socscholar

"...and I couldn't even begin writing until I milled my own paper." I'm still chuckling about that!

Doug Maynard at UW-Madison. They have CA classes and even a CA prelim.

chill so, so hard. Anything you do to "warm-up" or "get ahead" will have ambiguous results anyway. You are so free--enjoy it!

I think you should start with #6

Love this thread. I can't stop trolling Gradcafe, even though I'm past the admissions hump. And all the thread about quitting make me sad My Bucket List: 1. Get $8,000 into savings before I finish (prob impossible, but it doesn't hurt to try) 2. Read widely in my discipline, especially in these first years. 3. Take on a PhD minor that will truly expand my thinking 4. Leave the country at least twice during my grad school years 5. Don't neglect fitness 6. Publish at least 1 paper and get dissertation data that speaks to my multiple interests 7. Complete a collaborative project with another grad student Now that I look at them, those are pretty boring goals! Oh well.

I feel like schools that offer full funding have no need to intentionally admit "have-nots." From their perspective, the ideal situation should be to pump out the complete cohort into high-ranking R-1s, to enhance their department's reputation. Also, the spirit of this thread has some sense, but I think you'll have more success PMing people who went to the visit that you had to miss. Any current grad or admitted student should be wary of posting serious "dirt" online. Also, visit day impressions can be seriously inaccurate (in my own experience seeing a number of schools last year).

So I'm finding that having "small luxuries" can go a long way in grad school. There are some things that cost 10-20 dollars but make your day to day life markedly more pleasant. Im really into this milk foamer: http://www.amazon.com/HIC-Brands-That-Cook-004/dp/B0002KZUNA/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1349020165&sr=1-1&keywords=milk+foamer I froth up my milk before adding it to my coffee...I hardly miss buying lattes and such anymore. A twenty dollar investment that makes me feel like a princess! Do you guys have any favorite small luxuries?

It seems like grad students eat a lot of chili...

I am coming right from undergrad. I have been working as on office assistant all summer to pay for this friggin move. ~1400 deposit, rent thru September, ~150 flights ~1000 new fancy computer (graduation gift to me) ~900 set aside for furniture ~250 for those bloody target trips and startup groceries. I'm excited because it's finally time to spend some of this cash I've been saving allll summer. Thankfully I'm moving into a house with other roommates, so I just have to furnish my room and buy some extras for the common areas. The scariest part is that my first fellowship check comes Oct. 1, so I have to make it through September and hope that there's no delay in my first check so that I can pay October rent. I'm excited though....

I think I just decided to get my mattress and bed from Overstock. The shipping is cheap, great, and fast, according to the reviews anyway. I was originally going to rent a truck and drive to Ikea to bring back some loot, but Overstock has the same type of products I wanted, with a few better prices, and cheap shipping. Just seems like less of a hassle. I'm moving to a college town from California, so I have like 5 days to go from blank room to comfortable home... Any suggestions?

oh god. What are the faux pas? I'm scared of making one. It's hard to respond politely without sounding sappy. Cause again, they care, but they likely aren't deeply troubled or something...

ACCEPTED AT UW-MADISON. And it feels sooooo good. Congratulations everybody!!

Where do you guys think I could get a really comfortable reading chair for under 500?

I think it's great! It's a nice way to start talking to your future cohort, or to remain in touch in a collegial way with people at places you've decided to turn down.

A couple questions: 1. If I were living in the area for 2-3 years, would you recommend bringing a car? 2. How's Princeton in the summer? Worth staying around, or better to sublet in the city or something? 3. Is it realistic to preference all of the 2-bdroom options hoping for random roommate assignment? Do you think if I am unwilling to live in GC I will still get housing? THANKS!

You are going to do great work @splitends. You are intellectually curious, excited, and interesting. All those people who sound so sure...many of them are just talking up their asses to sound smart. They think they have their dissertation planned out, but they will change their minds. I hope they will be open to new things, like you. Compare yourself ONLY to yourself. You learn a bit every day, about who you are, about the profession, about sociology. And you will get there. WE will get there. YES WE CAN!!!! Soapboxing aside, these are the things I tell myself when I feel like an imposter. Being younger, and from a less traditional background ( you know what I mean) it's hard to not feel out of place. We will just have to make our own place. Our own niche. That's the whole point. One day, we will be creative, exciting sociologists looking back on these days with a gentle smile.

Exactly! I know I'm in a lucky place. Both choices are great. But one is an apple, the other is an orange. Only problem is, I don't know if I want to end up like an apple pie or an orange smoothie.. shitty metaphor, but you know what I mean.

Does anyone else feel incapable of making a final decision?

Those are such helpful criteria. Updating my excel spreadsheet right now!!

I have too many choices. These are my criteria: 1. Food quality at visit days--how tasty was the food? Were alcohol and dessert served? 2. Number of shopping malls/outlets in 40 mile radius of campus. I like my bargains. 3. Square footage of potential office space for grad students. 4. Chipotle. Is there one? I like Chipotle. 5. Undergrads. How annoying will they be to deal with as a TA?

I'm just trying to chill the heck out. I want to take up some sort of nature/fitness challenge like hiking a long trail I haven't done yet, running a half-marathon, etc. I'll also probably waitress or something to make a bit of money before the fall. I just want to get to grad school healthy, rested, confident, and with money in my pocket. I feel like those are the basic things I need to be happy grad student and excel.

Thanks!

Good points! I think it will be a decent living for the first two years, but the Stanford Soc website says 70 percent of grads live off campus--I imagine these are older grads and older cohorts. Off-campus rents seem obscene... I don't want to sleep in a twin bed for 5 more years, but I guess that's the incentive to apply for extramural funding?

Good point @splitends. I guess I keep focusing on how much my stipend would be eaten up by fixed costs. In the Midwest and the South at the places I'm looking at, rent is about 500-700 per month, while near Stanford its more like 800-1100 (to have my own room in a shared apt/house). But I guess if everything else isn't too expensive, this may not be too big of a deal?

I don't know though, Stanford's package is numerically pretty enticing, but the cost of living in the area is absurd. Comparatively, it is about the same as many other offers.