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Nah, it's pretty normal. You're good. Regarding the original post, although I also love the idea of having a huge library, I've also moved a LOT lately, and so I value a more minimalist lifestyle. So I tend to prefer eBooks. I'm willing to accept a slight decrease in absorption rate for the extreme increase in convenience.

If it were me, I'd find someone else on the same Fellowship, and ask them about it. Or maybe ask your graduate advisor. More likely, you were paid correctly, and the dates just line up weirdly or something.

Time to start the Hunger Games! @historygeek, I have my eye on you. ?

How did it go? Sending good vibes!

With respect, I think you might be approaching it from the wrong angle. Generally, the reason to do a PhD is to research. You can't do the research that you're interested in in all places. Therefore, you have to first figure out your research interests, then find out what universities have similar programs and professors doing that. Then, you figure out admissions requirements. So the real question is: What are you wanting to research, and where can you do that?

Say no! Just say you haven't made a decision one way or the other yet, and therefore you haven't wanted to resign.

If you don't get many answers, I'd check out some commencement videos on YouTube. Should be a decent cross section of doctorate-granting universities. Edit: It appears that my university does not.

Hey all, The English/rhetoric forum has a spreadsheet going for people to contribute and keep a track of offers and financial packages. It seems particularly useful, especially in terms of new students planning for their lives. Is this something that y'all would find useful if I started it for Comm/Media?

I've never heard of such a thing happening. Unless your offer was contingent upon something besides graduation (like maintaining a particular GPA), they wouldn't have a contractual reason to do so.

I'd request a meeting with the graduate coordinator. Prepare a handful of questions for every program (acceptance rates, GRE score averages, funding opportunities, graduation #s, other things relevant to your discipline, etc.). My gut feeling is that quant would matter far less than reading and writing. It may also be worth posting the question over on the English forum, since they'll be able to share their GRE scores and which programs they were admitted to/rejected from. You may also be able to data mine that information via forum searching.

Generally, yes, you can do this, but it might not be worth it. If it's your top choice school, you'll presumably be applying to it and several others. The cost per school application is - tops - $150. If you're accepted, they will fly you there and pay for it. If you go out in advance, you'll have to pay for everything. So financially, it may be worth spending the $150 on application-related stuff if you're reasonably sure you'll get in. Then you'll be able to save a good bit of travel money and travel on their dime, not your own, come February.

It greatly depends on what program you're applying to, and how seriously they take the GREs. I don't think you should give up, but it is worth talking to the programs you're applying to to see what the average GRE of an admitted student is. What field are you in?

@AGingeryGinger I met someone else doing History the other week; he seemed very nice, although on his way to a faculty job. So that's good! That also means that I found the building where your department is. We're neighbors, so we should, I dunno, meet in the middle sometime.

Can you ask someone who knows him better? Ask the front desk person, or his administrative assistant if he has one. That person will know if he has a sense of humor. I still vote for sticky bath mat!

I agree with everyone else. There's a big difference between a wardrobe malfunction and "Through no fault of my own, I was injured." It's definitely up to you to set the tone. If I had to guess, he was in fight or flight mode, and probably didn't spend very much time looking at your naked-bits. If it had been me with a male student, I'd've grabbed a towel and covered you for modesty until help arrived. And then denied that I had even glanced at anything. If you want to defuse the situation immediately (assuming the professor has a sense of humor), buy a non-slip shower mat, put a bow on it, and present it to him during your meeting. Maybe bring some hummus to snack on. In my experience, when something embarrassing happens, you can either ignore it, and let shame overwhelm you, or you can totally and 100% own it. I find the latter is better for mental-health.

One additional note from a non-SLPer: I don't know if you can work for the state in SLP (I would think you could? But I'm not sure), but those loans might be eligible for loan-forgiveness if you can after 10 years. So that might be an element worth investigating too. Maybe income-based repayment too? That said, if you do, make sure that each of your payments over that decade "counts" towards that 10 year/120 payment line. Loan companies frequently don't know what they're talking about, and I've had several friends whose company told them they were good...only to discover a few years later that they didn't have the "Right" type of loan. Either way, I wouldn't go to grad school for a program you're not at least 90% sure of, no matter how prestigious it is. I think you have to look in your heart to determine if you just have jitters, or if you're legit not passionate about the field.

I'm a baby PhD student - I just started. But there's no time like the present to start planning. For a variety of reasons, Spouse and I are both in agreement that our futures will probably take us out of the US. Fortunately, his job is pretty flexible (he can be a fire sprinkler engineer anywhere, evidently), so my future career will be the deciding factor. We're both US citizens, and will probably have 1-2 children by the end of the program. We only speak English, but we do have 4 years to become conversant in another language. What can I do now (or over the course of the next four years) to best position myself for a faculty position at a university? Ideally, Canada, Western Europe, or Australia. Do the universities in those places typically look at the same things US universities do (e.g., publications, dissertation/research)? My research is in computer-mediated communication (how we form relationships online, specifically), but there seem to be a decent number of schools internationally that have researchers in those areas, so I don't think it's particularly US-centric.

