pandoravex

I lived on the same amount of money in a ridiculously expensive housing market on the West Coast and I did not take out any additional loans during the school year. I did however, have a small additional grant over the summer, which is something you might want to ask about in your new department. I think that the answer depends on your financial discipline and lifestyle. I cooked my own food, made my own coffee and tea, bought used books online, shopped the sale rack, and did not spend exuberant amounts of money on going out. I don't feel I lived particularly frugally (I mean I was not starving or anything), but I was always aware of what my limits were. And I could afford visiting my family and friends every once in a while. Hope that helps

Hi Blume, Thanks so much for your reply. And for the link. This looks like a brand new thread on the Chronicle forum. If you don't mind me asking, which fellowship did you win this year? And what year of your doctoral program are you in? I have this impression students in their 7th, 8th year are more successful in landing a dissertation completion fellowship because their applications are more polished. I'm finishing my 5th year this semester. Thanks!

Hi, I wanted to start a conversation among the advanced PhD students who have applied or plan on applying for the dissertation completion fellowships in the social sciences and humanities (i.e. ACLS Mellon, Charlotte Newcombe or AAUW). These fellowship competitions appear to be the most rigorous and difficult of all, considering they draw a range of candidates, including those that are in their 5th and 9th year of the doctoral programs. Because many of these fellowship programs also require submission of a dissertation chapter, for me, preparing applications for these prospective funders presents one of the most serious undertakings so far. For those who have been fortunate to receive such fellowships: How does one successfully prepare such an application? What do you believe to have done right in crafting your proposal and choosing supplemental materials? What are some of the common mistakes and traps? Thanks for your input!

Please read more carefully. I'm talking about my undergraduate debt. I did not loan anything during my graduate studies. I live off stipends, TA salaries and grants, and use some of that money to make payments towards the private loan.

I am considering taking out a subsidized Federal loan that was offered to me for the next year of graduate school to pay off a portion of my undergraduate debt which I accrued through a private college lending program. I am hoping this would save me some money on interest in the long run. Since beginning the PhD program, I've been applying for FAFSA every year, but never use the loans offered. Instead, I keep myself on a tight budget, living of TA wages and grants. I was also able to pay some of this undergraduate debt off during graduate school. But the mushrooming interest is starting to really annoy me. This is why I'm considering using a subsidized loan to pay for my unsubsidized debt. Does anyone know if this is an acceptable use of Federal loans?

Has anyone heard anything about the SSRC International Dissertation Research Fellowship? They were supposed to announce in March, but now they are saying it will be April. But when in April is not clear...

Well, one would also think that the recommendation letters, the academic record, awards and such things would also enter into the overall ranking score. I am not clear myself how those are calculated in combination with the comments from the evaluators....

How did you find out your percentiles? Is it something specific to your disciplines, or do we all have access to that kind of information?