cowgirlsdontcry

Windows came out with its first stable platform meant for the Net in 1995. Word wasn't very stable before that (neither was Windows--I had a standalone computer in the office with Windows and a very early version of Word) and a majority of companies used WordPerfect, which was the big wordprocessing program that was used almost unilaterally across the US until then. Many companies had servers and limited networks that had capabilities of emailing intra-company. I worked as the assistant to General Counsel at one of the top 4 oil companies in the world in the early 90s and it had a network that was supposed to be company-wide, but many departments had their own servers and networks for security reasons (i.e. the law department that General Counsel was over). When Windows 95 and Office 95 were launched (I was back in a private law firm in Denver by that time), many state and county departments went in that direction almost immediately. State universities followed within a year. Law firms were slower to respond, keeping their WordPerfect. My firm went to Word in late '95. Outside of some quick training in Windows/Word, I was the Go To person who trained everyone in the firm. I developed the templates the firm used and ways to use the auto numbering system that has not always worked well in Word. Now, although I have Word 2016 Pro, I simply have it set for MLA, although I do have a template for Chicago, which English publishes in, since all I do is write critical literary essays. My experiences with Word evolved within the world of law firms, from mid-size firms of 50 attorneys to world-wide firms with 1,000+ attorneys. No one is more paranoid about security than lawyers and most of them still use it every day to send documents back and forth between firms to make red-line comments. I have also seen red-lined docs come from clients with their comments. You are completely correct in what you say about security, but I worked in the field until six years ago, and I know what I saw happening every day.

I'm in the English department and receive a stipend, insurance and waiver of tuition. The stipend is low, but not as low as Chai Tea's is. I have other independent income, but most of the GAs are in roommate situations. Most assistantships are 1/2 time (which is as much as the department will allow) = 20 hours per week. I teach a 2/2 schedule and hold office hours on campus. My MA campus was different in that the 20 hours had to be spent completely on campus. Anything lower than the 20 hours is quarter time and the benefits are reduced accordingly.

I don't know how you think it's easier to read or more professional, as all that a PDF does is create a "picture" of the Word doc. As far as formatting goes, I have used Word since it's inception and formatting does not change because of use on an older machine and/or software. As a matter of course, Word docs in the most current version won't even open in older versions of Word. Universities (even in poor states) have the most current software available to faculty and staff (usually in the form of Office 365, which is also available to their students). If a university has the version of Adobe that allows for extensive editing of PDFs, they will have the most current version of Word. I think that many students are using Google Docs instead of Word and that may create a problem with the application software that universities use. I know it creates issues with Turnitin for both my students and me at times. Having said all of that, I converted my docs to PDFs for submission with applications during my season, unless the program asked for it in Word.

Tuition waivers are already taxable over $5,250 per year. I just looked it up. However, currently any tuition reduction you receive for graduate education is qualified, and therefore tax free, if both of the following requirements are met. It is provided by an eligible educational institution. You are a graduate student who performs teaching or research activities for the educational institution. You must include in income any other tuition reductions for graduate education that you receive. Please see IRS PUB 970 for more. What I read about the new tax bill online is that Steven Bloom said "institutions wouldn't be able to waive tuition costs without imposing new taxable income on grad students." This is all speculation about a proposed bill at this point. We shouldn't get tied up in knots yet. These things always get changed and the proposed changes to higher ed are impossible, because universities depend on the cheap labor of GTAs. I will worry about this when and if it happens. Too many variables to factor in.

Sometimes the apps will designate what they want and sometimes they will simply leave it open to either. Why do you consider a PDF more professional? I like it because the PDF is more fixed. Word docs can be changed.

Only scores are posted and that is what is sent. TakeruK is correct in that percentiles change from year-to-year. I took the GRE once as an undergrad before getting my MA and every year my percentile changes slightly (up or down depending on the scores deleted and added to the composite).

