juilletmercredi

I'm going to go with the language. I am assuming that the language courses are accelerated enough that you will actually pick up an intermediate level of Arabic or Farsi skills before you graduate. You didn't say that you wanted to pursue a PhD in the future, but a language will actually be helpful for both a PhD and for a job. Many social science programs require some language facility (especially if you wanted to do like, political science of the Middle East), and many professional programs like IR or public policy give preference to people with multiple languages. And while it's theoretically true that you can learn a language later, it's never as easy as when you're in the context of a university/college. If you already have a base from which to launch yourself, you can do part-time language training, immersion studies, some kind of abroad experience - but this is much easier if you already have the beginner stuff out of the way. I wrote an honors thesis, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It's what let me know that I could do a PhD and conquer a dissertation. But plenty of people get into PhD programs without ever having written a senior honors thesis (although it certainly helps) There are also other ways to write long research papers - if you get a research-related job at a nonprofit, work as a research coordinator, get a Fulbright grant, etc. And I also agree that most employers won't really care if you write an honors thesis, but they WILL care that you can read Arabic or Farsi.

I suppose it depends on the program, but I was of the impression that the AW score doesn't really matter for the majority of PhD programs. It doesn't accurately reflect graduate-level writing.

The health-related criterion for the NSF is blurry. In my research proposal, I made reference to my research helping to prevent a number of health-related disorders - including HIV - and I got the fellowship. I don't remember the exact language I used, but I also made reference to health and well-being and solving a health disparity. I'm getting my PhD in public health and social psychology, so it would have been kind of difficult for me not to reference anything health-related at all. I was really surprised when I got the fellowship as a result, but I think it's because my research was pretty heavily social psychological. But...the NSF makes it a goal to award fellowships to people who actually do engage in broader impact activities. If you don't have any, then you're not as competitive for the fellowship as others. It doesn't have to be all saving orphans in Guatemala with the Power of Science; if you've done any kind of science outreach activities, that helps. Teaching a class at the museum? Mentoring undergraduates in your lab? Aside from my volunteer activities I also discussed genuinely enjoying to teach statistics and wanting to de-mystify the subject area for students. There's a sheet that lists other things that the NSF views as broader impacts beyond saving a bus full of children. They include disseminating science in innovative ways or trying to increase the reach of science into applied policy areas, so if you've done any applied work or tried to marry policy with research, those could be broader impacts. Basically, they want to make sure that you're not destined to become a researcher ensconced in the Ivory Tower who will only emerge to teach your once-weekly 11 o'clock graduate seminar. They're giving you taxpayer money, so they want to see you give back. You can also talk about the things you want to do. Although they need to be buttressed by things you've already done (otherwise they ring false), NSF does like to see people who want to stay engaged in broader impacts work beyond grad school. So I talked about wanting to serve as a mentor and role model for diverse students in an effort to try to increase the diversity in science (but also made sure to mention that I view diversity as deeper than just racial/ethnic diversity, and talked about how I wanted to inspire non-minority students to work harmoniously with minority scientists, although not exactly in that language). It's all about how you craft it. In my personal statement I also discussed how inequalities in the outside world influenced my decision to become a social scientist.

I start my postdoc about a month after my defense, and I'll be working over the summer to help pay relocation costs. So no huge trips for me. I'm hoping that me and my husband can take a nice trip together in the summer of 2015; he graduates that year, and we can celebrate both of our graduations then. My original gift to myself was going to be an expensive pair of shoes, but I got bitten by a practical bug lately and decided against that. Or rather, I decided that I wouldn't enjoy them as much as I thought I would. I want to buy a new iPad Air - I have a 3-4 year old iPad 2 that's cracked - so maybe that will be my graduation gift to myself.

I don't want to sound horrible - but I don't really want to invite anyone from my department for several reasons: money, the wedding will be in a different (far away) location, I associate people from my grad school life with stress, etc. So don't! If I had had a more traditional wedding, I would've invited my advisor and three other friends of mine across my two departments, but that would be it. And that's because those three friends were people I socialized with outside of graduate school, not just people I said hello to in the halls. Nobody will be miffed if you don't invite them; think of it like a workplace. Some coworkers become your close friends, and some coworkers are always just coworkers.

Have you contacted them at all? If you have not, at least let them know that you've received their response and are waiting on responses from other universities, and that you'll get back to them ASAP.

