fuzzylogician

I don't know the particular schools in question. In general: you didn't say much about your (a) funding, and (b) post-degree plans. If you're in a field where you go into industry post-degree, especially in fields with certification that may vary by state, you need to ask yourself where you want to live and where you'll be forming your connections. Will a degree from a MO school help you find a job in MA/VA, and vice-versa? What is each school's placement record for the kinds of career paths you might want to have? I would think the relevant question, at each location, is what the costs are vs the potential benefits. It sounds to me, from your description, that the VA school won't provide as many opportunities as the other two. All things being equal it sounds like WashU is a better return on your investment, but then it will possibly set you up to be in a much different location than MGH or VA. I've also mostly been ignoring the "how nice are the facilities" question, unless this is something actually going to change the level of education and training that you get. Being nicer isn't really all that important, in my book. So, I think you need to know more about what opportunities each school brings, to know what might be best for you. (Disclaimer: I don't know your field or the relevant schools, but I tried to walk you through my thinking in case it helps.)

I can't help with the specifics, but I don't think the particular curriculum is all that important. No one is going to ask or care what you learned in a given course. The connections you make with faculty and your research will matter much more.

The answer is probably "it depends", but I don't think they did anywhere I've TAed or taught.

Look at like the answer isn't no, unfortunately, unless @bgk has been able to work some extra special magic.

I would guess that yes because you'll need a new start/end date for your visa. But again, you need to talk to your ISO.

No. It means that you're legally allowed to work more hours. But unless you find a job and actually do, you're not going to get more money. In fact, be very careful and make sure that your salary is actually paid out over the summer. It's quite common for schools to pay both students and faculty for only 9 months (that is, they divide your yearly salary into 9 instead of 12), and you need to put enough money aside to be able to afford rent and food over the summer.

If you are on a student visa, you are not allowed to work off campus. You have limited options for on-campus employment. Things will improve slightly over the summer in terms of how many hours you're allowed to work, but not so much in where (you can look into what you can do with your CPT and OPT, assuming you're on an F1 visa). We're talking up to 20 hours a week during the semester, and 40 over the break. Talk to your international students office for regulations and your department admin about any on-campus employment options; but I would strongly advise against working when you're not allowed (including those delivery jobs, I doubt they're legal, and this is not a good time to be breaking immigration laws).

Well, for one, you want to ask these questions in person, if possible, and even better if off-campus at some event that involves alcohol (you don't have to drink). People will be much more forthcoming if there is no record of them having said anything negative. You could ask about where students live, whether they have roommates (and how many), whether there are opportunities for summer funding, if anyone works alongside studying (all designed to get at money issues), as well as the straightforward "do you feel like you're paid enough" or "can you afford to rent without roommates". You want to ask your potential advisors about their advising philosophy: how often do they meet with students? do they encourage collaborations? do their students submit/present at conferences? do they publish? what is the prof's policy on helping students come up with research topics? Then ask the prof's students those same questions. Compare and contrast. Ask younger students if they enjoyed their classes, and if they felt the work load was okay, too light, or too heavy. Ask them when they got started doing research and how their first projects progressed/worked out. Ask how often it happens that people change fields and advisors mid-way through grad school. Ask about teaching/TAing -- how often do they teach? do they prep materials - how much time do they invest in that and in grading? who decides on the TA assignments? For department atmosphere, ask about social events - how often do they happen? are there parties? beginning/end of semester events? weekly happy hours? do faculty collaborate with one another and with students? Is there co-teaching? Ask senior students in your field who is on their committees and who has been on committees of people who have graduated recently (actually, some of that you can learn by looking at the submitted dissertations, which will have this info in them); this might raise red flags if people who you might expect to co-advise students because they have close/complementary interests in fact never do. If you attend an open house, spend some time just looking around -- at the inevitable lunch/dinner event, do students huddle separately from faculty or do they interact? does it seem like they have an idea of what's going on in each other's lives? are people friendly to one another? how does it *feel* to be there? You can get a lot of information by just observing, and by asking multiple people the same questions.

