Danger_Zone

@Oshawott Yes you're definitely right. I meant more like higher grades are awarded more leniently as opposed to letting students graduate with subpar GPAs. If the standards for admission were higher than I would hope that the standards for graduation would follow. I think if students had more of a chance to experience failure earlier on (maybe not literally failing a course, but experiencing repercussions for not putting in effort) then they may have a more realistic idea of whether or not they would be able to handle university. There is no harm in finding this out for yourself, and you can experience a significant amount of maturity and growth in just a few years - the time it takes to complete a degree, but I think with the notion that going to college is very common - coupled with a mismatch of grades and expectations at the secondary and post-secondary levels - is why so many people are barely scraping by at university.

I'm not sure if this one has been mentioned but, does anybody use a Chromebook? I plan on buying a better desktop so the laptop would essentially just be for e-mails, internet and typing up notes.

Apart from the fact that it is required for certain careers, grad school is definitely not viewed as a necessity like a high school or even college degree is now. Even being accepted into a graduate school is a lot of hard work and I do not think that grad students should be expected to have to work alongside graduate work (apart from TAing) as it is already very time-consuming and demanding. Therefore, despite maybe being a luxury in the sense that it isn't a requirement, I do not think financial constraints should prevent a person from pursuing a Master's or PhD if that is something truly desirable (and attainable) to them. On the other hand, despite the fact that not even half of Americans have university degrees, I think it has become the norm to assume that you "need" to go to college in order to get a decent job. So in contrast to the graduate degree, a lot of people go to college because it's simply what most people do. Of course we all know the students who just barely make it by in school (not counting those who struggle through school by no fault of their own), and who barely made it by in high school but who are now studying alongside those who worked really hard to get into university. Again, I do not think that people should be prevented from pursuing an education because they can't afford it, but if post-secondary education is to be made free I think the admissions requirements need to be much stricter. I don't know if this is the case in US schools, but high school grades in Ontario are incredibly inflated and do not by any means match up to the kind of grading system you see at universities. This not only makes high school students very unequipped for university (I think schools do a poor job of preparing kids for university, but that's another rant!) but really sets the bar low for who gets admitted. I think if this weren't the case then perhaps those who actually wanted to be at school would be there, and those who would do well getting a job right after graduation would not feel pressured to continue their education. Because I can see the unfairness in having to pay for somebody's education when they do not take it seriously.

I'm in the middle of filling out the information needed to get my visa documents sent to me. All I need is a bank statement to show financial coverage. It says if the currency isn't American then it needs to show the currency, but my bank statement doesn't say "CAD" (Canadian) since that's the default currency here, but of course it's in a dollar amount as opposed to the pound or other type of currency. Does anyone know if this is sufficient? I've emailed international student services but it's been a few days and I'd really like to get this stuff over with.

Attending Purdue! Just made my official acceptance today.

Just finished Post Office by Bukowski and Exile and the Kingdom by Albert Camus. Now I'm reading Building a Better Race by Wendy Kline. Also started How to Write a Thesis by Umberto Eco a little while back, reading that off and on now.. guess I won't be writing a thesis for a while but I like to read about these sorts of things and be well-prepared.

Great suggestion, I've searched just that and a number of highly rated books have come up. Guess my "to read" collection will be growing even more..

Definitely! I think my end goal would definitely be to learn German proficiently, but for the time being - given my limited time and all of the other needs and requirements that go along with graduate school - I'd like to focus more on what I will need to know in order to finish my degree. But I can definitely understand that with one, two or even more foreign language requirements needed it can become overwhelming and even burdensome at times. Sometimes it just feels like I'm a bit behind in this as so many people earning history PhDs have already gotten a decent amount of language comprehension under their belts.

Thanks, I'll have to e-mail about it. Health insurance is a bit different in Canada so I am unclear about how high the fees would be in the US, but $479 seemed a bit low!

Thank you all for the great suggestions (would give you rep but I'm out for the day.)! I'll have to look into Middlebury although with my limited time and money I will probably have to opt for other resources. Though I may see if there are any sort of local classes or something similar.

That's definitely a good idea about finding both a teacher and student version of a book, I had never considered that! I do know somebody with some university-level German who has been helping me out a little bit, it definitely helps to have somebody with knowledge to ask questions and speak random phrases to.

Thank you for the book recommendation. I feel like my post may have sounded as though I am only learning German in order to fulfill the language requirement, but I think it would be wonderful to learn a new language and am really enjoying German. I'm just unsure of if I will need this language in my research (at least for what I am planning to research) but of course it is hard to know what kind of knowledge you will need until you actually dig into the research. I'm hoping to read some books/articles in German once I have a better grasp of the grammar and vocabulary.