It's still prior to April 15, so assuming that these are both CGS schools, you're well within the time frame to withdraw. Contact School A and tell them that you appreciate their offer, but you have decided to withdraw your acceptance. If you want, you can give them more details (that you were offered acceptance at a better-fit institution for you), but you don't have to. However, I urge you to take a minute to think about it before you do this. A lot of times, getting wait-listed can make people even more desperately want to attend a place - it's that psychological effect of wanting what you can't have, in essence. So when we get accepted off the wait-list, sometimes that other place can seem so much more tantalizing and appealing. But was this place originally a better choice? Did you want to go to Wait List University all along, and had just given up hope; or was the original school always a front-runner? Or were they pretty much a tie? I am also of the personal opinion that differences between stipends shouldn't really be considered as long as they all satisfy your living costs. This isn't a long-term job upon which all of your future salaries will be based; it's just a subsistence salary while you knock out the PhD. So you just want to be sure that you have enough to live on (comfortably). And don't get me wrong, I'm the queen of comfortably being the key. But if you're offered $28,000 in Columbus, OH and then $32,000 in Atlanta, GA - but Ohio State is a far better fit for you, and better in your field, than Georgia State - then maybe you should accept the slightly lower offer in Columbus, unless $28,000 isn't enough to cover life in Columbus (which I doubt).

I agree with TakeruK - there's nothing wrong with beginning a PhD program with the idea that you will try it to see if you like it, and then dropping out after a year. But in addition to the warnings he gave, I also want to add another warning: it's emotionally more difficult to leave a PhD program than most people think it is. First of all, you don't want to leave without a job lined up, so there's that. But secondly, you get sucked in, in a psychological and emotional way. You're fed messages that academia is better than the "real world" - some sort of higher calling, or vocation - and that only those who "can't cut it" or who weren't brilliant/intelligent/hard-working/motivated enough drop out. This is all a sack of horse...feathers, of course. There are many brilliant people who never pursue a PhD or who leave a program, having decided to contribute their talents to the world in other ways. But there is that persistent feeling within the program, and it can make students who are contemplating leaving feel very distressed and torn. This may result in leading being a lot harder and taking a lot longer than a student initially anticipates. Personally, I would say that since you're already feeling negatively about the program - you don't really like the adviser and you don't want to live in the city - that you should just turn them down altogether.

I'm in the social sciences, and specifically, I'm in public health and social psychology. I started out wanting to get a PhD because I loved research, and I wanted to become a researcher at a government agency or a private or semi-private think tank. I do social-health research, and I wanted to use the social sciences in public health to study people's health behaviors and help create interventions and programs that would try to make or keep people healthy. In the middle of my program, I started to get more confused about what I wanted to do, and at that point I decided to continue to try to finish my PhD because I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do; a PhD would prevent me from doing none of the non-PhD-required positions I thought sounded cool, but WOULD prevent me from getting some of the PhD-required positions I thought sounded cool. Now that I'm at the end of my PhD, I realize that I really love both teaching and research. I love working with students, mentoring them, and trying to show them how they can use social science, statistics, and public health in their every day lives and careers (even if they don't aspire to being a researcher or professor). I also like helping younger folks figure out what they want to do with their lives, because I explored a lot of fields and felt a lot of uncertainty and I want to let them know that's okay, and it's normal. And I still really love research, and still want to look at the connections between human behavior and psychology and physical health. Of course, the job that suits that best is being a professor...so even though I didn't initially intend to become an academic when I started the enterprise, it turns out that's what I really want to do.

Legally they can charge you for the first year if you accept the offer and then just back out. Most likely they won't but its very bad form and you could be black listed in yor field I'm not even sure this is true. The CGS agreement isn't a legally binding contract, just a suggestion that graduate schools have agreed to adhere by. There's nothing the CGS could even do if a program decided to back out of this agreement, besides sanction them and drop them from their council, I suppose. And so it is with you - you can't sue a program because they don't give you until April 15 to decide. But the flip is also true - I'm about 95% sure that legally, there's nothing a university can do if you decide to back out of your agreement after April 15 unless you sign some sort of legally binding contract with them. The majority of schools do not ask this of incoming students. You could decide not to come the day before the program and while you may burn some bridges and the program will disapprove, there's not much they can do to you legally. Even if you did sign a contract, though, most schools don't want an unhappy student hanging around the department, so it's unlikely they will force you to attend if you clearly don't want to come. And even all this only applies to people with funding offers. It doesn't apply if you aren't funded.

