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I'm going into an MA next year, and this summer I'll probably just read some stuff by potential advisors at PhD programs I plan to apply to in the fall. Somehow whenever I do "summer reading" for the courses I'm about to begin, I always somehow read the irrelevant stuff or completely miss the point I was supposed to get, and have to re-read everything once I'm more acquainted with my courses.

The ideal man for women like us owns his own very successful business and can move around! Perhaps he is even an artist and we get cool free art to hang in our homes. Since he works out of his studio at home, he can do things like bake fresh bread during the day and answer the door for plumbers and electricians. Ultimately I'd rather be with someone less ambitious than I am because I wouldn't feel quite as much pressure about staying home to raise children. I'd love to have a husband whose career isn't so demanding that he can't spend any time helping out and having fun around the house. If things go swimmingly with my current boyfriend, that is the kind of lifestyle we can look forward to. My father had a high-paying job, but it required him to spend much of his time on business trips and he was not around very much. I'd rather not raise kids with someone who is only around half the time. I'm fine with doing my part around the house, but I'm not okay with being a full-time academic and a housewife at the same time.

I was faced with a somewhat similar decision between two good programs. One was slightly better for my academic interests, but the other would have allowed me to live much more comfortably, close to family and with my boyfriend. For a while I was leaning towards the latter one, thinking that I would probably do better in a more comfortable and happy environment. But then when I spoke to my family about it, they all told me that I was crazy for considering the adademically inferior program. I decided on the less comfy program in a strange city. Speaking to your girlfriend about it will obviously be a bit different, but speaking to your family is a good way to get well-meaning advice from people who are more familiar with your situation than we on this website are. Most of the people posting about whether or not they should stay where their SO is have underlying problems in their relationships, suggesting that maybe it would be better for them to prioritize their academic careers. But you haven't elaborated on this, so maybe attending an ideal program isn't worth sacrificing the most valuable relationship you have (if that's what it is).

It sounds like you should explain to him exactly what your reservations are about him attending the slave-wage program. Tell him bluntly that you don't think it's the best offer, and that you will not be able to come see him very often. I am in a somewhat similar situation to you in that my SO wants to move with me, essentially following me as I am quite a bit more ambitious than he is. On the one hand, this is great because it gives me the freedom to decide where I - and by extension we - are going to live. Also, it's nice to be with someone who knows how to relax and who makes me stop thinking about productivity for a short while. On the other hand, this freedom makes me feel responsible for the both of us, to the point where I become responsible for both of our futures and he can relinquish his own responsibilities, dumping them on me (along with all the housework). If he fails to find work where I go, then he can use me as a convenient excuse to explain to his family why he is unemployed and broke. I am worried that I will end up having to cover our expenses in the event that he can't find a job, as he hasn't even started looking at anything yet. I also don't want him to resent me for making him waste years of his life following me around aimlessly, if things don't end up working out. On a different note, I am worried about what my parents will think. He does not quite live up to the standards my family (and I myself) have set for me, but I am happy to forgo those traditional standards if he a least tries to rectify the situation. For all these reasons, I am forcing myself to be blunt with him. I know that I would advise a friend in the same situation to break up with the guy, but I know that I would regret doing so myself. So I am instead telling him exactly what my expectations are for next year, and that in reality he should probably focus more on getting his own career on track instead of trying to live with me. I doubt either of us will be happy if, living together, I am insanely busy and he is unemployed. At least that way if we do break up, he will have a more stable life to fall back on. If your boyfriend wouldn't be happy attending the slave-wage program if you weren't living nearby, then I would personally discourage him from attending. Sorry to usurp your thread with whining about my boyfriend, but I find that a few of my friends share similar problems in being with men who are less motivated to do well for themselves than they are. Often our anxieties seem to be rooted in very similar frustrations!

Relaxing for a month with university friends I won't be seeing next year, then doing an intensive language program.

I have a running Word document (not as organized as a spreadsheet, but it's only for narrowing down places I may apply to) where I enter in useful information about programs that sound interesting. Whenever I have a look around a department website, I note down who the relevant faculty members are and what their listed interests are and keep it all organized by university in the Word document. Looking up relevant faculty is a major pain in the ass, so you'll save yourself a lot of stress by casually looking up programs when you're bored instead of planning to do all the research during the summer and autumn. It may also be useful to keep a running list of places that do NOT have faculty relevant to your interests, so you don't get confused and check the same places over and over again.

