Jae B.

Ask your husband to take your name (seriously).

I agree with Jae B -- definitely explain your financial situation and see if there is anything they can do to help. I believe some schools can waive certain fees in cases of financial hardship. Just ask what options might be available.

Also...I just wanted to tell you that I withdrew from an MA program on extremely short notice (for a legitimate reason). It may have inconvenienced the administrative staff...but I am sure they have long forgotten me by now. This was several years ago and I have never felt frowned upon. I'm not encouraging breaking your agreement to enroll, but personally, I feel that since its only been a week since you signed the form, it shouldn't be a big enough deal that you should compromise your dream of attending Columbia. Also...I used to work in the administrative office at a university, and my department accounted for a certain amount of confirmed MA students changing plans and not attending.

You can't pay the $1000 on a credit card?

I agree with most of the above advice except the bit that it's too early to start thinking about grad school. While it's definitely to early to narrow your vision and only consider *one* possible future (explore your options! really! no matter how sure you are!), it's not too early to be thinking about the general future. Most grad programs will of course want a good gpa, but 3.65 isn't prohibitive, especially from a good school....so just keep up the good work in your classes, and improve if you can without killing yourself. The important things for you to focus on are things others have mentioned....summer programs/internships/REUs, research, and building relationships with professors. These are all *very* important.

Also, someone mentioned that extracurriculars won't help you get into grad school. This isn't true. While admissions committees may not care much about extracurriculars, fellowship committees do. And not only do you want fellowships to help you pay for school and for general resume-building, they can also help you get in (schools like funded students better than unfunded ones, if they're allowed to).

Sounds like you're already on a good path. Keep it up

I'm currently a freshman at Vanderbilt University. My GPA is about a 3.65 (but on an upward trend; my father, aunt, and best friend from home all passed away this year and I had some health issues that kept my grades below where they might have been ideally). My major is child development, and I want to go on to a PhD in clinical psych. Ultimately, I'd like to be a practicing psychologist and work with eating disorder patients. I'm involved in several extracurriculars (sorority, Hillel, and an a cappella group), and next year, I am going to try and start a support group on campus through ANAD and I will be working in an infant research lab.

I would like to be done with my PhD in five years (no more than six with internship). I want to have kids and get my life on the road! I have a couple of questions.

1. Which (if any) clinical psych programs have a strong eating disorders focus? I'm looking at UNC, Duke, UF, U of Miami, UVA, FSU, Vanderbilt, WUSTL, Emory, LSU, Penn State, and IU. Obviously, there will some changes in my grad school choices, but these are my top choices right now.

2. If I maintain between a 3.65 and 3.75 GPA, are any of these schools automatic "not a shot in hell" schools? Would I have to compensate for my GPA somehow, or is it at an okay level? Vanderbilt is known for grade deflation among top private schools.

3. What other things should I get involved in to enhance my application?

4. My second major (or possible minor) is Russian. I will be living in the international dorm for the next few years, and should be pretty much fluent by the time college is out. Will this help or hurt me?

5. I am from a geographic minority state in the Northwest (think Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Dakotas). Will this help at all?

Thanks so much! I really appreciate the help.

Ok this thread isn't to debate the merits or benefits of using Apple's iPhone or iPad in an educational setting. Or whine about Apple. Rather, I'd like to hear what APPs you use (or are interested in) that makes your educational experience easier. Obviously the calendar function and a To Do program are essential but beyond that, what's out there? I'm looking for some suggestions personally and would like this thread to be useful for others as well. Please make sure you include full name of the app so we can find it and at least a basic description. Kudo points if you tell us how it worked for you. iPad-specific apps are welcome here too. Links would be cool if you have them.

For example, I used 1,400 ESSENTIAL GRE WORDS by TotalTestPrep to enhance my vocabulary. This app has well, words that ETS has been known to use and presents them in a flashcard manner. Easy and cheap program to use.

Any topic area would be great from test prep to time management and so on.

