TakeruK

When applying to PhD programs (I was finishing up a MSc), I talked to several North American professors about getting a PhD in the UK if I want to work in North America. It turns out that (at least in my field) there are three main disadvantages to a UK PhD for those looking to work in North America. But there is a "remedy" for each. 1. PhD programs are shorter, which can be good and bad. The good is obvious! The bad is that with only 3 years, it's tough to get a lot of papers out. I've experienced this first hand too -- It took me 2.5 years in my current PhD program to get my first paper out but with that foundation, I expect to get 2 more papers this calendar year. If I were to leave for a postdoc after 3 years, the transition would greatly delay paper production. So, a UK PhD graduate usually cannot compete as strongly against North American PhD graduates for prestigious postdoctoral fellowships because your paper count matters and due to the "startup time", you can be way more productive in 5 years than 3 years. It's also not just paper count--someone with 5 years has more time to gain exposure via conference talks, networking etc. So, North American profs tell me that usually if you go to the UK or Europe for a PhD (with the intent of returning), you usually end up doing a 3 year PhD + 2-3 year postdoc before you are able to compete against North American PhDs. Luckily, most prize postdocs allow PhDs from the last 3 years to apply, not just new graduates, but this would mean you might miss out on a few postdoc opportunities. 2. Schools abroad may not have as much of a reputation in North American research circles. However, this is definitely not a concern when you are talking about schools like Oxford and Cambridge!! 3. Being on another continent means it's hard to network with North American colleagues. Conferences in North America are going to cost a lot more. Also, in my field, many PhD students in their final year do talk circuits where they try to give as many department symposia as possible prior to or during the postdoc application cycle. This is harder to arrange from another continent. However, with work, one can overcome it, and if you have family in North America, you might combine a personal and business visit.

At every school I've been to (Canadian and American), Spring Break is just a break from classes. All the graduate students, professors, and administrative staff are still working. In some places in Canada, we close for Good Friday and Easter, but in California, it appears that neither of those dates are holidays. So I don't expect any admissions related decisions to be delayed by Spring Break. In fact, since the load on professors from courses is now lightened, they might even have more time to devote to things like admissions! On the other hand, for schools with semesters that end at Spring Break, the week prior to Spring Break might cause delays as profs have to submit grades by a certain time.

Is there any reason to actually accept the program before April 2-3? For example, is there a funding opportunity that would be missed if you wait? If not, then there is nothing in it for you to accept early. What if the visit turns out completely unexpected and everything you thought about this school was wrong?? I understand wanting to make a choice and move on but you can do this without formally accepting. I think it's okay to get in the "I'm going to School X" mindset. You can start tentatively planning the move and all that stuff if you're excited about it! Also, I agree with the others that a visit day is more than just helping you choose. I was pretty sure I would pick a certain school (and I did!) so I spent some of the visit day times to walk around neighbourhoods where I might live to scout out potential apartments etc. In the meantime, you can even decline/withdraw all but one of your other applications too. I'm sure other students waiting to hear from those programs would appreciate it. Since I'm assuming you'd visit other schools before April 2, once you decide what is your "2nd choice", you can decline/withdraw from the rest!

Agreed that factoring in cost of furniture is important. Our mattress + couch alone cost us about $1600 (most of that is from the mattress since we figure if we're spending 1/3 of our lives in bed, might as well invest in a good one) so moving those two items is almost worth the U-Box cost. There were a few boxes of items of sentimental value that would be tough to move via plane (would have to check a few items and hope they don't break) and then a bunch of boxes of completely replaceable things (sheets, towels, clothes etc.) but we figured it was worth the $200 to put them in the U-Box and save the time and hassle.

In Canada, at all the major schools, TAs are unionized. At some schools, the RAs are also unionized. TAs are generally considered public service employees, much like government employees (since all the major schools in Canada are public schools). Even if you are a TA who is not unionized in Canada, you are still considered an employee with all the employee rights. In the United States, it's much more rare for a union to represent TAs and it's also common for TAs to not be considered employees.

Yes, I really really appreciated the lump sum in September to cover all of the moving costs and apartment deposits etc. And this was in 2010 when I started a Canadian graduate program as a Canadian. Unfortunately, the US school I'm currently at do not pay this way but they did offer a $2500 no interest, no fees loan for starting students, which was helpful to cover all the extra fees associated with moving!

