juilletmercredi

If you look at the thread you linked, you can see that other posters have experienced the same thing. ANDS! has a -20 rating on a perfectly innocuous post. I think you are perhaps being a bit sensitive, as I don't think anyone really takes the ratings very seriously. I have to physically go look at your profile to see it, and I can't remember the last time I looked at someone's profile on here.

It isn't really "2 per state". When the article addresses elite institutions, it isn't talking about the majority of state flagship universities. The author is talking about the relatively small list of elite, mostly private and very expensive universities in the country - Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Caltech, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Kenyon, Grinnell, etc. This list only has a few state flagships on it, such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Berkeley, UCLA, perhaps Georgia Tech, Penn State and a few others. It's overwhelmingly private and East Coast schools are overrepresented, particularly the tony private institutions of the Northeast/New England area. These statements don't reflect my personal feelings about college - I think public flagship institutions are underrated. But I talked to a lot of undergrads here at my university who turned down much more affordable and top-name public institutions in their home states (CA, MI, WI, WA) - often where they had earned some scholarship money - to spend $200K to come here.

There are over 3,000 colleges and universities in the United States. 100 colleges is only 0.33% of those colleges. And as you exemplified yourself, top scholars/students don't always end up at the top 100 colleges. They tend to be expensive, and you have to come from a family/background that is aware of them. That means first-generation college students often aren't there (they tend to be at their closest public university campus), low-income students often aren't there, and ethnic minority students often aren't there. These top private institutions often base their admissions on things that come with money - high SAT scores (which can be boosted with test prep courses), AP and IB classes, a variety of honors courses, some kind of long-term artistic ability like dance or music (purchased with lessons), and organized sports that often aren't offered in working-class and lower-middle class high schools (lacrosse, crew, squash, polo, sailing...) The students I know who consider themselves pretty normal and middle-class at my Ivy League took figure skating/violin/ballet/hockey/[insert expensive activity] lessons growing up, went to expensive private high schools, took thousand-dollar SAT prep classes, the whole nine yards.

I don't believe that "most deserving scholars" attend the top-ranked schools. I believe that students with money and connections attend the top-ranked schools. It's not that these students are not intelligent, driven, ambitious, and deserving - they are, I just don't think they are the MOST deserving by necessity. It's also not as if their achievements are unwarranted, as these top institutions often offer more resources by comparison and more prodding for students to think about graduate school.

There also needs to be some examination of the phenomenon I pointed out in my earlier post, which is that students who go to top schools are often far more interested in graduate school than students who went to lower-ranked schools. I don't think it's always that they just naturally are; they are far more likely to have parents and other adult models who have graduate degrees. They're also more likely to be familiar with a range of careers that require or recommend a graduate degree.

Given how snide you are being to the one person who tried to help you, I don't think it's Sigaba who is discouraging others from participating.

Given how snide you are being to the one person who tried to help you, I don't think it's Sigaba who is discouraging others from participating.

I don't live in GSAS housing but I've been inside a few apartments of friends that do. It's fairly nice. They're small, but any NYC apartment in that area is going to be small anyway. Well appointed, and they look like regular apartments. The furniture is relatively dorm-ish but that's because those wooden bed last forever. I've never been inside the corridor-style dormitory buildings.

The rent for an apartment share is actually pretty decent if you get one in the mid-range ($950 for the apartment shares). The problem is if you get offered one of those like $1200 and up shares. Probably less likely than getting a cheaper one, but I'd say paying a $1250 rent for a share is kind of shitty since you can get a studio in Harlem for that price.

I wouldn't go with the dormitory style options, just because you can get an apartment share (either through the university or off-campus) for around the same price.

Day one, single out the toughest member of the cohort and beat them up. From then on, you'll have cred with everyone and they'll leave you alone.

