TakeruK

My MSc thesis project was pretty underwhelming. In short, for two years, we worked on creating a computer simulation of planet formation using one paradigm. During the whole two years, we were not successful. Although our work still represents a new attempt at planet formation with this paradigm, our result is that it failed, and thus a better way to incorporate the physics is needed. Oh well, a null result / finding out what doesn't work is what moves science forward. But for extra fun, while I was writing up the dissertation, someone else came up with a whole new paradigm of planet formation. And it works! And I also discovered a problem in part of the code I was using so I had the experience of writing a dissertation where I know the results were wrong** and that our experiment didn't work, and that someone else has already found a better way to do what we're trying to do. (** "results were wrong" is a simplification: the conclusion and science was still correct, but it would mean I have to redo a lot of things to get this work to publication level) Anyways, a few things that helped me get through the writing and working on something that I didn't really enjoy anymore were: 1. Perspective. Although my project was a "failure", the true reason for my degree is to train me to be a researcher and I was very successful in that. I still got what I came for out of the MSc: which is to determine whether or not I want to stay in academia. I still learned a lot and developed a lot of very useful skills that I can now apply to my PhD program and beyond. I could focus on all the crappy results from our work, or I can choose to look at the big picture and realise that the less-than-useful results are not the only thing that will define my time in my MSc program. 2. Having a plan after my MSc. In Canada, the graduate program is that you do a 2 year research based MSc then a 3-4 year PhD. So, at that time, I already had plans to start a PhD program (my current program) that fall. Having something to look forward to was really helpful. Also, knowing that I achieved admission into one of my dream PhD programs helped my self-confidence. I knew that I am a good researcher and an accomplished professional: it's the project that failed, not me. It might help if you took stock of all the things you have accomplished and achieved so far. In academia, it's so easy for us to focus on the failures, that we forget how much we already achieved to get where we are. 3. Talking to other people about this. Failed projects like this are pretty common in academia, but you might think they never happen because no one talks about failures. Few journals will publish null results or other things that don't work (despite knowing these things would save a lot of time for a lot of people!). But a lot of accomplished researchers faced (multiple) failure(s) in their past. A lot of other graduate students are struggling with similar things. It helps to know that you're not the only one (and again, to convince yourself that it's not you that failed, but science/research will fail because that's what happens when we try to discover new things). 4. Avoiding perfectionism. Academia and especially thesis writing is one of those things where the criteria is not very well defined. As grad students are typically the ones that always put extra effort in academics in the past, I find that it's often the case that we set unreasonably high expectations for ourselves and make work more difficult for us. Since you know you want to leave academia, I would make your number 1 goal be to get out in as little time as possible and do not add additional work for yourself. For example, remember that your dissertation is your work. While suggestions and critiques from your advisor should be considered, remember that they are suggestions, not requirements. Find out what minimal work is necessary to complete and do that. Just because a sentence can be rewritten to sound clearer or to remove grammatical errors doesn't mean that you have to do it. Of course, this advice is really meant for the near-end stages of writing (not sure where you are now). You know your relationship with your advisor and your committee the best, and you should do what you know is right. But just remember that in the end, it does not have to be perfect, it just has to be complete and good enough that they won't fail you. Hope these thoughts were helpful! A PhD dissertation is not the same as a MSc thesis but they are similar enough that I think our experiences might overlap a bit. Oh and finally, things that look like failures might not be so. Since finishing my MSc, we updated our computer code and got some more results. They are still null results/failures but it turns out the new paradigm that came out when I was in the MSc program also has other unexpected problems. So, although it's been 3 years since my MSc now, we are working on just writing up our attempts and publishing a null result. New discoveries of other types of planetary systems since my MSc might also make our results relevant in other systems. So, maybe the work will be useful to someone else down the road Keep at it!!

