TakeruK

Just to clarify: 1. First choice school is competitive, but they did give you a small scholarship, however this will not be enough. 2. A few days ago, they increased your scholarship by a little bit but it's still not enough. 3. This first choice school will have a spot for you in July, but the scholarship they are currently offering might not be there anymore. 4. However, in July, you will hear about an external scholarship. If you get this external scholarship, you will be able to attend first choice school even if the first choice school has no money for you. 5. Currently, you have already accepted the second choice school and paid their deposit. Is this correct? If so, then I think my earlier advice still stands. You cannot count on the external scholarship so you should not change any plans you currently have with the second choice school (If I am wrong about #5 above, then my advice is to make it true---accept the offer and pay the deposit). You can think of the deposit as "insurance" in case you don't get into your first choice school. If you do, then you can leave your second choice school. A couple more notes though: a. At the second choice school, avoid registering for as long as possible. Sometimes they won't require you to officially register as a student until late July or even August. It will be easier for you to withdraw if you have not yet registered as a student. b. Make sure that the first choice school knows that you are waiting for an external scholarship decision before you can accept their offer. Check now that there is still a spot for you in July if you happen to get an external scholarship. Note that some schools won't hold a spot open for you until July so unless you already have confirmation, you can't assume that you can still get in after July.

It depends on the school. You might get sent a letter now that you need to sign and return. But many places now consider an online "accept" button clicked behind a secure login to be the digital equivalent of a signature. Now that you have officially accepted your offer (congrats!) it is also a good idea to email people you've been in contact with in the department to let them know. For example, write back to whomever communicated the offer to you originally. Also get in touch with your potential advisor (if you are entering a program with one) to let them know too!

Another thing you can do is have one of your letter writers say something like you've taken all of mathematical stats courses available to you at your department. Different schools have different course availabilities so the absolute number of courses taken isn't as important sometimes. If you have an undergrad research advisor, you could ask this person to add some evaluation of your coursework (i.e. you took all the classes you could take) to their letter. At my undergrad school, there were a lot of restrictions on undergrads taking grad classes. You were basically limited to 1 and only if you have already completed > 75% of your upper level undergrad requirements. This is silly, because it basically means you can only take grad classes in your very last semester and grad classes sometimes are offered only once per year or once per two years, so if the schedule doesn't line up, then you are out of luck. I was able to get into one class with special permission that required me to get signatures from three different authority figures in the department and campus-wide! Argh. At my current school, anyone can take a graduate class, and sometimes freshmen/first year undergrads are in my classes. I am sure that the admissions committees at the schools you will eventually apply to have seen the large range of possibilities and they won't hold this against you.

I want to second this point (and the rest of their post). I think some people feel like they need to have in writing that they are getting X amount from Y sources guaranteed for Z years, but this is not how offers work and you don't need this much in writing to commit to a program. In the STEM fields, we rarely get letters that promise 100% more than 1 year of funding because few departments can contractually agree to spending money in future fiscal years this way. Instead, the funding is generally conditional on satisfactory performance (i.e. if they fail you, they won't pay you) and availability of funds (if the unthinkable happens and the University closes the department, this prevents them from having to pay you, for example). As @ThousandsHardships points out, what you need to get instead, is assurance from current faculty and students that the norm is to fund students beyond the first year. There's a difference between "We will fund you for 2 years but that's it" and "We promise one year of funding with the intention to fund for 5 years total subject to performance and availability of funds." Here's what I think you should get in writing (this is just my opinion and I only know the norms in my field). Also if any of the below isn't important to you then you 1. A promise of funding for the entire first year. 2. The first year funding source should be specified (i.e. are you getting a fellowship that requires no additional work? is it a RAship? TAship? GAship? something else? How many hours? 3. How much money is the first year funding? 4. A statement of intention to fund you for the length of your degree, subject to funds and availability. 5. Some text that specifies the amount of funding for future years---i.e. can you expect the funding level to be at least the same as the first year, or is the first year funding special (many schools offer a "bonus" in the first year and pay you a little bit more at first). 6. If the type of work you do for funding in future years matters to you, some text that clarifies this. (i.e. if you do not want to TA, then you should have text that says your future funding will come from RA or fellowships). But usually this is not a promise you can get unless you have made some arrangement. 7. Any other special arrangements you might have made during the admissions process. Then, from talking to students and faculty during your visit or through emails/Skype etc. it's helpful to find out a few more things, but these don't really need to be in writing: a. How often are students funded for the entire length of the degree? Has there been any student that didn't get funded and had to leave or fund themselves? b. How often do students get to work with the advisor they want? c. How are TAships or other service work assigned? Do you mostly get to TA classes / do service work relevant to your interests?

