TakeruK

It sounds like to me that one of the following situations are true: 1. The school has not admitted everyone yet, and they are telling everyone that they interviewed and thought did well that they will be on a waitlist. Maybe they have 10 spots and after they interview everyone, they decide who goes from waitlist to accepted. 2. The school has immediately accepted a few top candidates and they are waitlisting everyone else until all interviews are completed and they can then decide who gets the last few spots. 3. The school has already filled its quota and they have put you on a waitlist but they are still interviewing other people to determine position on the waitlist. Perhaps you were in the second round of interviews and they are expecting quite a few people in the first round to decline the offer so they want a strong waitlist. I think if it's the first two cases, perhaps the wait-list should really be called a "short list" in this case. In response to your other questions: - You probably did not do anything wrong. In most cases, it's not a matter of being "good enough" for grad school, most applicants would be. However, when there are limited spots, they can only make offers to the best candidates. It might be possible that no matter how well you interviewed, there were just too many people with better everything else. - You should tell them about your other offer and that you have only one week left to decide. If you were already at the top of their shortlist (cases 1 and 2 above), you might get a decision sooner because they won't want to lose you. At the same time, you should ask your backup school about having a few extra weeks to decide. - Remember to try your best to be patient with both schools

I would say it is possible to get by without a car in Kingston, but it would be much easier to have a car. Kingston Transit has about a dozen routes total (*so few that bus drivers chat with each other on the radio, discuss what books they read last night etc, which is pretty fun but it gives you an idea of how few buses are running at a time) and at peak hours, the buses come every 30 minutes. For the busy streets, there are more than one route that serves it so there may be a bus that goes in the right direction every 15 minutes. For commuting to work on a regular schedule, transit is not bad. I had a printout of my options to go home in my office so I know what times I have to leave in order to not waste 30 minutes at a bus stop. It's a little bit inconvenient to have less freedom, but it was still a lot better than my 1-1.5 hour bus commute to UBC during undergrad. The problem with transit is that once "evening" hits (around 5pm), about half the routes stop running and the ones that continue go to one bus every hour. Once in awhile, a bus would unexpectedly not show up. This makes it very difficult to get home after an evening event (or working late). In particular, I would generally have much better luck walking home (45-50 minute walk) after e.g. celebratory dinner with colleagues (someone passed quals, submitted a paper whatever) than waiting for a bus (up to a 60 minute wait, usually in the cold). Also, Sunday buses operate with a reduced schedule as well. I commuted via bus during the weekdays and used the car for groceries and errands on weekends. I can't imagine an effective way of getting around town via bus on weekend, unless you are going directly to one store, getting your stuff, and then bussing home. But you would have to make sure you finish your errands within the time between buses! My preference was to get certain things at certain stores so having to take the bus would have taken a lot of precious weekend down time. Biking is possible but doesn't happen in Kingston for 5-7 months each year due to snow and ice coverage. I suppose some people do manage to bike year round, but I'm not skilled enough to bike on ice/snow! Also, Kingston is a very car-city (many people commute to Kingston from its many rural suburbs) so there aren't a lot of bike lanes or roads that are particularly bike-friendly. Finally, Kingston is small in population, but it's actually pretty spread out. I would say the town has the mall at one end of Princess Street (NW) and Princess Street leads right to downtown and the harbour. Here is the route map: http://www.cityofkingston.ca/documents/10180/1596803/MAP_AllRoutes.pdf/dc1defa3-0680-4dcb-be22-fb3f4475cdca The text in capital pink writing denotes the main transfer points and the time on the bus between any two transfer point is usually either 15 minutes or 30 minutes, depending if you see the route be direct or wind through the residential areas. I see that they have renumbered and change some of the routes since 2012 though, so things may be a little different. I would recommend living near one of the transfer points, especially one that has a bus that goes by Queen's if you plan to live without a car. In 2012, the routes that go past Queen's are #2, #3, #6 and #18. Maybe the new express routes go by Queen's too. The buses are sparse so I think without a car, I would feel pretty isolated and I would feel that a lot of the town would be out of reach due to the amount of time/hassle it would take to get there. But, plenty of students at Queen's have cars though. I would often pick up some of my classmates and we would go to the big box shopping stores together (e.g. Costco, Walmart, the mall etc.). In general, having a car opens up a lot of the town to you and will give you more options on where you can live!

I am not an expert and apologies if this is a stupid question. But, my question is what are the arguments for government regulation and control of Bitcoin? Why can't people be free to use whatever they want as currency?