1. There aren't any formal definitions of these terms and each school may interpret/use them differently. If you are unsure about any of the terms of your deferral, you should request your school to clarify. But in general, a deferral granted after acceptance means that you and the school have already agreed that you will attend that school, however, you are not starting right away. A deferred decision means that neither you nor the school have decided anything and both parties are postponing the decision for another date. 2. If you are saying that you are being granted a deferral after an acceptance, then you are already accepted. However, financial support/funding offers may not be automatically granted for next year: you may have to compete with the fresh applicants for funding. Again, you should find out what the terms of your deferral offer are by asking the school. Since you say that the school told you that you will get a fresh acceptance letter in 2016, this sounds like the new letter will supercede the 2015 acceptance letter. If you have a funding offer in your 2015 letter, you should talk to the school to find out how they will consider you for funding in 2016 (e.g. will you have to re-compete? will they make the same offer as 2015? etc.).

Moderator note: I put your two essays into one thread. Please do not create a large number of threads solely with GRE help questions.

The F-1 and J-1 student statuses are non-immigrant class visas so there is no path to permanent residency (PR) / green card as a F-1 or J-1. On these statuses, I think the two most common ways are to: 1) gain PR through marriage or a family member or 2) gain PR through the Diversity Visa lottery. Otherwise, you can seek an immigrant-class visa after you finish your studies (e.g. H1-B ).

For more information, you can also try searching for phrases like "Two Body Problem" to find more on this topic (i.e. the challenge of balancing the priorities of both partners' careers). It's a fairly common issue in academia and a lot have been written about the challenge, how some people have approached it, and how others have made it work, and also stories where it doesn't work out. In addition to whatever you get from replies here, further searching might yield additional information! I have not been in this situation myself though (my partner is not an academic). However, I've seen many other people go through the "two body problem", at many different stages (grad school, postdoc, faculty). A lot of people are able to make it work, but often some sort of sacrifice is made as the priorities of each couple is different. But, in no particular order, some solutions are: 1. Couples applying to areas where there are a lot of nearby schools to increase the chances that both will find a position and be able to live somewhere in between where a commute may be long, but not impossible. 2. Couples living apart, but still close enough to each other where they can visit every weekend or every other weekend. 3. Couples living really far apart and make it work long distance. I know of a married couple (both faculty) that live on separate continents. 4. Couples deciding that one partner's career is worth the investment so they move to the best possible location for that partner, and the second person finds the best possible position in that area. This may be easier via soft money positions. 5. Couples who do #4 but alternate which partner goes to the "ideal location" and which partner "finds the best possible position". 6. In some rare cases, partners are able to both be hired/accepted at the same school (or at least in the same city). For the faculty position stage, almost all of my colleagues/friends who are in relationships with another academic have been able to find work for both of them at the same university. Every TT hire has been able to negotiate for at least a term position (postdoc or adjunct or non TT professorship) for their partner at the same school, sometimes on the condition that the other partner funds part or all of their salary through external grants. What they usually do is first achieve that (i.e. a job for both of them for the next 2-3 years) and then spend those 2-3 years going back on the market to find additional TT opportunities for both of them. The goal might be that during these 2-3 years, both partners prove themselves valuable to the University/department and perhaps the University/department will be able to offer a permanent (either TT or research staff) position to the other partner. Or, as I've seen happen many times in the last few years, if the other partner is unable to find a permanent job at that University, they might both move to another University that will take both of them as TT professors. These moves are usually from a top 10 school where only one partner has a TT position (or maybe even tenure at that point) to a lower ranked school that will take both of them. Following this strategy often means taking option #4 above because these kinds of moves are generally downwards (in ranking/prestige) so you want to start as high as possible!

