TakeruK

I am from Canada, where our idea of multiculturalism is a "mosaic" instead of "melting pot". From what I understand, the "melting pot" model wants immigrants to be absorbed into American culture, so that immigrants are expected to adjust themselves to melt into American culture. In the "mosaic" model, immigrants to Canada are encouraged to incorporate Canadian culture but there is no expectation to completely become Canadian. For example, in metro areas of Canada, you can find entire communities that are all Chinese, or Ukrainian, or whatever. All the signs (even in domestic terminals) in my home city airports are at least trilingual (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Trilingual_signage_at_YVR.jpg) even though the only official language in that area of Canada is English. So, I feel like one exception people took to this commercial might come from the fact that this commercial is more of a "mosaic" than a "melting pot". Instead of speaking American English, the Americans in the song are singing an ode to America in their native languages. To me, I think this was very beautiful and I felt pride for America despite not even being American! I thought the commercial was totally appropriate. I would understand objection to singing a national anthem in a different language because translation can change connotation and for an official national anthem, there should be official version(s) that should not be deviated from. But this song is not a national anthem. It's just a beautiful song celebrating America, and I thought it was very beautiful for this song to be sung by all types of Americans (including a same-sex couple).

Good luck! Actually, I am pretty sure you only need to show financial support for yourself, the J-1, on the DS-2019. Usually if your school is covering tuition plus a decent stipend, there will be no problems. When your husband applies for J-2, he will have to specify why he needs/wants to work. He will have to certify that his income is not required to support the J-1 (you) [otherwise you would not be eligible for J-1 in the first place], but it is okay for his income to support himself and your child/children. I think you also have to show ability to secure the minimum required health insurance for all your J-2 dependents. For work authorization, most schools suggest that we say something like the J-2 wants to save up money for recreation activities and/or vacations etc. as well to justify the amount of income required. In reality, it's more of a formality--J-1 status is for students who have their own funding (from schools or governments) so they don't want you to have lied about that to get in, and then use the J-2 income to support yourselves. I am on a government fellowship from my home country. This is one way to get J-1 status, but it is not the only way. The main requirement for J-1 eligibility is that the J-1 applicant is supported "mostly" by sources other than personal funds, such as government or private sector sponsorships. A fellowship or stipend from your PhD university counts as this. A fellowship from the US government (e.g. Fulbright) is also okay. You don't need anything from your home government. However, it is up to the discretion of each school to decide whether or not they want to sponsor you as a J-1 instead of F-1. As I mentioned above, one school did not want to sponsor me as J-1 at all. It was the University of Arizona, and they said very similar things to me as you reported here. When they told me this, it really decreased my willingness to attend that school, and eventually I decided to not attend there (for other reasons too). However, if I did want to attend there, I would have fought harder to get them to sponsor me as J-1. My strategy would have been to explain that they are mistaken that J-1s are only for exchange students and showed them the documentation from US government websites. Ultimately though, they might just be unwilling to sponsor J-1s and I don't think they are under any legal requirement to sponsor J-1s if they don't want to. For me, this would have been a dealbreaker and I would not have attended any school that would not sponsor me as a J-1 student.

My meetings ranged from 15 minutes to 30 minutes, sometimes with one person at a time and sometimes with a couple of grad students at a time (usually those in the same office would chat with me together). In my case, all the visits were actual visits, not interviews (we had all been accepted already), so the point of the meeting was for both of us to get to know one another. For the profs, it was useful to chat to know what they are working on and what kind of projects they have for the next Fall. In many programs, you have to do one or more projects (whether it's rotations or otherwise) in your first year, so this is a good way to get a preview of what kind of work you could do if you attended. Also, a good way to gauge how you get along with a prof. Some people I talked to, I realised right away I would not want to work with this person. The chats with the grad students are mostly to get to know one another too. It's also a useful way to find out information about courses, profs, the department, how they like the city, where to live, etc etc from the point of view of a grad student!