I think whether it's common or appropriate depends on the norms of your field. Some programs might subscribe to some ideal world where money should not matter at all and our sole motivation should be to our research. But I feel this is both unrealistic and unfair as this mindset favours those who have personal funds to be able to afford living on a low stipend. This would mean graduate school is less accessible to those with less favourable economic backgrounds. In addition, I also think graduate students should be considered entry level employees, rather than simply people devoted to the field (we can be both!) and like most jobs, salary is usually a fair topic of discussion before starting. These beliefs are a big part of who I am and I don't really take measures to hide these beliefs (I don't over express it either), so I personally did not worry very much about what the program might think of me if I asked about an increase in funding. I also think that the number of people that subscribe to the ideal of "the ability to study your field is your payment" and/or "grad students is a rite of passage where you must live in poverty" is probably decreasing as time goes on and we have a more diverse group of people in faculty positions. That said, even if it is appropriate to negotiate for funding in your field, there are still many wrong ways to do it! I don't think it would hurt to politely ask about an increase in funding if you don't think the current offer is high enough. I actually do not have any experience asking for more money by using another school's offer though. I think if you do this, you should make sure that the two schools/locations are roughly equal. For example, a lower ranked school may be able to make you a higher stipend offer because you would be at the top of their candidate pool there and thus eligible for the best fellowships while you may be an "average" candidate at the higher ranked school. You should also keep in mind the location and cost of living, not just direct numbers. Finally, in my opinion, you should reserve the "this other school offered me $X, can you match that?" only at the very end of your decision making process. You should not just use other schools' offers to get schools to "bid" higher. That is, don't just do this to see how much schools are willing to pay. I think that if you are going to ask a school to increase their offer, you should be prepared to accept their offer almost right away if they do match it.

I don't know where you are currently living so it's hard to compare! Also, note that a lot of the posts in this thread are 3-4 years old, or more!! I wrote about Kingston housing in the "Queen's University" thread, I think. I'll write another version here anyways. I lived in Kingston from 2010 to 2012, and my wife and I found a very nice 1 bedroom place that was away from the campus and very quiet and well maintained. I can even recommend an excellent landlord company that has many buildings in Kingston (varying quality and prices): http://www.homestead.ca/search/kingston-apartments-for-rent/ We lived in one of the buildings near the Kingston Centre shopping area (and bus loop). Our building was very new (built in 2004) and it was a 5 minute drive to Queen's (however, my wife took the car to work so the bus takes about 20-30 minutes because of the crappy bus system and the strange routes). Our rent was just under $900/month for a 1 bedroom place (about 650 sq ft) and includes the $50/month fee for 1 underground parking spot (very recommended). Here are some things to know about the Kingston housing market, assuming that you have no experience renting in Ontario at all: 1. Things that are true all across Ontario: (if you are from Ontario, you probably know this already!) The Ontario Tenant Act is very strict and very pro-renter. Here are some things you should know about renting in Ontario that are interesting to students: 1.1) The notice to vacate is 60 days. You must give your landlord 60 days notice to terminate the lease. For major landlord companies (like the one I linked above), they fill up vacancies within a few days of being listed. When we gave notice to our landlord, we had people interested in seeing the units right away and the landlord told us someone signed a lease shortly afterwards (which was nice, there was no parade of people going in to see the units). Therefore, if you want to move in a nice place for Sept 1, you should be signing a lease around the beginning of July. Showing up a few weeks before school starts will make you get stuck with a crappy and/or overpriced apartment. 1.2) Landlords cannot have "no pets" clauses. They cannot charge additional rent or any fees for pets. They can still charge for damages due to pets though. 1.3) The only person that can terminate a lease is the renter. The landlord can only terminate a lease if you break the rules of the lease (failure to pay rent, cause disturbance, cause damage etc.) or under very specific circumstances allowed by law (the landlord's family wishes to move into your unit). So, the default is that you sign a 1 year lease and then it automatically converts to a month-to-month lease until you decide to move out. Even though it's "month-to-month", you still need 60 days notice to move out though. 1.4) Rent increases are controlled by law. There are no rules about the initial rent but after you sign a lease, the landlord can only raise rent once every 12 months (with 90 days notice) and the amount of rent raised is limited by the rate of inflation set by the Ontario government. In our first year, this rate was something like 0.9% and the second year was 2.5% or so. Because of these limits though, you are almost guaranteed to see a rent increase every year, but it's a pretty small amount. 1.5) Landlords are not allowed to collect any sort of application fee, credit check fee, or security deposit. All fees are the responsibility of the landlord. However, the landlord is allowed to collect payment for "last month's rent" up front. Usually, you write a cheque for this amount when your application to rent is accepted. The landlord will cash the cheque right away. By law, the landlord must pay you a fair interest rate on this "up front payment". The fair interest rate is generally the rate of inflation, so what happens is that when it's time to move out, you will not have to pay for last month's rent because the increased rent and the "interest" cancels out, basically. When you move in, you are also expected to pay for the first month's rent, obviously. However, this means there are fewer startup costs, because you would pay 1 month's rent 60 days before move in and then the first month's rent as normal. There are no security deposits allowed, they will charge you for damages if you leave the apartment in poor condition. 2. Things that are specific to the Kingston rental market: 2.1) I think Kingston is actually a pretty cheap place to live. Our $900/month apartment would easily be over $1400/month where we currently live and in our hometown (Vancouver). It's been a couple of years since we moved now, but I would say the rent in the central and north parts of Kingston (where the actual town residents live) are very nice and affordable. Generally you want to stay south and west of Princess Street but there are nice pockets north of princess street too. (Princess Street is a main street that runs diagonally [NW to SE] across Kingston). If you live near Queen's, for $800/month, you will have an old and very poorly maintained place. Nice places near Queen's and on the waterfront will cost about $1200/month. You can also go across to the Eastern side (where the military base is) for even nicer places at $1000/month and up. If you like an affordable, quiet and comfortable place to live, I recommend living in central or north-west Kingston. The sacrifice you make is distance from school (and the bus schedules really suck compared to a big city). 2.2) If you want a quiet, affordable, nice/modern place, I strongly strongly recommend contacting landlord companies like Homestead ahead of time (early June) and ask about what they think will be available. Then, I strongly recommend actually flying out there and seeing the places. It might cost the equivalent of one month's rent to do so, but if you are living here for 5 years, 1 month's rent is worth 60 months of comfort, in my opinion. You can also use this trip to start meeting with your profs early and saying hi etc. When my wife and I moved out, we spent 3-4 days looking at a lot of places just around the 60-day notice mark and this gave us the most options. Our friends that we met in Kingston (another married couple) arrived a week before school started and the only way they could get a decent place was to pay $1300/month and they were stuck there for a year. So, in the end, we might have spent $1000 or so to fly out and look for places, but not doing that could have cost us an extra $400*12=$4800 in rent in that first year. 2.3) There are two apartment buildings owned by Queen's, one at West Campus and one at Kingston Centre that are pretty cheap and subsidized by Queen's. They are for graduate students only (priority goes to family though) and they are a good alternative option as well. Some people move into here first and then move to a different place later in the year or in the summer. 2.4) If you have a car, definitely pay for underground parking when possible. For us, underground parking was $50/month while surface parking was $30/month. $20/month is well worth the time you save scraping ice off your windshield/car and the potential damage! 2.5) A lot of people say the landlords in Kingston are crappy because they can take advantage of the transient student population. And also, (undergrad) students tend to care less about quality of housing and they might also be more prone to causing damage. This is especially true in the "Queen's Ghetto" neighbourhood, which is the area north of campus and south of Princess Street where many undergraduate students rent houses. During certain nights of the year, there are a ton of parties and drinking in the street etc. which understandably upset the town residents. I would highly recommend avoiding that area because this is where the crappy landlords tend to be. In general, I would say to avoid renting from individual landlords and go for the large landlord companies. In my opinion/experience, when a landlord only owns a handful of units, they need every unit to be very profitable and they don't have money reserves to fix things up etc. But large companies that own thousands of units in Kingston won't have time to squabble with you over small things and if they have to fix something and not make a profit on your unit that month, it's no big deal as your rent is less than 0.1% of their revenue! Hope that gives you a lot of useful information! You can contact me via private message if you want more details about the places we lived and I can discuss some neighbourhoods/companies more too if you want.