Another reason that the UK PhD is shorter is that the MA is a prerequisite, and undergraduate work is significantly more focused instead of covering more varied liberal arts topics. It's just my own personal opinion, and probably goes against what most people think, but personally I'd say that UK institutions offer better preparation for the PhD, but don't offer quite as strong PhD programs (that's not to say the bachelors degrees are better, just more specifically oriented towards a future academic career in one traditional subject). Obviously in the US, a large number of PhD students earn their MAs first as the Brits do, but there is at least the possibility of starting right out of a bachelors degree, in which case more coursework is needed. Although I'm not exactly familiar with how this works on a practical level, many programs say that some coursework (perhaps a year) can be waived if a student has already completed an MA and learned the necessary material. So, a PhD program that's supposed to take 6 years could actually take 5 if you time everything right. I'd be wary of going for an unusually short PhD program, just as I'd be wary of enrolling somewhere where it's normal for students to take 10 years to complete their degrees. Judging from how knowledgeable my younger professors have tended to be, the PhD years seem to be where you pack in an insane amount of knowledge and deep understanding of the topic at hand. I'd prefer to do it well and do it right than to get it over quickly and find myself in a dismal job market with few publications and a rushed dissertation.

Does anyone know anything about the independent residences/colleges listed on the university website (http://www.housing.utoronto.ca/residence/Independent.htm)? They look relatively cheap and central, but just seem strange because I've never attended a university that had residences like these. Do any of them allow pets? I assume not, but the terms and conditions don't explicitly mention pets being forbidden so I'm not sure. I want to bring my pet with me, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to find an affordable place to live that will allow me to bring her with me. I may end up leaving her with my parents as I'll only be attending UofT for one year. Another thing is, if my SO ends up moving in with me, would we both be able to live in one of these places if we're not married and only I am a UofT student? Are there any specific advantages to living in these places instead of normal university-managed accommodation?

The iPad seems extremely cool but also extremely unnecessary for me. I just upgraded to a computer that is under a decade old, and this thing is futuristic enough for me. I still haven't been able to get my head around things like the iPhone or iPod touch, so the iPad is going to take a while for me to accept as normal. It's a hilarious looking product, the kind of thing that in 10-15 years I bet we'll all be laughing at, as we type away on our computerized pieces of paper or invisible telepathic air computers or whatever the future holds in store. To me, it is kind of a rich person's plaything, or maybe the essential device of the up and coming generation. I grew up using computers whose general format has changed little since the first time I used one (aside from the switch from mouse to laptop finger-pad-thing). An integrated screen/keyboard that I touch with my fingertips or a pen just seems too fanciful and weird for me to use in everyday and practical situations. If it suits you more though, go with your gut then. Although I second people's advice to wait for the next generation to come out before buying one. One needs only to recollect the extremely quick evolution of the early iPod to realize how much better the upcoming models of the iPad may be.

How long does it take to get through each level?

Be sure to keep in mind that this guy selected you to work with, probably over many qualified candidates. Of course you should take your gut feelings into consideration, but at the same time you shouldn't allow your nerves to take over and back out of an ideal program.

It may be helpful to also look at what kind of work the programs' current students are doing. Can't really answer your question, but I just thought I'd stress that it's great you're reading the professors' work. Doing so will give you a better idea of what kind of methodologies they like, what kind of discussions they find valuable, etc., and will allow you to speak more comfortably and fluently about your proposed research in your SOP. Keep at it!

Most of the summer language programs I have come across begin in mid-June and end in mid-August, to accommodate the average university student who has these months off. Since my college uses a very different academic calendar, I had a lot of trouble trying to find something that fit with my own summer schedule. If you can afford it, I'd suggest looking at some European programs. At least in the UK, the summers are longer as there are fewer breaks during the year, so the few language programs I did find tended to be later, or were only a week or two in duration. Also, the UK programs tended to be cheaper, despite the exchange rate, so if you find a suitable program it could offset the travel costs. If you're trying to brush up your skills in a language you already have some experience speaking, perhaps you could consider spending a month or two doing volunteer work either at a local community center (if, say, Spanish is your foreign language of choice) or with an international program like WWOOF. Since the latter choice only requires you to pay for transportation, it could actually work out to be cheaper than taking an intensive course. Just out of curiosity, has anyone had any success using programs like Rosetta Stone? Do they require huge amounts of time, equivalent to formal language classes? My understanding is that they teach you how to speak the language, and aren't specifically directed towards the reading comprehension expectations set by PhD programs. Still, if I am going to bother learning a language (or several), I wouldn't mind learning how to speak a little as well as read. Since I'm looking at having to learn 3 languages in the next few years, I'm wondering if Rosetta Stone would be a worthwhile investment for at least one of them. Thoughts?

