Solio

bsack,
you have gotten a lot of quality advice from people on this forum, as well as your career adviser, about the value of work experience.  I'm sure you are intelligent and I don't doubt the "academic strength of [your] application", but work experience gives you something you can't get in undergrad, no matter how many tests you ace ,papers you write or how high your GPA is.  Is it possible to get into grad school without work experience?  Of course.  Do people do it every year?  Of course!  If that's what you want, go for it.  But a lot of what makes grad school such a fantastic learning experience is your fellow students, their unique life experiences, and how they help create a richer environment in which to study.   Speaking as a soon to be grad student, I would much rather have classmates that "have been working at an NGO in Central African Republic for 3 years," than someone who has a high undergraduate GPA.  
As others have suggested, check out a stats or econometrics masters or an MBA if you are seriously interested in quant.  The MIEF also sounds like an acceptable option.  And if you are serious about not putting all of your eggs in one basket try researching job opportunities.  Two years may seem like a long time to you, but I guarantee you it will fly by.  It could give you some perspective and some experience outside of the ivory tower, which will only make your application stronger.  
I wish you the best of luck in whatever you end up doing!  

Yeah, this is normal. Many of the students in my program ended up doing something at least somewhat different in school than they pitched in their SOPs. I know I did. It takes time to build enough familiarity with the literature to figure out what has been done and what are (interesting, feasible) open questions. Of course you don't know that now; you can expect it to take time to figure it out. Your professors and courses will help some, and there will be some process of trial and error that's also normal, but eventually you'll realize that there are recurring themes in your final papers and in what you enjoy reading, the talks you feel you learned from the most, etc. It may (and in my experience, often does) come after a long period of uncertainty, there's a lot of that in the PhD. I think it's important to be aware of that and embrace it, because otherwise it can be very intimidating and discouraging. Especially the following thought, which you should get out of your head right now: "everybody else is so sure of themselves/knows what they're doing/has their shit together, and only I don't." Nope. Everyone's been confused at some point, maybe even right now. 

Go fart in their office!

Another update: joined the lab!!! 

It's a very conservative approach, I think. I don't fall under any of these 2 categories and still I'm not planning to take on any debt. And I'm going to SIPA which is notorious for it's frugality. I was lucky to get full-tuition fellowship from the school and an extra scholarship from another source. With these two, I have already secured almost 90% of my overall costs (direct & indirect). During the second year I hope to get an assistantship or another scholarship so I will manage to avoid accruing any debt whatsoever. Of course, I am not sure I will manage to do it, but my point is that WWS is not the only school that can generously assist you financially. So it is indeed possible to graduate debt free from a policy school (I hope!).

Thanks for all the comments. 
Just to update: I found a lab to rotate in and it is going great!! It's a lot of awesome signaling heavy stuff which is exactly what I wanted! 

For the emotional component of your experience, I strongly recommend that you focus on your sessions with your therapist, especially in regards to coping with the way you feel.
From an intellectual standpoint, I recommend that you try to think differently about your experiences as a graduate student. You passed your qualifying exams, full stop. If the exams revealed areas where you would benefit from improvement, then put those areas on a "to do list." Don't beat yourself up. If anything, you might celebrate the fact that you passed qualifying exams without the background that students in your area typically have.
Second, you didn't win a NSF, you EARNED one through the hard work you've done so far and for the potential for future achievements that you've demonstrated. Draw confidence from what you have done. 
Third, recognize that graduate school is often a "self taught" affair. Advisers don't always offer the kind of support one would like. (I am NOT bitter about this dynamic. Not at all.) One of the things that you can teach yourself is the skill of finding other people who are willing to help you and resources upon which you can rely.
Fourth, understand that your research is not useless. Based upon your comments, you're on the leading edge. It may well be that the pain your feeling is partly due to the fact that the leading edge is often the bleeding edge. Give some thought to finding ways to connect your work to existing trajectories of research. Use that research to strengthen your foundation and your work may feel more "connected." Also understand that by being on the leading edge, that by getting there first, you will be defining subsequent scholarly debate. "Geographyrocks? Heck, that person got it right/got it wrong and I'm going to spend the next five years proving it!" 
Circling back to the emotional component, focus upon the usable guidance you developed while working with your therapist.
 