I had a similar case: for one project, my prof supervisor was on sabbatical and I only talked to her during group meetings every other week. My day to day advisor was the staff scientist managing the lab (she had a MSc). When I needed a LOR from this lab, my actual supervisor drafted the letter and the prof signed it. I didn't use this letter for PhD programs but it did help get me into Masters programs and graduate level fellowships. I think a letter from a postdoc would only be better than a letter from someone not in the field (or no letter at all). Like the others said, ask the professor first and see what happens. Even if the prof writes the letter themselves, they will likely consult with the postdoc for the content.

According to the CGS Resolution, you should be able to do this without any real issues. However, if you are being held to an earlier deadline, then it's likely they aren't following the CGS Resolution. If you do this, you will burn bridges probably, but in some cases it will be worth it. Even if they are following the Resolution though, if you are ever in a point where you are waiting for another offer, then you should not make a decision before April 15. In your shoes, I would do everything possible to get the school to extend the deadline and only resort to accepting then changing my mind if that is the only option the school leaves you. According to the CGS Resolution, if you said yes to School A on say, April 14, and then on April 20th, School B (the one you like more) takes you off their waitlist, then you can still accept School B's offer. However, in order to do so, you have to get a "release" from School A. According to the CGS Resolution (wow, I am saying this a lot, lol), any school that makes an offer after April 15 (e.g. School , cannot "accept" your acceptance without a release from School A. I think that if this happens and you ask for a release from School A, they will likely give it to you. No one wants to keep around a grad student that doesn't want to be there! You might hurt some feelings in the department but I think ultimately they will understand that you have to make the best decision for you. If not, it might make it harder for you to get future work at School A (but probably not really) but beyond that, I doubt there will be serious consequences. Again though, you might be able to ask for a couple more days beyond April 15 from School A.

