FruitLover
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Posts posted by FruitLover
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Do you guys think it's worth asking the program where I will most likely go if they offer any help with moving expenses? I know it's not common at this level, but I'm wondering if anyone has ever done this or heard of anyone actually succeeding at it.
- IGoToWar and time_consume_me
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38 minutes ago, histori041512 said:
The grad program lead emailed yesterday to say they are offering students the option to defer to next year with all of their funding. He said it might be a good option for international students to consider. That could potentially get the waitlist moving.
Oh wow! I wonder how many programs may do that and what that could mean for the next year’s cycle...
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3 hours ago, cryloren said:
Does anyone have any coping strategies while in self isolation?
Have you tried meditation? It helps accept emotions as they are and be at peace with your mind. I've heard that some apps are more accessible now given the whole quarantine going on. Also, Sanvello is an app that helps deal with stress, anxiety and depression and is now offering free premium access (I've never used it, but I came across it and figured I may as well suggest it in case you may find it useful).
Rejections suck, and I'm sorry you have to deal with it during such a stressful time of worldwide isolation.
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4 hours ago, historyofsloths said:
I've been taken off the waitlist at Indiana! Just received my formal offer today and I have to say that I'm relieved/emotional/over the moon. I'm going to get a PhD!
Congratulations!
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2 hours ago, anbri said:
I don't feel extremely comfortable letting my potential advisors know where else I have gotten into (because I do not want to let people know the program whose offer I did not accept, once I make a commitment). If this issue comes up, I don't want to be insincere and say that I am already determined to attend their program; but I also worry that if I don't even tell them my situation, I would appear neither open nor genuine. How can I approach this in an honest and polite manner?
I felt a little uneasy about this as well, but I don’t think it’s a big deal after all. One of my POIs asked me right away what other offers I have and another one asked indirectly. Plus, some other faculty I’d be working with also asked or found out. So if they ask, I think it’s okay to share the information (they can probably even share their thoughts on the other programs or tailor their answers about their program to address why you may want to consider them over the other places), but if they don’t - you don’t have to bring it up.
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I am trying to think of the most efficient way to take notes on the books I read and keep it all in one place. Usually, I take hand-written notes, but I would like to move to an electronic note-taking system so I can access it from anywhere and search by keyword. Do you have any tips on convenient ways to do that? Please share your note-taking experiences.
I know there have been some threads on note-taking, but I'm particularly interested in how you keep record of books in your field and those relevant to your research.
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3 hours ago, jocelynbymarcjacobs said:
No tuition waiver, just 18k stipend. ?
Oh, I see. I’ve never heard of stipends with no tuition waiver before...
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2 hours ago, jocelynbymarcjacobs said:
Offered an 18k a year stipend.
Does the stipend come without a tuition waiver? Or you mean you got an 18k/year scholarship that essentially makes your tuition lower?
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53 minutes ago, psstein said:
I would also bet, @FruitLover, that the position receiving 12 applications was either in an extremely niche field or at a university in an incredibly undesirable area (think something like Mohammed Bin Salman College of Petrochemicals and History).
That makes sense. And would you say the ones with nearly 700 are for Europeanists or Americanists, open rank or something else broad in a desirable area?
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Just found an interesting 2019 article that talks about an earlier point (about the limit on how long after getting a PhD you’re still a viable candidate) made by @telkanuru
“Last year’s faculty hiring favored very recent PhDs. Of the 52 assistant professor searches about which we have outcomes data, 54 percent of the jobs went to candidates who were fewer than two years removed from earning their PhD, and 12 percent of the jobs went to candidates who were still ABD at the time of hiring. The number of individuals hired before defending their dissertation has been trending upwardsince 2010–11. While 10 percent of these positions were filled by individuals who earned their degree five or more years ago, these numbers largely confirm anecdotal evidence that the faculty market sharply favors very recent PhDs.”
Also interesting: “This year, 117 advertisers replied to our query, 61 of them regarding searches resulting in tenure-track assistant professor hires. Unsurprisingly, these openings attracted high numbers of applicants: a median of 82 and a mean of 122 per position. The large gap between median and mean results from significant variation in the number of applicants, which ranged from as few as 12 to reports of almost 700. Eight advertisers reported receiving 200 or more applicants, compared to 12 reporting 50 or fewer.”
