TakeruK

No, you will not burn bridges if you are honest now. In fact, they will appreciate it because it would be a waste of everyone's time if you went on the visit anyways and had no intention of going. Just tell them that you have already made a decision and that you will no longer be able to visit their school. Yes, they might be sad if they already booked your flight, but that is money already spent---if you attend a visit with no intention of going to their school, you'll cost them even more money. My spouse works in an academic department as well and this is pretty common at all levels in academia. One time, there was a faculty candidate that their department really wanted to recruit and they had an entire week of events planned. Trips to the beach, real estate agent meetups, school tours for the candidates' children, dinners at the Chair's house etc. One week before, everything was cancelled because another school made a better offer to the candidate and the candidate took that offer instead. It's just part of the "business". So, on the bright side, at least you're not a faculty candidate who they have already pulled out all the stops for. In comparison, cancelling a grad student visit would be a lot less work, if that makes you feel any better about letting them down.

For this stage of the paperwork, you just need to provide the international services office (ISO) with enough proof so that they can write it on the I-20 form. Note that later on, when you apply for a visa (if necessary) and when you enter the US, you will also need to have this proof again, just in case they ask to review it. So be sure to check on those requirements later. For your specific question, yes, you can use your assistantship money to account for the $38k as long as you're not double-counting it. That is, if your assistantship provides the $13k difference in tuition waiver, you cannot count it again. But as you said, if your assistantship also pays you a bunch of money, then you can certainty include that. You should provide a copy of the letter of offer with the stipend amount to the ISO office. Note that although both your department and the ISO are part of the same University, it's unlikely they have a lot of communication, so you will have to provide proof that you have a funding offer etc. (by providing this letter). For bank statements, usually you want to provide something that shows the total balance you have in your account, in US dollars. So, one way you can do this is to get a statement from your bank that shows how much you have in your home country's currency, plus something that shows the exchange rate. I would just start with that, using the online printout. When you submit this to your school's ISO, also ask them in the email if they want something more official. In the meantime, research what you need to bring to your visa interview (if you have one) and get whatever paperwork you need for that, in case it will take awhile.

For my field, it's common practice to write abstracts to present work that you have planned to do but have not started yet (however, you need to be sure that you will have it done by the conference, so typically only more experienced people do this and only when you already have all the data in hand etc.) Wording these abstracts is hard though, because you have to carefully balance saying things that will showcase the interesting results without committing yourself to a result that you might not find or might not have time to finish. So, for example, if you were in my field, in the future, for a result that is not yet peer-reviewed, I would have written something like, "We present our analysis on how often weavils walked compared to how often they rested" instead of a specific result one way or another. And, in the sentences leading up to this one, I would introduce the research question (i.e. why make this comparison?) and in the sentences afterwards, I might write about what new knowledge you would gain if it turns out they walked more and what other new knowledge you would gain if it turns out they rested more. For non-reviewed work, another reason to not be too specific in your abstract is that you don't want people to scoop you! For context, my advice is in a field where for any given conference, a poster presentation is guaranteed and the oral presentations are competitive. Generally, a vague abstract like the one above will be hard-pressed to win an oral presentation slot, but it's a fine abstract for a poster presentation (like in this case). But since so many things depend on your field, this is something that would be good to discuss with your advisor.

In my field, conference abstracts are generally considered to be preliminary results and therefore, "mistakes" in abstracts are both expected and tolerated. Although I would not call your situation a "mistake" but instead, consider it as a preliminary result that was later shown to be incorrect after additional review. I would say that your situation is very common! A lot of people go even further before catching the mistake---sometimes I hear presentations that present one thing, but then later on, in the actual paper, it turns out that an earlier error meant that the results were slightly different. This is OK. This is how science works! You present ideas, and then when you learn that you were wrong, you adapt them. For your situation, the right thing to do depends on your field. If your field is like mine, where conference abstracts aren't very meaningful, then I wouldn't do anything. In rare cases, someone might contact you because they found a result from your conference abstract intriguing and want to know if a peer-reviewed paper is ready yet, then you can let them know about the updated result. You should also talk to your advisor about the norms in your field.