For me personally, my advisor calling Enterprise and then calling me a liar for saying there were no cars available would be the nail in the coffin for our relationship unless I was far enough in my dissertation that that would significantly set me back. That indicates a fundamental lack of trust that goes beyond my work. I'm an adult, I don't need someone calling in to check behind me and I opted INTO this graduate work. Why would I lie and make up excuses? If I really didn't want to go to class, I simply would not.

But that's just because my personality is very laid back and so NOT a perfectionist. Whether or not you want to do the work to get up to her standards is up to you to decide. I just couldn't imagine any of my advisors or the professors I am close to actually doing that.

Depends on how much you think you can make. The Occupational Outlook Handbook says that the 2010 median pay for SLPs was $66,920 per year, and the job outlook is faster than the average. Most likely you will find a decently-paying job after graduate school. It's generally recommended that you don't borrow more than your first year earnings, so I would say no more than $70,000? There's probably some leeway in that if you live frugally in your first years and pay down your loan quickly, so you may be able to reasonably borrow a little more than that. (Also may be difficult to keep the costs down below $70K if you are already $33K in debt - means you can only borrow $47K, which may only be enough to afford one year. You have to be realistic, too.)

Given how snide you are being to the one person who tried to help you, I don't think it's Sigaba who is discouraging others from participating.

Given how snide you are being to the one person who tried to help you, I don't think it's Sigaba who is discouraging others from participating.

I think it's reasonable to have your non-work income (e.g. fellowship/scholarships/bursaries) be non-taxable. Doing your coursework is not "work" like any other person, and it's not really "school" like undergrad was. It's more of an apprenticeship since we are required to learn this stuff in order to do our job! However, RA work and TA work is actual work like "regular people" so it makes sense to tax that.

This is pretty much the reason I was getting at. At my university, my fellowship income is counted as both income and financial aid. The entire amount is counted in my financial aid package (which limits the amount of supplementary scholarships and loans I can get/borrow - because of cost of attendance rules) but it's also taxed, so I can't actually use the entire amount of it. This led to some complications during a few years during which they were telling me that my award exceeded the CoA, so I couldn't get paid for TAing (ummm what) or take out additional loans.

One could also argue that tax-exempt fellowships are an incentive to encourage people to go into doctoral programs, which can build the science and research workforce and the educated workforce, especially since the administration is always hyping that we need to produce more scientists at a high level to compete with other schools. Graduate students are also often not eligible for a lot of the credits that low-income workers are eligible for, because our income is often not counted as wages (mine is a "stipend" and goes in other income, and not a "wage" with a W-2).

I also don't think making our fellowships non-taxable would take away the idea that they are not "real work" - university administrators are going to believe that regardless of whether our stipends are taxed or not, because it is in their best interest to label our work as "not work." Then they don't have to pay us or treat us well.

But I do think that the nature of some of work (at least the stuff that's not work for pay, like a research assistantship or teaching assistantship) IS different. For example, I am on an external fellowship, and I am not an employee of the university. I don't think I should be an employee of the university just by virtue of being a graduate student that does research for my own benefit, nor do I think I should be eligible for things like maternity leave - especially since given that I am not an employee, I can arrange my affairs personally with my advisor if I needed to (or take a leave of absence). Even when I was employed by the university as a GRA, it was a half-time appointment (20 hours a week) I think part-time laborers do deserve rights - I believe strongly in labor rights - but they're not going to get the same kind of leave and benefits as full-time university employees.

I also do not get to deduct tuition remission. In fact, you cannot deduct tuition remission from your taxes; you can deduct your tuition *payments* if you are paying your own tuition. But you don't get to deduct tuition unless you are actually paying it. If the school pays it, you don't deduct it. Why would you be able to deduct something that you don't pay?

In any case, the petition is there - you don't have to sign it, if you don't want to. (Not that I'm stifling discussion, but I don't have an answer to "Why should I sign it?" That's a personal decision.)

