Amalia222

Just moved here and I have to say that I like C.S. quite a bit (except for the weather. There apparently are three seasons: Hot, Hotter, and Hottest). Free shuttles everywhere to and from campus, restaurants and stores everywhere so you can buy whatever you need, cheap gas (compared to California, where I'm from), and friendly people. It took me a minute to get used to everyone calling me "ma'am", but I'm getting over that. Finding an appartment can be a hassle, so make sure to shop around. You can find a decent place shuttle-distance from campus for about 500$ a month. The cheaper places are fine if you like roaches and stains. I don't know about night life, since I'm too old for that crap, hehe. Anyways, if you have any other q's, feel free to ask.

I was working as a TA at 21 years old, and some of my students were older than me. But I believe it's all about your attitude and how you carry yourself. I treat it like the job it is--I show up prepared, and I do not care if the students "like" me. It is a relationship of mutual respect--you show up prepared, you do your job well, and you don't take any crap from students. Also, I keep a very firm line between myself and my students by not socializing with them outside of class. You can always try to keep your class fun and interesting, by having engaging lesson plans, but you can't let them get away with anything like showing up late or whatnot. It's rather like dealing with children, IMHO.

my TAships do not allow me to work a second job; however, I have found a way around this by doing freelance writing, which is considered "hobby income" on my taxes, and does not qualify as an official employment.

I got my MA in 2002, when I was just 22 years old. All the other grad students were at least 10 years older than me, and I was a complete fish out of water. So I had the opposite problem! There they all were, sitting around talking critical theory and ex-husbands, and I had very little to contribute to a conversation. All my friends during this period were undergraduates or non-academics. Now....it's been 9 years of the "real world" and lemme tell you, I got on my knees and thanked the powers that be that I got into a grad school!! It is a dream come true. I am a huge school nerd. I like studying. I hate the "real world" and the whole idea of working a 9 to 5 sends me into fits of anxiety. Just hand over the espresso and reinforced backpack, because it's back to school time, baby!!!

In every school it's different. Schools have been hit hard by the bad economy, and cutbacks are everywhere. When I started my MA in 2002, I was a TA (9 hours a week), and it paid for everything---I lived in graduate student housing (so it was paid for), my tuition was waived, and my stipend was enough to cover basic living expenses. I broke even every year. This time around, I will be paying a LOT more, and have had to take out student loans. You had better contact your department and ask about these things.

Although I am entering as a new Ph.d candidate this year, I remember very well my MA program, and so I am basically taking some of my own advice, which I will note for you guys here in case you'd like to follow my example. 1. I always contact my profs in advance for any readings or assignments I can start in the summer. I am in English, so this is usually a BIG timesaver. During my MA program, I taught for a program which required us to read and lead discussions on a reading packet (which had over 500 pages!!). I read and took notes on the packet in the summer, so that when the fall semester hit, all i had to do was look over my old notes and I was ready to teach. Right now, I've already begun contacting profs, and they have been giving me suggested readings. I have the summer off, so I am planning to hit the books and get ahead, which has always been the secret to my success (I rarely get too stressed out). 2. TIME MANAGEMENT. Let me say that again: TIME MANAGEMENT!!!!! When I get an assignment (for an essay, say), I don't wait until a week before it's due to get started. I IMMEDIATELY go to the library (sometimes directly after the class) and start compiling the materials I will need. I keep a detailed planner keeping track of what assignments are due when. With good time management, you don't have to do any all-nighters or be miserable because you don't have any free time. Work hard, work efficiently, and you WILL have time for fun in your life, even in your first year. In my first year as an MA student, I taught 9 hours a week for the linguistics department, making all my own lesson plans. I also took 3 full seminars. And yet, I don't remember being particularly stressed out. I set aside my Saturday mornings for lesson planning, and I'd plan my teaching for the entire week, setting aside all the materials I would need and making sure to make any required copies. Then the rest of the weekend would be for homework, research, etc., but I'd often go to a cafe and take time to go to the gym or take a walk. For me, grad school has always been WAY easier than working a 9 to 5 in a cubicle somewhere. In grad school, you make your own hours. If you're nocturnal, you can work all night if you want. If you're a morning person, you can get up at 4am to study. Perhaps the freedom of it all is what gets people into trouble.... 3. Do NOT procrastinate. In undergrad, you could get away with cramming the day before the test, or staying up all night the night before an assignment was due, busting out a 5-page essay in 8 hours. In grad school, your profs will KNOW sloppy work for what it is. Get working on stuff early. 4. Communicate. You may not like many of your profs. In fact, a great many of them are arrogant a-holes. They may be condescending, or treat you like dirt. This is irrelevant. You have to put your personal feelings aside and communicate with them in a professional manner. I absolutely loathed several of my profs in grad school, but I smiled and did my best to visit them at office hours and ask them for advice. Trust me. It works. 5. Make sure the people on your committee are people you respect, and who will help you. Don't just get anybody who agrees to be on your committee. Be very, very careful. These are the people who will approve or deny your thesis/dissertation. You want people who will help you revise, or guide you along the way, not a prof who is already mentoring 8 other people, is never around, is 8 months pregnant, is near death or chronically ill, is head of a department and exceedingly busy, etc. etc. etc. You are going to want to show your work in progress and get guidance. Make sure the people you choose are the right people. And of course, take time to relax and have a little fun. Audit an undergraduate course in something that interests you (sorry, I'm a nerd, that's what I do for "fun"). Go camping for a weekend when you're ahead on your work. Go study in an outdoor cafe--get Out of the house/library, for god's sake! Life is short. If you're not having a good time, you're doing something wrong.

