fuzzylogician

Since you pay rent for 12 months of the year even if you get a stipend only for 8, rent would be $1700*12=$20,400 or $1500*12=$18000. Maybe you could sublet your place in the summer, but that's a dangerous assumption to base your budget on -- what if you can't find someone for some/all of that time, especially since I'll assume you'll need to live in a less than perfect location and apartment to save costs. So, you're spending here way more on rent than you should given your income. There will be other expenses -- bills, transportation, groceries, books, clothes, the occasional unplanned expense, medical, state and federal taxes. I would say you should probably find a cheaper accommodations option. But overall, $28000 is probably livable, though you won't feel rich. You can check out the City Guide DC post for more information on the city:

It'll depend on your program, you'll need to ask them.

If you can have both at the same time, I don't see why you wouldn't. If you have to choose, the one that pays more makes more sense, unless there is a difference in prestige that somehow matters. Or maybe you can look into postponing one, if they are each one-year awards.

Well, then, borrow a friend's car and drive down to Storrs/Hartford! It's not that far at all, you could do it over the weekend (ask for a short extension on the decision deadline, the weekend shouldn't make a difference for them but it could, for you!)

Yeah I guess I don't know about graduate students so much, I know UConn postdocs and faculty who live in places like Hartford and even Boston (more like Cambridge, etc) and NYC. Not that I would recommend commuting from NY, necessarily. But Hartford might be a good compromise. And yes, I wouldn't want to live in Storrs or the nearby towns either (I've never been to Manchester, though, so I don't know about that one).

I come from a very different field so I'm not sure I really have a good sense of how different your interests are from the proposed topic your advisor is suggesting. I also don't really know how independent students in your field usually are in picking topics vs working on something their advisors suggest. So with those caveats, two things that come to mind is first, I think your advisor is completely right that you should come in with an open mind and see where the program takes you once you've done some coursework and gotten to know some people.* What's the point in further studies if you've already decided you know everything there is to know? You should want this new program to spark new ideas you can't even think about now! Second, especially if you're planning to go on to a PhD, I think the precise topic you choose is less important than having a successful completed project (though of course you also don't want it to be completely unrelated to your PhD plans!). Overall -- for the PhD too -- I think having an advisor that is a good fit for your personality and work style is a heck of a lot more important than working with the person whose interests are most closely aligned to yours. A good advising relationship is crucial for a successful PhD -- for your mental health and as a consequence for your ability to not only finish the program but actually do well. I would always pick the better fitting advisor over the topic that (I think) is a better fit. Also keep in mind, whatever you work on, at some point in the life of the project, you'll be tired of it. That, too, is the nature of long and involved projects... * There is a question of when you have to commit to an advisor and topic -- can you start the program, then realize that you are heading in a different direction than you had thought (not uncommon), and choose to change advisors/topics?

Well you don't necessarily have to live in Storrs or Willington or other similarly small and depressing places. A lot of people live in Hartford, which is like 30 minutes away (so you'll need a car) but is at least a decent-sized city. Will you get the chance to visit before you have to make your decision? I personally would put the money aside because even though it's a difference, the bigger question is what career path the two programs will put you on, and it sounds like UConn is the better one on this (more important, in my opinion) count. But then being miserable for 5 years doesn't sound that appealing, so you should figure out if there is a place in the area where you could live and be happy. Have you tried talking to current students about where they live and how they like it?

I would do something like: Some PhD Program at This School: Fall 2017 -- Some Masters at This School: May 2017 (expected) BA at School: May 2015 But really your formatting is fine, too. It just needs to be clear what your affiliation/education are like.

If you go without funding, you should be fully prepared to not be able to secure more funding next year. If they had funding for you, the time when they are the most likely to give it to you is when they're trying to recruit you; once you're there, there is less of an incentive to do things for you. Either way, you can't count on it, and it's better to plan for the worse outcome. Suppose you don't get more funding, then what happens? You spend the not insignificant amount of money for your first year, you spend most of that time worrying about debt, applying for grants and fellowships, and also applying to other graduate programs, and you do the work of a first-year. Then you're in debt and have to start over, possibly even redoing your first-year work, since many programs won't accept transfer credits (and even less so from someone who dropped out of their previous program). I personally wouldn't take that risk, but if you do, be aware that that's a very real possible outcome.

Well, hopefully they can understand that funding is really important in the decision. And -- I really believe this is true -- there is no "one perfect fit" that is the only one for us. There are many options out there that lead us in different directions, and you never know what would have been if you'd gone down another path. All you can do is embrace the one you're on and believe that it, too, has good things about it that will get you toward your final goal, although the actual path you take might be different.

If they weren't offering enough money for you to sustain yourself, were they really that welcoming? Well intentioned, maybe, but you should remember that they were willing for you to take on serious debt in order to be there. Taking the offer with funding was and is the smarter decision! It's okay to be unsure, but once the dust has settled, you should start finding ways to get excited about your new school -- sometimes it can take some time, especially when the process is emotionally difficult, but at the end of the day you made the right decision, and you should be proud of that.

