LockeOak

Keep in mind the differences in percentile vs. score between the verbal and quantitative sections. In my case a 700 in verbal was still in the 96th percentile, while a 700 in the quantitative would be much lower. Therefore, unless you're applying for a literature program, there may be better uses for your time than memorizing that much vocabulary.

I believe my tax last year on a stipend of $19,800 was approximately $1600, roughly $1000 federal and $600 state after taking the standard deduction.

Seconded.

Well, when I'm in the lab (which is most of the time) I'm generally working by myself so it's whatever that won't get me hauled off as a vagrant or gives off fumes that would kill my cell cultures. I can go weeks without seeing anyone else in the lab, so grooming sometimes suffers. If I'm teaching, I try to shave occasionally and wear a clean shirt. When I'm in the field (marine ecology in the tropics) it's either a wetsuit or swim trunks, Columbia fishing shirt and a sun hat. If I'm at a conference, the uniform for coral reef biologists appears to be Hawaiian shirts and shorts. In short, at least among the ecologists, no one cares how you dress. The only times I wear a shirt with buttons is at committee meetings and (some) conferences.

I've never heard of grades on comps before, and I can't think of any reason why anyone other than yourself would know or care about how you did other than pass/fail.

PC Microsoft Office Mendeley (Free) SyncToy (Free from Microsoft) - This very simple program synchronizes files between two or more folders. If you work on multiple PCs like I do, (lab desktop, home desktop, laptop) you can keep them synchronized with a flash drive. One click and it updates all the files on the flash drive and the PC, even if some are more recent on one system and other files are more recent on the other. I carry a flashdrive with me and plug it in when I sit down at my computer, update, and do that again when I go home. A huge savings in time and confusion. SigmaStat/SigmaPlot ($$, forgot how much) - Mostly used for graphing

I ditched the papers entirely and bought a tablet PC for this purpose. That way you can write on the screen to mark up papers, and you always have your entire library with you. I travel a fair bit and it's much easier this way. I've also found Mendeley works better than EndNote in many ways (a Mac equivalent is a program called Papers).

I don't have business cards (yet) though I know many students that do. They're primarily useful at conferences, particularly international conferences. If you're going to see dozens of talks and hundreds of posters over the span of a week, you're not going to remember everyone/everything. They're great, for example, when you encounter someone engaged in similar research and you'd like to collaborate.

I would consider those scores solid for many programs (large state schools, etc.), though they won't be sufficient to get into the very top programs (I was rejected from a few very good programs with a score of 1440). It depends on your field, however. In the sciences that's a pretty good score, top science schools might want a higher Quant, as many applicants will have >760. Many humanities might want a higher Verbal. For GRE scores generally you're just trying to not fall below the program's threshold, whatever that may be. After that the other components of your application become much more important.

As the academic year in the USA begins in the fall, I think the availability of support would be greatest then. Many universities do not allow students to begin in the spring, and if they do I would not expect them to have funding available.

I will agree with the others. I can't think of any circumstances where you should pay tuition during your Ph.D. I would argue that if you're not getting a tuition waiver and a stipend of some sort (a TA at a minimum) then the program obviously doesn't care much to have you around and you should look elsewhere.

Not very many graduate students have to sacrifice lab animals, in my experience. Most of those that do are in pathology or related fields. Genetics rarely does, I know geneticists that don't work on organisms at all, purely computational. I have heard some horror stories from some of the people that work with mouse lines, though. Keep in mind the rules for working with lab animals only applies to vertebrates, no one cares what you do to invertebrates. I'm a coral biologist, we end up sacrificing quite a few. I hope there isn't a cnidarian deity and/or they don't count murders by the polyp or I'm screwed.

The number of people at my university that have been contacted, including myself, is up to three.

I lived a block away from Peter Street for 2 1/2 years. It's not the safest neighborhood in Athens by any means, but I never had any issues. That area is gentrifying pretty quickly and filling up with grad students/young professionals. Let me know if you have any questions, I still live only 4-5 blocks from there.

At my university additional TA/RA lines are not an option, as there are absolutely no extra TA positions available for doubling up. Even if they had them they wouldn't let you, if you're not teaching you should be in the lab. It's the limiting factor of how many students we can accept (typically 6-12 per year). There's no way in hell they're going to give one student a second position that would allow another student into the department. Periodically we come dangerously close to not having enough TA positions to be able to provide everyone a stipend and the administrators have to scramble. If your PI has a grant to provide an RA then you're very lucky. As for extra non-teaching jobs, it is possible to likely that we're going to have to begin laying off staff due to state budget cuts. I think grad students taking on any of that work would get their tires slashed.