Many international students in my program get US driver's licenses (with no prior driving experience) within a few months by taking lessons. It depends on each person how long it will take you to learn how to drive safely and to pass the test. Lessons can be expensive--in-car lessons (where a driving instructor takes their car to your house/school, picks you up and then sits next to you as you learn to drive) will probably cost between $50 to $100 per hour, depending on where you live. From talking to friends who are learning to drive for the first time, it seems like it takes about 10 hours to learn everything. However, it's important to also practice the skills beyond just the lessons! Practicing generally requires a licensed driver to sit next to you and normally, most people growing up in North America learn to drive by practicing with their parents or an older sibling or relative. As an international student, this is more difficult to arrange and it would generally be too much of a burden to ask a friend to do this for you (although maybe you will make very very nice friends!). To become a confident driver, I think I needed about 30 to 40 hours of total time in a car. So this is a few hours per week for 3 months. In most places, you take a written test first, which grants you a driving permit, which then qualifies you to take lessons and drive with a licensed driver with you. For the final test, which is a practical road test, you will probably need to rent a car through your driving school since it might be difficult to find a rental car company that will rent to someone without any license at all (I was able to use my Canadian license to rent the car to be used in my California road test). I think in general, you would want to book your road test about 1 month ahead of time, because slots fill up fast; however, being a grad student means it might be more possible to book less popular time spots (e.g. middle of the work day).

The GRE Q questions uses technical language that they expect you to understand. This might be tricky for someone who is not very familiar with this type of language but understanding the description/question is actually part of the test! However, I would not call it "trickery" or "wordplay", just precise language ("jargon" perhaps). It's an important skill to properly interpret academic quantitative work. For future/similar questions, remember to read all parts of the graph very carefully. In this case, you see the title says "Percentage of U.S. Population with Health Insurance by age". Whenever we make a bar graph like this and we talk about a percentage or fraction of a certain quantity by age (or any other quantity, it could be gender, academic major, profession, etc.), the percentage or fraction in each group only applies to that age group (or gender, or major, or profession etc.). (The above advice to check that the numbers don't add up to 100% like you originally interpreted is also a good strategy!) Practice, practice, practice is what I would recommend if you are new to this type of language. Make sure you read every piece of information carefully and decide what is important and what isn't important for the question. It will come more naturally once you are more familiar with the questions!

It is really hard to properly interpret these rates because they almost always include such small numbers that you can't really say there is much statistical difference between 8% and 20%. Then, combined with factors that GeoDUDE! mentioned, there's no way to separate factors like "how competitive the school is" and things that vary randomly each year and is out of your control. Therefore, I would not use acceptance rates to help make graduate school application decisions.

Well, this is a distorted figure because I would guess that the majority of applicants do not post their results to their results page. And, people receiving rejections might be less likely to post their result. So, just seeing 2 rejections posted does not tell you much about the actual number of rejections sent out.

Sometimes the rejection letter will be automatically generated by the system when the Fall 2015 season officially closes. This might happen a few months to a year after Fall 2015 starts (some schools will hold onto your application for future years). I don't think the school is technically obligated to ever give a response, but I think it would be good practice for a school to do so. In my opinion, while a school "should" make timely decisions (i.e. send a rejection once they are certain the Fall 2015 class is full), I don't think they are in the wrong if they decide to continue to hold onto application materials from previous years and not send a rejection until they remove/delete your application information.

In the ideal case, your dissertation advisor does all of these things: supervises your research, is responsible for your development as an academic, is an academic mentor to you, and will be your "champion" when you go on the job market. In reality, it's tough to find an advisor that will fill all of these roles to your satisfaction. Some people are really good at some of these things and really crappy at others. My advice is to not limit yourself to just your advisor. The first role, the research supervisor, is really the only role that your supervisor must play. If you are looking for other types of support and training, seek this out yourself by seeking other mentors in your department. Maybe a postdoc or another faculty member will be a better person to train and teach you. Maybe another committee member will be your mentor. I'm not saying that you should take changing schools off the table, but before you do that, you might already be able to find solutions within your department. And how will you know that your next school will have a great advisor for you? I would say that the ideal advisor described above is the exception, not the norm. It might be better to figure out what you can get from your advisor and make the most of that. For the other things that your advisor is not providing, seek it elsewhere rather than to try to extract sub-par mentoring (for example) from them.