Yes, definitely. A no-response doesn't necessarily mean that they were not interested. Sometimes professors just want to see the resume and there's nothing to say when they do, so they don't respond. Now that you are actually admitted, in general, professors will be more likely to respond, so try again.

If you are just asking whether it is appropriate or not, then my answer is yes, it is appropriate for your professor to give you career advice. It's part of their job. Of course, I am assuming that your professor is giving this advice with your interests in mind and that it is their professional opinion that you are better off attending a different school for your graduate education. I am also assuming that you have some kind of relationship with this professor where it would be appropriate for them to give you advice. Otherwise, if this is just some random professor in your department that doesn't know you very well, without solicitation for advice, just telling you that you should go to a different school, then well, while I believe they have the "right" to say whatever they want, I would think this is an odd thing for a professor to say. I would think this is not an appropriate thing for a professor to say to you out of the blue. In either case, I also agree with you that you have worked hard to earn your acceptances and you should be able to make your own choices. A professor giving you a suggestion/advice does not mean you must follow their advice. So, in the end, it's all a matter of whether or not you trust this person. If you do, then consider their advice and think about why they might say what they said. If you don't, then you don't have to feel any pressure to follow their advice. You make your own decisions!

I agree with fuzzylogician, there's no one right answer and your best bet is to examine the ones from people in your field. But as fuzzylogician also points out, there is usually differences for a beginning grad student, a finishing grad student and a postdoc/assistant professor. As you go up in seniority, the amount of details usually shrinks! In my field, there is no CV template needed since the majority of the "basic" CV has very little formatting. It's something like what is described here: http://theprofessorisin.com/2016/08/19/dr-karens-rules-of-the-academic-cv/. You just choose a font that is very standard, set it to 12-points, and then just type in each entry. This is just one example advice piece out there on CV writing---I don't agree with all of it and I don't agree with everything "The Prof Is In" writes, but this particular entry might be useful for you. Personally, I do more formatting than what is described in the "The Prof Is In" blog post, because I want to and because there are other advice pieces that present different viewpoints that I agree with more. Here are some other places with good advice (in my opinion). Note that many of these pages disagree with each other (there's no one right answer!) http://www.grad.illinois.edu/sites/default/files/pdfs/cvsamples.pdf https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/nov/01/academic-cv-job-10-mistakes http://blogs.nature.com/naturejobs/2011/09/27/38-tips-on-writing-an-academic-cv/ https://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/files/ocs/files/gsas-cvs-and-cover-letters.pdf (I really like this resource, it's from a career center at Harvard, containing real examples of successful applications in many fields, with some very concrete advice).

Yeah, it's definitely not a good thing to ignore such a request/invitation to that school. But, maybe they don't really care so in the best case scenario, this has no effect. But to me, ignoring them like that would suggest to the school that you aren't really that interested in their program and they would move onto someone else who showed interest in visiting or at least discussing it further with them. On the bright side, this is only one program and you're not rejected until you're rejected. Maybe you'll get a response from the program director. You should also consider emailing whoever sent the invitation in the first place (if it was not the director). However, I also hope you take the opportunity to learn from this mistake. In the future, if you are applying to something, you will need to make responding to emails somewhat of a priority even when you are super busy with other important things like your defense. It would have only taken you a few minutes to write a response to ask for a later visit date due to conflicts with your thesis defense. Since you didn't do that, what kind of message does it send to the program?

