punctilious

Interesting info regarding the incoming Harvard cohort: 1/3 have a BA only, whereas 2/3 have an MA BAs from Tufts, McGill, Princeton, Cornell, Barnard, Kenyon, Cambridge, Columbia, Bristol MAs are from McGill, Oxford, Georgetown, NYU, and Yale I find this intriguing as I feel it has often been said that you're less likely to get into an Ivy if you have an MA, but clearly that is not the case. And though many of these schools are Ivy equivalents, not all (or even most) are Ivies.

Harvard has the same, and it basically seems like an excuse to allow a ton of undergrads to show up for a week to classes they probably shouldn't be in lol.

I wouldn't consider this trolling. I think it is extremely important for us to continuously confront and recognize the state of the job market and demand that institutions are honest, upfront, detailed, and transparent about their TT placement rates.

All the more reason not to spend tens of thousands on a master's degree that has no guarantee of getting you into a PhD program. You may be happy with your choice, and that's totally valid, but others here should not feel that they need to go into debt for the MAPH (or any other unfunded MA) and that a gap year (or more) isn't valuable. It absolutely can be and I truly don't think any adcomm would look down upon taking time between your degrees to do other things.

I think this is a bit unfair. Husband took two years between undergrad and his PhD to work a non-academic job and, yes, read and write. He chose not to attend any of the MA programs he got into during that time (Trinity College Dublin, Edinburgh, and Cambridge) because they didn't provide funding. I think it is absolutely helpful that he took the time to read, refine his research interests, and write (getting some book review & short story publications). I do not think whatsoever that it "didn't look good" on his CV, and instead of spending a ton of money on an MA, we saved money and he's now at Harvard for his PhD...

Coming from someone who worked as an intern (paid, I might add, as I have similarly bad feelings about unpaid internships) at a bankruptcy law office throughout high school and college, I am really looking out for everyone when I say do not go into debt for your humanities degree. There are many people I saw coming into that office who were plunged into horrendous debt from their degrees, and the pain they were going through I cannot imagine was worth it. Because of that experience, I chose to turn down undergrad offers at more prestigious schools to go to the school where I received tuition remission and a scholarship, and I think that was the absolute best choice I ever could have made to start my adult life on the right foot. Now I know I wasn’t an English literature student, but I’m married to one and the fact that neither of us have student debt makes a huge impact on our ability to get through this PhD. I think it’s awful that Chicago preys on people with this extremely expensive program. As far as I’m aware, even my alma mater offers funding for their English MAs and I am certain Chicago is rolling in way more money, so Chicago should be ashamed of that. Don’t fall into the trap of accruing student loan debt for your humanities degree!

That’s basically what husband did! And if you get your generals list you can also work through some of those!

I didn’t even know Harvard had a waitlist! Good luck to you!!!

From our end it looks like Harvard is done making offers, as Husband received a list of accepted students and their research areas a couple days ago. Looks like they accepted about 15 students. If any admitted students are on here, let me know if you have any questions!

LOL and this is why everyone loves you here. You had faith when we didn't!

Ah yes, I remember husband being on the 'unofficial waitlist' at Brown last year. Very odd and anxiety-inducing! Lol.

His stipend I believe is increasing by 3% for the next academic year, and I believe it was something more like $34k or $35k already, but this is helpful to try to conceptualize. He seems very frustrated by the idea of having to do estimated quarterly taxes, and that our tax preparer seemed to ignore the stipend situation. There needs to be more education on this by the universities, and more support for the students.

Probably, yes? At Harvard, you don't start teaching until the third year, so hopefully by then he'll actually receive a W2. It is very frustrating to not have any taxes taken out.

I can only speak for Harvard, but nope, no taxes are taken out. In fact, they didn't even give us any sort of tax document, all we have are the "pay stubs." Frankly, I have no idea right now, but it's looking like quarterly will be the best option if we don't want to absolutely hate our lives next year!

I have an additional question for current students--how do taxes end up working out for you? We hired a tax preparer this year (since in 2018 husband had two jobs and started grad school, we moved states, and I started a business and became a remote employee for my employer back in our old state). It seems like our tax preparer was a bit unfamiliar with the whole grad-student-stipends-are-taxable-income thing and I don't see any mention of it on our return we are currently reviewing. Do you end up owing a lot? I am very concerned for both 2018 and coming years. I was once an AmeriCorps VISTA and the fact that taxes aren't taken out of your paycheck becomes awful with the amount you end up owing during tax season. I fear that this situation is going to be similar.

@bfat That is a RIDICULOUSLY helpful response. Seriously appreciate you taking the time to respond.

I'd love to hear from you your thoughts on publishing and presenting at conferences. When should a new PhD student be accomplishing these? How many times throughout the PhD is 'good' or 'expected'? Wow this is worded horribly, I hope it makes sense. I'm but a mere graphic designer.

I am so, so sorry, but this really made me lol. That is awful.

Husband and I are so incredibly happy for you!!!

I know we are in the thick of admissions results here on the literature forum. I feel like when I was here at this time last year, I was working hard to imagine and plan out what life could be like in the coming year, and trying to get as much information as I could out of these forums and other sources. I also think that sometimes it can feel a bit isolating in graduate school, and perhaps the struggles can be somewhat hard to discuss. For that reason, I wanted to open up a discussion with the current students who still visit the forum to see how graduate school is going for you, and give a space for applicants/prospective students to ask any questions that may be lingering. Here are some initial prompting questions, but anyone else, feel free to chime in! Has your PhD so far been what you expected it to be? What are you impressions of your program? Has anything about your program surprised you? How are you feeling in general about your experience? Have you found your research interests changing? Are there any hardships you've faced that you want to share? How about any successes you'd like to celebrate?

If they can't reach you by phone, I'm sure they will send you an email, not reconsider their decision!

Congratulations, and good luck to you!!!

I would agree with others that it totally varies from person to person. @Warelin's funding spreadsheet notes the Living Wage Index which might help give a better idea of how one might fare on the stipend of a particular school. If you have a partner who brings in income or kids to care for, that of course makes a difference as well. Harvard's stipend is quite good at $2,886 per month, $721 of which we stick into a separate Taxes savings account each month. Our rent is a horrendous $2,300 per month but we don't have trouble with it because I bring in an income higher than his, and we continue to be able to save monthly into my 401k, emergency fund savings, and our 10-year-plan savings. I would imagine many grad students would need to have a roommate, at least in the Boston area or similarly costly cities.

LOL sounds like some of the stuff we heard regarding Chicago last year when Harvard was trying to convince Husband (he didn't even get into Chicago though so ?). I believe "snake pit" was the phrase used.

Yes! He took American Modernism with Alworth this semester and is hoping to be a TA for that course in the future, and he'll (hopefully) be taking Media Theory with him this coming semester. I was really jealous when he attended some event earlier in the semester where Alworth lectured about book covers. I find that super fascinating. P.S. Husband actually applied to Edinburgh, Cambridge, and Oxford (plus TCD) masters degrees his first round! He ended up deciding against attending because of the lack of funding, but cool to see you're applying to a lot of those too.