kahlan_amnell

You might try the Chicago thread in the city guides forum, I assume there is one. Start one if there isn't. Personally I have avoided roomates most of the time while in grad school. The only exception was for someone I knew. I've had such bad luck with roomates I didn't know before moving in with them that I will never do that again. It's worth it to me to pay more to have my own space that I don't have to share with others that I might not get along with.

I don't think that's true about federal income tax. I'm pretty sure that stipends are taxed.

Not necessarily. It takes such a short time to fill out that you might as well fill it out just to be safe. It couldn't hurt.

They are getting paid that much for not working for a law firm for a year, and more if they do a specific kind of work? Sorry, not much pity.

I emailed the DGS a few days ago and have received no response. I guess I should call her.

I think that depends on the school. Some schools require the FAFSA from anyone getting money from the school in any form.

So, I just called Rutgers and Temple. No one answered at Temple, perhaps I will try calling the DGS later. Rutgers told me that they have made most of their decisions, and plan to decide on the remaining applications this week and get decisions posted on the website by April 1st.

That will depend what state you're moving to. Not many health insurance companies are national, and different companies are better in each state. That said, check if there is any health insurance you can get through the school. Most schools offer it, especially to international students.

I just don't want to bug them too much, and I've heard that most places aren't allowed to give out decisions over the phone. However, if I don't hear soon, I'll have to resort to calling.

Yep, I e-mailed Temple and Rutgers. I'm surprised that I haven't heard from either of them, and wonder if I'm on some sort of unofficial waiting list. No one has posted Rutgers results since the last week of February, you would think that if they were going to reject everyone else they would have done so by now. As for Temple, they just started notifying recently, but I hear they want people to decide by April 1st unless they are waiting to hear about funding. Perhaps they are doing two rounds of acceptances and will notify more people after the 1st? I'm ready for this to be over. If none of the places I'm waiting on accept me, I'm fine with that. I have one acceptance, and I would be happy to attend that school. I just want to know where I'm going to be in August so I can start planning.

Some programs allow it, some don't. At most programs your funding won't carry over if you defer, and you'll have to be reevaluated for funding the year you're planning to attend. You'll have to ask the department what their policy is.

I've been ignored by the two schools that I e-mailed as well. I wonder if I should try calling? Perhaps if I still haven't heard by the time the month is over.

I voted "No, not yet. I'm still waiting to hear back from at least one school before I can decide." However, at the moment I only have one acceptance, so I'm not holding multiple offers.

The fact that you all want to be teachers will probably make it more difficult for you. I think people tend to be somewhat less accepting of alternative lifestyles of people who are teaching children. I don't know what areas might be more accepting than others, since places I'd think of as accepting would be accepting of gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered people and I don't know how those areas feel about the kind of lifestyle you're talking about.

I've got another question about transportation. If you do end up flying into the Pullman airport, how do you get into town from there? Do any of the bus routes run to the airport?

Where I'm living currently, $700 might get you a room. Rent for studios and one bedrooms is over $1,000. You haven't given us enough information for us to say if that is a reasonable amount to pay or not.

As a former New Yorker, I've never really associated enjoyment with spending the summer in NYC, mainly because of the heat. I usually spent my summer outside of the city, or at least tried to stay in air conditioned places during the hot days. Waiting for the subway was particularly bad, with most stations lacking ventilation and feeling like ovens. That said, I suppose there's lots to do, if you can deal with the heat.

Which other ones? I've only heard of it in California, but perhaps that is just because it makes the news when people refuse to sign it. I haven't heard of people in other states having issues with loyalty oaths.

April 1, huh? I've been checking Owlnet and still no decision. Perhaps I will e-mail them. Rutgers is on spring break this week, so e-mailing them before Monday at the earliest probably won't get me any answers.

I'm trying to decide how much longer I should wait before I e-mail the schools I'm waiting on to ask about the status of my application. I'm thinking that if I don't hear by the end of March I'll ask, but do you think I should ask sooner?

I might not be able to visit Pullman until June, maybe late May if I'm lucky. Good to know that I should still be able to find an apartment.

Thanks! I think that I could usually plan around a once a day bus, but I have some travel in mind for September that I'd need rather specific times to avoid missing classes on Thursday but still get where I'm going by early afternoon Friday.

I should have added this to my last post, but I just thought of it. When is a good time to try to find apartments? If I want to move into an apartment in August, when should I start looking? Do apartments get leased pretty far in advance?

California also wants people to prove they intend to stay in the state after they graduate. Perhaps this requirement might make sense for undergrads, but for people getting Ph.D.s? Don't they know that people looking for academic positions generally can't afford to be picky about where they will work? There are lots of other odd requirements to be a California resident for tuition purposes that make the requirement seem more like proving your loyalty to the state than proving your residency. I'm sorta glad I didn't get into UCSB so I don't have to deal with that hassle.

You really should have at least one or two letters from professors, because graduate schools usually don't take letters from people outside of academia as seriously. This does vary by field and I don't know how urban planning feels about this, but you should try to find out. Even if you graduated a long time ago, you could contact your old professors and remind them of you by giving them copies of work you did back then. They might still be willing to write you letters. If not, you might consider taking a couple of non-degree graduate courses so you could get LORs from those professors. That would also show programs that you are applying to that you can do graduate level work.