Well then this thread started by someone who has all but defended their PhD dissertation isn't relevant to you.

AFAIK one score is reported; schools can see more details, but I doubt they do in fields like yours. The AWA is the least important component of the GRE, especially for someone who has published work and a good writing sample. You might also have a LOR writer discuss your writing abilities, if you actually get a low score in the AWA. The main thing to worry about is if there are any (unofficial) cutoffs that your score might be below, which might get your application tossed out before it's read. If this is the only component of your application that's a problem, you should be okay (cutoffs aside), but you should still try to aim for a better score, and also make sure the rest of your application looks good.

Hope to see at least some of you around even after the application season ends! -- hang out in the Officially Grad forums and pass the wisdom along, when newby applicants come to visit in preparation for their application cycle, not all that many months from now.

It makes sense to graduate early *as long as you have another (good!*) job lined up*. If that is a job in industry, your publication record won't matter much, so if you can get a job after your 4th year, I don't see why you wouldn't go ahead and take it. Your earning potential will grow and you'll get more relevant job experience, all net positives. On the other hand, if you're looking for a job in academia, experience and a publication track record will be key. You could go on the job market in your 4th year and see how you do; if you land a TT job or a good postdoc, you might choose to graduate early. But if not, the extra year will be very important for beefing up your publication record and getting yourself out there to good conferences, so it's probably smart to take that year. Maybe you could look into doing some/all of your writing from a remote location that you'd be more happy at, to both have your 5th year and also not suffer from a location you don't like. You should probably also consult with your advisor, who might have their own opinions about whether you could and should graduate early. * If you take a crappy job with lots of teaching, you won't be able to do much research/work on publications. That will hurt you on the job market in the future, even if locally you make more money than you would as a grad student.

Discussions are all good, but that question isn't exactly conducive to a discussion, it's a simple information-seeking question that you can answer by doing the simplest google search you can think of.

I am happy answering questions, but sometimes it's nice to know that askers have tried even a little bit to find out the information on their own. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Research_Chair

Keep track of your spending. Keep all of your receipts for a few months and do your own accounting. There are apps like Mint (or maybe your bank provides one) that will do it for you, but sometimes it helps to keep an actual physical notebook where you list all of your expenses. This will help you see where your money is going, to find trends in your spending, and to understand how to change your behavior, if you notice things you don't like about where your money is going.

Saying "thank you" is sufficient and perfectly fine.* Be respectful and mindful of their time, so give them enough notice and provide them with whatever material they need/ask for to help write you a good letter. If you want to send a card, you could, but you're going to be asking for lots of letters and you don't have to buy anyone a gift or card each time you do. What you could do is update your letter writers about the outcome of things they wrote for once it's all done, and thank them again for their help regardless of whether you were successful or not. * That would have also been true as an undergrad, btw.

Copies on two local machines, copy in the cloud, and two external hard drives backing up daily. (Learning from experience, after my old laptop died in a fiery blaze at the end of my first year and I lost practically all of my materials from that year.) (There are lots of tutorials you can find online if you google "bibdesk tutorial". I'm sure that's also true for Mendeley.)

Unless you do something outrageous in the meeting, any kind of personal connection can only be a plus. At worst it will do nothing, but having a face to put with the name and some personal experience from meeting you can positively sway the professor in your favor. In general, having connections in academia is incredibly important, I can't stress enough just how important. Networking is key for getting the right funding, the right jobs, getting invited to give talks, for getting favorable reviews on your grants and papers, etc. It's never too early to start. You won't get anywhere if you really suck, but you can easily be very good and not do as well as someone who is well placed and has the right connections.

Yeah, this is unprofessional and way out of line. Wow. The contentful criticism "none of the faculty feel like they know you well" could be useful, though hardly at the very end of your time at the school; but the way it was put is anything but. If you're graduating and already have your next step lined up, it might be best to move on. Or if you choose to report this, I wouldn't do so until after you graduate, because you don't know how the reaction could affect your grade. If you might still need LORs from this person, unfortunately, he is in a position of power and you are not, so if you pursue this there might be more consequences for you than for him.

A professor would be a professional letter, unless they have some personal connection to you (friend of the family, relative, etc). You should not get any personal letters for any kind of application for a job, graduate degree, or anything else for that matter.

I'd follow the money. Especially since you also mention that you liked the people and they have a minor you want, it seems like an easy choice. I sympathize with the location issue, but it's only two years, not five, so I would put less weight on that and more on getting yourself in the best position for PhD applications -- which includes not going into debt for a degree in the Humanities. Caveat: were you accepted into the PhD program? Would you have to Master out to leave for another PhD program, and do you know that that's possible? There's a risk of burning bridges that you should watch out for if you go down this route.

Yeah, take a look at senior grad students' and postdocs' CVs. Do they have grades listed? I would be surprised if that were the case (but then who knows, academic fields can vary quite a bit). I personally wouldn't put that information on my CV, both because grades don't matter for what you're applying to (if they did, they would ask for a transcript), and because frankly high grades and both expected and the norm at this stage. I think it's fine to have "summa/magna cum laude", but not an actual GPA, at this stage in your career.