It's hard to say, but in your case I think I might take the grad school offer. Funded MA programs don't come around that often, and when you said growth I thought you meant that there was a promotion waiting for you right now. You don't have any concrete promises of promotions, and they may simply replace the two people who leave with outside applicants, since you are "not ready yet." That leaves you in the same place you are now. And you already said that your goal is to go to grad school eventually anyway, but with "better experience on your resume." But if you already got into your top choice school, why do you need the better experience (other than getting a job after)?

Prestige is not more important unless you can pay off the loans. Two years at Chicago, borrowing the whole thing, will easily cost you $100-120K. How do you intend to pay that back? You can't hope to make that much money as an English professor.

I say follow the money. Unless Villanova's program is the bottom of the barrel, you have to be pragmatic here. There's a reason you applied to Villanova's program - something appealed to you there.

I say more often, we need to treat education like we treat everything else. We wouldn't buy a house we couldn't afford just because it was in a nicer neighborhood, or a car we couldn't afford for the prestige of driving around a BMW. Let's also not go for degrees we can't afford to pay back after graduation. It'd be one thing if you could get the entire degree for $50K or even $80K, but over six figures is more than the majority of us can afford to repay unless it's a medical/dental or business degree.

Prestige is not more important unless you can pay off the loans. Two years at Chicago, borrowing the whole thing, will easily cost you $100-120K. How do you intend to pay that back? You can't hope to make that much money as an English professor.

I say follow the money. Unless Villanova's program is the bottom of the barrel, you have to be pragmatic here. There's a reason you applied to Villanova's program - something appealed to you there.

I say more often, we need to treat education like we treat everything else. We wouldn't buy a house we couldn't afford just because it was in a nicer neighborhood, or a car we couldn't afford for the prestige of driving around a BMW. Let's also not go for degrees we can't afford to pay back after graduation. It'd be one thing if you could get the entire degree for $50K or even $80K, but over six figures is more than the majority of us can afford to repay unless it's a medical/dental or business degree.

I think the problem is this myth that "you have to be sure," coupled with all of the stereotypes of PhD holder (perpetuated by professors themselves) - that the "life of the mind" means you have to be a hermit that only thinks about your research and works 80-hour weeks, taking no vacations.

First of all, I would be worried if someone said that they couldn't imagine doing anything else besides being a professor. That either shows a lack of imagination or some other issues...anyone who would make a good professor would also be good at a variety of other things. So I think it's only natural to wonder if maybe you should do one of those other things that takes far less time and hard work to achieve. It was only when I realized that I had many options besides being a professor (including options if I decided to leave my program) that I felt truly content here. So that's rule number 1 - never feel trapped. You can always leave. If you got into a PhD program, you are intelligent, resourceful, and hard-working. You can figure something else out!

I think that made me feel better going into the program, when someone told me that even if I hated it, I could just leave with my MA.

The other thing is that with a PhD, you only have to work as hard as you want to (after a certain point). That's not really true during the coursework phase; you have to do the coursework rather quickly to maintain adequate progress. The coursework is kind of a grind, but it's a predictable grind - you've taken classes before; you know what to expect. They're at a higher level, but at their basic core the structure is the same.

After that...your progress is more or less on you as long as you stay on your advisor's standards. I decided that I wasn't going to kill myself to try to be America's Next Top PhD Student, but I still have a first-authored publication in a great journal, a third-authored paper in the final stages of prep and two more first-authored ones in the planning stages. The statement "it's a marathon, not a race" is so, so, so true. So don't think that you have to stress yourself (unless everyone at your intended program is running the rat race. I chose my PhD program, in part, because people seemed much more laid-back here. Work gets done but people leave at 6 pm).

Given how snide you are being to the one person who tried to help you, I don't think it's Sigaba who is discouraging others from participating.

Given how snide you are being to the one person who tried to help you, I don't think it's Sigaba who is discouraging others from participating.

Given how snide you are being to the one person who tried to help you, I don't think it's Sigaba who is discouraging others from participating.

