A blighted one
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Posts posted by A blighted one
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1 hour ago, gingin6789 said:
Oh em gee DO they have savory crepes! Only super wonderful delicious savory crepes! I swear I am not a paid spokesperson, just a huge fan and perpetually hungry grad student!
I also prefer savory to sweet, so if I love them, you should too. Like you, I never had a crepe before trying theirs!
Excellent news on thefunding front! Lehigh has great funding for students. Even summer funding is very attainable through strohl grants and teaching assistant summer fellowships, and sometimes even research assistantships. Don't be nervous about the visit! From what I know, Lehigh's English department is awesome. I actually took feminist theory with an alum of Lehigh's English PhD program! She's no longer teaching at lehigh, but she's easily one of my favorite professors.
That's great to hear! (both about the crepes and the English dept ?) I guess I'm just nervous because I just graduated with my BA a few months ago and I feel so unprepared and and basically shocked that I have this opportunity!
Also, wow, I didn't even think about summer funding. I'm really excited, but if I'm being honest, having to be a smart grad student who's always on point is kind of scary because I definitely don't feel like a smart grad student! Haha
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@gingin6789 I'll have to check out Full of Crepe. I'm not sure if I've ever had a crepe, if I'm being honest.. Haha. I did have something really similar to a crepe when in Thailand a few years back that was filled with bananas and Nutella. I'm more of a savory food person. Do they have savory crepes?
I was invited to the recruitment day next month and I'd really like to attend. I'm pretty sure I'll be there. I'm nervous though!
My minimum stipend will be about 25% more than what I've been making at home for the last 3 years as an undergrad, so needless to say It should be a LOT more affordable for me to live in Bethlehem if I decide to go to Lehigh. I was nominated for a fellowship (which I'm not counting on getting because it's competitive) that would be almost 50% more than what I'm currently making at home.
It's mostly flat where I live, but I do work on top of a hill and either walk to bike to work. My undergrad institution was on a hill as well, but the campus itself was only slightly hilly. I think I'm in pretty decent shape, so hopefully I won't be gasping for air all the time, haha!
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49 minutes ago, gingin6789 said:
Yeah the privileged white undergrad population threw me for a loop, too, but all of my students have been wonderful so far!
And the Greek life is HUGE here. About 30-40% of the undergrad population is involved in Greek life. It was a shock for me, too, coming from a community college and a larger state school for undergrad with not much Greek presence.
Yep, there's a casino, the Sands casino, built on the bones of the now-defunct steel mill. The small town I come from was a small branch of the steel mill in Bethlehem, so it was nice to have a sense of home, being from a family with generations of steel workers.
Classes at Lehigh tend to start on 10 past the hour (like 1:10 and 3:10, for example) because, back in the day, steel workers would get off work at 4:00 and would need time to get to campus for classes. Fun fact.
Cost of living isn't bad if you have roommates. It's steeper if you live alone. Finding housing information is tough, so I ended up in the basement of an apartment building, in a two-bedroom unit by myself. It's a small unit, and if there were two people, it would be around $500 per month, including rent and utilities. For me, living alone in the two-bedroom unit, it's around $1,000 a month. it's a nice apartment though, besides my bedroom being under the stairs and hearing folks go up and down the stairs.
There's this company called Campus Hill that controls a lot of the off-campus housing. If you go with Campus Hill, know that they do quarterly payments, so you'll be paying rent once every three months instead of once a month.
My other TA friends rent out bedrooms of houses with roommates, and they only pay $300-$500 per month.
I may be paying a lot, but the good news is that even paying $1,000 is doable on my stipend. Money can get tight, but it's doable.
Average coffee, plain, would be about $2, I'd wager. Fancy beverages are in the $3 - $5 range. There are cafes everywhere. Chains such as Saxbys, standalone places such as Deja Brew, breakfast-y diner-y places like the Blue Sky Cafe and Alexandra's Bistro, and even the crepe place, Full of Crepe, has excellent coffee. And of course there is a Starbucks attached to the school booskstore.
Lehigh actually has a semi-famous sandwich shop nearby called The Goosemen (aka The Goose aka the Goosey Gander). Definitely an authentic, family-style feel to that sandwich shop, and they take their sandwiches very seriously. Fantastic sandwiches. They run about $3.79 a sandwich.