Oh for god's sake... Are you basing this opinion off of the MacLean's magazine ranking?
(I am asking this before I explain why you're wrong so that I don't go off in the wrong direction)

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't really want to purchase refurbished b/c I want it to last a long time - I look at it as an investment.

And new doesn't mean it won't die after 1 year...

By the way, the best printers I found are the ones that are free on campus. Is that not an option or you long for the convenience of printing at home?

NOTE: I speak for History Ph.D. programs only, as that is the basis of my experience.

General prestige/ranking of your undergraduate program is given very little consideration, if any at all. What matters to (history) adcoms is what you did wherever you were. Some top programs (e.g. Northwestern) even make a point of stating this on their website - prestige matters not at all.

As a previous poster pointed out, the main advantage going to a prestigious undergrad program would allow is acccess to a distinguished faculty, which could come in handy when you need outstanding letters.

Going to a well-known school will not hurt your application. If your school is known for challenging academics, that will bode well for you as it will show to the adcom that you are willing and able to take on and meet academic challenges. This is probably even more important if you're switching fields/disciplines to one that you have less of a background in.

I'm going to reiterate what the other two posters wrote, and say that coming from a famous undergraduate institution would in no way equate to an automatic acceptance. Nevertheless, I think that you have a couple of advantages that people from lesser-known schools might not have access to. The first thing that springs to mind is having access to a well known, well connected faculty, whose glowing letters of recommendation would hold more weight with grad admissions committees.

The second big advantage I can think of is the increased number of opportunities to do research as an undergraduate. Well known institutions frequently have more resources for people who want to do independent work and the like. So on the whole, I think it's the way you exploit the opportunities your school put your way that counts rather than a passive boost by virtue of mere attendance.

Honestly I don't think the stature of an undergraduate school matters at all. What I've found was most important across the board were GRE scores and GPA from whatever school they attended. (Information via UIUC Graduate students) However in the case of comparing two different students with the same exact stats, GRE and GPA, coming from Berkeley vs. a state school, they would be paritally to the Berkeley student because the cirriculum is set to be harder as compared to the state school student. This advice was given to be by an adcomm themselves so hope this helps!

Cappa - lots of good points being made but if you don't feel ready to go to grad school then don't go. It's not unethical and you certainly shouldn't go just because a perfect job isn't waiting for you right now. Admission committees will not look on it unfavorably later - they'll either be indifferent to it or, in some cases, impressed by your discipline of turning down a good school to go get some work experience.

Like others have said, there's nothing inherently wrong with going to graduate school without work experience (obviously, since you just got into your top choice), but a lot of people (like myself) find it instructive to have been in the 'real world' before going to graduate school as it can have a major effect on what you decide you really want to do. The MPP is a fortunately versatile degree (though not as versatile as some), but you may find that in the next few years that you actually want to go into neuroscience or business or physics - who knows?

And being unemployed can be just as instructive as being employed. As many people with social science undergrad degrees have discovered, specialization and specific skillsets are crucial to getting work, especially in today's economy. Many people who might have gone on to getting IR or pub policy degrees have turned to public health or economics - or some other growth industry - because of their time in the job market (or not).

What I'm trying to say is that if you don't feel like you're ready to jump into graduate school, it's ridiculous for anyone to tell you that you're wrong. Go when you're ready - you'll do better and you'll be better set up for employment because you'll be closer to knowing (most likely) where to focus your interests and career path. Feel free to PM me if you want to chat more.

With all due respect, what makes you think you can get a job? If you don't have one lined up, you are now in line behind hundreds or thousands of other graduates (both current and decades old) who had apps in months ago, some of whom have years if not decades of experience. I don't say that to be rude so much as to make sure you know what you're getting into. This is *the* worst job market in decades. In fact, your grandparents may not even have seen it this bad. I can promise you one thing, flipping burgers at McD's will be no way to figure out what you want to do than grad school. And I would almost put money on you flipping burgers in a month, unless you have something sweet lined up.