Don't bench mark yourself against your perception of your classmates' progress or their skills. Do not measure yourself based upon preconceived notions of how much time it should take you to perform a task. If you're the type to wait until the last moment, consider the utility of embracing that trait. Do not flog yourself with the "I should be doing something else" cat of nine tails. Develop an understanding of how long it takes you to perform tasks and of when you're most efficient. Use your windows of greatest efficiency to tackle the more difficult tasks. Develop a respect for your strengths as a historian and draw confidence from those strengths. Use that store of confidence to improve skills that aren't where you would like. Study the lives of those historians who inspire you.  Chances are, their memories/autobiographies/letters will provide useful insights on how to approach the work.  

And I am now using our superior internet to do what is really important...
Watch Bob Ross on Netflix. 

Bubble wrap and newspaper for not so fragile stuff. A combo of bubble wrap and packing peanuts for glass and fragiles. This eBay site has some good tips.
http://www.ebay.com/gds/Packaging-glass-for-shipping-/10000000178500644/g.html
For textbooks, just buy a thicker box and reinforce with tape. We shipped over 3000lbs of rocks internationally and used regular cardboard boxes with tape on the inside, 4 rows of tape on each outside edge, tape on the corners, and then wrapped them in that cellophane-y type stuff they wrap luggage in.
When we move, its sometimes easier to buy different color tape for kitchen, bathroom, clothes, other. Since the kitchen and bathroom stuff usually needs to be unpacked first. Otherwise our "labeling system" continues to be a letter for the room it goes in, unless its something that needs to be unwrapped quickly, or is needed for daily life, then it gets the contents written on the outside. I obviously wouldn't do that if you're shipping, but a letter-number system with an Excel file wouldn't hurt.
Computers and electronics can be damaged by heat, but also your disk drive can be damaged by the bouncing of your trunk. Unless you are planning to bubble wrap it too... I would put in a padded backpack in the from with you.

I renamed your people with names because that's easier for me to manage than letters - Alice, Bobbi, Carol, and Dani.
To be quite frank, this has nothing to do with you (or Bobbi, it sounds like). The original situation is between Alice and Carol. The roommate situation is between Carol and Dani. l You can be a good friend to Alice, but you can't force Carol to talk about it, and you can't decide for Alice what she should do re: reporting. Your job as a friend is to simply be supportive, be a listening ear, and be willing to help Alice access resources if she decides she needs them. I would definitely encourage her (and Dani, maybe) to access the counseling center and speak to a professional, because a professional can help her decide what to do. Alice especially sounds like she needs some help because she regularly gets blackout drunk, and that's a general life problem. But you should not be trying to coerce or convince Alice to report Carol - that should be her decision and her decision alone, and putting pressure on her might alienate her from you.
Second of all, you can file a Title IX complaint if you want, but every single piece of information you have about this is second-hand AND note that if the office decides to open an investigation, they may contact Alice. You can file an anonymous complaint, but I think it'll be pretty easy for Alice to figure out who reported it based on the information included. So you have to decide if you want to make that complaint, knowing that Alice may eventually find out that it was you AND knowing that it may force Alice to speak to investigators, even if it's only to tell them that she won't discuss the matter further.
Also, I'm not sure why you guys hang out with Carol or include her in your stuff, but it sounds like you'd be a much more functional group of friends if you just cut her off completely (regardless of whether this is because Carol is actually terrible or because you all just have an extreme dislike of her, or both). But you can't expect Carol to rearrange herself to avoid you so you have to rearrange yourselves to avoid her. For example, if you want to sit away from Carol in the student lounge, request to have your desks moved; don't try to force Carol to move away from you. That's usually how it works anyway. You don't have to be rude about it, but you can be straightforward: "I've/We've decided that things are better if we don't socialize with you." if she asks you to hang out or go somewhere.
As a side note, I always think it's a bad idea to say you want to meet with someone without telling them what it is, and it's especially shady when that person asks you what the meeting is about and you refuse to tell them. It's especially weird when - by your admission - you don't talk to the person that much anyway. My response would be to refuse to meet with you until you told me what the meeting was about.

