teaganc

I lived in LA while going to grad school, and I have to say... I found it really, really unpleasant. Terrible traffic, super expensive cost of living, tons of strip malls and chain restaurants, not a single bar I could walk to in any zip code I could afford to live. The last thing I want to do after a 3 hour class is spend another hour on the freeway, and I had to work 35+ hours per week just to afford my 1 bedroom apartment. It sucked all of the fun out of... well, life, at least for a period of time.

I would also suggest looking into joining AAA. Even if you don't have to worry about your truck breaking down, you can go to their office and they will chart a route for you, along with potential hotels, prices, sight-seeing things, food, etc. They gave me an entire booklet for my trip, and it was really helpful. Also, a lot of hotels gave me a discount for being a AAA member (and though I joined for the trip, I have since called them several times when my car broke down and needed towing), and some sight-seeing things also have AAA discounts.

Ummm, Starbucks? Really? Because Starbucks isn't run by the federal government, to my knowledge, or particularly gay-unfriendly. If I were going to do something like that, I think I would pick city halls or embassies or branches of the Fed, not Starbucks. I heard they are thinking about repealing DOMA, though, which I think will both solve this problem and also lead to the eventual fall of anti-same-sex-marriage legislation.

I'm sorry to be the one to break this to you but... Ohio is terrible. It has all the negatives of the Mid-west, but without any of the large cities or interesting things to do. Also, it might have the largest population in America of neo-Nazis? (If it's not Ohio, I think it might be central PA). Just driving through it makes me a little depressed. I'm sure you'll make the best of it, and besides, you'll spend all your time on campus anyway. But since you are an international student, I just wanted you know that there are many nicer places in the US; please don't judge us on Ohio alone.

I'm sorry, but this is just so funny.

Yes. Feel good about yourself. And Yes.

Ah, but you haven't come to the US yet, so you are still there. Hence, "where you are."

For me, a moderate-sized city within easy commuting distance to a larger city or other interesting things/jobs. Personally, I'm very fond of Philadelphia; the city is extremely affordable, you can take a train to DC or NYC, there is a lot to do and a lot of diversity, and of course, it's the best sports town in American. For similar reasons, I also like Boston, except that it is anything but affordable--and when living on a meager stipend, affordability is a big concern.

Actually, I think I remember where you are from other posts, so I'm not sure I can play. And anyway, I don't have any experience with the official language there, so I'm not sure I could pick out places where your native grammatical structure bled through to your English.

Seriously. The "for my friend" is definitely the funniest part of the OP's inquiry.

I know someone whose future advisor was described as looking like a portly leprecaun.... I think he made the right choice.

When my partner and I moved 3,000 miles away, we drove for 10-12 hours per day (total), and alternated driving, so that each of us only had to drive 5-6 hours. Just being in the car for 12 hours will make you really stiff and uncomfortable, and I got terrible back cramps/spasms, so it really wasn't possible for us to stay in the car for 30 hours straight, even taking turns driving. You can find really cheap hotels, especially in the middle of the country, and we added a bunch of sight-seeing things each day as well to make the trip more fun.

In general, glasses, I like you--as much as I can like any faceless internet user--and obviously you feel passionately about it, so I hesitate to comment at all; however, I really think that sometimes this website and its accusations of racism are a little absurd. Assuming that everyone who types on a message board without perfect grammar is international is, in fact, foolish, but honestly, non-native English speakers are reasonably easy to recognize, especially if you have experience with ESL. I've taught ESL students before and the mistakes that they make are very distinct--in fact, I can often identify what the student's native language is by the mistakes that they make in their English, if I have some knowledge of the native language. Native speakers make typos, or have homonym spelling issues, or make more common mistakes like spelling ridiculous "rediculous" and putting commas in crazy places. Non-native speakers often place English words into the grammatical structure of their native language, or have issues with pronouns. Obviously there are many more examples of both, but suffice to say, the types of mistakes are distinct. Thus while "poor English" does not instantly denote an international student, certain types of mistakes can make the author identifiable as an international student. To argue that such identification is racist takes political correctness to Zizekian level and strips it of meaning. And last I checked, "international" is hardly a race, nor is it a pejorative.

