maengret
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Posts posted by maengret
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On 3/19/2018 at 9:05 AM, renea said:
I'm curious, about how long do programs usually take to reimburse for your travel costs? Has anyone already received their reimbursement for a recent visit? Combined my husband and I are waiting on about $1000 of reimbursement. Most programs told me it'll take about 2 weeks, but so far I haven't received anything in the mail and I don't want to pester secretaries about it. Also, and this is going to sound bad, but I feel awkward declining an offer and then asking about a reimbursement.
Does anyone have experience with this? Have you ever heard of a department not reimbursing a prospective student after the visit?
I only have one to go on, th they reimbursed me within a week of submitting the receipts. In that case, the department had its own accountant and didn’t have to send it through a larger bureaucracy for processing.
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8 hours ago, Daenerys said:
I finally emailed Purdue to find out what was up with them, and they replied saying that my application was still active and would remain so until April 15.
Oh, Purdue...
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37 minutes ago, la_mod said:
My boyfriend came with me to a welcome day, and since I was staying in a hotel that the school had paid for / arranged, I emailed them to make sure that I wasn’t going to be rooming with any prospective students. They were really nice about it and told me I should def bring him! A few other people had brought their significant others as well. However, he didn’t meet any of the people I did, but instead did his own thing while I was on campus / hearing presentations. I think it’s pretty typical for people to bring people if they have the means to do so, so then the SOs can get a feel for the town, etc
And @Daenerys, too... I wanted my husband to travel with me since we’re both relocating. If he’d been able to arrange time off, I wouldn’t have hesitated to inquire!
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5 hours ago, Daenerys said:
I have paged through some of the replies on this thread, and I apologize if this question has been answered and I missed it, but I would like to know about the etiquette of bringing a significant other along to the campus visit: Is this OK? For this particular accepted students’ open house, I’m not asking for travel reimbursement, as we don’t live terribly far away. Hubby asked if he could come along, and I would enjoy his company and input, but my concern is it might seem unprofessional if I ask to bring him. What do you think? Is that too weird?
If it is SLU, and if the agenda is the same as what mine was for last month’s visit, I bet it would be okay. Most of the events were tours (campus, library) and social gatherings (dinner, happy hour).
Several current students told me significant others are a big part of the grad students’ collective social life. One current student’s spouse dropped in to the welcome day and fielded some questions while she was waiting for her s.o. to arrive.
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4 hours ago, LibraryLivingJT said:
Will be attending UD for Fall 2018! The amazing campus visit sealed the deal!
Yay!! Congratulations. What made the campus visit so amazing?
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Hi @GameofLoans16 and congrats on your offers! There's a few too many unknowns for me to say for sure which is best so far. For my own offers, I did a spreadsheet similar to what you've started. I also did cost of living comparisons between the cities I was considering. According to this one, Starkville's cost of living is 27% cheaper than Corvallis's, so your stipend looks like it will go further there.
My offers had a lot of variations on things like insurance and fees. I know we're in different disciplines, but I'm listing these from my comparisons in case any of these are helpful to you:
- Is your fellowship in addition to the stipend? (I have a fellowship but that program structures all the funding so that everyone gets the same dollar amount; so my fellowship comes with perks but the cash awarded me doesn't change.)
- Are the monthly stipends for 12 months, 9 months, or 10 months?
- What is the actual cost of your share of insurance? (It looks like OSU covers 88% of insurance, does Starkville (MSU?) cover that much? What are the case costs to you?)
- Does the insurance coverage carry through the summer months? If not, can you opt-in for coverage and at what cost?
- What is the TA courseload? (Mine all are 20 hours/week, but some require teaching 1 course / semester, and some 2 courses / semester. @GreenEyedTrombonist touched on the other differences I saw in my assistantship descriptions)
- How many credit hours are you required to take each semester? (Some of mine require at least 6 hours/semester but one requires a minimum of 9 hours--in addition to the 2-class TA load.)
- Some of my schools had a foreign language requirement that would have necessitated me spending $$ to meet the requirement. The classes wouldn't count toward my degree, just the requirement. Are there any similar requirements in your programs that would make you pay for courses that add to your tuition or program length?
- Is working outside of school explicitly against policy? (Some of my offers don't allow this and one just discourages it. My fellowship comes with the stipulation that I don't work outside school. The school that had the least favorable insurance program does not allow for outside work; I thought it would have been hard for me to ensure I could pay for insurance without at least overlapping school and work at some points of the year.)
Good luck!
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@Warelin, @la_mod , et al: there's some helpful info about taxes and living wage over at this site, too: http://www.phdstipends.com/faq
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9 hours ago, RK092089 said:
My two cents: it doesn't sound like the PhD is the right choice for you. If you want to work in professional writing/editing and marketing, why get a research-based degree that takes six years and trains you primarily to research and teach? You're already qualified for the work that you want to do. You would be better served, professionally, by working in writing/editing/marketing.
Not sure how you arrived at me already being qualified, but thanks for the vote of confidence
I was hoping for questions and information that would help me make a decision, hoping particularly to hear from the forum members who have some hindsight on the PhD.
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2 hours ago, la_mod said:
Can someone explain how to calculate living wage ratio?
Are you trying to which stipends are livable wages for their respective cities? I used a few different calculators when I was doing that:
Living Wage Calculator - tells you the hourly wage needed to support various household sizes in different cities
Cost of Living Comparison - let’s you compare two cities. I used this to compare new city and current city, and also potential school cities to each other.
Sorry if that’s not what you were looking for, though.
