Ludwig von Dracula

Try doing a search on this topic. There have been a few recent threads (possibly in the applications folder? I can't remember) and the overwhelming consensus has been that it's a BAD idea to make your initial contact with a professor after you've already submitted your application.

Apparently, the GRE is worth $185 + $23 per school you apply to + whatever value you place on months of your study and practice time (thousands of dollars?). Not taking into consideration the possible value of getting into a school and getting funded, whatever role the score plays in all of that. I'm sure ETS would like us to think that it's a large role.

You may be thinking of the "Marshmallow test"...there's an interesting TED talk on it here: http://www.ted.com/talks/joachim_de_posada_says_don_t_eat_the_marshmallow_yet.html Turns out that the kids who were able to wait it out for the bigger reward were ultimately much more successful in life. But I have a feeling that most people going into grad school aren't shooting for short-term results anyway.

I'm wondering who got accepted to Chicago Ethnomusicology (Ph.D.) yesterday. I didn't, but it's my top choice. Is it too soon to give up hope on this one?

You know, Penn's site still says that my application is incomplete, and the only thing listed as missing is the transcript. Their instructions specifically say that international students may upload a transcript instead of mailing it in (official transcripts will be required only upon admission). I did upload the transcript but contacted the department to doublecheck that this was OK, and the answer was affirmative (if a little annoyed in tone...might be reading too much into that though). Given that this option's available for international students, you'd think they might permit it for nationals too. It would be nice if they'd let you email it in and not take you out of consideration, but I really have no clue what they'll end up doing.

I'm absolutely not into sports or really any kind of physical activity, but I've really enjoyed board games--of course, this often works better with people you already know a little bit, but I'm sure that many schools will have some kind of club. I've introduced "Settlers of Catan" and its various expansions to a number of friends, and some of them have gotten totally obsessed with it. A year ago, we played it quite religiously every Saturday evening for months. "Carcassonne" is another good one. Heck, I even miss my "Magic" cards sometimes. Another thing I've really enjoyed this year is playing music. I'm in a few choirs at school, which is nothing new for me, but I've also been playing in a Middle Eastern ensemble. This group is pretty cool because there are a lot of members in the group who don't actually read music. Many of them are international students or immigrants from Middle Eastern/North African/Central Asian countries, and a lot of people just come there to drum or to try to stumble across words in Arabic. Even though there are some ethnomusicologist nerds in the bunch, like me, for most people it's just something they do for fun--which it really is. Pretty informal, and most people aren't in it for any kind of credit. Personally, I think making music is a great way to relax and get to know people, but I'm a bit biased.

Checked my spam folder last night & had an email from UIUC. My application is "impressive" & they will be making me an offer of admission--but they're advising me to apply for as much outside funding as possible, as they can't confirm any financial stuff right now. So we'll see what happens!

The worst is getting a big fat envelope--and then finding out it's for a "consolation prize" like the Chicago MAPH. Might be initially flattering, until you realize that they're inviting you to a $45000 program without financial assistance. I think it's email for me too for reasons already listed (less wait time and no need to worry about how your reaction will impress somebody else).

I know this is a few months ahead of time, but I might not remember to post this if I wait until April/May or whenever they decide to send out the awards this year. In the event that you receive a Master's SSHRC and you are hoping to graduate in spring of 2012, it is in your best interest to start the award in May rather than September of this year. If you start the award in September 2011 and graduate in May 2012, you will NOT get your funding for the summer months after you graduate. The $17500 will be split into 12 equal segments of about $1430, and you will only receive 9 of them (what happens to the leftover money? Don't know. Probably goes back to the government). On the other hand, if you start the award in May, you will receive one payment per month until you graduate 12 months later, receiving your full award. Especially advantageous if you're doing research or fieldwork over the summer and aren't working. I thought I'd post this just in case; my university made this woefully unclear (really-- they didn't mention it even once) and I thought it might spare some headaches down the road. Plus it distracts me from thinking about application results...

I've gone to two Canadian universities and I've never gotten a percentage number in 7 years of courses, just a letter grade. At my undergrad (Manitoba), an A was a 4.0 and an A+ was a 4.5. I wasn't quite sure whether I should try to transfer this into a 4.0 scale for my grad applications because my undergrad GPA was actually a 4.06, which might have made me look like some kind of genius without the context...or perhaps like a bad student on some wacky 5 or 6 point scale, who knows. I was a bit surprised to find that my university had an idiosyncratic system (unlike my current one, which uses the 4.0 scale). Anyone else from a North American school that uses a different scale?

Nice! I'm up to 110 pages, and that's two close to complete chapters. But I haven't started on revisions yet. My advisor's been fairly positive with what he's seen so far...

I'm not sure about your second question, but at the Master's level, basically every application forwarded by the university gets an award (to my understanding). So the 31 spots for Queen's University should all be getting SSHRC funding. Good luck!

What about "A Feast for Crows"? Unfortunately, it's not as good as the first three. But still good, and not as long. Although I don't like most urban fantasy, I'll echo the de Lint recommendation. He's great. (And a Canadian?) Hmm, not used to recommending books from the B-list...oh, I know! Try "Souls in the Great Machine" by Sean McMullen. Or "Scar Night" by Alan Campbell, which is a bit more urban. Both had their enjoyable bits, but some flaws as well. And they are both start off trilogies, if you find them passable.

