fuzzylogician

Yes - both are fair questions, and I'd ask them both together in an email: i.e. ask if they have set a date for their interviews, tell them it will assist you in making travel plans, and also ask when you might expect to hear from them.

I got an acceptance call from the school I am currently attending. I was too excited to speak coherently, and was kind of just saying 'uh-huh' to everything the professor on the other end was saying, which was mostly details about the offer and the open house. It was a short conversation and at the end she asked "do you have any questions for me," and I said "yes, but I forgot what they are" (because actually at the time I was preparing for other interviews and was thinking about these things in general, but I completely blanked on everything!). I then at least had the presence of mind to say "I'll email you later with some questions," which was a good excuse to express my excitement with, you know, full grammatical sentences. I felt really stupid at the time, but this professor later told me that reaction isn't all that uncommon, and it's nothing to worry about.

I choose what to put on my CV not based on when the relevant event happened but according to what it contributes to my CV within the context of whatever purpose it is serving at the moment (job apps, fellowships, etc). When I was applying to grad school, I had pretty much anything that could be relevant on my CV, thinking that what doesn't help probably won't hurt either. At the moment I think undergrad presentations at national conferences will stay on my CV for a while to come, but undergrad conferences are no longer there. I also don't put on there any presentations done within my university, e,g, at reading groups or seminars. A university-wide competitive award from undergrad is still on my CV, but the Dean's List mentions are gone. TAing and teaching from my Masters and PhD are there, but earlier tutoring is gone. This is all based on advice I got from my professors on my specific CV and my specific situation, and if you have someone to ask about this, I suggest you do so.

An anecdote and some advice: At my school we try and schedule our (post-acceptance) open house with other prominent competitors' open house dates in mind, so applicants who go to several of them don't encounter any conflicts. During the open house prospies get to sit in on classes, meet with professors, attend a reception event in the department, and go out to lunch with some students. Each prospie gets a "day host" that is responsible for getting the prospie to where they need to go according to their schedule, and a "night host," who hosts the person overnight. You get lots of opportunities to talk to people and see everyone in action. However, most years there are people who can't make the open house for one reason or another. Those people can then come whenever they have time; they will get a day host and night host like everyone else, they will attend classes and meet with whoever is there. They miss the reception event and instead get taken out by students, and they get to see the department on a more normal day. There are pros and cons to both, and we don't judge anyone for having a scheduling conflict. If I were you, I'd choose two of the three and inform them you can't make their scheduled interview date. No one should be upset because of this, everyone known this sort of thing happens, and I assure you that you are not the first or last person to have this problem. I'd probably keep the date I already RSVPed to unless one of the other two absolutely insists the date they have is very important. I'd propose some times when I am available around the time the school suggested, and ask if they have a preference. I'd indicate that other options could work too (if that's true). Unless you are absolutely certain you don't want to attend one of these schools, I suggest you make the effort to make all the visits. I found that visits changed my perception of several schools and had quite an impact on my final choice.

This is unreasonable. I'd do as others have suggested and both ask about reimbursement, and reiterate that it's otherwise too expensive. If this prof tries to insist that you come in person or they won't consider your application, I'd take it as a serious red flag and would probably not want to have such a person as my advisor. I'm sure someone who makes this kind of unreasonable demand from someone who is not even their student will not suddenly improve once you're even more dependent on them for your degree.

People have reputations. Ask your professors about potential advisors. Talk to current and past students of the professor. People are unlikely to out right write bad things about someone in an email (can they trust you with condidentiality?), but they may say things they won't write. The tone of an answer can tell you a lot, as will the choice of words. On visitation days, go out with the students if there is any kind of event that involves students only (and preferably some alcohol). Ask about people, but also about life in the department in general. Find the unhappy people, the ones that avoid the prospectives, and ask them about their lives, what they would do differently. They are the likeliest to tell you the truth about a terrible advisor. Observe the professors-students interactions at department events (if there is a visitation day, there will be a reception-like event) - do they talk to one another, are they friendly? Or are there closed 'cliques' and people don't seem to really know or care about each other? Talk to the professor, at least on the phone if not in person. You can learn a lot about your chemistry from simply meeting with them and trying to have a conversation. It won't address all your concerns, but it may raise some immediate red flags. Ask about facts (some of the prof, some of students) - How many students (who) has the professor had in the past ~5 years? What are they doing now? Are there people who left the program without graduating or changed advisors in the middle -- if so, how many, and what is the reason (NB you might get different answers from prof and students, which would be something to look out for)? Also ask the professor and their students about the prof's mentoring style - hands on/off, availability, etc. (To answer your questions, you could email students if you can't visit, but I'd ask to talk on skype if possible. I would not write co-authors. They won't have the information you seek, and it'll put them in an awkward position.)

