maeisenb

I don't have much to add really, but as one of my last posts I'll say this: I would encourage you to PM people (I'm fine with it at least) in your particular field for their insights and thoughts following each individual application season. Having just spoken to professors and, in many cases visited places, they will often know some of the most up to date information at each particular place and have a feel of comparing the schools. As others have said, this comes down to a really personal view of places, especially given your own narrow research interests. You've stated in the fields thread that you want to work on monastic studies and conflicts in authority in the medieval period (early, high or late is unclear and would need to be specified obviously), so I would encourage you to get in touch with the medievalists who were on here (myself, Remenis, and a few others that I know of). The schools will undoubtedly change over the two years of your MA, but it's never to early to at least know the field to begin with. I'll use this as my quasi official sign off and goodbye as well. I'm sure I'll stick check these forums from time to time, but best of luck to everyone starting in the fall and good luck to those starting the application process.

The neighborhoods on the orange line are generally far superior with more interesting things to do and places to go. The blue line has Alexandria and that's about it, since the airport and the pentagon are on it. So it's (to some extent) older neighborhoods (orange) versus new more strip mall type places (blue).

Haha, fair enough. Somehow I've become the quasi go to person for DC living, but happy to help. I'm going to assume that you are thinking of going to GW, so I'll base what I say off that. If you're fine with the suburbs, then I'd say anywhere out in VA will work well. You'll probably want to Metro to school, since you won't have parking or it will be really expensive, so anywhere out on the Orange line will work. As I mentioned above, I wouldn't live more than a 10-15 (really 10 is the limit) minute walk from the Metro and the farther out you get the cheaper the place will be. Finding a single home for cheap would be really tough on your own, so roommates would be necessary there. If you want to live alone there are complexes by every Metro (2 story apartment type things), but you'd have to check out each one's dog policies. Prices will vary depending on how far out you are, how old they are, etc., but I'd guess (based on extrapolation from friends and from looking at them a few years back), that they'd be around 1300 or so for one a bedroom. Plus, northern VA has tons of supermarkets, Asian restaurants (seriously amazing), places to work, and are typically fairly safe. Hope that helps!

As I've mentioned on this thread before, "safe" is a subjective question. It completely depends on what you are used to, where you are coming from, and where you're comfortable living. CUA is on the red line so is easy to get to from most places and it's also on the H bus line so you can easily live somewhere directly across down (Columbia Heights, Mt Pleasant, etc. if you want to live in NW). I wouldn't recommend living right near the school, since it is a bit farther away from most of the nightlife of the city. Also, are you looking to live by yourself, with a roommate (or a few), and how much do you ideally want to spend are all obviously large questions.

I agree with what Sonnyday wrote in terms of living, especially if you are going to have a car and don't care about being on the Metro line. I'd personally live somewhere in northern DC on the green line. but that's cause I think DC has a lot more to offer than the suburbs in terms of night life, things to do, etc. Reverse commuting up to College Park if you want to drive isn't as bad either. But obviously these are two very different options. 30 minutes sounds about right, although you will have to potentially switch lines depending on where exactly you'll be going and what line you're on. The question with the shuttle is how often it runs, especially if you are taking classes outside normal commuter times (8-9am in the morning). I'd be hesitant to be anywhere more than a 10-15 minute walk to the Metro if you're going to rely on it everyday to get to and from school.

Sent you a PM

Not sure where you've seen 3 bedrooms for less than 2k a month anywhere in the general vicinity of SAIS, as that would be pretty much impossible. If you're living with your SO, then sure that's quite doable as you could have a 1 bedroom English basement somewhere for 1400 or so (which is still on the low end). I think SenatorSmith was just trying to be as up front and honest as possible with rent costs, so that maybe OregonGal could factor in higher expenses is all.

Gtown is basically off by itself and not tied into the Metro system except via a 15-20 minute walk to Rosslyn. That being said, if you are both ok living off a Metro line and being away from the center of DC (i.e. families and more residential) look in Glover Park, Cathedral Heights or anywhere up Wisconsin Avenue really since you'll both be a quick bus ride to your respective schools. Most people don't use an apartment hunter and there's no real need for it in DC, since that will just cost extra money. As for the places you like, you could be put on a wait list if there is a place that you visited and you really love. That being said, if you wait until May/June/July that's when people really move a lot so there should be a ton more openings across the board. Plus, you'll have trouble finding a place this far in advance anyway. Pentagon City will be a tad expensive for places, but you can look in Crystal City which is just a little father out and there are a bunch of complexes there, but not much else since it's a pretty boring suburban sprawl (though the apartments are fairly reasonable and have pools in the complex). If you have a week or so to come out and look at places, then you should be able to get a place on Capitol Hill - though budget is a separate issue.

A valid point and I think there is less grade inflation in Europe than compared to the US and the GRE, unless it's a state school with scholarships tied to it, matters more as a cut off than a plus unless you got close to a perfect score in which case they might say "wow." What I was trying to really get across to Scaeva still remains valid though in that it's not who's the smartest or has done the most numbers of years of a particular language. Rather, it's about articulating your specific project and why doing that is a perfect fit for the school, while also showing through your writing sample and SOP that you understand what that works entails and that you've done it before. My main point was that loving your field and doing well in your school are necessary, but not sufficient for admission.