Ok, I'm going for the whole truth here. But before that, some context: Our comps/quals are three fields of roughly 120 books each. In general, we have a base for fields I and II, but we often tend to create a new list for field III, which is more thematic. 
The best advice I've got:
When prepping for Comps, I lurked some forums. Someone said that we have to imagine Comps as a huge conference and that you should be able to drop in ANY session and ask a question, make an observation, have a short conversation with someone. So, it shows that you are on topic and that you can engage. 
What I did:
I scanned as many books as I could and made these files word-searchable. I read reviews more than books. We all love reading but 350 books is impossible to cover. I probably read most introductions and some sections of conclusions.  My notes included a brief summary of the argument, sources, notes on introduction, possible questions that this book would be useful for (eg: "good for gender and labor"), content table and brief anything on chapters, and historical background. Did I do this with 350 books? No. You won't. Nobody does. But you get through it. I used OneNote because you have everything in one place instead of many word documents. I used historiographical essays to remember the big picture. Sometimes we are very invested in one book that we forget why this book is important.  Towards the end, I tried to make connections between authors.  Habits:
It's painful. You won't see much of other humans and you'll feel your life is not your own. But it's only three months of your life (studying and sitting for them). I had post its all over my office to remind me of beautiful things in life. Motivational quotes also worked. It sounds super cheesy, but it just worked.  Get to know what's good for you. I tried to keep up with exercise and I was set not to gain weight during exams. And I didn't (I gained a month after them!). So keep your well-being at top priority. Rely on people. Advisors, friends within the department, friends outside grad life, family. RELY ON THEM.  Enjoy it as much as you can. Remember you'll feel super smart after them! (I sort of lost that feeling by the following semester... hahaha) Hope it helps!
AP
 

how to passive aggressively deal with dipshit roommate leaving month long dirty dishes in the sink, and lying through his teeth about it not being his.

Our research group had a PhD student in the middle of a project, and my advisor brought back all of these rocks from Australia. Cost thousands of dollars to go collect them and ship them back. He told the PhD student to run some geochemical tests on the rocks... which requires the rocks to be crushed into a fine powder. 
In the middle of a large research meeting, it came out that he had crushed the entire rock. Now anyone im science knows that you don't use the entirety of your sample to run one test, when you have lots more tests to run. (lol) He didn't do this for one rock... he did this for all of the rocks. Every single one. Gone. Forever. Thousands upon thousands of dollars ground up into dusty powder... No billets, no thin sections, no nothing. So it became a running joke throughout our research group that you couldn't really be doing too bad so long as you hadn't crushed all the rocks.
So Fuzzy, just try not to crush all the rocks. 

I'd like to the ability to stop myself from procrastinating.

You are much calmer than I would be! Go to the department chair. If they don't help, go to the graduate school. If they don't help, the dean of students. If they don't help, call Obama himself, damnit.

When we sold our last car, we had thousands of dollars in cash, and we were literally throwing it around like they do in movies. Then we became extremely paranoid because it was a holiday weekend and the bank wouldn't be open for 2 days. So we had thousands of dollars just sitting in our apartment. 
We hid the cash deep inside one of our tarantula cages and figured 1. no criminal would look there and 2. if they did they would get bit. 

i'm excited to start grad school but now i'm looking at the cost of everything...moving is so damn expensive!

I believe they are legally binding, but the devil is in the details.  What exactly did they promise you?  Is there a sneaky way for them to legally wiggle out of their promise?  

I hate when people complain about professors to me. Even if I agree on some level, I am trying to look for the good in this person so I can work with them for a semester or more and take their advice... I don't need to be nitpicking them or gossiping about them. People have even said stuff to me about my advisor! A) He's my boss so you're putting me in a weird position; B ) he's my mentor so obviously, if you thought about it for a minute you'd realize I don't agree. The things people have said to me about him and other faculty members, you would just get over in any other work environment.
I think this might be a work/life experience thing... I'm sure in undergrad I felt free to do that. As an adult I only had one close work friend with whom I would be candid about our boss-- and I never said anything to other people about their bosses. In general just don't say anything around the department that would embarrass you if it got back to that person.

YOU GUYS I GOT MY VISA!!!
 

Whoever decided that "cracklins" sounded better than "pig skin fried in fat" was certainly ready to fool all of unsuspecting people new to the south.

