Crafter

You may want to check credit unions as an alternative to big banks at the beginning. They may have more experience dealing with brand new international students and it is easier to get a secured credit card with them, so you can start building credit history sooner (provided the Credit Union reports to the credit bureaus). Later on, if you want to, you may change (or add) your banking to a bigger bank. Is your current US driver license expired? I have a Washington State drivers license that expired on april and I will be moving back to the US in August, I am wondering if I will need to retake the driving test because of that.

When I went to the US for my MS, I could not get a plan because I had no credit history and I ended up with a prepaid phone which sucked because in the US (different from my home country) cell phone companies charge you to make a phone call and to receive one, same for text and at the end I spent about $30 a month for having much less minutes per month than if I had the chance to sign a contract. Sometimes I ran out of money on my prepaid and could not get more calls or sometimes I was trying to save the last dollar and somebody called me with a wrong number. So you may want to check on that, because at the end, you may not even have the 2 year contract option anyway. Well, that was a few years ago, things may have changed. I lived for a few years in 2 of the places you will be visiting: Seattle and Carbondale, by the way.

Why doesn't he apply for a B1/B2? That is what most people I know have as tourists. But I am not an immigration expert and I am talking from my own experience. If you really need advise it is best to contact an immigration lawyer.

I would say go for it. I second the advice of getting great GRE grades. But you seem to have research experience, good LORs and even with your current GPA history (it is great you managed to start weak and improve and not the other way around!), and with a well written SOP, if you get great GRE scores you definitely have a chance. OF course, the more competitive the school, the less the chance. Choose wisely where to apply.

I LOVE this sentence!!!!!!!! Only people without kids think of kids as a hindrance or some sort of curse. Part of my decision to go back to school, considering my already good CV and education is because of my child. I want to be a better mom for her (and, as in international student from a developing nation, she will definitely benefit from getting her first years of school education in the US, so my decision to go to school having a child is actually a GOOD LIFE DECISION, even when that means that I will have to be a student for a few years. Of course, I am lucky to have the support of my husband in every aspect of my life. Having a family actually IS great. School or not.

I have two last names and one of them has a character that does not exist in the English alphabet (neither the pronunciation of such). I have always complained about the inconveniences I have came across because of that. I just can't imagine how much more difficult things are for you. I agree with both, CiCi1111 and TakeruK. Something has to be done to accommodate things for people with different backgrounds and cultures. Specially in the US, a country made out of natives and immigrants from all over the world, with tons of people from all sorts of places going there for school.

I am in the same boat as you. I had to provide a bank statement with a certain amount for my husband so the school can process my DS-2019 (same as I20). It was just this week I was able to get the loan and send the statement, but the person working on my file at the school is out of office until next week..... I will end up buying last minute tickets. Go to your country's US embassy website and check (should be somewhere there, or just google "visa appointment time" or something like that, and select your home country. You should get an estimate on wait time for your visa. In my home country it is 2-3 calendar days to get the interview and about 1 day for processing. Tourist visas, for instance take 25 calendar days to schedule appointment and about a week for processing, because are on more demand.

If you read your previous posts about that and this one, there is a big difference in your attitude. I must say that this last post of yours makes all the sense in the world and I completely agree. Remember we were discussing grad students, stipends and (at some point) parenting during grad school. We are not talking about a person working on the minimum wage who is a single parent and wants to have five kids and is very unlikely to make twice his/her current salary any time soon. That is an entirely different world. We are discussing people who already got a degree and will take 5 years making about 25K a year to get a PhD because that, even as a postdoc will put this person in a better financial situation after completion of the program (job provided). Having kids is not being doomed for life and finding academia shut down forever (unless they get rid of those pesky children). Many grad students, postdocs and faculty have children and don't die of starvation or get kicked out because of that.

I completely agree with you. And that's one of the factors I thought about when saying that you don't know the reasons for a couple to have a kid. I would say that in most cases, a few years to technical work or a MS is needed to be a competitive applicant. Time just keep on adding. Also, I think that the "Perfect time" to have kids just doesn't exist. No matter what you do or how you live. If not one thing it will be another but kids, for those who don't have kids, are regarded as a hindrance to life goals (most people will change their mind after the first child, though).