I'm not an international student, but maybe I can help a bit. Is EE environmental engineering? Opening a bank account is easy and usually doesn't cost anything, so definitely do so. There are often free student checking accounts at major banks. A checking account will be necessary for direct deposit of your stipend and also for paying bills (rent, utilities, etc.) Debit cards are also very convenient. As for how much money to carry on arrival, I wouldn't carry more than a couple hundred dollars unless you have a reason to carry more and I would promptly deposit that in my new checking account, sometimes they require a minimum balance of about $100. I very rarely use cash for anything and I don't have any credit cards, it's all on the debit card. *Edit: I just realized that it might be as long as a month after arrival before you get your first stipend check, so you might want to have more cash on hand to get you through. For books, purchases should be a last resort. Borrow, beg and share first. If it's a book that's not frequently needed you can split the cost with 1-2 other students. Also ask senior students in your program if you can borrow their textbooks (they're probably not using them or have sold them). Cars require a lot of money to maintain, not to mention gas, parking and insurance, so if you can avoid buying a car that's a way to save big. For food I buy little to no meat to save money.

I found out that another grad student in another department at my university got a phone call last week as well. I don't know to which FON they applied. My impression from an email exchange with a program officer is that they are finalizing the list, weeding out those that are taking other fellowships, etc. All of my contact with them has been strangely cagey... if the CIA had a fellowship program, this would be it.

Yeah, I'm trying not to get super excited, but I was explicitly told by a project officer to read the handbook, the first page of which reads: "Congratulations! Welcome to the EPA competitive graduate fellowship programs." I also asked him "Are there any more review processes?" to which he responded "No." Therefore, I'm assuming I have the fellowship... so open a beer or a bottle of wine

It sounds to me like you won't receive paychecks over the summer but the paychecks from the rest of the year will total $16k.

Looks like my situation is similar to others. I'm in the biological sciences, my annual teaching stipend is approximately $18,500, closer to $16,500 after school fees and health insurance (the university only pays 40% of the insurance). The living expenses are pretty low here. I used to live with a roommate but I moved to have a small apartment in a great house to myself, which increased my monthly rent+utilities budget from $550 to about $650 (inc. electricity, gas, water, trash, internet, no cable). I split the wireless internet access with someone in the upstairs apartment. I bike the ~2 miles to campus, both because I enjoy it and it saves a lot of money between gas, wear and tear and parking. The only time I drive is to the grocery store and to the lab at night when there's no parking enforcement. I budget $150-200/month for food including occasionally eating out for lunch. I'm not a strict vegetarian but I don't buy meat at the grocery store, which also saves cash. So, after taxes, health insurance and student fees it works out to about $1300/month. Subtract rent, utilities, car insurance etc. and I end up netting about $450/month. I pay $50/month on my undergraduate student loans to pay off the interest generated each month. I don't take out any loans for graduate study. This leaves me money for going out occasionally (once a week, generally). The downside is that my lab is essentially broke, so I've had to buy a few small pieces of laboratory equipment out of pocket and my area of research is expensive (SCUBA equipment is pricey)! I also have a very small side income by aquaculturing algae and selling it to aquarium hobbyists. Luckily I just received word that I received a fellowship which will mean a net raise as I will no longer have to pay school fees and health insurance out of pocket.

Hi everyone, I just received the news that I would be receiving a federal fellowship for the next 3 years, enough to carry me through to graduation. I've noticed that many universities have outside fellowship bonus or incentive policies that provide bonuses on top of the normal stipend to students with outside funding sources. According to a quick Google search $2,000/year seems typical. The fellowship stipend alone would amount to a small but noticeable raise to my current TA stipend, mostly as I will no longer have to pay student fees or health insurance out of pocket (approx. $2,000/year). I'm in my third year, my first was funded by a university-wide scholarship and the following two years by teaching assistantships. My university does not appear to have such a policy, at least not one that is advertised. My questions: 1) Should I take the initiative and ask for a bonus ($1,000-2,000/year, perhaps) from the graduate school? 2) Any suggestions on how to go about it? 3) Am I morally justified in doing so? It's a state flagship research university, but the university budget has been cut severely for the past two years and layoffs will likely begin to adjuncts, custodial staff and student workers soon if the situation doesn't improve. That said, I have effectively brought in over $100,000 to the university with this fellowship and my particular field of research is quiet expensive (travel, additional accident insurance, equipment purchase/maintenance, certification maintenance, etc.). I have been paying for these out of pocket for three years. I don't exactly have any bargaining power, as if they say "No" I don't really have any leverage. I am very happy about the fellowship so I won't be upset if it doesn't work, but I thought it might be worth a try. From some of the happy messages in the other threads I think other people may be in the same situation. Advice welcome.

I had a different Project Officer. He mentioned the "don't tell people" rule (it's also mentioned in the handbook), but I took it to mean that you shouldn't have your school/department make any official announcements until the paperwork was complete. This can apparently take a while. I committed to accept it immediately since the only other fellowship I applied for this year was the NOAA Nancy Foster. I just received a rejection email from that 5 minutes ago, but who cares? I only need one

My experience was the same as Botanista's. Technically, those that have been picked aren't allowed to tell anyone (at least officially) for legal reasons, don't ask me why. That said, I received a phone call yesterday morning notifying me that I would be receiving the award and to expect paperwork soon. Edit: I applied under the Global Change FON.

I'm not on the list, but I haven't received any notification either.

So that's what that metal taste is.