Usually the maximum out-of-pocket amount is labelled as such. A number like $3000 per year does sound like a maximum out-of-pocket amount though. (My school's current plan has a maximum out of pocket of $1000). So, if the treatment is covered at 80% (sometimes written as 20% co-insurance), here is what happens when I go to a doctor for something that is covered at 80%: 1. The medical provider charges their full rate (let's say $500) and bills the insurance company. 2. The insurance company and medical provider actually have an agreement to charge a certain amount for certain procedures, so the rate is adjusted to this amount. Let's say it's $300. 3. Before any insurance coverage kicks in, I have to meet the deductible of my plan. It's currently $150 per year, so I will pay the first $150 of the $300 cost. 4. Now, the insurance covers the remaining amount at the 80% rate, so I pay 20% of the remaining $150 = $30. 5. I get a total bill from the medical provider (usually takes them a few months) for $150 + $30 = $180. The bill is usually super confusing because it will first show the rate in Step 1 and then the adjustments in steps 2, 3, and 4 are not always distinguished so that if you try to figure out how much you should have paid, it is a bit confusing. If I go back to this doctor a second time in the same benefit year, I don't have to meet the deductible again, so if I get the exact same treatment, I only pay 20% of the $300 cost = $60. Also, some plans have certain treatments that are covered without having to meet the deductible. For example, under my plan, I can get all vaccinations and annual checkups etc covered at 100% (i.e. free for me) without having to meet any deductibles. The maximum out of pocket amount means exactly that. In my plan, it clearly states that the insurance will cover 100% of any costs above this number per year. My maximum out of pocket is $1000, so once I have spent $1000 in a year, the insurance will cover everything. However, my current plan also says they have a maximum coverage of $500,000 per condition, so after I reach this amount, I have to pay everything again. I think the new Affordable Care Act no longer allows policies to have these limits though, but perhaps the new Act did not take effect yet when my current policy year started. Finally, the benefit/insurance/policy year is not always the same as the calendar year. At my school, the school year is October 1 to September 30 but the insurance year is September 1 to August 31. Insurance is sold in "terms" that are 4 months long, so I pay for insurance in 4 month chunks and I can only drop out of the plan (or add a dependent) at these times. --- Also, I noticed your signature says you applied to a Canadian school. Health insurance works a little bit differently there--coverage is split into two parts. For Canadians, the government provides basic coverage either for free (through taxes) or at a rate that scales with your income. This covers doctors visits, emergency room, urgent care clinics, hospital stays, etc. If you are not Canadian, as an international student, you have to pay for this health care as a mandatory student fee, but many schools will offer a top-up award to pay for the cost. The second part (non-basic coverage for things like dental plans, vision, prescriptions, physiotherapy, etc.) are covered by an insurance plan similar to the US plans (with deductibles and co-pays etc.). Usually, you will be forced to buy this plan through the school unless you have your own coverage, but getting it through the school is usually a pretty good deal. You pay about $200-$300 per year, much less than US plans because most of the basic coverage is provided by the government. Auto insurance is mostly the same, unless you are in a province where the insurance company is a "Crown Corporation", then you all buy insurance from the government and it's pretty simple since there are set rates for different levels of coverage. If the "Crown Corporation" makes extra money at the end of the year, it goes into reducing everyone's rates for next year since it's not really a business (although they still profit and pay their employees and CEOs etc.)