The timing between the department notifying me and the Graduate School's official offer is usually about one week, but depends on each program's efficiency. My hard copy paper letter did not come until about 4-5 weeks after the official email. But, I was living in Canada at the time in a location that generally takes this long for large packages to come from the US. Fortunately, I was able to just scan and email back any forms etc instead of having to continue using snail mail after this! Checking would be a good idea. But if you follow the link, the page might say a deadline too. Depends on the program. In the programs I interacted with, the prof that called me introduced themselves and said that they will be my temporary advisor and point of contact while I make my decision and until I arrive. Once I arrive, I would be assigned an academic advisor and then eventually, a research supervisor. In many cases, they try to pick someone who is interested in working with you as the point of contact but this might not be possible for various logistical reasons (prof on sabbatical, prof too busy, etc.). I would not assume that the person you have been talking to is automatically your research advisor!

It should be okay if you absolutely have to leave (e..g traveling home etc.) I think the grad student said this because the event was probably planned by graduate students and they probably put a lot of effort into creating a party for prospectives to enjoy. If you were hosting a party for guests, wouldn't you want them to stay the whole time too?

I am also a J1 student and my spouse is a J2 dependent (we have no children though). Yes, the DS-2019 must show funding support for the entire duration of your program. In fact, my DS-2019 shows support for 6 years, because that is the maximum length of time a PhD student can spend in a PhD program here before they must request special permission to extend the program. I agree with the above posters that schools which are "friendly" to J1 applicants will do the same and extrapolate first year funding to all 6 years. After all, this is how much they will fund you if you continue to do well in the program! Not all schools are like this though. One school (in Arizona) did not want to issue me a DS-2019 at all! Even after explaining why I would like to be on J-1 status (so that my spouse can work), they refused. Even the people in the department I was applying to did not know that grad students were even allowed to be on J-1 (they only put postdocs on J-1 apparently). I don't know what would have happened if I pushed it further, because after considering all my choices, I ended up going somewhere else, so I didn't want to expend the effort to argue for J-1. The other programs I visited were very supportive of my J-1 request. They knew exactly what to do. My current program was also very helpful in helping us apply for my spouse's Work Authorization so that she could work as a J-2. They had a whole package/checklist, they checked it for completion and even mailed it for us.

Yes, this is a good way to do it. But maybe you can have the visits moved around so that they are back-to-back instead of at the same time! I had a similar problem and a similar limit (but Canada isn't as "international" so plane tickets are slightly cheaper). I moved one school's visit to be Monday-Tuesday (it was originally scheduled to be the previous Thursday-Friday) and then visited another school in the next state over on Thursday-Friday!

I got paper copies through the mail. Usually it went like this: 1. Phone call from a prof (usually one I mentioned in the SOP) notifying of department's decision to forward application to grad school for final approval. Sometimes this is an email or it might be both. 2. Official email from Graduate School with official acceptance letter. This is where the official financial offer usually appears. Sometimes Step 1 includes the offer as well, unofficially. The official letter often comes as a PDF with letterhead and all that fancy stuff. 3. A while later, a hardcopy of the same PDF from Step 2 arrives in the mail. Sometimes the package contains a booklet or brochure about the school etc.

If you are 100% sure you won't go there, then there is no point attending. It will waste everyone's time. But, if you are still figuring out where you want to go, then definitely attend to find out what this program has to offer you. Also, it might not be possible to visit everywhere if you get in a lot of places, I found that the visits are really helpful. I learned a lot more about some programs that I didn't know before, some of it surprising! I think three schools is a good number to visit though. Keep an open mind and see how you feel about each program!

It's true that Science and Nature are super short but they often come with a ton of "Supplemental Information" and since they leave so much out, you end up having to read several longer articles to fully understand the significance! However, I think these are great for discussion groups--their short length encourages others to read it and only the person leading the discussion really needs to read all of the extra stuff.