I also would not settle: apply for a Fall 2016 start! Keep looking for work and spend the time creating an awesome application.

MathCat--you're coming from Canada right? In general, I found that electronics like phones and computers are cheaper in the US than in Canada. Also, your signature says you are going to be in California--the sales tax here is only 9%, compared to up to 13% in Canada (depending on where you are). I'll use my Nexus 5 as an example: I got my Nexus 5 directly from T-Mobile (sticker price was 400 USD at that time). The way they charge it is you pay $50 downpayment plus all of the tax on the phone (it came to about 90 USD) and then the remaining balance (350 USD) was split into 24 equal monthly payments -- no interests/fees. It's not a contract--I can cancel my T-Mobile plan anytime (but if I do, then the remaining balance owed on my phone is due immediately). The Amazon.ca price for the Nexus 5 is 500 CAD right now. The Amazon.com price is 350 USD. Taking the current exchange rate into account, buying it in the US would cost 450 CAD. So that's already better! Plus, you will be paid in USD when you get here so you don't have to pay the exchange rate. However, it might be tough to come up with 350 USD along with all your other startup costs when moving down here. This is why I mentioned the payment plan option. Getting the phone from T-Mobile will cost 50 USD more but then you only have to pay 90 USD upfront and 400 USD is just over 500 CAD so it's about the same cost as buying it in Canada. I'm not sure what laws govern unlocking of phones in Canada now (I think they are better than they were in 2012) but in the US, T-Mobile and other providers will unlock your phone for you, for free, after a month or so if you are on a monthly plan. So, you don't have to take it to a third party service (and pay) to get an unlocked phone. ** Oh also, the storefronts and websites generally only show the newer phone models. If you are looking for an older model, like the Nexus 5, you can ask them about it in the store and they will order it for you. Sometimes getting a slightly older model could save you money (especially since the Nexus 6 is at a much higher price point than the Nexus 5 was).

Yes this is a possibility. One program in my current school offers this, with guaranteed funding, for a whole year (although if you defer your offer like this, you might not get the same funding package as before--i.e. you might have to TA a lot more instead of being a fellowship). The offer is actually valid to the student for an entire year, even if the student declined their offer! But you can't count on this always being an option. What you should do, as Nerd_For_Life suggests, is to apply for schools this season, and then before April 15 (or whatever decision deadline), you need to choose one of your two options. If you choose military service, you should let the school you want to attend know and ask if you can defer your admission for a year. If they say no, then maybe move onto the next school on your list. If none of the schools you want to attend will let you defer, then you just have to apply again one year later. An important thing to do when asking for a deferral is to ask about the funding. Sometimes they will let you transfer your funding offer to the later year. But other times, you will be reconsidered for funding along with everyone else applying in the following year. This means your funding package might change.

For international service, my T-Mobile plan mentioned above covers this. I get free unlimited international data roaming in a lot of countries (over 100). Sometimes it's only 2G or 3G speeds, but it's great that it's free! I also can make phone calls back to the United States from the international country for a good rate. This is great for international conferences--I can use apps like Facebook or WhatsApp to message other friends and call home to speak with my spouse etc. It's also great when I'm visiting family in Canada.

Follow each school's requirements. Since getting an official/certified translation can be expensive, most schools will only require this once you decide to attend their school. But if they asked for a certified translation for the application, be sure to provide that! This might take extra time, so I would look into all of the requirements for the schools you are interested in very soon.

I have been on a RAship that is paid from a grant for specific things but still was considered an hourly employee (I would log my hours and every two weeks, get paid based on the number of hours that I submitted). I think whether it's a salaried/hourly position or a paid from a grant, if there is an expiry date to the term position, then it is reasonable to expect that all work would be assigned within this time, and not 6 months later! (Of course, unassigned work that was already paid in advance would have to be repaid, no matter what)

Deferral options and policies vary a lot between programs so you would have to ask your specific program. When you ask about deferrals, you should also ask about what happens to your funding (TAship). Will it still be guaranteed at the minimum value next year? If the offer letter promises X years of TAships, does the deferred year count against this limit?

