AurantiacaStella

When I mentioned that I had been looking at course descriptions, my future advisor said he wanted to hear which ones I was thinking about and wanted to give me advice about what to take. So, Porridge, to echo everyone else it's not a faux pas and your advisor might even really want to give you advice about it.

This is a little different than what I thought you were asking about with LOR writers influencing an adcom. It's totally normal to form scholarly networks in the way you've mentioned above, and you shouldn't feel weird about it. It'll be a great opportunity for you to have your prof introduce you to your prospective mentor via email.

I think you usually won't specifically hear about the fact that your LOR writer talked to one of his/her friends at a school to which you applied. It sounds odd that Two Espresso's LOR writer told him about another scholar being annoyed with him/her. I don't think many profs would go out of their way to get in touch with another scholar to put in a good word for you, unless they are actually friends with each other and talk frequently. Otherwise, it would probably come across as a bit forced and odd. I definitely second ComeBackZinc's early post that you should never ask a professor to do this for you. I think you shouldn't even bring it up. I'm pretty sure one of my LOR writers talked to a prof at a potential program about me because they are very good friends, but I think it's kind of odd to openly talk about this sort of thing.

Should be fine. It's okay to submit the same idea as long as it's for a different type of thing each time (in this case, paper prize, conference, and publication).

Since the first thing it was accepted for is a prize rather than a publication, it's totally fine to publish it somewhere else, whether in its original form or a modified one.

I think it might actually be cheaper to get rid of all your big furniture -- unless you have something especially valuable -- and ship your books and other essentials, and then buy new stuff when you arrive. Or get a furnished apt. Two Espressos, I am moving several hundred miles further than you will be and UPack is costing me a little over 2K. UHaul and Budget would probably cost the same after tolls and gas. The thing about driving a truck yourself is that there are a lot if hidden costs. If my parents had not helped me two years ago I do not know what I would have done because I really underestimated the cost of driving a truck across the country. At least with the cube/pod systems, you have a set amount that you know you will pay.

I think we shouldn't take well-established profs' success despite the fact that they attended only one school as proof that the same will be true for us. The job market is very different now. In such a competitive field, it's never good to have something on your CV that could get you eliminated from consideration for a job right off the bat.

Definitely consider cost of living when you're comparing the two offers, because Nashville is significantly cheaper than Chicago.

I don't think it hurts. Especially if you are already professionalizing yourself through conference presentations and maybe even a publication or two, it is natural that you are also putting yourself out there as serious scholar-in-the-making online as well. Really, they will only see an updated version of your CV if you keep your profile nice and neat, so it's not like they'll be unearthing anything they didn't already know.

I was admitted to three state schools, and while they didn't quite word the funding information in the same way that Florida did, they did clarify that TAships must be renewed each year. This is so that they can terminate you if you aren't actually doing your job and also so that they cover themselves in case the state legislature slashes funding. Really, it is out of their control what the legislature will do. Budgets are confirmed year-to-year, and unfortunately, I have witnessed several entire departments being cut at my undergrad state institution.

It really is possible that they could actually not have funding for you one year, especially at a state school where the legislature determines the budget. I don't think this sort of language means it's likely that you would lose your funding, but like others have said they just can't make absolute guarantees. Unfortunately state schools' budgets can be pretty precarious.

Hopeful scribbler-- as someone with very defined interests, I was worried about the fully-formed criticism too. On each on my SOPs I listed one main person and then two to four others. I tried also to show that I am open to stretching myself and learning about other periods and methodologies. Worked out pretty well for me! I think that if you do have very well-defined interests, it won't be of any benefit to you to pretend that you don't. You should just try to express a general openness to new things to show that you're still very eager to learn/grow/evolve.

It's totally fine to present a paper and then publish it (I don't see why language in which it is published would make a difference). This is generally the order in which you do things, because the conference gives you a chance to get feedback and revise your paper before submitting for publication. In my experience, only rather small conferences publish proceedings, and you can pretty much always opt out of them. FYI publishing an article in conference proceedings is not as big of an accomplishment as getting an article published in a journal in your field. Partially, this is because most conference proceedings are not peer-reviewed. So you want to be careful not to waste an excellent article on conf proceedings if it is good enough to make it into a major journal in your field (or really, any peer-reviewed publication is better than one that is not). ETA: if you present a paper at a conference and then publish it in conference proceedings, it counts as both a presentation and a publication.

Great idea, reluctantmidwesterner! Here's a link: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/literature/

One thing about profs with named professorships -- depending on how early in their career they obtained the title -- is that they are often close to retirement and in some cases this means they are a bit old-fashioned. So watch out for this.