fuzzylogician

^Yep. And at some point in your degree if you are no longer doing coursework, you register for whatever is the necessary number of credits/units of "thesis research" or similar, so you still count as a full time student. At my institution, that was 36 credits.

Is there anyone else in your program who could serve as an advisor? Is there anyone who'd be willing to write you a strong LOR if you left? Is there anyone who can corroborate the stories you are telling about your advisor (or, would it be common knowledge and no one would wonder why you left if you came from that particular lab and reapplied)?

The email you got should be all you need, congratulations on your acceptance. I don't think I ever got an official letter from graduate admissions, though at some point there was an actual letter from my department with something about funding which I needed for my visa. You could ask for something in writing if it would make you feel better; sometimes it's useful to have during apartment-hunting, to be able to show potential landlords that you will have a steady income (assuming that you will be funded). If you haven't received any funding information, that is something that you can most definitely ask about. Either your advisor will know the answer or s/he will be able to tell you who to ask. Or, if your acceptance came from a DGS or chair-type person, ask them. As for registration and orientation, you could ask the grad admin person for your department or the DGS (or your advisor, but advisors have a way of not knowing these details too well). I'd also try looking online to see if you can find a graduate student handbook, which will usually answer questions about routine procedures and student progress in your department.

Unless you already own furniture that you're attached to, I would fly there first, and then buy the stuff. Driving a truck full of your stuff is of course an option (I've done it myself) but it's a hassle and if you can spare yourself the pain, then you should do it. I'd imagine prices aren't going to be all that different between your current vs. new location, but buying in your current location and then moving the stuff will cost you an extra (not insignificant) amount in truck rental and fuel, not to mention the extra hassle of loading and unloading the truck. Just save yourself all that, to me this is a no-brainer. If you do own furniture and will drive a truck, I'd look into prices, but unless it's a big difference, it still seems to me that buying at the destination rather than the origin of the trip will save you some hassle.

Personally I'd worry more about the roommate* part than the freshman part, but I would also talk to the particular individuals involved to see how I think I'd get along with them. If it were me in this situation, I would probably request a reassignment, because I value my privacy and would want to preempt potential problems even if they may never arise. An unpleasant living situation can make grad school almost unbearable. * I am assuming here that roommate means someone who you actually share a room with. (Something to look into is whether it's possible that your status is somehow entered into the system incorrectly, so you're showing as a first-year undergraduate instead of a first-year graduate student. Being paired with 3 freshmen doesn't sound like a typical arrangement.)

I know you also see those opinions on this board. I don't think anyone thinks you dreamed up your opinions based on no evidence whatsoever. What some of us are saying is that you have to consider the source of the advice you're taking (some posters a whole lot more confidence than experience), and also be open to changing your mind. Sounds like you are, so good for you.

I am not going to try and list accomplishments people had after the age of 30. I'll just say it's completely ludicrous to think that your life will be in some real sense over when you're 30. Hell, if that's the case, I can just quit now, I'm already done. There are things you can do better when you're young and other things that you get better at with age; maybe you know what you can do now (or more likely, you're reading about what others are describing and worrying about how it translates into what you are capable of), but you're completely lacking in any perspective about the skills you'll gain with age and experience. To think that you'll be done in less than a decade is a great way to psych yourself out but not a good way to live. I'm sure you have professors and other adults around you who you admire? who are respected, productive, active? I know I do. If they weren't able to make any significant advancements after the age of 30, why keep them around? This is a very shortsighted view of the world that you (unsurprisingly) tend to hear from young people, who tend to overestimate themselves and underestimate those around them. That all aside, it's probably also a good idea to get thoughts of making earth shattering discoveries (at any age) out of your head. Most researchers don't. But that doesn't mean they don't still make important contributions to their fields, or that they don't live full happy lives.

That's great news, thank you for coming back and giving us this update!

