Sejla

Ugh. That's not nice to deal with! I'd make an effort to send an email to anyone / any office which might be relevant asap, including documenting that you spoke to a person. Just to get it in writing asap. Maybe a nice polite email to that person along the lines of "I'm the one who spoke to you on the phone around [date] regarding withdrawing my intent to enroll". Good luck...

I'm so sorry this happened to you. I haven't even started my own program, but I have on more than one occasion had to check my "sent" messages to reassure myself that I didn't send an email to the wrong person. I don't really know what the outcome will be, but it's really common for me at least to worry out of proportion to the situation, so in a few days maybe you'll look back and feel less stressed. I don't know anything about your situation of course, but if the boss was nice enough to email you to tell you not to worry about the defense, that seems like a sign that she is a somewhat decent person who won't get totally bent out of shape about it. Good luck - I hope it will all pass soon.

Yeah, the frustrating thing is - I sent it on time! I think they received it but didn't process it correctly somehow because it didn't fit neatly into the system they had. All of the other schools got it on time...and even after I sent the second one - which they said they received - the appropriate line on my application did not change I think. It seems petty to email them and ask what is going on when I now know for sure I am not going there. But I'm not rich and I paid the money to have my application considered, not indefinitely postponed or something. I know, I should get over it. I am really happy with the program I chose. But if they aren't going to give me any decision, I want my 70 bucks back man

Wow. Well, submitted my application on January 6, no word yet! I applied to 4 programs and was accepted to the other 3, plus got decent funding from one. Wagner claimed they hadn't gotten one of my undergrad transcripts. I think the problem was that as a community college, it wasn't listed in their university list, so following the instructions, I entered "international school." Of course they didn't receive a transcript from an international school ... because it's not an international school. Some time after the 15th (the deadline for funding) they emailed to say they were missing my transcript. All of the other schools had received it. So I emailed back mentioning the problem above ... no reply ... less than a week later I just went ahead and sent another transcript. I emailed again, and finally they replied that they had it and marked my application as "completed" in late February. Still no word. Obviously I've made my decision and am not going there. I guess it would be unseemly to contact them and ask for my application fee back, huh?

This may be something you've thought of already, but having just lived abroad and spoken with students in other countries ... I've come to believe that the application process and the "way" of presenting yourself, your goals, etc. really can be different in different countries. One specific example I've heard is that North American programs expect a lot of detail in letters of recommendation letters (presumably in some countries they are more of a formality). I'm from the US and five years out of undergrad, and I looked over books on applying to grad school carefully. So I'd recommend not underestimating this. I'd also say, if possible, find someone from your situation (I'm thinking someone from a UK university who went to a PhD program in the US, because that is what you're familiar with) and ask them specifically about the differences. People who have done all their education in one country can certainly give good general advice, but might not be able to address things that we/you take for granted and don't specifically ask about and so on. I bought a book with examples of and advice on personal statements, and found this useful in identifying what made me unique as a potential student and what I could offer each program. I think in the US today it is still very uncommon for people to do their whole undergrad education in a foreign country, as you have done, so the fact that you have experience of that - actually completing your education in a foreign language and gaining the perspective of living in another country - could be an advantage in applying. Good luck.

Sorry, no answer to the question above - I've got my own question. I will be a full-time MA student doing a graduate assitantship at a university in DC. I can kind of weigh the issues of distance, price, transport myself, but I'm wondering if there are any tax / other less obvious advantages to living in DC proper as opposed to Virginia or Maryland? There is no state income tax in DC? It seems like this is pretty negligible, but I guess over time could add up. I will find out at some point I'm sure, but I don't believe my assistantship is considered part of my financial aid. This seems like a dorky question, I know, but I'll be a poor grad student so if anyone has insight on it, do let me know.

I got an invitation (or whatever it is called) and didn't do it because I just didn't have a sense of what it was. I was 20-something and could have looked into it, but I just saw it as a letter asking for $75 because I'd gotten good grades and thought "why would I pay for that?!" I have done okay without it, but looking back I do regret my decision or just my lack of knowledge about it all. I still don't know the details, but I think it is a one-time fee, or if you just do it the first year and don't continue, you can still list it on the cv/resume. I'm not aiming to be a professor but many who get PhD's are, and I know that job market is extremely competitive. I think accepting (well, paying, whatever) is worth it and if it comes down to some small difference between two candidates, it would be nice to be the one with Phi Beta Kappa. I think we are about a year later for the OP, but if other people read this, it is probably worth thinking about. [sorry to the last poster - no idea which ones are worth it aside from this...hopefully others will]

I recently made my decision on a program halfway across the country and am moving out there early to work a bit and get settled in before the fall. I called the Salvation Army to come out and pick up a LOT of my stuff - and about half of it they didn't want. Wow! I'm not even a grad student yet and I already live below Salvation Army standards... (I know that some people donate crap just to get rid of it, and that's not cool. I really made an effort to just throw stuff out if it was terrible, but this is stuff I bought used and happily used for sometime with little wear since I bought it). I have done my share of moving and up to now have stored quite a bit in my parents. No more! I know this is really not all that bad and I will just have to dispose of this stuff, but I was actually pretty offended at the time! Now I just think it's funny. Any funny - or awful - stories about moving for school?

That is an interesting point (or points). I don't think I have thought about it in those terms exactly, but looking back I can recall a situation where I think the person I was talking to kind of assumed something I said was an emotional response (I'd gotten too close to the people I was writing about), where I thought it was just that I was looking at it from a different (logical) perspective based on my experience with the situation. At the same time - maybe it was an emotional response! In any case, interesting topic. I guess being aware of the fact that this can happen can help when I think about how to present my point or whatever.