I get enough sleep. On the few occasions I don't, it's because I chose to stay up fooling around, not because of any real work priorities. I'm currently in the dissertation phase, though, so I have less structured time. When I was still in coursework, I usually got around 6 hours a night, which isn't optimal for me (I need 8 hours) but enough to function. As a dissertating student, I can usually get 7-8 hours if I don't fool around too much. You have to -learn to skim strategically -schedule in exercise time. It's never going to happen if you don't schedule it -schedule in fun time -give yourself permission to take a day off -feel okay with depth rather than breadth - skim all the articles but only read one or two in depth

A half-pound is less than the weight of a mass-market paperback. I'm really skeptical that there's an actual noticeable difference. I know when I pack my messenger bag adding an extra notebook or paperback doesn't really change the perceived weight that much, although I would suppose it depends on how much you're used to lifting. It's definitely not noticeable on my back, and I have a bad back. I can't imagine too many situations in which that extra half-pound would be very noticeable. Still, I'd still advise getting the Air. It does everything you need and the battery life can't be beat.

Renting a house ALL depends on the owner/landlord. Some owners fix broken things (overflowing toilets, broken boilers) while expecting the renter to do the routine maintenance (mowing the lawn, shoveling show). Some owners do even the routine maintenance tasks, and some owners are completely MIA and expect the renter to take care of any maintenance issues. You'd have to meet the owner and have a serious discussion about expectations for upkeep first before you moved. In my city it's not tenable, but if I were living in the suburbs with two large-ish dogs I would much rather rent a home with a fenced yard. Most of the time it'll be basic yard maintenance.

I'm glad you got to visit and talk to your prospective PI. I wanted to address two things: 1. I disagree that there is universally no way to boost your chances of admission off the wait list. It depends on the program - some programs have a ranking on their wait list, i.e., they have an order in which they offer people admission to the program if any of their admitted students decline. If you are #6 on the wait list and only 3 decline, then you aren't getting in. But if you can boost your rank up the wait list, then you may stand a better chance. Some programs may boost you up the wait list if you demonstrate genuine interest and imply that you will attend if admitted. Also, letting the program know that you are still available - including after the notification deadline for other schools - can boost you up the wait list, since other wait listed students will be accepting offers elsewhere. 2. I slightly frowned. Well, the good news was that at least I had an informal interview with the professor of interest -- but there was no funding for my research area. But at least he gave me a very inspiring message -- funding is not important, but sometimes I shouldn't let funding seriously deter if I am serious about my research area (which is supply chain management for disaster management and response). I have to strongly, strongly disagree with this professor here, and I honestly don't understand why he would even say such a thing. Funding is a VERY important thing for a researcher at any stage, but especially in graduate school. If you have no funding, you can't eat or sleep inside, things that are important to success in a grad program (and, you know, living). There's lots of research showing that well-funded students finish their programs faster and are less stressed out than students who don't have funding, and you will also have more time to work on projects with advisers and collaborate on new/cutting-edge research topics. Beyond that, your field needs to be fundable if you have hope of getting a job as a professor, especially at a research university. Universities and colleges want people who can attract grant monies for their work.

-What was your experience like as a graduate student in X department? -How have you found X program to be viewed on the job market? -Did you find that X program had good career-building/job search support? What kinds of career-building/job search support were offered by X department? -Would you say that X department is competitive or collegial, or somewhere in-between? What makes you say that? -When at X department, did you feel like you had to work all the time to keep up or did you have a good work/life balance? Do you think it's possible to have a good work/life balance at X department? -What were the classes like? Exams? Do you feel you can finish the work in a reasonable amount of time so you can begin your dissertation and finish in a reasonable amount of years? -What are the professors generally like in X department?

