purpledinosaur

I'm officially writing off Columbia too, Karajan. Ah well.

Thank you, TakeruK! It turns out that the Wikipedia page for US income tax is super helpful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States. Now I understand things like standard and personal deductions, tax brackets, etc. Yay! It seems that the personal deduction is 3,700 and the standard deduction in 2011 was $5,800. So ultimately, most of my income would be taxed in the 10% bracket, which doesn't seem so bad. Also, I think my tuition waiver is applied directly to tuition (I need to check but I'm pretty sure), so I guess I will not be taxed on that. Phew. This is stressful business! Thank goodness for Wiki...

Dear applicant, We are pleased to inform you that you have been recommended for admission to the Department of Impostor Syndrome at the University of Self-Hatred, School of Low Self-Esteem. Your application was laughable and your credentials are dubious, which is why you are a perfect fit for our school. In addition, we are offering you a TA-ship, which will give you the opportunity to feel like a moron in front of an entire class of undergraduates! We think you'll have an absolutely terrible time here, and really wish you wouldn't bother coming.

Ugh, that's a tough situation! Can you talk to one of her grad students again? Maybe they have another way of contacting her, or she would be more likely to answer their emails? That's all I've got, sorry... I'm sure she will send it soon!

^ true story. I have asked one of my professors for so many recommendations now, and although I too am nervous about bugging him too much, I know that he just wants to help me succeed and he is happy to write me letters! So don't worry, it's a part of their job to do this kind of thing.

Congratulations, Catalyst77!! McGill is a great school! (I may be a little biased there... )

Sounds like you're in! Congratulations!!

I'm not an expert on Vancouver, but I think it would be pretty difficult to live on that little money. For example, I live in Montréal, Québec, where the cost of living is lower than Vancouver. I have a little more money than your estimate of 12,000 left after tuition, but it's still tight paying $600 rent, plus utilities, plus transportation and food, etc. Check whether your school has a work-study program, where you can work on campus. This is often the method of employment for international students at my own institution in Canada, but I know that not all schools will allow international graduate students to participate. Keep in mind that it is not always legal to work outside of your institution as an international student... check the laws on that! (Sorry, I'm a domestic student and I don't know that much about it.)

Congrats to the McGill musicology admits!!!

I've been offered an excellent funding package at one of my top choice schools and I'm really excited about it! I'm just wondering what the deal is with paying taxes as an international student in the US. I'm from Canada and I have no idea how it works over there. The school is paying my tuition and giving me a stipend. What do I pay taxes on? How much do I pay in terms of taxes? Does it depend on whether I have F1 or J1 status (I am assuming I'll have F1)? Any help would be super appreciated! I may also post this in the "Bank" section.

This seems strange to me. I'm in the humanities so perhaps it's different, but I would never consider having someone else present my paper unless something terrible happened like I suddenly became very ill right before the conference. If I were in your situation, I would just choose one conference and concentrate on doing an excellent job presenting there.

I wish there were cookies in my mailbox!! \jealous But a couple days ago I did get the new Margo Lanagan novel in my mailbox, which is almost as good as cookies.

I'm just going to go ahead and assume I've been rejected by Yale, Michigan, and Columbia. Makes things easier.

This: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1431 The toughest part about writing grant proposals, in my extremely limited experience, is that basically most of the research has to be done already in order to effectively write the grant.

Yep, it's okay to submit the same abstract to more than one place, and to present the same paper twice. Of course, papers can also change from one conference to the next, which means that you might not be presenting quite the same paper anymore at the second one. It's obviously better for your resume to be presenting different papers (or at least different versions of the same paper with different titles/different focuses), but it's fine to present the same paper twice once in a while, especially if these are your first conferences!

I don't think that's inappropriate, but if you are worried, perhaps you could email the Director of Graduate Studies instead? Have you already had email contact with the head of the department? If so, then I think it's fine to email and ask for an update.

BRHM11, I second all of that! I'd also like to add that you should make sure you fix your computer's settings so that it won't go to screen saver or fall asleep all the time during your interview! Mine kept going to screensaver so I constantly had to remember to move the cursor on top of answering the questions coherently.

I just had my first Skype interview on Saturday. Those things are AWFUL! It is so awkward, and it's really hard not to look at yourself in the little window! I think the hardest thing was that the profs on the other end didn't really know how to use the webcam properly, so I mostly saw the tops of their heads/sides of their faces! Anyway, I guess it must have gone well, because I got accepted. Super awkward though, I must say.

I can't believe it's Friday again and still nothing!

Ahhhh, what a beautiful day for determining people's futures! (Psst, Yale, I'm talking to YOU!)

I know, right?? From the email: "I am also pleased to be able to initially offer you [...] $3,500 per year. You will need to cover tuition costs, which in 2011–2012 were $4,264 per academic year. Please also note that you are eligible to apply for a Teaching Assistantship (TA) [...] Some members of our faculty may be able to offer you Research Assistant (RA) position(s) as well." LOL!!!

I just got an unofficial acceptance from UBC for music theory (PhD). Stoneg, I'm sure you will hear from them soon as well! They have crummy funding though. I was "one of a small number" of PhD applicants who was offered funding and it's not exactly amazing... $3500/year, only for the first two years. Before tuition!

Congrats, Josquin! You just made all the other theorists who applied to Michigan cry, though.

That is BRUTAL, kccur!! Why would they do that right when results should be sent out?? Cruel.

I was shocked and devastated when I heard last night... I loved Whitney growing up. I watched The Bodyguard probably over 20 times with my sister and loved singing along to her songs. Last night I watched it again to remember her. <3