Yanaka

Not sure if Stanford was still requiring GRE scores for 2018 applications, but just FYI to anyone interested that they are no longer (beginning in the 2019 cycle) requiring scores for either the subject test OR the general GRE. Almost makes up for that $125 application fee...

I would think beyond the WS about reasons to attend conferences. Here are the main reasons, imo.
You get to meet with potential advisors in person and discuss your interests with them. This also gives you a chance to learn about their personality and get some insight into whether that personality is compatible with yours.  At the graduate level, your class papers can be the background for your conference papers. The conference papers, in turn, can form the early stage of your publications. Thus, the feedback you get in a conference presentation can help you refine your ideas for future publications, which will make them stronger. You might also learn the names of people who you can suggest as referees when you do send it out. If you have any interest in becoming someone who does co-authored publications, going to conferences is a great way to meet others with similar interests who you might be able to write or organize panels with in the future. It's a great way to stay current on what's going on in your field and subfield. It'll help you learn what is up and coming and where the field is headed.  The way you become a better presenter is by presenting. And ultimately you'll have to present your work to finish your degree and get your work out there. Sure, you can hate the term "professionalization". But, if you aren't willing to engage in some, then you may want to reconsider your plans.

Sure. But you might need to play the game to some extent if you want to make progress in academia. I don't think (graduate) conferences are the worst part of professionalization in our domain... 

Hey, all!
Hopefully in a few years my school will let me try to do my doctorate with a French university so the diploma will be valid in France. I am a dual citizen who is in the US for a PhD but I want to keep my options open and probably go back to France to live and work after studying. 
I know I’d have to do the terribly frightening  agrégation to teach as a Professor back home, but I’d be thrilled to read any “real life” experiences about finding employment and how French academia sees people with an American Ph.D. 
Any tips? Stories? Insight? Thanks!

Sure. But you might need to play the game to some extent if you want to make progress in academia. I don't think (graduate) conferences are the worst part of professionalization in our domain... 

@Yanaka, Book Depository offers free shipping and since it's UK based, it tends to have a larger selection of foreign language books than most US book retailers. It can be a little slow though, so order early.

Sure. But you might need to play the game to some extent if you want to make progress in academia. I don't think (graduate) conferences are the worst part of professionalization in our domain... 

Sure. But you might need to play the game to some extent if you want to make progress in academia. I don't think (graduate) conferences are the worst part of professionalization in our domain... 

I'd like to chime in that Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) also doesn't require you to teach while you take coursework. They also offer writing courses that you can take along current MFA students.

@Daenerys are your children who I think they are, Khaleesi?

Just so y'all know, I have committed to Princeton! Woo

Going to Penn State, accepted the offer after campus visit. signed the lease, took the MA comprehensive exam, getting a new car to move!

Yes! It's a work study on the QED Journal of queer worldmaking, and a 60% tuition waiver. I wish it was a full waiver but I decided it was worth it.

Thanks! It really is! I couldn't be more excited. The faculty, program coordinator, staff, students have been nothing short of wonderful.
Thanks. I think I'm the lucky one though.
Thanks. I hope that all goes well for you and your husband in Cambridge!
Ha! I'll need to get (more) ready for that exam soon. 

Yes! Congrats! They're lucky to have you. 

Hey y'all, I can finally make my decision! I've officially been selected for a Fulbright grant to spend the next school year in France as an ETA, and UMich has graciously offered to defer my admission to the following school year! So France this fall, then Ann Arbor the next for me!!

eh it really depends on what field you're in and what school you lied about. Most likely it won't come up again (generally speaking, I imagine professors have better things to do than talk to other people about potential admits). 
With that being said, I'm in rhet/comp and our field is smalllllll, when I went on school visits nearly everyone knew my current advisors and there were plenty of people who came up and asked me about certain people (to say hi or ask whether I worked with them). But our field is small and I'm at a well known program. If you mentioned a lesser known school or are in a much larger field it probably won't matter at all. I wouldn't address it as it will probably never come up again, but as you clearly know it's not the best habit to get into. 

Although I still live with my family, and even if I pay out of my own pocket for the vast majority of my expenses, I don't know how to save money or to put money aside... I hope I'll learn that skill when I'll move out for PhD programs...it's definetly something I struggle with (and feel ashamed of as well). 

I've crossed my T's and dotted my I's, I'm off to CUNY!  I'm specializing in post colonialism, and doing my curricular option in international human rights in the french speaking world, which means I get to do an internship with the UN!  I see a lot of potential at CUNY, and the fit is so good!  Couldn't be happier, and I'm so happy that this process if finally over and I can get a peaceful night's sleep!  
I'm so excited to be future colleagues with all the brilliant minds that post on this page!  May all of our paths go relatively smoothly!  Would be nice to run into some of you down the road...

