Ganzi

Something that a lot of international students don't realise is that you don't have to be a US citizen to qualify for marketplace insurance plans, which might be more affordable than adding your children to your student's insurance plan. Most marketplace / obamacare / ACA websites say something like you must be a US citizen, permanent resident or lawfully present and as long as you are on F-1 or J-1 status legally, then you qualify. My spouse had this for awhile (we're Canadian, so also international) because their work didn't provide insurance and it was way too expensive to add my spouse onto my plan. 
You can even qualify for government assistance. Generally, if your income is less than 400% of the poverty line then you will qualify for discounted marketplace rates. It might be tricky though, since sometimes you don't qualify for marketplace plans if your school offers a subsidized plan. So, whether or not this will work will depend on the details. (See: https://www.healthcare.gov/immigrants/lawfully-present-immigrants/)
As for taxes, you should expect to pay lower taxes than other graduate students because your children count as dependents which increase your deductions. Each dependent is about $4000 of deductions, so including yourself, you have at least $12,000 in deductions (i.e. you would be taxed on $18,000 instead of $30,000). As a non-resident, we don't get to claim a lot of the other deductions though.
Finally, don't forget to look on campus for resources for grad student parents too. One place might be cheaper/subsidized housing. My school offers family housing at a very subsidized rate---there are apartments that they rent for $900/month when the market rate for the same unit would be around $1700/month. And, my school also offers grants of up to $4000 to help pay for childcare. A look at UPenn shows they do have similar things, e.g. http://www.familycenter.upenn.edu/grants.php It looks like UPenn's grant is more generous than my school (we can only use it for childcare) but UPenn also allows you to put that $4000 towards health insurance costs etc. It's not 100% clear if this is money available to international students, but it doesn't say citizens only so it might be okay.
 

Agreed! Congrats on pulling it up. It's just that a 4% is extra scary when you consider that there are plenty non-STEM majors who take the test as well. Since the GRE quant is effectively high school calculus, I would have questioned your abilities to understand basic analytical techniques in your field, e.g. carbon dating (had you not improved) 

Well, first of all political science is not humanities, it is a social science. 
There is a general pecking order:
Natural Sciences (physics, chemistry)  > Math, Statistics, Computer Science, Technology, ect > Social Sciences > Humanities
There is some elitism, generally people look down on the disciplines below them. General public seems to look up at STEM, but not really understand the nuances between the other fields, although disciplines like English or Women's Studies are often criticized to some degree. 
Political Science seems to fit right in the middle, probably the most 'respected' of the non-STEM disciplines with the exception of Economics. Anthropology is probably the least respected of the social sciences.
I mean basically, the more quantitative your field is the more 'respect' it has. 
As far as how prevalent this is, it really depends. Some people take it seriously, some don't at all. 

Because previous searches have not resulted in the best candidates being female?

Just wanted to update that this morning I was notified that I am ACCEPTED off the wait list at UNC!!!!
Couldn't be more thrilled; full funding package to follow Monday and I'm expecting to accept immediately upon receiving it!!!!

Nobody seems to think it's weird when idealistic young adults move to New York or LA to spend their 20s trying to make it in Hollywood or on Broadway, even though those industries are far more competitive even than academia. They could have spent those years establishing a career history in something more "sensible," but nobody seems to think it's weird that they'd give their dreams a chance. Film or theater is their Thing. So they go for it! Academia is my thing. Although I wouldn't make half the financial sacrifice my creative-industry friends do to pursue an artistic career, I've been able to get an institution to make a paid, long-term commitment to my training. With that support, why wouldn't I give it a try? You're right, OP, that this forum doesn't have a lot of people who are on the fence about graduate school, at least not who post. (The number of people who are unsure about graduate school but enrolled because of the possibility of a tenure-track job must surely have declined since the recession! One hopes.) But my outlook is perhaps shorter-term than yours was: I'm not going into this because I think a tenure-track position is worth trying out. I plan to try to get a TT job, but even if I end up on the losing side of the academic job market, academia, of which graduate school is part, was worth the attempt.

