juilletmercredi

1. Don't let one aspect of your application obscure the bigger picture and prevent you from applying to the programs you want. A low undergrad GPA could be offset by great research and recommendations, especially if you have a master's. The same is true for low GRE scores. When you start agonzing over one part of your application, take a step back and survey your entire record. Ask for feedback from professors. I also used Asher's book. It is fantastic. Yes, he does sometimes give general advice that's only relevant to certain degrees, but I also found that most of his advice is widely applicable. Like with the resident assistant example, he was using that as an example of how you can use a seemingly mundane event to set across your own uniqueness. 2. This goes along with latte thunder's post, but don't go into debt that is unreasonable for your career. A lawyer aiming for BigLaw may be comfortable borrowing $150K for their JD, but if you want to be a middle school math teacher, you probably shouldn't borrow that much to get your M.Ed. A corollary is that the majority of jobs don't require a Harvard degree to get,. Think about the local area in which you want to work; for example, in my town in the South, Agnes Scott College had way more name recognition than Northwestern (most people from that area wouldn't even know where Northwestern was). 3. Grad school apps are expensive, so save up. But at the same time, think of application as an investment in your future. You don't want to go nuts when it comes to applications, but don't limit yourself to too few schools because you're afraid of the costs. If you can't afford it yet, wait until next year. I don't think the point is that academic pedigree does not matter or that some students won't have an easier time getting in somewhere than others. "Safety school" connotes an ease of admissions due to prestige v. a good fit. A lower-tier school will likely not admit a student who is obviously not a good fit, even if they are a stellar student. I also have to disagree with the stability of grad students' feelings for professors. Simpler emotions like liking or admiring? Perhaps. But hatred? I'd pay attention to the reasons why. I'd also pay attention to numbers. If there's a professor in the department that ALL of the graduate students tell you to avoid, there's probably a reason why. And we're adults - it's probably not because she dresses funny.

<p> </p> <div>I'm an extravert, but I do find trouble doing some of those things so here's what I do.</div> <div> </div> <div>1) With speaking in class, I always felt nervous that I would say something stupid. Even the most extraverted graduate students feel this way sometimes; it's a residual effect of imposter syndrome. The best thing to do is to read the material and make little notes about comments you want to make in class. I used to use tiny neon post-it's and stick it to the section of the paper with the relevant material, so when we turned to that page I had the comment right there on the sticky note.</div> <div> </div> <div>2) Getting comfortable with faculty takes time and practice...so basically the only way to beat this is by actually chatting with faculty. No way around that.</div> <div> </div> <div>3) The way I get around the networking issue is that I try not to think about it as networking. I just think about it as chatting or socializing in a professional context. That works in two ways - one, I love to talk to people and find out about their stories and how they got where they are. Since people love to talk about themselves, this isn't difficult. But secondly, it keeps me from seeing these opportunities as solely ways to get to know people based on what they can do for me. People don't like it when they suspect that you are trying to get something out of you. If you remain calm and treat it like a conversation, you can always bring it back up later. But really, networking is just meeting people, finding out what they do and making them like you, lol. And getting their contact info, but that's easy enough since it seems everyone carries around business cards these days.</div>

See if you can meet grad students outside of your cohort, too. My university holds grad student events that span across departments, so you may make your friends in other departments or schools within the university. I have friends in my cohort because they are the socializing type, but my closest grad friends right now are the ones who have the same GAship as I do - we spend a lot of time together because of it, and so we've gotten close, even though we're all in different programs and schools.

I would think if you are willing to go as high as $1500, you should have no problem finding a decent place (especially if you can put up 2 months' security). I have a friend who has a studio on 98th and Broadway and she pays $1300 a month for it.

I usually am glued to a wireless device and am instantly reachable, though. Lol. I don't disagree, but I'm the type of person who will forget about it if I don't address it immediately, so I usually address it right when I check it. However, my caveat is that I normally only check and respond to my mail in the evenings. Most of my checking during business hours is a short scan of the mail on my phone in case there's something urgent. Regardless of their generational belongingness, I have more than a few professors who send time-sensitive information that needs to be addressed that day over email, sometimes within a few hours or minutes. But usually, I don't respond until I have time to sit in front of an actual computer (as opposed to my phone or iPad) and type out a well-thought out response. The other thing is that I am actually a Millennial myself. Heh.

