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I'm having a derp moment. What is a PNG?

Duuuuuude. I graduated undergrad in 2004, and I'll be finishing my PhD around age 39. Most of the people starting the PhD program at my school are in their 30s. Looking in this forum, a good chunk of folks are in their 30s, with a handful 40s+. Doing a PhD/academia as a second career is very, very common. Basically, don't let being in your late 20s stop you if that's what you want. You would certainly not be the oldest person in your PhD cohort, if you go that route. And it's probably a good idea to not say you're "too old" to do something in a mixed audience, since there will certainly be people present who are older than you. Probably more relevant a pro-tip for future day jobs than random strangers on the Internet.

Along the lines of what Sandmaster said, I would consider what your objectives are. I can't tell immediately by the credentials listed in your signature. If you're planning on a professional job, it might be worth it to rush through. If you're planning on a doctorate, it's probably worth it to take your time and use the "spare" time to try to get a publication of some variety and otherwise improve your PhD application.

It may differ in your field. Personally, I'm a believer in the halfway point. I've done a bit of transcribing for a company (not academia), and they first used temi.com to get a rough transcription, then used me to proofread and edit. It was way better with English speakers, so if you're interviewing people with thick accents, it may not be the best solution. It's also probably more trouble than it's worth if you're transcribing them linguistically (ex: If you need to reflect durations of pauses, that sort of thing). But for most basic transcriptions? It does quite well.

I had similar frustrations. Very smart, but full of failure with the GRE. Ironically, despite being a prolific reader, I was terrible at the verbal section, simply because the way they word things is really tricky. I found that reading a lot about how the GRE is constructed helped me, and going over the specific areas where I was having trouble. I wasn't worried about writing, so I just ignored studying for that, and focused on verbal and specific math competencies. I agree with Resilient, though - my MA program didn't require a GRE, so I didn't take it. Are you sure your schools/programs require it? If not, I wouldn't.

In what way do you use Excel for lit reviews? It wouldn't occur to me as the tool of choice. I've used either Mendeley (adding my review in the notes section), or in Evernote.

The answer is: Probably. To some degree, if it's a different college, they're probably not going to know. But you do sign paperwork to the effect of "This is truthful," so presumably there could be academic dishonesty consequences for not submitting it. How bad they would be probably depends on the program and whether or not you could pass it off as "I forgot." For example, I did a couple of classes at a community college back in '02 that were then transferred onto my main transcript. I'm pretty sure I reported them separately when I applied for my MA, but I'm not sure. I doubt my degree would be revoked if I didn't though. Therefore, I'd suggest a few alternatives: 1. Drop the class. If it's not too late, drop it and retake it. 2. Talk to your professor about extra credit. Even if there's no mention of it in the syllabus, you can ask. 3. Go to office hours. All of them. If your professor sees you making a lot of extra effort to understand, they're more likely to help you out with #2, or give you the benefit of a doubt if it's the difference between an A and a B, B and C, etc. Good luck. I'm in a similar situation right now and tearing my hair out.

That's not cool. Your friend needs to keep his dreams in his hands and his lusts in his pants. Either man up and leave his wife, or get some therapy and make it work. Either way, keep his wandering thoughts away from you. That's no way to treat a friend.

I'm taking an undergraduate statistics class during the summer, since my department doesn't offer any grad classes this semester. So it's me, age 34, and the professor, aged ~50, and 20 kids. We're probably the only two who can buy alcohol. One of these whippersnappers complained about me eating breakfast in class because it evidently smelled bad, and now eating is banned. I was eating oatmeal and cooked apples; I have no idea how the scent of apple pie could be that offensive. What the hell are these kids going to do when they get real jobs where people -- gasp -- eat, smoke, stink, and talk too loudly? Complain to their boss and expect their boss to police behaviors? KIDS THESE DAYS. Get off my lawn.

I asked my spouse, who lived in Florida for a while. He said that the humidity is about the same, but the temperature isn't as hot, so it doesn't feel as bad. "Here, I can get through the day wearing just one shirt; in Florida, you can't do that."