My university sent me a big packet of stuff in the mail, but since I applied using my parent's mailing address, and I live very far from them, I can't look at any of the stuff. When I've asked my parents what was in the packet they just say "oh, nothing that looks too important really" and move on to the next topic. Great. I better not get stuck having to take the crappy classes no one wanted due to missing registration dates or something!

What is the point of pursuing the MA, when you will already be pursuing a higher degree?

It depends on what field you're looking into. Try having a look on the websites of universities you're interested in applying to, as some put up the average GRE scores for their current students. Obviously, unless you're approaching even 800s, it's always a good idea to try to improve your GRE score if you can afford to retake the test. That said, your scores sound good enough for most arts programs and if I were you I would focus more on improving other parts of your application, like making sure your GPA is high but also perfecting a writing sample and maybe even trying to get a paper published. The GRE is important, but for most arts/humanities programs it's the least important part of your application. I plan to reapply to PhD programs in history after I finish my MA, and when I retake the GRE I hope to get scores like yours!

Yeah, just think about the autumn months when you were desperately grasping for more things to add to your CV. Now there's going to be ANOTHER DEGREE on there, and the skills that come with it. You'll be in a much better position for applying. For me, there will be time to re-take the GRE, improve my language skills, and submit a paper for publication. And, having been through all this, we'll know what to expect and I doubt it will be quite as confusing a task the second time around. I'm sure that in a year or two I'll be back on this website moaning about how much I hate my life, but for now that's a distant worry.

I would explain your situation and ask for some extra time. One of my MA offers explicitly stated that they wanted the response by a certain date if not earlier, but that I should contact them if I needed extra time to decide. You may even manage to squeeze some funding from them if you explain that you are waiting on a funding source and may not be able to attend their program for financial reasons. This worked for a family friend, which prompted my parents to force me to tell the admissions people (AFTER I had already mailed in my official acceptance of their offer) that I may have to attend my other offer (with funding) if they are unable to give me any funding. How embarrassing. I am also choosing between MA programs so I don't think it's anywhere near as complicated or binding as PhD positions. So, although I haven't had any successful experience with such a situation, I'd say to just send an email off to each place explaining your situation. Be honest about it, and if they want you in their program (which they presumably do, as they accepted you) they will probably give you more time to decide.

Continue going out and celebrating. You won't be able to have any fun come August, so you better get it all out of your system now! Finishing up my undergrad before starting an MA next year, I'm trying to spend as much time as I can with my friends since we will all be living in different places (read: different countries!) next year and I really neglected a lot of my friends when I was busy with applications. I'm also trying to finish up my classes without losing any momentum, trying to make this my strongest semester yet. That's quite difficult, as I have the dangerous feeling that my degree is in the bag and there's no need to stress about anything. When putting off this work, I tend to look up my future program/university/city a lot to find out more about it and about housing. But there's really nothing interesting about it on the internet and it's just a fruitless waste of time. I suppose that's just my attempt to adjust to having nothing to check obsessively now that results are out. My suggestion: find some kind of blog that interests you, like a cooking, fashion, technology, whatever blog that relates to your personal hobbies or interests. I have a few bookmarked and now check those somewhat obsessively now that I've deleted the application status bookmarks from my browser menu. Find something totally unrelated to your academic life and worries so that you aren't constantly distracted thinking about your future program. Reading the NY Times is good for this too, especially the opinion section and the letters. Getting frustrated about political issues is a great way to forget your troubles...