In my opinion, you should not mention this at all in your application. No department wants to be accused of admitting family members of current employees. If your cousin does not work in a research related role in the same department that you are applying to, then your connection to your cousin is not useful/relevant at all. Same if your cousin has no information about your ability as a researcher/graduate student. If your cousin is research staff/faculty in the department you are applying to, and your cousin knows about your ability as a researcher in some way, then the best case scenario is if the profs on the committee ask around about you / pass your profile around, then your cousin can put in a good word. But at this point, it doesn't matter that this person is your cousin anymore. The real benefit comes from the fact that someone close to the department knows about your research ability. This same benefit can be realised if you had collaborated with someone at the school before etc. So, ultimately, the fact that your cousin is also at the same school will provide zero benefits. What matters is whether or not there is someone in the department who can give a fair and positive endorsement of your talent.

You can have "house rules" or "roommate agreements". Many of my friends with roommates have some kind of arrangement. For example, you might agree that no one can ever have guests stay overnight (SOs or otherwise). And/or set a "curfew" where guests on weeknights have to leave by a certain time, unless you get prior agreement from the roommate(s). Sure, people can still break rules etc. but if you bring up these ideas when you are considering someone for a roommate, you can avoid people that you won't enjoy living with!

I might not understand what you mean by "leverage". From my interpretation, I would say I don't think it is a good idea to use other admits as "leverage" on other schools. Few schools are going to care that University XYZ already made their decisions, so they should make their own decision faster. Also, few schools will think "well, this person was accepted by Top University X, so we better accept them too, if Top University X wants them!" I think it's a very terrible idea to just flaunt your acceptances at other schools and hope something good happens to you. Here are instances where I think it would make sense to tell other schools about other offers: 1. It just comes up in a conversation between you and the other school. No need to hide your results. 2. The school that accepted you (let's call it A) has given you a short deadline and you want to know an estimate of decision timelines from the other schools. Then, you can politely let the other schools know that A has given you a deadline and you want to know approximately when a decision will be ready so that you can ask A for an extension. [i would not do this until about 2 weeks before the deadline though] 3. You are visiting School A and you know from the past (or from the website) that another school in the area is having a visit weekend at near the same time. You might want to ask the other school about their decision timeline so you know when to book flights etc. 4. You are ready to make a final decision and you like School A the most, however, another school, B, has offered you a better financial package. You can then ask A if they can match or at least increase their offer. However, in my opinion, you should only do this if you will absolutely say yes to A if A agrees to increase your offer. You should not try sending the best offer to all your schools and seeing which one will give you the highest value. The whole argument for an increase in stipend is that "you like A the most, but need more funding", and you can't say this truthfully to all schools. In my opinion, you don't have to keep your offers a secret, but I don't think you should try to use your offers to force other schools into any actions other than ones that are necessary (e.g. to extend a deadline). Don't wave another offer around just so the other schools get back to you a week earlier so that you panic less etc. Calm down and relax! Also, don't just wave other offers around in an attempt to make yourself look better to other schools. I am pretty sure this will not work. Instead, think about what you want (matching offer? finding out about visit days? etc.) and ask for it directly, mentioning your previous offers if relevant.

Definitely normal and acceptable to ask for an extension! Also a very good idea in this case too.

This is true, but I would like to offer a different twist on this advice. I think before you apply, you should decide whether or not it's worth it to do a PhD if you are not going to be funded. Many people, including me, would not do a PhD without full funding! So, if you are not willing to go without funding, it will save you time and energy to only apply to "ALL or NONE" type programs (which is pretty much all the programs in my field anyways).

My opinion is to don't do this. I think thank-you cards are overused and should only be for cases where someone went above and beyond. Considering your application is their job, no thank-you card needed. Also, many programs have hundreds of applicants, so this is unnecessary and can be an annoyance. However, there are lots of other ways to show your appreciation for their time. For the schools that rejected me, I just responded (via email) politely back to whomever notified me and thanked them for their consideration. For the schools that accepted me, I wrote this message in my email accepting/declining their offer. For the schools that I actually visited, there was a staff member in the department office that handled the organization and expense/travel report forms. So, I sent a separate email thanking them personally for helping make the visit great.

