ts1493

I feel you. I am lucky that my wife will be able to work, but the uncertainty is killing us (and we have a dog). $1700-$1900 seems about right, unfortunately. However, I think some newer areas of Chelsea run lower for what looks like good apartments. The commute is slightly longer, but I think it might be worth it for you guys. Also, do you have a car? That's a hindrance.
I hope things work out for you guys! It looks like you have many great ideas so far.

Hey there -- I also applied to the Heller social policy program (along with two sociology programs and a gerontology program!) and *just* heard back that I'm a top candidate on their wait list and asking if I wanted to be considered for admission in April. 

Thanks so much for the info! And good luck! I hope you get off the waitlist soon.  
It would be nice if all departments just let you know — accepted, waitlisted, or rejected. The waiting game is ridiculous, especially when you're trying to plan, you know, your life (for the foreseeable future at least).  (I know you feel me, @ts1493 )

If you're lookign to rent, I recommend padmapper.com ! It pulls together all the resources from Craigslist, apartments.com, etc etc...
there are also tons of Facebook groups for roommate and apartment searches; each school in Boston/Cambridge seems to have its own. So I'd look into that too!
 

Just got an email from my POI at Johns Hopkins and I'm "high on the waitlist." They only have 5 funded positions, so unlike some other depts they only offer 5 in the first go-round. I'm happy to still be among the possible admittees, as there were 150 applicants. Though I have utmost confidence in my research agenda and scholarly abilities, I don't come from Ivy or elite private schools, and I'm a bit of a "late bloomer" in terms of my paper record. I'm happy to be among you lifelong high achievers Congrats to those who got in on the first round. It was insanely competitive. 
On a totally unrelated note, Baltimore is a cold and dreary city, and I hear the building that houses the sociology dept is haunted... Just saying...

Claiming a Northeastern acceptance!  Just heard by email... 

Congratulations!

Woooooo!! *celebrates  with you and shares some of the carrot cake I just made* congratulations!! 

I've been doing a bunch of googling and looking through threads on here, and this is the categorized list I've come up with that I plan to draw my questions from. (I might be over-thinking/over-preparing.)
 
Graduate Students
Research
What research are you working on? How quickly were you able to start your research?
Life/social
How much of a student community/social life is there (including within cohort)?
Is it an inclusive environment? Have there ever been problems with harassment?
Where do you (and students in general) live? How is living here?
What is the area around campus like? How are the housing options?
Is the university helpful with finding housing?
Is the stipend enough to live on?
Advisors
How is working with your advisor? (intentionally open-ended)
How would you describe your PI's advising style? (hands on/closely supervised or hands off/independent)
What strategies have worked well to maintain a successful relationship with your advisor?
How available is your supervisor? How frequently do you meet with your advisor?
Does your supervisor support support interest in a career outside academia?
How regularly/quickly does your advisor publish?
Would you choose this advisor if you were doing it over?
Program/University
What do you think of the program? Biggest pros and cons?
How easy/hard is it to customize the program? (i.e., taking different courses)
What do you think of the courses? Useful content, well taught, relevant to your research/goals?
How big is the program?
What would you change about the program?
Does the environment feel more collaborative or competitive? Are students generally collaborative or competitive?
How easy/difficult was the process of joining a lab?
What are responsibilities of TAs like? What is the workload/time commitment? How many terms do you TA?
Group/lab
How would you describe the lab group? (Intentionally open-ended)
What is the culture in the lab? How much time are you expected to spend in the lab?
What kind of schedule do you work?
How much collaboration is there within the lab?
Other
Are you happy here?
What do you wish you had taken into consideration when making your decision about where to attend?
Who is on your committee and why?
Do you get to attend conferences?
How is it being a female in this generally male-dominated department/university/field?
Professors & Potential Advisors
Students
Do students create their own projects or work on something already developed/in progress?
What are the expectations for a graduate student in your lab? (i.e., working from home, fixed hours)
What advice would you give to a student who wants to be successful in your program? Are there any specific pitfalls to be avoided?
How much do students RA vs TA? What is the funding structure/guarantee for students?
How often do you sent students to conferences?
How long do students in your lab take to complete?
What do students from your lab typically do after graduation?
Research
I hear you study X. I've only studied a little bit of that so far, but I remember learning about Y. Can you tell me a little bit about your work?
What are your current projects?
What research projects do you have that would be looking for graduate students?
What directions or projects are you thinking about for the future?
University
What is the big picture/goal/focus/priority of the department?
What's the biggest strength of the program?
What professional development services are available?
How/when are students paired with advisors?
What percentage of students complete the PhD? Pass quals?
What are responsibilities of TAs like?
Would any of my master's coursework transfer?
Other
How is your lab organized?
What collaboration goes on? Within/between labs, departments, other schools?
How would you compare this program to X and Y?
Is there funding available for attending things like conferences or summer schools?
Do you have lab/group meetings? What do you discuss? (papers, research in progress)

this post spoke to/answered a lot of my concerns about entering into a PhD program.  Thank you @juilletmercredi :-D 

Wow! generous funding!