Ditto above, and depending on the type of career you are gunning for, your schedule actually might become more hectic and not less in your last few years. My first two years, I just took courses and met with my advisor. Most of my research could be done from home, and my university doesn't offer many classes on Fridays, so I usually had a 4-day week and would leave on Thursday afternoons for long weekends with family and my SO. Now, I'm TAing a class that I essentially have to do things for M, W, R, and F - the lecture is MW and I teach two lab sections, R and F. I've also taken a special live-in GA position, but that's not common for PhD students. Even without that, though, I have to shuttle between two campuses - the class is an undergrad class on the main campus but my research space and advisor are on the medical center campus. There's no way I could do a 3-day week or even a 4-day week, but I suppose I'm kind of over wanting or expecting that at this point. Instead, I have a little built-in downtime on each day; my Mondays and Fridays are actually relatively light, and I plan to make Saturdays a relaxation day. I'm aiming for an academic career (a relatively recent change!) and so I actually enjoy the satisfied feeling of exhaustion from getting things done at the end of the day plus the experience I feel like I'm getting in my TAship. But long story short - it depends on you. If you don't have any TA responsibilities you could easily have a 3-day week. If I didn't have my TAship or my GA position, I could definitely just come on campus 9-5 Monday through Wednesday and chill out at home most Thursdays and Fridays.

I thought Kindle books displayed page numbers now? I have a Kindle and the Kindle app on my iPad, and both of them display page numbers.

I like academia and I'd like to be a professor, but the last thing I want is an academic wallpaper on my computer. Right now I have an Angry Birds theme for my computer. It makes me laugh and that's a de-stresser, which is what works for me.

I'm not really sure what it is you want besides what's in those older threads, but a lot of this will depend on the individual program and the person.It;s rough, especially at first when you are just getting started. Your first inclination is to spend all of your time on graduate work. But you will quickly get sick of that, and then you will start setting boundaries. The kinds of boundaries you set are going to be based on your relationships (whether you are already in one or not, and what the nature of that is - living together? Long distance?) and your personal preferences, but you will set boundaries. For example, I give myself a day off each week. That day off is Saturday, and that's my day to kick back, relax, and hang out with my fiance. Sometimes I switch it to Friday depending on his schedule (like he works Saturdays now, so it's Friday). Those are good days because nothing is due on Saturday or Sunday. Some people do it in the middle of the week because they like to work on the weekends. Whatever works for you. I'm long-distance with my fiance - he comes up almost every weekend (but that "weekend" is now coming up Wednesday morning and leaving Friday night or Saturday morning, since he works nights and he's off Wednesday through Friday) - so I also try to finish the majority of my work before the weekend hits so that I only have a little to do, and then I do it in the evenings while he plays a video game or something. I don't think you should have to postpone getting married while in graduate school. It's like most other jobs where there's a heavy time commitment - you have to learn how to balance. I'm getting married next year, towards the beginning of my 5th year in graduate school (and hopefully, my last).

Personally, I would not. I like my iPad a lot, but there is too much that I have to do on my machine that I need to be able to take it with me. For one thing, I'm in a quant program and you can't exactly put SAS or SPSS on an iPad. I also travel many weekends to visit my SO and I take my laptop with me so I can get real work done down there. The iPad is great for reading/annotating PDFs, doing some email work and maybe editing a paper, but I wouldn't rely on it solely for heavy-duty stuff.

Uggs (or rather sheepskin lined boots - Uggs are priced outrageously; I bought some Bearpaws on Amazon.com for $30) are nice for the winter if it's cold AND dry. They do keep your feet and lower legs quite warm and yet not sweaty. But they are not functional winter boots; I got a pair of Sorel snow boots (also on Amazon.com for some ridiculous discount) for when it snows in earnest because the sheepskin boots are not waterproof.

In general, it is not unethical to drop out of a PhD program with a non-terminal MS and then go to another PhD program. Although I believe that usually, a PhD student would attempt to transfer instead of 'dropping out.' However, you say "difficulties completing the project," and that raises a red flag: 1. What kind of "difficulties"? 2. Grad school is rarely about one project. It's about a combination of different factors. Usually the research project you are working on is one of many factors, and you will probably work on more than one project at a time. I would say not necessarily. First of all, despite the beliefs of many undergrads, you don't get to pick exactly what you want to work on in graduate school. You in essence are working on whatever your advisor is working on. How far you can get away from that depends on the resources your advisor has and his particular expectations. The point is, you can't go around losing interest, and I would imagine that losing interest is a strike even if you are a good researcher. A PhD program is a marathon, not a sprint. You have to be able to sustain interest in a project from start to finish, including your dissertation. If you started out with no interest, the next program will wonder why you went there to begin with. If you started out interested but lost it, the next program will wonder whether you can sustain interest in a project long enough to finish a dissertation. I'm also curious about why you are asking this question when, if your signature line is any indication, you are applying this year for next fall.