Indeed, if we knew in advance it would be 4 weeks, it would have been fine! But in hindsight, if we had spent an extra $1200-$2000 for a different service, that would be money we didn't really have and we'd be stressed out for other reasons too. Moving sucks

First, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that prestige matters. Sure, I agree that hiring based on prestige reflects social inequality and that academia is not at the ideal quality level. But, other workplaces in the world are also not at equality. I don't think there is any reason to expect academia to be special and different from the rest of the working world. Second, I do not believe a meritocracy is the ideal state for academia or any working world. I am in favour of a system where resources/materials are granted to those who need it, and I think that in many cases, the distribution of resources that is the most fair/equal is not necessarily the same distribution as the most meritorious. I think building a system based on merit is not ideal especially since many studies show that humans are not impartial and implicit biases impair our ability to determine merit accurately. And finally, I do not agree with the authors' statement that professors at higher ranked schools should produce more papers/research etc in proportion to placement rate (see bolded statement from quote below). Why should it be a linear relationship between scholarship production and professorship production? I would think that a logarithmic relationship makes more sense. If scholarship ability is normally distributed amongst the population, then I don't think this linear relationship makes sense. And we don't really have a very good way of measuring "scholarship output". Overall, I agree with the authors that the faculty at the top schools are not super-beings compared to faculty at lower ranked schools. I am at a top school and the administration here openly admits this. They say that our faculty are the best not because they are special in some way, but because the school provides with them all the resources necessary to succeed and produce great science. A meritocratic perspective would be to ensure the people my school hires are actually the very best so that they make the best use of the resources. However, I think an equally valid perspective would be that we just need to hire people that are "good enough" to not waste the resources. In addition, since there are other aspects to being a researcher than scientific production (such as teaching, mentorship, being able to work well with others), I would say it's more important to consider other factors besides merit.

At my current school (private), we are told on the first day that we should expect no privacy with our .edu email address and that if the school wanted to, they can read all of our emails. We are still allowed to send personal emails from that address, but we should just know that the school can choose to read our .edu emails if they wanted to. So it's not just public universities! Also, in my program, a big part of the meeting days is scheduled 15-30 min talks with individual graduate students. This is the best time to ask those personal and well worded questions. I've met with students that asked me a variety of things and some of them were good questions and some bad. Example bad questions to ask (i.e. you will get an evasive answer or just useless information): What do you hate about this program? (especially if it's the first thing you ask); Have you heard anything bad about any of the professors? (this is too much like gossip for us to give useful info); What is grad school here like? (not necessarily a bad question, but many people ask this as a way to get information about the negatives but if you ask this, you will mostly get the positives). Good questions I think you should ask: What is Prof X's mentoring style like? (if Prof X is that student's advisor and your POI). Is the stipend enough to live in this city? What other schools did you visit? Why did you choose this school over the others? Why did you pick Prof X over the others? You can also ask specific questions about different aspects of your program, such as quals, candidacy, TAing, RAing, etc. If there are anything bad/dysfunctional about these aspects, it will come up during the conversation. Overall, in order to get good/useful information, I think you have to ask direct and specific questions. Asking broad and general questions usually results in me saying more good things than bad and unless I know or trust you, I don't volunteer bad information about other people without prompting. The "bad questions" examples are things I feel are too general and I would rarely give you useful "negatives" if asked those questions.

That sounds right. When you say you "won't be a resident when [you] move to Indiana", do you mean that you won't be an Indiana state resident, or a United States resident. If you are American / US resident for tax purposes, then you still get the standard deduction on your federal taxes. Also for what it's worth, in California, my stipend is clearly "not for work" (we even get a letter stating that "no services were performed in exchange for the money paid") but it is still definitely a taxable scholarship. Obviously, trust tax accountants over random internet people, but for other people reading this, just saying that it's not always true that no work = non-taxable scholarship.

Writing about a merit based research fellowship awarded by your home country could fit in your SOP. But I don't know if having simply applied to it is worth a mention. If you are already awarded one, or if you are on a short-list then I think it's worth discussing it. Winning research fellowships shows that you are a competitive applicant and this is relevant to a SOP. The other stuff I would definitely not mention though--not related to the purpose of the SOP at all.

I guess I just haven't had a conference in a place like that yet! I still check AirBnB every time to ensure I use grant money most efficiently but since there are always 6-10 students from my program at every major conference, it's pretty easy to find a roommate (or sometimes I try to room with friends from undergrad that I haven't seen for awhile). A 7 minute bus ride is certainly worth saving $190 per night!!