Another question, if I could impose: I just took the GRE this afternoon, but only studied for 2 weeks and got four hours sleep last night and also have a bad cold. Nonetheless, I feel like 150 on the quant is representative of my abilities. I become extremely flustered and anxious at the first sight of numbers, and on the Kaplan practice tests never broke a 155. Assuming I retook the GRE and got another 150 on quant, where do you think that would put me in terms of the calibre of institution into which I could reasonably expect to gain entry? Why would you retake the GRE if you are pretty sure that you will get basically the same score? I also would just like to point out that Michigan's political science program is in the top 5, and actually ranked higher than Penn's program. It's certainly not "tier 2." Indiana also has a top 15 program. Actually, Penn's program isn't really known for being amazing (top 50), but Penn State also has a top 5 program. I advise you to do a little more research on reputations within your field; you may be surprised at where the top programs are. Alas, neither Michigan nor Indiana nor Penn State has an MA program in political science. They only have PhDs.

We can't really give feedback on chances, because chances at doctoral programs are very idiosyncratic. They have a lot to do with not only your "stats" but also the competitiveness of the pool and the needs of the professors. What I can say is that your undergrad GPA will be less important because it's 6 years old, and your undergrad sociology major GPA is generally in the range that programs want, but your graduate GPA is a bit low unless your program doesn't engage in the same kind of grade inflation most programs do. Also, you said that none of your research experience was in sociology - that's going to be a problem. Are they at least in related fields (like social psychology, anthropology, perhaps political science)? Also, your research interests are very broad and I'm sure that most of the top 35 programs have someone doing research in at least one of those areas. Try narrowing a little. Are you interested in gender differences of American identity formation in second-generation immigrant families? Or ethnicity differences in assimilation among immigrant families...etc.

There's no strategy for Columbia's housing application. It's very straightforward. The amount you're willing to pay per month is a ceiling. You can be offered anything at or below that amount. I'm not sure if they ever offer you more than one option; when my husband and I applied we were only offered one option, and we were provided with a floor plan. You can't see the apartment before you move in, which irritated me but I accepted it. The types of accommodations and prices are listed here: http://facilities.columbia.edu/housing/types-accommodations-0. If you are a single student coming to New York by yourself, you are eligible for either corridor-style dormitory housing - a single room with a shared bathroom and community kitchen - or an apartment share in a 3-4 bedroom apartment. The vast majority of single students opt for the apartment share, which ranges from $850-1425, with an average of $1040. I don't know anyone who pays more than around $1050-1100 for an apartment share in a 3-4 bedroom apartment. They're decent-sized apartments - average for NYC, small compared to what you can get somewhere else. Columbia owns a variety of apartments so I get the sense that they are priced according to the amenities - all apartments have laundry in the building but some buildings have door attendants, some units are newly renovated, some are newer than others.They are all in the same rough geographic area (spans about 15 blocks north-south and three blocks east-west in the Morningside Heights area). The pricing is definitely based upon size; some units are larger than others. It's my sense and experience, though, that you get little choice in the matter. They offer you what they have at the time. If you choose the dorm-style rooms the range is $700-1025 per single, cheaper for a double. I wouldn't recommend it because you could rent a shared apartment with your own room for around the same price; you're not really saving that much money. If you have a partner or children then you can compete for the studio/efficiency/one-bedroom apartments. My husband and I got lucky and were offered a one-bedroom (as opposed to a studio) and we actually pay less than the Columbia average and far less than the neighborhood market rate average for it. Our rent is $1385/month, includes Internet, heat and hot water. Our electric and gas usually comes to about $100/month. This is actually pretty cheap relative to the market price for a one-bedroom in Morningside Heights/the Upper West Side, which could easily run $1700-2000+

I forgot that I made this thread, y'all. The problem isn't with my postdoc - they don't care whether I walk or not, and they don't care that I won't officially have the degree until October. They just want me to have defended by June. It's really just about wanting to have walked this May instead of waiting a whole year for personal reasons. But yeah, I think you're right - it's a good excuse to come back. I have been considering not going to the big university commencement at all - it looks super boring, tbh. But even if I decided to skip the university ceremony, my two schools' ceremonies are still the days before and after my sister-in-law's graduation ceremony. So I'd still be dealing with flying down, then back up in 2 days. And even if I decided to skip the GSAS convocation and just go to the SPH ceremony (which is my primary school, and the one in which my adviser - who would hood me - is housed), that one's on Tuesday, so I'd still have to leave early Tuesday morning and pray my flight doesn't get delayed. And I have recently discovered that I really hate flying. My SIL is planning on going to university. I think I've come to terms/peace with it, though. I talked to another friend of mine who walked before she officially finished her thesis and got her degree, and she said she actually felt weird walking in commencement before she finished. She said everyone was celebrating having finished, but she still had a lot of work to do and couldn't really enjoy it the same amount. She said she's also talked to people who have walked several months to almost a year after they officially graduated, and they didn't feel too bad about it at all - it was still a major accomplishment for them. It worked to the point that I went to the bookstore today and saw the doctoral regalia and didn't feel bad, just happy and looking forward to next year, so I think I'm in a good place. Thanks for your help and recommendations, everyone!