Yes @bluefoxblue it's definitely good to find a place to air out these thoughts/concerns!  I've been out of school for nearly nine years.  whaat??  I feel super self conscious about it and a bit doubtful of my idea to jump back into the grad school fold, but on the other hand I feel like the experiences will be relevant and help me manage my time better and it's something I've always wanted to do.  I feel like when I got married there were so many voices of doubt when my husband and I decided to go abroad instead of settle down and start a family that one thing we've learned is to trust ourselves more with decision making instead of doubting ourselves so much.  Everyone's got a path, and only we can choose our own .... 

Did the program commit to giving you funding this year, or did they tell you that you would be held a spot but that they would evaluate your funding alongside other candidates for the following year?  Some programs do that and I think it makes a big difference.  A friend of mine deferred but since she was not promised funding, only a spot, it was a lot more understandable that she applied to other programs. 
I was admitted to a PhD program two years ago right before being selected for a competitive international experience that I also applied to.  I explained what happened to my program and they were very fair: said that they couldn't hold my spot/funding, but that they could keep everything from my application on file for when I was ready to apply again, and all I would need was an updated SoP and any new test scores.  A couple of the professors said that if they were me they would have made the same decision.  Since I didn't have any promised spot or funding I reapplied to the program this year along with a few other programs to maximize my chances. 
I think it matters whether they gave you funding and what the reason for deferring was.  A lot of programs don't allow you to defer specifically to avoid the kind of scenario where a committed student picks a better option.  If you're sure you want to go there I would go ahead and say that you're interested and want to move forward in the process.  If you haven't been guaranteed funding then I would say that you'd like to move forward in the process, you're definitely still interested, but that obviously funding is a concern.  That leaves some room for the conversation about other options.  I do think if they promised you funding and now you say you applied to other schools in your deferral year it will raise some red flags and possibly a bad taste for the school you want to go to (i.e. compromise your chances of getting any additional funding...).  

I'm claiming a Chicago admit! 
Pertaining to the earlier discussion, I didn't contact any POIs before I applied. Some programmes (like Stanford) advised against. I would've maybe emailed if I had something meaningful to ask, but my research fits were pretty obvious to me so I didn't feel the need.

Nope, applied to a different program at UMASS.  I think it's a good sign, though, that they reached out personally to you.  Hope good news is not far off! 

I'm feeling awkward, too. hahaha  I'm 32 and just applying to a PhD now.  I have a lot of friends who are on their tail end of PhDs and some who are more settled in jobs.  I also know a couple people with grown kids and established careers that are jumping back into a PhD, but I feel like they have a bit more stability in their lives...  I have had really good, really interesting jobs and international experiences which I wouldn't trade at all, but it does feel like it's a bit of strange time to start a PhD.  
About the family thing -- I've been really surprised at how much more family-friendly programs are becoming.  We don't have any kids but we're thinking about starting a family while I'm in the program.   A good friend of mine struggled with infertility (which  I'm discovering is super common) towards the tail end of PhD program said and her advice, for what it's worth was, "If you don't think you're ready, then that's one thing, and you should listen to it.  But, if you really want to start a family now do it, and work with the program to find accommodations because there are a lot of ways to manage it.  Sometimes you wait and wait for the best time but there really is no best time and you find it's too late."   Lots of people disagree with this, and that's totally fine.  It's such a personal decision.  But of all the conversations I've had that piece of advice resonated the most... 

@ts1493 I would say that the fact you had already spoke with a professor may have passed you through the phone interview part. From what I understood it was just a phone call to get more information about us. Northeastern was one of the only schools where I wasn't able to speak to anyone before hand. I did have a brief email exchange with the chair, but a phone call allowed them to get a better sense of my background and experience.
I am transferring from a PhD program into another, so that was another reason they wanted to talk briefly. 
Given your stats and the fact you were already admitted into BC – I would say you will most likely hear good news.
Best of Luck!
 
