UndraftedFreeAgent

You should check how much it would cost to ship those extra items as opposed to buying them all over again. I don't know if buying used items, but saving on shipping would actually save all that much. If you're coming from overseas, then I'm fairly certain buying sheets/towels here would be much cheaper. Before packing your bags, check with the airline to see how much weight they allow you to bring without an extra charge. It used to be that they wouldn't really care and would let students slip, but these days, most are pretty strict about charging through the nose for extra or overweight bags. American Airlines, for example, limits you to 50lbs per bag of checked luggage, plus one carry on and one personal item (purse or laptop bag). I'm sure you've already been thinking about that, but it caught some of my friends coming home from abroad by surprise and they ended up throwing some of their luggage in the trash because they had too many souveneirs. As a photographer, at least you should be able to decorate your apartment nicely on the cheap!

nike: You could email the grad director of your new program to ask for the emails of current grad students and ask them for any recommendations regarding apartments. You might also consider asking for a short term lease that you could convert to a regular 9 or 12 month lease later. Short term leases generally cost $25-50 extra per month, but it might be worth it (if you can get it), so that you aren't stuck with a horrible place if everything goes wrong. As for packing/moving stuff, depending on the towing abilities of your car (if you have one), I would imagine it's cheaper to rent a uhaul trailer rather than a moving van. Grocery stores are a good place to get boxes. They throw out so many boxes every day, that many are more than willing to just give some to you if you ask nicely. A $15 hand truck from Home Depot will make moving a LOT easier if you're moving into a ground level apartment or a complex with elevators. You can carry three or four boxes per trip from your car to the apartment, your arms won't get sore, and you'll have energy left to unpack once you get everything inside. On that note, be sure to lock your car or leave someone to watch it while you are moving in. Every year, some poor student returns to his/her car to find that a friendly neighbor has stolen the tv, stereo, and computer. I've got a 1002 mile trip ahead of me, but am going down in a few weeks to check out apartments, hopefully sign a lease, and move some of my stuff into storage nearby.

Penn State's (Poli Sci) rejection letter was the worst in my case, even though it was much lower on my list than several programs to which I was accepted. They wrote a "comforting" letter, informing unsuccessful applicants of the department's "exceptionally high" median GRE score of 1290... mine was a 1400. That means their typical student didn't break a 650 in either section, and they were proud of it. I chalk it up to the fact that I turned them down for undergrad, so this was payback hahaha.

Who was the other one considering Emory? Was he at the interview weekend too? I only say "he" because I know that the only girl at the interview will be going to Emory.

I was told (by current grad students), that the best places to live are East of campus. Directly West of campus is supposed to be undergrad party central. Northwest is supposedly hit-or-miss in terms of atmosphere. Some were "shady", others were undergrads, others were quite nice. I saw some nice places (online) due North of campus, due East of campus (governor's square area) and Southeast of campus. Everything requires either a car or the willingness to walk significant distances to a bus stop. On that note, current grad students other people on the forum have mentioned that a car is a necessity. I've been apartment hunting as well, and will be going down some time in May to put some stuff in storage, choose a place, and possibly start the process of adopting a cat/dog.

I notice you're in engineering. This is one of those cases where humanities/social sciences differ significantly from the pure sciences. It's very hard to get a good, let alone top, position out of grad school and be, as you put it, a disaster in the classroom. Yes, your research and the quality of your school are most important to your long term success, but you do need to be able to teach in these areas of study.

Oh don't get me wrong. If they're waiting til the last second, then it's possible that you still have a shot at your top choice. You can always fax your decision to whatever school on the fifteenth or ask for an extension at your second choice.

"How do you keep a grad student in suspense?" "I don't know, the committee is still out."

Call me a cynic, but I'm still willing to bet that the "no decision" is intentional. No self respecting grad chair would wait until now to start making decisions. They know full well who ranks where and are just waiting to find out what their yield rate among first round admits will be. They know their previous admits have to respond by the 15th, so they're covering themselves in case they come up short. Has anyone else on this forum (or others) posted an admit/reject from this program? That could tell you if they're going in waves or are just honestly slow.