I guess I might have misunderstood then. Yes, if your dream job is an academic TT position, then you should definitely talk to professors about what factors will help you get you there. From your first post, it sounded like you were thinking of contacting the specific programs where you would like a TT position. My point was that you can't guarantee that whoever you talk to there are actually going to be the people making the decisions later on. And, nothing is a sure thing---that program may not even be hiring when you are looking. A department may have vague plans to hire in 5-10 years but there's not going to be a lot of concrete stuff yet. So, my point was that I think you are better off talking to a wide range of professors that you already know in order to get the information you want, instead of specifically asking strangers. Of course, if you already know these people at these programs, then yeah, ask them as you would anyone else in your network. But I'd caution against specifically seeking out people you don't know at the programs you'd want to work because 1) it might sound a little presumptuous to them that someone who is just starting grad school is asking about TT job openings at their program and 2) I'd worry that putting more weight on what these specific people say and letting that steer the direction of your research career might not be the best idea. Even if it is true that what they are saying is going to help you get a job at that particular program, I still think one should seek a graduate program that enables a wide variety of options (meaning both TT positions at other places, since a "dream job" now might not be the same in a few years, and non-TT careers). In other words, we academics are naturally information-seeking and info-driven. However, at some point, we really do have all the information we can use, and the rest is just noise. At this point, we should be careful to distinguish useful general information from the noise, or else we may start heading down a less optimal path due to misinformation. I don't know all the details of your situation and I don't mean to put down the research efforts you have already undertaken and what you plan to do next. I am just pointing out that your question is getting close to finding more noise than information for most cases. Perhaps in your case, there is still useful stuff to learn, so I am not saying you shouldn't do this, but instead, just a warning that trying to learn more information might not yield correct/useful information.

I'm from Canada, so a move to the US wasn't as far for me as it would be for you and most other international students. The two main reasons why I chose to go to the US for my PhD programs are: 1) When I look at the professors hired at the top schools in my general field in Canada, they all have PhDs or did 1-2 postdocs at top US schools. 2) When I look at the top researchers doing work in my subfield, they all reside in the US. Not only that, in 2011, when I was applying to PhD programs, there were zero active research programs in the subfield I wanted to work on in Canada. (My subfield is very young and experienced huge increases in popularity in 1995 and again in 2009). Choosing to go for Reason #2 was a little risky. I was betting that between 2011 and when I was ready to apply to jobs in Canada (i.e. either after graduation or as 2nd postdoc or permanent job), my subfield would grow in Canada and they would be seeking experts in this subfield. In general, I was betting that by 2020, my subfield would be a big thing in Canada. Luckily for me, I was kind of right. (I don't take credit for this prediction of course, it came from discussions with current Canadian and American professors in my field and subfield). In the past 2-3 years, all the top schools in Canada created or expanded planetary science research programs to include exoplanet research (my subfield). I applied to all of these Canadian positions for a postdoc and I'll be starting a prize fellowship postdoc this summer in Canada. My new boss says that I'll be the first holder of this fellowship to be working in my subfield! Again, this was a risk that paid out---since they have never awarded this fellowship to an exoplanet scientist before, another likely outcome would be that no one wants to risk hiring for this new subfield. And this risk/gamble did fail at other Canadian schools---many other fellowships' shortlists did not even include any exoplanet scientist at all. So, my answer to your question is that you have to first decide what you want to do in the long run, and whether a US degree and training will make a difference. My long term goal was to work as an exoplanet scientist in Canada. I decided that moving to the US was worth it because 1) I could get the best training possible, 2) almost all professors in my field at Canadian schools have US postdocs or PhDs, and 3) the US has resources to train me in a way that Canada could not. I also felt that even if I don't end up as an exoplanet scientist, a PhD from a top US school will be helpful for me to compete against other Canadians for top quantitative jobs in Canada. My decision was easier because of the support of my family and my spouse, who also moved to the US with me. My spouse has also been able to develop their career while we are in the US. (We only considered PhD schools in places that would benefit both of us). We're moving back to Canada in a few months and I think the time in the US was definitely worth it and we are both definitely much better off in the long run, career-wise.