Haha. Well, technically, the reason for the most recent purchase is that our cats knocked his laptop off the table and now the power cord is wonky. He hasn't bought another machine yet, at least in part because I keep encouraging him to go to the computer repair shop and have them take a look at it. Either way, he spent around $300-400 on it, so I don't even begrudge the more frequent purchases. Cats are dicks.

We're a pretty friendly, helpful bunch. I've only seen a handful of negative nancies, and their member rating tends to reflect that.

Literature reviews are a pretty standard piece of writing for a master's student to do - my first assignment in my first MA class was a lit review. But it's totally okay that you don't know what to do with it. I'm lucky - my professor gave me good guidance. That said, from my Googling, a "Systematic Literature Review" sounds exactly like any other lit review. From https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC539417/: A review earns the adjective systematic if it is based on a clearly formulated question, identifies relevant studies, appraises their quality and summarizes the evidence by use of explicit methodology. It is the explicit and systematic approach that distinguishes systematic reviews from traditional reviews and commentaries. Whenever we use the term review in this paper it will mean a systematic review. Reviews should never be done in any other way. Have you done a lit review before? If so, you're probably in a good place. If not, spend some time googling around in terms of how to do a lit review. I tend to start by reading papers and writing a summary of them in Mendeley. What methods did they use, what conclusions did they come to. Then, I look at the themes I've found and merge that into a paper.

Another fight with my spouse, with whom I otherwise have a good, healthy, loving marriage. Again, it's him taking issue with me hating most comedies, and not wanting to be around them, even when other people are watching and enjoying them. And no, staying quietly on the couch and reading isn't an option because it's really f---king distracting. I guess next time I either stay at home, or drive myself and am the weirdo who says, "Okay, I'm out" immediately after dinner. I don't understand why this is tough to "get." If my friends and enjoyed listening to country music, which he hates, I would never ask him to grin and bear it and entertain himself or leave. I would do something else that included him.

Yeah, they for sure want you to have your school send them a final transcript, just so they can make sure you finished and graduated. Be sure it's sent directly from the school to them; they assume that if it comes from the student, it might have been modified. That transcript will probably indicate that you've had your degree conferred, but doublecheck with the school once they've received it in case they want, I dunno, a photo of your diploma.

I'm dealing with a similar problem and asked a similar question. I asked my department head, and was told that they understand that lower grades will happen in an undergraduate course, and so it's not a big deal, especially since your overall GPA will work out to be over a 3.0. I'd talk to your graduate advisor, but I wouldn't worry too much.

Welcome to the US! The vast majority of us are glad to have you! I'll try to answer the questions I know: Which bank(s) do you think is/are the best according to their quality of service? Which bank you use depends on where you go. I've had to switch banks when I've moved across the US, although there are one or two that are nationwide (Chase, for example). Personally, I'd go to google maps in your city, type in "Bank," and see how many come up. You'll want ones that have lots of branches and lots of ATMs, preferably ones that don't charge you fees to go to out-of-network ATMs. Your school may also have a school-specific credit union (another type of bank, basically), and those sometimes offer better deals than a generic bank. Do you pay annual fees for credit cards in the US? It depends on the credit card. You can get CCs with no annual fees. That said, your bank will also give you an ATM/debit card, which functions as a credit card that withdraws from your account. So you don't NEED a separate credit card for doing online purchases. Finally, I am asking these questions assuming that I will have freedom to choose my bank, but do schools sometimes force you to open your account in a certain bank because they have a deal with them or something? Not that I've ever heard. My second set of questions is about GSM Operators.  Since I will mostly communicate with my friends and family members in my home country via Skype, Hangouts, and similar apps, I will not be using my old phone number. I will switch to an American GSM operator and get a new number to communicate with my new contacts in the US. Which GSM operator would you recommend based on your personal experiences? Again, it depends on your area, since cell phone providers have better coverage in some areas than other. For example, my school is in a small city, and Sprint isn't very good here. But I live in an even smaller city, and neither Sprint nor Tmobile are very good there. So yes, it largely depends on your school, and where specifically you live. Check with some members of your program and see what's most common. Speaking broadly, Verizon is the most expensive. I would suggest trying to go with Tmobile or AT&T if possible. Most cell phone services have unlimited talking and messaging, but some require more payment if you use more data. That said, Boston will probably be fine. I can't imagine that any of them have "bad" service in a major US city.  And my final questions concern the issue of Home textiles. The residence hall will not be providing me with linens, pillows, blankets, and suchlike, so I have to buy them myself. I know IKEA is probably an affordable option for purchasing such things, but is there any other place that you could recommend? I'd probably look on Amazon first. IKEA is cheap, but low quality for such things, so you'll probably be happier with the quality of the "AmazonBasics" stuff. If you have more questions, keep 'm coming! I'll respond as I have time.

I'm taking the opposite approach. I've been a Mac for a long time, and I find that Macs retain their functionality for years longer than PCs. For example, my husband - on average - goes through a PC once every 3 years before it's obsolete. My current average is closer to 7 years. So I'm buying a new Mac and spending as much money as I can to get the most computer I can, with the idea that I won't have to buy another one until after my program is over. That said, not everyone can afford that approach.