Ludwig von Dracula

I got through to someone at the doctoral office. They said the mail out for the doctoral awards/CGS will happen late this week or early next week. They are literally printing the letters off as we speak.

It's quite true. Angela Merkel, a physical chemist in Germany, had to find herself a job in an entirely non-scientific field because of the lack of employment opportunities!

Hope you don't mind if I keep that under wraps. If anyone from my the school/program that I chose saw this, I would be mortified! And my decision has already been made, so it would be a big deal to rescind.

About stars. If don't feel like a star going into your PhD, you should reconsider. If you feel like a star during of after your first year, you should seek psychological help.

Hey, my folks just recently got this service calledTalfazat-ART. It’s this service whereyou hook up a box to your internet as well as to your TV. It lets you watch like 50 arabic channels andhas on demand shows as well. I soundlike a commercial, I know. After Ihooked it up for the folks I found I was watching more and more of it aswell. What is sweet is that I can useour account to watch it online as well.



Anyways, just thought I would mention it if anyone was feelinghomesick. Check it out. TALFAZAT-ART

Oh, yeah, laminated and everything. The next time you go to the DMV to get your license renewed there's a box on the form you can check to renew your atheist card too. It's so convenient these days!

Well, apparently it was, because she responded with a scholarship offer and a promise to look for more funds! Doesn't quite match the other school, but it is enough to make me feel a lot better.

dude have you ever been to university?you don't pay for the coursework, you pay for everything else
otherwise you'd just buy a textbook and read it

haha (and to the original poster just choose ksg and stop worrying about personal attacks on an online forum)

Hi, Harvard alum here. Choosing Sanford over KSG is a big mistake. Even from a purely financial standpoint, KSG is the better long-term option (no contest). But when you also think of the name recognition and professional network at KSG, Sanford is a comparatively poor choice. There is no professional network more influential and important than Harvard's, and while Sanford might be close to KSG in the rankings, it is really a 2nd tier school in comparison. There is not a single person who would choose Sanford over KSG from a purely professional standpoint.

Of course, KSG is kind of a self-selecting environment. If you end up choosing Sanford, you probably aren't the kind of person who would leverage Harvard's resources anyway (and then, you really are better at Sanford). In any case, hate to say it but the decision is obvious. Listen to the people you respect and go to the best school in the nation. Equivocating because of a few years' tuition shows a lack of perspective.

There is so much contradictory information involved with this process. I've heard that decisions are made over reading break, that decisions are made up to and including the middle of April, and that decisions are made from January to March. I realize that it is year-specific, but would it be so hard to provide a rough guideline under the FAQ page to prevent all of this needless anxiety?

I swear, someone somewhere must have gotten SSHRC grant to study human behavior under extreme duress and this was their proposed methodology.

I understand that SSHRC has a waitlist too. Not everyone who is awarded ends up accepting, for various reasons (better funding offers from elsewhere, didn't get into any universities after all, etc).

I think it's also likely that some people who were given the larger award ($105,000) end up going to school internationally, qualifying them only for the lesser amount ($80,000), and perhaps if SSHRC is left with a surplus after several people do this, they will award a few more who didn't make the initial cut. They'd want to have a waitlist ready in this case. This is only speculation on my part though.

Yep. Same thing in my department. This apparently is far from abnormal.

And to Lymrance--perhaps I shouldn't have posted in such unequivocal terms. You're right; I don't know for sure how every school does it. Mine pays out one twelfth of the award each month for twelve months (or for nine months if you start in September of the final year). Yours obviously does it differently.

BUT--I still think this post is important, if only to encourage people to CHECK WITH YOUR GRADUATE DEPARTMENT how the award will be paid out. As I said, my school did not inform me that I would only get 75% of my award if I took it up in September. You must, must be clear on what you'll be receiving. The extra few grand came in very handy when it was time for me to do my summer fieldwork--it allowed me to buy much-needed recording equipment, etc. I don't want anyone else to get an unpleasant surprise (the way a colleague of mine did, who ended up deciding to defend in the fall to get the full amount of the award paid out over the summer months. Not OK for somebody like me who is planning to go directly into a Ph.D. at a different school next year).

