TakeruK

I think I might have wrote about this in a response to a different thread (maybe by you? maybe by someone else?) so I'm sorry if I'm repeating it, but: If you are an international student (on F-1 or J-1 status), then you will not be allowed to have a side-job to make extra money. By default, you are only allowed to work on campus. You can apply for special permission to work off campus but the hours are limited and the job must be related to your education. There are a few exceptions due to unexpected financial circumstances though. But, to get into the country on F-1 or J-1 status, you must prove that you have the financial means through a combination of the school's funding package & your savings to pay for everything---you cannot include income from a side-job to make ends meet. So, I would not count on being able to work the type of jobs you mention. Even babysitting for pay would violate your international student status. I know that maybe some people are willing to risk it and take jobs that pay cash / are not recorded but personally, I would not risk it.

I'm not in your field but it seems like it will be tough to get what you want for this summer. However, in my field, it's not uncommon to be a "visiting grad student" for 1-2 months during the summer. Usually this happens when you have a collaborator at School X and you and your advisor agree that it would be productive for you to spend 1-2 months with the collaborator. This scenario is a lot easier because you already have an existing relationship and usually your home institution pays you while you're away. Another common thing are summer schools or workshops that are 3-6 weeks long. As fuzzy said, they are usually advertised well in advance though. This is approximately a good time for them to advertise for the summer. But, in my field, the spots for these summer schools are actually competitive---more applicants apply than there are spots. Usually some funding is attached to the acceptance too (sometimes just travel but sometimes also covers a stipend). Because of the competitive nature, you normally have to already be a graduate student to apply.

We moved across Canada in 2010 with a carload of stuff. We took everything up to our room that was visible from the outside. That is, everything on the back seat etc but we didn't take stuff up from the trunk. We were careful to not open the trunk unless absolutely necessary so it's not obvious that we're moving with all of our stuff. The things in the backseat were just a couple of very large suitcases and some boxes, stuffed with things we're moving, but to a would-be thief, we would just look like overpackers instead of people trying to move everything they owned! We stopped in wine country along the way and got several bottles so we moved them up too so they wouldn't experience as extreme temperature changes. Use a dolly/cart from the hotel if they have one. For some more sketchy places, we might have moved everything (not 100% remembering everything). We were willing to pay a little bit more to stay at less sketchy places because we were making the move into a mini vacation/holiday too. We did the drive in about 20 days, usually one day of driving, then 1-2 days visiting a city and then continuing. Since we were staying at each place for 2 or 3 nights, we didn't mind moving things up as much---it wasn't like we did it every day. We have renters insurance and it does cover things stolen from our car. When we moved from Canada to the US via UHaul U-Box pod, our renters policy also covered the contents of the UHaul Pod. This policy is valid even when you no longer live in your old place where you first took out the policy---the policy covers you and your belongings/liability. So don't cancel when you move, keep the policy until you get to the new place and then add your new residence to the policy. There is a deductible though and you will have to be able to prove the value of your stuff, so for valuable things, you should have documentation and when you set up your policy, make sure you have right options and riders to cover what you need.

Yeah, I think this is very strange too. If you want to attend this school but are concerned that this professor will harm your application, I would contact the department head to let the head know that you received this strange request and you will not be doing a project for free. I would also let the professor know that you cannot work for free also. If you don't want to attend this school anymore, then it would probably be best to decline the project and move on. You could still tell the department head if you wish, but it might hurt you more than it helps.

