Ralphie

A question to ask at Georgia. My brother has been offered a place there for political science, and the MA (and funding) is 21 consecutive months -- i.e. he has to have a full load of courses for the summer semester. That might just be politics, but if it would bother you, you could ask if that's the case for geography. Congratulations on OSU by the way! sad1584, have you spoken to/emailed anyone at Kentucky? They seem to reply very quickly and politely (unlike some). I was thinking it might be better, rather than waiting, to ask Kentucky and Syracuse about their funding decisions. That way you would almost guarantee having all the information before April 1, so that if you do end up going to Kent State you won't have to antagonize them by waving some official agreement in their faces.

Agree. I didn't think they were allowed to force you to answer before April 15?? I guess you could accept and then decline as many offers as you wanted up until then. Are you waiting for other decisions? But about Kentucky... maybe the letter got lost in the mail. Because I was being impatient, they attached the "letter" to an email and it was dated March 3. So maybe you could email them to find out before your April 1 "deadline".

I would say definitely wait. In the meantime, it can't hurt to tell them how eager you are to go there, but make sure they get the idea that you need to know the funding decision (i.e. imply that you need the funding) before you're able to commit. Unfortunately, because I did/do genuinely need funding, I turned down Arizona who also had a cockeyed timetable for those decisions.

Two of my references were lukewarm at best, and I wasn't rejected anywhere. I would imagine a genuinely negative reference would hurt, but by the same token they must get sick to the back teeth of generic "best student ever" letters that say nothing about the individual's potential and character. "Andrew is the best student I have ever come across in a prestigious 30 year career. Not only would I recommend him for your institution with funding, but I would also throw in a silver plated poodle and 13 virgins..." Wait, that was for something else..

Wow, there are some seriously stupid people around. I wasn't aware of the Yuster situation. What is objectionable (and probably illegal) is thieving thegradcafe's data, not simply taking the idea. Whether or not you prefer the look of the plagiarized site is a moot point. It's like me taking the data -- i.e., the text -- of Romeo and Juliet, putting a pretty cover on it, having an advert on every 3rd page, and calling it "mine". It would not be "better" than the original in any significant way, irrespective of whether the font were prettier and the cover more colourful. If on the other hand, I took the idea -- romantic, tragic/comic play -- and wrote one in my own words, then it would be "mine". A comparison with Bill's work would be legitimate. The idea that thegradcafe plagiarized whogotin in the same way isn't even worth engaging with. Presumably once the first human beings realized you could drink water, nobody subsequently should have attempted to drink anything else (on the basis that they would be "plagiarizing", let's say, Adam's "idea")? The "guest" should be happy -- my curiosity probably earnt his Yuster pal 0.000001c or whatever (s)he gets for each painfully slow, plagiarized-page impression.

Thank you! Any amount of twang is good, trust me . I could probably find the answer to this somewhere else, but... you say that Lexington is quite spread out -- is the campus near to the downtown, or is it more of a bus [or after about 2 weeks -- Mustang lol] ride away?

Oh, I was going to say about Kentucky (which is where I'm going)... They got back to me and said that my funding would be a fellowship rather than an assistantship -- which is good from the point of view that it's worth slightly more -- but I'm slightly "disappointed" in a way. Hopefully I'll also have the chance to get some TA/RA-type experience even if I'm not contractually obliged to do 20 hours a week of it. But to be honest, I was half expecting to be rejected from everywhere (or at least assumed [wrongly] to be some wealthy foreign cash cow), so getting into Kentucky is taking some time to get my head around! In a good way.