The above advice was very good and very thorough. I'll share my experience as an international student and hope it helps as well. Taxes: Unless you have some special exceptions, if you are on a F-1 or J-1 visa status, you will definitely be a non-resident alien (NRA) for tax purposes. Normally, there are rules based on how many days you've spent in the US in the past 3 years, but one over-riding exception is that the first 5 years of a F-1 or J-1 student will always be considered for NRA. After these 5 years, you can start counting time towards resident alien status. A lot of IRS documents distinguish between your future intent after your degree, but when you are on a F-1 or J-1 visa/status, these are by definition non-immigrant temporary visitor statuses for the purpose of obtaining a degree. So, for the vast majority of international students, we are all considered NRAs for tax purposes. As an NRA on F-1/J-1 status, you do not pay FICA, Medicaid, Social Security etc. This webpage does a good breakdown of how income tax works in the US: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States. Unless you have special circumstances, you would take your total income (including fellowships unless they are specifically not taxable), subtract out your deductions, and then use the table to figure out what your tax bracket is. Tuition waivers are not taxable though because like textbooks, they are a required expense. Usually the tuition award is paid in a way that you don't even see it so you don't really have to worry about this part. As for deductions, NRAs only qualify for the Personal Exemption ($3800 in 2012), not the Standard Deduction ($5950). If you keep textbook receipts, you can claim these deductions too. Here is an example of how you might have to pay taxes: Let's say your stipend (not counting tuition waivers) is $29,000 in a tax year. Let's say you have $0 in textbooks and you can only claim the personal exemption. So your taxable income is $29,000-$3800=$25,200. From the "Marginal tax rates for 2013" table in the Wikipedia article, we see that the first $8925 of your income is taxed at 10% while the amount between $8925 and $36,250 is taxed at 15%. So, you pay 10% on the first $8925 of income = $892.50 and 15% on the rest (25,200-8925=16275), which is $2441.25 ($16275x0.15). So, your total federal tax will be $892.50 + $2441.25 which is $3333.75, which works out to just over 11% of your total take-home stipend. You will still have to pay state taxes, which vary a lot from state to state. At my school, we are provided free tax software specialized for international scholars which is very helpful. Also, my school automatically withholds 14% of my income (and does this for all NRAs) for taxes and I only get the money back after filing my tax return. If you want a good estimate of how much tax you will have to pay, somewhere between 10% and 15% of the total stipend is a good number to budget with. However, remember that your school might withhold more than you need to pay so you should budget your month to month expenses with this in mind. A safe number would be towards 15%. Insurance: 1. Medical/Dental: Many schools offer these. For me, most schools offered this almost completely paid for as part of my funding package. The above poster explains the co-pay system pretty well--it is a lot different than the Canadian (and some European) systems. 2. Auto insurance: see above post! Also, some states will require you to retake the entire driving test to get your driver's license. My auto insurance was not especially high because I had no American driving record though. However, I did have to provide Canadian driving records and it may be possible that they consider Canada close enough to the US. In terms of driving experience affecting my rates, the key factor is the length of time you have held a full privilege license--there are no "where did I drive" codes on my insurance policy (but again, maybe Canada is an exception). 3. Renters/Homeowners/Liability: I strongly recommend Renter's insurance if you are renting an apartment. The landlord has a policy on the building, but that is to protect themselves, not you. Having your own Renter's policy will protect you if someone robs your apartment, or if someone gets hurt in your apartment and they sue you, or if you cause major damage to the apartment and the landlord sues you (e.g. left the taps on and flooded the apartment, or left something in the oven and caused a major fire). I think for things like getting robbed, you might be able to sue the landlord if they were somehow at fault, but then that is an extra court fight. Our Renter's policy also protects against other liabilities and our property even when stored outside of our home and even things like all of our stuff in a UHaul box when we moved across the continent. Personally, I think it's worth it--we pay about $20/month for renters insurance and having more than one policy from the insurance company (auto and renters) gives us a discount that was larger than the cost of the renters policy. Oh, some landlords will require their tenants to provide proof of a renters policy if you have pets (or some might just require it in general).

For a small homogeneous town in the middle of nowhere Canada, Kingston is somewhat surprisingly LBGTQ friendly. I think this website may be a useful resource in measuring what kind of support the LBGTQ community has: http://www.kingstonpride.ca/ especially the "History" page. It shows that people in the mayor's office has supported the community for many decades. But, it wasn't all smooth sailing though, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Cooper_(Canadian_politician) (Local Councillor section). Also, recently, there was this issue: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/07/22/gay-letters-kingston-lesbians_n_3636524.html This happened after I had left Kingston but from talking to people that still live there, this incident is definitely the work of a very minority group. I also wrote to the MP, Mayor, and City Councillors about this incident, and the majority of them wrote back. All of the responses I received affirmed their support for the people's lifestyle choices and condemned these threats. Being a college town, the student community in Kingston is very liberal and Kingston is one of the few regions in Ontario that did not vote Conservative in the last federal election (where the Conservative Party won most normally-liberal seats in Ontario). Finally, I am not sure where you are asking from but I think it's definitely true that in Canada, communities are generally fairly supportive of LBGTQ causes.

I think location "should" matter as much as you want it to matter. Don't let other people tell you how to prioritize your life. Many academics, especially those who are already in nice established positions, tend to recommend to students to put their studies/career first instead of worrying about location. But I don't think this would be very good advice for me. Personally, I have to live in a big enough city to support a diverse population, especially for the availability of ethnic grocery stores and not feeling like an outsider. I also dislike living in college towns. I learned a lot of what I liked from my experience living in a place I did not like for 2 years during my Masters. In making my PhD decision, I weighed all non-academic reasons (e.g. location) and academic reasons (e.g. research fit) equally. But that's just how my priorities go. I think too many students unnecessarily feel "guilty" for considering any reason other than academic ones and I think this should not happen!