Because then we would have the exact same issues, except in June instead of April.

I love how you have been posting in all sorts of threads and everyone just ignores it. It's like, freak out - freak out - freak out - pirate - freak out - freak out and no one notices the difference.

I can't imagine they will seriously consider an application at this time, so you should push them to refund your fee, or, if you don't have another admissions offer, ask them to consider it for the Fall 2010 semester, and see if you can update you application materials between now and then.

I doubt that your school will give out contact information for the student ahead of you, and honestly, all you can do is ask the school to contact you ASAP if they hear. Make sure they know that you have another offer on the table that you will accept if you don't hear from them on April 15th, and give them your cell phone number. You can also ask for extra time, but how much do you ask for? Maybe the person who needs to say yes or no for you to get off the waitlist will also ask for extra time, and then you're in the same position. As far as waiting until April 15th to make a decision, that shouldn't be a big problem. Most schools will accept phone, email, or fax confirmation to hold a spot, as long as you mail the necessary forms shortly thereafter, so there is no reason you couldn't be notified on April 15th that you are off the waitlist and accept that spot the same day. And you already know now whether you would take the spot or not, because if you wouldn't, you would have already accepted your spot at program 2 and withdrew from the waitlist at program 1. Almost every person on a waitlist is in this position, and if you really don't hear by the end of April 15th, well, you should just accept School 2 and be happy that you have a spot at a school you liked well enough to apply.

This MA seems a lot less like an MA you would get on the way to an English PhD and a lot more like Chicago's MAPH program--basically, a way for you to fund CUNY's PhD students.

That link was very helpful, thanks! Though their insurance is way worse than what I currently have, so that sucks. They don't even cover vision or dental, it's just a "discount" plan? And it's essentially an HMO with a student health center as your primary care physician? That would be terrible, if it's anything like my undergrad student health center. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the benefits, but that's definitely going to be a step down, and I don't even have great insurance.

I'm confused. You were being ironic when you asked people to decline spots now in this thread, and on at least one other thread, because you're holding on to at least 2* more spots than necessary? Or were you being ironic when you called yourself an asshole for said behavior, because really, you don't think you are an asshole at all? *Since you have 3 acceptances, and in another thread have mentioned that you will take your #2 choice if you don't get off the waitlist of your #1 choice, I assume acceptances to choices 3 and 4 are superfluous.

If you plan on applying to PhD programs, I would go with the two year choice, since it allows you a year to excel at your MS before you need to complete applications (instead of a few months). If not, I would go with Temple. I like Philly a lot, and there are a lot of business opportunities in Philly/DC/NYC, where your school might have some connections after graduation.

It depends on how competitive the job market is, really. If an employer is reading your application/CV thoroughly, the quality and quantity of your publications and research will mean more than your university; however, if 100 people apply for the same job (this is not so crazy--wasn't there a Walmart near Chicago that had 25,000 applicants apply?), the employer will probably glance at each applicant, prioritize by prestige of university and maybe one or two other factors, and read a short list of candidates. Additionally, if you can do great research at a lower rank school, so too can someone at a higher ranked school; between the two of you, a potential employer might take the more prestigious candidate. To answer your question shortly, both research and the university you attend matter. If you can go for free at all three, and are not unhappy with any of the choices, I would select the highest ranked or most prestigious school. Yes, you can overcome a degree from a less prestigious university with hard work, but if you are going to put in the hard work anyway, why not take the Ivy or high ranked degree AND the hard work? That will make you the best job candidate.

Both. I don't think anyone waits until April 15th to accept an offer unless they are considering more than one offer... which means that as they accept one offer, they decline at least one, maybe more. I also think that, since you have no other offers, you are in a good position as far as the waitlist goes; you can be notified after April 15th, maybe even in May, and still be able to say yes, if that's what you want, without having already committed to another school.

So I actually looked at the website, and it was all, "OMG you guys, we have so much debt! It really sucks! . . . so don't pay taxes." Awesome use of logic.