I taught English abroad, and only a very few of my students had completed any schooling in English - the ones who had were so much more advanced than those who hadn't, so this makes me think that you probably don't want to get in some kind of ESL class. I have also heard that to write better, you should read more, so I'd agree with Minnesotan on that. I might add - read the type of thing you need to write. You mention philosophy - I was a philosophy minor as an undergrad and I think that greatly helped my own more academic writing. And while I think I'm good at writing in communicating my ideas clearly and in an organized way, I don't think I'm talented at creative writing. Also, it depends on what you need to write again, but I think a big part of writing can be organizational or strategy things, rather than grammar or vocabulary. Maybe you took the TOEFL or IELTS the first time around, before your schooling in Canada, but I know in the last few years the TOEFL has changed to be less grammar-oriented. Don't take the test again! But I wonder if it could be useful to get an exam prep book to have topics to practice on and sample writing. If you can find a grad student who has worked on the side in test prep, they also might be able to tutor you briefly or on the side (rather than paying a ton to Kaplan or something). Good luck to you. I think very few in my country - the US - speak a second language well enough to attend school in it, so you should definitely be proud of what you've done so far.

I'm a woman and while I don't feel so strongly about having a female mentor, I do have some ideas on why it may matter (I also have not actually started my MA program, so take this with a grain of salt!). I think it depends on the person as well - like me, I'm sure there are plenty of women who aren't so concerned about the gender of an advisor and so on. And I'm sure that even for some who DO think about that, there are male advisers who would be fine (and female advisers who would not be). I guess I think that among other things, there can be differences in communication styles that do sometimes/often fall along gender lines. Even with things like how people express their opinions ... for example men tend to just say it, women may be more likely to phrase it as a question. People may agree that it's better to be clear and not unsure and just give your opinion. But there has been research indicating that women who are less direct are received better in a group with several men. Which is better to do? Who knows, but whereas a male adviser might say - come on, what's wrong with you, give your opinion, a female adviser might have more of an idea where the student is coming from. It does sound trivial, I know! And I don't think it is necessarily obvious or straightforward which approach will help the person more. But even thinking about male friends and past boyfriends, I do think men and women can think about things very differently (so can different people, of course), and having the right adviser may reduce that. I don't know. Like I said, while I have obviously given some thought to this, the number of female professors was not a factor at all when I made my decision on which program to accept. It does seem like getting hung up over it is probably not worthwhile, but these are the reasons why it could make a difference.

I found myself comparing these two cities as well - and one of the same schools (though neither program is the same)! I am definitely not in a position to give anyone academic advising, although I do like what the above post has to say. Here is one very superficial thing I noticed: while New York is expensive, housing in DC is not actually that much cheaper BUT it is much more likely you will share a house in DC and have more space. How relevant is this to academic concerns? Not so much, but it's what I can offer Although as I mentioned my program/field is not the same, I had some similar concerns about organizations I would find in DC - specifically that there would not be as many as in New York. Obviously you've done your research, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a number of organizations relevant to my field (not anything to do with government) in DC. Human Rights Watch does have an office there, if not frequently listed internships for DC. (Then again, New York has pretty much everything). I remember finding some links to organizations where students had interned in DC from the SIS graduate admissions page (bottom right corner - graduate student blog?). Good luck!

Thank you for the advice, everyone! The thing is, they have given me information about what assistants do or could be doing generally, but I need to make a decision on whether I'll "apply" (I've learned that you have it if you apply, so it is basically up to me if I want it) very soon. I don't want to come across as picky about what I will or won't do, and I don't think it would be in my interest to say "I'll do it, just whatever you do, don't make me teach!" or something. It looks promising from what I've gathered so far, and I will find a way to cope if it does end up involving teaching. I think I'm going to go for it!

I'm from the US but have lived in other countries where I made an effort to learn the language. One thing I have come across is language exchange - once you get to the US (or in your own country now, if you can find English speakers there), find someone who wants to meet once or twice a week, and half the time they are learning your language and half the time you are speaking English. If you don't find anyone through an ad on craigslist or something, you might contact the relevant language department at your university in the US to see if any students want to do that. [i see you're from Israel so I'm assuming your language is Hebrew - so what I mean here is - see if there are any university students learning Hebrew who want to practice with you, and then you can speak English with them]. It looks like your English is very good already (and it must be if you got accepted to a program in English!), so I'm just guessing but it might be hard to find a general ESL class with a level as high as yours. But who knows, I could be wrong. good luck.

This is possibly too late for the OP, but for what it's worth: I took off five years from the time I graduated to apply for an MA program and will be starting in the fall. I used a book (the only one I found at Border's) to get an idea of what other statements looked like. I found a number of the stories told cheesy and can only imagine many people on the admissions committee would ("I spent my thirteenth birthday with 1000 people who had evacuated for a hurricane...") but they were apparently statements that had gotten the writer accepted. I gave some examples of experiences that led to or added to my interest in the field, but didn't try to include a story or anecdote. It was especially useful to me to have a friend who had recently started a grad program not just proofread, but give me advice on content. One great example was - instead of saying "I went to do X in my time since graduating because I wanted experience but wasn't ready to commit to a grad program", say "I did X in order to decide if a grad program was the right choice". (It is possible her husband - who has a job relevant to saying the right thing - also helped out ) Obviously this example is specific to me, but what I took from that is - it's useful to get advice from someone who can comment on how you frame things too.