Some of it depends on the field and advisor, some on the department culture you'll be entering. In my department, some people (international students, people in LDRs) were basically gone every break they got, so about a month and a half between the semesters in the winter and over three months for summer break. The expectation was that you would continue to work and you might update your advisor once in a while (email, skype meetings), but if you can get work done elsewhere, go for it. Obviously not every place is like that. It seems to me that in general, lab sciences naturally require more presence on campus, and fields where you could basically do your work anywhere and where you're generally pretty independent from your advisor have a lot more flexibility. In addition, there are also official university holidays that you can find in your university's calendar, which always includes a break roughly between just before Christmas and through the New Year, where the university will be officially closed. You might still come across an advisor who would expect you to work during that time, but then you have much bigger problems (I would switch advisors, that kind of work style is not for me). If you already know who your advisor is going to be, you could email and ask (I would often try to coordinate my summer travel with when my advisor(s) would be out of town). If not, the grad secretary or DGS are safe options. Generally, I would assume that late December/early January should be a fine time to be away, assuming that you don't have class then, and exams/grades are done.

The philosophy job market could be very different from what I know .. but I never needed to submit a transcript, not even once. In interviews and campus visits, no one brought up my coursework and no one asked about my grades. Ever. The only time when I needed to submit transcripts was for a couple of postdoctoral fellowships. This is for the North American market. Things are likely different in Europe and Asia.

I think you'll find a lot of people on these boards who post about how hard it is for them as introverts to speak up in class, teach, present, network with strangers, etc. It's not all that uncommon. It sounds based on others' posts and your post above that the MPP might be a logical next step. I don't think it's that surprising that you didn't get to do data analysis or experiment design if you were only at your job for a few months and with much less training and time on the job than it sounds like the other people had. This seems like a clear case where you need to get more training to get the jobs you want. I still don't think that you're ready for a PhD right now, but a 2-year funded degree that can help you gain at least some of those skills and hopefully also some perspective might not be a bad idea, especially given that you don't have a good job that you enjoy right now. That said, if you start and discover that it's not what you want, you can always reevaluate. I think a decent goal for the summer could be to learn more about the jobs you want to have and the training they require, then read up on requirements and what your program (and school more generally) can offer, so that once you're there you can do your best to get as much of that relevant training as possible as part of your MPP, and then see how it goes from there with better jobs. Read up on summer internships, opportunities to meet professionals in the field you want to go into, certificates or courses in areas of interest where your program might not be able to directly train you, etc. Part of what you need to do is just grow up -- get a better perspective of what's out there and on being an adult with career aspirations; you'll get that by just putting yourself out there and talking to others in your program. I also think it's a good idea to think of networking as an explicit goal for yourself. I don't think you want to think of it as forcing yourself to be extroverted (but if you ever learn how to do that, let me know, I'd love to find out!); you can be who you are but set yourself a goal of going to at least one professor's office hours a week, or attending one networking event a month, or meeting at least one new student and one new professor at a conference you're attending, etc. Those are attainable goals, and they have the advantage of not forcing you to change who you are.

I think the best course of action is to write the specific journal you want to submit to and ask. There may be different norms in different fields but I'm sure the editor will be able to tell you what they'd want you to do in this particular case. And I agree that the email from your PhD school doesn't matter.

Alright, that's a start. Next set of questions: how long did you do each job? How long were the people around you in their jobs? The ones who were getting to do what you wanted to -- what background did they have? What kind of education, how many years of experience?

I have no experience with history, so we'll see what people say. But in general people do pursue multiple interests/projects in school, and people definitely also grow and their interests evolve. I personally came in to grad school be a theoretical researcher of X, and while I still continue to have research in X, most people would probably define me as more of a Y researcher (related to X in some ways, but a different subfield), and I additionally have experimental components in my work. Only one professor who I met as a prospective student ended up being on my dissertation committee, and three others who I never thought I would work with became instrumental to getting me to where I ended up wanting to go. Both of my chairs are people who I didn't even have a meeting with. You just never know, but you have to be open to these changes and explore them. They happen. (And I don't think you need to have a class with a professor who you may share interests with. An independent study would be 10 times more productive. I'd just start with some meetings and take it from there.)

