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dagnabbit

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Everything posted by dagnabbit

  1. Ah I'm sorry, I didn't understand that you were shooting for J-1 status. That's a better idea, yeah.
  2. Isn't it the case that she can apply to change her F-2 visa to J-2 once you're already settled in the U.S.? If that's what she wants, that is. I work in an international student services office at my university, and it seems that those types of processes move quicker when one is actually inside the country.
  3. @oakeshott yeah, I did consider doing that. I do think that the official visits seem to present an unusually good opportunity to meet a lot of faculty and grad students at once, though, and a big draw for me is the chance to meet some members of my potential cohort. Once we know where we'll be this fall, my partner and I are thinking that we might take a private trip to the area to get a feel for it / try to lock down an apartment. Of course, this all hinges on our ability to get reasonably priced airfare...
  4. I know this is a really silly problem to have, but of course the two programs I've been accepted to (thus far) have overlapping visiting days... It's a shame because I plan to attend both, but I'm only going to be able to go to half of each. Of course I could make a decision to attend one visit in entirety and not the other, but the main reasons that I'm attending the visiting days are to meet with POIs/get a feel for the departments and to see the campuses/cities (never been to either place) that I might be living in for the next 5+ years; therefore, choosing to visit one department and not the other would actually hamper my ability to make a rational choice. Sigh. Of course, an acceptance from Columbia/Stanford/Michigan could solve this problem quickly!
  5. I'm confused - you applied for this cycle and are waiting for results, or you plan to apply this fall? In the case of the former, you should definitely not sign a contract until you've heard back from all of your programs. In either case you should be honest with the interviewers about your applications/plans to apply, because there are three possible outcomes of doing so: 1. They turn you down because they believe that you're not a good fit for the job/vice versa, which is to your benefit in the long run because you've avoided wasting a year of your time 2. It doesn't affect their decision at all, but they are now prepared for you to leave to go to grad school 3. They decide that your desire to pursue graduate study reflects well on your aspirations as a researcher, which makes them more likely to hire you. Best of luck!
  6. I got my Davis offer too - fellowship for the first quarter, but non-resident supplemental tuition not covered for the first year (I'm an American out-of-state applicant). It's a shame because the stipend is actually pretty good (~ $2200/month) but I would be on the hook for 15k in tuition fees during the first year, which seems a little ridiculous. Definitely influencing my decision...
  7. As did I, but my disappointment could not overwhelm my excitement for the weekend / my rapidly approaching recruitment weekends. Plus, Chicago is a terrific program in an underappreciated city - in the case that you end up accepting their offer, you will love it there. @sociology27, best of luck to you! I have a strong suspicion that Penn will rise a bit in the US news rankings that come out next month, considering that they place very well and seem to train their PhDs as well as any top 20 school.
  8. I would say Michigan is also possible next week, although if past trends hold then it would be towards the end of the week.
  9. I would not worry about Columbia yet. It's still about a week early for them, and they haven't been claimed on the forum. I don't know about you all, but if I got into Columbia I would definitely: 1. Call my parents 2. Start selling plasma regularly to be able to afford NYC rent 3. Share the good news on this board Let's assume that the posts are trolls until proven non-trolls.
  10. Also claiming a Davis admit! Nice confidence booster after a few rejections. Big congrats to everybody who has received good news so far. Another thing - the congeniality and camaraderie displayed by the people in this thread makes me feel optimistic about our field. Here's to hoping that we all become friendly acquaintances, collaborators, and even coauthors in the future. The only schools left on my list are Stanford, Columbia, and Michigan - obviously an admission from any of these would make my decision an easy one, but I am very content with my current options. Good luck to everybody still waiting for good news!
  11. Also received the rejection e-mail from UCSD, and I'm in IR as well which supports @jge's hypothesis.
  12. If the rest of my programs release decisions on approximately the same date as last cycle, then it's really next week that I have to worry about... Not sure if that makes me more or less anxious. That being said, my worst case scenario outcome has changed from "wait another year and spend a lot more money on applications" to "attend a good program in a beautiful city with great weather," so I think I've officially lost my complaining privileges this cycle.
  13. I agree with @fuzzylogician that you definitely have time to work on both, but I think that your primary focus should be on your application materials. There is no guarantee that your manuscript will be published or even R&R-ed within a year; however, studying well for the GRE and investing a lot of time in your SOP and writing sample will almost certainly increase your chances of admission.
  14. For what it's worth, US News graduate program rankings are decided through surveying academics at "peer institutions." Programs are ranked by averaging the ratings assigned to them in the surveys (on a scale of 1 to 5), and then placing them in order from 5 to 1. The thing is that this relies on the surveyed academics having some idea of what goes on at the programs that they're rating, so maybe there is simply a lack of knowledge about unranked programs such as Wayne State and Western Michigan. Of course, this usually corresponds with lower program quality.