I'm not in your field, but I have a tool you can use! Everyone has their own criteria, so, as Adelaide mentioned, it's tough to give general advice, since we don't know what your priorities are. For example, when I was choosing my school (Boiler Up!), I decided that program prestige, social politics, closeness to friends/family/support network, and cost of living were important. So I created a ranking tool to allow custom-rankings, and I've released it for all to use. Here's the post with information:

@SetDec I moved to Chicago from Central Texas, so I know that pain. I'm not sure what gender you are, so your experience may be different from mine. My spouse, who is male, has far fewer "winter clothes," but rarely complains about being cold. For me, being content in the winter consists of three items: 1. Shoes. Depending on how cold it is and how long you're going to be outside, the main goal is to have shoes with good tread on them. That's so they don't slip on ice/snow. Some shoes exist that have heat reflective/etc stuff in them too, but I don't really find that necessary unless I'm going to be outside for long periods of time or it's extremely cold (like, 0 degrees F). I have a couple of pairs of police/combat boots that I generally wear, and a pair of duck boots I reserve for cold+wet days. 2. Coats/jackets/hoodies. You can often pair these - so, put a hoodie under your coat. Check out secondhand shops, because good coats tend to be expensive. North Face and Columbia are good brands. Look for coats that are rated for skiing. I also suggest, assuming you'll have a desk, keeping a hoodie at your desk as a matter of course. Don't buy any coat that's white - snow only stays pretty for about a minute, and then cars turn it into sludge. That sludge will get onto your coat. 3. Layers. My favorite "Type" of layer is CuddleDuds. They're soft, effective, cozy, etc. You can get them on sale at Kohls or Sears for about $10 each. I tend to cycle through 3 of each. Really, if you have a good pair of shoes and a solid coat, you'll be fine. Anything more than that you'll pick up along the way. Embrace thrift shops - and keep in mind that thrift shops switch out their inventory, so you won't see much winter wear right now. You'll find that you do the same. I have two tubs that are labeled "seasonal." Twice a year, I dump out all my upcoming-season stuff, and pack away all my previous-season stuff.

I'm not in engineering, but I would check out https://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=purdue+engineering Go through there and see what programs have sent out decisions. If you don't see yours specifically, it's totally okay to email and request a status update. Summer classes start June 11, so I would wait until the middle-to-end of the week of the 4th. Most people will be getting back by then. Good luck.

Check to see when the first day of the summer semester is, and if either the department head or the PI are teaching. If they are, wait until that day and give them a call. If they're not, give them a call sometime in the next week. Also, check with senior classmates, or other people in your cohort. Is this normal? When did they find about about their funding? That said, and file this under "unrequested advice," there's a certain peace that comes with the idea of "waiting will fill." Any given problem, if you wait long enough, you'll either find the answer, or it won't matter anymore. For this, if you get a shitty funding package, does that affect where you go? Will you go anyway? At a minimum, I imagine it would affect housing, so maybe you plan to do as cheap as possible (like, live in a dorm with roommates, 2-to-a-bedroom), and then if you get a lot, you can just save a ton of cash the first year. I 100% understand the anxiety that comes with not knowing. I'm very lucky to have responsive department heads and know a good number of people in the department. Otherwise, I'd have either gained a huge amount of weight from stress eating, or lost a huge amount of weight through my system rebelling.

Personally, I'd email the next level up. Something to the effect of, "Hey, I reached out to <PI> a few weeks ago, and she hasn't had a chance to reply yet. I'm sure it's just the usual chaos of being between semesters! Anyway, I figured I'd reach out to you to follow up on <specific details of issue>. After all, since you're <title> I imagine that funding decisions are probably within your wheelhouse too. Thanks so much for any guidance you can provide! It will be very helpful for me preparing to matriculate this fall." That said, in my department, my PI is only useful for my research topics. He's a wonderful person, but I gather funding/admin decisions go through his boss, the department head. But if that doesn't seem "normal" for your department, see if you can reach out to another student. They may have a better idea of what's up with the delay than you could.

I have no idea! I've only ever heard of RA positions being offered for specific projects or by specific professors. But I'm in Comm, not sociology, so your mileage may vary in your field. Ask. If you want, you could post a sample email here in which you ask them for details, and I can give you feedback.

Yes, ask what the specific research would be. They wouldn't have offered you the position if they didn't think you were qualified. Given that your SOP probably specified qualitative research, you might be doing transcriptions, interviews, etc. But yes - ask. Then decide.