Wow! Ok, so a (really crappy) studio apartment where I live is $1400 (probably more now, actually, as I was house hunting 2 years ago). I have roommates now and my room is still $1050/month (I share my room with my partner, so luckily I pay $550). And a good sandwich is $10, minimum. A crappy sandwich would still be $8. Coffee is more like $3.50 for a plain cup here. I usually make coffee at home, but I do like to study/read at cafes, so it's good to know.
I knew it was going to be cheaper in PA than where I live, but that sounds amazing. I moved to this city for college and the cost of living as been killing me the entire time. I'm so ready to live somewhere where my rent doesn't take up 65% of my monthly wages. Thanks for the info!
I was on Bethlehem's Yelp page the other day looking at coffee shops/grocery stores out of curiosity and I saw Full of Crepe. Hahaha, the name made me laugh.
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Sorry for being redundant @ProfLorax! I did search around a bit before posting, but didn't look hard enough, I guess.
I guess my more specific question is if I am accepted to two MA programs with an equally good fit but the higher ranked one gives me less funding (in relation to cost of living), do I follow the funding at the lower ranked school?
Feel free to ignore this question if it is, yet again, redundant. Sorry!
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Thanks @shadowclaw and @gingin6789 !! I grew up in a large city (4 million people, 10 million if you count the suburbs, which, in this particular city are relatively urban and basically a part of the whole) but I have lived (and currently do live) in a smaller city. A few years back I lived in a college town with about 50,000 residents that was about an hour and a half away from the nearest large city, so I'm guessing it will be somewhat similar (in size and resources) to Bethlehem. This isn't something I'm too worried about as long as there's decent coffee, a natural foods market, a least a smidgen of an arts/underground scene. The privileged white undergraduate population makes me a little nervous, but I do feel that most colleges are populated in such a way (my undergraduate institution is majority non-white and is somewhat of an anomaly in that sense). It will be a bit of a transition that I'm sure will be fine.
The undergrad frat life is a bit bizarre to me. I came from a school without a large greek presence so in that respect it will be interesting. I've also heard that there's a casino in Bethlehem. Is that right? Seems bizarre!
@gingin6789 , since you are a current resident, can you give me an idea of the cost of living? How much does the average 1-bedroom cost? How about renting a room in a house with roommates? How much is the average coffee at a cafe? This one might be weird, but how much does a good sandwich cost? (My friends and I have a little theory about the price of a sandwich in relation to minimum wage and the cost of living in an area, haha).
Thanks for all the information!
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I've recently received a fully funded offer for an MA program. I'm wondering... if I plan to apply for PhD programs after I complete the MA, how much does the program's ranking matter? (I'm also confused as to MA rankings; do they exist? I'm basing the ranking of this program off of their PhD ranking)
Will a lower ranked program hinder my chances of being accepted to a more competitive PhD program in the future? I've heard that acquiring funding for an MA in the humanities is generally seen as impressive, but I'm not sure how true this is or if it being from a lower ranked program will negate that. I feel like (and hope) that the answers to these questions are "no," but I'm afraid people do take prestige quite seriously--but then again, I really know nothing.
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Anyone know how much fellowships are taxed? Would it be the same as income tax in the given state? Trying to figure out how much I'd actually be getting monthly with an offer I currently have. Thanks!
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So, I applied for all MA programs this round because I want to get a bit of graduate school experience before I commit to a PhD program. I've noticed that there is no ranking system for MA programs and I'm wondering how I can go about finding out how certain MA programs are perceived by the academic world when there aren't any rankings. When schools house both MA and PhD students, it's easier because I can base my perception of the MA program's rank on the PhD program's rank, but what about schools that don't have a PhD program? About half the schools that I applied for are cases of the latter.
Although I am not overly concerned with school ranking and hope to focus more on fit and funding opportunities, I do think that it is somewhat important to consider when weighing options. That is, if I want to get into a more competitive PhD program in a few years. One last question: how important do you all think that school ranking is when accepting or declining an MA program offer with full funding? Does full (and quite generous) funding override program prestige?
Thanks for your input!
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Hey, anybody else hear back from Penn State besides fellowship nominees? I know a few years back they were notorious for never getting back to their rejects. Just wondering if they've started notifying yet.
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Nothing on the results board yet, but anybody have any news?