I would like to add that those sweet memories of your Dante's readings while a very passionate discussion evolved is what you remember from that particular class. But sometimes, not all professors are as good as that one we remember the most. I have been through 2 degrees before and the "same" class in a different school and a different professor were soooooo far away from each other that I remembering not liking a particular subject that now I am passionate about. So, enrolling and paying for a complete program based on your previous experiences during class may not be a good choice because it may end up a bit disappointing. Check out and try to attend only classes that match your expectations and interests.

I don't think family planning is what was hated about the comment, it was the assessment of a parental choice as "right" or "wrong". I am pro family planning. Actually, I planned so much that I ended up having my baby very "late" and now I don't think I will have another one, although my husband and I wanted to have more. Mainly because I will start a PhD program this fall and by the time I will be done I will be "too old" to be running after a 2 year old. You become a grad student with kids because either you got pregnant (or your partner did) while in grad school or because you started grad school after you got kids. Either case I don't think there is a reason for considering a parent not suitable for academia. Nobody knows why this person is either having a kid or enrolling in school after having children. Whatever the reason, it is entirely up to the individual and I believe that in most cases grad students are not 18 year olds who "oooopss! got pregnat while in school" and if they become grad students and parents is because they wanted to do so and can do it. And who said that we will be living off my stipend only? So, if a parent express an interest about intending to go to grad school I will encourage the idea instead of saying "that is a bad choice". If a grad student gets pregnant I would not say "you are making a bad choice by having that baby". Many have done it and have succeeded in getting their degrees, even many have had very understanding PIs who are parents themselves and know what the sacrifices are and are willing to offer flexible hours (note that I am not saying "less work and more money for the parent" I am talking about being flexible, as in not working this morning because child is sick, but working the weekend) and so on. I am married and have a child and I never considered not enrolling in a PhD program because of that. I don't consider that being a grad student and a mom is a "bad choice". And that is why I consider vicotrydance's comment out of place. I am also a female who has not bought the idea of being either a mom OR a successful professional. I am already a professional with much success and a very caring an dedicated mom as well. In another related topic: I see how the school benefits from TAs and RAs as much as we benefit from getting degrees. And while it holds true that we are students and it is awesome that we will get an advanced degree without having to pay for tuition, I think that as skilled professional workers we are kind entitled to certain benefits, like a decent pay and medical insurance, at least.

I am also not in your field, but I find TakeruK's advice on attending classes without being enrolled a good idea. Why don't you go to your local University and try to establish a good relationship with some departments in your area, ask the professors if you can sit on their classes and see how that goes. If you don't care for the degree, I don't see a reason to enroll in a Graduate Program.

Funding was definitely one of the factors when I applied to Grad School. I have nobody to pay for my bills, so I need a decent stipend. Debt is also not an option for me because I am an international applicant from a country where no "student loans" are available and have no guarantee that I will get a well paid job after I graduate. As for having kids as a graduate student, that is entirely up to the individual (or the couple, actually) and nobody should judge if it is a "good choice" or a "bad choice" based on ignorance on the specific circumstances of the couple in question. Stating that parents have no place in grad school is bad for society, for democracy and for human rights in general. Let alone for women's rights! We tend to have the bigger load when it comes to parenting, even with a good partner, and making any woman to decided between career and maternity is discriminatory. Judging others for choosing to have kids is as wrong as judging those who decided NOT to have kids. Too bad that other students, who are supposed to be smart make generalizations and judge the same way less educated people do. Anyway, as Cheshire_Cat said, maybe more money is not the answer to support parents in grad school, but there are things that can be done, like subsidized child care, only that can mean a MAJOR support, and keep everybody making the same stipend while still supporting parents. Regarding the abuses to the system: I don't even think those are statistically relevant to shut down programs or to be a real concern. Having a kid is expensive by itself and tiresome. We have to talk about some serious increment in your income to even considering using a child to make money. I mean, as a single person o even a couple with no kids, a regular 25K- 27k stipend can get a decent life financially and would manege time more effectively for school purposes. For the sake of argument, let's say that you get a 5K bonus for your spouse and child. Do you really think that there will be much left after paying for diapers, all the extra food, health care (in kids that is a major expense) and other necessities??? Not really, and considering "getting unintended dependents" (how you do that?? get married to someone you don't care about just to make an extra buck?? Have a child you don't want just for the extra money that will likely go away in taking care of that child anyway), that is a very bad money making strategy and should be reconsidered, and I am not even talking about the effort and time it takes to live with a spouse and a kid. Of course, I am talking about grad school students, who are the source of this topic, I am not referring to someone living off unemployment and other state benefits because it is comfortable. Moreover, as TakeruK mentioned, the amount of people who really benefit are more in numbers and by benefiting those who need it the general outcome for the rest is always for the better. We all benefit from a society (or school) where more individuals don't struggle to survive. Even those who are not directly recipients of such programs. Selfish attitudes like the ones posted here, have been the root of social injustice throughout the world, which in turn lead to war, violence and discrimination. I know, I am going as far as I could from the topic, but coming from a developing nation where I see everyday how people who think indolently about other people's disadvantage is really bothering, we have to live with so much violence and other problems directly derived from "I am doing fine, so f**ck others!" or "let's do X even if that will be bad for most, it will be good for me, so I don't care".