I agree with fuzzy, the "how well do you get along with faculty and students" factor is an important one that you left out. Assuming you get along with School A students & faculty well, I would pick School A too, personally. Financially, the only really important factor is "is it enough to live on**?". The biggest difference in stipend between offers I was considering was about $6000/year (maybe $10000 if you count cost of living differences). However, provided that School A's stipend is enough to live on**, I don't think $6000-$10000 per year (=$30,000-$50,000 total difference) is enough to change my mind. The reason is because postdoc salaries in my field range from $40,000 to $70,000 and I think I will be better off in the long term going to the better school with better outcomes. The small pay difference in grad school is dwarfed by just 1 or 2 year of postdoc. Plus, getting a better postdoc is also correlated with higher paying jobs after the postdoc. So, personally, my only criteria on the stipend was "enough to live on", and I didn't put more weight on more pay. ** Here, when I say "enough to live on", I don't mean the bare minimum to just survive, but enough to actually live whatever life you are willing to live while in school. For me, this means affording a one bedroom apartment for my spouse and I (on two incomes), being able to eat out once or twice a week, being able to buy actual food instead of just ramen, being able to afford a used car after a few years, and actually building some savings. Also, I realise that my priorities and perspectives are not going to be the same as everyone else---for example, the extra $6000-$10000 could be really important to another person who might have to support depends, have expensive health costs, or have a lot of debt (I had no debt from school and also a fair amount saved up due to working while in school and Canadian tuition levels being very affordable). So, I can only speak for myself and if this advice applies to you, then go ahead and take it but if you need the extra money now, then you should certainly weigh the stipend more than I did!

If he is asking you to take an unpaid project prior to admission then yeah this is very strange. What do you mean by "he offered [you]" a project? Usually, when I think of an "offered" project, it means either a job offer (he'll pay you 20 hours per week for 8 weeks) or an admission offer (this is the first project of your graduate degree). I think it would be a good idea to clarify with this professor what is going on here. If you have the time and if he is paying you and if you want to do it, then go for it. But only if all 3 things apply. I would not do 20 hours / week of free work, even if i had the time. RA work is generally valued between $20/hr to $30/hr, so this is not a small amount of free work either. If I was in your position and I had time to do this project, I would say that this sounds like a good opportunity and ask if this would be a research assistantship. Or, you can choose some other phrasing that makes it clear that you now want to discuss payment if you don't want to say it directly. If I was in your position and I don't have time (or don't want to) do this project, I would thank him for the opportunity but say that you do not have time to take on a 20hr/week project right now and that you prefer to do a project right instead of rushing it with the limited time you have. You can suggest that maybe you can do this project with him after you start the program, if you get accepted. And that you look forward to it. But only say these things if you actually want to work with him. Because he isn't making/forcing you to do this project (after all, how can he "make" you?), I'm not sure if going to the department head is going to be helpful. The department head may somehow side with the faculty member and then you are stirring up trouble for yourself for no reason. I would just politely decline if I am not interested in the professor. The only reason to go to the department head is if you feel like the professor is acting unfairly to pressure you and other potential applicants into doing free work. But doing so can also hurt you down the road so it's up to you if you want to "report" this prof or not.