Your best bet for both is going to be talking to the financial aid office at your school, as well as your department itself. It's also worth noting that sometimes departments have opportunities for good students to get tuition rebates and whatnot - I think I had 3 classes paid for in my MA, simply because I was a good student and they selected me for various awards. You also might try posting in the group on here specific to your field. Many scholarships/grants/etc are field-specific, so you might have better luck than posting in the general "Bank" area. Good luck! When I had a similar choice, I decided to apply at a smaller, cheaper institution, and I was able to get through it with just my savings, and no debt - the degree cost $10,000, versus the $20K+ it would have cost at the other option. As a sidenote, will this master's degree result in you being able to get jobs that pay well enough that, over the course of a number of years, you'll have "made back" the money the degree costs? If so, great! If not, you may talk with senior members of your company/department to figure out if it's the best path. That said, if you have your heart/career set on this program, if I were in your shoes I would probably see if I could delay entry for a year, and then work to get as much of the current debt worked off as possible. With a sound financial plan, you could probably pay off that car loan in a year, for example. Then you'd have that extra money, and could reduce your insurance. If you still had to take out loans, you wouldn't have to take out as much, and you could probably get a lower interest rate than your car payment. It's also worth looking at whether or not you can upgrade your salary, either by moving to a different NFP, or getting a salary increase in your current job. Finally, be really cautious with the "repayment for public service" loans. I read frequently about the federal government looking at changing/eliminating that, and the people I know who have gone that route often get screwed out of a few years because the loan servicer doesn't have an incentive to help them figure out the "right" loan category, so their repayments don't count towards the 120 payments required. I'm specifically thinking about a friend of mine who is an attorney...if he can't figure it out, the average person is going to have a really tough time.

If it were me, I'd do SLC and Yellowstone. You'd also presumably be able to go by Rushmore and the Crazy Horse memorials too. No particular reason, I suppose, other than finding that it would probably be more beautiful this time of year, more memorable, a little more comfortable temperature-wise, etc. There's not a lot to do in Nebraska or in Iowa. As a sidenote, you also might investigate geocaching. If you're the kind of person who would enjoy a high-tech treasure hunt, you might enjoy adding geocaching as a component of the trip.

@SetDec Nice - I'm guessing you're coming for the set design the MFA program? What area are you relocating from? Do you have any specific questions? Yeah, hammocks seem to be allowed on campus - or, if they're not, they're doing a really bad job at enforcing that rule. In terms of general advice, we're doing a 3 month sublease to get here, and then figuring out a longterm living situation. That probably won't be as much an option for you, since most leases are August 1 - July 31. We're in the Launch apartments, which are about a 15 minute walk (or 5 minute bus ride) from campus - super convenient, and reasonably priced. That said, I think you could find cheaper living across the river in Lafayette, and it's still convenient. My home needs are probably more picky than most (I have a spouse who works from home, we have pets, etc.), but I've found several reasonable, relatively inexpensive options within my price range. For grocery stores, you're looking at Meijer, Aldi, Payless, and a couple of fancy food stores. There doesn't seem to be a "standard" grocery store. I suspect Meijer is the cheapest.... ...but I haven't found any grocery stores walking distance from campus. So you're looking at Lyfting, or driving. Most people in my department seem to drive? Your mileage may vary. But if you flash your Purdue ID, bus rides are free. In terms of financial stuff, I'm assuming that you're TAing, and that your tuition is covered? If so, be sure to be on top of your department about getting that taken care of in the payment system. Since you're starting at the normal time, you'll probably be okay...but if you start getting emails that you need to pay thousands of dollars or your classes will be dropped, contact your departmental contact. LMK what specific questions you have!

Thanks, telkanuru, that's what I meant.

It depends on your situation. That sounds fairly typical for an MA/PhD program. An MA program usually is 2 years of coursework, and a PhD another 2 years. However, for just a PhD, it seems excessive. That said, I'm in social sciences, so hard sciences might be different. Can you tell us more about the program? Is it MA/PhD, or just one?

@AGingeryGinger I'm glad to see other people have the same fellowship. So far, I've only met people in my department who do. On that note, I was able to get a summer start with it, so I'm already here and moved in. If there's anyone else who has to move here, hit me up if you need me to do any investigating for you. So far, I can say that if you have a hammock, be sure to bring it, because it seems like everyone and their dog has a hammock strung up if the weather is nice.

I just finished my MA, so I can only speak to that. I also found my QoL to be solid. I was working a 50+ hour a week job for the entireity of my MA, so I was only part time. I took 1 class my first semester, during the summer, and last semester, and then 2 classes each long semester. So, 10 classes in 2 years + 1 semester. I found it all very doable most of the time. I spent a day a week writing (Sundays), and read as I commuted to school/work/home. I don't think my program was exceptionally difficult, but there was a lot of ready and theory. I didn't have to teach at all, but my full time job more than made up for it. I agree with av2010 - there were weeks that were pretty shitty, but for the most part, I really enjoyed it. I don't think I''ve enrolled in a PhD program if I hated it. But I also love learning and talking about learning and writing and the whole picture, so there's that too. ?

If you get soft furniture (couches, chairs, bedding, etc.) second-hand (either online or from a store), be sure to find out why they're getting rid of it, AND check it for bed bugs. I've head of people getting used furniture that either came from a bedbug-laden home itself, or was stored near someone else's and got infested. So you can certainly do it (I got both of my couches used), but it's better to check the nooks and crannies than be sorry.