Yes, it happens. If you're a department that's going to have a small cohort, do you want to "waste" your few acceptances on someone who is an obvious better fit with one or more higher ranked programs, or do you want to make offers to people who are a safer bet? You obviously wouldn't want to make an offer to someone who seems like they're clearly not good enough, but you also want to consider the likelihood that a person will actually come; if they likely won't, what's the point in spending your time (and money, flying them in for an open house visit or interview) trying to recruit them and reject or keep others waiting who are likelier to be a good investment? You have to know that while your wait on your risky bet, others will be accepting other offers. You probably also want to keep in mind that there is some measure of uncertainty in this process, it being holistic and based on collective impressions of various admissions committee members; fit is crucial and doesn't have to mean you pick the person who shines the most on paper. You want the person who will thrive at your department the most. So, yes, that calculation does happen. Does it mean that highly qualified candidates never get accepted to lower ranked schools? Obviously not. But there definitely are cases when that happens.

I don't know about the Canada part, but for the US your school will most likely provide you access to software that should help automate the process. It is true that (unlike citizens), after you complete the whole thing electronically, you have to print, sign, and mail your tax docs. I assume it might be the case that some schools would provide actual on-site help from experts, but I wouldn't count on it. Every place I've been, schools are very reluctant to give tax-related advice. You could pay for it.. but it's not clear that services like HR Block will have any expertise working with international students who need to file in multiple countries, so watch out for that. They may not tell you that they don't know what the f*ck they're doing because they'll want your money, so be sure to get a recommendation from someone who's used those services before you spend money on them. As for what documents you need, for the States you'll get the relevant docs from your schools - a W2 if you receive a salary, 1042-S if it's a fellowship; plus possible forms from your bank for any revenues you've had; and a form that indicates that you have insurance. You'll need to enter the precise dates you've been in the US vs when you've been traveling abroad, so figure that out. But otherwise, it's generally not too complicated. (Also don't forget you'll need to file taxes in your state, also probably manually, but it might depend on the state.)

Hi there, this board is not intended for help with homework assignments. We're here to discuss applications to graduate school and life in graduate school. Please contact a teacher for help.

Also, heating, because Quebec can get cold! If heating is not part of the rent, it could easily be several hundred dollars in the winter months. And transportation, tuition and books, phone, transportation, medical expenses, clothing and other one-time expenses. But yes, the idea of creating a budget is a great one!

Sounds like the kind of place where there might be lots of politics and inter-personal intrigue. I would suggest approaching your PI with this question, and taking his lead. (If it were me, I would probably try to figure out if this is the kind of thing that usually merits authorship, and if so, I'd bring it up and not be ashamed to ask. But then, it's not like a middle authorship is all that important to one's career, so I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about it. I would want to make sure this is not a repeat issue, though, where I spend time doing work for someone else, without reciprocity, and without any benefit for myself.)

Finding a research topic is one of the most difficult tasks facing any researcher. No one here would just give you a good idea, not to mention that we have no idea what your precise interests and training are and what resources you have available. You should discuss these questions with an advisor in your department. I doubt that anyone will just give you a topic (in fact, I hope no one does this), but they would be able to help guide you toward one. You might want to start by setting up a meeting, but before you do, spend some time doing some preliminary thinking: what classes did you find particularly interesting? What papers in your readings? Was there any particular problem that caught your eye in your readings or class discussions -- even one that was solved could lead you to formulate a related question. Look at the programs for recent conferences in your field -- what are people presenting on? What are recent publications in the relevant journals? Do this, and come to your professor with some ideas in mind. They can be entirely half-baked, but you'll get much better advising if you can answer some of the questions I listed and come with some vague idea in mind than if you just come in (like you did here) and just say "I don't know what to do, help me find a topic".

Depends on what they ask for, but potentially your SOP, CV, transcripts, your writing sample, a short description of why each school you're applying for a good fit, a bullet-point list of what you might want the letter to include. Not everyone will want all of those documents, but if you offer they might take you up on it, and that would be a way to make sure they say what you want them to.