The U-Box looks small but it actually fits a LOT more than you might guess. You probably already know it but you basically want to pack every single cubic centimeter of it so that you maximize your value and so that things don't shift around and get damaged. The furniture that we were able to fit were: 1. Queen sized mattress + boxspring + disassembled bed frame 2. Couch 3. 2 nightstands (really, tiny dressers) 4. 1 tall dresser 5. 1 filing cabinet 6. 1 smaller dresser And then we took a lot of boxes filled with our things (all of our kitchen appliances, our small flatscreen TV, guitar, picture frames). Like 30-40 boxes fit inside. Other than furniture, we did not have to get rid of any of our things--they all fit inside! Our goal was to fit at least $1800 of stuff inside and we were able to achieve that! If you really really want to know, I can dig out our inventory list (required for customs since we shipped across the border). I don't think a second U-Box would have been worth it for us since the furniture we left behind was worth about $600 by our estimate (plus not all of it would fit in our new place anyways). I do have to warn you about our experience with U-Haul's U-Box program. The local UHaul somehow did not know about our U-Box reservation. They could not get us a box because it is in a certain area of the warehouse that only the manager can access (?? not sure why) and the manager didn't want to be bothered on a Sunday. However, our flight was leaving the next day! The employees did not want to work with us to figure out an alternate solution either--they just said "sorry, there is no box, come back another day" basically. We could not even call their store because they automatically route their phone to a national hotline. We were extremely frustrated since we did confirm with the location about our reservation in person a few days before and there was a "sample/model" U-Box sitting outside (they said we couldn't use it). Finally, after 2 hours of trying to figure out a solution (they refused to do anything to help us get in touch with other U-Haul locations--maybe because they are all independently owned?), one of the employees that just arrived for their shift suggested using the sample U-Box and the others finally agreed! The location staff also did not know what paperwork was required and there were forms that I would have missed if I did not read the instructions that came with the UHaul reservation! The shipment was supposed to take 2 weeks, but another mistake by UHaul employees delayed it by 1 week and then some transportation related issue delayed it by another week, so it took 4 weeks in total. Luckily, we did pack a lot of essentials (including an air mattress) in our checked luggage so we ended up camping in our apartment for the first month. You should know that U-Haul ships its U-Boxes via a third party transport company that does not provide any tracking related information to UHaul. So when it was delayed on the other side, we had no idea for those 2 weeks if everything was lost and we would have to file a claim, or if it's still on its way!! However, since UHaul locations are independently owned and operated, the service and competence you get can vary greatly. At our new location, the UHaul manager there was extremely sympathetic and did everything he could to get us additional information, including giving us his personal cell number in case we needed to reach him. When the U-Box finally arrived, they waived all charges on the truck rental required to get our stuff from the UBox to our apartment. Overall, UBox was still much cheaper than other options. Other box/pod options quoted us $3000-$4000 and our quote for driving a truck ourselves was the same ballpark as yours (plus there is the added stress of actually having to drive it). If we knew in advance that it would actually take 4 weeks instead of 2, we would still go with UBox, but we would have been better prepared and also less stressed out. Finally, plenty of other people I know have used U-Box without issues, so I think it really could be location dependent! I would strongly recommend that you triple check your reservation with the actual store (make sure you are talking with the store staff, not the U-Box hotline) and that you have enough stuff with you in case of a 1-2 week delay.

Most Canadian universities charge you tuition as a completely separate process from paying your stipend. You will either have to pay the entire semester's tuition at the beginning of the semester, or enroll in a monthly payment plan and pay your semester's tuition in equal monthly installments. Even if you get a tuition waiver, this usually comes in the form of a fellowship/stipend payment first, then you use the money to pay tuition afterwards. At most schools, you get your fellowship/award money in a lump sum at the beginning of each semester (or year), and you get TA or RA payments in biweekly or monthly paycheques (like any other job).

Is there a reason you need to know now? Is there another deadline you have to meet prior to April 15? If so, then mention it in your email. Ask for an update because you need to make a decision on another school by X date. If not, then don't send this email.

It sounds like you did everything right actually. This is exactly what I would have recommend you to do if you told me the details ahead of time and asked for advice.

