PoliSci2016

Ok thank you both! I'll check, but LSU refers to it as employment so a W-2 does make sense. Does anyone know if student loan money can count as income...? That's the probably the deciding factor, actually. Or I guess I could save it, if necessary, and put it toward the down payment if it won't help me qualify for a larger mortgage payment.

Just accepted a graduate assistantship for a doctoral program this fall and I'm wondering whether that is always filed under a 1099 and qualifies as self-employment, like a previous poster said? Or is it sometimes a W-2 and considered employment? I'm interested in buying a house when I move (to Baton Rouge to go to LSU), but I'm trying to figure out whether it's going to be possible to get a mortgage. I would also be buying alone, (no cosigner) with dicey credit, probably with an FHA loan. On the plus side, though, I'll have enough for a 10% down payment and Baton Rouge has plenty of affordable real estate. Also thinking about building a new house, unless that's really impossible to finance with a graduate assistantship (it would be a small house). Would credit unions be the best place to try or would I possibly qualify for an FHA loan through a non-credit union bank?

Ok cool, thanks! Also to the person on the Accepted page who wanted to know if anyone had heard back from Columbia's MA, I haven't (& never received a reply from the person Dr. Fortna nicely referred me to about it, either).

Hi BFB, I'm about to sign a funding offer & I need to sign an intellectual property agreement that basically says the university is part-copyright holder & will split any profits with the inventor/author while they're a student (or faculty member) -- I'm guessing this is standard for most universities, right? And obviously applies more to science & technology, but just wanted to double check on that before I accept my offer. Thanks!

I'm about to sign a funding offer & I need to sign an intellectual property agreement that basically says the university is part-copyright holder & will split any profits with the inventor/author while they're a student (or faculty member) -- I'm guessing this is standard for most universities, right? And obviously applies more to science & technology, but just wanted to double check on that before I accept my offer.

Congrats! Are you the LSU admit in the results page?

Anyone have any info or advice on the Freestanding MA at Columbia & moving onto the PhD program from the MA? Any info on the program, admissions, etc. is appreciated.

Anyone have any experience/advice/info/opinions on the Freestanding MA at Columbia and reapplying to Columbia's PhD program once you're a semester into the MA?

Any admits willing to post their stats (especially for OSU, USC, Princeton & Columbia)?

I applied to Princeton & Columbia (IR) & haven't heard from either yet.

Ohhh yeah ok, thanks!

Can someone tell me what this means on the admits page -- "4a, 0w, 0r, 2?)" for example, and similar info...?

Thanks a lot @wb3060 & @midweststudent! Think I'm putting in a few last-minute apps tomorrow... you guys might've have just saved my career/life

Anyone have any insights/experience/opinions on whether or not it's a good idea to get a fully-funded PhD from a program that isn't in the top 25? I'm not even sure I want to try to become a tenured professor, although I taught as an adjunct and loved it (NGOs and think tanks are just as interesting to me as tenured teaching/researching).

If I had more money for app fees (& GRE & transcript fees), I would've applied to a few more, although they would've been top 25 schools, or at least fully funded programs. My rationale was that if I could get into a top fully-funded program, I'd get into one of the ones I applied to -- and if I couldn't get into one of my top 4 choices, then I probably wouldn't get into one of my top 10 choices either, and if I wasn't accepted into a fully-funded top-tier program then earning a PhD wasn't worth it anyway. And at the time spending another $500 on apps seemed futile. ...But now that it's results time and it's hitting me that luck actually is a pretty big determining factor, I wish I would've applied to a few more schools. At least one of my schools is ranked lower, depending on which rankings you're looking at, and is fully funded (USC) so I'm crossing my fingers for USC (& still for Columbia and/or Princeton!). And deciding tomorrow on U of Oregon and/or Claremont.