1. Some depts. have their own number, but most want scores sent to grad school; 2. In your account at ETS, you can see where your scores were sent; 3. Everything goes together; since it takes about a week for your AW score to show up, they will send shortly after that. If there is a problem and school can't find your GRE scores, ETS will tell you what batch your scores were sent in and you can give that to the grad school. 4. The employees will enter your scores, unless you were asked as part of your application. In that case, they will check.

I don't believe UMass is a safe school for any field. I attended there for a year as an undergrad in the National Exchange Student program and found the professors very similar to my home school. There were a lot of students in the exchange that year. Some went home early because of the difficulties they faced. Only a couple of us finished even a semester and we were offered the opportunity to stay for the spring semester. Cannot say what their sociology program is like, but their English grad program is hard for outsiders to crack from what I understand. It's a great school to attend.

I don't believe you are being realistic about stipends. Humanities departments are notorious about low stipends. At my particular university, English and History are tied for lowest stipend on campus. I agree with the other posters here. On my campus, all TAs/RAs work a half-time position of 20 hours per week. I looked at the compensation and TA/RG/RAs History at the U of MN. MN requires a half-time commitment, and as most universities do, requires a commitment to the university with regard to outside employment. I did not find compensation listed, but didn't look extensively. What you are talking about _kita is possible only if a student is registered as a non-degree student. At some point, NYC would have to apply and be accepted into the PhD program in order to accomplish all the things a PhD student must accomplish before they can graduate.

Most of the programs I applied to during my season of applications required a WS of 15-20 pages. I did not "count" the Works Cited pages as part of the essay unless it was specified as you show in your post. As I was working on my MA at the time of my applications to PhD programs, most of my seminar papers were in the 15-20 page range, with some professors asking for 20-25 pages. These page counts were essay pages alone. My concerns were the same as yours. I called the departments that simply had a page number for WS and asked. If you email, you may or may not get an answer because it is an especially busy time. You don't want to shirk on your Works Cited for obvious reasons.

So did you decide to not apply to PhD programs?

Most campuses have a center where you can sign up for counseling. It is amazing (not in a good way) how overwhelmed these centers are with students who need help. I'm only in my first semester of a PhD, but my department strongly emphasizes taking two academic classes per semester and no more, as we also have a 2/2 teaching load. It will take slightly longer to finish the classes, but I don't feel the stress strongly either. This is a far cry from my MA program, where I had to be on campus for 20 hours per week as a TA, and take 9 academic hours a semester to keep my contract in force. The last semester of my MA, I took 6 hours thesis, worked 20 hours and had to take one academic class to keep contract in place. I thought I was losing my mind. I am a non-traditional student and had a career for 20 years as a paralegal prior to going back to school. Because law is fast-paced and has a high burnout rate, grad school (MA and now PhD) is not quite as stressful for me as for some others. I do have stress, but have learned to manage it better than most, because of that career as a paralegal.

I only used Magoosh and was faithful working with it (at least on the verbal side). I raised my score from the first practice test from mid-150s to an actual GRE score in verbal of 163. As you know, the math is algebra and finite math. It pays to learn the formulas for the finite problems. I had only used a TI-84 in class and never learned the formulas, whereas I knew the algebraic formulas. Therefore, my math scores were rather deficient. I feel that, if I had practiced with the math, to the extent I practiced with the verbal, I would have had a much better score. English departments are going to be verbal heavy and I had only so much time, so chose to focus on the verbal.

I actually bought this guy's general handbook before I start completing applications last year. Don't waste your money--it's $15, and won't tell you anything you don't already know, if you have been preparing for this application season. I could write a better handbook for English PhD applicants. In the article, he does make a few applicable comments that I certainly did do on my own. The statement in the quote about the visit is interesting. I don't know about other fields, but in English there can actually be answers in FAQs that discourage applicants from visiting the campus. I never contacted a POI prior to applying because in English, we don't work in labs--we are TAs; however, I did look at the faculty of every program before applying, to determine whether it fit my needs to be a 20th century Americanist. That just says there are things we, as applicants, do not know. Sorry to ramble on.

Oh Wow! I was off on that. Thanks. I was thinking University of Texas.