Ninevah

The trolls are back.

Just like the previous poster said. You don't want to argue with a jack**s TSA person. They can be extremely rude, so be on the safe side.

Don't try that. Bring your passport when you travel by plane.

Maybe you should see the date in the URL - April 1st. This is also a good tip that the pdf is a joke (not only that's dated in 2005):<br />"Pete Gillen has offered to conduct a basketball shoot-around tomorrow morning to determine which of the remaining students should be unadmitted."It's getting funnier after that

Sure, that might be a reason why people go for MA after PhD. But while undergrad GPA might be a reliable predictor for success (sure, if you paid more attention and did more work in class you are very likely to be better a student), isn't it true that graduate classes are harder? If you can deal with harder classes better than an undergrad with his BA classes, isn't that an even more reliable predictor? Of course, your graduate GPA will be more important than your UGPA. Your UGPA might be lower than someone who went straight to PhD, but we (and I assume the adcomms) know how your first couple of years in BA with all their temptation can distract you from academics. By the time you finish the MA you'll be 4-5 years away from that point. How much weight would you put to those initial grades? As for your last paragraph, I don't know where you get that info. it would be nice to see some statistic here, though I doubt anything is available. Of course many MAs don't get into top programs. Many BAs don't too. Nothing is the "silver bullet" for success.

I've never heard of an official national ID made of paper. I guess if you have one of those you might need to get a state ID.

Heh, your passport is a workhorse, not a piece of art

The tax is deducted from your checks whenever you get them. When you arrive you'll have to fill some forms in the payroll office, where if your treaty gives you some tax benefits they'll tell you (but ask if they don't). Around February you'll get some documents that you'll need to attach to the yet another tax return documents and you'll have till April 15 to send them to the IRS. You'll get at least some of your taxes back maybe a month after you send everything.

Actually, if you look at the forms, have the patience to read the instructions and do it yourself, you won't even have to spend $50. The federal tax form 1040NR-EZ is 2 pages long and most of it won't apply to you (Unless you have inheritance and stocks but I doubt it) Schools don't generally have a tax specialist - they are not supposed to. As for the online system, I'm not sure if it is for international students. I think it can be used to but don't worry about that - you have a whole year before that time comes.

Hehe, actually people like me have great experience in dealing with slow and rude bureaucracies in their countries. Filing my own taxes and some forms won't scare us

Oh, one more thing. When you are about to land, the flight crew will give you a card called I-94 (I think). you'll have to fill it out and also show it to the custom person. He'll probably staple it to your passport. MAKE SURE you don't lose it at any point of your stay. It shows that you entered legally. Also, bring your national ID. When you settle in you want to stash your international passport somewhere safe and not carry it with you. It would be royal pain if you lose it! But you can use your national ID for entering bars and buying booze and if you lose it it won't be a big deal.

When you get off the plane, you'll wait on a huge line. When your turn comes, the custom official will take a look at your passport and visa, I-20, the documents you brought, etc. Get all of your documents, he'll look at whatever is relevant. You'll give fingerprints electronically and they'll take a picture of you. You'll be asked stuff like "So, you're a student," "What school is that," "What are you going to be studying," etc. Just general questions you shouldn't be worry about. Then he'll stamp your passport, wish you a great day and you go pick your luggage. Yeah, carry all your documents with you rather than the check-in luggage. It's nothing scary, I've done that 5 times. As for the Designated School Official, this is the person who signed your I-20 (somebody from the International students office). His/her name is on the... I-20.

My understanding is that Master's are only terminal in professional programs (e.g., MBA). Since the school expect you to make a truckload of money with the professional degree, they don't give you money. MA in History, for example, would not be a terminal degree because you are more or less expected to do a PhD after that. You can get funded in an MA program in the US - I was and I know many people in Comm and Poli-Sci that are.

It's probably field-specific, but many of the universities say something like "In most cases, a completed master's degree is required for admission to the program" (Penn State), "It is suggested but not required that students have or will have a master's degree" (Urbana), etc.

Yeah, that's weird for me too. You get a much better chance to get into Master's than PhD (often 2-4 times better, actually!). Additionally, many, if not most, schools prefer applicants with a Master's degree because these students have done some grad school. The only argument in favor of going straight to the PhD is because Doctoral students get better funding. However, if you apply to departments without PhD program all the money go to the Master's.