I love budgetbytes!!! I even purchased the book

I can't speak to the field of philosophy specifically but I want to say that this is true for most academic fields. The numbers for people who start graduate school and end up on a tenure tracked professorship is very low, something like 10% or maybe even less. If one views the only purpose of a PhD in X is to become a professor in X, then I think the above advice does apply. It's important to realise that anyone's chances of success for this single career outcome is very low. A professor may graduate tens of students during their career but the field may only grow by a factor of a few during this time. PhD programs create many more graduates than there are positions to fill. This is because PhD programs don't solely exist to create more professors. They are meant to train graduates in a set of scholarly skills that will be useful in society or other work. So, I understand why your school said these things to you when you indicated your goal of a career as a professor. If that is your only reason to go to grad school, I think that is pretty risky, since the chances are slim. It's up to you whether or not it's worth the risk. Personally, it took me awhile to be fully confident in my decision to go to grad school in my field. Ultimately, I am comfortable with the decision because I have more than one career goal and all of them either requires a PhD in my field or my chances would be greatly improved with a PhD in my field. After thinking about what I want and researching potential career paths, I learned that no matter what happens, getting a PhD moves me closer to all of my goals. That's how I decided that the investment in a PhD would be worth it for me in the long run. So, this is what I meant by thinking about what you want. Okay, so you know you want to be a professor in Philosophy. That's a great goal to have. But is the reward of this potential worth the risk of potentially not attaining it? If so, then go for it! If not, then think about what else you want. What other goals would a PhD fulfill? Think about all of your alternative options (non-PhD or other PhD programs) too. Out of all your options, which ones will get you closer to what you want out of life, and which ones are worth the risk? --- Finally, you said you looked at philosophy jobs and only found 10. Again, philosophy is not my field so maybe this is a difference between fields thing. I just want to say that (at least in my field) academic jobs don't work the same way as non-academic jobs and you can't seek job postings in the same manner! Here are some differences (again, based on my field and trying to extrapolate to others): 1. Jobs aren't usually well advertised. Often, they are only advertised in your national society (e.g. the American Physics Society)'s jobs bulletin or members-only publication. Or, they are advertised in obscure places on each department's website. If you just search the University-wide jobs opening, you won't find professorships listed there. You have to look at each department individually. 2. There is a "cycle" to academic jobs. In my field, faculty job postings usually appear in the fall/early winter and then decisions are made over spring/summer, and then the new faculty often starts one year after they are hired. So, right now, it's past the season for most jobs so I'd expect to see very few faculty searches still active at this time. 3. But, at some places, faculty searches are always happening. I know that my department puts up a search every single year but they only hire when they find someone they really like. So, the number of postings is not necessarily equal to the number of positions actually available. Many schools will have applications open even if they are likely not going to hire, because they don't want to miss a superstar that happens to be applying in their non-hiring year. 4. Also, at other places, job postings only appear once they already have someone they want to hire in mind. This is different to what I said above because lots of places do things differently! Sometimes, (more so for teaching-only or research-only positions than faculty, so I hear) will only officially start a search once they know they can fill it with someone they want. So, they will often start quiet searches where they use their network to find out people who are interested and start looking for good candidates. Once they found at least one strong candidate that is interested in applying, they'll officially begin the search. They may end up hiring one of their original candidate(s) or they might find someone even better. For places that can afford to conduct searches every year just in case someone good pops up, then #3 above might happen more often but a lot of other places won't be able to always commit the many people-hours necessary to conduct a search unless they know they will get something worthwhile out of it. My point here is that it is hard to really research what job opportunities are available when you are on the "outside". Right now, you may not have access to the information channels where jobs are announced and you may be looking either in the wrong places or at the wrong time. Of course, it's still worth looking for each of the careers you're interested in, but keep in mind that you may be missing a bunch of information. So, I would suggest you augment your own research by talking to people in the fields you want to work in. Like I suggested above, "information interviews" can be a very good way to get information on the process of attaining a position in your desired career path.

It's not that unusual for a student to request it but I would say it's really unusual for a student to get useful feedback. As fuzzy said, it would require a complete re-review because these applications are not generally reviewed individually with notes taken for each applicant. The "general" feedback you might get would be something like a person looking at your summary stats and if they see GPA below the top scores, they might say "GPA was low". But this might not even be the real reason you didn't get selected (i.e. even if the GPA was higher, you might not get in). Or they might just say "The fit was not right" but that has no meaning at all (fit is important but I'm saying this feedback has no meaning). Although I have not been on a graduate admissions committee specifically, I've now have had some experience with other selection committees and we never discuss the rejections very deeply. In some cases, the committee may only review a file for 2 minutes before deciding it's not the right fit. One example strategy is that if you have 100 applicants and 10 spots, you can have each committee member first go through each file and say "no" or "maybe" and basically only review the ones that get at least one "maybe". So, for applicants that are cut in this way, probably no discussion was ever made on this file so there would be nothing for them to say. In addition, notes are rarely kept in these meetings and discussions. So, someone who was on the committee would have to remember what was said. However, these meetings are also very confidential so it's unlikely someone would be willing to repeat what another person said. They may be willing to give you their own thoughts about your profile but as fuzzy said, this would usually mean someone who was really championing for you and really want you to try again next year. Finally, another reason schools won't really give detailed feedback is because they don't want the applicant pushing back or trying to appeal the decision. Most schools strongly state all decisions are final, but I've seen it on these forums and elsewhere that sometimes, if a student is told "X was not good enough", they will try to get the school to change their mind and that they were wrong about "X". If you truly want useful feedback, my advice is to wait until May when all schools are finished with applications. If you did not get into any school and you will reapply, then you could start contacting the schools and say you will reapply (not just "thinking of") and maybe you can get some helpful hints. But wait until you actually need the advice/feedback because you didn't get in anywhere. If you end up with an offer to another place that you will accept, then there's no reason to seek feedback. People aren't going to be willing to put in the extra time and effort unless they know they are actually helping someone.