I have a MacBook Pro, and have owned one for 2 years. In the two years I've owned it, I have not used the Ethernet port at all and I have used the optical drive once. However, I HAVE wished many times that it had longer battery life and was thinner and lighter. The basic Air comes with the same RAM as the basic Pro (4 GB). The Air is configurable to 8 GB, and you honestly probably don't need more than that unless you're planning on gaming on it or doing really intense graphical work. It costs the same amount to upgrade the basic Pro to 8 GB as it does to upgrade the Air. BUT I was voting based on my old understanding of the Pro (~5 lbs. and 5-6 hours of battery life). I just checked to be sure of what I was saying, and it appears that the new MacBook Pro with retina display weighs 3.46 lbs., while the MacBook Air weighs 2.96 lbs. That's basically a half pound difference and I definitely don't think you'll notice that. The new Pro also has 9 hours of battery life, while the Air has 12 hours. But the Pro with Retina display doesn't have an optical drive. If you're choosing between the Air and the new Pro with Retina display, I would go with the Retina display Pro. But if you're choosing between the Air and the standard Pro, I would go with the Pro.

This is insane. It makes no sense to move somewhere for a year only to pick up and move again a year later. That's stressful to you personally, and it does not allow you to put down roots professionally either. While your PI is very important, so is the rest of your department and your integration into it. Perhaps you don't want to take online classes, and you actually want to be on the ground taking classes and going to seminars and engaging with your colleagues. There's nothing wrong with that. And especially at the master's level, MOST of the program will be taking courses and learning from your cohort. And yes, I think it is pretty crazy to leave a program and institution you are excited about to follow a professor that you have not met. It might be to your benefit to study with him at School B, but if that's the case then you should probably go to School B from the start. It'd be a different situation if you were already his student at School A and he were leaving in your 3rd or 4th year, but I think your better bet at this point is to find a different adviser. I also have to disagree that department/university doesn't matter at all. It's field-dependent; in my field, your department/program matters, although not as much as your PI. And I actually think it's the reverse - while school name might matter less for PhD students going into academia, I think it matters more for master's students, especially if they are planning professional careers. But it's true that that's a moot point in this case since your degree will be from School A. And no, not having mentioned this faculty member doesn't mean you're flaky. I talked about 3 professors in my statement of purpose and I ended up working with a fourth professor who does similar but different work, but of whom I was unaware when I applied.

There appears to be absolutely no reason for you to select the PhD program over the master's. -They don't have the classes you need. -The funding isn't good. -The research lab is focused on an area that you are NOT interested in. -There are already disappointed grad students in that lab. On the other hand, the MS program is funded, they have research there and you're not even sure you want a PhD. So go get the MS and don't look back. If you later decide that you want a PhD, grad school isn't going anywhere, and you can apply again to doctoral programs.