You should only add that comment back if you want to. I personally wouldn't. I thought apologizing and explaining that you didn't mean anything by it was perfectly fine, as you initially did. But then you edited your apology and added that direct mention of me, so I responded. I don't know what you wanted me to say, given that the comment was no longer there by the time you asked me to respond. Maybe we can just put this behind us, because I think your original apology was sincere and editing the comment out was a good choice. We'd do better to go back to discussing the substance of your original post. Maybe you can tell us more about the jobs you had and what you did and did not like about them. That would be a good start to thinking about whether the MPP is a good choice for you. I do agree with @knp that a funded program will at least not close any doors for you, but I don't know that that is a good enough reason to do the degree. It should also lead somewhere that you want to go.

That was an attempt at a generous interpretation of what seemed like a pretty insensitive comment. If you meant something else, a joke or whatever, then I apologize. But editing both the comments I mentioned out and then complaining about how you were misinterpreted isn't exactly a fair thing to do, is it?.

First off, you didn't make a colossal mistake, and you are not doomed to an eternity of whatever it is that you are imagining. For what it's worth, you do not sound ready to do a PhD right now. I don't know enough about the job market in your field to help you decide if you should do your MPP or do something else entirely, but I think a good start is deciding to take this summer as an opportunity to learn about the jobs that are out there in your field, the preparation they require, and what you *think* that you might enjoy. You have at least 2-3 months and that is a lot of time, if you take this seriously. You should really have a much better understanding of that before you continue with any further education. Keep in mind that choosing something now does not forever close all other doors, you can change your mind or do something else later. People grow and change and learn they do or don't like their jobs all the time. They also start and stop studying if they discover that what they thought they wanted isn't actually like they imagined. You can also always go back and do a PhD if you find that you need one in order to advance your career a few years down the line. The MPP may not be the most direct (or best, whatever that means) path to a PhD, but I highly doubt it'll make it impossible to go that route. I also doubt that it'll automatically keep you out of top schools. You'll need to write a strong SOP explaining why you want to do a research degree after working in something else for a few years, but this is precisely how real life work experience can help you; it's not impossible. And yes, maybe you'll be older than some other students in your cohort, but first, not everyone will be 22, and second, I don't know why you think being 22 is such an advantage. In this kind of field, having experience -- in terms of both life and work experience -- is a big advantage. You'll need that if you want to finish a PhD. A PhD requires focus and determination. You need to know what you want, which you clearly don't right now. Going for a PhD after a few years of doing a related job, with a clear goal of career advancement in mind, and probably a much better idea of what you'd actually study in school, is a much better idea than going in blind because maybe that could help you get a job that maybe you would like. (and I am doing my very best to ignore that comment about being jealous of immigrants who are working a job they don't want to have so that their children can have a better life, and also that other comment about "academics or armchair academics", and believe me, it's hard.)

It's fine if the post is here, especially if you are hoping to get field-specific replies more so than ones from other posters. As for the content of your original post, I would personally not do this. Or, at least keep in mind that there is a good chance that it will fail and you'll end up paying the full amount out of pocket, or dropping out after one year with nothing to show for it and also with a significant amount of debt. I've never heard of a school promising a student at another institution funding if they get good grades (which is not to say it's impossible and I don't know your field, but I would guess it's not likely to succeed). Is it worth it? You didn't give dollar amounts, but taking out a "gigantic loan" for a MA that doesn't sound like it will lead to a job that pays enough to afford the loan just doesn't sound like a wise investment to me.