Again, sorry to be harsh, but please make sure you know what you're doing and not just that you've got the cold feet we all do right now

Let it go. If you've been admitted already, the program won't even look at your final transcript. The only place that's getting your final transcript is The Graduate School to confirm that you did get your BA/BS. That's it. This is your last chance to bomb something for the heck of it

Calm down. Sure it sucks, but you are already in and did not do something horrible, like failing everything.
You will be fine.

Two things come to mind. One is that physical proximity can be helpful if you are the sort of person who can make personal connections easily, or if you can get summer internships. This is especially important if you already know what part of the country you want to get a job in after you graduate; it's probably easier to find a job if you're already in the area and make an effort to get to know potential employers. Another thought is that some schools have active alumni networks, and belonging to one can in some cases help you get a job even if you studied in a different part of the country. Aside from these points, I suppose the answer is probably "it depends" - on field, on location, on particular firms - so who knows.

People of advanced learning:

FYI - Joseph Lopez began the MA program in Radio Television and Film at the same time I did; Fall 2003. He finished and went on for a PHD. Last week I attended his dissertation defense. He was awarded a PHD by a committee including Sandy Stone, Joseph Straubhaar, Andy Garrison, Susan McLeland and a gentleman named Dan from anthropology.

This is the work he submitted and discussed:

http://dissertation.jtlopez.com/

I bring this to your attention as something that brought into question what it means to obtain the terminal degree in our field.

Wow. I am just about speechless.

As a student of "new media" myself, I do like the idea of non-traditional presentations of dissertation materials. I think electronic presentations are totally legit, but...this isn't research. This is a blog - not just in form, but in content.

TexasHookEm,

Glad you paid such close attention during the defense, accurately listing all of the faculty like that, including Dan from anthropology. Oh wait, sorry, I mean John Hartigan.

Maybe if any of the other faculty in the department had bothered to come to the defense or even bothered reading even part of the way through the online dissertation (though I do hear websites are kind hard sometimes), they could have a leg to stand on in insulting the work of a newly fellow PhD and tenure track professor like Joey.

Pardon any perceived impudence, I'm a bit new to this site, having recently discovered this hotbed of academic navel-gazing at its finest. I guess I was too busy applying to and getting accepted into a graduate program to seek out web forums to talk about applying to and waiting to get accepted into a graduate program. My bad.

Do any of you have links to your dissertations so we can compare the amount of research that went into it?

TexasHookEm:

I notice you've neglected to disclose where you'll be receiving your doctorate from, so I assume you don't have one. In fact, you even fail to mention that you obtained your MA along with Dr. Lopez. Perhaps you're not the most qualified person to be asking what it means to obtain a terminal degree in "our" field.


Fucking you gently with a chainsaw,
DoctorDonna

Me, too.

My story is so funny that it's almost cosmic.

I landed on my department's webpage months before I started applying. I looked at the requirements and I didn't meet them (no masters); and then I looked at the field (ed. studies and american studies) and my mentor told me both were academic ghettos; but I couldn't shake the feeling I got. I actually remember showing the page to a friend and commenting upon the sense of wit and humor the grad student profiles displayed. But then due to the aforementioned stuff I forgot about them.

Then months later I contacted the school...but another department. In doing so I put out some emails to faculty that could sit on my committee -- suggested by the department i was researching. Well, one of those I emailed called me out of the blue and, gently but persuasively, urged me to consider the department where she has her main appointment. It just happens that it was the department I'd looked at months earlier.

I waffled and she called me AGAIN. While driving home for the holidays. I was floored.

I waffled less but still waffled. Eventually I applied to both programs, made the final cut for both and felt a sense of resonance the moment I interviewed wit the program I'd written off earlier.

Despite not meeting the requirements, my fear about the field, my multiple apps (some schools frown on this), and my mentor's concerns I was accepted and I think I always knew it was right to accept.

Now, I couldn't be happier.

But it is NOT where I thought I'd be when I started this process.