If you're ok living with another roommate (or a few other ones), then this should be doable. Plus, if you're fine living a 10-15 minute walk from the metro, but much closer to school via bus then just look somewhere up near the red line in northwest. The farther away from the center of DC you get the cheaper it will be. That being said, if you live up there getting places to go out for drinks, eat, visit museums, etc. will be much farther away. So that's the tradeoff. Well it sounds like you want a car for your baby, which is understandable. That being said, I would advise against VA since Gallaudet is on the complete opposite end of DC, so even though sales taxes is lower you'll pay the same amount if you factor in time getting across the bridges and through DC (traffic is awful) and gas costs. You might be able to find something for around that price for a 1 bedroom or a studio near the school, but the neighborhood won't be that nice (I hesitate to say not as safe, but probably not, although that depends on your own level of what you feel is safe). My recommendation would be to look in Maryland to the east of the school and away from the metro line as that will drop down prices quite a bit and make your commute ok. I don't know the area at all, but try on Craigslist for Bladensburg or Landover. (These are literally guesses by the way, but I would still look around those areas of Maryland.)

To quickly chime in for a second here and to agree with what others said, it's not just about how well you've done and how smart you are (though you sound quite accomplished). As Attia and OEA noted writing samples are hugely important, as is the SOP. But more than that, it's a numbers game where everyone applying has a great GPA and is really smart. So if the best student at the top 300 schools in the world apply for a specific classics program, then it's not about how smart or brilliant you are so much as how you position yourself for a given program to work with what their expertise is. If I've learned anything from this process, it's that it's 100% different from say law school where you have an LSAT score and a GPA and you can create a matrix of where you will be accepted and rejected. That is simply not the case with PhD admissions and part of it is a dark art, but it's also about knowing how to specifically tailor your application to each school. I would certainly suggest reaching out to places and see if professors you wanted to work with were ok giving you some help with how your application could be strengthened moving forward.

UK funding tends to work differently and like it used to be here (think UW-M, where they admit a bunch of people but only fund some). If you're American, then you can't apply for AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) funding since it only applies to UK or European students. That's probably why they are being fairly vague about it and suggesting that you apply for outside funding, but feel free to PM me if you have more questions.

No idea what that means, but Google it and I'm sure you'll find an answer. 6th Street SE is very safe and might even be in the Capitol Hill Police zone, which would make it even safer. That being said, there's no online resource for what's safe and what's not because safe is a relative term obviously. Anything in NW will be pretty safe as will places right near the Hill, but that doesn't mean that everyone will feel safe everywhere. As someone who grew up in a city (and as a guy), I'm comfortable in most places, but if you're from a rural or suburban location then your definition might be quite different. Generally though any place on the red line in NW, blue/orange from eastern market west, and on the yellow/green from Petworth and south are mostly fine - though obviously some buildings aren't as nice as others. I agreed above that this was doable for that price, but you need a car and you're in the suburbs rather than living in DC. Thus far less able to take advantage of DC life, which, in my mind, is one of the huge advantages of going to school in DC.

I was in the exact same position and am finishing up my gap year now, which I would highly suggest. If you know exactly what you want to do in the fall of your program like rkg2012, then that's great and by all means create a strong relationship with faculty and apply that fall. That being said, I've found that since you finish in September with the MA, you can come home and immediately start on your applications and have a lot more time to devote to those for the entire fall. If your parents are fine with you living at home for a few months (or you can live somewhere else for cheap) while you do that, then get a retail or a temp job to pay the odd bills and survive while using the time to: contact professors, really write a terrific SOP, and edit your writing sample (which will probably be a condensed version of your MA thesis). You'll know your professors really well after a year, so you'll have 2-3 great letters and will probably know a lot more about what you want to work on after doing your MA thesis. Don't worry about what it will look like when you apply that you're taking a year off because programs will know that you finished in September - rather than May or June - so there is in reality only a 2-3 month gap. Then by the time you're done with applications in December or early January it's only 6-8 weeks until you hear back and you can temp or something in that time. If you get in places, then keep temping or working retail until you want to leave or, if you don't get in, then you can apply for full time jobs. I highly recommend taking the year off as long as you are ok temping or doing other odd jobs for a few months and you can also look at it as just a little time off before your program starts. Your letters of rec will probably be better and so will your writing sample. Plus, if you don't take the year off you'll be rushed to finish your MA thesis by August, since you'll have to move back to the US to start your PhD program before you're done with it.

I just went through this last fall and it can be a pain, but definitely doable and most programs in the US have a few people that go through this every year so they know the deal (on what the grades mean, timing, etc.). You might have trouble getting a copy of your official transcript in time (our final grades were not released until December 10 or so), in which case you might have to put it together as a few different documents. So I had: a cover note explaining the situation, an official enrollment form with my ID number highlighted, a list of enrolled classes (again with my ID noted), a PDF we were sent that listed ID numbers and final marks (again highlighted to show who I was), and a screen shot of my final grades. I then uploaded all of that as my "transcript" and for any places with earlier deadlines made sure to send them that ASAP. So a pain, but can be done.