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8 hours ago, telkanuru said:
Some searches actually (and horribly) put a limit of ~5 years from degree award on their candidates. You're right that the further you get away from the PhD, the more problems you'll have but it's dependent on what you've been doing. If you've been adjuncting for even 1-2 years, you're probably done; at this point I would discourage anyone from thinking of an adjunct position as a stepping stone to full academic employment. If you've held 2-3 multi-year VAPs, though, you're probably still a viable candidate.
4 hours ago, schlesinger1 said:The problem is magnified at R1s--you won't be competitive after maybe three or four years (maximum) of postdocs/VAPs. Unofficial rules are less defined at lower-ranked schools.
1 hour ago, ltr317 said:Unfortunately, (cough, cough) there is implied (cough, cough) age discrimination. Not universally applicable but departments will favor younger applicants because they can potentially have a longer career. The same holds for non-traditional older PhD applicants.
This is good to know/keep in mind. Does it matter then how long it took someone to get their PhD in terms of how it looks on job applications? And also, what do you think (theoretically) is a smarter move, a VAP at an R1 school or a TT job at a small regional/LAC college if you want to eventually be at an R1/2 school?
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27 minutes ago, ltr317 said:
TMP - Your observation parallel the experiences of two undergrad friends who earned their PhD at Berkeley and Columbia, and are still in search of a tenured track after spending the past two decades in visiting and non-tenured jobs. I fear that the train has left the station for them.
How long after getting a PhD and not getting a TT job would you say you could still realistically compete with new grads? I know it all depends on a range of factors, but I assume that it isn’t equal if someone with a Berkeley PhD from 10 years ago (and no TT job) is competing against someone with a Harvard PhD from 2 years ago...
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I got my visit days schedules, and I’m trying to figure out what I should plan to do other than what is on the schedule already. How many professors should I set up appointments with before the visit day? (And should I?) Other than the POI, that is.
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11 minutes ago, ashiepoo72 said:
And maybe back stuff up on the Cloud, too.
I second that. With Microsoft Word, you can set it up that the document is automatically saved on OneDrive (you get some amount of storage for free, which should be enough for a lot of text documents).
On 2/18/2020 at 2:15 PM, histori041512 said:I'm trying to decide if I should start budgeting for a new laptop for the fall.
I don’t know much about MacBooks, but my laptop is pretty old (older than yours) and it’s still reliable. If you do get a new laptop, I recommend one with an SSD drive because it makes it so much faster: it never takes my laptop more than a second to load despite its old age. The ones with SSD (as opposed to HDD only) are more expensive, but when it comes to laptops, when you buy a more expensive one, it may save you money in the long run. Also, if your battery starts losing charge fast, you can always replace just the battery without buying a new laptop.
- gsc, histori041512, ashiepoo72 and 1 other
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I wonder why previous years' application threads reached 60-70 pages, and this year's is only at 27 pages by mid-February... Fall 2020 applicants must be busy doing important things that will get them ahead of those of us who are on Grad Cafe ?
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@thattaiwnanhistoryguy I'm not doing Taiwanese history but can I just say I love your nickname. Hope you end up in a good/suitable program in the end!
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You should probably visit. It's always a good idea to consider all of your options, and you don't lose anything by visiting. On the other hand, if you don't go after they paid for the ticket, it doesn't even necessarily mean that they would immediately accept someone off the waitlist and the person would go instead of you. So by not visiting you pretty much just waste an opportunity to weigh in another option and make sure you are making the right decision.
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9 minutes ago, TMP said:
Before you go, write down a ranked list of programs from top choice to bottom and write out a rationale for each one.
If asked about other offers/how the program ranks among them during the visit, what is the best way to answer? I don't want to pretend like I don't have other offers, but I also wouldn't want people at the school I'm visiting to feel as if their school is in some way less attractive (if it's not my top choice pre-visit).
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@psstein and @Sigaba these are great, thank you!
Since you guys mention bathrooms and common study areas, is it common for PhD students to have offices (shared with others of course)? In what I’ve seen, some schools with master’s programs only provide offices for their TAs, but the graduate handbooks for the PhD programs I’m considering don’t mention anything about it. They do mention graduate lounges though. -
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4 minutes ago, jocelynbymarcjacobs said:
Congrats! What field/time period do you work in?
Thank you! I’m doing modern Europe
- jocelynbymarcjacobs and Marier
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Historical binging?
in History
Posted
I really like Downton Abbey - it’s a British TV series set in the early 20th century.