fuzzylogician

I'm with the others. Do NOT accept an unfunded PhD offer. A PhD in the Humanities should not be something you go into debt for. The investment won't return itself. Go out there and get some work experience as well as some distance from this unpleasant experience. Things look difference from a distance and you'll be able to reevaluate your priorities.

Indeed, this shouldn't be a problem. You might want to point out that you have two visas in your passport and that you're entering as a tourist now and have plans to leave and re-enter before your program begins so you're on the correct F1 status. As long as the officer knows you've made plans to always be in the correct status, you should be just fine.

In other news, the sun is hot.

We know that some professors know about the grad cafe. We get occasional visits from them. It's possible that they also read the relevant forums sometimes. The chances that anyone will go to the trouble of trying to identify an anonymous poster on the board and enact "sanctions" on them are probably fairly low. You would have to post something pretty outrageous on the one hand, and revealing on the other, for someone to go out of their way to identify you and to do something about it. If it were me, I'd be wary of misidentifying a student based on anonymous posts and accidentally punishing someone wrong. However, it's a good time to remind everyone that everything you post on the internet is there to stay, and with enough time and effort, you could be identified even if you think you're anonymous. Think about how much personal information you post and how you behave online.

Disclaimer: I am NOT an expert on taxes. That said, yes, at least when I do my taxes that's how it comes out. Both federal and state taxes are calculated out of the gross amount earned throughout the year. In my state, though, you could be too poor to have to pay state tax, which I always was so I would get my taxes reimbursed. Worth looking into.

You have to frame your questions the right way. Not a lot of people will straight up say bad things about their program in an email, if you ask me. That leaves too much of a paper trail. However, there are ways to ask questions to get more indirect indications of anything that is wrong. And even better would be to talk to students in person or on the phone, without the presence of faculty.

It would be before tax. Here is information about federal taxes. There will also be state taxes to pay on top of that, but federal taxes is the big one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_bracket#2013_tax_brackets_under_current_law

Guessing which one is A and which one is B: a lot depends on who your advisor(s) will be at each program. Will you work with the ones who are responsible for the success stories at UB? If not, well, then it's a big risk. On the other hand, the concerns about UA are also important. Have you visited both schools? How did you like it there? (I am happy to continue the conversation in a PM.)

Yeah, dress warmer than that. I'm in Europe right now and I keep thinking to myself "man, it's warm here!" It's just above freezing, which I used to think was very cold. But I don't anymore. Don't forget the scarf, hat, gloves. But yeah, once indoors, a dress jeans with a nice shirt+sweater will work. Things don't get too formal in linguistics, normally.

It depends on many factors - e.g. how easy it is to find off-campus housing where you'll be, what the public transportation is like and/or how close your housing will be to your university, how much on vs. off-campus housing will cost. If the market is difficult and/or you can't get there early enough to find a decent place, there are advantages to living on-campus for the first year. You don't have to worry about the location, furniture, bills, etc. which is convenient when you don't know the place and don't have time to do market research. If you do know the city, have the time, or the cost for on-campus housing is much higher than living off-campus, then you might want to choose off-campus housing even if it's initially more difficult to get settled in.

Yes, you can ask in the middle of the semester, if you have no better options. A letter saying the person has known you for two months and so far you seem to be doing well in class won't do you too much good, no matter how famous the person is. If this is your plan, I'd do my best to show up for office hours, participate in class, and generally make a case for myself that I am a good student. I might consider consulting with him early on about grad school applications and also letting him know that you would like to ask him for a letter, so he can tell you how to best show that you are a good student given the limited timeframe. It won't put him in an awkward position; if he won't feel like he can write you a good letter, he will let you know.

You join a frequent flyer program with one of the airlines that is convenient and flies out of your local international airport (it's free). You book all your flights with this airline or others that are in the same alliance. You fly a lot. Eventually, you gain status with the airline, which means that you may occasionally get selected for an upgrade. You could also pay for one, but sometimes you get it for free. You also get the chance to board earlier.

I used to care about absences and people copying on their homework and such. I don't anymore, I guess I've become as jaded as my professors who I used to make fun of for that same reason. There is too much crap to fight it all, and most of the time you can't succeed even if you try really hard. You have to learn to pick your battles. I am still pissed by blatant cheating and will take care of that, but I give them a freebie low homework grade removed from their final grade, no questions asked, and it could be a zero on something they didn't submit. For large classes, I am also happy with a couple of freebie absences, but I have a clear policy that I don't make up material at office hours if they don't have a good reason for not showing up for class (and in general, if they haven't demonstrated an independent effort to make materials up). If I had this problem with my TAs being approached so unevenly, I think we'd have to come up with a way to make sure the work is divided more evenly. The alphabetical way would work, I like that.

If you really do need to know now for some reason (like you need to apply for a visa, or you need to apply for university-internal funding that has a deadline) then by all means ask. If you are just curious, you could wait a little. But since it's more than 2 weeks past when they said they would announce, I think it's also fine to ask now.