Yeah it's hard to tell, especially because they're so quieeeetttttt by email! It almost feels like their dpt is too French for their own "marketing" good haha. Good thing I have a good feeling from meeting some of the faculty in person...
I want to visit again, too, although it's easier for me. If you ever want to visit soon and want to visit together, let me know! 

I'm so happy for all of you that are making your decisions! Unfortunately my decision is only becoming more difficult. I missed a call while I was in class from a professor at Rutgers saying that a spot has opened up for me (with funding) if I want it. I need to email him about what their funding looks like, but Rutgers was definitely very high on my list of potential schools when I went into this application season.
PLUS I have yet to hear about my Fulbright ETA application, but I have a strong feeling (knock on wood) that I will hear back about that this week. Then I will just need to decide on a program and beg them to defer my admission (if I'm accepted by Fulbright, of course) ?

Eh, that all depends on your PhD advisor and the salaried job you're talking about. I've known PhD students (and postdocs!) who didn't have much control or say over their projects - they were handed a project by their PIs, and they were expected to work on that project in a specific way by their PI. They were expected to be in the lab at specific hours or for a specific amount of time every day and were questioned if they weren't there.
Conversely, I've known people in professional salaried positions with a lot of autonomy and ownership. I work as a researcher at a tech company. I was assigned a specific product area to work on - but it's up to me to determine the priorities and projects for that product and how I'm going to approach my work. I also do create projects for myself that I have 100% ownership of and can determine exactly how I want to do them and when. I come and go as I please and as long as I'm getting my work done, nobody questions me about why I came in at 9:30 or left at 3:30. Occasionally, I work from home in my pajamas And I am definitely not at the end of my career - I'm less than 3 years into my current position.
It depends on the individual circumstances.
*
Like others, though, I think the answer to this comes more from within than without. I think I felt less like an 'adult' during the early years of my PhD because...well, I kind of was less like an adult. I started my PhD at 22, fresh out of college, and hadn't yet figured out what being an adult meant for me. I could've chosen to work my PhD like a 9-to-5, or kept more regular hours, or worked in the assigned cubicle I had, but I didn't - I chose odd hours in my PJs-type work most of the time. It wasn't until I made the conscious decision in the last few years of my doctoral program to treat it more like work that I settled into a routine and felt more like an 'adult' - and that was partially motivated by the fact that most of my friends were master's students and had graduated and moved onto professional jobs. If I wanted to hang with them, I had to modify my schedule so that I was working when they were and available to hang out when they were hanging out.
The limbo-thing is always a mindset. In the beginning of my PhD I thought about it as a temporary place, simply a stepping-stone to get to where I was going next. It is, and it's important to keep it in the proper context - you are using this as professional training. But there's a way to do that that makes it feel more like an entry-level professional job than actual Limbo...putting down roots in your city and learning how to enjoy it; making friends and expanding your network; pursuing new skills and training while enjoying the work that you do; etc. If you think about it this way, that many 20somethings are working jobs that they know they won't be in forever but are using them as a platform to springboard them to better opportunities - and just realize that your position really isn't much different from that, including the salary - that'll make this easier, I think.

This this this. I was a salaried employee, but I was still junior (the head of the division was in her mid 50s, and junior staff were in their 20s and 30s). Professional life can be very hierarchal, but as a PhD student you have 100% ownership of your project. You don't get that level of responsibility as a professional until you are right at the end of your career. 

I'm also almost 30. You may have read me saying this already in the Literature forum, but I took three years off to explore life as a non-student. I was surprised to discover that, although I wasn't a student anymore, I felt a lot less...professional freedom? Part of it may have been that I was an hourly employee, but something about having to answer for every minute of my day and have near constant interaction with supervisors of differing levels made me feel more infantile than I did as a grad student. I guess I almost felt more of an adult professional as a grad student than I did in my office jobs where I always had to answer to someone. By contrast, as a grad student, budding professional scholar, I felt more trusted accomplish tasks--or had to face the consequences if I didn't make that happen, but even then it was more of my choice to be responsible or not. I don't know if that makes sense, but I'm really looking forward to being a student again. 

My university considers PhD students as employees. We have the same annual leave as administrators and professors, our email structure doesn't trigger student discounts, we are invited to all staff events and are allocated office space alongside postdocs. 
When I leave in the morning, I tell my partner that I'm going to work. When people ask me what I do, I tell them that I teach and research at a university, and that I'm working on my PhD at the moment. 
I spent a few years in the workforce and the PhD feels similar in many respects. It feels more like a professional job than an undergraduate program.