This might be a silly question but I'm kind of unclear about financial terms and would like to clarify.. On an acceptance letter I received it says that "eligible graduate students currently pay an annual $479 premium; the university subsidizes the balance of the annual premium." Does this mean that I would have to pay the health insurance fee but would be given this sum back at the end of the year?

@NeistThanks for mentioning it! Too bad there is no German but, it's good to know about in any case.

Thanks! I didn't realize it was possible to get funding from schools to learn languages. I was going to possibly take a summer course in German once I had enrolled at the school, but if I can find more efficient ways to do so that would really help me. I've always been rather poor at speaking/listening to foreign languages (this was my weakness with secondary school French), and I know reading comprehension is more important in grad school, so I'd rather find ways to focus on the latter more if I can. I might also pick up a grammar book or two as well. I really don't mind this approach as long as it doesn't end up being too dry.

@Neist@KLZHave you found it naturally easy to listen to audiobooks? I've tried multiple times to listen to audiobooks but my mind quickly seems to wander despite my best efforts to stay focused, and even then I find myself losing track of what is being said. I'm a good listener otherwise, but without having something visually in front of me I have a hard time with this.

Currently I am trying to learn German. I do not anticipate needing to use foreign language skills in my research (I'm primarily interested in US history), unless my research happens to take that turn. Unfortunately I did not take advantage of foreign language classes at my university as my decision to attend grad school (and even to major in history) happened during my last couple of years, and by then I had no room for electives as I was trying to finish up two majors. I only have some knowledge of French from secondary school (I may try to strengthen my French as well in the future but I enjoy learning German much more), so I have been basically trying to teach myself German through apps and other online/mobile services, games, etc. This has been fine so far, but it's hard to tell how much I've improved or if there are much more efficient and helpful ways to learn German. If anybody can recommend any good books, online resources or anything like that that have been helpful to you I'd really appreciate it. I know of programs such as Rosetta Stone but these can be rather pricey and I'd rather not spend a tonne of money on this if I can avoid it.

No idea if they have a wait list or not, but I just declined my offer from the University of Cincinnati.

I feel like my decision to attend school in another country has isolated me from my family. My parents initially blamed themselves for this decision, as they seem to think I am striving to get as far away from them as possible. It's a very stressful household but my decision to go to an American school has nothing to do with this, but I can't seem to convince them otherwise. Things seemed better until they found out how early I'd have to leave to move out there (school starts in September here whereas I'll be beginning earlier in August) and will probably have to miss my father's birthday. I'm the first of my siblings to be moving out so maybe they're taking it hard but they're making me feel very guilty. So instead of being able to talk about how excited I am about school to them I am just kind of keeping it to myself...

Yeah I definitely think you're right. I don't like turning down a possibility, but I think I was holding out because I felt like the program was a good fit for me, but the more I look into it (and the more I learn about my top program) the more I feel like it isn't the best fit afterall. So maybe I just need to go on and make my acceptance and rejections soon so I can finally stop stressing about this and start focusing on what else I need to do before attending in the fall.

So I got a reply from the wait listed program telling me that there is no change in my application and it may be up until the deadline that I hear something... But that there is still a small chance of me being admitted. I don't want to take away options but if there is only a small chance of me being admitted and subsequently accepting the offer, maybe it is best to withdraw soon and give someone else a chance? It's so difficult to know what to do..

Yeah I was last contacted on March 1 and ended up sending another email today. I think with the deadline only two weeks away it isn't pushy, and I think it may help show you are still interested in the program.

I used to hate this as well.. Usually when I get a haircut I'm getting it done relatively short and my thick hair likes to flip and poof out unless it's straightened really well. Most hair dressers I went to didn't bother and I had to go home and fix my hair. I finally found a wonderful hair dresser and I'm leaving for school in a few months.. I wish I could take her with me.

@hippyscientist Sounds like you have better luck with dying it yourself than many of us. I've been dying my hair for years and fortunately it is still fairly healthy, but I'm too afraid to bleach it! I am thinking of getting my hair dyed a reddish colour but while I have some extra money I'm going to invest in getting it done professionally (I have woken up too often with bright orange hair.. apparently I have a lot of red hidden in my natural hair so most dyes pick up on that and I end up with a weird bright strawberry colour instead of a blond or brown etc...)

Haha, honestly I'd just like to hear anything at this point... It's a very long time to wait.. Especially with the deadline near..