I can't speak as to the comparative strengths of the programs, but I'm sure both must be quite good. $18,000 seems to be a bit above average overall, but fairly typical for a school in a large, expensive city. One thing you should be asking is whether finishing your PhD in 3-4 years is a real possibility at Cambridge. That seems quite short to me and I imagine it would be difficult to build the strong portfolio of publications/conferences/presentations/teaching that would be necessary for a job in academia. 15-20 hours per week of TA/RA work is also fairly standard. You should talk to professors or current grad students to see what the REAL burden is. Some schools state 15-20 hours, but actually require much less during the first year. Moreover, TA/RAships are a great way to build relationships with professors and strengthen your resume for when you go out on the job market. Finally, are you sure there is no work obligation at Cambridge? It is relatively rare for more than a single year to be work free.

To me it sounds like an extended, unofficial waitlist. I'm guessing they had a large number of people turn them down and are worried about not filling their class with their official waitlist. They don't want you to rule them out because they took too long waiting for their first round admits to reply. If you're really considering this program, than I would wait, if not, then just send your acceptance elsewhere and be done with them. Sounds like Tuesday will be the day for you.

I might also add that some of us don't check facebook every day, nor the undergrad email accounts with which they are connected. But I'm glad your classmates are starting to respond. Also, *some* of our employers block facebook/myspace (but thankfully are unaware of gradcafe 8) )

It's my impression that UNC would be the better program no matter what your eventual aim. I don't know how good the US News ranking system is for the subfields, but methodology, more than any of the other subfields, would give you the most marketable skill sets, so the top marks in methodology are key. UNC also gives you the option of changing your mind and refocusing on academia with decent placement possibilities if you decide that the "real world" isn't for you.

Florida State for American/Policy

The verdict is in. FSU it is.

I'd think schools would be more likely to cut their losses and try again next year. Regardless of what many schools say about having "many qualified applicants" and "insufficient resources" to admit everyone they would like to admit, if they really thought there was a chance they might want to admit a student later, they would wait until after April 15 and then make a choice. Rather than telling students that they are on a formal waitlist, it seems to be fairly common that schools will send no decision to borderline applicants until the very end. Completion rates are low enough among "top ranked" students in a given cohort. Why should a department make an investment in a student who wasn't even in their top 60? But yeah, April 15th is the "earliest" most schools will require a decision. Some list an earlier deadline, but are unlikely to give you a problem if you want more time. Others list a deadline after April 15 in hopes of swooping up a few of the students who applied to top ranked schools and for some reason didn't make it in off of various waitlists. StudentfromLA: I had a similar situation with one of my offers a few weeks ago (I turned them down). They gave me 15 days from date of receipt to respond to their letter, but told me I could request an extention til April 15 if I wanted.

Now for a more on topic post... I don't think investing is really an option for most of us. Stipends are generally calculated to cover living expenses and not much more than that. If you can keep (or start) contributing to an IRA, more power to you, but that won't be the experience for most grad students. Though if there is as big an influx of grad students in the next year or so as has been discussed in other threads, maybe we should invest in Ramen futures hahaha. One thing that you will want to consider though, is putting together an emergency fund in case of injury, car accident/repairs, needing to take a sudden flight, or other major events. Even if you have insurance, you'll still likely have a large deductable to cover, which can completely destroy your finances if you are not prepared. If you can put $100 per month (or whatever you can afford) into a savings account, that can go a long way towards protecting yourself against major expenses.

This might be better as its own topic. Mods? I think the question you need to ask yourself is whether the sponsored funding is good enough to justify dedicating five years after you graduate to working at the sponsoring school. It also doesn't say that you would be an "assistant professor" at the sponsoring school. It just says that you are expected to serve the school for five years. That sounds rather ominous. I didn't see a dollar value for the stipend they mentioned and that would be a critical thing to know. If the school you wish to attend is already offering you a funded position, then I would almost certainly turn down the sponsorship program. It sounds, to me, like the sponsorship program is aimed at students who are unable to get funded offers from their programs of choice. Also note: the sponsorship program cuts off funding after 5.5 years and requires that you must be finished with your studies within 7.5 years. Depending on your field and school, this may not be enough time to complete your degree. That alone should be cause for concern. I'm interested to see what others think about this.