It's early for most ling programs. I don't think I got my first notification before the third week of January, and the last one was in the last week of February.

That's what I would do. As long as you are able to talk coherently about whatever you did, I think your interviewers will understand if you decline to answer questions about specific techniques (as long as you explain why you are declining to answer!). The main goal of asking you a question about your previous research is to see that you are knowledgeable about your work, can explain it concisely, and to learn about your qualifications and what you learned from the job. Be sure you are able to clearly talk about the parts of the project that are not confidential. I think it would also be fair to simply ask the interviewers what they already know about the project from your LOR (to tackle the confidentiality issue at least somewhat) and go off of that.

What TakeruK said, basically. I will just add that some countries have tax treaties with the US that include larger deductions than the standard ones every international student gets. That's also something to look into. Normally the tax software that international students use to file their taxes will be able to tell you this and make the adjustments automatically, but it's good to know what to expect. If your fellowship is fully tax exempt (mine is, for example), you may be able to fill some form at the university so they won't deduct any taxes from your pay check. Also keep in mind you'll have to pay state tax and (perhaps, in some cities) city tax. It's much less than the federal tax, but it's also something to know about.

The OP is a first time poster. Many new visitors to the site aren't familiar with its structure and either don't search or else fail to find existing threads with lots of useful information that us old timers know about and often have contributed to. I think the thread I linked to contains some very helpful advice, also relevant for the OP. True, it is not field specific, but the presence of the link in this thread does not stop you from replying with SLP specific advice. I think posting the link is a helpful gesture. I have to say, though, for someone who complains about the posting of non field specific advice in this thread, your advice is not SLP specific either, if you think about it for a moment.

As part of the admissions offer, you should get a proposed funding package. If this was not made clear when the offer was made, you should ask about it -- whether there is any funding, if so how much money per year and for how many years, is there a tuition waiver, do you get health insurance, are there other benefits; are there requirements for keeping the funding (e.g. (warning: made up requirements follow:) a 3.5 GPA, completion of comps by the end of the second year, etc), and are there additional TA/RA requirements that come with the funding package. If there are TA/RA requirements, you should find out how many hours you are expected to work a week, and for how many semesters. Normally funding packages come with some mix of fellowships, TAships and RAships. Often, you don't have to teach in your first and last year but you have some teaching requirements in the other years. TAship is sometimes a part of funding packages and sometimes independently earned by the student (more often: in schools where not all the students are funded, or funding is competitive). You should ask which is the case for the school that accepted you.

I created a simple (one page) website that was hosted on my undergrad university's server. It has since moved to my current university's server. It's easy to create editable webpages using e.g. WordPress templates or a googledoc, especially if you keep it simple. The website has a link to my CV in pdf format, and I have highlights from the CV on the website itself (recent publications, handouts from talks, upcoming presentations, etc -- with links). I also include a picture and a short description of my interests. The CV itself is written in a simple text editing software, nothing fancy. You want to keep the formatting simple because this is something that you'll actively maintain and update as you advance in your career.

Upper 1-2% -- in the top 1-2% (of the class, the prof's former students, etc); ... Lower 50% -- less than average. You could contact the school to ask, but I think this is pretty clear. (No one will care or even ask if a student is in the lower 5% or 1-2% of the class, and conversely not care where the student ranks in the top 50% of the class; it makes no sense.)

