Shnoztastic

I'm most likely (still waiting on some other acceptances and funding) going to be attending the University of Idaho for grad school. I'm getting pretty excited.
A couple of questions:
Housing first - I will be 27 in the fall and I have (quite well-behaved, and active) dog. As such I'd rather not live in an large apartment complex with loads of undergrads. It sounds like places that allow dogs are somewhat difficult to find. Are houses/apartments particularly affordable if dog friendly in the area? Are there places in Pullman or Moscow that are more affordable but not just loads of undergrads?
Food - I've been vegetarian for the majority of my adult life. How are the vegetarian options as far as restaurants? Do the grocery stores in the area cater well?
Thanks

Thanks @loves2hike! I'm glad Moscow has some options. I've been a little worried about the housing situation. It seems to be less dog-friendly than where I currently live. Yeah, I'm ideally looking to live in a house or 1 BR apartment. Moscow looks to be cheaper than where I live so at least some options look to be a bit better.
I hope your head starts feeling better!

@HistoricScout, congratulations! Manhattan (or Manhappiness) is a great little city. Manhattan sits around 50,000 people. I'll admit that it does not have great public transportation. I grew up there before leaving for undergrad. Manhattan is one of the more expensive city's in Kansas but is consistently considered one of the best college towns in the country and is high up on listings of best places to retire. Since I've left, quite a number of student rentals have been built near Aggieville and campus. It shouldn't be too difficult to find a pet friendly rental bearish to campus. The campus is gorgeous! Most of the original buildings are limestone construction and the campus is pretty cohesive.

The best rejection comment yet. 

I would politely inquire with whomever made the flight reservation. I also wouldn't worry that much about not having received the itinerary or the hotel reservation. They know when you're arriving, they're making blanket arrangements for everyone to stay (e.g., booking 15+ hotel rooms), and they'll be arranging whatever transportation you need from one location to the next. Since you've already been accepted, it isn't like you need to be studying up for interview meetings with folks. Instead, view all of your meetings as a chance to better know the program, its faculty, and the current students. That kind of preparation doesn't really require a list of who you'll be meeting with in advance...

There's probably no point - not to mention, it's useless and inappropriate - to start giving you career, much less relationship, advice, but trying to make a significant career that makes you happy work and also be in a relationship doesn't require that you make some compromises - it requires that both you and your partner make some compromises. One person making all the compromises and the other making no compromises adds up to one miserable person, and that's you. There's no balance you will ever find if your partner is so utterly inflexible and unconcerned towards you.
Frankly, elements of the way you write - the distinctly gendered, highly demanding and typically low-paying jobs you list, the quickness with which you can apparently be pursuaded out a PhD you've apparently been accepted to in favour of your partners frankly childish-sounding refusal to live apart or move, even temporarily, your complete self-abnegation to his goals and dreams - that makes this sound either borderline abusive, or fabulistically melodramatic. The career dilemmas of having master's degree and a grad-student partner are not between housecleaning and a PhD. The field of employment options and career trajectories here are just a bit wider than that. Either you're in a deeply disturbing and unequal relationship that will never allow you to do anything you actually want, or you're talking yourself into some sort of oddly, and I think unnecessarily, self-sacrificial martyrdom-ish position.
If you really want to do a PhD, and are genuinely not happy with any of the options you have this year - improve your application and try again, including outside your city. If you are happy with one of the options you have, demand your partner make some compromises. If they won't, you'll never have a PhD.
If a PhD is not really what you want, examine - seriously - the career options available in New York City with a Master's degree. Do this, if possible, drawing on what your interests and inclinations are, not on what paints a picture of total selfless supportiveness for your partner's 'dreams'.
If you can't imagine any of the above, leave him and get therapy.
Do not take on an 8-hour daily commute. It's not a thing. You won't get a PhD and you'll ruin your health and your career and probably your relationship. No ifs.

I'm so creeped out by this topic. What a dangerous jerk. I hope he hasn't/won't harm anyone

I definitely sang this response! 

I don't think you should assume that. I am assuming the two results are first-first wave acceptance (people who Penn State really really wants). They should be sending out more letters this week. I was looking at last year's discussion and this was the week when most people got their letter. Also, if you applied to the WGSS/Geography dual degree program it might take longer for both departments to make a decision. So don't give up!

I had a great visit at Tennessee. Really enjoyed the campus and the Geography building/facilities were really impressive. I’m going to have a tough decision to make.

Seconding this. Another postdoc and I are hiring an undergrad intern for this summer. For both of us, it's our first time directly hiring someone (we've supervised students before, but through our advisors). So we have been reading resumes, cover letters and we picked some number of people to interview. But it's like...no one trained us how to do this, we're just making it up as we go along. Yet we are making decisions that will affect these students' lives! Next week, we are going to interview and we'll need to make up our own questions. We got some ideas on what we want to ask, but we're not really going to know whether these questions will get us the information we need to make the final decision. So, yeah, definitely feeling like we're just making it up as we go along.
Non-academic example: My partner and I have our first child now and whenever something unexpected happens, we just google "is it normal for babies to...." or "should my baby be doing ..." etc. I wonder how our parents raised us without Google! 

SoCal is so overrated. Yeah the weather is nice but imo, it doesn't make up for the ridiculous cost of living. If you want to live in a semi decent area get ready to pay out the ears for it. USC itself is located in a suspect area. You can't get anywhere without a car because the public transportation is mind numbingly awful. Also get ready to spend 45 minutes to move 8 miles because LA traffic is as bad as advertised. Gas prices are insane. Living here is very expensive.

I cannot believe that one school I applied to has their deadline as March 1st.... why did they do that............................ I'm gonna die

Just received acceptance from Idaho. No details on funding but the acceptance was the generic letter on the application portal.