I don't think I could have dated someone in grad school who didn't ask me about school and what I do. I mean, it's what I *do*. It's where I spent most of my waking hours, what I'm hoping to do as a career. If a guy doesn't want to know about that, he is ignoring a very important aspect of me. I'd bring it up. If he didn't ask for whatever reasonable reason but is interested once you tell him it's important to you, then no problem. Otherwise, I'd be very concerned. It's already complicated to be with someone who doesn't really get it. I don't think I could be with someone who didn't care.

As a conference organizer, here is the kind of email I appreciate: "Dear organizers, I submitted an abstract with the title Title (or: submission number, other relevant info) to Conference. The conference website says that acceptance notifications should have gone out in mid-February, but I haven't heard anything yet. I was wondering if notifications have gone out already, and if so if it would be possible to know my result and to receive any feedback from the referees that my abstract may have gotten. Thank you, -me." Whatever you do, please don't write a passive-aggressive "well I didn't hear so I suppose I'm rejected, you could at least email" because it's possible that notifications are delayed and it's possible that there was a technical glitch with the email (you'd be surprised how many of those one gets as an organizer!).

I chose to attend the school where I felt like my connection with the current students was the worst. It had great advisors and location and other advantages that outweighed my concerns about the social aspects, though I certainly did go in somewhat concerned. The people who ended up becoming my friends were actually students who didn't go to the social events I participated in as a prospie, and we didn't really become close until my second year. Most of us have now graduated and have moved away to pretty much every place you could think of, but we're still in touch and it's really great to have them, even if they're far away. Conferences and trips are like reunions now. I'm less close with most of my own cohort, but I ended up having friends from pretty much all the cohorts above and below me. Sometimes it just takes time; I don't think it's something you can tell from a two-day visit or follow-up email. I do agree that your social life is important, though. I went against my gut in the friends department but with my gut in the advisors department and it worked out great, but YMMV. I don't know how to give general advice in this case.

I don't have good news for you. I would not sign a lease for an apartment in Boston without being there in person to see it. Apartments can be odd in all kinds of ways and you need to see them to know you want them, not to mention the possibility of scams. It's a very fast market and you need to be able to make up your mind and write a check pretty much immediately. It's also very much a sellers' market; the demand exceeds the supply, so prices are high. By the end of August you will definitely be settling on something, be it price, location, conditions, or more than one of the above. TakeruK gave some good advice above. If you are able to come early, I'd say around late May or June is when you want to come. You could use a realtor; it'll cost you some money but if you're pressed for time and want to find something suitable, it's a good way to do it. Alternatively, since you didn't write about a family, I'm going to assume you're coming alone. Try and reach out to current students or other students in your cohort (ask to be put in touch with them, the secretary should know how); if someone is looking for roommates, it would be easy to go that route, or if you could team up with people who are local or can get there earlier than you, you might be able to rent a whole apartment together.

Hello, this forum is not meant for help with homework. I suggest you ask your professor or TA.

That seems to me like a very personal decision that may change considerably from one person to the next. As a first step, check out this thread that is being discussed right now in the neighboring forum: My best advice, not having done this myself, would be to talk to as many people with relevant experiences as possible. I would guess that waiting a year would be better than waiting a semester, but either way you'll have to learn to fit a young baby in with your studies and that won't be easy, so maybe you just have to jump right in and do it. Again, total guess here, no first hand experience. You should ignore me and listen to those with more experience .

If you're sure, then if it were me I'd withdraw, though I also know others who think it's always better to have an offer and decline than not to have an offer. It's up to you. If it were your only offer, would you take it? That's a good way to decide.

Congratulations! I would also advise to wait until after you have been officially accepted, just to be on the safe side. In the meanwhile, I'd recommend starting to learn about the services your school offers to young families. They may be through the school's medical center or the disabilities office or a dedicate part of the Dean of Students' office, etc. Read up on what is offered, then once you're officially accepted, contact them to ask about your particular situation. Once you have all the information, contact your department. You should probably decide which option you would like to pursue out of what's available before you contact them. If it were me, I'd consider deferring for at least a semester. Consult with your advisor, and ask if there are any students with young children who you could be put in touch with. They could give you the most up to date information and advice.

People have different priorities and only you know yours. Personally I think there is often too much emphasis put on working on one's "dream project." I'm sure there are exceptions, but for many there is no topic that is "the one" and that's a good thing. Interests change and flexibility is important. I value other criteria just as much as (if not more than) the topic -- those include compatibility with my advisor, appropriate funding, and location. Other people might not care about the location or might compromise on funding and prefer a school with better name recognition, etc. I don't see the harm in letting the process move on and seeing how you feel about the place when you visit. If you like the location and advisor and think you might enjoy the project, even if it's not your favorite topic ever, it'd be worth considering. But only you can prioritize the topic and the other considerations.

I would advise against gambling on any one professor. Things can go wrong in all kinds of ways if you put all your eggs in one basket, so to speak. DontFly mentions some above. It's important to have at least one backup option. Even if you are able to work with this advisor, you'll need to form a dissertation committee at some point, so there should be at least two other people who you could reasonably talk to about your work and who you get along with, even if your interests aren't too closely matched. I'd also suggest you ask more or less straight up if this professor plans to still advise PhD theses 5 years from now. It's not going to be enough to know if he is teaching courses next year, or even 3 years from now. What you want is a different level of commitment.

See e.g. here for some basics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States#Marginal_tax_rates_for_2013