I guess these posts don't bother me because this is what my colleagues and I discuss constantly. Three people left the program last year (not all from the same cohort, mind you) because of concerns about the state of academia. Also, yeah, I recognize that grad school may provide more stability for some people than others. And I 100% agree: I have major problems with narratives that describe people with PhD's on food stamps as inherently more tragic than people with GED's on food stamps.
That said, I am concerned with these echoes of grad school being a great place because of funding and stability and such. Yes, it may provide more security than other positions and fields, but it's still super problematic. Mizzou grad students just straight up lost their health insurance last year. Yes, they got it back, but it's still just the mediocre grad student plan. At the same time, grad students at Emory and Arizona State lost dependent health care. So if you're a single parent and in grad school, then you're fucked. Many stipends are below the poverty level for the geographical area. As my friend says, we are overworked and underpaid and preparing for jobs that don't exist. Because adjunctification is real, and it's devouring the academy as we know it, hurting both adjuncts and undergrad students. 
In other words, things are messed up. But my plea isn't to tell folks to get out. I'd be a hypocrite to do so, and part of me still holds onto hope that we can collectively change the direction of higher education. Instead, my question is always: what are you going to do about it? Be alert to the exploitation of academic labor, and all the unpaid labor you will be asked to do in your program. Be alert so, when an opening arises, you can organize and make your program a better place for you and for future academics. Be alert because, as stipends and tenure lines decrease, these changes will hurt the most marginalized scholars and potentially dissuade them from pursuing a career in academia. But we need a diverse professoriate! We need to make sure that our grad students can feed and house themselves. And we need to situate our labor concerns with larger criticisms of exploitation and poverty: what are the hourly workers on your campus making? At UMD, hourly workers can be paid less than the state minimum wage. How can we leverage our educational privilege and our anger about the turning tide of academia to make real institutional change?

got ignored-dumped by the girl I was dating, I don't know why, and I'm pretty disappointed. Grad school is tough sometimes and it'd be nice to have someone to talk to without fear of being judged, someone that cares. I really cared for her too. I really liked hearing her out about her problems, I never ignored her, and I'd just like some equal treatment. I just hate playing the stupid game where you go by a playbook to poke for maximum response, as if people were robots.
I don't consider myself terrible in social situations or an introvert either, I'm not mean, I know when to give people the space they need and I genuinely care for others. I try to stay healthy, fit and clean. I don't do nice things exclusively for girls I date - alot of people in the department knows me as the guy who'd help others out, whether that's giving a tour for newcomers or just being a listener for other people's problems. I'm not putting anyone on a pedastal or putting anyone down.
I'm just not sure why that's not enough to not get dumped in the rudest way. At least give me the courtesy of a real breakup. It gets extremely tiring to be nice, and be hurt for it. I didn't have any problems with my last breakup because we were upfront and honest about the issues, and that's absolutely fine with me. I am not fine with being treated like trash.
This shit's just getting old, on top of pressures with my experimental research.

IMO, what start as an innocent request "hey, can you send me an electronic copy of this" turned into a more serious inquiry when you said you didn't have one. 
If I was the professor, the first thing in my mind would be "well, I didn't think this was plagiarized, but I certainly do now". 

He/she has to be trolling us.  There's just no other explanation.

The only thing keeping me going is the knowledge that OP is gonna get a job one day and start dishing this shit to his employer, who will fire him, and then OP will bitch about workplace discrimination until the cows come home.

the world is out to get you.

Oh my god, just scan it and send it to him already!

This thread was a great idea. I always feel bad about celebrating in the other thread amongst the "I'm doomed" posts.

I got assistantships or fellowships plus tuition waivers from the universities. There's no way I would've attended an unfunded graduate program.

Hello!
I've been doing a lot of research into IR programs, and was wondering what the less-quant heavy or balanced programs might be?  I'm not afraid of quant, I just don't think a program that's heavy in that area will be the best preparation for what I want to to.  A bit about me:
Planning to transfer to UC Berkeley from a CA community college: double major in Peace and Conflict Studies and Middle Eastern Studies.  I'm particularly interested in addressing the global refugee crisis, NGO work, humanitarian work, etc.  Think International Rescue Committee and Human Rights Watch.  Would prefer to end up based in CA.
So, I want a program that balances policy and economic analysis with thorough sociopolitical analysis, if that makes sense.  For example, a little more classes exploring specific parts of the world, groups, social problems, specific political dynamics, and a little less higher math and preparation to work crafting policy.  Academically rigorous, of course.  Again, I do want a balance, I've just been finding mostly high ranking programs preparing individuals for a career IN policy, whereas I want to work more on the ground and possibly advocate for policy changes.
Thank you!

Miami U, U Akron, Kent State all in Ohio. They are funded. Don't know how much nut the cost of living is low and I remember a guy that got into the MA program in Akron with an undergrad degree in Engineering.

Last rejection from Yale and Rice simultaneously. I'll be continuing to hold up the "Homeless Veteran" sign at intersections across America.

Just got my rejection from Yale to officially go 0 for 6. I guess I'm stuck in biglaw making $180k a year but not enjoying the work. Sigh.

Nice trolling.

From Accra, Ghana in West Africa (and no, Africa is not a country! it is a continent!  )...............

this thread is discriminatory against people with sub-2.0 gpas!!

Am I the only one that applied to only one school and got into that only one school? Was too broke to make applications and that school was my perfect fit.

I never heard of a good phd program including tuition in their stipend offer. That's crazy. In my current program we get 19k-20k for 9 months with a tuition waver and health insurance.

Your GRE score is plenty high. Don't waste anymore time on it. I got into really good programs with a very low GRE score: 149 (q) 155 (v).