reaction goes two ways: 1) Wow, you're at such prestigious university! 2) Your field is useless. At this point, for 2) I have developed a comprehensive attack plan with a list of responses that I deploy one by one to kill any doubt in that person's mind about the necessity of my field. This tends to work well on fellow PhD students from the sciences (who are generally super-skeptical for some reason about what humanities people do) and somewhat less on non-academic people (with whom I use their skepticism as a way of preventing reaction 1) ). For reaction 1) I am still struggling to devise a fool-proof defense plan, esp. now that I have been admitted to a prestigious school. I just try to be casual about it, saying that I am very happy ("lucky to be here" is a good way to put part of the responsibility away from my persona) and all, and it seems to work. People switch to being flattered of knowing someone who is from said school and join in the celebration. I proceed to talking about my project in simple terms and transition to telling about a recent travel experience I had in relation to my research or an event in the city that I attended recently in relationship to my field of study. This gets people talking about travels and leisure, about their city, and eventually other things if they have nothing to say about my research interests. However, I find that me asking people what they do for a living is a bad conversation starter because if the person has an office job they are not very proud of or particularly engaged with then when they ask back about what I do, my response may seem like bragging and it may seem that I asked them just to focus on my work in the first place (esp. if I have the stupidity of asking them about what they studied in university). So now I avoid asking the occupational question myself unless I know this is someone who defines themselves by their career. Much better is the "where are you from" question and "have you seen this new movie" or anything about politics and world affairs. I stay informed by reading the journal and watching netflix . "what do you watch on netflix?" is perfect to fill the blank for a good tweny minutes

in addition to the advice above: talk to your LoR writers about a potential PI and maybe your prof will tell you to mention them in your email or even offer to talk to the PI directly. This would help with your chances of getting a response.

I was not saying they don t exist.

For me it helps to turn on my bullshitometer really high towards what I write: do I really have sufficient evidence to claim this or that? Or would actually necessitate some more evidence I don t have time to get at this point? Another thing is to make an off topic check for all things: does this matter for my argument? All that doesn t gets dumped to footnotes.

perhaps I am just too much of an optimist but I don t see much of a problem in grades being inflated, kids being entitled etc. I am confident that those who are able and deserve it will eventually learn to work hard, exploit their talents and choose the right career. I discussed it with my older friends and they all concurred that eventually all their classmates and friends found their vocation so to speak - and ultimately that s what matters right? the fact that some graders take a lenient approach while others are tough is fine: this is part of learning and teaches people that the world is heterogeneous. The fact that students choose to be strategic about their course choices is fine too because it was the right choice for them at the time. Now one might feel regret but that would force that person to make choices differently in the future, which is great... my point being: I think there are some much more serious issues going on apart from grades, and one of them is undergraduate admissions, together with the fact that the system allows people to graduate without any practical skills. Why is a history or philosophy major unable to find much but basic office jobs while folks from college with a certificate in, say, HR get better positions? Imo universities at the undergraduate level should require students to acquire a profession with real world prospects aside from their major. Worse case scenario: it works to broaden your worldview. this would both alleviate the anxiety and frustration for job prospects (and incidentally reduce entitlement and anxiety to get all As) and make future academics more understanding of the "real world".

Thank you so much for the detailed response! This is most illuminating. I will enquire with my province to see what their requirements for health coverage are. It would be nice to keep it

Can t wait to start! I have yet to get all the forms in order and find a place to live though. The prospects of doing it all seemed insurmontable just a month ago but I m adavncing steadily toward the desired goal. How did you manage to do it all so fast?? I m also trying to have my 9 to 5 job not suck too much energy out of me XD

Searched the forum as far back as 2008, found lots of great advice, but still have a question: can one maintain Canadian residency (from the point of view of health care and national student loans organizations) while studying in the US? i.e. have Canada as primary residence, and US as secondary?

I prefer working inside because I find the wind very inconvenient and the bright sun kills my eyes - all of which makes me less efficient. The only time I worked outside consistently was studying for the GRE on the beach Sometimes, I like to read on the subway and I'd just stay on til the end of the line - not having anything else around helps me focus; and I do go for walks to just think about my projects and breath, but not very often (usually it's a purposeful walk to the supermarket). Otherwise having access to food, whiteboard, printer and music beats being in the sun. (even though I'm from Canada, so sunshine is a precious commodity).

Thanks for starting this thread! It was really great to read the responses. I feel better now My 50 cents: during my last year of the undergrad I worked on call and had a 120% course load (I really wanted to finish my BA!). The on-call portion was just too much: I obsessively checked my emails all day long to respond immediately. I was exhausted. So I followed the advise of a self-help book (don't remember which) to schedule blocks of "guilt-free time" during which I'd just rest (no emails please - and hey, the world did not end without me being out of reach!). It was evenings after a certain hour + 1 day off per week. (the book also recommended taking short break every hour, but this was too hard to organize). It worked like a charm, and when I was doing my MA I actually added a 2nd day off once a month because the 1 day off did not allow me to recharge (I also noticed that taking a half-day off does not work for me. It's really important to go to sleep guilt-free, i.e. not thinking about stuff you'll do tomorrow). A couple of times I would skip the day off to work on assignment, which always backfired. So I ended up making it an absolute number one rule to take that day off to rest. Also, going to the gym helped a lot in terms of energy levels (and health, for that matter); sleeping well; eating healthy; drinking more water... Being well in your body improves efficiency. I also spend a bit of time every now and then revising the way I work to improve efficiency: I go to workshops, read self-help books and cut down on unnecessary tasks. While I am a bit worried for what it will be like for the PhD, I will do all I can to keep the 1 day off intact. evenings may have to go though ))

Consider doing a transitional degree: a (second) MA or a graduate certificate relevant to your field, in which you get a 4.0 GPA to show that you can do well. This would substantiate your words with hard evidence. Without that it's really hard to differentiate between a person who has potential and a person who'll never be able to do well.

As Sigaba pointed out, not all readings are created equal. On some books I spend a couple of hours (mostly focusing on the introduction/conclusion); others I would read and re-read (sections of them) if it really matters to me right now. For some articles I just need 15 minutes to figure out what they're all about, others I need significantly more time. It helps to put a timer when you know there's only that much time you've got until the dawn to finish these readings. I also use highlighters if it's a printout to color-code the thing: orange for what main sources the person uses/names of historical figures, yellow for argumentative points, green for significant quotes of primary sources. It helps reconstruct the thing in a minute. (Otherwise I use a Word table with all the articles/books I use for an essay and put the key points relevant to me with the page where it's at so that I don't have to browse the articles again when I'm doing my footnotes.) And, of course, when the text is in French (which is my first language), I read 3 times as fast and thank heaven for the mighty Francophone scholarship (German is still a fearsome challenge but let's not talk about that XD)

ah NY... awesome city... Consider on-campus housing if there is any. It might not be much cheaper than outside but at least you ll be close to the school, gym, library.

Some lower-ranking schools might have low % because very many people used them as safety school but there s still only that many people whom they can admit; while not all apply to the top schools (if you know your app is not that great why pay the fee) so it evens out. I got into some top schools but not into the lowest ranked to which I applied.

I think doing an MA definitely helped my application. My writing improved tremendously. I applied during the year following my MA but others succeeded at doing MA and applying at the same time. If you think you application is strong, why wait for end of MA?