Again--ASK. Know what you're getting into.

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 thought this was a very reasonable response to that video.

Or one of those brown tweed jackets with elbow patches.

Yes, this.







And may I warn any menfolk out there that the so-called "girls" in your program will no doubt prefer not to be infantilized, either. Girls = female children. Female graduate students = adults, not children. Please show the women of your program (and your world) some respect. And if the men out there who use this kind of language "don't mean it that way"--too bad. It still comes off as (and simply is) disrespectful and condescending,

Ah, good metaphor. I worried for a moment that we might have to start an all-out-war for the title of Vampire Overlord of Gradcafe.

I am in the same situation....just 15 minutes ago....I was rejected from my number one choice. Honestly it sucks but you know what....we will all get through it. The one thing this website has done for me is shown me that I am not alone. As I posted just before I found out about my rejection, there are over 38,000 people supporting me....regardless of my admission status.

My best advice to you is feel it for a while...and then move on. Remember: We determine how we respond to a situation. Let us not be judged by the rejections but by the willingness to put ourselves out there (softly the music of America the Beautiful begins to play). Obstacles are only those things we see when we take our eye off the goals. (music increasing, crowds begin to swell with energy). Remember, when one doors closes...another opens (a mother craddles her new born child; a vetern stands to salutes; the music intensifies). We live with no regrets because we tried...we are the little engines that could....keep trying...never give up.....(a tear runs down the cheek of soldier; Glenn Beck sobs--no surprise!). And never....ever....forget.......in the immortal words of the late Anne Nicole Smith...."Do you like my body".....opps..I mean....in the vien of a Mastercard commercial....Submitting supporting detail transcripts: $4.44; Non-refundable PhD Application Fee: $65, Smiling because you realize how great your are: PRICELESS! (the crowds cheer, applause fills the air, and you are still smiling)


I know that just helped me..... we will all be fine! Right?

My first rejection was an email this past Tuesday. I angrily deleted everything the school had ever sent me. Then I ate fried mozzarella sticks and felt better. And got really excited about the one school that had admitted me.

The second rejection (yesterday) was harder. First, I got an actual letter, which made it feel more...real. Ate a cupcake that was leftover from my birthday. I went to class and tried not to cry (mostly succeeding). Went back to my room and actually cried. Barely ate anything for dinner. Later, my friends and I went to the river, burned the letter, and I drank whiskey. The we went and ate food (more fried mozzarella sticks for me!). I felt better and went back to my room to watch some Arrested Development. Decided to skip class the next day (today) and went to bed. Today, I woke up and started feeling all depressed again. Tried to work on one of my papers, but felt too anxious to do so. This lasted most of the day until after supper, I put the soundtrack to There Will Be Blood on repeat and started writing my paper. Now I feel better!

Also, I am such a stereotypical Wisconsin girl....comforting myself with fried cheese. Hah.

Nice! Who are you interested in working with?

Also got a reject from UPenn today. Oh well. "Penn" sounds kind of like "phlegm" anyway.

To my mind Bread Loaf has been unfairly panned. While it does have a reputation as a "party school" - the undergraduate population is constantly baked - the ranking of its graduate program continues to rise. Academic traditionalists are sure to like its fine marble architecture and (frankly) whitebread demographics, while radicals may appreciate the role various other cultures have played in helping it grow. Don't worry about your funding kneads - its upper-crust benefactors have ensured there's plenty of research dough.

Would you rather spend a year saving money or wasting your time with a degree you won't be using? If you really want to pursue law school, I would say not to continue with a degree you aren't too interested in, just for the sake of not having to work. You might have to pay for yourself to go through school (or partially pay), so why not get ahead and save up some money? Working isn't that bad. It might give you some much needed time to think over your options for the future.

It sounds to me like you're doing fine. I typically try not to put in more than a 40-50 hour week because I'd go insane if I did more.