Yes and no. First, yes, it is a good idea to do research into finding out what you need to achieve your career goals. A normal part of deciding to apply to / go to grad school involves things like going to career panels and hearing about your different post-Bachelors options and learning what various types of employers are looking for in general. Another good source for this information is to conduct "informational interviews" and talk to people in the various careers that interest you about how they got to where they are. For example, those interested in academia should be talking to professors in their departments! However, that should have been done prior to applying (you may have already done this?). Note also that you can really only get general information. You should not expect to be able to get answers to specific questions like the ones in your post because: 1) every individual hire/search will have different goals and 2) every individual on a search committee may have different perspectives. Therefore, no single person can answer the question you are seeking for a hypothetical job posting that is 5-10 years in the future. In addition, it would reflect rather poorly on you to appear as if you have no idea how to make this decision for yourself and you are seeking their input to guide your life. If you have already conducted some research/informational interviews into tenure-track positions, then you probably already know that the best answer to your question is "all of the above". Program rank matters. Your advisor matters. Your individual success matters. As I said above, every hiring committee for every single position will be different. But a PhD is more than one singular career goal** and you need to choose what's best for yourself in the long run, considering all of your potential career options. That said, I'm not saying you shouldn't seek advice. I'm just advising against contacting places you might want to work in 5-10 years and asking them which school they think you should pick (even if you don't phrase it that way, that's what you're ultimately doing, no?). Instead, this is the time to reach out to your existing network of people you already know and bounce ideas off them. Tell them your goals, what schools you're considering, why you're excited about each and what makes you nervous about each school. They can provide their perspective, which will be helpful because they know you, they have wisdom/experience in the field, and they have an outside perspective that you might not have considered since you probably have been thinking about this every day for the last few months. After you hear from those you trust, you will have to eventually decide for yourself. (** Note from above: Although tenure-track positions in academia are obviously one potential career outcome of a PhD, my opinion is that if this type of position is the only reason why you are pursuing a PhD, I would strongly urge you to either reconsider your career goals or reconsider your choice to go to grad school. As you might have seen from posts all over these forums, or from talking to people, or from reading articles on the Internet, the tenure-track position is the ultimate goal of many PhD-seekers but very few of us will get a chance at it. There are a lot of other things you can do with a PhD, and I would consider those too, in determining which school to attend (i.e. if you pick the school that best prepares you for a TT-position but nothing else, what will you do if you don't get a TT position?). It's up to you to determine what risks are acceptable, but you might consider a school that will prepare you for a wider breadth of careers over one that prepares you really well for just one track.)

@Liv57ac2: That number in the middle is NOT your NSERC PIN. It's the number that is used to distinguish your application from the others that also applied to the 2017 CGSD3 competition. I don't know the full format of this number, i.e. is it just a number that goes up in order for every applicant, or perhaps there is something in the number that identifies your field etc. However, I know it's not your PIN because my NSERC letter (from 2012) also shows my PIN right below this application number. They are different, as they should be, because my PIN has been the same forever, from 2007 to 2017. I have had the same PIN from my NSERC USRA, my CGS-M, my CGS-D and my postdoc applications. So, no need to worry

Can you get a electrician to disconnect/damage/disable the mic in a way that it is permanently unable to record sound? Or, can you tape up the camcorder's mic in case you ever forget to mute the mic?

@MathCat: Good luck!

Yes, as far as I know, you can start the award at the next academic quarter. I think basically any time after May would be okay as long as it's the start of some academic term. But emailing or calling them is fine, and they are actually very quick and responsive. I know you're already a student and I thought you were asking if you could start it later instead of exactly at September. You're finishing up your first year, right? If you have funding secured for the first year already, it might be better to have the PGS start right at the beginning of your second year. Then you will be funded completely through your 4th year. If you are in a 5 year program, your advisor only has to have funding for you for one full year. If your award stops in the middle of an academic/fiscal year (e.g. June 2020), then the remaining summer months might be trickier to manage. Also, since most schools lays out funding one year at a time, it will be easier for you to either be on the award or not on the award for the full year. I think the only exception is if you think you will graduate before August 2020. But even so, it's better to have the funding go through to August 2020 and then return the money than to not have it when you need it. Even if you originally plan to graduate in say, June 2020, having funding through August or Sept 2020 means that if you need to stay an extra month or two for whatever reason, you can! (For example, maybe your next position starts September 2020 and you want to be paid over the summer).