You should always meet with as many people as you can. I would encourage all new students to be a little open minded and always be interested in different types of work. It's important to be a little nimble/flexible because you never know what could happen in the future (your top choice advisor could leave, retire, quit, run out of funding etc.). Although ultimately, the goal of the PhD is to become the expert in a very specialized thing, it is always important to be continually learning about other research topics too. I also think meeting profs outside of your main research interest is a great thing because you don't have the pressure of "I must convince this person to take me as a student" and you can talk about your field in general and what interests you. Think about it as an opportunity to learn about a new research topic / area of research in your field. Usually you have to learn about these new areas through coursework or a literature review, but here's a chance to get an introduction right from the mouths of an expert!

Obamacare prices may vary from place to place. As non-resident aliens, my spouse and I did not get the tax break before my spouse were able to find work. We paid full price for the "Silver" plan, which was about $250 per month in California, which is about $3000 per year and we probably spent about $1000 more out of pocket since there are deductibles and copays. I would have categorized the level of supplies we needed to be more than the average user but not as extensive as managing diabetes. $4000 a year isn't nothing, but during our first year here, Obamacare didn't exist and insurance companies denied coverage, so our only choice was through my school's dependent health program which had a premium of $7200 per year, and we had to pay out of pocket. In any case, the Affordable Care Act may be more expensive to you compared to having your employer cover your insurance but at least in California, it has lowered the barrier to care for low income earners. I appreciate @Sigaba's point and they bring up a good point that I neglected to consider: the impact on the other workers in your department. When I read your original post, I did not get the sense that you would have such an impact/responsibility on other employees. That is, when I read that "you took a promotion", I understood this as rising through the ranks, for example, going from Research Scientist I to Research Scientist II. When you say "products [you're] responsible for creating", I am not certain if you mean you are leading a team to develop this product, or if you are an important part of a team that is creating this product. I do think the situation is a little different if you have supervising responsibilities and subordinate employees that you are responsible for. I want to first say that I still think your first responsibility must be to yourself and your family. However, if you are a manager of a small R&D staff within your department, then I do think you have some level of increased responsibility. Having this power means, in my opinion, you should start quietly setting things up so that your department/team is taken care of when you leave. For example, you might want to start training your team in responsibilities that you will vacate when you leave. Include them where possible in your meetings (if you are able to invite them to join "for consultation" etc.). Start documenting as Sigaba suggested. Mention the promising employees in a positive light when speaking to your supervisors. Ultimately, I think you should also tell your team before you tell your supervisors, but depending on your comfort level, that might be a month before, a week before, or just minutes before going into your supervisor's office. I notice that you also mention discomfort in booking flights etc. I understand the discomfort but here, I disagree with Sigaba, respectfully, and I do not think booking flights that you will not take constitutes a lack of integrity. The reason is because I do not think employers should have the right to know your future plans, whether they be personal or career. Employers should not treat you any differently because of your future personal plans and commitments. Therefore, withholding this information from them to avoid unfair treatment is within what I would consider acting with integrity. Ultimately, the truth is that you are replaceable, and it may come at some economic cost to the company, but I think that is part of the inherent risk in running a business, and it's the company's responsibility to worry about this, not yours. All of this said, I am not saying that I think the only correct choice is waiting until the last minute. The main purpose of my post is to say that waiting until the last minute is one option you have, and I made an argument about why I believe this is an ethical choice and maintain integrity in tact. Ideally, you would be able to do more than just be ethical and maintain integrity, and I agree with Sigaba that if you are able to be in the same position as the incumbent to Sigaba's former R&D position, then that would be an ideal case (at least in my opinion). However, it sounds like there may be considerable risk to attempt to achieve this and it's your personal decision to choose how much risk you are willing to take.