It will depend on the situation, but generally, yes, if School A thinks you are planning to leave after a year, then that could affect how they treat you. However, you are not planning to leave after 1 year right? I think your actions are legitimate/ethical as long as you are entering School A with the intention of finishing at School A, and any other plans (school B or otherwise are basically backup plans).

I think your plan is the right one. Accept the second-choice school and pay the deposit, etc. Once you hear back in July about the first choice school, then check with the first choice school to ensure they will still accept you this late in the game. If so, then withdraw from your second-choice school and accept the first choice school's offer. You will lose your deposit, you may count as a student that "quit" and you might make some people at 2nd-choice school unhappy but that's life, you can't please everyone. There aren't any real consequences other than this (i.e. you might not be able to apply for future things at 2nd-choice schools if you made them unhappy enough, but it would be a little strange for someone to hold a grudge forever). I think a lot of people misunderstand the CGS resolution. First, the intent is to prevent schools from forcing students to decide before April 15 and to prevent students from saying yes to more than one school at a time. As long as you first withdraw from second-choice school and accept the first-choice school, then you will be okay. But of course, before you withdraw from second-choice school, ensure that first-choice school still has a spot for you in July! Second, unless your signed letter says something different, there is no legal obligation to finish an academic program that you started. You can quit school at any time, even before the term begins. No one is going to force you to go to a school!

I did my Masters degree in Canada (I'm Canadian) so I didn't need any visa or anything for my Masters. I do know that if the PhD school can take over the sponsorship of J1 from the MA school, that is the ideal situation. My friend is doing something similar where he is transferring from one J-1 postdoc to another without having to leave the country (or having being subject to the 12 month bar since it's the same J-1 visa) [my friend was on F-1 student status]. Sorry I can't help further though, your PhD school's international office should be able to help you.

Given the high value of these awards (it would be $90k combined!!), my guess is no. But in general, to answer the question "Can I hold awards A and B at the same time?", you should always check: - Conditions of Award A (there is almost always a section on concurrent awards) - Conditions of Award B (same as above) - And, limitations of your graduate school. Most schools impose a maximum stipend that graduate students can earn, so while you might be able to hold both awards, you might not be able to take the full value of both. I did a quick check of the first two requirements. Here is the Award Holder's Guide for the Vanier (also covers the other tri-agency stuff): http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etudiants/Guides-Guides/TriRTA-TriBFR_eng.asp. - It says that there are no explicit limits, however, you must adhere to institutional guidelines and devote yourself to your studies/research full time. And here is the same for the Trudeau: http://www.trudeaufoundation.ca/en/programs/scholarships/scholarships-faq - It says that you can accept other awards but if they are valued at more than $10,000, the Trudeau foundation may reduce the value of the Trudeau award (this is also a common thing to see).

Yes, you can definitely keep in touch. Just remember that professors are busy and will probably prioritize their time for their students. And I guess it could depend on the field, but academically/professionally "keeping in touch" is a little different than keeping in touch with friends etc. One way you could approach it is to let the prof know that you decided on Oregon for your Masters and that you hope to keep in touch and that you are interested in applying to PhD programs in the future. Then, I think there are certain times that make it easier to renew contact: - When you publish a paper (don't worry if you don't do this during your Masters though) - When you are about to go to a conference in your field (email them to see if they are going if you want to set up an appointment; or just try to find them when you are both there). - When you are going to apply to PhD programs and want to talk about opportunities - When something comes up and it makes sense to consult with them. For example, when I submit papers to the journal, my advisor and I often discuss a few people to send pre-prints to. We find people that we know that might be interested and could potentially provide good feedback in addition to the referees. These people are either people I know or my advisor knows (at first, I knew no one but for the most recent paper, it was mostly people from "my" network). I'd say there's no real need to email them more than once or twice a year! But these guidelines might scale differently in your field.

The short answer is that you never stop looking at the literature until the project is done. Even as I was sending in my final edits in response to the referee report last week, I was still searching the literature for articles relevant to my work. Maybe I won't find anything relevant to add to my article, but I must stay up to date on the literature (so I keep reading even if the project is done because it will help for the next one!) But, if you are asking a more specific question, like "How much preparation do I need before I start grad school" then that's just up to you. You shouldn't need to do anything until you begin this fall, but if it makes you feel better to read, then do so One tricky thing is that unless you are continuing something you already have experience in, you might not know the seminal works that your advisor could suggest, so I'd start by asking them! It's okay to email your advisor over the summer and ask if there are any suggested summer reading.