I'd echo everything said above, especially about the paper trail comments and honesty to individuals rather than the group. However, there is a small incentive for us to get you to come to our program. If we think you are a good student / researcher, it is in our best interests to get you to come. If you come and do good work, it will advance our department/school's reputation and the more people that think "wow, students from school X are really good", the better it is for us, when we apply for jobs with School X on our CVs.

No, there is progressive taxes** and also exemptions. See the wikipedia article for an example. **Progressive taxes means you pay tax on each portion of the income separately. For example, the first $0-$9076 earned is only taxed at 10% and you only pay 15% on the portion above $9076.

No, you cannot interview or apply for a visa while in the US because a visa is for entry into the US only. You don't need a visa if you are already in the US. However, you still need to get F-1 status to legally reside in the US for school. I am not certain if you can get status while in the US. Perhaps you can do an "adjustment of status" as mentioned above.

My wife and I used a UHaul U-box from near Toronto to Southern California, a really long distance! We sold or donated most of our big furniture and just kept everything that is high value (we considered the value per unit volume). Our mattress and couch make up most of our value. We ended up paying about $1800 total to move it all. We paid for it from our savings since my graduate stipend in Canada was pretty good and with my spouse working as well, we were able to save up some money.

It might just be my experience, but I've looked at airbnb for all of the conferences I've been going to recently and I have yet to find a better deal with airbnb if I want a place near the conference center (i.e. usually downtown) and if I want my own place (i.e. not just a room in an existing family's house). These conditions are the same as if I just shared a room at the conference hotel (super convenient to be able to just go downstairs instead of having to commute). I usually pay $80/night for conferences if I share a room at the conference hotel with a friend but most airbnb places come out to about $100-$140 per night.

I currently pay taxes in California too. You have the right idea but you made a few errors in your calculations because you forgot to include the exemptions/deductions (i.e. you would not pay tax on all of your income). If you are not a resident for tax purposes, you can only claim the personal exemption which is about $4000, so you only pay tax on $15,000 of income. If you are a resident, then you get an additional standard deduction. I am not a resident and my stipend is around $30,000 before tax. I pay about 14% in taxes. So you should expect to pay less!

Differences in funding also comes from differences in funding sources. At my last school, every TA and RA on campus is paid the same hourly wage, yet some programs tend to pay their students more overall than others. This could result in the amount of TA load -- some programs hire their students for 5 hours/week TA, or 10 hours/week, or 20 hours/week. Some departments also have extra funding that they use to award fellowships to their students. And finally, probably the biggest difference, is that in some fields, we are paid RA hours for the work we do on our thesis and in others, students are not paid for their thesis work. Usually, the fields that can pay RAships for thesis work are the fields where professors can apply for grant money to hire workers.

I'd second rising_star's suggestion to make invitations to places you like going yourself! Also, while drinking together is probably the main way our program socializes (e.g. the first years get $80-$100/week to buy drinks for a social hour each Friday), it is not the only way and people who do not drink still find other ways to hang out! No one will think you are weird or otherwise ostracize you if you do not want to drink. If it does turn out that your cohort/department is small and that everyone there likes to drink and the majority of social events happen in places you don't feel comfortable in, then don't forget that there is a large graduate student community outside of your department too! Although it is convenient for many graduate students to make close friendships within their department, graduate students can and do join clubs that span the whole campus! You will definitely be able to find some student group on campus that shares similar interests

In addition, sometimes you can accelerate your airline membership "elite" status if you do things like get a rewards credit card that grants you miles/points with other purchases. This usually means you have to pay an annual fee though. You can get around it by just having it for the first year (first year usually free) and then canceling it. Also, although things are changing, elite status usually means something like X miles or Y flight segments per year. Some students I knew do "mile runs", where they purposely fly for 24-48 hours straight, in a series of very short flights that take them back to their hometown. They do this during a really good seat sale and they might get something like 8-10 flights for a few hundred dollars. They do this to gain a ton of miles/points for free flights (some airlines guarantee something like 500 points/miles no matter how far you actually fly) and elite status which then means free upgrades for all other flights as well as increasing the ratio of miles/points earned. The people that do this are mostly people that need to travel really far (e.g. international students). They told me that for less than $1000, they can earn enough miles/points to redeem for a $1500-$2000 flight home, and as a bonus, get an upgrade to first class too. However, it seems like airlines are wising up to this system, because a lot of airlines are now adding a "Minimum $$ spent" to reach elite status too, not just flight segments!!