me too! yee-haw!

I'm going to Honduras to go scuba diving for 10 days. I used to work there as a scuba instructor and I want a last "hurrah" before grad school. Also, if my old cat is still there, I'm going to adopt him and take him back to grad school with me. Can't wait!

there is no substitute for hard work.

IMHO, it's not about J.F. but about the sad state of universities today. The current economy and budget crisis is forcing them to appeal to celebrities. Having someone famous like J.F. go to their school is like free advertising. The name of the university spreads, and the school gets more students, more funding, more corporate sponsors. Universities see celebrity students as a good investment. Whether this is right or wrong is irrelevant--it is the nature of our capitalist society.

Sorry, but the whole process was a pain in the A**. Applying to grad school really, really SUCKS. The whole process is excruciating and designed to make even an IRS processor scratch his head. First there's choosing which school to apply to. This takes HOURS. You scour websites, ranking lists, and try to sift through endless web-pages of "we are so awesome" to unearth the true situation underneath. Trying to find professors to match your area of interest at each school is like finding a needle in a haystack. Then there's the applications themselves, with their endless forms. Isn't it fun when they want you to send ONE application to the office of graduate studies, and another to the department? Isn't it fun when they require you to send all materials to a third party, who then must forward the materials to the school, at additional cost to your pocketbook? And don't even get me started on the SOPs. It took me months, MONTHS, to write anything decent, but even then I had to write 10 different versions, one for each school I applied to. One school wanted 1000 words. Another, 500. Another wanted TWO SOPs, one for teaching and one for everything else. Wonderful. I think I had 50 different SOPs on my hard drive by the time I was done. Then there's the exorbitant application fees, the complicated transcript requests (one school rejected my transcript because it had been printed out more than 30 days before I sent the application. I graduated TEN YEARS AGO. Seriously?). The worst, however---- the absolute WORST for me was the letters of recommendation. I graduated in 2002. It is 2011. My old professors had A. retired B. moved to Guam or C. did not have the faintest memory of who I was. I was forced to start over from SCRATCH, taking community college classes just to get letters. That really, really sucked. So......I guess what I'm saying is, the whole application process is like a sadistic obstacle course from hell. But was it worth it? I'll let ya'll know in 5 years.