I think paper writing is pretty different depending on field. It would be pretty unlikely for junior grad students in the sciences to write a 20+ page paper (in journal format). My first "real" research experience was the summer after my junior year. My first attempt at a research position was the summer after my sophomore year but most research positions were paid through a university grant for summer undergrad researchers (to encourage profs to hire undergrads) and I wasn't competitive enough for it that year so I volunteered a few hours over the summer to get used to some research level computations. I was in a "co-operative work program" for my University, which required 16-20 months of full time work in your field along with your coursework, so co-op students take 5 years to finish (4 years of classes, and 1 full year plus extra summers for research). I joined late so I just did 16 months straight between the end of my junior year and the start of my senior year. My first project was 8 months long and I did work that resulted in several publications, but I didn't actually write any of them. Most of the work was published after I had left but they used my computations. My second project was also 8 months long and resulted in one publication, but as above, I did not write it myself either. Thus, none of these papers were first authored papers. My third project in undergrad was my senior/honours thesis, and I spent the whole senior year on it, but only part time. In comparison to the previous experience, my undergrad thesis was much lighter because I had a lot less time to work on it. So, by the time I graduated, it was not "publishable" yet. Luckily, a graduate student took over my project and they published a paper out of it (with me as a coauthor). However this did not actually happen until over a year after I graduated. It did get submitted in time to be included in my PhD applications though (but not my MSc applications of course). I don't know if this is a difference in fields, but to me, I've seen writing papers as a thing that naturally comes out of doing good research. That is, whether or not a paper is published in science has less to do with "how well the student writes paper" but much more to do with "how good/interesting is the science?". Obviously, if the student cannot write/communicate at all, then the referees won't know what to do with the paper! But, in my field, the early years of grad school is where students are expected to write their first first-author papers and we get a lot of coaching and mentorship from our supervisors. So, in my opinion, the first step towards getting papers published is doing the research well. The writing part comes later. But again, this is from the perspective of a physical science graduate student!

I have also got similar advice, even at the PhD level. However, I know many profs who did postdoc(s) in Europe and are now profs in North America. One of them even got hired through a special Canadian research program designed to "acquire" high level researchers from abroad. I think the main thing to do is to make sure you keep your ties to North America while post-docing abroad. Fly back home for the e.g. American Astronomical Society meetings (replace with whatever your field is, of course) every year. Keep collaborators at your PhD institutions perhaps. Work with big name European people that are also well known in North America. And you might end up doing 1 postdoc abroad and then another post-doc in North America before getting a job, but it's not that uncommon to do multiple post-docs now. I think it's still possible to maintain your North America connections, but keep in mind this is a lot of cross-ocean traveling, which is costly in terms of money and time!

I don't think suggesting the OP do long distance is a helpful nor is it a reasonable suggestion. They have already decided not to do this, and I think one major issue in academia is that the "two body problem" is a large stress factor in the lives of many academics and even the reason for some people to drop out of academia, yet there is no universally good solution! Luckily, having both partners apply to the same program is much easier to solve that two partners in two different departments. Here, the same group is making the decision for both of you. I do not think it is unethical at all for one partner to try to pressure the department in accepting the other partner as well. This happens a lot at the post-doc/faculty level and there is a lot of literature on the web where academics discuss how to best implement policies that support hiring a couple even when there is only one spot. For example, a department can give up a future hire to hire two people at once (see: http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2003_03_14/nodoi.4790439354486772529). Of course, I think this is a bigger problem for permanent job hires instead of temporary grad student "hires" and so departments are probably more willing to work harder to figure out solutions for permanent job hires than for grad students. That said, I have known of cases where departments have made sure to accept both partners of a couple. I think it would only be unethical if the two partners are vastly different in skill and one partner would not even have met the minimum criteria. However, if both partners meet the minimum, then it's not unreasonable to pick the "lesser" (no offense intended, I'm just going to use "strong" and "weak" for simplification) partner over other qualified candidates. There are lots of advantages to doing this: 1. If one partner is strong enough, picking the strong partner + weak partner might still be more beneficial to the department (measured in net input of skilled workers) than 2 other candidates that would rank in between the strong and weak partner. This is particularly true if the strong partner would not be attending the school without the weaker partner. 2. Grad student attrition is pretty high (around 50% in the sciences). A partner that is able to stay together and work at the same school is less likely to leave. So, it's also more beneficial to the department (if measured in terms of amount of skilled PhDs produced) if they are going to be certain to get 2 students that are going to finish. 3. Many PhDs that want to be in academia end up leaving academia because of two body problems. Maybe one partner will get a tenure tracked position but not the other so it makes more sense to move for the tenure tracked position. This might result in the other partner not remaining in academia at all, and "we" (academia in general) lose a skilled worker. This could be avoided if two-body-friendly policies are implemented. This is more of a post-PhD level problem, but the same ideas should apply at the grad school level too. So, to the OP, I would definitely say it is a good idea for you guys to let your schools know that you are a couple and would like to be in the same program. Whether you reveal this fact at the application stage or after one of you gets an acceptance is a hard question to be decided by you. I guess it's past the application stage now, so perhaps it's best to wait until one of you gets the acceptance. The person accepted should be the point of contact, I think. Like the above poster said, if you are for sure not attending without your partner, then there's nothing to lose if they can't accommodate your request. Since you say that one of you is a better fit in some programs and the other in other programs, it sounds like you are both fairly "equal", which is a good thing. There are some dangers of getting accepted as a "second body", especially if the skill levels of the two people are not equal. For example, a school might accept the second person just to get the first one and plan to flunk the second person out during quals or something. So, I would strongly recommend that you try to find a good program that is not only willing to take both of you, but also a good fit for both of you! Good luck! Please let us know how it goes