Wow, finally someone who agrees with me! (Rant section) Absolutely true -- we have about 30 years of satellite data; we don't even have ocean-based records for much more than the past century, and the "long term" records that exist are so skewed towards the northern hemisphere land masses (with encroaching urban areas, changing thermometer technology, etc, etc) it's ridiculous. The whole climate change myth/exaggeration put me off physical geography which I used to like -- it's way more political than any kind of human geography however critical/radical/marxist/conservative, which positively encourage dissent and debate. Climate change -- or rather anthropogenic climate change -- is an article of faith to them, and it's scary. It told me everything I needed to know when I asked two questions of my "expert" tutor in my first year, and was told I was being "irrational". 1. Since geological records show that temperature has previously been higher with lower concentrations of CO2, and lower with higher concentrations, why do we assume a simple relationship between higher CO2 and higher temperature? Not only that, but what on earth do they imagine as the independent source of CO2 that caused such massive variations in the absence of greedy capitalists and their evil SUVs? It seems more logical to me that temperature actually drives CO2 emissions, but that's unfounded speculation (like the rest of it). 2. How would driving an economical car or taking the bus help? If you look at the figures, anthropogenic CO2 emissions are approximately 2% of the annual ocean-atmosphere exchange. Of that, a fraction (let's exaggerate and say 50%) is due to transport. So, we halve our car journeys. And save 50% of 50% of 50% of 2% -- or 0.5% of the total CO2 emissions. And of course the climate models are SO precise that we know that somewhere within that 0.5% is the tipping point to oblivion. Yeah right. Which is why, no matter how old and battered it is, I plan to get myself at least a 3.5 litre car -- two fingers to the environmentalist sheep. Another thing -- all the "research" they spew out saying "10% of species to be extinct by 2010" or similar. Well, it's hard to disagree when their starting assumption is that half the world will be drowning in boiling water. And it's all our fault. If only we all lived in caves and ate muesli. (ends rant) Which schools are you visting? Miami and... Georgia?... Ohio? Have you heard from all the ones you applied to now? [edit -- except Miami]. I have a twin brother who is probably going to end up at UGA (in Athens I think), but that's for a soft subject lol -- political science. So, your easter/spring break starts pretty early (?) -- I still have 2+ weeks .

freakin "guest"? I sneaked under the radar that time

Sounds awesome... so should I be expecting to hear people saying "y'all" (I mean, seriously, rather than nobody bought my last record, so arm goin back to ma country rowts yall)?

Hey -- sorry, my standard phrase can be used here: "don't know". The stipend sounds quite "generous" though (compared with hmmm, not naming any names, [cough] Kentucky), so hopefully that shows that the good people of NJ are paying exorbitant taxes to fund lavish student lifestyles, and not that living costs are too high!

Thank you, "Kentuckians"... that's something I've learned. I like it . So, following the logic of your friend's t-shirt, I've been a UK student for the past 3 years already. And by the way, I'm a geographer. Since you mention accents (although why anyone would like an 'English' accent, I have no idea!), what's the Kentucky accent like? -- sort of "southern"? I had a vague idea that Lexington was known for horse racing -- that's pretty much all there's pictures of on the tourism websites. How nightmarish is the traffic? I mean, at some point I want to get a Mustang! Is it a really anti-car city (I mean can you park alright?), or is it just the congestion that's the problem? I wonder if it can be worse than Bristol on a wet monday morning. Thanks!

I appreciate that -- maybe I should have said a real America, but even then you're absolutely right. England is an awful lot smaller than most States, and I wouldn't be comfortable trying to point to the "real Bristol", let alone the "real England". All I was trying to say was that I don't have some Hollywood image that America = New York = skyscrapers + bagels + the Yankees.

Well, thank you! Any insight is very welcome. I don't know what I'm expecting Lexington to be like, but I suppose something more like the "real America" (whatever that might look like! lol) rather than an NY or LA as you say. The statistics obviously don't give any idea of the atmosphere of the place -- so anyone who could give me some idea, that would be great. Having said that, I would equally love living in the tiniest backwoods town in the middle of let's say Texas, as I would living in the middle of Manhattan. It's America! It's all good . Hopefully. I'm just hoping that there are a lot of pick up trucks and Mustangs around to fit in with my idealized image of the US! Thanks again.

Just to back up what brittdreams said -- look at their publications. If their last publication was a 1976 book review in the South East Nowhere Journal Of Nothing, chances are they're not exactly the world's leading authority in their area. "X has diverse interests across human and physical geography...", if it's not backed up with publications, probably translates to "X has bored the socks of everyone with the same Geography 101 course for the past 30 years, has slapped out a transparency with 'What is geography?' written on it for the 1st lecture in each of those 30 years, and has thoroughly enjoyed oggling students and relaxing throughout the long vacactions unencumbered with writing anything". By the same token, you could say our fictional character was so committed to teaching that (s)he eschewed adorning his/her ego through the continual regurgitation of the same banal literature review to underpin their latest "contribution" to some obscure journal, choosing instead to concentrate on helping the students. But what are the chances? So, yes, I also think it's about active research in your area(s) of interest. But try emailing them -- if they've departed under a cloud you don't want to base your personal statement on "I'd really love to work with [bloke whose colleagues hated him, so he left]". Also, they may be trying to live down earlier research -- like a professor here who (literally) hates being reminded that before he was a trendy poststructuralist he was churning out mutliple regression models of census data.