Usually a bank statement is necessary for tourist visas, as proof of funding of your travel might be required during your interview. A letter from your employer and a property title (like a house or something) is useful, so you can show that you have strong ties to your country and are not intending to travel as a tourist and then stay illegally. I must say that, in my experience, it is advisable to have as much as possible in terms of documents to prove that you will not stay illegaly (better have more than necessary than needing a document and not bringing it over to the interview). Although, sometimes the consul will not even look at the documents before coming to a decision. But it is best to be prepared.

In the biomedical sciences, for example (and not sure if this is true for other fields) a Masters program will confer you an academic degree. A Fellowship is more a practical training that does not lead to an academic title. Fellowships also vary a lot in length, while Masters programs in the US are about 2 years long.

I also think that travel companions would be F-2. If you are traveling with relatives that will not stay with you, they need a separate B2 visa.

This topic should be in "the Lobby", not here. Anyways, for what I read here are my conclusions (not that you seem to care for all the advise you've got here, though): 1- This has been going on for about a YEAR. Things have not changed a bit since your first post last year. What makes you think things will change now? 2- You seem to be in love with this guy, therefore, you are over-analyzing his every move, his every word. People can be nice, can spend a lot of time with you and have fun, can share the same interests of yours, some even go as far as having sex with you and that does NOT mean a thing, romantically speaking. 3- You seem to be entertaining thoughts of hope for this "relationship". However, he has been really honest and clear to you, as far as the story you presented here, he has no interest in more than what he is getting from you now. 4- Not sharing the same romantic interest with you doesn't make him a douche-bag. Asking you to drop off food for him and go away when you had a date does. 5- It sucks that your first sexual experience is like this, but don't worry, you are not alone, most first sexual encounters are rather clumsy, painful and/or boring. And, without any scientific data, I dare to assume that most of those "first ones" are not even that relevant later on in your life. Chronological "first" is not what matters, it is that first time when you go to bed (or table or floor or couch or backseat) with someone who cares about you and loves you and you love. Once you got that (and you will, for sure) you will not think about that other "first". My advice would be: a- move on (the advice you've been getting from anyone, which is the healthiest one). b- keep things the way they are now (because I don't think they will go any further) and be realistic about what to expect from the said guy. Be honest to him and to yourself, that will keep you from a broken heart.

Be confident. I do think you should have waited until your visa approval before quitting your job. But now that it is done, be confident you will get it. Many visas are denied in my home country as well, but think about this: you are not some guy trying to go to the US to visit a relative or to check out the statue of liberty. You have been INVITED by an american higher education institution to join their advanced program. Feel confident in the fact that: 1) You are regarded as someone skilled and smart (yes, that's what the VO will think of you, because getting into grad school as a foreigner is hard). 2) You don't have criminal record or have overstayed your visa or broke any law. 3) Visas are denied if the consul thinks you have "nothing to do" in the US and will likely stay illegally. That is not your case. Take it easy. Be prepared to offer good and intelligible answers. Be cool and confident. Everything will be fine. I don't have a visa interview scheduled yet (I got mu MS in the US too, so this is not my first student visa). I am a bit nervious because I am travelling with family and I know I will be granted the visa. I just hope my husband get's his too. But I am keeping positive.

