TakeruK

I would say that very few programs in my field explicitly require research experience. That is, no application will be thrown out simply because there are no research experience. In fact, I know one of my friends had zero experience (a fellow first generation college student that had no idea grad school was a good option for them until their final year) but perfect GPAs and GREs and they got into a top 3 program at a research focussed institution. However, at my school (also a top 3 program at a research focussed institution), almost everyone in my cohort and cohorts following me have had some research experience (it might have just been 10 weeks over one summer, but there's always something). That said, our graduate program is structured as if our first year projects are our very first research experience ever. There is so much research right away that students with little research experience coming in will very quickly catch up to others with years of undergrad experience.

Also, some schools have different ranking of GAs -- you start as a Graduate Assistant and then get promoted to Graduate Associate (with a pay raise!) when you reach candidacy (I guess this mirrors the Assistant Prof --> Associate Prof when they get tenure!)

Honestly, I don't think the upscale luggage brands are that much better than the cheaper kinds. At least, not for the price difference! My spouse worked at a retail luggage store for awhile to pay for college and she would always tell me and everyone this. This is my 5th year as a graduate student and I have travelled a lot. Most of our luggage is about 5-6 years old and they are still going strong. I found that the Swiss gear brand is pretty good for my smaller carryon piece ($75 for it, but for most trips, it's the only piece I take and I save on checked bag fees every time). The bigger pieces are about $100 but we waited for a buy one get one free (or 50% sale) to get a couple of pieces that end up costing between $50-$75 each. Sure, these lower scale luggage pieces won't stay super pretty and will get bumped up a little bit as you travel but I think luggage is meant to be used, not stored! In my opinion, you can easily pay 2 or 3 (or more) times as much for an upscale brand (e.g. Samsonite etc.) but they are not going to last 2 or 3 times longer. Just buy the cheaper ones, not worry about airlines messing up your luggage and replace them when they no longer work!

I agree with chateaulafitte in the sense that when a new professor is being hired, especially in the sciences, they have some negotiating power, even for things in other departments. For example, they might able to work it out that the hiring department will provide some or all of the funding for you in the literature department. This is not unheard of and actually quite common when both partners are being hired as postdocs or professors. I also agree that if you want to do this, you have to ask for it directly. Hiring departments want to save money too and they want to get the best candidate they can get without spending too much, so if you two want something as a condition of hiring him, he needs to ask. However, I understand that the two of you might decide that asking for this might not be in both of your best interests. For some of the reasons above but also because some people have reported being treated differently when they are a "spousal hire". Your colleagues might not know but the professors/department would know. If you were being hired as a postdoc or professor, then this won't really matter since the other professors will have no need to know about your funding source, but since you are a graduate student, the professors will know more about you. But whether or not you should worry about this is 1) dependent on how your field works (I don't have experience here) and 2) whether or not you care about this.

Yeah, sometimes bureaucracy is really frustrating. But if you think of it from the other point of view, imagine how difficult it would be to ask the hundreds of new international graduate students how they want their forms mailed and then keep track of all that and collect proper payment! Most programs don't start until August or September so at this point, you still have a couple of months before you need your I-20! Good luck though, hope to hear that you receive it soon

Registered mail in the US would have a tracking number. However, the standard method to mail things in North America is "First Class mail" or standard post, which do not have tracking numbers. Registered mail costs about 10x as much as first class mail, I think, so it's not usual for mass-mail documents (like acceptance letters, rejection letters, I-20s, etc.) to be mailed in this way. That is, it is normal for them to just mail standard mail and it will probably take a few weeks to get to you. In general, it's more efficient and economical for schools to just use regular mail as the first step and then use a courier later on if regular mail fails and they need to get it to you ASAP. So I would say, don't worry, the schools are experts at this kind of thing. Just keep an eye on the calendar and contact them if it's a few weeks away from the date you absolutely need the I-20 in order to get your visa on time.

Oh another difference (but not to the school) is taxes. The first five years on J-1 or F-1 status do not count towards the "presence test" for determining your tax filing status (i.e. resident alien or non-resident alien). But if you did your undergrad in the states, then at some point in your grad career, you will likely be filing taxes as a resident alien, which is usually more beneficial!