I agree with rising_star and fuzzy that I think it's more important to decide on what you want as your goals first and then take the GRE if that is necessary for your goals. To answer your original four questions: 1. I think you are on the right track in your original post about finding out more about these potential career paths. My advice is to first continue working to get yourself in a more stable financial situation. It sounds like you have a lot of debt from your BA and I don't think seeking an advanced degree just for the sake of seeking an advanced degree is a good idea. I know this is not what you're doing, since you are doing a lot of research into what degree programs exist, so I would encourage you to continue doing that. Once you find some programs that interest you, then you can evaluate things like the cost and whether the job opportunities that come out of the degree are worth it. However, your first post seems to be very strongly seeking non-GRE programs, and I don't think this is a good approach to grad school. You should find the programs that provide the opportunities you want and that you decide is worth the cost. Then, you should look at the requirements and decide if you can meet them. I don't think going in the other direction is a good idea---don't just attend a program because you can get in, attend a program because it meets your needs! 2. No, the GRE itself doesn't matter in helping you get a job, it does matter to help you get into most graduate programs which can lead to better jobs. 3. In my field, there are no good schools that do not require the General GRE (for now) and there are no good schools that are online. But I know your field is different than mine, so maybe these exist in your field. I get the sense that for most graduate programs though, there are currently very few good programs that are online---most of graduate education still happens at "brick and mortar" schools because a lot of the education is the exposure and interactions you have by being "in residence" with the faculty and your colleagues. 4. Similar to #1, I think you should do a lot more research on what careers interest you. Do you know anyone in any of the careers you're interested in? Also, I think it's worth the time to just reach out to people working in these fields where you live. Tell them that you are interested in studying to become X and if you could buy them a coffee and chat about how they got to their position and what their job is like. Some people call these "informational interviews". Many people might be too busy and say no or ignore you but that's okay---keep trying and someone will say yes. Also, to your latest question: It sounds like you are searching for non-GRE programs because you are afraid of doing badly and not getting into a good school? But as I said above, most good schools will require the GRE, so I don't think this is a good line of reasoning. If you need time to prepare for the GRE then definitely take the time. To me, it sounds like you will need some time to figure out what career path you want to aim for. You may need other pre-requisites anyways (as you mentioned in your post) so if you are taking undergraduate level courses first, then I would not take the GRE until you are ready to apply to Masters or other graduate programs. Remember, the GRE scores are only valid for 5 years. Just in case you didn't already know, as an example, if you want to apply to programs starting in Fall 2018, then you would be applying during the months of November 2017 to January 2018. The General GRE is offered almost every day in major cities, but the spots do fill up fast in the fall, so I would recommend taking the exam some time in summer of the year you are applying (e.g. Summer 2017 if you are starting grad school in Fall 2018). You can take the exam about once per month so doing it early means you can retake it if necessary. Just some helpful timelines to think about once you are at the stage where you start applying to grad schools.

This information (added emphasis) makes a big difference, in my opinion. In my above analysis, I was assuming that your visit was typical to what is like in my field, where the school takes care of everything and it's a 2-3 day visit where every minute is scheduled (tours, meetings, etc.) and they plan dinners and other social events for the visiting student(s). In hindsight, this is probably a bad assumption to have made. In any case, knowing this information, I would say rescheduling may not be the worst thing, especially if you are taking care of your own travel and paying your own cancellation costs. That is, option #3 above might be the best choice after all. Sure, it will still reflect poorly on you a little bit that you had to change the plans again, but if the situation is really that the school isn't doing any planning on their end, it should not be a big deal. If nothing is planned yet (i.e. no professors booked time to see you, no social events or meals planned) then rescheduling shouldn't be a big deal at all. However, one caveat to this is that maybe they actually have already planned things and didn't tell you. But you're the one in contact with the school, not us, so you're the best judge of what they have done. I'm just giving this warning since in many cases, a lot of things are planned but you don't get the schedule with everything planned listed until the night before or the morning you arrive! Also, we're from very different fields where the norms on visits could vary a lot.