1. They'll have one letter that they tweak for each school, but the big time sink is in writing the original draft, not so much in the tweaking. In any event, this is part of their job, and you shouldn't feel bad asking. You should express your gratitude, be polite and helpful, and give them enough notice. 2. I'd say ask about 6-8 weeks before your earliest deadline. If you're already talking to them about grad school, you might mention much earlier on that you plan to apply and hope that they'd agree to write a letter on your behalf. Then you just follow up later, once you have more information (precise list of schools, deadlines, materials to help them craft their letter).

http://jezebel.com/the-problem-with-calling-women-females-1683808274 Also: nice jeans and sweater/button-dow or slacks and sweater/button-down, nice shoes that are appropriate for walking (anticipate campus visits, outings for lunch/dinner). Basically, as long as you don't stand out as too under- or over-dressed, no one is going to care.* Most fields aren't too formal, so you don't need a suit, and probably not even a jacket, though if you wanted to, you could wear one and take it off if you seem overdressed compared to the others. It's more important that you're comfortable than anything else. * As a general rule, the east coast is more formal than the west coast. So on the west coast you might even get away with wearing a T-shirt.

Usually you get notified of both acceptances and rejections. Have you checked the conference website to see if they've updated their timeilne? Also, if there is a program online, that's a good hint that you've been rejected. If there's no information, you could email the organizers to ask, that would be totally fair. Just do it politely, not passive-aggressively; sometimes the software organizers use gets buggy and notifications get lost through no fault of their own, and occasionally (often!) reviewers are late, and that slows down the selection process. (Also, typo fixed!)

The short version -- it looks like someone accidentally banned AwayGeologistKid's account -- a mistake on the part of the moderating team that is very rare, but it happens, since we're all human.. we've restored the account, but it's more difficult to restore the old posts. We're working on it, apologies for this.

Okay -- indeed, something has gone awry with your thread. I hope we can restore it soon.

Sorry, I just had to laugh at this one... she's not covering much.. just all of (what would be) your largest expenses. Also takes all the responsibility to make sure everything is paid on time, I assume. I can't help with the Quebec-specific question, but moving out to the dorm would be a good first step toward independence. It's still not quite all the way out there, but still, it'll help with some guided first steps into being an adult, and that's important. If you can afford it, I'd say go for it.* *Note: *if you can afford it* means if you are *sure* that you will have sufficient funding, not "I usually get XYZ" which is no guarantee of any kind.

I've heard this advice for book fields, and since I'm not in one this is all second hand, but my understanding is that the main concern has to do with publishing too much of your dissertation to be able to get a book contract. The "don't publish anything at all" version sounds a little paranoid. Sure, early on you might be immature as a researcher, and it is true that everything you have out there is out there forever, but by the time you're in your 4th and 5th year and ready to go on the job market, one would hope that you're sufficiently mature that you won't regret anything you've published. Or if so, I would have serious doubts about your dissertation. Are there other professors whose advice you might seek? Other graduate students in more advanced stages? It's a delicate matter because your advisor seems to have a strong opinion, but I wonder if there are ways of getting him on board (like maybe making sure to run everything by him for his approval before submitting). Either way, I tend to agree that if others on the job market are only hired if they have other publications, it would be advisable for you to seek some yourself, too.

Okay, let me look into it.

Yeah, don't ask those questions. They will probably ask you about your interests, and you'll give the same spiel that you'll give 50 other times. They may ask what other schools you're considering and give you some opinion of those places (hopefully positive and constructive), bur anyway don't be surprised if that happens. You could ask them what they have been working on recently, or what they've been teaching (e.g. what seminar topics, what other classes). You can ask them how often they meet with students. You can ask what their philosophy is on helping students find research topics. You can ask if they publish with students or if students publish with other students. You can ask if/how often students go to conferences and what their take is on when that should happen, and how much funding there is for that. You might ask what they think about you being a visiting student elsewhere for a semester/year, if that's something you might be interested in. You might ask about what people do over the summer and what kind of opportunities there are on/off campus. You might just chat about the town or school, where you can get good coffee around town, how easy it is to commute to [large cite/airport/other nearby university, etc], you might ask about labs and resources, or libraries; or if you know they studied at a school you know anything about or come from a city you know, you might chat about that.. these conversations are usually very relaxed and friendly, you don't really have to prep too much.