Probably not, but ask the school (School B). Given that you will be considered along with the other Fall 2018 applicants, they might say yes since you have to re-compete and therefore they aren't promising you anything. Also, one department of my current school actually makes their offers valid for 12 months. You can attend another school (or take a job or travel or do whatever) for 1 year and if you change your mind, they still will have a spot for you next year (*some complications regarding funding apply---everyone will be funded but you might not get an RAship and have to TA instead).

Grants are very competitive, even for big shot professors. Maybe your field is a special one that is more generous with grants, but the typical success rate for my field is something like 10% to 20% for external grants (internal grants may be higher). So professors in my field spend most of their time writing grants proposals to fund all of their students. If the money isn't already there for you in 2018, I would not count on this (money could already be there if they do have a multi-year grant, or a startup fund, but they want to wait a year before spending it on you or they are spending it in 2017-2018 on a current student that is about to graduate etc.). So, it could work out that you get what you want in 2018. But do not factor this into your decision, unless you get a more solid promise. It's nice that it sounds like the prof does want to hire you, but just needs to get the funding (**however, this is a common/nice way for professors to say no without saying no).

My understanding is that this is typical in many programs outside of the STEM PhD programs. GA work basically exist to fulfill a service/administrative need for the school/department. Even in STEM PhD programs, TA work will also be worked assigned based on what the department needs, it is not meant for students to have work aligned with their research interests. So, I wouldn't think that you are being cheated but if a school can offer you something more relevant to your interests, then that would certainly be a plus if you are deciding between programs. My advice for this particular situation is if you choose to attend this program (in another thread you said you were deciding between two possible programs), then you should convey this concern to your advisor and ask if they can offer you an assistantship in their lab for 2018-2019. It is not likely they can promise you this in advance because very few programs will promise you this a year in advance. But you can gauge how likely you are going to get the offer based on your interactions with this advisor. If you are not satisfied with the response, then perhaps you would consider the other school's offer more appealing?

If having that particular advisor from School B is what you need to accept School B's offer, then write to your advisor at School B and ask them to confirm that they will be willing to serve as your advisor. You can phrase it as a question, like: How does advisor selection work at School B? and also ask them to confirm that they are also interested in you. Only do this if you decide with School B. Try to do this Monday morning so that your potential advisor has time to respond before April 15.

Hi! I think I would be one of your counterparts at my school (I'm part of the student health committee, currently 3 students for grad students) and this is something we think about a lot too. I'll try to answer your questions: 1. It's really hard to measure/quantize stigmatization. Everything at my school varies a lot between departments and in bigger departments, between research groups. We try to normalize seeking help for mental health, the same way you would see a optometrist for your eyes, a doctor for your health etc. Some ways we do this include publicizing general stats (e.g. 20% of our students meet with a mental health professional), reporting the number of students that self-report various issues (from the ACHA data), and talking about mental health regularly at events (see below). 2. The Counseling center is present at orientation, especially international orientation since mental health care can be even more stigmatized in other countries. There are several resource fairs University-wide several times a year that the Counseling Center participates in. There are also one lunch seminar per month, where we invite one psychologist to come to speak to students about a particular topic (e.g. stress management, time management, emotional control, social anxiety, etc.). Students get lunch, learn about a topic and get to meet a psychologist. It alternates between one that is from the school's Counseling Center and one that is from a practice in town (we often refer students to off-campus providers when they need regular, e.g. weekly/biweekly/monthly meetings). These events are emailed to the whole student body, both grads and undergrads. The undergrads have their own support systems with Resident Associates and senior students serving as mental health liaisons. The undergrads live in various "houses" (think Harry Potter) and each one has a staff member from the Counseling Center that checks in on them every once in awhile. There are additional programming too, see below. 3. The other programming are mostly in the form of support groups. There is one for social anxiety, one for eating disorders and one for sleep disorders (off the top of my head). They aren't specific to grad students---we have a small student body and most things are open to both undergrad and grad students. Finally, I want to add one more great thing that our school does. The grad students, in the past, specifically asked for specific coverage in our health insurance for mental health. Under our plan, in each benefit year, the first 25 visits to a mental health provider are fully covered (no copay), and visits beyond the 25th are only a $15 copay. The Counseling Center will also pay for transportation from campus to off-campus providers where necessary. I think this helps reduces the barrier for both undergrad and grad students to seek help. Anyways, happy to answer more questions

I didn't publish at all during my Masters. Most thesis Masters program don't even require that Masters research work be original research (i.e. it can just be a project that is a proof of concept, a literature review type thing, or something that reconfirms a previously known result using your own code/new code----this usually is a precursor project to PhD work).