Like you, I turned my CGS-D3 into a PGS-D3 to take it to a US school. Your interpretation is right. My school's academic year began in October in the year I started the PGS, so my payment dates were October and April. Note that you need to submit a "request for payment" about one month prior to the payment date and this request requires your advisor's signature. So plan for that! I actually ended up receiving my first cheque, meant for October 2012 to March 2013 in mid-September 2012 because I submitted it in early September and they got back to me really quick. The timing doesn't really matter---they just want to be clear on which months the money is supporting you. As you may already know, your payments are going to be in US dollars so the amount of money you get will depend on the value of the Canadian/US dollars. Make sure to make an arrangement with your department to cover the difference (unless you are lucky and your school just lets you keep the difference). When you get your cheque from Canada, I'd make a photocopy of it, because the cheque amount, for some reason, is usually different from the amount on the cheque stub/payment invoice that comes with the cheque. I think those numbers are probably computed using different exchange rates on different days. In any case, if the cheque amount is lower than the invoice amount, you want to use the cheque amount to prove to your school that you got X dollars. You might also want to use this for filing any state taxes (some states, e.g. California, will tax you on all worldwide income if it's earned/derived from working in California). Also, this means you are getting lump sum payments every 6 months so good budgeting is important! It was a relief to see the Government of Canada envelope in my mailbox each payment period. Even now, that brown-ish shade that the Government of Canada uses for its envelopes is still an exciting thing to see (recently, my Parks Canada pass came in such an envelope!)

I think bringing your significant other (or any friend) in a professional capacity (e.g. as a guest speaker, or maybe you want them to observe how you teach and provide feedback etc.) is definitely fine. But if the TA is bored and want their significant other (or any friend) to hang out with them when they are supposed to be working, then I don't think it's okay, even if everyone is professional! As a TA, when you are in your classroom, you are in a workplace, not a social space.

Yep. Although I think having too many things to do and being forced to prioritize is actually a good thing in academia, because it means you have access to all these great things and you get to pick and choose what you like. I was at a school where it was the opposite and that was not great at all. No need to feel guilty though. You only have so much time and energy and you must prioritize. If you are concerned about missing out on things, I would recommend taking a step back and look at the big picture. Determine what your goals are for the program you are in. Determine how you can reach these goals. Then, assess the way you are spending your time and figure out if what your career development goals are reflected in the way you spend your time. I think this is an important skill as a graduate student! Your time is a resource and you need to use it wisely to get what you want. I can potentially attend 6 hours of seminars per week but that would not be very helpful for me. This year, my goal was to attend my department's weekly seminar every week no matter the topic (in order to have some breadth outside of my subfield) and then the other seminars only when the topic is related to my research/interests in some way. In my earlier years of grad school, I was more liberal in defining what was "related" because 1) my interests were broader and 2) I wanted to expose myself to more subfields. So, your priorities can and should change over time! However, since I know I am making choices that advance my career and my goals, I no longer feel guilty saying "no" to things that could potentially help me but won't be as helpful as something else I could be doing instead. It also works the other way---I do a bunch of volunteering and committee work outside of research (e.g. grad student government) and I used to feel guilty about the time I was spending away from research. But with my time budget and a clear list of goals, I know I am making satisfactory research towards my career goals and can pursue other passions (hobbies, committee work, etc.) with minimal guilt

Agree with fuzzylogician. It's not appropriate for your assistant TA to have their significant other "hang out" with them while they are TAing, and definitely not appropriate for them to be "snuggling". They can do that on their own time, not while on the clock.