Once you have an offer in writing from the Graduate School, it's actually pretty final. No school is going to revoke an offer because of something silly like asking about a deadline, or something like a typo in a response email, etc. Obviously, if you do something actually terrible (e.g. lied about your application materials, or harassing others in the program, etc.), there are still ways for them to revoke your offer. But otherwise, although it seems "flimsy" until you actually start grad school, your offer won't magically disappear because you asked a question! It's actually okay to ask the programs tough questions when you are deciding between your offers. I would encourage applicants to ask questions like: how many of your students pass quals? how many graduate? are you hiring more faculty in the next few years? is the department seeking to hire more profs in current fields of expertise, or are they thinking of hiring profs in other subfields to broaden their expertise? for individual profs, you can ask about their own future research plans. When you are the one holding the offers and deciding where to go, it's "your turn" to be the decider and ask the hard probing questions. Obviously, you should do this in a friendly, polite, tactful way, and if you do this in "good faith" (i.e. you're actually asking legitimate questions to help you make a decision) and not in an arrogant way, then everything should be fine This is not universal. Here is the actual CGS resolution: https://www.cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/CGS_Resolution.pdf There are a few important points to remember: 1. This applies to financial offers only, not admissions. For funded PhD programs, these go together, but this deadline is far from universal in unfunded programs especially. It is still consistent with the resolution if the school requires the applicant to respond to the offer of admission prior to April 15 and provide financial details later. 2. Not every school is on this list, particularly schools outside of the US (but many schools will follow the same timeline). 3. There are no penalties for breaking this resolution, nor is it enforced (as far as I know), so there is no guarantee that you will get a April 15 deadline. 4. You should absolutely send in your decision before April 15 if you are 100% sure/decided ahead of time! Don't wait until the last minute just because you can!

I found out about my visits around 3-4 weeks before they happened.

I think there are no super strict rules with applications. The department might write some requirements (e.g. certain courses or majors) but since it's a department-level rule, the admissions committee might be able to waive these restrictions for some applicants. Perhaps the committee itself cannot, but the committee can bring it up at a regular department meeting and, with approval, they might be able to bend these rules. The more strict rules come from the University/Graduate School itself. Usually these rules are generic though because they apply to all graduate students would be things like a minimum GPA or a minimum score on English-language tests. But, in many places, the department can petition the graduate school for exceptions. Or, the student can be admitted and then be required to take certain English courses if their scores aren't high enough. So, I think if you feel like you are competitive for a program, you should go ahead and apply and see what happens. There are no guarantees, but there never are with admissions! Unfortunately, at this point, all you can do is wait and hope for the best! Good luck

I would think that this might mean they finally just started to review the applications and they noticed your SOP was missing. It's nice that they asked to you (re)submit it. But it's also a "cover their butt" type of move because they don't want to make a decision without a complete profile. If they accept you without a SOP, they may get audited later on and questions will be raised if someone was admitted without a complete application. If they decide to reject you, then you might later complain that your application didn't get a full review since it was incomplete. Of course, they can still argue that since your application was incomplete, they did not review it, but what if you claimed that you did submit your SOP and the Graduate School somehow lost the file? So, it makes the most sense to get missing files from applicants whenever possible.

I would not say it is typical to just arbitrarily ask for more money, not like the way you might negotiate your starting salary at a job. So, if they offer you e.g. 25k/year, I would not just arbitrarily ask for 28k/year. This is because your funding likely comes from sources with set amount of money. For example, an RAship or TAship might be worth a standard amount for a standard amount of hours. Flexibility in funding comes from fellowships, and some departments have a pool of money that they can grant as random fellowships. It depends on the program though, in my department, everyone gets exactly the same amount of funding, unless you have some special fellowship that pays all of your tuition and your stipend. However, I think there are some circumstances where you can ask for more: 1. If the stipend offer is definitely too low and you can't afford to live there with that level of funding, then it's okay to say that and ask for more. 2. If you have an external fellowship that will pay a chunk of your costs, you should ask about relieving TA duties (still do a little bit of TAing though) and/or extra money. 3. If you have an offer from another competitive program, you can ask the school you want to go to more if they can match it. But, I don't think it's worth asking for more money if the stipend is enough to live on and the difference is like 28k/year vs 29k/year. There is a big difference between poverty and living comfortably, so as long as the stipend is enough to pay for the life you want, I would not worry about small amounts like a few thousand a year. In the long run, you will benefit much more from going to the school that you prefer instead of the school that pays more (but if you can get both, then that's great!).

I don't think this is true. Both times when I started grad school, I made extra efforts to make new friends, especially within my cohort. In these first few months, I would attend way more social events to get to know my colleagues more. In fact, I think I was even more open to making new friends in grad school than undergrad, because I know I am spending the majority of my time at work with my friends. I feel like in undergrad, it takes longer to make friends because in the first few years at a big school, you might have very little overlapping classes and all of my close undergrad friends I made in the last couple of years as we decided on our major and started seeing each other more and more in the same classes. Of course, you can make friends outside of your classes too, but one nice thing about school is that it forces regular contact with people, which I think is an essential part of making friends. I think grad school actually does this better than undergrad! Grad students might be more likely to be in long term relationships/marriages and might be less likely to go out with friends so that might be where your therapist is coming from, but whenever I start at a new place, my spouse and I make an effort to spend more time meeting new people and making new friends. It's much easier to skip some social activities later on when you have an established social group that is the way you like.

