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hi! I moved across the country to attend the MFA I'm currently in, I knew absolutely nobody in the town where I moved, and I could tell pretty much right away that I didn't like it/didn't fit in once I got here, and then also knew that it would be a long three years. I had zero familiarity with the geographic region, its social/cultural norms, and most people in my program are from around here and do get it. My first question/piece of advice is: what is the area like where you go to school? if it is a semi-urban/urban/suburban area (like my program), I highly suggest finding an activity or hobby that you really and genuinely do enjoy doing on your own! I live near a lot of nature preserves, historical sites, and yoga studios, and I found all three to be really helpful just to do things totally by myself that didn't feel like a drag or like I was just doing them for the sake of it. Even after I did make a few friends, these initial activities felt like a safety net if my plans were cancelled, if nobody was around, or if I was just having a crummy mental health day. Related to my first point, I ultimately just found that I was probably never going to connect with the people in my program. Once I owned up to this (semi-) fact, it became easier for me to just make friends outside my academic circle. I picked up a job at the local co-op, just a few hours a week, but ended up meeting a few like-minded folks who, although they might not ever become my very best friends, at least gave me some form of regular social contact. I think you could replicate this same contact by joining an organization that has ZERO contact with your program. this also gives you a safe way to vent/rant about the program, if you need to! Coming to terms with this, that I wouldn't probably ever connect with my program people, was really difficult. It took a lot of journaling, therapist-seeing, calling my parents/friends back home--but it ultimately saved me the pain of trying over and over to connect with people who were not interested in being a friend! My last suggestion/something that helped me immensely: if you're a cat/dog/pet person, the two cats i adopted during my program were probably the single biggest help to my mental health. They gave me something to look forward to, a routine to sink into, a reason to save money, a reason to be out of bed early and thinking about something other than my own depression. Once i had some pets, sitting out the couch "alone" wasn't quite so alone, and they brought me so much joy pretty much all of the time!

Hi! I grew up in Philadelphia & lived there briefly as an adult. Wanted to make sure someone responded to you! If you haven't found housing yet: I briefly lived & knew many folks in the Spruce Hill area which is JUST outside University City and has has tons of housing! I had excellent experiences throughout my spending time the neighborhoods surrounding Clark park (spruce hill, squirrel hill, cedar park). University City itself is pretty tiny so i would imagine that housing could get competitive and expensive pretty quickly. These areas would be a very short commute, 5-10 minutes, and would probably be more affordable/have more options in terms of parking, green space, etc. In general I found all of west philadelphia to be very affordable and a more residential feel as compared to south philly and downtown, which have a definite "CITY" feeling; lots of teeny tiny apartments!

Hi @cranbarrier! I'm finishing up a 3-year masters program where i lived on less than 15k a year, and before that I did an Americorps program where i made (if you can believe it) EVEN less than that. and I was vegetarian/vegan the whole time. budgeting is practically a part-time job for me. I found the Mint app incredibly helpful, but I personally didn't have many reservations to linking my banking because honestly I don't have that many finances to steal or mess with. I would notice pretty immediately if anything looked off. If you don't feel comfortable using that app, though, I still find their general formatting to be straightforward and a good balance of forgiving yourself for having to spend money sometimes vs. real-talk about not making stupid financial decisions. They pool your credit card debt, expected/regular monthly deductions (rent, utilities, car payments, student loans,etc), and any other debt to show your total "unavoidable" or necessary expenditures. this was incredibly good for me, since i tended, especially as a young(er) person, to mentally categorize credit card spending in some "other" money, not as what it really is: an actual deduction from your checking/saving account money. This also kept me from getting too down in the dumps about having to spend all this money just to exist since I still ALWAYS managed to have enough to live off of. All this just to say, I found it helpful to see all my debts lumped together into one sum so that i could see how much spending money was actually left. From there, I would break it down into only three categories, which helped me to actually enjoy tracking spending and not find it some big numerical mess: -things I cannot exist without: groceries, gas, & pet food. -household items--things i can theoretically live without and/or don't buy very frequently -things I should only buy if there is $ left over: clothes, makeup, dining out, extras and then whatever else was left at the end of the month (usually less than $100, but hey!), i would put right into savings! i would use these savings to, as needed, buy big things--furniture, appliances--or when moving apartments/houses, put down security deposits, etc.