I've accepted a place at the University of Kentucky (yesss!!!). But I don't know anything about Lexington, and I'd be really grateful if anyone who knows anything about the place could share something about it -- good parts, bad parts, anything!. Thank you.

Cheryl, hi. Obviously, I'm not from New Brunswick, but my brother did a study abroad semester at Rutgers last year, and I visited him there. I don't know which the "bad" parts are, but I know that there was an unwritten rule that you avoid going beyond the railway bridge in one direction. I can't tell you what horrors lay on the 'wrong side of the tracks' lol but the area around the college is really quite nice. Bear in mind though, that I'm comparing it with England, so maybe anywhere would seem reasonable. In two days there, I picked up the following: Good points -- the coolest New England-style architecture, especially the churches (although this could just be "America"). The campus is very pretty in general. I would say nicer than Princeton's which I was also dragged around (but that may be because Princeton's is a bit olde English pastiche in style). very accessible to New York, and the NJ Transit is cheap (again, maybe by English standards). I reckon NYC was c. 40 minutes (maybe less), Philadelphia c. 1 hour, Princeton a bit less than that. And this isn't a glib comment at all -- the homeless people who sleep in the station at night were very friendly. good (i.e. cheap) places to eat on Easton Ave. Also, the grease trucks were awesome. Bad points -- apparently parking was expensive. In the University Center apartments, my brother's roommate hadn't brought his car with him because of the costs. I don't know how much it was -- but his home was only a few miles away, and I suspect it was more of an inconvenient cost than a prohibitive one. I would say the place is reasonably car friendly (again I could just be describing America in general) but I was a bit disappointed that the locals seemed to like SUVs and "imports" rather than trucks and Mustangs. I also saw a Prius with a "bomb Iraq grab the gas" sticker -- irony defined. the town centre (or "downtown" as I'm supposed to say) seemed a bit limited, but there's a good, big mall about 15 minutes away by bus (so less by car). So those are my limited anecdotal thoughts.

Not really... I mean, I've no idea about its rating, but I know that Colin Flint is there -- and he is pretty much THE MAN when it comes to 'critical' geopolitics, and political geography more broadly. Political geography at the department in general, I don't know about. I should think most departments have someone who can, for example, do a bit of spatial statistics on election data if that's your thing. There's political geography, and then there's political geography -- it is a very broad area, so maybe look even more specifically at particular faculty members' research interests. I actually applied to UIUC, but didn't hear a word from them (confirmation they'd received my application or otherwise). So, their courses must have appealed to me -- and 'political geography' is my main interest too -- but I'll be going elsewhere (to Kentucky!!!).

As a foreigner, I've no idea what my GPA equivalent would be. In terms of GREs, all I would say is -- take what you read in forums (like urch.com) with a pinch of salt. A lot of those folks seem to think that unless you nail 800 on the quantitative section you have no hope; there are certainly some strange "insights" being offered by self-appointed experts. (So here I go...) I don't think we can second-guess how different departments weigh the relative contributions of GPA, your statement of purpose, GREs and other factors. The information doesn't seem to be on the website any more, but Kentucky used to have their average scores for successful geography applicants -- and if I remember correctly, the mean verbal score was around the mid-500s. I also seem to remember that Syracuse had their scores listed, and these were c. 550 too. Although I didn't apply to Syracuse, they are (by all accounts) "good" and competitive, so I think it's fair to say that mediocre GRE scores aren't the be all and end all from their perspective. Perhaps your undergraduate institution might have some bearing -- I'm sure 3.0 from some places is worth more than from others (??). I'm not sure about that, because in Britain they perpetuate the myth that a particular degree grade is standardized nationally across all subjects and all universities (obviously that's bullshit). But, I would say apply to departments with expertise in your area of interest, rather than being guided too heavily by league tables (if they exist). I suspect this is the most important factor (given certain minimum standards), and I definitely don't think there can be any general rule "if you score X on GRE/GPA, then you'll get into place A, B or C". A scattergun element can't hurt if your aim is just to get in somewhere (anywhere), in which case it certainly seems a good strategy to apply to a full range in terms of reputation/competitiveness/standards.