Since you are applying in the same undergrad field (I think?) then it should be less of a stretch. But, the U California schools are still very tough for international students across almost all fields (unless ECE is an exception!)

A couple of separate things to respond to: 1. Yes, it's normal in Canada for us to sign onto monthly payment plans for tuition. Our income is split into two groups: awards/scholarships and employment (TA/RA). Normally, our awards are paid out by the Awards Office at the beginning of each semester. Our employment income (TA/RA) are paid by Human Resources every 2 weeks or every month, depending on the school. Technically, our tuition is due at the beginning of each semester but most schools allow grad students to enroll in automatic monthly deductions (either out of our TA pay or directly from a bank account). 2. It's unlikely your income from TAships will increase drastically in the coming years. You might get cost of living adjustments, but the only real way to earn more money through this is to gain more TA hours. However, in most departments, TA hours are a scarce commodity and you will not generally get more than whatever your offer letter states as a minimum. 3. You may get more support in future years if you are eligible and win awards from the department or the school. You say that there are some tuition offset for international students but all funds have already been awarded this year. So, there may be a chance that you will get one of those next year (especially if the current international students graduate). But no way for us to guess at these chances. I would recommend you proceed as if you are only going to receive TA funding for the entire length of degree. 4. I'm not sure about other countries but in Canada, the field of Law is usually not a field that fully funds its graduate students. This is evidenced by the school's statement that other international students receive even less money. So a lot of what I said in my first post about getting the same take-home pay will not apply since that was more about fields that fully fund their PhD students as a norm. 5. I guess your TA income will just barely pay for your tuition costs. This means, you will have to support yourself through other work or your savings. I don't think I can answer for you whether or not a PhD in Law is worth it. Not only is it a very personal decision for you to make, I also know very little about job prospects in Law! But I wish you best of luck

I think there are two effective ways for international students to move: Most follow aberrant's advice and go very minimal--just get the basics and plan to buy everything in the United States. Especially if there is a climate change, the clothes you buy at home might not work well at your new city. Also, as aberrant points out, if you are flying long distances, bringing a lot of things is just a big hassle. With limited space, I would say that it's better to just buy all the necessities in the US (clothes, toiletries etc.) and save your luggage space for things that you can't get in the United States. Bring sentimental items that make you feel good / remind you of home, etc. The other effective way is to go to the other extreme. When we moved from Canada to the US, we moved almost all of our furniture and everything else we owned. It's a lot easier to do this when we're on the same continent, though it was still several thousand miles. My opinion is that going somewhere in between these two extremes will cost you a lot more money in baggage fees, cost you a lot more time and hassle in managing all your bags, and is generally not as efficient as one of these two extremes. But that's just me!

If the GAship is something like research or academic related, then I would say to go for it! But I know sometimes Masters students have less ideal GAships that are administrative work (e.g. filing at the Registrar's office or giving campus tours). In these cases, if you don't need the money, then spend this time working on you instead! I guess if it's something in between (e.g. tutor at the Writing Center, staff writer for the Media Relations office etc.) then it might be still helpful or it might be a waste of time (if you don't need the income). Since it sounds like you won't be doing a GAship to support yourself, you can be choosy and apply to positions that will help you in some way (or meet some interest of yours).