I'm most interested in research that fills in some gaps in what has already been done. We already, simply as a product of our time(s), have so much information available all the time about almost anything/everything. I am therefore more interested in research that aims at highlighting a nearly-forgotten individual (typically women/non CIS folks or POC), school of thought, historical event, etc., or re-inserting an important but under-taught area into the pedagogical canon--than rehashing/attempting a "new" angle at an area that has already been studied at great length. This might be the rebellious millennial in me (loL), but i am also super super resistant to stereotypical academic jargon, and totally agree with @Melvillage_Idiot's resistance to words like "intersectionality"--I find that this language doesn't usually mean anything deeper than the plain-speak version, and is often just used to keep certain types of people out of the classroom/keep people from feeling comfortable or confident in the academic spaces.

oh WOW--congrats to everyone!! Also: I keep getting calls from 610 numbers, somehow convinced myself it might be UPenn ( anxiety ) and finally answered. Just someone hounding me about healthcare. February is a real trip, folks!!!

I'm not sure, especially since many of the documents i've actually been asked to signed aren't much more than a page and not very detailed. I know that my particular MFA program had a good amount of financial turmoil during my time but students/TAs never really felt in in terms of how much money/support we received. I think the department was able to pull money from the larger University/state funding as needed to ensure that we didn't get paid any less. We could certainly feel it in other ways, though--like faculty being let go and nobody filling their positions, for example. In any case, it seems like schools are generally willing to work pretty hard to make sure students receive the money they were promised!

@a_sort_of_fractious_angel thank you so much!!! I've thought kind of generally/philosophically about how I hope to grow from a Ph.D., but haven't really written it out exactly/plainly yet--I think this would help ! I have, of course, thought a lot about what i disliked about my current program lol but! I do love the idea of considering very concretely what i absolutely do or do not want to repeat from my MFA experience (free printing is important! it adds up!!) and spelling it out on paper. Both programs have been incredibly great about supplying all that handbook-type information, which is already a good sign

I'm so glad you mentioned this--I hadn't yet thought to look into what pedagogical courses TAs are required to take and what the courses are like; i'll add it to the list!

Hi folks! I only applied to 3 schools this go-round. I've gotten accepted to 2/3--the non-admittance is UPenn. Some weird things happened with that application (they were sending confirmation emails to an email I never supplied them, and then one of my letters of recommendations seems to have disappeared off the application site??? its a big mess!) so I'm not exactly counting on being accepted--which is just fine! Now I've just got to chose between the two! I'm currently finishing up an MFA program, and I've had a real tough time while doing so. The school, location, faculty, etc etc, all ended up not being a great fit to say the least. So this time I wanted to get it right, and I now often doubt my own ability to chose what is right for myself in the first place I have a big chart with all the info from the schools where I've been accepted, and so far I am weighing the following factors: -Faculty--engagement/activity with students and in their fields, fit for my research, general feeling they give on the school sites -Amount & type of funding, teaching load -Classes offered, ability to take courses outside the department, how rigorous the syllabi are if they're posted -Location, cost of living, general feeling I can gather without actually going there (again--finishing up a thesis doesn't leave me with very much time to travel!) is there anything else truly essential that I need to weigh out while deciding? And is there a best method for doing so besides a chart in the back of my planner? I considered getting a feel for the types of candidates at each place, but that feels to judge-y. Any/all feedback would be so wonderful !!

just based on the admission results survey it seems like people can hear back from pitt all the way through april!

Thanks so much, everyone!!

Accepted to Pittsburgh today—can barely believe it! Congrats to everyone hearing back this week

Thank you!! I figured it would be at least a day--I'm currently in an MFA program, and I remember it took over two months for me to hear back about funding was hoping that maybe PhD notifications happened faster since they accept fewer people in the first place. Still thrilled to already be hearing back at all!

Just accepted to SUNY Buffalo No word on funding but still feels great to have an acceptance under my belt. To those with experience, does it typically take a while between the general grad school acceptance and the departmental notification, and then funding? I'm trying not to drive myself nuts hoping for funding!