Yes, me too. This means that your university's grad department has decided the application is worth sending to SSHRC, and the decision is now in Ottawa's hands. So congratulations...we've passed the first hurdle, at least!

Good heavens...I taught high school for two years (with excellent mentors, so hardly on my own), and some days I would literally cry before leaving for work because I was so nervous. A different kind of stress than waiting for results, but don't knock it. Nytusse, you have my sympathies.

In my experience, the documents were uploaded to the server but not attached to the specific application. I found a stinky treasure trove of junk when I entered the application process again for a school I was rejected from two years ago. Re-reading my old writing samples and statement of purpose, I'm not surprised that I didn't get in.

Thanks Milania! I've already written more than fifty pages, so I'm feeling like the problem will be cutting stuff out rather than trying to stretch it out. Right now I'm having fun NOT worrying about going over some prescribed word count. But yes, I'll be going over the chapters one at a time with my advisor. Good luck with your defense.

Hi Samuel, I'm not sure that this board is the best place to be asking such questions. It's a pretty secular place (not to say that you aren't entitled to your religious beliefs; just be aware that many/most here will not share them and some may take offense depending on how you phrase things). You MIGHT have some luck if you post in the "Religion" subforum under Humanities, as the people frequenting that area have experience with M.Div./MTS and the various other theological degrees; they might be able to direct you to specific seminaries. You might also consider Peace and Reconciliation studies which is a growing field. A number of Mennonite universities (in particular) specialize in such programs, and I'm sure there are others out there. I'm not sure how well secular schools would respond to somebody with your highly Evangelical purpose, although your focus on interfaith understanding is obviously an incredibly important angle. I would encourage you to look for a forum dedicated to Christian higher education, as it would likely be more helpful than this one, although I don't know of any off the top of my head.

[quote name=hello! ' timestamp='1294046613' post='173743] Concern #2: This may or may not be universal, but I heard that technically you don't have to finish your master's degree to go onto a PhD program at another university. I guess it probably looks bad if someone had intended to defend his/her thesis but did not. In any case, I know of at least two people who started a two year MA program, but got into great PhD programs and so left after only one year. I'm guessing they had discussed this extensively with their advisors beforehand so not to piss them off.

Alberta for me, multiple reasons: -stupid confusing screen upon login: I'm not trying to edit a portal/domain! Just bring me to my application! Have to try about six links before I get to the right thing. Grr. -you cannot upload anything online, including letters of recommendation. All have to be snail mailed. -more confusing than usual to figure out what supplementary materials you need to send and where (you have to go to about five different places on the Graduate Studies and specific deparment's websites) -no application check function (albeit the application is very short, given that you don't include ANYTHING other than basic information) -$100 fee (not terrible, but in combination with everything else...) -two transcripts from each institution? -and the most annoying: each page gets reset and starts up back at the top every time you input a new piece of information from a drop-down menu. But it doesn't happen right away, so you might already be editing the next item only to suddenly have your screen refreshed and then need to scroll back down to where you were and possibly retype what you were just working on. Gets especially irritating on the pages with ten or fifteen of the little buggers. Thank heaven that this is the last one. UChicago was the best for me as well. And I liked the waived application fee with early submission.

What program are you applying for? Ph.D. Ethnomusicology Why grad school and what's your journey? I really enjoyed my undergraduate academic music classes--even more than the practical ones. I worked as a high school teacher for a few years but found that while I enjoyed the teaching and relationships, I hated the classroom management part. Teaching at a higher level seemed to make sense, and it helped that I have always loved to read, study, and learn. And I also had an interesting and unique topic for fieldwork research given my experience working with members of a very distinctive religious minority. What challenges does your field present and what hurdles do you need to overcome? Well, a humanities Ph.D. is always a risk. I need to work on my language skills too, as I am still far from fluent in anything other than English (a few years of grade-school French don't count for much). If I get into an American school, we'll have to figure out a way for my wife to work, and on a personal level, when it makes sense to start having kids. Not to mention the difficulty of some of the material. What skills are you working on? German big time (exam in less than a month), and developing/increasing my theoretical fluency so I can hope one day to explain (meaningfully) some of the intricacies of poststructuralism. How are you keeping motivation and what perspective have you gained from the process? It helps that I am busy with my thesis right now and that I'm still finding my topic very interesting. That'll keep the admissions stuff from becoming a full-time obsession for about two months. Also, I am extremely glad that I did my M.A. degree. I think that I'm in a far better place for the Ph.D. programs that I'm applying to than I was when I applied initially (to some of these same programs) two years ago. I have far better writing samples to draw from and my statement of purpose is focused and informed. Hope it's good enough!

LOL. I promise I'm not as gothic as all that, you just caught me when all the constellations were aligned...The Passage, Blood Meridian, Spawn, and Bone (at least its title) make quite a collection. I do enjoy a good Bach fugue (or Bach anything, really). I need some optimistic suggestions before I sink into my coffin for good...

"Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy, as well as Jeff Smith's "Bone" graphic novels (great) and the "Spawn" comic book series (crap but kind of fun). I just finished "The Passage" by Justin Cronin, which is like Stephen King's "The Stand" with vampires--really enjoyed it. And of course, many papers and books toward my thesis (due in a few months). And this forum--way more than necessary!