Yes, there are still considered an international student. They still need to get the right immigration paperwork and if they leave the US (visits home, vacation, conferences etc.), they will have to go through the whole visa application thing again if their visa has expired. But you are right, they are kind of a special case. This is because when people think about disadvantages international students face when applying to US grad schools, there are two related but distinct factors: 1. International students have to pay out of state tuition (at public schools) and are not eligible for a lot of US fellowships/scholarships, so ultimately, they cost a lot more to the department to fund. This is based on citizenship, not how long you've stayed in the US, so an International student with a US undergrad is treated the same way as an international student with an international undegrad in this regard. 2. International students might have unfamiliar degree names, attended unfamiliar schools/programs, and thus might have a different curriculum. For better or for worse, reputation of your research advisors and undergraduate program does affect graduate admissions somewhat and generally, it is harder to get into a US grad school if you are an international student at a school that is not well known in the US. So, an international student with a US undergrad would be comparable to a domestic student in this way.

Thanks for the tips CrucialBBQ. I actually have not seen the list of charges yet. We did the inspection and returned the keys on Sunday and the building manager mentioned that everything looks good and that they only expect charges for cleaning the carpet (unless they choose to replace them, then it will be no charge to us) and cleaning the windows ($110 is what they said the "standard" price was, which sounds excessive to me). But weirdly, the manager also said things like "since it is clear that you guys tried to clean things as best as possible, we'll only charge a percentage of that" so the subjective nature makes me a little uncomfortable! California state law says they have to return our deposit minus any fees/charges (which must be itemized) within 21 days, so I guess we'll find out the final charges in a few weeks. We do have pictures of how dirty the carpets and windows were when we moved in so we'll be able to contest charges if necessary. Maybe it will all work out though. I know our lease does include a carpet cleaning fee and we took that in consideration when comparing places initially. It seems like every single place here charges that though. The rent market is kind of weird here where the market price is already so high that landlords are afraid of raising rent (in the entire 2.5 years there, our rent never went up) but then there's all these weird practices that they use to recoup expenses, like cleaning fees and requiring tenants to sign for another X months after the first lease expires (our place didn't do this). These practices are explicitly illegal in many parts of Canada (not to keep bringing that up, but just an example of how strange American systems can be to an international student).

I can't help you with your specific dilemma since I know very little about your field! But I just want to say two things: First, congratulations on getting into two great schools that you love! I think you deserve some time to reflect the choice (but probably a good idea to turn down the other three at this point). Second, it's completely normal to feel this way. Someone said to me that no matter what you choose, even if you are choosing your top choice, it's normal to feel some guilt and regret/doubt because no matter how great the best school ever is, it's never as great as the potential of awesomeness at all the good schools. However, it's important to remember that the latter thing is not really real--you can't actually attend more than one school! Sorry I can't be more help! But just remember, you made it this far with good decisions and when you make the decision for this next step, trust in yourself to be able to decide in your own best interest And it's normal to feel guilty about turning down good schools, but it's something you have to do!!

Yes I would feel safer. I also tend to rent from big landlord companies (ones that own several buildings in the same city) rather than individual people renting out the single building (or single apartment!) they own. But whether or not this makes one feels better depends on each person!

Travel opportunities are one of the big reasons why I am interested in academia and grad school Of course, it's not the only reason I'm interested in my work but travel opportunities were one of the big items in the "pro" column when I was considering career options! Also, it was a consideration in my final decision in grad school. Sometimes I feel like I'm in one of the best fields for traveling -- as a planetary scientist, I get to travel for work for conferences, geological field trips, and astronomical observing trips to telescopes, a triple whammy of awesomeness!

Also how high of an attrition rate are you looking at? Compare it to the national average too, not just the other school (i.e. maybe UB has the lowest attrition rate in the country and UA has the 10th lowest, so the numbers seem higher at UA but really not that high in the grand scheme of things?). In my field, attrition is about 50% on average (specific schools might range from 30% to 60%). I also agree that the "why" people leave is much much more important than the actual number of people leaving. For example, in the sciences, people often leave because they found better opportunities after 3 or 4 years (i.e. the type of job they were trying to get to with a PhD) so there's no point finishing. Or are people leaving for personal reasons (family illness, two body problem etc.)--at small departments, coincidence can cause 3-4 people to leave with personal reasons in a short period of time, resulting in a spike in attrition rates.