 

I think if you have a POI already you can reach out to that person to ask about your application.  If not, then the grad admissions director who may be the person who gets this question most often.  I would probably send along something thanking them for their consideration, saying you want to make the most of the year to come, and you are particularly excited about this program.  Is there anything that they can say about your application specifically, was it a fit issue?  Do you lack research experience, etc?  I think that showing a strong interest and a desire to improve goes a long way ...

Both of the programs I have been accepted to is giving me enough money to cover my international flight and domestic flights as well. Or at least they've stated they intend to. So just try to negotiate with them. Good luck!

Ya that was some unneeded noise on this board.
 
Both of the programs I have been accepted to so far are paying travel expenses (one up to $600 and one up to $300). I am not sure about the flight being international, but I imagine they would still cover up to their maximum. Both of my acceptances provided that info up front, but if they don't then it wouldn't hurt just to ask!

can we please stick to topic people: the utter misery of this process and complete lack of control over it, though it may determine the rest of our lives?
 
kthnx

I agree.  It's really disheartening to get bad news and almost as bad to expect bad news.  I stopped looking at the grad results search page and stick (mostly!) to the forums after seeing a waitlist entry for a program I applied to, and nearly weeping over a cup of coffee and overthinking how I could have made my application better.  And then the same day I got an acceptance!  The same thing happened to a good friend of mine last year when she was applying to a program - convinced herself that she wasn't going to get into her dream school because she saw lots of acceptances on the search forum, until a month later she saw she got in.  Even then she said she wished she hadn't looked because it kind of made her feel like she was a "second pick" but then got over it and rejoiced in getting into the school she wanted to.  Anyway, even if you're waitlisted at a program that isn't the end... February fortunately/unfortunately has a long way to go and things could very well shift.  Good luck, and I hope you get some good news soon!  

So, I use Mint to track my spending and make budgets for each category of spending, such as: rent, utilities [for me, this means internet, cell phone, heat, electric bill], groceries, renter's insurance, student loan payment, fun money [i.e. for going out], credit card payment [if necessary], and emergency fund contribution.
I make about $20,000 a year before taxes. Last year, I managed to save $4,000 of that (and go on a vacation). This year, I took on a second job and have saved $4,000 in the first semester.
I didn't realize how much money I spent on eating out or on random stuff I purchased on amazon until I got Mint. So recommend finding an app or some way to track spending.

I save myself a ton of money by cooking instead of eating out. I usually only eat out 2-3 times a month but when I cook for myself I easily only spend about $50 a week on food. It gets monotonous sometimes but it's not hard to generate variety. Since you have a spouse, it might be a little easier for you since you can split the cooking duties. It's mostly a discipline thing though, just live below your means and you'll be fine.

You also asked for some tips on keeping expenses down! Here are some that work for us:
1. When I cook dinner, I try to cook something that will make 6 meals (feeds 2 people three times). We eat it for dinner and then for 2 of the lunches during that week. Cooking at home costs something like $2-$3/meal but eating out is easily 2-5 times that much.
2. Bundle insurance! Getting all of our insurance from the same provider saves us a bunch.
3. Buy in bulk and know the sales cycles. We do this especially for Costco. I've gotten their flyers for a long time now and basically almost every item is on a 3 or 4 month cycle (i.e. if it's on sale in January, it will be on sale again in May). Each item is on a different cycle though, but if you get it on sale, you can easily save $5-$10 per item. Whenever we go to Costco, we try to only buy items that are on sale and we buy enough to last until the next time it's on sale. Sometimes you're off-cycle and you run out of toilet paper (for example) when it's not on sale---of course, we would still buy it because it's a necessary item!! But, then if it goes on sale next month, we would buy more, enough to last us the next 4 months so that we can get on-cycle next time. We only do this for the big items that we use a lot of (e.g. toilet paper, paper towels, etc.) or items that cost a lot of money. We save several hundred dollars per year this way, more than the cost of Costco membership.
4. Similarly, with groceries and other items, we establish a shopping route and try to get the "loss leader" items in flyers each week. So, we might do our groceries across 3 stores to save money and we also stock up when staples like beans etc. go on sale. I also plan the dinners for the week based on what's on sale. We establish an efficient route (i.e. plan out all of our errands for the whole weekend and do that with groceries too) so that everything can be completed in 1.5-2.0 hours. I think it saves us something like $700 per year. 
Each of these save us only a few hundred dollars per year, but the combined action of all the efforts can save several thousand dollars. For a grad student stipend, this can add up to 10% or even 20% of your total income, which I think is totally worth it!