3rd-year PhD here! There's LOTS of great advice on the forum, but here are some quick points that I wish someone had told me in my first year:
 
(1.) Lots of good advice on this list, pick a couple items out (especially the ones about forming good habits) and commit to trying them: http://scholarshape.com/blog/2014/3/18/101-tips-for-finishing-your-phd-quickly
 
(2.) Try to get social like, once a week. While out, especially with other grad students, talk out your projects a bit (but talk about other stuff too!). You'll be amazed at how often things "click" while you're talking them out. The majority of my academic epiphanies happen when I give my eyes/brain some space from my desk, either (a.) while I'm being social (b.) when I'm in the shower (c.) when I'm at the gym.
 
(3.) Go to the gym! Or join a rec league or something. Just, move! Don't let your social skills OR your muscles atrophy!
 
(4.) Identify the time of day when you're most productive and schedule the harder/higher priority tasks for that time period.
 
(5.) Related to number 4 (and what some have said about trying to predict burn-out): know the difference between pushing through a rough patch and straight-up PUNISHING yourself. There's something in the academic culture that makes grad students think that, if they're not actively producing while working, they should at least be sitting at their desk SUFFERING and feeling bad about it - don't do that! Don't sit staring at a blank document for hours. There's a distinction between "this task sucks and I don't want to do it but there's a deadline" (pushing through a rough patch) and the paralyzing "I don't know how to proceed" (and then punishing). If you're experiencing the latter, step away, do something else for a bit, consult some resources (asking a supervisor or colleagues, advice from good websites on how to do specific stuff (The Professor Is In; Get a Life, PhD; Explorations of style - some of my faves), seminars/workshops offered by your SGS), then come back to the task and do something different in your approach as informed by your advice-seeking (can't make sense of a piece you're writing? print it out! for example).
 
(6.) Said in the above but worthy of its own point - ask for help! It was a turning point for me last year when I discovered some of the workshop series that my institution offers (like, a prof wanted me to do some research with software that I had no idea how to use, so I went to a three-hour workshop on it, this is vastly preferred to spending a full day or so figuring it out on my own). You are not the first on the planet to struggle with some of this stuff (especially the things that you THINK you should know how to do, like time management or public speaking) so why not benefit from those that came before you and glean the strategies that they've developed to tackle stuff! You are surrounded by smart people, utilize them! You PAY for some of the institutional structures that exist at your university via your tuition (EVEN when you have funding/get remissions) so USE them! Does your Uni have a writing centre? USE IT! Seminars on "how to be a more efficient TA"? GO TO THOSE.
 
(7.) NAP. Oh man, power naps! The ultimate brain re-set! I myself have come to embrace the "caffeine nap" once or twice a week - that is, I down a coffee or tea, nap for 20 minutes (the amount of time the caffeine needs to get in my system) and then get up totally re-energized and feeling sharp!
 
(8.) Find some organizational apps that work for you and use them. I like Zotero for citations and I'm a recent convert to Workflowy (thanks to fuzzylogician).
 
(9.) Do a little something that gives you an appreciation/understanding of your departmental/discipline culture. I know that you don't think you have time to go to speaker series or job talks or some kind of service association meetings, but these will give you a great sense of what is prioritized in your area, who the big-wigs are, what's in store for you and on and on. Again, this is more efficient than just trying to absorb these intangibles by reading journals in your area.
 
(10.) Teach others how to do stuff. This will enforce it in your own brain and aid the collegiality generally. Nothing irritates me more than people who TAKE other people's advice or drafts of grant applications or information about interesting conferences but they don't reciprocate and foster this "well, more for me" mindset. Appreciate the successes of your colleagues, rather than coveting. Learn to collaborate and share and be helpful. Look out for yourself, for sure, but don't undermine others and, as in life, follow the Wil Wheaton maxim: "Don't be a dick".
 
Suerte!

I'm in!!!!
I got off the waiting list, so.....I'm trying to figure out where to start? Enjoy summer or brush up on courses? 

Yes, BUT my problem is not that they don't listen to advice. I mean, it's up to them. You don't want to listen, fine, whatever. The problem is when these beings grow into advanced students and give TERRIBLE advice. Or they defend a thesis/prospectus/dissertation of VERY questionable quality without taking any advice from the faculty that challenge them. 
I would phrase it as people that come to school to show how much they know instead of coming for learning.