Many schools will offer to let you start early and pay you as well as put you on their health insurance, if there's funding. So, when you accept the offer, this is a good time to ask if this is a possibility. Otherwise, I would say your first responsibility is to yourself and your family. You don't owe your current company any more than the minimum required notice (whatever that is). After all, if it's possible that they'll fire you if they knew you were leaving in August, then it doesn't really sound like you owe them anything special. Also, take into account how your benefits change based on when you resign from your positions. Some companies let you keep benefits until the end of the calendar month, so if you are starting your new program & benefits on Sept 1, it might be a good idea to make August 1 your last day of work (or give notice on August 1 if you think they'll fire you) so that you keep your company's insurance until August 31, then start your school insurance on Sept 1. Hopefully you have not said anything to anyone about grad school yet, and I would continue not saying anything. In my opinion, it's not our job, as employees, to feel bad for "blindsiding" our supervisors. It's their job to find a replacement when you move on because it's very common that people do move on to other opportunities. In my opinion, the current work culture heavily favours employers and gives employees very little rights. So, I think the whole culture of people feeling bad about leaving (especially after a promotion) is just a symptom of the power differential. Company loyalty doesn't exist anymore because you rarely see it go the other way (companies protecting their employees). This is normal in academia too. Both for researcher positions (e.g. faculty) as well as administrative ones (e.g. Deans, directors, etc.). It's not rare for someone to take a promotion and then leave a few months later because another school made a better offer. We all need to act in our own best interests. Of course, also stay in ethical and legal realms; but as I said above, I don't think "blindsiding" a supervisor is unethical.

I'm glad those opportunities exist for your colleagues there! Maybe it does vary a lot from place to place but I feel like these are special cases instead of the norm. I know that almost all of my offers state that the RA or TA is 20 hours per week, so in those cases, there is absolutely no room for additional employed work. At my current program, we do not get paid differently for TA work. So, if you are TAing, then you get less hours on your RA so you still get the same money no matter what. You are right that it's not impossible to get more money if you need it. My point is that it can be hard to get a steady source of additional income and that these opportunities are not available everywhere.

Also want to echo this sentiment. For my Masters (only 2 years), location was not as important for me. Since I went to undergrad in the same place I grew up, I figured that a location change to something very different (even if I might not like it) for 2 years would be good for me as well. So, I applied to three Canadian schools, all three in places that I would actually never choose again for location (all in the cold parts of Canada!). But it was a good academic experience and I felt it was also a good personal/growing experience to live far away from where I spent the last 20 years of my life. Starting at the PhD program level, I knew I had to be happy in order to survive these 5+ years (it's year 4 now and I'm still alive, still happy!). Also, I was not moving alone, the location needed to be a good place that has opportunities for both my partner and I. I think one thing that a lot of new graduate students think is "Everything will be better after I get my PhD" or "I just have to tough it through the PhD and then things can be better". A lot of the reason we (I used to think this way too) think like this is because senior/established professors instilled this thought into us. Many people tend to reflect "fondly" on their grad school years as years of hard work but it was all worth it in the end. However, I think there are two major things wrong with this: 1. I don't think it's correct to think that it will magically get better after we have our PhDs. Although I am not there yet, so maybe when you get your PhD degree, a fairy descends from the heavens and magically makes everything better! I'm not holding my breath though---I expect that in postdocs and beyond, things are going to be harder, not easier. So, I try to not think things like "I'll be happy later" because I have a feeling that if I do, I will be thinking this for a while. 2. The profs doing the fond reflecting have already "made it" and are successful. It's a lot easier to think that the crappy parts were worth it if you actually did get to succeed in what you want. But remember, for every professor that sit/stand there and tell you how they sacrificed and made it, there are many many others that also suffered but didn't "make it" in the same way. And, time/distance from the suffering makes you forget how terrible and crappy it really was. The bottom line: 100% agree with rising_star that the 5-7 years of your PhD (often during your 20s but I think the years are valuable no matter which decade you're in) are far too valuable to completely invest in an academic job route that is far too risky. It's not worth it to be unhappy just for a chance of happiness later!