@AP: Yes, I definitely agree with you. I felt like I had answered the original question in my very first response (e.g. seek grad student association help, conference organizers etc.) I only posted the longer response based on other comments that $1500 seemed high for a conference and I wanted to show that $1500 is typical (at least in my experience) for a 5-day meeting on the other side of the country, and if it's in Europe, much more is common. As for my last paragraph, yes that was to bring it back to the original topic. And, for the record, when I was an undergraduate, there were a couple of conferences that I attended in this way. In Canada, there is a national conference for undergrads run by undergrads and they get good sponsorship from companies and universities so that they can offer good hotel rates. Most student presenters aren't "sent" by their advisors because we are generally presenting on last summer's research project or a class project and these profs don't generally send their summer undergrad students to conferences. However, it's still a good (and fun) experience to go, so in these cases, I did manage all of the above tips from you and Comparativist in order to keep expenses low (i.e. public transport for ground travel, cheap meals, etc.) because everything I didn't find a travel grant for was out of pocket. I think I was able to do a 3 day trip at a big city in Canada for around $700, including airfare (airfare was the biggest part). But as Sigaba also pointed out, this method is likely not a great idea for professional conferences. At an undergrad conference that is mostly for fun and for learning/personal development, it makes more sense. In my opinion, part of the transition from undergrad student to grad student is developing from the mindset that we have to sacrifice and make cutbacks in our personal lives for professional development to the fact that we are now working professionals that provide value to others and should thus be properly compensated (of course, grad students are still partially in training, so there's still more development between grad student and PhD holders).

Are you asking about CGS-M? No, a few years ago, the CGS-M award format was changed so that it is specific to only one University because the selection committee is from that University and only reviews candidates applying for a CGS-M at that University. Long ago, when I was applying for the CGS-M, it was one single nation-wide competition that was assigned to the student, which the student could take anywhere. This is a little more advantageous to the student, as winning one basically means you can be admitted almost anywhere and schools might even offer a bonus if you attend their program with a CGS-M. It also used to be a 2-year award (my year was either the first or second year that became a 1-year only award). However, I think it does make more sense with the current system of limiting it to a specific school. This helps schools that might not get as much funding from the national or provincial governments still be able to attract strong students and this ensures that the distribution of CGS-M is even across Canada, instead of limited to only a few schools. In addition, it does help students because it costs more than just money to support a grad student. If a school simply accepts way more students than they can handle (class sizes, professor time etc.) just because they all hold CGS-Ms then it would mean a worse experience for students too. I wish they did change it in some way that still lets the student keep some benefits (e.g. require the school to top off every CGS-M by X dollars) but I think the change is overall more positive than negative.

Okay so they aren't really charging excessive fees and it sounds like they are a real conference! Another metric I use to assess whether a conference is worth going to is to see who else is going. Many conference websites will show the list of registered participants. In your case, if they have already started to accept papers, they will also list who else they accepted. If this is not available (yet), perhaps see who the invited/keynote speakers are. Take a look and see if: 1) You find lots of people who are working on the same things that you are interested in. This will indicate that your work will fit in well with the community there and you will have a chance to make an impression on your current and future colleagues and that you will also be able to learn something interesting from them. 2) You see the leaders in your subfield represented. Again, the point of a conference is to directly meet and interact with your colleagues and others in your field. Make sure that there are some people you would be interested in meeting after having read their papers or books for some time. Note that scam conferences will sometimes list famous professors on their website even though these professors might not have even heard of the scam conference!! So be careful of that. With what you wrote here and what you wrote earlier (that this paper is not in your main field of interest), it doesn't sound like it's worth the trip. What would you gain from this experience? Better to save your own money and your ability to win travel grants (sometimes they favour new applicants over previous winners) for a conference that will provide more benefit.