I would actually consider going in the other direction. Start with having a roommate and see if it's something you can live with, or if it would significantly improve your quality of life if you live alone. It's only one year, with the option of finding a place alone the following one, or staying with the roommate and continuing to save if it wasn't that bad. The first year will go by fast anyway, and it's generally likely to be not as good as other ones in terms of finding housing just because you'll know more about the city and opportunities in it once you're already there compared to when you're brand new to the city. So I'd expect my first year's living arrangements to be non-ideal to begin with, but with the possibility of improvement the following years. The reasoning behind this choice is that I think it's much easier to go from having a roommate to not than the other way around -- you'd be improving the quality of your life instead of downgrading it. It's also (I think) more difficult to have roommates the older you get. So it's easier to save and skimp on some things while you're young, especially if you've never had them to begin with, and it gets harder to do without things you did use to have as you get older. At the end of the day, it's very simply a question of comparing the expected difference in rent between having a roommate and not and asking yourself if that dollar amount is worth more or less than your need for privacy.

I lived with a partner in the Boston area on a combined income that sounds pretty similar to yours. Housing was by far our biggest expense. We also joined a CSA and that was a nice way to save money and support local farmers. We used our university's health insurance, which was great, and we took advantage of the discounted metro passes. It sounds to me like you've already thought of most of what you'd want to. You can find free food at various events on campus that could save you some money; you can also get discounted or even free tickets to things like museums, concerts, etc. The main thing you can do to save on housing (other than get very lucky) is live farther away from the T in cheaper locations that might still be on a bus route or otherwise not that inconvenient for getting to your school(s). Maybe bike instead of taking the T (but for me personally that was not an option, at least not in the winter), or use the free university shuttle if it exists and goes somewhere nearby. I personally would not take a roommate as a couple, I think it's weird both for the couple and for the third person, but I suppose that's an option.

I think a timeline may be hard, because a lot of this will be field-specific. But in my experience -- prestigious/named fellowships tend to have early deadlines (it can be as early as July or as late as September-October, though you can probably also find some with later deadlines). Postdocs that are just at someone's lab who has funding can come up at any time, but often they will get sorted out after TT jobs are mostly decided. Find out if your field has a jobs wiki where these positions might be advertised. You can (and should) also reach out to contacts to make it known that you are looking for a postdoc and to ask if they have any money and are hiring or if they know of anyone who might. Connections are everything. A lot of these positions never even get advertised, so it's important that people who might have money know that you're looking. Also, look at some older ads to see what the requirements are. If they ask for things like a research or teaching statement, the summer before your last year of grad school is a good time to get started with those. Getting the first draft done can take a lot of time.

It's good that your advisor agreed to write you a letter, and I hope its' good. If the other professor who is writing you a letter is someone who only knows you from one course you took with him, it's not clear how strong his letter could be, but maybe that's an ok choice. The third option of a co-worker I am less sure about. This would be basically another student, not someone who is in a position to evaluate your work? If so, then I don't think this could be a strong letter and I don't know how much you can count on them "explaining" what happened to your position. They're just not in a position to have that knowledge. If I were on an admissions committee, I would fully disregard a letter from the candidate's friend/colleague/co-worker.

It won't be that easy to move to a new school. They will have to arrange a visa for you, which can be both expensive and time consuming. I think you may have no choice but to leave. More generally, though, I don't think it'll matter if you have a summer RAship somewhere in the US when it comes to applying to a new MA/PhD program. As I said in a different thread, the important question is going to be whether you'll be able to get anyone from your current school to support a reapplication (= write you a strong LOR). Without one, there will be a big red flag in your application. I would interpret the "false hopes" you have been getting as soft rejections which you haven't been understanding correctly. And I would give some serious thought to what that means for what your department thinks of you and how they'll react if you ask them to write you a LOR. I think you should work hard to leave on good terms and mend fences to the best of your ability, to give yourself some chance of coming back to another program in the future.

Wait, what do you mean 'has been used for a book of hers'? Is your name on it? Did you agree to this? If so, then yes, I agree, you can't publish the same material twice and if you thought a better venue would have been more appropriate, that was something to figure out before publishing in this book. If your work was used without proper attribution, then there is a much bigger problem here, so I hope that's not the case.

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