In my opinion, you should not ask for more funding until you are certain you want to go there. At the graduate school level, leveraging funding is not a way to make all the schools increase their offers. Instead, the correct (in my opinion) process is to first pick the school you want to attend (School A). Then, decide how much money you need to attend that school and let the School A know that you really want to attend, however, you don't think you can afford to live on the stipend because of X, Y, Z reasons. If you have a offer from another similar school (similar in both ranking/prestige and cost of living) then you can "leverage" them by saying something like "Well, School B offered $BBB per year, can you match that?". If School A agrees to match it, you should accept School A right away. If they can only go part of the way or cannot match it at all, then you'll have to decide if A with the lower stipend or B with the higher stipend is better for you. But you should not use School A's slightly increased offer to leverage yet another school! (And depending on field, yes it could matter if the school is upset at you for wasting their time trying to find you funding just for you to use it to leverage a third school. Even if you don't go there--you'll see the same people around over and over again in your academic life).

No this sounds right! Taxes are supposed to be paid according to how much you make, and no disrespect, but $19,000 is not that much to live on, so the government better be taxing you less! Don't forget that if you keep receipts for mandatory educational expenses (e.g. textbooks) then you can also claim them as deductions too. Sorry to hear that I'm a Canadian citizen and a US non-resident, so I pay American taxes only on US income but Canadian taxes on all my worldwide income. However, graduate student income is not taxable in Canada (TA and RA ships are considered employment, not student income so they are taxable; however, since I get that letter from my school saying no services are performed, all of my US income is non-taxable in Canada!)

Or, think about it the reverse way--how many hours do you want to spend on school and work each week? During coursework heavy years, I'd say 50-ish hours is standard and I spend about 9-10 hours per week per course (including everything that has to do with the course, e.g. lectures, reading, homework, studying). So, if I was TAing 20 hrs/week, I'd take 3 courses. If you are expected to do research as well, then perhaps 20 hours of TA + 30 hours of courses won't work. But also keep in mind that depending on your program, the 20 hours might be a maximum, not an average. My current program has a TAship set to 15 hours per week, but I probably spend only 8-10 hours on average (3 hours attending the lectures, 3 hours grading, 2 hours preparing for and holding recitations/office hours and 2 hours creating problem sets [but not every week]). I would recommend talking to your advisor about load (and making sure you meet their research expectations too, if any) and perhaps aiming for 50 hours of total commitment for the first semester then adjusting later as you realise you need to spend more/less time on each of your responsibilities (teaching, research, courses).

If you are in Ontario then you might be eligible for the OGS (Ontario Graduate Scholarship). It's too bad that you can't take NSF funding to Canada Canada allows me to take NSERC funding to the US (albeit at a reduced award level)!

I was surprised to see these charges too, when moving to the US. In many places in Canada, such fees are illegal and landlords are expected to pay for their own credit checks on you since that is considered a business expense. Similarly, I just moved out of my first US apartment and it sounds like they are going to charge me to clean the carpet and windows from my security deposit--again, this is another "cost of business" expense in Canada that the landlord is expected to pay for as part of renting. However, I suppose that if the landlord has to pay for it out of pocket, then they would just get the money through our rent or whatever. Just frustrating All that said, I would be very cautious of paying fees online without seeing the place first. This is a very common scam in North America, where the "landlord" or "agent" will list an apartment that doesn't really exist or they don't really own. They will collect your fee and then disappear! If there is no way for you to come in person to see the apartment, please do as much as you can to ensure the apartment is 1) real and 2) is actually livable (many places have very misleading photos). One way you can do this is to get an apartment building recommendation from someone you know or another student in your program. Ideally, you would come to the city a little early and try to find a place during the first week or so (stay in a motel or graduate housing if possible).