Sure! In most graduate programs in the United States that fund their graduate students, there are 4 main sources of this money: 1. Fellowships/scholarships: These is money awarded to you without any actual expectation of work. 2. Research assistantship: This is money paid to you in exchange for research work. In some fields (e.g. STEM ones like mine), this is research work towards your thesis/dissertation. In other fields, this is usually research work not related to your own thesis. For example, you might be paid an hourly wage to do a task like data entry for another person's research project. 3. Teaching assistantship: This is money paid to you in exchange for teaching work. In some fields, this is mostly just TAing: you grade papers, you run lab sessions or tutorial sesisons. In other fields, this may involve being an instructor of record and would have higher teaching responsibilities (i.e. preparing lectures or even course design). 4. Other assistantships: There isn't a good name for this because it varies, but this is other work on campus that isn't #2 or #3 above. For example, you might work in the registrar's office and do administrative tasks. Or, you might help students schedule appointments with the Writing Center. Not all schools offer this type of work for funding and it's usually only programs that cannot afford to fund you via the other three options that would result in you having to do this work. Thus, this is often considered a "last resort" because it's the type of work that will not help you advance your academic career. These are just the most common ways that schools fund their students. There are other ways that might be a variant of the above. For example, one of my old graduate schools in Astronomy would hire/pay a graduate student to run the Outreach program at the school's Observatory at the same rate as a TA and the student would be doing this work instead of TA work. Finally, I notice that you are writing about these opportunities as if you will be able to simply choose to take on more work if you want more money. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. In fact, these opportunities (even Type #4 above in places with little funding) are scarce commodities. That is, it's not like departments have unlimited TA and RA ships to hand out to any student that wants to work. Instead, they only have a limited pot of money to fund students and the way the funding is doled out is through these TA and RA work assignments. Usually, the amount of students they are able to accept is limited by money, so there is usually just barely enough TA and RA spots to give everyone who needs funding a job. In some rare cases, there may be one or two extra TA spots that someone might be able to choose to take for extra pay, but this is pretty rare. Therefore, I would not count on any opportunity to earn more than the stipend stated in your offer letter. These stipends are set according to how much resources the department has, i.e. how much money they have to pay RA and TAs. Usually, if grad students need to earn a little bit more, they may take a job on the side, e.g. a part time job, or a tutor (tutoring is especially popular in Physics and similar fields; one of our biggest client demographics are pre-med students!). However, as I said above, as an international student, you are limited by the laws on what you are allowed to do as work (tutoring is not allowed unless you are working for an on-campus group, but then you are still limited by # of hours).

In addition, your location says you are from Brazil. If you are not a US citizen or permanent residence, then you will be an international student on F-1 or J-1 status. In order to legally stay on these statuses, as international students, we are severely limited in the amount of work we can do. So, even if the program allows us to work a part-time or freelance job, you have to make sure that your side jobs are allowed by your international student status. You should definitely check with your school's international office to make sure you are following the regulations of your status. Just for reference though, the standard maximum on employment as an international student is 20 hours per week during the school year and no limit during school breaks. However, this is only for on-campus work (e.g. TA, RA, work-study like positions). We are not generally allowed to work off-campus and in fact, in order to qualify for F-1 or J-1 status, we must prove that we do not need this extra income. There are some exceptions---you can do CPT (as F-1) or OPT (as F-1) or AT (as J-1) in order to work off campus in a job related to your field of study (e.g. an internship). However, OPT and AT are often used for postdoc positions and working during your degree program will reduce the amount of time you're eligible to be on OPT/AT for postdocs. There is also another exception for working off campus when the work is not related to your field of study while on F-1 or J-1. That is if an unexpected financial burden comes up and you need the extra money to continue your studies. For example, if you suddenly have large medical bills that cannot be paid for, then you can apply for special permission to work off-campus part-time or freelance. These are just the general rules, for specific cases you should always talk to your school's international office. One question that comes up regularly now is internet income. If you operate a website that earns revenue, does that count as employment? I have no idea. When we asked this during orientation, the answer was that it's very complicated and those in this situation should talk one-on-one with the International student office and/or lawyers. Anyways, all that was just to say that you should not count on being able to work part-time/freelance to earn extra money if you are going to be an international student. Finally, you say that this amount is your 9 month stipend. In STEM fields, we are often funded for the full year. Sometimes, our offer letter states $X for a 12 month stipend, but sometimes, when it says $X for a 9 month stipend, then it means summer funding is not yet included. However, usually the opportunity for summer funding is mentioned. For example, at one school, my offer was $18k for 9 month stipend (TA) and they said that RAs are available in the summer, valued at $9k for 3 months. When I asked further, it basically means RAs are available for pretty much every grad student who wants one, but you still technically have to apply for and compete for them separately. Sometimes they don't promise it in the offer because it's up to each Prof. to individually hire RAs, not the department. Therefore, in your case, if the offer letter mentions a 9 month stipend but does not say anything about summer funding, it is a good idea to contact the department and ask if summer funding is available and/or if it's separate.

One thing to point out---if you are an international student, then this is not possible off campus. International student status usually prevents off campus employment, with some limited exceptions.