Hi there, Your class ranking is good. I would say that most of the grad students in North America end up somewhere between the top 30% to the top 50% of their undergraduate classes. Of course, at the prestigious schools, you'll mostly find people in the top 10% or better, but it's not like grad school is limited to the top 10% only! I don't think your class rank will hurt you and in fact, for all of my applications, we are not directly asked our class ranking (our LOR writers might be asked to compare us to other students they have supervised in the past). Are you applying to Physics programs then? If so, I agree with shinigamiasuka that you really need some Physics experience, not just being an enthusiast. I know this might be hard because I've talked to other Bangladeshi students in the past and there seems to be a lack of a Physics program there? Or at least, it seems that a lot of people go into Engineering programs in Bangladesh and then try to get into Physics grad schools. If this is a common thing to do in Bangladesh, then maybe schools will take this in consideration when wondering why you don't have a Physics degree. (i.e. that Physics opportunities are limited for Bangladeshi students interested in Physics). Finally, I notice that in your list of schools, you list a lot of public schools, especially University of California schools. These schools are very hard for international students to get into, and without a physics background, you might be too much of a risk for these schools. You should still apply to them if you feel that they are a good fit, but I would recommend applying to a large number of schools total and to make sure you include private schools on your list (where your international status won't be as much of a hinderance). Overall, I would consider you a "higher risk" applicant because: 1) not a physics major, 2) little research experience, and 3) international student. This means you should apply to a larger number of schools and/or select your programs very carefully.

I definitely agree with this. While I also do agree with random_grad's earlier post that in order to form healthy collegial relationships, you don't always want to strictly follow the letter of your contract and exercise every last bit of your rights, bsharpe makes a good point that the student should also not be expected to incur unreasonable expenses to return to the campus for a contract that strictly ended 6 months ago. My original post came before kwaugust revealed that their GRA was a term appointment that ended last Fall. I'm used to GRAs that are annual appointments, and if that was the case, then kwaugust would have certainly be in the wrong for leaving campus prior to the actual end of their contract/program and that as the boss, Professor B does not have to be flexible at all. However, given that the contract actually did end last fall (no reason to not take the OP's word for it), I don't think kwaugust should be expected to fly back and do this work. But I don't see how it is reasonable for kwaugust to demand that Professor B become more flexible. That is, while I don't think Prof B has any right to force kwaugust to go back to work (as the contract is over), kwaugust also does not have any right to get an accommodation to work out of state (as Professor B is the boss and determines how the work should be done). Normally, I would encourage some kind of compromise since in many cases, a collegial relationship is worth more than following the letter of your contract, but if kwaugust is already out of state, it sounds too unreasonable for them to have to return. Also, it's a personal decision whether each relationship is worth this hassle. But in any case, no matter how you view this or which side you take, I do believe the only sensible solution is to return the money for work not completed. Hopefully this can be done while maintaining a good relationship for the future!

Also, I did the math for some of the companies/plans I was considering and getting a "free" phone with a contract can sometimes be a bad deal! Usually, the contracts that provide a "free" phone cost about $15 to $20 more per month. Most companies also let you buy a phone from them and if you are on a non-contract plan, you are able to split the phone's cost into 24 monthly payments. For example, I bought a Nexus 5 from T-Mobile for $400 (a few years ago, now you can get an unlocked one from Amazon for $350). There was a down payment on the phone but I am paying off that phone in 24 monthly installments of something like $15 per month. If you are on a contract plan though, you will always pay $15 to $20 more per month, even after you would already pay off the value of the "free" phone. I find that paying the higher monthly fees for a "free" phone will result in long term costs overall. The exception of course, is if you want to upgrade your phone every 1-2 years. Then, sometimes the contract plan will save you money in the long run because you can always have the latest phone but not have to pay the full price all the time. This costs more than buying a phone and keeping it for 4-5 years, but what each person chooses to spend their money on is a personal decision! Oh also, I don't know about other companies, but the "insurance" plans from T-Mobile are totally not worth it. They cost around $8/month and while it does cover a lot of things, you still have to pay a deductible. For the Nexus 5, this was $150 (for a $400 phone). I felt that it was better to "self-insure" and just put aside $10 each month so that I can just buy myself a new phone in a few years if/when my phone breaks. But I do have other (personal) insurance that covers things like theft.