teaganc

You should just discreetly ask everyone there a cat-related question, and they can respond with a code-phrase ("Oh, do you like cats... a lot?").

You cannot apply work-study wages to tuition, unless you mean that after you've received a paycheck with taxes taken out and whatnot, you then send that money to the university. Work-study just means that your employer can be partially reimbursed with federal funds for hiring you, but other than that, it is just like any other part-time job--except that when you've earned your total work-study grant amount (usually between 2 and 8 thousand/year for graduate students), you have to stop working with that employer or they have to pay you out of their own budget. Most part-time jobs are a better deal than work-study, but you can often get a work-study job more easily (limited applicants), and they are more understanding about needing time for schoolwork/working around a class schedule.

They have bright blue eggs!

If you have no other options, then waiting to see if they offer you funding or if you will take out loans is the best you can do (and if you get no funding, you can always withdraw and reapply next year). But if you have other funded offers, honestly... I would take one of them. IMO, a guarantee in this economic/competitive time is always better than a maybe.

When I worked at a financial aid office, we only did undergrad, so take this with a grain of salt: Our website said the same thing, that if you didn't apply early enough, we might run out of aid. This included availability of federal aid, including loans. However, we did not run out of aid for a given year until months after the priority deadline, and we NEVER ran out of Stafford Loan eligibility because other institutions loaned the money, not the school. We did run out of Perkins loans, but not before the priority deadline. And merit-based aid (i.e. fellowships, grants, TA ships) were decided completely separately from the FAFSA and when (or if) a student turned in the FAFSA had no effect on those things.

As an international student, you probably cannot qualify for Federal Student Loans (Stafford loans); however, with a US co-signer, international students can often qualify for a private loan. You are right that private loans will be in short supply due to the economic crisis, and they will have higher (maybe 8.5% or more) interest rates. Also, some private loans cannot be deferred while in school, so you have to pay them back in installments as soon as you take them out. I would leave at least a month for processing before the beginning of the school year, though you most likely will not get the money before classes start. It's really an unfortunate position to be an international student in the US taking out loans here, so if you have any other options, I would strongly recommend taking them.

I am all about multiple backup plans. I suggest you do what omgninjas said, and also look for a job. You will need to be employed for the next year anyway, while you are filling out applications/waiting for results, and if you don't get in anywhere next year, you will at least have a job.

I think you are right that a UK MA (from either Oxford or Cambridge) will look excellent on your resume, both for PhD programs and for an eventual job search, if you are specializing in an UK area of literature (which I think the Renaissance could count as). You will potentially have access to original works of art and other research tools that you wouldn't have in the US, and both Cambridge and Oxford have name recognition. I don't know which department is a better choice, though.

I think that if you were accepted, she would have told you. And if you were rejected... well, she could have said, "They've made a decision, I can't tell you what it is but you should be notified soon." Or, she could have told you what she did. But it seems most likely that they haven't entered your decision into whatever computer system she's using yet, and are either still thinking/have you on an internal waitlist, or you are rejected and they haven't gotten around to entering that information in.

Does anyone who has funding at UMass know if their health insurance for grad students covers spouses?

Having a debate does not make people foes... e-yelling "I hope you don't get in anywhere!" totally does. Or rather, if that's not a foe, I don't want to know what your friends are like. You are right that highly educated people ought to be able to have debates which are both intelligent and also congenial, but that doesn't mean that you can't congenially have foes. I have worked with people who I not only disagreed with, but downright strongly disliked, and was able to do it in professional way. I think that's really the crux of it; we forget that being an academic should be a professional position, even as a student, and that our fellow students will in the future be our fellow colleagues, even if it is just in the abstract sense of reading each others' articles.

If I am understanding you correctly, the school that offers the fellowship will also require you to TA, just not in the first year? This is the best system, IMO, because it lets you settle into grad school before it forces you to juggle teaching, while still giving you teaching experience (if you want to go into academia). But even though this would be my personal preference, I wouldn't let it outweigh other factors--it's really more of a tie-breaker. I also agree that you should speak to current TAs at all three options, because if you are going to have to TA anyway, you should see which schools treat their TAs well and which schools have TAs that are unhappy.

I moved from the Northeast to LA and never got to like it. I tried, really tried, and I hate winter so it already had the weather going for it... but I just can't like it here. There are no trees that haven't been planted, watered, and landscaped, people are distant and superficial and terrible at driving, you can't walk anywhere, etc. I will also say that even though 30k sounds like a lot for a fellowship, expect to pay 1/2 of that on rent alone (before taxes come out of it, mind you), and expect for your car insurance and other monthly payments to rise. In other words: it's a fine amount to live on, but in LA you will be living frugally. Another thing to consider which you don't mention is, how serious are you with your girlfriend? If you would rather be with her than be at the absolute best university for you (and I'm not judging; I would make this decision with my partner), then chose between #1 and #2. Long distance is hard, and if she doesn't want to move to LA to begin with and is just starting her program, well, you need to be aware that there is a very real chance that relationship won't survive you going to #3 if it's not serious. If this possibility is acceptable to you, go with #3. You won't have to stress (too much) about money or change in faculty and when you graduate, you can leave LA.

I really hope that immersion and vecrhite have both gone into the User Control Panel thing on this site and added each other as "foes." I always wondered what that even meant, but seeing the two of you, it makes so much sense.

Actually, most of the things I know about this school apply to its Law School, and I think it's ranked around 60th in the nation (not great, but still pretty good).

So you are saying it's a full-service hotel, then?

I would definitely choose the school that allows you to avoid reapplying in a year; you will have to reapply this coming fall, and will have had only a few months of the program at Dartmouth to improve your applications (but will be judged with other MA-holding applicants). Plus, you mention reapplying to UCLA after spending time in Dartmouth--why? Why take that risk when you can be at UCLA this fall? You know when a good time to visit the Northeast would be for life experience? When you are interviewing for great jobs with your degree from UCLA. Trust me: "life experience" is stressful, even when it is useful, and the last thing you want your first year of grad school is also adjusting to being far away from everything and everyone you know.

The worst in-state rules are ones that demand that you not only live in a state for 12 months, but that you live there for 12 months NOT as a full-time student. If you live there for 12 months, make money, pay taxes, pay rent, and buy things to support the local economy, why does it matter that you are a student during that time? Some states (New Jersey, for one, and maybe CA?) recognize this and allow you to have in-state residency after the first 12 months of living there, even as a student, which makes more sense. But I support abolishing the concept of out-of-state tuition.

I marked down that I had 0 cats (cue count von count voice: ah ah ah) but I do have a dog that is smaller than most cats, and uses a litterbox. So I guess the real answer is that I have .5 cats.

Are you sure it's a graduate English program? Because I'm pretty sure they are required by definition to be a mix between pretentious hipsters and middle-school drama.

Delaware is not going to rescind your acceptance because you didn't attend visiting weekend, and I don't think anyone gets funding from NYU for the MA unless it's outside funding.

In the past, they have notified Masters and PhD students in different waves, notifying MA students first (though I don't really know why). It's been 2 weeks since I last sent them an email, so I could send another one, but that's still a little soon for me.

WTF, Delaware? You notify master's students ages ago, and then tell me that your committee is reviewing PhD applications the week of March 5, and now it is March 18th and I have heard nothing, nor has anything been posted on results search. Why? Just why?

unspeakable, that made me laugh quite a bit.

I'm pretty sure that's a no, unfortunately. I think they would email you specifically with a yes, not wait for you to check a website.