I think most everyone goes through these kinds of feelings. As a writer, feelings of insufficiency are like old friends. You read about people who write a novel at 15 years old that becomes a bestseller, and you think: "seriously?" :-) But I try not to base my life's happiness on outside acheivements. It doesn't matter so much what other people think you have or have not done with your life, but what you have accomplished on a personal level. Which is to say--are you happy? I put off my career to travel the world, and I do not regret that decision for a moment. I could have slaved away at a desk, and I might have had a book published by now, but I didn't. I chose instead simple happiness. In my opinion, you should worry less about the external things---what other people think, especially--and worry about your own internal growth as a person. I may never have a bestselling novel; I may never publish another word; but if I am happy in my life and my job I really could give a rat's ass if I make a bestseller list or if I win some literary award. Those things would be nice, but they aren't essential to my feeling of self-worth. Often, when I have these feelings that I am "going nowhere", as you say, the culprit is usually stagnation in my life. Things have become routine; my job is no longer exciting, my relationships have lost their spark. It's then that you have to think about shaking things up. Take on a new project, find something that excites you. Don't stress about whether or not you are going anywhere, and think about whether or not the place you are needs a refresh. And that's my 2 cents.

oooh cool! never been on the list before. Kind of embarrassing, though. I must have too much time on my hands...

As long as you are currently enrolled in a language course, you can mention it in your personal statement as evidence of your desire to learn a language. Many community college courses are on nights/weekends to accomodate people with jobs. Look into that. If not, consider a private teacher. I don't think it's necessary to have a good command of the language prior to entering graduate school. During my MA program, nobody ever cared what languages I spoke. They just cared that I got one more check mark on my to-do list (language requirement). I never used my foreign languages for anything, other than taking that one class to complete the requirement. I would say it's not a dealbreaker for admissions, as long as you say you will be able to complete the language requirement in a timely fashion.

After my MA program, I had the option to apply to doctoral programs but decided to follow my heart instead. I took off for France to write, teach, and travel. I needed to get out of the university and into the real world for a while, and it helped me become a much more sure and rounded person. Now, having lived in 4 foreign countries and done everything I wanted to do, I am back and entering doctoral programs in the fall. It was a nine year "break", and I don't regret it for a micro-second. I say do it.

No worries. With freelance, you do not get a W2. When they send you a check, you keep the receipt (the stub) and then claim it on your taxes under "hobby income". I think you have to make more than a certain amount per year (3000$? I'm not sure, though!) before it stops qualifying as a hobby. As a freelance writer, you are not an "employee" of any company...you work for yourself. They don't know anything about you other than your name and email address, most of the time. The amounts you get paid vary from piece to piece (the most I was ever paid for an article was $250). I think a lot of people don't bother even filing their freelance income, but I do so just to be on the safe side. It's rarely enough to make a big impact on my finances, but every little bit counts when you're a "starving artist/grad student" like me. :-)

The best way I know of to fill a 50-minute seminar is with discussion. You can always bring in something to read aloud, or some topic relating (even tangentially) to the material of the class. Something that will stimulate active discussion is best, as well as encouraging critical thinking. If there is an academic writing component to the class, you can have them do a freewrite of the first paragraph of an essay on a topic of your choosing, and then have the student compare their paragraphs and make constructive comments. There are loads of things you can do to fill a 50 minute class. Just because the prof. gets a bad rating on surveys, that doesn't mean you have to.

I say go through the proper channels and make sure you do everything the "right" way. That is, taking to the director of the program about your desire to change advisors. If that is approved, find a new advisor and make sure they are on your side about your work. If you have the same problem with another adviser, it may be your work that is the problem, not the adviser (I'm just sayin'!). In my MA program, I wasn't given an advisor, only the graduate committee who would approve/decline my thesis, and they did not have the kind of imput that you are describing. I think the important thing is that your committee (or whoever is going to approve the final version) likes the direction you are taking with it. At the end of the day, it's about graduating on time, and ruffling as few feathers as possible along the way.