I think this is a super vague question and I also think that while the above advice is good, there are some pretty big differences between working on a group project for a class and collaborating on a research project. I think that a collaboration between graduate students is not really that different than any other collaboration, except maybe the level of experience in the group. So the answer to your question really just depends on the nature of the collaboration. If it's just you and another student that are pursuing a research idea on your own, then it's pretty much literally up to you two to decide what you want to do. You can decide that the project naturally has two separate phases and each of you can responsible for each phase. Or perhaps one of you will be doing the experiment and the other will be doing the analysis. You can do whatever you want! In many cases, there will be a faculty member involved though. Maybe it's a prof, plus a senior grad student plus a junior grad student, or two students and a prof etc. If there is a "leader" then that person generally decides how the work should be divided. Good leadership involves listening to your group of course and making sure everyone is happy. In general though, I think most people prefer collaborations where duplication of effort is avoided. Personally, I would not be happy with doing the exact same thing at the exact same time with someone else because that is a waste! I would rather do my part, hand it off to someone else, wait for them to do their thing, and then get it back, work on it etc. Ideally, I would have other things to do while the project is in someone else's hands. Or, I would prefer to have us work in parallel streams and then tie everything together at the end. One critical part is communication though, and it would be important for collaborators to meet as often as necessary to keep everyone on track and updated.

This is pretty normal. You don't have to be an expert on the work of everyone you talk to. In my experience, academic interviews are not the same as regular job interviews. Definitely look deeply into a few people you might be interested in, but otherwise, spend time thinking about how you want to portray yourself. Learn/develop effective ways to communicate your research interests and explain/sell your experience and skills.

I have good things to say about "Marketing for Scientists: How to Shine in Tough Times" by Marc Kuchner (http://www.amazon.com/Marketing-Scientists-Shine-Tough-Times/dp/1597269948) The premise is interesting--an astronomer has a side career as a country music singer and applies what he learns about marketing as a country singer to use in the sciences. From his experience in academia, it helps give insight on how things work from points of view that a grad student might not have experienced yet. Also, there are good tips on send the message you want to your audience!

This might be very field-dependent. Postdocs in the physical sciences do not require transcripts to be submitted at all because no one really cares. For most of these students, the majority of the coursework was finished in years 1 and 2, which means at time of application, these grades are more than 3 years old. Grades are important in the sense that you should not have anything on your transcript that will be a red flag to any internal advancement requirements (qualifying exams, candidacy). They are also useful for fellowships you might apply for at the beginning of grad school. But by the time you are ready to finish, they don't matter anymore. Even postdoctoral fellowships do not require transcripts. Here is an example of a list of requirements of a prestigious fellowship in my field: (from http://www.stsci.edu/institute/smo/fellowships/hubble/announcement-of-opportunity) A completed Hubble Fellowship Application form; A curriculum vitae A list of publications A summary of previous and current research (limited to three pages total, including references) A copy of the research proposal, described below (limited to 3 pages text plus 2 pages references/figures) I definitely agree with the cost-investment analysis part. I would not recommend indiscriminate wholesale transfer of priority of effort from classwork to research. Put another way, keep in mind the law of diminishing returns. For example, I can spend 6-8 hours per week per course and I can get an A- grade. I could also spend 10-12 hours per week and get that A or A+. For most cases, it's not worth the extra 4-6 hours per week for a tiny letter grade increase. On the other hand, you can spend something like 3-4 hours per week and scrape by with a B-. Doing my cost-investment analysis, I think it's totally worth spending and extra 3-4 hours on the minimum to get the A-, but not the extra 7-10 above the minimum to get the A/A+. Finally, like danieleWrites suggested, definitely do not phrase it as "slacking" because you are not "slacking" (and obviously it's not a professional way to approach this topic). But if you want to know what your advisors' expectations of you are in terms of coursework, you should definitely ask. I would suggest that the entire PhD student body for your department get together and ask this to all of the department profs. Many departments have annual meetings with students to hear any concerns, answer any questions etc. If you think that expectations are unclear, then this is a good way to find out. At my school, this question was answered during orientation during a very useful session called "Advisor Expectations" where a panel of profs across the school answered prepared moderator questions as well as individual questions from new students. One moderator question was about the balance of courses vs research. The answer that most profs gave was something like if you have all As and A+s then you are spending too much time on coursework. But if you have too many B-'s then it's a sign that you should spend more time. Consequently, I aim for and my advisor suggests that we aim for grades around B+ or A-. These specific values are not very useful since each program grades differently, but it's to give you an idea of what kind of answer you might get if you ask the profs collectively. So, for the OP, ask around and see if the other students have a clear idea on what is expected. If not, this is a valid thing to bring up to the department and have them clarify. If they are expecting you to take 3 classes per semester and spend 15 hours per class and complete research, then perhaps the students are overestimating what is expected, or maybe the department does not realise what is being asked. Communication is important!

