IvyHope

Wow, Frank. I guess you told me. You must know it all! I guess my 10+ years in the field of education (practice, policy, and theory) and my doctoral studies on it are what's worth peanuts here, huh? ;-) You're right. Teachers make 100k. Whatever you say. ;-)

Right. I probably did hit 30k, WITH tuition.

Not counting my tuition reimbursement, I made a fat 4-figure salary last year as a TA. 30k sounds like a dream.

Ugh...Frankdux, fine. Yes, you've made your point but I am going to disagree with several of your arguments and then let it lie. First of all, you're not talking about middle class the way most of us do. The New Trier district is in Evanston, an arguably higher class and higher educated community. Looking at your own source (http://www.championnews.net/district.ph ... &year=2007), several of their staff do make over 100k as you noted. There are also FT teachers listed who make 22k. If you look carefully, you see that most of the people listed with a 100k+ salary are administrators, and even the teachers listed have been there 25+ years. I'm sure there are exceptions, so you don't need to retort back with that. The point is, teachers don't make that much money. Most start at 30k. Profs can make 100k toward the end of their career unless they're in a science field, then they make much more.

Major difference between American public schools and others...

Now, that's not to say it can't be done...I do have one advisor/mentor who is well beyond the 100k range, but she's at the end of her career and has a very successful textbook that she revises every year. Pearson/Allyn Bacon, etc will pay those big bucks. Not so much in the university (unless you're in a T50).

I highly doubt a prof will be making six figures until well into their career... A peer of mine just started her first year at a university and her starting salary is in the low 40s. If you want more money, you should enter law or medicine. I don't know any teachers K-12 that make 100k. In my state you might break 80k, with a PhD, in your 25th or plus year. I work for the state dept of education as well...100k in a public K-12 doesn't happen. Frankdux, you must have gone to a pretty prestigious private high school.

mocha t_ruth, I think your situation is fine, you did the right thing. As for the OP, I think it's advisable to lay low while they are working their admissions magic. There's no need to contact at this point; they are aware of your existence as well as your interest in their program. And sidenote: piktopia, they are ALL on the ad comm. No faculty is NOT invested in these decisions... At some schools, grad students are also invited in on the process!

For what it's worth, I wouldn't get too excited about OSU's status page...because once it does change, it just changes to "decision." Talk about maddening.

Oh my god! That's freaking scary. How did you know?

the mom thing was probably unnecessary, and didn't help your case much. As others have said, if that went into your recommendation, it would probably turn off alot of prospective advisors. Faculty want to know they are dealing with a responsible, mature, and capable person, and don't want to have to stop and think about how to handle helicopter parents. Some people have sort of suggested that faculty are somehow obligated to write letters of recommendation for anyone at any time- that's NOT true. Faculty are expected to write letters of rec for students they feel are worth recommending, but I cringe at the thought that people think they are somehow entitled to a letter. It's become such a problem that many faculty are writing letters that are vague and brief, because they fear the legal repercussions if they write something honest. It has begun to erode the integrity of the process, honestly (this coming from the words of a respectable professor I speak with).

8) While this might be true, don't forget that these people are the glue that holds these programs together. They will make your experience miserable or not, depending on their perceptions of you. They handle all of your form-filing, registration, funding issues, paperwork, etc...I'd say they are going to be a bigger part of your life than some of the profs and fellow grad students. :-) Although I just love playing devil's advocate, so take it for what it's worth.

Yeah, I'm glad you did quote it, because I was curious what that was all about...it's hard to tell, using just context clues. Obviously, if a letter writer turns down a request, they don't have anything nice to say and they don't want to say it to your face. This process is quite delicate- a prof is hired to do many things, including writing letters of recommendation. They are not expected or required to write positive letters for everyone, particularly if they feel they can't find anything nice to say. They were trying to be nice by saying no, they don't have time...they were trying to send you a message. My close advisor and I chatted about this very thing about a week ago. She had a student who asked for a letter, and she politely declined, saying she was very busy or something else. The student persisted, not taking the hint...so, this advisor wrote it! And it was really bad... Gotta read between the lines sometimes...

I also think it's a ridiculously unfair question. You could even say so- fill in the text box by saying "I prefer not to answer this question." That's BS.

Penn GSE apparently sent invites for interview weekend. I did not get one. :-(

coffee is the graduate student's oxygen. and, you'll be eating more pizza than you can stomach.

I don't know what you mean by "higher ranked." It was a top 20 school. Alot of it has to do with field, as I mentioned before (I think).

Of course you have material on your CV that is in progress. However, I don't believe it's wise to put material on your CV that hasn't been reviewed yet, even for conferences. I mean, you don't put "Harvard University" as your degree-granting institution simply because you applied there. If you submit a publication for review and it is rejected, then you have to remove it from your CV. Doesn't make sense. However, if you submit a publication for review and it comes back "revise and resubmit" then you can keep it on your CV, because you know at some point they will accept it. See what I mean?

No. But it should not be on your CV. You shouldn't put those things on your CV until they are accepted.

Sure. I think schools do their best to try to fund students, but it's just not always within their capabilities. Especially in education. Even schools that do fund their students rarely can do so for the full number of years...Harvard is 3 years, most big 10 is 3 years... Vandy and Stanford do fund for the full 5 years, but they've got large endowments and your chances of acceptance are quite low (I just read that Stanford accepted 28/530 applicants last year). In most programs even in the top 20, you'll likely be searching for funding during your last year or two.

I see...I thought maybe you snuck a phone call in with Stanford or something ;-)

That's just not true. Many programs, especially in social sciences/humanities, accept students without funding at all. I have been offered acceptances with 0 funding offers, and told that funding is my responsibility. Now, I did not accept those offers, but they do exist.

Which school is your phone interview with next week?

In our department, we were asked as graduate students to contact all prospective students to see if they had questions. I'm pretty sure they hadn't made decisions yet. The prospectives were divided up and each of us contacted a few.

I applied to the GSE. Might have a different system.