My thoughts on this subject: Most grad schools have a basic language requirement-- you have to pass a translation test (hard), or you have to pass a certain level of course (such as an upper-level literature course in that language). However, you have plenty of time to do this, especially in the 5 years it takes to do a Ph.d. In my case, while in my MA program, I was able to audit undergraduate courses by simply getting permission from the prof (usually a TA, especially for entry-level undergraduate courses). It is of course quite a commitment, because the classes are 2-3 times a week, but languages are a piece of cake compared to graduate-level study, so I almost considered doing my language-course homework a "break" from the other stuff I had to do. Within a year or two, you'd be able to pass the language requirement. If you have time before entering school, I highly recommend taking a summer course or whatnot at a local community college. In general, college courses are always better than independent study, because the simple act of having to SHOW UP and turn stuff in tends to keep you more on task. Much harder to do when you are chillin' at home, debating whether to pick up your course book or watch the latest episode of Survivor... :-) Even if that isn't an option, there are languages courses everywhere. The best ones are with credentialed teachers with training in teaching that language. Never hire a native speaker to teach you (one who isn't a teacher, I mean), because they will not be able to explain grammar or structure elements to you in a clear way. Since you don't mention how much time you have "post-graduation", I would say fit in as much foreign language study as you can. If you can afford it, go to a country where they speak the language and take an intensive course. There is no better way to pick up a language faster than when nobody around you speaks English (trust me, I know!).

I pick up extra work as a freelance writer, which is counted as "hobby income" in taxes, and does not affect the whole ta-ship thing. \

there's little point to getting an advanced degree in art unless you plan to teach, IMHO. the reality of the job market is that you may end up in a huge financial crisis after you graduate, thousands of dollars in debt (if not tens of thousands of dollars). I recommend doing some serious soul-searching about what you want to do. Graduate school is not for everyone. At the end of the day, you may be happiest looking for a job, leaving graduate school, and then spending a few years working towards paying back those loans. Most importantly, at 23, you need to move out and establish independence from your parents and your family. In my opinion, your family should only want whatever makes you happy. My mother has told me numerous times that she wouldn't care if I was washing dishes for a living if that was what made me happy (although, like most parents, she'd like to see me making more than minimum wage! :-) ). It's time to grow up and start making choices for yourself, whether your parents like it or not. I've done a lot of "crazy" stuff that threw my parents for a loop (I took off for the Caribbean and spent 2 years teaching scuba diving, for example), but once my parents saw how happy I was and how I was living my dream, they loosened up.

Since bloggers have so much influence, I would like to encourage everyone to send me all their money. Immediately. Oh, scratch that. You're grad students. You're all broke.

Nearly all graduate programs in the U.S. have been hard hit by the economic crash. 1 trillion dollars headed overseas to fight wars on multiple fronts does not a good economy make. But am I mistaken in my understanding that funded is determined upon acceptance? In my case, I was offered a certain amount of funding with my acceptance, and I can either take it or leave it. Thus, if the graduate program at UCI does not offer funding, then you don't have to accept their offer. You can always go somewhere else. Many of my friends are taking offers at lower-ranked schools simply because they offer funding. I think it's terrible that funding is being cut, and I wish the U.S. in general had a "more books, less bombs" philosophy, but I also am a product of the UC system (I did my BA at UC Davis and my MA at UCSD), and I had excellent experiences in both places. I also believe one's experience in grad school has a lot to do with attitude and perception. You can make the most of it, or hate every minute. It's the graduate Choose Your Own Adventure book.

All this sounds highly technical. But I do want to add the importance of having a backup of your work. These days, they make 16GB flash drives that will hold basically everything you've ever written (not photos or big files, but you can save a million essays!). Every week or so, I save my "My Documents" folder into a memory key, so if anything ever happens to my computer my work is safe. Over the years, I replace flash drives, and store the old flashdrives, labeling them by year so I know where to look for older stuff. Paper is absolutely going the way of the Dodo. When profs don't allow laptops in class, these days I usually transcribe my notes later to my computer, which is an excellent way to review the material. I organize my files as the person above noted, using sub-folders. I have different sub-folders for different kinds of documents, and I always re-name my documents when I save them so I know what it is (scanners can be pesky, because they will save stuff as "file 001" "file 002" if you let them!). Good luck.

Yeah, M, but they wouldn't have let you in unless they thought you could do it, right? After doing my MA, I learned that succeeding in grad school isn't magic. You just put your nose to the grindstone and do the work. The harder you work, the better the results will be. So it's not so much "can I do it" as "will i want to?"