Thank you for clarifying semantics. I now see the err of my ways. Your ability to focus on the big picture of a topic and not miss the point is unrivaled. You have definitely contributed to this conversation. Unfortunately, I fear that your vast intellect is intimidating other posters, deterring them from contributing as well. Therefore, I kindly request that you refrain from further posting in this thread. It is important that others feel encouraged to participate, even those without your superior abilities.

Hi all!

Graduate and post-doctoral stipends were tax-exempt until 1986, when federal law changed to make them subject to federal income tax. There is a petition on WhiteHouse.gov right now to get the Obama administration to consider changing them back to tax-exempt status.

The first petition on this issue fell just 2,500 signatures short by the deadline, and so it wasn't considered. This one needs 25,000 signatures by April 16. It only has 343.


http://wh.gov/RlM


I don't know about you, but the taxes on my graduate fellowship are about 20%. That brings it from decent to...not so decent. We're already working on low wages; spread the word to other grad student and postdoc friends who might be interested.

Hi all!

Graduate and post-doctoral stipends were tax-exempt until 1986, when federal law changed to make them subject to federal income tax. There is a petition on WhiteHouse.gov right now to get the Obama administration to consider changing them back to tax-exempt status.

The first petition on this issue fell just 2,500 signatures short by the deadline, and so it wasn't considered. This one needs 25,000 signatures by April 16. It only has 343.


http://wh.gov/RlM


I don't know about you, but the taxes on my graduate fellowship are about 20%. That brings it from decent to...not so decent. We're already working on low wages; spread the word to other grad student and postdoc friends who might be interested.

Hi all!

Graduate and post-doctoral stipends were tax-exempt until 1986, when federal law changed to make them subject to federal income tax. There is a petition on WhiteHouse.gov right now to get the Obama administration to consider changing them back to tax-exempt status.

The first petition on this issue fell just 2,500 signatures short by the deadline, and so it wasn't considered. This one needs 25,000 signatures by April 16. It only has 343.


http://wh.gov/RlM


I don't know about you, but the taxes on my graduate fellowship are about 20%. That brings it from decent to...not so decent. We're already working on low wages; spread the word to other grad student and postdoc friends who might be interested.

Hi all!

Graduate and post-doctoral stipends were tax-exempt until 1986, when federal law changed to make them subject to federal income tax. There is a petition on WhiteHouse.gov right now to get the Obama administration to consider changing them back to tax-exempt status.

The first petition on this issue fell just 2,500 signatures short by the deadline, and so it wasn't considered. This one needs 25,000 signatures by April 16. It only has 343.


http://wh.gov/RlM


I don't know about you, but the taxes on my graduate fellowship are about 20%. That brings it from decent to...not so decent. We're already working on low wages; spread the word to other grad student and postdoc friends who might be interested.

People's popular opinions and stereotypes of universities rarely match up to what people working within your field think of them. Frankly, you are an adult and you shouldn't care so much what your parents think about UCLA vs. USC, especially if they do not work in your field. What are YOUR reasons for preferring USC? Research fit? Networking? Job prospects? If they are the RIGHT reasons, then there's no reason to hold out for UCLA just because of some perceived ridicule you may get from...someone.

In any case, I definitely don't think that's the perception that people have of USC. It's a well-respected school with a lot of great programs.

I don't live in GSAS housing but I've been inside a few apartments of friends that do. It's fairly nice. They're small, but any NYC apartment in that area is going to be small anyway. Well appointed, and they look like regular apartments. The furniture is relatively dorm-ish but that's because those wooden bed last forever. I've never been inside the corridor-style dormitory buildings.

The rent for an apartment share is actually pretty decent if you get one in the mid-range ($950 for the apartment shares). The problem is if you get offered one of those like $1200 and up shares. Probably less likely than getting a cheaper one, but I'd say paying a $1250 rent for a share is kind of shitty since you can get a studio in Harlem for that price.

I wouldn't go with the dormitory style options, just because you can get an apartment share (either through the university or off-campus) for around the same price.