I understand your frustrations, but ultimately, this is not your call to make. If you would like, you could present your concerns about the students' performance. You could also suggest an alternate grading scheme and justification on why you believe this grading scheme will help students beyond this course. It might even help if you can find grading schemes for similar courses in the same department, i.e. something that shows the prof that this particular course is different from the rest of the department. However, take the above advice with care. Remember that: 1) You are not the professor. You are the TA. Depending on your relationship with this professor, you may be able to suggest alternatives or improvements but it is not your call to make. It's the professor's prerogative to decide on their grading scheme. You don't have to agree with it, but you do have to implement it. Also, I am not sure you have a sound case here---there are some good pedagogical reason to not expect/demand/grade for perfection in order to achieve other learning goals. 2) You only have so much "political capital" for lack for a better phrase. Sure, this is a potential fight you might be able to pick. And, depending on what the prof is doing exactly, perhaps you might have a valid argument with the DGS or the Department Head. But this is likely not a fight you can win and it's likely going to hurt you and your students in other ways down the road. Personally, this is not a battle I'd pick. 3) There might be other things going on. Maybe the department has decided that this particular course is supposed to be the "GPA booster" course that students from other departments take to get a GPA boost. This might increase enrollment in the department's courses, resulting in more money for the department. Maybe the prof doesn't like it either, but they are being forced by the powers that be. And maybe the department itself doesn't want to be doing this, but the University is imposing this funding scheme and they have to do it to get the money. I'm drawing up a kind of extreme scenario, but I'm just pointing out that you might not have all of the information. Either way, these problems are above our "pay grade" as a TA and I'd leave them alone. 4) Finally, I do think there are extreme cases that merit exceptions to the above. If the professor is engaging in unethical grading schemes, or doing really extreme things like asking you to only award As, then that might be a reason to check in with someone else to make sure everything is okay. Being a TA means that the prof is the boss and you need to do your job as assigned, but you do also have responsibility to the department and academic integrity. So, I wouldn't take the "do what your boss says" advice to the extremes, but this scenario is not an extreme.

Yes, I agree it's possible to decrease these numbers, but I don't think students should feel pressured to do so. I consider conference to be work travel so there are standards on what an advisor can ask a student to "endure". But this could be a field-dependent thing because my research doesn't cost a ton of money. My total research expenses is probably only around $10,000 per year (usually 2-3 conferences per year, one in Europe every other year, and page charges for journal articles). I don't have chemicals or animals or other expensive lab stuff to order. My advisor has always been very good about spending money so that us students are comfortable during travel because we have to do this for work. My advisor gives the government per diem rate, which ranges from $47/day to $100+/day depending on location. I always shoot for around $50-$60 per day (unless I'm in at a place with a smaller per diem) and I keep my receipts so that I don't get reimbursed for more than I spend (if I don't say anything, I would get the full per diem which would be way too much). I don't splurge when I eat but I always try to eat healthy. i.e. I don't think I should compromise my health by eating McDonalds all the time or filling up on reception food, which is generally greasy and fried and contain little vegetables. Also, the whole point of conferences is to network and eat with your colleagues and sometimes if I am joining professors for dinner, they tend to pick something a little more pricey. As for sharing rooms, my advisor's policy is that we should not be required to share rooms because everyone has different needs. We basically have a chat about conference travel for the upcoming year each fall and it's up to us if we want to spend more and go to fewer conferences or spend less and go to more. The only times I had my own room was when I was the only person I knew who was going (and willing to share with) or at some European places, the charge is per person instead of per room. Also, I try to stay at the conference hotel when possible to make it easier to attend networking events after the sessions and to reduce the commute time each morning/evening (after all, I'm still "working" and I feel like my time does have value...saving $20/night but adding another hour to get to/from the convention center might not be worth it). That said, I completely agree with you that your tips are great for someone who is comfortable doing them and if they feel that the specific conference is worth it. Sometimes funding is just tight and you need to make some sacrifices for your own good. But just like I feel like my research time is worth money and I wouldn't do research work for no/low pay, I also wouldn't do conference travel without proper compensation. I definitely get a lot of benefits from presenting at a conference, but so does my advisor/school, so I feel like it's fair to ask them to pay for reasonable expenses.

Don't worry, the next year is actually the first year you would qualify for it. You need to already be a graduate student when you apply and you need an advisor. It's run more like a grant so the PI will be your advisor but you write all of the materials. The solicitation opens each November and it's due in early February each year. But the practical deadline is like a week before because it's considered an actual grant from NASA, so it requires approvals at several levels within the school (for us, it's the department head, Graduate Dean, and the Office of Sponsored Research). Although there are no rules on when you can apply, the successful candidates are generally in 2nd to 4th year when they apply. Good luck