Now that is bizzarre. VO is not who decides if you are a good prospect for a PhD student, only your admissions department is. Probably in those cases (in case that is what really happened) they rejection of the visa was for some other reason and either the VO wanted to justify it by saying something about the fit of the candidate (but I think that is odd) or the applicant just misunderstood the whole interview and reasons for visa denial. You see, I can think of a VO asking your GRE scores and GPA as part of their interview and to make sure you are the prospective candidate and not someone else (or just to make you nervous... even just to small chat while he fills out a form, and sometimes if you have english a a second language, certain language nuances will be lost to you). But if your scores or GPA are or not enought for a particular program in a particular school is nothing the VO can actually assess. Actually, I don't even think they know those numbers anyway. If asked you can say you got skyrocket scores and won't need to prove it. Honestly, I don't believe that story of a VO denying a visa BECAUSE he/she did not think your scores are suitable for a PhD program. Remember this is the internet, anyone can post anything and it will not necessarily be true.

Thank you!! I think that the paper making an argument for X and the data fo my thesis only supports a small part of the argument" is about right. My findings were used as a starting point to further work and not as the main argument (well, it is sort of the main argument if you consider that the whole paper revolves around my thesis data, but it is not ABOUT my data.... (I hope I made sense!).

I really hope one day you will join the list of sub 3 achievers. HOWEVER.... (sorry about this, but I came here out of curiosity and read your post and felt I had to tell you this): As an international student things will not necessarily go as good as for american posters with stories of sub 3 gpa success. Competition for PhD spots is really hard for international applicants because of the limited amount of funding that can be offered to non US citizens or permanent residents. I read how people with GPA lower than 3 and average or slightly high GRE scores get into good schools in my field, schools that, with better general profile than those applicants I was rejected. I got to understand how relevant funding is if you are an international student. My advise to you would be to apply to several private schools, since they tend to have better funding for us, international applicants. My GPA is higher than 3 and I have an MS from a US school and yet it was hard for me to gain admission because I only applied to 2 private schools (I did not know about funding issues before applying). Fortunately, I was admitted to one of the private schools I applied to.

Another question: That work I did for my MS that was published with my name on the acknowledgement section for "technical support", I have that listed under "research experience" in my CV, and never thought of more about it. Now I wonder how to address a question like the one I got during the interview (asking if there was a paper about the research). In this case, it went well because no more details were necessary. But I wonder what could be the best way to answer to a profesor or employer about why I was not included in the author's field when it was my Master's work (but the paper is not only about that, it also covers work of other people as well, PhD students and the Research Associate of the lab). I honestly don't know what to say and I don't want to sound like I was not worth authorship (because I don't know the reasons for that -I do have my theories on why I was not included, but I don't think is proper to publish them here). Also, I don't want to offer an explanation that would make my masters mentor look bad (for instance, if I say something like "I asked him when I noticed the paper was out, a few years after I left school and never got a reply).

Thank you for your feedback! Since I will start grad school again and in a PhD I am expected to publish, I just wanted to know how to address this issue. I have not done anything like that in the past (contract for a particular project, for instance) and had different experiences (mine and from others that I know personally) related to authorship and I just wanted to be clear on how to proceed and what to expect. Thanks for the advice!

My work's data was included in a paper, however, I was only acknowledged for technical support and was not included in the author's field. This was my MS work and, I know that it was not my original idea, since I had no previous experience in molecular research at the time, so I was mostly following my mentor's guidelines and experimental design. So, at first, I thought, well, it is not my original research so that's why I am not an author, and I was OK with it. However, time goes by and I know quite a few Research Technician who worked on projects that were somebody else's and not a bit of their original design or ideas and yet they are authors in the final paper because they did a lot of the experiments (like I did for my MS work). So my question is: what is the criteria to include a name in the author's field? Is it an arbitrary decision of the PI? (looks like that). Also, should I mention this paper in my CV? If so, how? I am starting a PhD program this Fall and during the interview I was asked if there was a paper out with my MS work. I said it was, but then the interview changed to another topic, related to the work but not to the publication. However, I felt like I should have offered to send a copy of the paper, but I am afraid of being questioned again on why I was not in the authors because, honestly, I don't know. I asked my mentor but he never replied :S

I can't answer all of your questions, but the fact that your school is not listed in the USNews rank does not matter at all. It just have to be an accreditted school in your country. I think you have a good profile and if you find a good research fit, your chances are really good. Apply to top schools in your interested area if your numerical profile is good (GPA and GRE). Also apply to good schools that are not necessarily too high in their ranking but that you would like to attend anyway (fit is what matters most). As a foreign student, I advise you to apply to several private schools. Funding is a major issue for international applicants acceptance and unless you have your own money or have a scholarship, it is best to apply to schools that have funding for international students. Private schools and large programs in public schools are your best shot.