Be an advocate for yourself. Although you should/will have an advisor or mentor and may have some other informal mentors, they will be very busy and may not respond to your requests immediately. They also simply may not be the person who can help you. You also do need to learn how to stand up for yourself, because at some point you will be expected to be relatively autonomous. So scour that handbook and learn who does what - learn who to ask if you need a projector for a course, or if you need someone to unlock the bathroom after 7 pm, or if your paycheck is 4 weeks late (happened), or if financial aid arbitrarily decides not to pay you your TA stipend (happened) or yanks your financial aid and then doesn't tell you until you've realized it didn't show up (happened). And don't back down easily for battles that are worth it. This is especially important if your university has a wacky and/or slow bureaucracy and/or a habit of obfuscating how to get things done. Your professor, no matter how nice he/she is, probably does not know the course requirements for you to graduate. And quite frankly, he/she probably doesn't care very much either - he/she is going to want to professionalize you - teach you how to do research, how to write grants, how to get published, how to network with others in the field, how to present at conferences. It's up to you to figure out what you need to do to actually get the PhD. Learn how to say no. And learn how to *stick* to no. You can't do everything. Best piece of advice I read - decide before you begin what you are not willing to sacrifice for graduate school (and academia). Financial stability? Your relationship with your SO? Geographical living preferences? Having children before 35? Buying a house? Personal time? And then...don't. Once I came to terms with what I was willing to give up, and what I would hold onto no matter the costs, I felt a lot more relaxed and comfortable in my program.

I love to shop, but I find that it's easier for me to save when I was trying to save towards something - a goal, a trip, a big purchase. Even if I know in my heart that I'm not going to do whatever that thing is, I can successfully psych myself out. That said...I dunno, I might keep the job. IMO the goal of an MA is to get a job that you like and that pays well. Well, you have that already, right? Getting an MA may be a dream, but if it's not 100% necessary right now I don't see the harm in waiting one more year. A year will fly by.

I tend to think it's more like a wavering than a lopping off the bloom. I was in love with my area and grad school at first; then I fell out of love; then I fell back in love. You'll go back in and out; it will truly be a "love/hate" relationship with academia, research, your project, your advisor, etc. I also agree. Sometimes I avoid socializing with my grad student friends because they are always complaining about school, even when we see each other outside of school. Sometimes it is nice to kvetch about school, but other times...

I totally understand safety, but I am also a small woman who gets hassled pretty regularly (catcalling and the like) and I don't feel unsafe in Washington Heights. I would also never live anywhere I perceived as unsafe. It's a diverse community but there's a big Columbia presence around here and they patrol. I've walked home at all hours of the night, and I've never felt unsafe. But, one has to live where one feels safe in their own measurement. I am mostly saying this for the benefit of other posters. There is nothing unsafe about Washington Heights or Harlem in and of themselves, but you do have to go on feelings and comfort level. My utilities (gas/electric) only add about $60 to my bill in the winter months. In the summer months, I run my a/c so it ends up being $120. (I am saying this for the benefit of others who will move here).

1. Sometimes fellowships are more money than stipends; fellowships also do not require any service from you, and so you have more freedom. My fellowship meant that I got to work with my advisor of choice and I didn't just get placed with someone who needed an RA. I also got the freedom to take up a non-academic internship this summer in a corporate field I wanted to try (I don't like it, but now I know, right?), whereas my friends on RAships are doing that this summer (which isn't bad if your advisor has close interests to yours). In addition, fellowships make both you and the school look good. Internal fellowships free up departmental resources for other students, and external fellowships free up university resources and look really good on your CV. You should always apply for fellowships. 2. The program realizes that you will write a personal statement and that there will be overlap. They wouldn't ask you to write the essay if they didn't want you to write it, so write it. Everyone else will write one too. It will be a bit different from a personal statement and will be more directed towards trying to get a specific funding position.

My boyfriend and I signed a lease on the East Side for a 2 room studio in April, we pay $1675 with all utilities included. Rents go up in the spring/summer and the folks who just moved in next to us pay over $2000 for the same space. It was the cheapest place we saw anywhere in the city. A $1675/month studio on the Upper East Side was the cheapest place you saw anywhere in the city? Uhh. New York is expensive, but that's definitely on the mid-range expensive side. One can find a decent studio for between $1200-1500, especially if one is willing to not live in the UES. I have a friend living in an UWS studio on 98th for $1200 a month; another lives in a one-bedroom in Brooklyn for $1500; and there are plenty of studios in Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood that do not cost around $1200 a month. That's almost as much as my 2-bedroom in Wash Heights. I've been in Times Square after midnight and it is still thronging with people. I feel like those two stations are never really empty, so you won't have a problem. My credit was pretty bad but my dad was a guarantor. If you only missed one payment a year or two ago, your credit should still be good. North Jersey is a definite possibility. However, check to make sure that to get around the town itself (grocery store/housewares/entertainment) you don't need a car. Sure, the rent may be hella cheap and the commute may not be too expensive, but if you factor in gas and maintenance on a car if it's required in order to run basic errands in your hometown...the cost may come out to the same or more.