If your cat will follow treats into the carrier, you're probably ok. Ours won't even go near it. We have to completely wrap him in a towel, so that he can neither see that he's going into it nor attack us once he realizes what we're doing. I know that declawing a cat is an incredibly inhumane thing to do to the critter, but if there were ever a candidate for it, ours would be one. I'm kind of glad that he's my parents' cat, not mine (and therefore not coming with me), because he would probably rip the carrier to shreds if a truck honked its horn. If he/she has a favorite small blanket, putting it in the carrier will make the carrier smell more inviting.

It gives the impression that they're trying to screen who you meet, because they ARE screening them. In my previous program, we were the first (and therefore only) class of students, so the professors had no choice but to have them meet all of us. Afterwards, our professors told us that they normally would never have exposed prospectives to the entire group of first year students, especially when preparing for exams. Out of the dozens of students most departments have, you will often only meet directly with a few top performers from each class. The others will be milling about at events where there's free food.

Like a few of you, I'm also in industry, but in my case, I'm having senioritis forced upon me. Since I gave notice that I'm leaving for grad school soon, they're not giving me any work. Without my ipod, I'd probably fall asleep at my desk. I had senioritis back in undergrad, but here I actually feel guilty about it.

Your ability to, and the value of, studying abroad depends on a few big things. 1. Your specific research interests. Is there something you can do studying abroad that you can't do here? IR or Comparative people often do field research, but I wouldn't consider changing your field unless you want to spend the rest of your life studying that subject. 2. The program to which you've been admitted. I'm willing to bet most programs won't want you to study abroad without a very good reason. Not only can you not take courses from your university when you're abroad, but you're also out of direct contact with your advisors, professors, and colleagues who will not only mentor you, but provide contacts and research opportunities that could make or break your career. 3. Your ability to get external funding (Fulbright, etc). My feeling is that Fulbrights would mostly go to Comparative or IR people, but I don't know much about the process, so don't take my word for it. What I can tell you is that your program will almost certainly not fund the trip if it's not crucial to your studies. You also may or may not be underestimating the time commitment that grad school will require of all of us. Undergrads enjoy studying abroad because their courseloads are generally arranged to be much lighter than usual. If undergrad required 30 hours of study per week, count on 60+/- hours per week at grad school, if not more. Even Summers in grad school are likely to be rather packed. Most likely, you will be researching, possibly taking a class or two, preparing for exams, or working some sort of job to make ends meet. I didn't mean that to sound as downbeat and bitter as it probably came out, I'm just bringing up some things that I'm sure have already crossed your mind. If you have a chance to go study abroad or just travel before you begin, then by all means do it, but I can't think of any programs that would really allow us Americanists to study abroad and really get much out of it. If you add Comparative as a second field, then it's an entirely different story. You could also pose your question to one of your profs. No harm in asking.

Most schools outright ban dating between TA's and their students or professors and their students. I'm certain that your grad student handbook will spell out the school's policy in more detail than you care to read. rising_star: that's pretty surprising to me. I suppose some departments are more prone to gossip than others, but I can't imagine a cohort of grad students sitting around before class or at a happy hour and not even speculating about who's going out with whom. Kudos to the both of you for being able to keep it quiet.

It's not an easily quantifiable, but you'll know them when you see them. Superstars are generally students with several publications, conference presentations, and top marks, doing research in some ultra-trendy topic. This is where coming up with a brilliant research proposal and being able to market yourself pays off. The way (in my opinion) to become a superstar is to do an absolutely thorough job on an interesting research question and then present it in a way that gets others excited about your topic. Think about the movie "A Beautiful Mind". John Nash, the father of modern game theory, was incredibly intelligent, but wasn't a superstar until he came up with a brilliant research topic and was able to convince others of its importance. I hope this is being helpful. You don't have to be a superstar to get a great job, but it would certainly help. I'm sure some of the others on this board could list a few superstars (I seem to recall, from several months ago, some mention of work being done at Stanford).

I know I'm a superstar because a fortune cookie told me so. If fortune smiles upon us, maybe all of the senior profs will retire collectively in 5 years.