That's a fair point. Sorry for the oversight! In my field, RA-ships are always for work towards your dissertation, so if you're in, then you will be funded to finish your degree (but having outside funding could help you have more freedom on what you do).

I think this is a bad question to ask. I can't think of a good reason for a candidate to ask this. It sounds like you are trying to ensure you are earning more than your peers or something, which is not the impression you want to make. It's okay to talk about money, but keep the topic focussed on you, not the other students. Maybe you have better intentions though, and maybe you want to know if your stipend is enough to live on? If so, then I would recommend approaching this another way. Ask if you could talk to some students if you haven't already been in contact with them. Then ask if you could discuss cost of living with them. Whenever a prospective student does this with me, I ask if they want numbers and then I am always upfront with my stipend, how much I spend and where I spend it (since different people might have different needs).

These internal fellowships don't matter beyond your school. At my school, they don't even tell us the name, it's just money that come from a source meant for this. The reason they don't matter is because even if it's a University-wide competition, anyone evaluating your CV later on will not know what the competition was like. Also, at some places, these are more needs-based than merit-based (i.e. the best students don't get them because they already have other fellowships). So it is very difficult for an outside entity to judge the value of such a fellowship. In addition, these fellowships are generally for the first couple of years and the next time you're seriously applying for something will be post-graduation jobs. What you did in the first couple of years of grad school won't matter as much as the honours and achievements you have closer to graduation. So, I would say that the fellowship only matters for its actual value. If it provides a better quality of life for you, then you should weigh that school more heavily. But it's not helpful for prestige or anything like that. **There are some exceptions though: if it's a really big fellowship with a big fancy name and funds you for like 5-6 years and would be recognizable beyond your school, then sure that's great.

You should tell them. There is no harm in telling them. They can easily look you up anyways as this fall, you will be listed in your new school's directory. And if they are interested in you as a student, telling them where you will be would help them keep an eye out for your work. So just write something like: Hi X, Yes, I will be attending the Y program at Z University this fall! I hope to see you again at conferences in the future! LAS22 (or something to that effect).

Just to clarify one more time: The two year home residency requirement does not mean you must return home for 2 years immediately after graduation. The requirement is that you must be in your home country for 2 years before you can apply for another immigration-class visa to the US. So, here are some example scenarios where the 2 year thing won't affect you at all (not counting waivers): 1. You finish your US PhD, take a job anywhere else in the world and never immigrate to the US. You do not have to take a job in the UK. You can never ever return to the UK if don't want to (say you get a job in Canada or France or Russia and stay there forever...that's fine!). Note that it's not the UK requirement that you must return home, it's only a requirement enforced by US Immigration. 2. You do a postdoc anywhere else in the world, then you do a postdoc in the UK, then you get a permanent job in the US. 3. You do a postdoc anywhere else in the world, then you return to the US on another J status (non-immigration class) and then you find a permanent job anywhere else. 4. You can extend your J-1 status after graduation and go on "Academic Training" (AT; the equivalent of OPT for J-1 holders). This means you stay on the same J-1 as your PhD so you can actually work for some period of time after graduation in the US. I know that the rules for this differ in STEM (we get 36 months of AT) than other fields though. After this AT period is over, then you are subject to all the J-1 restrictions. --- As for J-1 home residency requirements and waivers, yes it depends on the home country and the reason why you are subject to the requirement. My understanding from talking to my school's international office is that for western countries like Canada and the UK, it's pretty easy to get them waived. But since I ended up with a job in Canada, I guess I won't be testing this theory.

Note: I am not an expert in this, so you should definitely consult an official at Immigration Canada. I believe you only need to show proof of funding for the first year, not the entire length of degree. See http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/temp/students/evaluation.asp Under "Financial Sufficiency", it says, "Students are required to demonstrate financial sufficiency for only the first year of studies, regardless of the duration of the course or program of studies in which they are enrolled." This is similar to requirements for international students to the US. Of course, having more in the statement would help.