... Princeton?? I visited there -- it's an incredibly pretty town. And it's south of New Brunswick (Rutgers)... maybe??? I wonder why Princeton, and the rest of the Ivy League, don't do geography? (The AAG is the Association of American Geographers -- publishers of everyone's favourite journal, Annals of the AAG.) Like the person on livejournal, I have heard from Kentucky, just not about funding as yet. So, I'm still hopeful. Presumably you speak pretty good Spanish? If I had wanted to study abroad, it would have added an extra year (i.e. a 4th year) to my degree -- and even then, I would only have been able to go to one of a couple of places in Europe. I'm not sure my very basic German would have carried me far in France, Spain or Italy. So, when I said that I couldn't do study abroad, I really meant in the US. Most departments -- not geography because they think any other program in the world is below their standard (allegedly) -- allow people to go to US/Canada/Australia/Europe just for one semester and count their credit points from that. It's supposed to snow here later today actually, which is pretty exciting. No doubt it'll just be very cold and rain -- as usual.

I'm sorry to hear about that... but at least you already have good offers in the bag . Good luck with UT (is that Texas?? ignorance showing) -- you never know. It's not necessarily a bad sign that they're blanking you. Wisconsin did that on me before accepting me... apparently some places have a 'rule' that members of admissions committees don't correspond with applicants during the process. And, if the grad coordinator is an administrator rather than an academic, it could just be that they're a bit inefficent. But you have at least some choices, so what's going to decide it for you? I'm still waiting for Kentucky's funding decision, and to hear from Arizona. Although Arizona did taunt me with an 'invitation' to attend some event of theirs at the AAG -- yeah, like I'll just be passing through Chicago on March 8 and drop in. :roll:

Hey rising (??) It sounds like good stuff! If you're into anthropology, did you think about Louisiana State? -- because their geography and anthropology departments are combined. I was seriously thinking of applying there because they have some really good cultural geography people -- and a good reputation (I'm told). Although, you're right -- you do actually have to LIVE in one of these places for 2/5 years, and I'm not sure Baton Rouge looked like my kind of place. Saying that, I don't know where I'll end up going -- according to my mental map, Arizona = hot and Wisconsin = cold. Mind you, either 'extreme' would be an improvement over damp, gray England I'm sure. My undergraduate thesis is based around critical geopolitics (probably a bit obscure), so that obviously interests me. But I'm really interested in a whole range of critical/'cultural'/political geography issues. In terms of development, where are you coming from? -- I mean, is there any particular aspect or approach you're thinking of? For me, I really couldn't stand some economic or political economy type approach. So, although I obviously have to specialize in terms of a thesis topic(s), I definitely want to keep some breadth too and an open mind. I'm going to try to avoid sticking to topics and approaches just because I'm familiar with them... and maybe find new things that interest me. This is turning into a bit of an essay (I'm sorry!). I was just thinking, couldn't you do something with your literature interest within geography? I mean, there's all kinds of interesting stuff around to do with geographical imaginations as represented in literature, film, music (my thesis )...? So yep, I want a PhD, and then I want to teach. But mainly my goal is to live in the US...and not go back. I hope your weekend's good! Andrew p.s., where in NJ are you? It's just that my bro studied abroad at Rutgers last year which made me wonder. Being a geographer I didn't get that opportunity sadly . I did visit him though - only for about 3 days - but I fell in love with America right there and then.

So, you applied to MA programs because you don't intend to go on to do a PhD or..? I think officially, for all of mine, I'm applying for a master's too. But I think that it's a formality, and the 'expectation' is that when you enroll on their graduate program you intend to see it through. Are all yours supposed to 'terminal' master's programs, rather than the MA being a 'stepping stone' towards the PhD?

Thank you! That's actually what I'm (not so) secretly hoping is the case! My online application says -- So, whether that's looking positive, I don't know. On the basis of 'hope for the best, prepare for the worst', I was reading that as meaning my application is somehow incomplete (probably in terms of a financial form, Visa application). The "funding letter" part, I took to be separate -- as in the letter would be from the department to me, rather than from the department to the Grad School. Maybe... Well, it's not clear. I'll have to wait, and hope, and see. Hopefully some more geographers will pitch up sometime soon too