juilletmercredi

I know this question is a few months old, but still going to answer in case someone finds it useful. I went to Columbia for graduate school; for three years I lived in off-campus housing in Washington Heights and then for three years I lived in campus housing in Morningside Heights. Morningside Heights is very much dominated by Columbia - there's a 10-block radius from 110th St to 120th St, between Broadway and Morningside Dr (and, to a certain extent, extending to Riverside Dr) that feels like Columbia's campus/neighborhood. I am a woman and I always joked that I've walked outside in Mor

Personally, I'd consider about 7-10 years out to still be relevant. Because of tenure, academic departments are slower to change than many other institutions. If you're observing that from 2004-2010 graduates were placing into top departments but then - suddenly or gradually - after 2010 the prestige of those placements started to decline...that's data. Something changed.

I work in this field. It's called human-computer interaction, or user experience research. A rhet/comp degree would be an unusual background; most people who come into this field have social sciences graduate degrees (psychology is common) or computer science-related graduate degrees (you can actually get a PhD in HCI). That's because the research techniques are social sciences methods, and are actually applied versions of psychological methods. However, with some programming skills, you might make a good UX designer. There are also design-adjacent roles like design strategist or tec

I moved from the Southeast to the Northeast for graduate school, and then from the Northeast to the Pacific Northwest for my first job. The first move is more relevant - much like dippedincoffee, I scaled down significantly; I got all of my belongings into two suitcases. I agree with @dippedincoffee that buying new stuff where you go might be cheaper than shipping things. I looked into shipping my bedroom furniture (really nice stuff) from my home in the Southeast to the Northeast, but it was cheaper for me to buy an inexpensive but still good quality mattress and bed frame in the new loc

I think this depends entirely on what the degree is in and what you expect to be doing - and how much money you expect to me making - after you graduate. If this was an MBA or an MPP or an MPA, I'd say that $70K isn't bad. That's how much good programs in those fields cost; they're prestige-driven fields, which means that a prestigious (expensive) degree can translate into a better job and higher earnings. But most importantly, I think a new graduate in those fields can expect to make a salary that's at least in that general range, and so would be able to repay that kind of salary without

If you have no research background, I think you'll find it difficult to get admitted to a PhD program. PhD programs - including this one at UBC - are primarily research degrees. Professors want to know that you know what you're getting yourself into, and that you truly enjoy research, are passionate about a specific area and are ready to commit 5 to 7 years of your life studying it. They also want to know that you're going to be useful in their research group, because they need you to do research for them. Another way to put this is...how do you even know you want to do a PhD if you have

There's really no minimum. Generally, when people say that, they're referring to two years of part-time experience as a research assistant - the junior and senior years of college, probably somewhere in the 10 to 20 hour per week range. But there's really no minimum - the impact of what you did in that time matters more, as well as what you learned and how well you express it. One student may be able to get admitted straight from undergrad with two years of part-time research experience, where another student needs to work full-time for three years after college to get into a program. Eig

As was mentioned, virtually all deadlines for PhD programs have passed; in fact, the decision deadline for most PhD programs has passed. Most programs will have their incoming cohorts set right now. The pandemic will only exacerbate things; even the few programs that have rolling admissions may be tightening their belts. Talk to the Director of Graduate Studies at your department first. There may be other professors in the department who have funding - either you could work as an RA in their labs, or the department may be able to cobble together some support for you. Also chat with your a

I got my PhD in psychology from Columbia (from GSAS, not from TC). It's not putting down another program to factually state that the psychology programs at Teachers College are not as well-regarded as other top psychology programs; it's just factual. That doesn't mean that the program is not good; or that OP should not go there. It just means the program is not as prestigious. It's important to go into any program with one's eyes open about where one's program stands relative to other ones, as unfortunately it does matter in placement (especially in academic placement.) Most rankings of clinic

This, I think, is kind of a different question from not being a good writer. I find it difficult to believe that, as someone who completed a doctoral degree and has secured a postdoc, you don't have an analytical mind. I'm betting that you do, and you're mostly apprehensive on whether or not you are 'good enough' to produce what your postdoc requires. You probably are, but a postdoctoral fellowship is in part a training opportunity - your PI is supposed to be helping you grow into being an academic. So if you're having issues turning your ideas into papers, set up some time with your

Your advisor doesn't have to know what you do in your spare time. You don't have to tell your advisor everything that you do. Therefore, it won't necessarily raise red flags with your advisor. However. I did marching band in high school and considered it in college, and am friends with lots of band geeks. Whether or not you can do this successfully depends entirely on the kind of marching band you are attempting to join. My husband was drum major of his university's marching band, and it was a pretty low key affair that only played at home games and didn't practice every day. That kind of

I am assuming that you're in an American-style program, with ~2 years of coursework before comps and dissertation. I will say that I felt kind of similarly in my first two years of graduate school; the challenge was the volume of work I was being expected to do, not the type. I went to a small liberal arts college where close reading, deep discussion, and analytical writing were expected parts of the curriculum, so doing these things in graduate school was not a challenge. I definitely did grow and learned a lot of new material, but I didn't necessarily feel like I had to quickly ascend to a n

The coordinating official (CO) is the final word on this. There's a section in the Administrative Guide on stipend supplementation: Each Fellow is expected to devote full time to advanced scientific study or work during the Fellowship Period. However, because it is generally accepted that teaching or similar activity constitutes a valuable part of the education and training of many graduate students and such opportunities may arise during a Tenure year, a Fellow on Tenure may choose to undertake a reasonable amount of such activities without NSF approval. It is expected that furtherance o

I don't know if you've sent the email yet, but for posterity, here are my thoughts. I am a hiring manager in industry. 1) The entire email is unnecessary. They haven't forgotten that you interviewed, and if they have not contacted you yet, that means that you haven't gotten an offer (yet). The best thing to do after having already sent a follow-up thank-you email is to move on until/unless the company contacts you. 2) If one insists on sending a follow-up email, it should be short. If I'm hiring for a position, I am doing that on top of my already demanding job, and my time for readi

I work in industry. While a postdoc won't hurt you, it's certainly not necessary for the vast majority of non-academic positions. There are some non-academic positions that function pretty similarly to academic ones, and some of those might prefer a postdoc (think think tanks or policy institutes). But for the vast majority of non-academic jobs - especially if they are not research roles - not having done a postdoc is totally fine. Second, if I want to gain industry experience while still in graduate school, what might be some recommended ways to go about it? My research focuses on questi