I think this depends on the school. For most states, non-resident Americans can gain in-state residency after 1 year. For example, the University of California schools will require all out of state Americans to get California residency after one year or the students must pay the difference between resident and non-resident tuition themselves. This is straight-forward for Americans: you just get a California driver's license (or state ID), register to vote in CA, and live in the state for a year. However, international students remain at the non-resident rate the entire degree. So for a 6 year degree, an in-state American student might cost something like $120,000 in tuition, an out-of-state American around $150,000 but an international student would cost $300,000.

I would seek advice from the campus' disability center to get help on the best way to present your needs to others. From my point of view though, it might be better to do both---just saying "dyscalculia" or naming the disability will probably not provide much info to the person who is not familiar with it, and if they look it up, they might focus on symptoms that you may not experience (since I am guessing that everyone would experience a disability differently). At the same time, just saying that you are "prone to careless mistakes in math" sounds like it's your fault somehow. Also, what do you mean by "math", are you saying that your disability makes it hard to understand abstract math concepts like derivatives and integrals, or do you mean small arithmetic mistakes, or something completely different? Again, seek help from people who are trained to do this. What I might find useful is if a student would say something like, "I just wanted to let you know that I have __(name of disability)__, a disability that leads to ____(list some symptoms here)_____. To help me manage these issues, I ____(list some things you do, don't have to go into too much detail and reveal only whatever you're comfortable)___. It would also be helpful if you ____(list whatever you need the prof to do to help you)_____." The last sentence may not be necessary if you just want to let the person know but aren't asking them to do anything. But I think that last part is really important for someone without a disability because I may want to help you but I might not know what to do. And I think this structure works well for both research advisors and course instructors, you'd modify the last sentence as appropriate.

I'm on a J-1 right now. You are slightly misunderstanding the requirements. It's not a ban! The 2-year requirement is that after the completion of your J-1, you cannot pursue an immigration-class visa in the US until you return to your home country for 2 years. This requirement is due to the fact that you are funded by a government funds (in this case, from the Fulbright organization). Note that it does not apply to all J-1s, only those with government funding. However, if your home country approves a waiver, and the US Dept of State accepts it, this requirement can be waived. There is another J-1 requirement that applies to all J-1 holders though. This is the "12 month bar". In addition to the above paragraph, all J-1 holders who have a PhD J-1 for more than 12 months are not allowed to go on a Research Scholar (postdoc) or Professor J-1 for 12 months following the end of their PhD J-1. So, with these two requirements in mind, the best steps for you depends on your home country and your future career plans. First: the home country. If you are from Canada or Mexico, you are eligible for TN status after you graduate because of NAFTA. So the 12 month bar is not a problem at all. You graduate with the J-1 and then you go on TN for 12 months, then you can go back on J-1 for other statuses. If you are not eligible for TN, then life is harder because you can't go on another J-1 and you can't go on H1-B since you are subject to the 2 year thing. Second: future plans. If you plan to be in the US forever and that's the only future you want, then definitely don't take the Fulbright. Also don't say this to any visa officer ever. One of the requirements for F-1 and J-1 is that you do not plan to immigrate to the US (you can still do it later, you just can't have plans set while on F-1 or J-1). However, if you are able to do a postdoc (or take a job) in your home country or another country, then the J-1 restrictions aren't as restrictive. Overall, if your post-PhD plan is to work in the US as a postdoc (which would put you on J-1, most likely) or in a permanent job (often H1-B if you can get a sponsor) then you will have a much easier time on F-1. But I think this is only true if the US-only path is truly the only path you want to take. Note that it is still pretty hard to get jobs in the US and stay here permanently, especially as a foreign person since you need to convince an employer to sponsor you on H1-B and Trump is already making H1-Bs harder to attain. So, you might end up giving up the $15,000 (I think that's the Fulbright value?) and still not get what you want in the end. If you are open to paths outside of the US after you graduate, I would advise you to take the Fulbright. Conditions/rules/governments may change by the time you graduate. If you are willing to take a risk that you will not be able to work in the US for at least 1-2 years after graduation then it's better to take the Fulbright now and worry about the restrictions in 5 years or so. So, ultimately, you are choosing between two risks. Giving up the Fulbright means that you are risking the money, experience and prestige associated with the award for a chance at working in the US right after graduation (such an opportunity might not even exist for you in 5 years). Taking the Fulbright means that if you cannot get the waiver, you will risking your opportunity (which may not exist) to work in the US for 2 years after graduation.