It's pretty normal for faculty who are interested in applicants to contact them directly about research with them. It goes both ways too! This also means that sometimes in school visits, you will get scheduled for someone you didn't request--it might be random but it might also be because the prof requested you. In your shoes, I would take the time to contact the prof that expressed interest in you and set up a Skype call if possible. Or, if you are visiting the school, meeting in person would be great. Give everyone a chance and keep an open mind. You might find out the prof has more interests than you thought before, and/or they might be trying to branch out in a new direction. The selection process you mention (nominated by department, requiring approval from the Graduate School) is the standard process and this basically means you are in. It sounds like they do want you to find a supervisor/funding before it is finalized though right? In my experience, what happens is that you will talk to a bunch of profs and in the end, some number of them will be interested in supervising you and you can make a choice. So, right now, it would be best to continue to communicate with both non-retiring profs (and you can also reach out to other profs in the department that might be interesting) and see where those conversations lead. After doing that, you can ask each prof you're interested in directly if they will supervise you and if they say yes, then it's good. If more than one say yes, then you can make a choice. Just be clear when you are asking if they are interested that you are asking if they are interested, and not necessarily implying that you will for certain attend this school (and that you are asking a few people at the same time).

Agree with Eigen--check to be sure that they aren't already booking things for you. Otherwise, it's always going to be a reimbursement. Until you know otherwise, also keep all your receipts and ask for itemized receipts if you have any meals during your travel because some schools require a full itemized receipts to process the claim ("Credit card receipts" that just show the total won't work in these cases). Some schools will just pay a per-diem though, which is much more convenient, but it's best to keep everything until you know what is necessary. Also, in all of my visits, each of us was scheduled to spend 15-30 minutes with the admin staff in the office to process our paperwork for claiming expenses.

I agree--I would be upset, as I said above, but I should clarify that I would not "throw a tantrum" or the other actions Loric described at all. I would just factor that into my decision making process. I would probably never "confront" the school about it, unless I ended up attending that same school. If so, then I would politely suggest that they be more clear in future invitations for the reasons I mentioned above.

It's tough since the scores are pretty similar. Assuming all the scores are above cutoff levels, it's not always clear whether or not a 0.5 in AW is "worth more" than +1 in each Q and V. If I had to only send one, I would probably go with the second set of scores. But I would also consider sending both sets.

I think everyone will understand if you need to leave at 7pm for a 10 hour bus ride home (and they will be sympathetic!). Like I said above, I don't think this will have much (if any) real bearing on a decision, and you're not going to lose a spot because you had to go home. In my opinion, I think the "moral of the story" is to be as flexible as possible when you schedule these things and personally, I would always try to leave the day after the last scheduled day of events, instead of at the end of the day. It's more relaxing and you'll have time to see stuff on your own before you go on the last day. However, this is not always possible for reasons such as work etc.