I'm pretty sure I know to which Ivy you are referring for School 1, and you don't have to pay $2,000 in rent in School 1 city. I live in a much more expensive city and we don't even pay $2,000 in rent. You can definitely find a cheaper place than that in that area. Considering your pros and cons, it really seems like the only things that School 1 has to recommend it is that it's an Ivy. I say skip it and go to School 2. You can make connections in that city and network your way into a job, since you want to live there long-term; you'll have much lower debt; and it seems like you will just overall be happier there. All of those things are far more important than some name recognition, and anyway, I don't get the sense that social work is a very prestige-driven field. Also, be aware that that you have to pay taxes on any forgiven loan balance as if it were income. Let's say that you borrow $120,000 to pay for School A - $41,000 in Direct Unsubsidized Loans at 6.8% and the other $79,000 in Graduate PLUS loans at 8.5%. After you graduate, you find a social work job making around $45,000 a year and you put your loans on income-based repayment. Sure, your payments are limited to 15% of your gross monthly income, but you're not even paying close to the total cost of the interest every month, much less the principal, so your loans keep growing and growing. If you pay every single payment on time for 25 years, the government will have to forgive over $133,000 in loans, which is more than you originally borrowed. You have to pay taxes on that! Assuming it'll be taxed at 30%, that's about $40,000 that you now have to find a way to pay the IRS. And if you do Pay As You Earn (where your pay is capped at 10% of your gross monthly income and you only pay for 20 years), you will be forgiven $209,000, and you will owe the IRS rougly $63,000. Check out the loan repayment calculators here (https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/mobile/repayment/repaymentEstimator.action) to check my work. Your actual tax burden will be much higher because you'll only have paid for 10 years; the calculator does it based on the standard repayment for these two plans, which is 25 years and 20 years respectively. Also be aware that the current administration is discussing capping public service loan forgiveness at around $57,000.

It's a master's program - whatever location you choose, you'll only be there for 2 years and you can always move to the preferred location after you finish your program. So I wouldn't choose based on location; two years flies by really quickly and Atlanta's actually a pretty great city. (Biased, though. I'm from there. But there are a lot of development organizations in Atlanta, especially if you are interested in health at all.) I also doubt that you will always wonder what it was like to go to Berkeley. If Emory is a good school in your field, you will take great, engaging classes; you will work with bright professors and you will network and get an internship and get busy, basically. Then you'll get a job, and you'll work. Emory has pretty good name recognition nationally, too. If 2-3 years from now you're still holding onto wondering what it could've been like to go to Berkeley, I think other things would be at play. So here's what I think: if you want to work in development in general, and Emory is a good program in your field, then you should go there. If it's very important to you to specifically go to Berkeley, and you don't think you would be able to work in the field the way you want to work if you don't specifically go to Berkeley (like they offer some special thing that only they have) - then don't go to Emory and wait a year to reapply. But do yourself a favor and don't apply anywhere else. If it's Berkeley or bust, what's the point of applying anywhere else? (I'm saying this not to be snarky, but as a thought exercise. Consider how that feels. If you turn down Emory this year, you are basically saying that nowhere but Berkeley is an acceptable alternative for you.) Also consider that at this point you only have about 4-6 months before you would have to reapply; what adjustments would you be able to make to your application that would improve it? It would be essentially the same as it is right now, unless you're doing some great internship/program right now that would bump you into the accept box. But you've already said that you have a lot of field experience and extensive work in the non-profit sector, so I doubt one more year of the same is what kept you out of Berkeley this round and will get you in next round. Did Berkeley give you any feedback about what minor improvements to make? Because if they didn't, their response is almost as bad as nothing.

Well, you don't have funding at School B. So right now that should be off the table, IMO. You should not do an unfunded PhD. But it could be they are just trying to figure out your package and will offer you one later. Assuming that they are both funded, it looks like you are more excited about School A. There's also a big advantage to being able to do fieldwork at home rather than travel (I'm not in sociology, but a lot of my friends are and traveling to do fieldwork takes time and money!) and it looks like there are far more people who can supervise your work and serve on your committee (what happens if your PoI at School B leaves for whatever reason?). Is School A an already reputable university? And do they already have a reputable sociology program and are just adding a new sociology of religion program? Presumably the professors in the program are already established scholars who are currently teaching at the university and are moving into this program. What is their record of scholarship? Are they recognized? Even though the program is new, things like these can give you clues to how the program will end up being seen by colleagues who are hiring you in 6-8 years. It looks like the things luring you to consider School B are the "incredible PoI" and the more prestigious university. But more prestigious university doesn't matter so much as more prestigious program/department, and even then, fit is more important. Another thing to think about is what approach you would prefer to take. It is my sense that both fields have significant, established, and varied theoretical underpinnings. What I mean is - there are certain people you will read and be expected to know in a sociology program and certain, different, people you will be expected to read and know in a religion program. They may overlap, of course. But sociologists and religion scholars take different approaches in answering their research questions. I get the sense that sociologists are more considered social scientists, while religion scholars may straddle the line between the social sciences and the humanities, or may be firmly in the humanities depending on who you ask and what you study. But that may change your eligibility for some things (e.g., the NSF fellowship).