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Paging @punctilious -- anything you and DH can add?
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7 hours ago, Warelin said:
Accepted at WUSTL.
Congrats! I can recommend a good realtor if you’re in the market.
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2 hours ago, automatic said:
Thanks everyone! About to email the DGS with my attempt at negotiating. Do I need to ask to meet, talk, etc., or can I just say this in an email directly right off the bat? We haven't communicated much yet and I feel a bit rude/awkward just being like HELLO and also more money???
Sorry, just seeing the reply now. I'd recommend a phone call.
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@automatic I’m going to add to my earlier comment now that I actually negotiated something
I didn’t ask for everything that would have been nice to have. But I did ask for the one thing that I thought would help me most and that was the TA load. They agreed.
I thought to ask that because I read in the grad student manuals that while the stipend itself is the same for everyone, some students receive fellowships that allow them to TA fewer classes for a semester or so.
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On 3/2/2018 at 8:57 PM, katie64 said:
I've been accepted to Louisville and "top 10" waitlisted for funding, am #4 on the fully-funded waitlist at Oklahoma, and accepted to Tennessee but on the non-ranked waitlist for funding. Does anyone know what the likelihood is of actually coming off of the waitlist? Louisville and Oklahoma but stated that often times, waitlisted candidates were ultimately given funding, but this is a bit stressful.
I just declined Louisville (MA with GTA). So here's hoping that translates to positive news!
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@EspritHabile @Daenerys I’m not going into academia when I’m done. I haven’t found a good measure for MA placements but I think I’ll be looking in to questions to ask about support for non-ac career development.
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On 3/1/2018 at 3:36 PM, EspritHabile said:
I'm in at Purdue but likely to decline the offer.
Would you be willing to share why? It's my "reach" school and I'm holding out on a decision until I hear from them. But I've been researching more info about their TA benefits and it doesn't look like it would be a good option compared to other programs, so I'm looking for anything that might help tip the scales.
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I'm looking for input on a happy hiccup in my application process. I applied for MAs at schools with either Rhet/Comp majors or concentrations. My career goals are professional writing/editing and marketing (my writing sample discussed the use of religious rhetoric to subjugate women). I've been approaching the MA as a terminal degree. However, I've been open to the idea that I might finish my MA and want to continue to a PhD. But I do not want to teach college so I don't need the PhD.
A program admitted to the PhD track (I can earn their MA concurrently). It's a very good offer. But is it the right offer for me? If you were in my shoes, what information would help you make a decision? Is there are resource to help me get a handle on what "alt-ac" employment rates are like?
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3 hours ago, marisawhy said:
@maengret That's what I thought! I'm gonna ask for an extension but idk why they'd try it in the first place. & thank you!!
I’m sure it’s because they want to extend offers to waiting list candidates and have a full cohort. If you need more time, I think you can let them know you’re interested but need more time for XYZ reason and see what they say.
2 hours ago, Warelin said:Sadly, I don't think Colorado State is a part of the April 15 resolution.
Thanks, @Warelin. @marisawhy, did you see this?
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Just got home from my first campus visit so catching up now!
On 2/26/2018 at 10:36 AM, katie64 said:I received two lovely emails from the Louisville grad assistant and director of the graduate English program stating that they would love for me to attend (I have been waitlisted for funded so emailed back last week saying I really admire the program but can't attend without funding) and will keep me updated immediately of changes on the funding waitlist, so I feel pretty encouraged. Program director even asked if I'd like to set up a time to talk on the phone more about the program and so he can answer any questions I may have. No matter what happens, the graduate faculty at Louisville has been so extremely kind this entire process and I'm very impressed by that.
I received an offer from them for MA GTA and am arranging a time to talk with the DGS so I can make a decision as fast as possible.
They are not doing a prospective students visit day and will not help with travel costs for a campus visit (again, MA candidate—things might be different for PhD). Employment opportunities for my spouse are quite good in Louisville, which is a very strong factor in our considerations.
10 hours ago, punctilious said:The official acceptance in the application portal came through for the University of Delaware.
There are yellow and blue digital streamers and confetti falling down the page.
That was something new, I suppose. Lol.
How’s that crap work on screen readers for visually impaired people, I wonder...
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3 hours ago, marisawhy said:
Accepted into Colorado State with a funded GTA position! While I'm thrilled to have such a great offer, they want a decision by March 12th??
why you gotta play me like this fam
Can they do that? I thought April 15 was a rule or something?
ETA Congrats!
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6 hours ago, mk-8 said:
I got mine today, did any of you get yours?
Yes!
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@Daenerys is it an option to talk with them about people from other departments that might serve on your committee? Like Communications or Law School professors, if the school has them? Or sociology? Or maybe they’re in a regional consortium that can supplement in some way?
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@automatic congratulations! Chiming in to say that you can use the questions to ask about potential mentors, people who work in your area of interest, asking other grad students what they wish someone had told them. Basically, things that will help you be better prepared once you accept.
Campus Visits
in Literature, and Rhetoric and Composition
Posted
@Daenerys I didn’t get my SLU schedule until shortly before my trip. The morning was Q&A with students and DGS. Lunch was provided and we got info from the department director and more current students. An hour to tour campus, and hour tour of the library, then time why faculty. The last part was (hosted) dinner, followed by an optional poetry event. They had us scheduled 9am to 7pm plus the reading.
I don’t know if they’ll change it up but wanted to share in case it helps you in your planning. The school covers food so you might want to offer to pay your husband’s way for the dinner if you opt to attend. I’m going to PM you.