Just received acceptance from Idaho. No details on funding but the acceptance was the generic letter on the application portal.

Produce furniture

Right?!?! My family is also in PA and my mom offered to pay for my application in hopes of me ending up back in PA lol. I honestly doubt that I'll get in but would like the family to stop pestering me.

First good stats one of the year coming from a Harvard PhD rejection:  "As a patriots fan, New England really hasn't come through for me this past week."
 

It's called Ouvrir La voix by Amandine Gay. It is screening in Montreal, Canada. But it has been in France and probably still is the case.

I wouldn't do that. They know you are interested in the program - if you weren't, you wouldn't have invested time and money in your application. Contacting your POI will only show impacience. It is hard to wait, especially when the program is one of your top choices, but I see no benefits in contacting your POI.

Oklash,
I empathize so much with you. Please don't give up on yourself. Please don't even consider the thought of hurting yourself or worse. You deserve life! You deserve happiness. You can and will find your path. But I know that sounds so much easier than it is actually done. But please, listen to me:
I have been where you are. A few years ago, I applied to graduate school and got rejected at 6/8 programs. This crushed me. None of my top schools seemed even remotely interested. I was rejected swiftly. One acceptance was to my safety school. One acceptance was to a good program, but no funding. I was living at home. I didn't have a source of income. I was in a very bad relationship, which was ending. I didn't think the amount of loans I would have to take out to go to school and minimally survive was a good choice. I just couldn't bear the thought, and I said no. This devastated me. I felt like such a fuck up. I spent hours and hundreds of dollars to apply to these schools. It felt like such a waste.
My parents were pressuring me to move on. They didn't exactly see what this meant to me. I dreamed of going into academia. I really wanted to teach. And I felt like it would never happen for me. I felt like a crucial part of my identity was lost. They told me to get a job somewhere and move on. The only job I could find was at K-Mart. Meanwhile, my professors and advisors told me, "There's always next year. This happens. Just try again." Try again? As if this is easy? As if this is affordable? It's neither. This process can be soul-crushingly difficult. It depressed me. I spent months deeply, clinically depressed. Not many people understood what I was going through or had the bandwidth to relate to me and talk to me. I felt so alone.
But, I chose to just adapt and to go on a totally different path. It was not easy. I changed career tracks. I didn't like it. I still don't. I struggled to find work outside of retail, but eventually did. It was meager, however. Finally, I met my then boyfriend (now husband). I began to learn that life is not linear. Life often does not make sense. The path is arduous and twisted and broken and frightening, but sometimes, there is method to its absolute madness. I would have never met my husband had this all worked out the way I had hoped. I also realized that your career does not have to be the only way you find fulfillment in life. There are ways to engage in your love and research interests outside of academia. Focus on finding those things. Focus on filling your life with people who you connect to and can confide in. You need support during this process. You need friends and love. And sometimes, that is the greatest fulfillment in life.
Like you, I have a BA in English and philosophy. I felt really unemployable where I was living in the Midwest. But when I moved to a metro area, I suddenly found I was very employable, just not in anything I deeply care about, which has been okay temporarily. I have worked in an off-shoot of my field, and I have spent time building my resume with professional experience. I have saved up money to apply again to graduate school and fund some of my education, should I get in. I spent years preparing to try again. And, in that time, I focused mostly on healing myself--repairing the broken confidence, proving my commitment to myself, and polishing the skills I need. My time away from school and this process has honestly been so well spent, and I have hope it is paying off.
My advice for your situation is to consider doing those things: take a year or two or three to build your resume;  consider moving to a metropolitan area where there are more jobs, if you can afford it; stay committed to your field through independent study, research, and attempts at publication; research different programs, maybe try a completely different batch of schools; seek out professionals in your field to provide you constructive criticism on your applications; find friends and a support circle; find other hobbies and things that make you feel good; focus on your mental health by seeking medical attention, talking to a therapist or loved one, taking a break from this process, taking a vacation (or stay-cation), taking up a new hobby, trying new exercise, etc.; and finally give yourself a break.
Listen to all of us in your shoes. We are all struggling. You are NOT alone! You are NOT a failure. You should not blame yourself so much or feel so worthless. It's just NOT fair to yourself. Give yourself some credit for all of the hard work and effort you have put in. Give yourself credit for taking a risk and trying again. Look at how far you've already come. You are GREAT. Please don't forget that! <3

@Sunspeechies There are definitely schools that may be interested. Your not being unrealistic. A 3.09 GPA is not that bad and people get into graduate programs with lower GPAs.
Hopefully, your transcripts show that you have improved throughout your undergraduate and show strengths in speech pathology. Do retaken classes overwrite on your transcripts at your school? Some schools do this and some don't entirely but if they do overwrite and you get As on the retaken classes that could really boost your GPA and show substantial progress.
As far as family issues and health issues... Admissions committee can be very understanding. You could mention it in your SOP/LOI as something you have worked through. Acknowledging it gives some level of context as to why there are hiccups on a transcript. You could definitely mention that nursing isn't your thing and how you found speech pathology.
Are you interested in a master's or PhD? If you're really worried about your grades and want to do a PhD a Master's degree is a good way to get a boosted GPA for later applying to a PhD. It's also a good way to determine if you really want to go as far as a PhD without the time commitment. If you want just a master's, you should go for it!
Hope this helps.

If you need any direction in Pittsburgh, it's my hometown. I have a sister in grad school at CMU too.

Accepted to WVU and University of Kentucky's Geography programs today!! Feeling very excited. No info on funding from WVU though, which makes me a little nervous!

Yeah exactly. I’m going insane omg 
like we’re at the point where I am just scanning grad cafe for random forums i can post about nothing on ??