All schools know that their students will probably have more than one offer to consider. In applying to Canadian (MSc) and American (PhD) programs, I have never encountered an offer that required an immediate reply. In fact, it's pretty common for schools to ask about other offers you might have when you are visiting and/or meeting with profs from the department. Canadian schools don't always have the "April 15" thing but no school gave me less than 4 weeks to decide. In my Masters applications, the first school that got back to me gave me a deadline of something like Feb 25 but one school I was applying to had a deadline of March 1! So, I asked the first school to give me a few more weeks and they did. I don't think any school really expects all their applicants to have it as their "first choice" right away and they will not take back your offer because you want to consider other options first. In the end, it's best for everyone if you go to where you are the most happy, and it's normal (in some fields) for schools to offer to fly students out to visit the campus and city and help "woo" their successful applicants! So, in your shoes, I would thank them very much for the acceptance and maybe even ask if you can visit (if they haven't already invited you). I would also let them know that I can't decide right now and that I planned on making a decision as soon as I have visited all of the schools that accepted me. If they are asking for an earlier decision, try to figure out when the other schools are going to decide (send a polite email asking about timelines) and then ask for an extension with these timelines in mind.

I think this is a valid question to ask the schools that offer you entrance to their MS programs instead. Ask them what fraction of their MS graduates apply to the PhD program and how many of them are successful.

The J-1/J-2 program is administered by the US Department of State (in contrast to the F-1 program, which is administered by the US Citizenship and Immigration Service). The main J-1 website is here: http://j1visa.state.gov/ I think the page you want to show is this one: http://j1visa.state.gov/programs/college-and-university-student (you can get to it from the above link by clicking on "Programs" then "College and University Student"). Here, it states what requirements you must meet to qualify as a J-1 exchange visitor in the student program. (Note that J-1 visas are granted to a lot of different types of visitors, as you can see from that long list of programs!) On the right hand side of that page, there is a link to a long list of designated program sponsors. Try to find your University in that list as well and call the number listed. This list is very poorly organized though, I recommend sorting by "State" and then using the links at the bottom to scroll through the pages and finding your school. In order for a school to be a J-1 sponsor, they must have 5 J-1 students per year so if it's a tiny school, this might be why they cannot sponsor us The vast majority of students I know are F-1 because many of them do not have dependents and/or do not want to be subject to the 2-year home residency requirement. I also run into extra issues sometimes at the bank, DMV, and even the Social Security Administration or other government places because they expect me to have a I-20 and are confused when I provide a DS-2019 instead. I have to explain what a J-1 is to them and then they usually have to find a supervisor to figure out how to enter my information. I am telling this story because J-1s are a lot more rare than F-1s so the school employees you are talking to might just not know enough about J-1. Another thing you can do is to look up the websites of International Offices at other schools in the US and find the page made for J-1 PhD students. Maybe showing them this could help. But try to not imply that "other schools do it, so you should too" because as I said above, each school individually decides whether or not to sponsor J-1 students. Here are some links that I found in my search, but you can probably find some more too! For example, Cornell: http://www.isso.cornell.edu/immigration/j1student/j1student.php Caltech: https://international.caltech.edu/maintainstatus/j1student University of Washington (Seattle): https://iss.washington.edu/rules-regulations/j1 Again, note that the International Office at each school serves a large population--not just PhD students. They help new professors coming from other countries, post-docs, exchange students, etc. So a lot of the information can be general and some stuff may not apply to graduate students. It might also be possible that a school will only support J-1 programs for profs and post-docs but not grad students.

School A got back to me first and scheduled my visit to be on a Thursday+Friday of one week. School B got back to me second and originally scheduled me for Thursday+Friday of the week before. Since A and B were close together (and very far from me), I asked School B to reschedule my visit to be the following Monday+Tuesday. So, on Sunday, I flew to School B, visited on Mon/Tues, flew to School A on Wed, and then visited School A on Thurs/Fri. It was cheaper for both schools because School B paid for Home to School B and half of School B to School A. Meanwhile, School A paid for half of School B to School A and all of the flight from A to Home. This is cheaper for each school than roundtrip flights to either A or B.

I am also from a field with very little interviews (so these are just visits to recruit already admitted students). I would recommend accepting visits within a few days of the invitation. You should schedule your visits in the "first come first served" order. If a second school asked me to visit them on a conflicting weekend, I would ask them if I could visit on another day because another school has already booked me. I have found that they will be okay with this. You can also ask to visit on another day if it lets you combine two visits into one week to avoid having to fly to a school, then home, then back out again!