  15. There is a lot of noise in the US News rankings (which, as Comparativist pointed out, are the authoritative ones for PS), but they can generally be used to understand where a school falls on the scale of Harvard to Kent State. The rule that you should generally attend the highest-ranked program to which you are accepted typically only applies when you are deciding between tiers - for example, it's best to choose Stanford over UNC, Columbia over OSU, NYU over UC-Davis, et cetera. I really don't think the ratings are too useful when comparing closely-ranked programs, and if you are deciding between (to use your example) Riverside and Merced then you should focus on their placement in your subfield. Most schools have this information available on their website, and it's really not a good sign if they don't. After all, most people pursue a PhD with the intention to use it, so it's very important to know how graduates of each prospective program are using theirs.
  16. Condolences to all who've received the bittersweet news from tOSU - it seems like they always have some funding issues, which is unfortunate because it's an otherwise excellent program. On the other hand, an excellent program considered you strong enough applicants to admit, so that should at least boost your confidence for the rest of the cycle! @VMcJ, you're on a roll this year! If you don't mind telling us, what changes did you make to your file from last year?
  17. Thanks so much, everybody! @changeisgood - ha, I will admit I'm not a big fan of the color scheme, but it would actually be a step up from my current undergrad institution. Good luck on TAMU - I'm glad I won't be competing with you, as this website seems to attract really strong applicants.
  18. Just got an e-mail - I'm in at UT Austin! First acceptance, it's great to know that I'll be somewhere this fall. It's a really, really good feeling. I had sort of ruled it out after seeing a bunch of admissions go up on the results page, so the e-mail came as a surprise. Don't lose hope, everyone still waiting for news! It's just the beginning of the cycle. Fellow Austin admits, I hope I see you all in March! P.S. For what it's worth, my application status still has not changed on the UT Direct website. It was implied that official letters/funding offers would be worked out over the next couple weeks, though full funding was promised.
  19. I would suggest meeting/speaking with your letter writers to ask their advice - that's what I did when assembling my file, and they helped me figure out what should and should not go on an undergrad/B.A. holder's CV. However, if that isn't an option, it might be useful to look through some grad students' CVs (many department websites have them available) to see what kinds of things they've included.
  20. You should be fine - UIUC is in an extremely inexpensive part of the country, and Champaign is no exception.
  21. You're setting up a straw man. Nobody said that TT jobs are exclusively occupied by T10 PhDs, just that it is empirically true that T10 PhDs occupy a majority of them. Think about it - if your goal was to be a tenured professor, and you knew that a school (such as the one you describe) only places one person from each cohort in a TT position, would you invest 5-7 years of your life in that program? People get PhDs for many different reasons, and there are other fulfilling and lucrative careers outside of academe. It makes sense to go to a program where the outcome for the modal graduate is one that you would be happy with.
  22. I agree with @Comparativist that we should really refrain from calling to ask about decision dates. If the trolls know that they can get us to call departments simply by making a few fake posts, they're going to keep trolling because they'll understand that their trolling works. As others have said, I don't think any major program has ever released results without at least a few people claiming them on gradcafe. Don't feed the trolls, as they say.
  23. Thanks for posting this, @BigTenPoliSci, and best of luck to you on the market. I think I'm just confused about how applicants could foster these kinds of misconceptions for so long. All of my advisors warned me about job prospects, as did my academic parents, and each day brings a new PSR thread about how dismal the market looks. I think that one big problem is that academics view anything besides TT placement as failure, and a common thing that I've heard is that getting a TT position is the only way to make up for the opportunity costs of getting a PhD. To me, that's such a strange way of thinking about it; if one's only desire is to make money then why would they even consider this career? You could probably make as much as an assistant professor straight out of undergrad in certain sectors. I would much rather take my chances on a rough academic job market than sit in an office throughout my 20s, making good money but always regretting my decision not to try. Worst-case scenario, I start climbing the corporate ladder significantly later than my peers and never become a millionaire (oh, the horror).
  24. Can we all make a pact to post our profiles/results in the wrap-up thread when we've heard back from all of our programs? I know that past wrap-up threads have been an invaluable resource for me throughout this process, and I feel like the only way to give back is to give future applicants more data to analyze.
  25. You would have to be a bit more specific about what you're interested in studying. That being said, I would say that UNC, Duke, Texas-Austin, Emory, TAMU, and maybe UVA are the best programs in that region. I don't know your situation, obviously, but the advice that I have received from faculty advisors/grad students is that geographic constraints aren't really compatible with academic careers. Typically one tries to go to the best program they can get into, no matter where it is.
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