indigopierogy

Ahh, sorry to hear.

@kpietromica , I'm going with which university can give me the "most bang for my buck" so to speak. So like, they might not be offering me the most money, but are they giving me a lot of other opportunities? What are their placement rates post graduation? Are the current graduate students really happy there? Is the program itself well funded and respected within the university? 
 
Those are the questions I'm asking myself as I'm going into the decision making process, and see how each of the schools compare. 

@kpietromica , I'm going with which university can give me the "most bang for my buck" so to speak. So like, they might not be offering me the most money, but are they giving me a lot of other opportunities? What are their placement rates post graduation? Are the current graduate students really happy there? Is the program itself well funded and respected within the university? 
 
Those are the questions I'm asking myself as I'm going into the decision making process, and see how each of the schools compare. 

I found professional movers to be very expensive and even with my partner (non-academic) and our 1-2 bedroom apartment full of stuff, we didn't end up moving with professional movers for all 3 cross-country (and cross-border) moves. Instead, we just used pod-like moving services (i.e. pack your stuff into one cube and ship it). This costs about $2000 each time (the first move, we had very little and just moved by driving it ourselves). Movers were quoting us $3500-$6000.
Even for my postdoc move where my employer gave us $5000 towards moving expenses, we still opted for the cube method. We used the remaining moving allowance to drive ourselves to the new place, to pay for the costs of a apartment-hunting trip, and to pay for professional movers to pack our cube for us at our origin. This extra expense was a lifesaver though (in past moves, we recruited friends and packed it ourselves). But this time we were moving from a 3rd floor walkup, had a bunch of stuff, and my partner was pregnant, so the $450 for 2 guys to move all of our stuff into their truck, drive it to the cube's depot, and pack the cube, all within 3 hours, was well worth it (other moves had us and 2-3 friends work 4-5 hours each to get it all done because we aren't professionals!)

@indigopierogy Thank you for your advice and suggestions! You're not scaring me away from Stony Brook lol. I'm visiting the school next week, and hopefully I'll get a better idea of the housing situations in Stony Brook/Long Island from current grad students there.

It was an email! I was surprised I didn't have to email him first. But I did follow up the email by saying, "Sorry, I can't make it to AAG either" and I didn't get anything back to that... lol

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.

There are so many things going on here. I'm going to try to separate them though.
1) Is finishing in 4 years realistic? Would doing so position you well for post-PhD career options or would you realistically need more time?
2) Is your research something that doesn't depend on outside factors (e.g., getting external funding to collect data)? 
3) With a three hour commute each way, will you realistically be able to graduate in 4 years? Is there sufficient scheduling of courses so that you wouldn't have to commute to campus every day?
4) Would it be possible for you to sublet a room or get a hotel room a few nights a week so that you aren't spending 6 hours commuting?
5) Would that commute be you driving or would you be able to take public transportation?
6) Would your partner be willing to move so that you have a somewhat shorter commute/
7) How important is this relationship to you? Are you truly willing to let your partner's desires (live together, stay in this city, move to Europe when they're done) determine what happens with you, your education, and your career?

Depending on how big your field/research of interest is- this is a good way to get black listed from future professional opportunities.
OP ask for an extension and explain you still need full information from other schools in order to make a decision. If they turn it down, tell your first choice POI of your dilemma, he may be able to convince the department to extend an official offer. 

My POI is the director of graduate studies... So its kind of a double edged sword, I feel.

I haven't decided yet. The school can only reimburse me $100 and since I'm coming from Georgia, it'll be a lot more money than that (and more money than I can spend right now). I am still waiting to hear back from another school about funding + stipend to make the final decision about whether or not I should go to the campus visit at SB. 

The system at your current university strikes me as unusually structured. I know for my grad school the only differentiation among assistantship/training grant stipends were due to which school you belonged to (graduate, engineering, or medical), and everyone was paid the same base rate for a given academic year no matter if they were a 1st or 5th year. (Some people might be paid more if they won a fellowship.) Those might represent two ends of the spectrum of how much universities differentiate among students to determine their stipends.
You might find the data in PhD Stipends helpful to narrow down a bit what you might be offered at various universities (disclaimer: my site).

In regards to fellowships being more prestigious - does that mean that going to a lesser ranked school (in terms of department reputation) with a fellowship would be comparable, or at least worth considering, vs. a higher ranked school with an assistantship?
I know that I can apply for external fellowships in the future, but had one good school offer me a 5 year fellowship... I'm wondering if this is something I should seriously consider over going to a top 10 school in my field where I will have to be a TA/RA, at least for a year or two.

The department doesn't have any funding to offer you. In the past, students have been able to find funding from other departments, There is a good chance it will happen again but it is not guaranteed. Without a secured job, you'd also be responsible for paying tuition.
If I were in this situation, I'd pass on it. It seems to be a scenario which is putting too much stress on you without any guarantees.

If you decide to attend the school and don't find any assistantships, then you have no funding.
It's weird that they say "assistantships on campus". Does that mean that the department has no assistantships for its students at all, or that they are not able to offer you one and you would have to do some sort of administrative assistantship on campus (e.g. working in an office) or other places on campus (e.g. writing centre?).
Is it normal in your field for graduate students to have to work outside of the department for funding? And is it normal for your field to not fully fund its students? If the answer to both is no, then I wouldn't consider this offer. It's basically an admission with no funding, which is equal to a rejection in my perspective. I think that if your field normally works as TAs and RAs in the dept for funding, then having to work outside the dept will mean less contact with your faculty and colleagues. It will most likely mean doing work not related to your areas of interest at all and basically provide you with no benefit other than the funding. You would be at a disadvantage compared to students who are able to gain experience relevant to their career goals. In addition, I believe that a department who admits a graduate student needs to be responsible for funding the student too. I would worry that I would be treated as a second-class student and a department that admits but not funds its students would raise red flags for me. 
If you still want to consider this offer, the next steps should be to talk to the coordinator and ask him about the process of finding an assistantship. Also, ask him to connect you to all the students in the past that he has mentioned who were able to find graduate assistantships on campus. Talk to them about their experience to find out what kinds of jobs are there, which ones might be better and how hard they had to search for one.

So can we assume that if we haven't heard back from the Penn State Ph.D. program yet, its a rejection? There have been two Ph.D. updates on the results page so far, that I've seen.

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!

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

So glad to hear this! ??

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.

Every time an IRB review board rejects my proposal....

Congratulations!!

Exciting news!! The notification schedules really are all over the place for these schools -- I heard from most of my places in January (still waiting on UMich but expecting a rejection anyway). 

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!

Hey y'all,

I've been lurking the Geography forum and results for the past few months. I am hesitant to reveal my details until after I have accepted an offer; and I have not posted in the results section. Although, my username hints at some information. I do recognize I am in an incredibly fortunate situation, and I hope the best for everyone.

University of Washington, Seattle (Accepted)
University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Accepted)
University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Accepted)
Arizona State University, Tempe (Invitation to Visit Day)
University of California, Los Angeles (TBD)
Pennsylvania State University, University Park (TBD)