I think it is a little high but definitely not unreasonably high. At my last school, the minimum passing grade is a B- so it makes sense that an academic funding package would require you to do better than the minimum. In addition, it would be worrisome for a grad student to be barely making the minimum passing grade in all of their courses. Also, as others said, grading at the graduate level is different. I would say that the "average" grade in my program is A- (3.7). If you underperformed in a course, you might end up with a B+, if you did well then you get an A, and if you do really really well, then A+. Our professors tell us that we should aim for a A- average!

100% agreed with fuzzy. Another bad practice is that some schools take in a lot of first year students and funds them all with TAships. However, funding in later years is not as available and the school uses the quals exam to fail/weed out a fraction of their students. In my opinion, when a school accepts a student, they should be willing to support that student all the way through, assuming acceptable performance. If there is doubt whether the student can succeed, they should not have been accepted.

This was the timeline for me: Accepted offer in mid-March In April, the International Student Office contacted me with information they needed for I-20. I responded with the information. My form arrived via mail in mid-May.

I don't think there is a straight answer to that. Just treat the UK schools like US schools as long as you keep the above considerations in mind. After considering for the distance, do you still feel that the UK schools give you a better opportunity at your goals?

Only if e.g. School B requires you to make a decision by a certain date, and that date is coming up, so that they know there is a deadline coming up, then you should email School A to request your status (and let them know that B has a deadline coming up). If the other acceptances say April 15, then there's no point to email to request your status. If you don't send the email, then you have to either choose B without knowing the result from A, or decline B and hope A accepts you (and risk not getting an offer from A). If you send the email and know for sure you won't get to go to A (e.g. they say "fine, go to B then"), then you know that you are not missing out on A when you choose B!

No matter how it may play out in later courts, I still think this is very worrying that it has even happened. Personally, I have always chose to use off-campus medical providers whenever possible because I don't want the possibility of my health records being connected to my student record. Luckily, my student insurance covers me the same whether I use on-campus or off-campus facilities. Our graduate student organization talked about this issue earlier this month and we are trying to determine the best course of action. Maybe ask the school to waive their FERPA rights to access medical records? (Unlikely this will work). We probably will go the route of informing students this can happen and letting people make their decisions. I can also imagine a lot of other issues that can come from this. For example, a student who is seeking mental health treatment/services from the counseling center later sues the school because of some mistreatment. Would the school be able to use the student's medical records against them? This is extremely concerning, to me, as it may compromise our ability to seek the best care for ourselves. Like the author of one of the articles states, to me, this is a misuse of FERPA and just like applicants waive their FERPA rights to view LORs, I think schools should waive their FERPA rights to access medical records. Or, FERPA should be modified to properly protect student medical records!

Just throwing in my two cents too: To answer your two questions: You are definitely a good candidate for PhD programs! The two USRA experiences would more than make up for not having an honours thesis. My earth science department (at one of the schools you list) regularly accepts people without an undergraduate degree in the exact field they are applying to graduate school for. Additional tips: 1. I agree with the above poster that as an international student, you will have a much easier time getting into private schools than public schools. I think it's fine that you have Berkeley and UCLA on that list, but if you were to add more schools to it, I would add private schools. 2. Knowing how to code is really important for geophysics in my program. The language of choice here seems to be MATLAB, but really, if you know how to code in one, it's not that hard to learn another. 3. Apply for the NSERC PGS-D this fall !! Bringing in external funding is great. I would not start contacting professors just yet, as many programs are still figuring out admits for Fall 2015. However, you should start reaching out to professors this summer. Mention that you are applying to the PGS-D which requires a research proposal (but does not bind you to actually carrying out that research). The collaborative process of writing this proposal for a potential PhD project is also really helpful to determine your research interests, which is good practice for grad school applications too. 4. You have another 9 months or so before you start applying to schools -- try to get as much research experience in geology/geophysics as possible. Are you eligible for another USRA this summer? If so, do it in geophysics research! It seems like my program either values a rich research background or extremely high GPAs and test scores. You already have above-average research experience and excellent GPAs and test scores, so adding more research will really make your profile stellar.