If applicants' files are printed, I am willing to bet good money that everyone's files will be printed on the same type of paper - letter size paper - without special consideration of any particular page in any particular applicant's file that may require different settings. It's too much work and frankly I doubt anyone will look closely enough to even notice the need. This will be one page in the middle of your application, and there will be 100+ others like it for the secretary to prepare. I recommend you scan your transcripts in a way that will be legible on letter size paper (or A4, which is similar enough). Either scan the transcript in two halves, since A3 is basically just two A4 papers put together, or shrink the page in such a way that it's still legible. If you're unsure, include both the original/shrunk version and the two-page version, so they can look at both to verify authenticity but are also able to read what's on the page.

I believe this was true for all the funding packages I was offered back when I was applying, and it's certainly true for the funding I currently have. The actual teaching requirements varied from school to school depending on their needs, but you are not paid extra while doing this required teaching. At my current school, if you teach beyond the required number of semesters, then you're paid for this extra teaching, but it's a relatively small increase in payment compared to the baseline payment we all get.

Wow. That really sounds like a terrible requirement. This is the first time I hear of a faux-interview requirement like this and it's really upsetting! The school gets to look at you in their spare time if/when they so please, and you get suboptimal interview conditions, for obvious reasons. Seems very unfair to the candidates. Here are some thoughts on how to prepare for this interview, in no particular order: - Compile a list of likely questions and prepare their answers. Try and get everything you'd like to convey to the adcom into these answers, because no one is going to ask you any follow-up questions on anything interesting that you might say! - If the website doesn't specify, I'd contact the school and ask what approximate length they expect for each answer, otherwise it's hard to know how much detail they want and when to stop talking. - Look up and read some interview advice on the forum - there have been several posts just in the last few days and there are other older posts. These posts will help you with potential questions, with what to wear, etc. - Practice in front of the camera, to get comfortable with the situation of talking to a camera with no one really on the other end. - If you need to, prepare postits with key words that you could read without obviously looking away from the camera. Don't put whole texts on there, just some important reminders of things you want to say. - If you get very nervous at these things, try and prepare yourself scripted opening sentences for expected answers. I don't recommend doing this for entire answers because it'll sound unnatural, but most people will get more comfortable once they're already talking, so the hard part is getting started.

If you think adding this section might help you get a job, do it. In most cases, though, I don't think that's the case and therefore I would not add it. You want your CV to be concise and do a good job representing you - that is, you don't want the good stuff to be swallowed up by unimportant details. If all it's doing is adding a few lines, it'll be seen as padding and it is not going to help. However, if it's relevant for a job, I'd put it there. In the CV you linked to, I assume the skills section is going to be directly relevant for the jobs this person will be applying to - not only is it present, it's front and center. I think this is different from most academic CVs, so I'm not sure it's a good example to go off of.

I recommend biotechie's recent blog post on this topic: I'd add: 11. Don't get drunk. But more importantly: 12. Don't forget to have fun!

I can't help with 1 or 2, but with regard to 3 and generally in life, it might help to assume people are well-meaning until proven otherwise. Since your advisor accepted you without reservations, and since it's indeed true and relevant that you haven't touched some of the material that's used in the lab in a long while, I'd take his "warning" as a factual description of his lab and a heads-up, which you should treat exactly as you have been - namely, as an opportunity to brush up on some of that stuff. I wouldn't over-interpret it, and I'd also refrain as much as possible from comparing yourself to others. I realize it's hard, but their backgrounds are different from yours, and more importantly their goals are probably also different. You were all accepted by your advisor and there is no reason why you can't all do a good job and graduate with good job market prospects. That aside, there's always going to be that annoying person that's better than you at [insert thing you are currently conscious about here]. Just ignore them!

I think there are two important things you can do. The first, is to recognize that you deserve a break. Grad school is hard work, and feeling worn out is normal once in a while. It's totally legitimate to feel like you're tired of the work and aren't very productive at the moment. The second thing you can do is to give yourself a "vacation" from all aspects of your work that are not crucial. I understand you can't actually take a break right now, but can you slow down some aspect or other for a week? Do it in a purposeful way and with a plan in mind, so you know you're not slacking off or falling behind, but instead giving your mind some well-deserved time off. In your spare time, can you do anything fun or enjoyable - e.g. starting a new hobby as mentioned? For me, one common way to unwind involves watching something brainless on TV - America's Next Top Model, Project Runway, Chopped, etc. I seek these shows out because they don't require any thought on my part, and I might watch several episodes in a row. Another important activity is to sleep more (and be careful about my work/rest balance in general), and try and take walks in the sun, assuming it's out .