With most important/challenging things I do, I generally find that I finally understand what's going on once I finish the task. With essays and my thesis, I finally got a sound and clear grasp of the material and overarching themes after I finished writing. With my applications, it was all much clearer to me after I had written and submitted everything. Only about a month or so after submitting, when initial decisions were going around (i.e. acceptances, not for me) I realized what I did wrong in my SOPs. I had a very strong SOP, but I don't think I succeeded in presenting myself unwaveringly as an ideal and experienced candidate. I was too modest and not confident enough. When I rewrite it next year I will make several major changes, perhaps scrapping the old one and starting completely anew. I will also apply to different programs, and I have already starting looking around to form a list of universities. Lastly, I should have applied for fellowships. I didn't do so because I was applying to PhD programs that always include funding in their offers, but now that I'm going the MA route it would be nice to have some funding. I'm definitely glad that I applied to a wide variety of places, as it gave me a good amount of choice once the decisions went out and I had offers that were good but not necessarily perfect. I think it's inevitable to have regrets with this sort of thing. Admissions committees and professors seem to view applications as very straightforward and simple. Unfortunately, we naive students have much poorer knowledge about the inner workings of departments and committees and about exactly what qualities individual programs may be seeking. In hindsight, with acceptances and rejections in hand, it's much easier to see where I fit in all of this, and what these programs are looking for. Hopefully that will present itself as an advantage for those of us seeking to reapply in a year or two.

I've been offered places at 2 MA programs, one with no funding (I don't think they offer any to MA students) and one with fully paid tuition plus a stipend. I want to attend the former, but I've been told by some people that I should ask them for some kind of assistantship, and that I could have success if I tell them that I've received a "better" offer somewhere else. Has anyone here done this? It doesn't seem wrong to ask, but I don't want to start off on the wrong foot by demanding money from these people right after they accepted me and after I more or less told them their program was my first choice.

Thanks for the advice, but I think I'd prefer not emailing them, at least for now. I did my part in filling out the application and paying the fee. I shouldn't have to nag them for them to send me their decision, as quite frankly it's their responsibility to be on top of that stuff. I definitely would email them if I had any intention of attending the program, but out of principle I'm not going to. I don't really care whether or not I got in, I just don't appreciate being treated like crap. It can't really be that hard to make MA decisions anyways, it's not nearly as complicated as the PhD and there's no funding involved. Just look at my transcript, breeze over the first few sentences of my measly SOP, and tell me yes or no! Not too much to ask, I don't think. If I hear back by mid-April I'll forget the whole thing ever happened, but I doubt I will hear by then.

I always start a word document and write the bibliographic info for each source, then under each source just type out full (but not very long, if I can help it) quotations that I think will come in handy. I type out the full quotations to make sure I get the meaning right when I look the notes over later, and also since my university library sucks and there is a huge shortage of books, I normally don't have the luxury of keeping my books around me when I sit down to write the paper. So, by the time I've finished doing my reading for an essay (usually around 4000 words/15 pages?), I tend to have about 50 pages of typed notes. Then I spend a day just reading through them carefully and labeling each passage which whatever paragraph/theme I want to use it in. Then I create a new Word document in which I copy and paste all these quotes into a sort of outline, so I have all my notes sorted by theme. Then I just write the paper with that in front of me. I developed this method over the course of my first two years of college, and since then I have never received an essay back with less than an excellent grade. Even one time when I realized as I was writing that I had no idea what I was talking about, the well-planned structure and abundance of footnotes it allowed for seems to have saved me and I still pulled off an impressive grade. This method is extremely tedious and inefficient, and I don't really recommend it because by depending on it I've made myself less capable of pulling a decent piece of writing out of my ass. That said, I think it's a really great way to approach long research projects, where you're checking out and returning multiple books at once, and keeping track of everything seems near impossible.

Hm yes, let me just admit that after pulling an all-nighter, I've always then slept for an outrageous number of hours the following night. I also don't understand how people can get by on minimal hours of sleep every night. I'm fine with my studies requiring me to have no social life (well, kinda), but not sleeping isn't an option. When I used to sleep that little in high school, I'd get to a point where I would come home from school, set my stuff down, and wake up the next morning not knowing what had happened or where I was... and not having done any of my homework. Guess I'm just physically incapable of that!

To be honest, I think that as long as you address the person and don't just launch into a rude request/demand then I don't think there's any issue. But since I write so many emails these days, I guess I'm just more anal about it.