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I recently received a very enticing offer from Lehigh University so I'm bumping this thread to see if anyone else has any info. Never been to Pennsylvania before and I grew up in a large city. I'm wondering if anyone has info on what's going on in Bethlehem on a daily basis? What's the culture like (I'm from a liberal state and city)? Any info at all is appreciated. Thanks!
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I've applied to 10 schools and haven't heard back from any of them either. I think this is pretty common. Of course it's different in every discipline but from what I've gathered most decisions are made in February or March, with fellowship candidates being notified earlier.
I'm anxious too, but I'm trying to stay calm until the end of February when I've likely heard from most of my programs.
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@genrescholar According to the (limited) information on the results board, we might be hearing back in a week (or two for your track)!
I haven't heard back from any schools I've applied to thus far. This is my first time applying and I am so nervous and anxious! This program had the earliest due date so I'm obsessing over it most, figuring this'll be who I hear from first.
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Hahaha, I've seen this promoted on Google Play. Never tried it out, although I do feel it might be stress relieving... And I desperately need the distraction... Which is why I'm downloading it right now!
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Anyone else apply here this year? There's very little data about this program from previous years on the results board. I'm so curious when we'll hear back!
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On 2/11/2015 at 10:53 PM, 1Q84 said:
Naturally wake up at 6am. Might as well get up to check if results came out:
Nothing. Back to bed:
Try to fall back asleep again but can't now because of results-related anxiety:
This was me two nights ago
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5 minutes ago, solomonski said:
That feeling when you wake up, look at your monitor as you walk by, see an email title in your inbox that says "Application status notification," nearly fall over trying to lunge towards the mouse, only to realize it's more pseudo-spam from Healthcare.gov.
Noooooooooooo
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56 minutes ago, ypink said:
Congrats on the good news!
BTW -- did anybody receive an interview invite from Duke English? Do you reckon it would be safe to assume no invite = rejection?
Also, out of curiosity, how are English PhD interviews conducted? Do they typically grill you about your writing sample, reasons for applying, etc? I think I'd be a nervous wreck..
If it wasn't clear, I'm obsessing over results (read compulsively checking GC 24/7). It might have something to do with the fact that it's my second time/year doing this. I have yet to hear from any of the schools I applied to and the radio silence is fairly killing me..
This is my first time around and I'm feeling the same way. Im beginning to think (and truly believe) that I did everything wrong and I'm screwed.
It doesn't look like any of my programs do interviews (I'm applying for mostly MA programs), but I'm also very interested in what the interviews are like.
Good luck, ypink!
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6 minutes ago, Unimpressed3D said:
@A blighted one Good luck! I applied for the MA in Literature and Culture. They said they're not notifying most of their candidates for another few weeks, though. The reason I was contacted early is that they're nominating me for a fellowship. I think there are two people being nominated for that, and another for an institutional scholarship. They didn't mention numbers for the cohort, though.
Awesome, congratulations!
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3 hours ago, Unimpressed3D said:
Thanks! It's Oregon.
Nice! I applied for their MA too! Which specialization did you apply for (if you don't mind me asking)?
Edit: Sorry, I'm on mobile so I can't see your signature if all this info is located there!
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10 minutes ago, Unimpressed3D said:
I was accepted into OSU's MA program! This is the first school I've heard back from, only a few weeks after submitting my application. Very excited! (Not to mention surprised at hearing so early.)
Still haven't heard a peep from the other schools, but a thorough examination of the Results Survey revealed that none of them have sent out responses or interview invitations yet (or at least not in my program).
Congrats to everyone who's already been accepted or invited to an interview!
Congrats! Is that Ohio or Oregon?
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Also, I can't wait for the new season of Game of Thrones to come out.
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I usually only watch TV/Netflix when trying to fall asleep, but my go-tos are It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Peep Show, nature/culture documentaries (like Planet Earth or Wild China), recently watched the remake of Carl Sagan's The Cosmos with Neil Degrass Tyson, kinda cheezy but some of the info is super interesting.
Bethlehem, PA
in City Guide
Posted
Thanks, I'll try to focus on the excitement. Have any tips for moving to Bethlehem? What's a good time of year to look for housing? Are there any resourses for finding other gead student roommates? I'll probably be moving alone and I'd like to have roommates, at least at the beginning, so that I'm not too lonely.
P.s. You've got me all excited to try Full of Crepe and the $3.79 sandwich place!!