It's not unreasonable, but it's going to be...well. I mean, it's your decision about whether to go or stay, but personally I think funding and program fit should be considered together when deciding whether or not to attend a program that has accepted you. Inadequate funding is definitely a valid reason for transferring/going to a different program. But yes, I do think that some professors will look upon you oddly for applying to transfer when you are scarcely three months into a graduate program. They will know that you have to had made the decision before you even went to the school, and they are going to wonder why you decided to go if you knew you were going to transfer out. Personally speaking, I would think a student who did that just couldn't find anything else to do in between the time he finished college and went to his ideal program, and I would be skeptical about that student's seriousness about graduate work. I think you might be able to explain around that, but you should at least check with your grad program FIRST to be sure that there's no summer funding. I know in my program, certain fellowships give you summer funding and others don't. Most students find something to do though.

I've just heard that he's awful and egotistical, and a lot of English scholars (particularly women) don't like and don't agree with him. I hadn't heard about his harassment of Naomi Wolf, but that article was horrible. And this: Much of contemporary criticism takes a novel and holds it up to a series of incongruous and irrelevant sociological magnifying glasses—gender theory, feminism, Marxist analysis, and all sorts of postmodern muck. These critics, whom Bloom has memorably called the School of Resentment, have gained such strength that they have colored, even infected, writers whose careers have started since the Resentment began. So what we are seeing is criticism that changes literature for the worse and, as Bloom laments, contributes to the idiot-ization of the entire world. It’s a mess, and it may be irreversible. From the second article - I had to laugh bitterly. I'm in sociology/psychology, and the description of feminism and Marxist analysis as "postmodern muck" is disconcerting. I know he didn't write it, but he endorses it, and for a distinguished professor of humanities to describe feminist analysis of work as an "infection" is...well, I think it says a lot about him.

I'm not even in English and I have heard stories about Harold Bloom. LOL. In any case, I think it's field dependent. In my admissions essay, when asked what I wanted to do in the future, I said that I wanted to do government research and advocacy/policy work. And I flat out told my PhD advisor in my first year here that I did not want to be a professor. But I am in public health, a field where it is very common for doctoral degree holders to work in government and nonprofit institutions. He is very accepting of this and has been supportive of helping me network in non-academic arenas to work.

It depends on your field. In some fields 8 may be too many. In my field, 8 is not that many; that's actually on the low end. It is not uncommon for social and clinical psychology hopefuls to apply to 10-15 schools; I think most apply to about 10 in those subfields. They're quite competitive. There are usually fewer applications in cognitive and experimental. I think 8 PhD programs is reasonable.

I wouldn't use last 2 years as such a strict guideline - the idea is that they want to look at your most recent work, because the way you were at 18-19 may not reflect the way you are at 22-23 (especially with the initial adjustment to college). So if you did 5 years, they will probably still concentrate mainly on your last 60 credits/years 4-5. But if you started your major work in your 3rd year, they will look at that, too. They may just look at the last 3 years especially if you took a lighter courseload in your 5th year. As for master's work...remember, they will not just have raw numbers - they will also have your transcript. So if you did a 5 year BS/MS program, the MS classwork may be factored into your GPA, but a more qualitative evaluation of it will weight those master's classes higher than the undergrad ones. If you did a separate MS and BS, then they'll be two separate GPAs I believe.

I just checked yesterday; my loan debt is currently at $31,522.

I have Netflix and Hulu. I do not have cable, as it is too expensive and I rarely watch television. I watch Glee (catching up on the first season, and some episodes I missed in the second) and Law and Order: SVU (I've seen every single episode via Netlix and Hulu). I plan on starting Modern Family and finishing Pushing Daisies when I finish Glee. I like to watch series altogether, which is why I'm not fond of television, although when Glee returns I will be watching the episodes as they come out on Hulu. I don't mind waiting a few days. I'm also into Adventure Time because it's odd and I love odd shows like that. I need to find a way to watch The Wire (without buying box sets) and I do want to see what all the fuss about Mad Men and Parks and Rec are about, and Royal Pains sounds interesting. I also think Psych is funny. Huh, I watch more TV than I thought. When I am at someone else's place and if I have control of the cable, I also tend to watch a lot of HGTV (especially House Hunters and My First Place), What Not To Wear, Say Yes to the Dress, and Bridezillas (which is hilarious).