I'd try and approach the meeting with your advisor as an opportunity for a discussion, and not make any decisions before you talk to them. Bring up the difficulty you have with writing lengthy papers and explain your concerns. You could discuss issues such as your career goals and expected time for completion of the degree, and worries that the writing stages of the thesis will hold you back. Ask about how much research you can accomplish as part of the capstone project and whether it's possible for you to basically complete the research stages of the thesis as you had planned with your advisor but then not do the writing but instead opt for the capstone. As long as you approach this as a conversation, hopefully your advisor can see it as such. It may affect their plans if they were counting on you to do a certain amount of work/writing in a certain amount of time, but I'm sure they don't want a disgruntled student who can't finish their work or leaves the project half-way through. So it's good to bring things up early and come up with a plan. That way, everybody can be on board and be happy with how things come along. Good luck!

Do let us know how the interview went -- I am curious! In case it's still relevant, for the "do you have any questions for us" portion of the interview, you should do some basic preparation by going on the school's website and doing some reading. Remember that you want to make your interviewers feel good about themselves and their school. So don't ask about anything that will not lead to a positive answer or a way for them brag about their program. This is *not* the time to ask actual information-seeking questions, you can do that after you are admitted. So - if you ask about cross-departmental collaborations, make sure they have them. If you ask about graduation rate, make sure they don't have problems with students who are there forever or a high drop-out rate. If you ask about teaching opportunities, make sure it's a school that emphasizes teaching. Same for placement, courses, potential intra-departmental collaboration opportunities, certificate programs, or whatnot. Do NOT ask whether X and Y get along, if X is retiring soon, about recent changes to the curriculum, or any other gossip or potential troubles. You might step on someone's sore spot.

How common probably depends on the field. In my field, most schools provide some reimbursement, and if you combine several visits into one trip, it's sufficient to cover all of your expenses. Is it worth it to visit if you are not getting reimbursed? That also depends on the situation. E.g., do you feel like you got a good sense of the school and your potential advisor from emails and phone conversations? Are there alums or visitors from that school who you could talk to in person? Are you choosing between several very different options, or is there just one? How expensive would it be to travel, and can you afford it? Will it be a open house event where you also get to meet your potential cohort, or a visit on a random day? If it's a private visit, are you sure persons of interest will be on campus and classes will be held as planned (there's nothing worse than getting there and learning one poi is traveling and it's a school holiday so there is no class today!). Generally I think visiting is very important and I'd do it if possible, but I would not get into debt for it.

Some quick thoughts: - If you can't come for an on-campus visit/interview, a skype/phone interview is always an option. I don't think anyone will dismiss your application just because you can't travel on a certain date. You should keep in mind, though, that in general it's more difficult to make a good impression on someone in a phone interview than in an in-person interview because it's more difficult to "read" the other people. That said, it's entirely possible to do well in such interviews and I would not change my plans for next year just to be available for a potential interview. - If you have several interviews or campus visits, it may be possible to combine them in such a way that they will be one 1-2 week trip. Schools often reimburse students' travel expenses to some degree and if you combine reimbursement from several schools, it could be enough to cover all your expenses. - I think it's premature to contact schools about potential interviews that might take place one year from now. Things will work out, you don't need to worry so much in advance. - Meeting people over the summer is possible, but: first off, this is when people are on vacation, so it may be hard to find a good time. In addition, you will not be able to observe classes and/or students during their normal routine, because the summer is very different from the rest of the school year. I think there are advantages to meeting potential advisors, but they are limited compared to visiting after you have been admitted, for various reasons. If you can't visit later and it's not terribly expensive, it may be worth it, but it's not necessary at all. You'll get a different level of commitment and replies from people pre- and post- admissions.