Submitting a form online is usually equivalent to a signature. There are usually no contracts for graduate school. But, a form to accept the offer is normal. What are you worried about though? Do you want to change your mind?

I would not ask to push it back again. It would also reflect very poorly on you and it would be very unprofessional. As rising_star said, each change costs the school money. The first change was out of your control. I will be honest here and it may sound harsh. But accidentally double booking yourself is your fault and it would be unprofessional and irresponsible of you to try to get it changed again. I think the right thing to do is to take responsibility for your mistake. It really really sucks that you have two very important things at the same time, but honestly, that is life and this will not be the first time you have to make a choice like this. I think you have three options, in order of increasing risk to you professionally. 1. Go to the visit and cancel your other obligation. Hope your friends understand. Can you make it up to your friends in some other way?? 2. Cancel the visit and do your friends' thing. This can have ramifications against you later on, especially if you do choose to attend this school after all. 3. Tell the school you made a mistake and offer to pay for all the costs associated with the changes. Keep in mind that they might still say no because there are other issues with planning a visit too (scheduling people etc.). Also, this can reflect very poorly on you even if they agree to it---I guess you'll have to make it up by being super awesome on the visit. There is also a chance that there aren't any change fees, or that they have money to pay them, and they will be okay with rescheduling, but I think this chance is slim. I'd call this option the "high risk, high reward" option!

You can probably do it whenever you want. Since it's the weekend now, why not wait until Monday?

What do you mean exactly? Are you asking if you accept the offer now, can you change your mind before April 15? The answer is yes, of course you can always "quit" or leave the program at any time, even before it starts. You will not be forced to attend a school you don't want to attend! You may lose any deposit that you might have already paid. However, doing this is not a good idea. You will make people at the school upset that you said one thing and then changed your mind. If you are not yet sure whether or not you will attend the program, then wait until you are sure before you accept the offer.

I don't include eating out in grocery costs because "grocery", to me, only includes home cooked meals. I cook meals for the two of us 5 days a week and we eat out 2 days a week. We used to eat out a lot less but now life is a lot busier and we have more disposable income, so we eat out more to save time and energy. Anyways, on average, cooking costs about $5/person/day (or just over $1.50 per meal but breakfast is a lot less and dinner is often more), so 5 days of cooking * 2 people is about $50/week. Those meat prices you saw are really expensive! We don't eat/buy a lot of meat and I do buy in bulk to save money. I buy about 6 pounds of ground beef every 4-6 months from Costco and it costs about $20, so almost 1/3 of the price you saw. In the last year, I have purchased maybe 12 pounds of chicken breast in total (about $24 at Costco). Typically, if I only buy 1 pound of ground beef at a time, it costs between $5/lb to $7/lb depending on how lean the meat is. But even if you don't go to Costco, the idea is that grocery stores have rotating sales so you only buy the "loss leaders" each week plus essentials. I've noticed that this year, some prospective students were interested in things like grocery store prices and they were noting things like prices on storefronts and flyers, but these prices fluctuate a lot over the year. For example, the week they were here, asparagus was $2/lb. But I've seen it go to $5/lb on some weeks. I don't include eating out because the cost can range a lot. Sometimes if we don't want to cook, we just pick up sandwiches ($4 each) at a nearby shop and sometimes we go to an actual restaurant ($15-$20/person). But yes, you are right---I should amend my "minimal" grocery number to be something more realistic. It would be more like $70-$80 for two if I am cooking all the meals (and in reality, we probably spend closer to $100-$110 including the eating out). The example numbers I gave are to just compare grocery store prices, not to actually say "you can survive on this much". Also, my spouse and I both work and as I said above, we do make more than the minimum needed to survive, so we are choosing to spend the money on nice things, like eating out and buying nicer ingredients at the store. But I feel like we are drifting a little off topic (sorry to others reading this)! I love talking about my budget / cooking / saving money but really the point of my post was to say that to me, stipend is only a deciding factor on my school decision if it was not enough to live comfortably. And, I am thinking factors like rent (which can vary by hundreds of dollars per month from place to place) are much more important to think about than factors like grocery store prices (which might vary by about ten dollars per month from place to place).

Maybe it depends on the field, but in many research disciplines, there are no admissions counselors for PhD programs.