jackassjim

Thanks rising_star, this is encouraging. I am an international student and it is quite hard to determine, from the outside, how much all this is going to cost. I went back to check the website of the university daycare center, and the rate for infants is actually 1400. Part-week rate (3 days) is 975. We will definitely have to explore our options. It's just crazy how expensive this feels when you come from a country where daycare is almost free.

At my department, everyone gets the exact same financial package, irrespective of financial needs.

Point well taken. However, note that I am not asking the university to disburse any more money than they agreed to (actually much less, as I would be very happy with keeping only 3-4k from my external grant). The problem is that they are penalizing me for having access to a specific source of funds outside their endowment. I think you have offered a cogent defense of this point of view. But if you really want to follow that logic, universities should also do background checks on their students and adjust the value of the stipend according to needs, i.e. how much assets & savings they have, parents' income, etc. According to your logic, universities should save on the rich kid's stipend to be able to allow another one to come in. They don't do that. In essence, they discriminate by source of external funding, a policy which I think is hard to justify.

Don't assume that your circumstances are the same as everyone's. I have a baby and a wife. We'll need to pay 1100$ a month for daycare, and we are both going into fields where employment is more than uncertain, and salaries usually don't exceed 40-50000. We simply cannot afford to graduate with huge amounts of debt. We already have quite a bit going in... It's really not about being selfish.

Hi all, Is it usual policy for universities to prevent students for adding stipend and external funding. In other words, if I get funding from an external agency, my department plans to reduce the stipend they give me (teaching duties might be reduced, but that is not specified in the letter I got). Do you think that's fair? I was really counting on the possibility to cumulate this stipend with a large external award that I hope to win, and this is likely to be a huge impediment to my ability to feed my family during grad school. What are your thoughts on this? Given the economic context, I don't really want to ask for more money from them (even if I was offered more elsewhere), but do you think it would be reasonable to ask them to relax the cumulation ban? Thanks UPDATE: For future generations, here is the result: Negotiations were successful. All schools contacted offered to let me top-up the value of their stipend using my external funds. Offers ranged from 2K$ to Full amount. The trick was to present that as a costless way for them to compete (I was lucky enough to have other offers to use as leverage).

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Hey rlayla, I'm also in Montreal, and I plan to go to the Michigan visit. Would be funny to be on the same flight! You can PM me for the details if you want

Check out this syllabus. It's the course students here take before their comps in comparative: http://www.mcgill.ca/files/politicalsci ... oli628.pdf

True enough, the baseline is not too high. I just learned about this guy demetri martin from youtube, and he really made me laugh and think of myself (except I play the ukulele instead of riding a unicycle). Maybe I should try my hand at standup comedy; it seems to work pretty well for him.

Edit: Bad joke removed.

I will only add to the choir, but I strongly advise you against enrolling in a program without funding. Schools are likely to be even poorer next year (a safe bet?), so counting on increased funding in the latter years of the program is a bad bet. Also, salaries down the line simply do not allow graduates to pay off huge debts. I suggest you read this post from a Sociologist's blog. His advice really mirrors what I have been told by many of my own professors in political science. http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2007/05/ ... ad-school/ In short: I can't give you useful advice about Plan B, but don't go to Austin if they can't pay you to study there. Edit: I know a Master's personally helped me write a better writing sample and SOP, but I don't think there is consensus about it being an unambiguous plus in your application. Also, I didn't pay for mine, and I don't think you should pay for yours. (Sorry to be so blunt. Please add nuance to all the things I said in this post).

Curiously, even though the forum takes a bit of my time, it is not so detrimental, as it simply pulled me away from my other vices...

It is french, and it means to shine "quickly/intermittently", as in "a flickering light"," une lumi

Same here. Even though it was to be expected as the match was less than perfect, it is still humbling...

They did not "produce" Wendt. https://polisci.osu.edu/people/wendt.23

I have read on many dept's websites that they do not give individual feedback to rejected applicants. I understand why. Can you imagine the workload that that would entail? I don't think it is OK to ask for feedback from the adcomm. Anyway, the answer you could get would probably be along the lines of "there was a candidate with better stats and/or letters and/or faculty match. Unfortunately, much of this process is bound to remain mysterious. After this is done, you could send one of us your stats and SOPs and we can give you our opinion. You should also go back to your letter writers and ask for their honest opinion. Approach them by asking what you could do to make your app better for next year for example. This is about as good of a feedback as you are going to get I'm afraid.

I think you missed the: "but that I couldn't matriculate without funding."

Yes

I heard CW got a job at FSU (they have a rockin' methods program)

Also, if their recruitment weekend is March 13-15, they kind of have to give students a minimum of time to plan for the trip. Giving a week's notice could affect how people view the dept and maybe reduce their yield among top applicants.

They could still find a poor soul dedicated enough to spend his/her time sending all those emails during reading week.

You sound like the great lyricist behind Carcass' hits "Crepitating Bowel Erosion" and "Lavaging Expectorate of Lysergide Composition".

Hmm... I realize now that that must have sounded quite pretentious. :oops: Believe me, the story is more complicated than that Thanks for the 'you rock' though... :wink: Edit: emoticon overload?

Hehe. Nah, I'm not too sure I want to become a lawyer. It's more of a Plan B...

I'm sure you'll do fine. Don't be discouraged by one rejection. Now is quite late to talk about what you could have done better in your application. If ever you are not satisfied with how your cycle has gone, shoot me a PM and we can have a chat about options for putting together a better app next year. Edit: Although you might not want to listen to me as I took the "automaton" route in my SOP :oops: