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splitends

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Everything posted by splitends

  1. I've had programs recommend everything from jeans and sneakers ("nobody will care at all what you're wearing-- they dress pretty terribly around here") to dressing "casually" in slacks and a nice top, and there has been no really discernable pattern between East Coast/West Coast or even private/public. Also, sidenote: I've heard of a professor at one top university referring to khakis as "jackass pants." Made me laugh. Different departments have really different norms. Dressing toward the middle is probably good advice, but I know I will probably lean casual unless a department tells me that they expect otherwise. I still feel a little like I'm dressing up in my parent's clothes when in business casual...
  2. Email the schools you're visiting to ask about dress code-- I've gotten radically different interpretations of what is "casual" from people in different departments.
  3. I'm in a completely different field and don't know anything about the professional or academic side of your decision, but as someone who lives in the Bay Area, I vote for UCSF. Don't let cost of living scare you off too much-- quality of life in California is just as much about the gorgeous weather (of course, SF isn't LA-- it won't be sunny year round, but it will always be relatively mild), the amazing food, the high concentration of educated people, the constant stream of exciting goings on, the proximity to every kind of natural beauty, and on and on and on, as it is about having someplace nice to sleep. Plus, plenty of people figure out how to live in the area on much less money. Hopefully you'll get a chance to visit and see it for yourself, but CA is awesome.
  4. Honestly, though, I'm not 100% that I'm right about that-- I don't have a great frame of reference, other than thinking that the food there isn't as bad as SF and NY. Really, I'm just a huge California chauvinist. I'd rather be homeless and spending all day in the sunshine eating locally grown produce year round than living someplace swanky that's under snow half the year...
  5. You know, it might be because I've lived in CA my whole life and just don't realize how inexpensive things are everywhere else, but I don't think the south bay is all that bad. Just visiting the area, it certainly seems cheaper than major U.S. cities like San Francisco and New York. I really think it's just housing that makes it look so unreasonable to live there. If you can live in subsidized university housing (I haven't really looked at the options yet, but I assume it's cheaper than just trying to buy a place in Palo Alto) I don't think you're going to be particularly hurt by the "high cost of living" in the area...
  6. Thanks for the info! How did you get in contact with other prospectives? Or did you just already know each other? Nearly everyone I've talked to from my prospective schools I met or inadvertently ran into through this site...
  7. I don't know that funding packages are necessarily the only source of a competitive atmosphere. After all, University of Chicago is hardly short on money (though I don't know the specifics of what they offer their grad students) and I do insist that Berkeley grad students can be incredibly cooperative and supportive despite their impending poverty. I got the impression (and none of this was from super solid sources) that Chicago strategically encouraged competition to try to get the most out of their students intellectually, not that it was a result of competing for the same pool of limited resources. I would like to hear more about Harvard if anyone knows. I heard some frightening things from one grad student, but I do think that person might have been an outlier. [@Karlito: what exactly do you mean by "breeding facility" and where did you hear that? Feel free to PM me...] I am really curious about this topic in general, though-- please spill if you've heard anything about any programs, especially if it comes from relatively legit sources!
  8. Have you already applied? Is there just a super late deadline for something, or do you want it assessed even if it's too late to change anything? If it's the former, I'm happy to take a look-- PM me? If it's the latter, then I feel really uncomfortable critiquing when it's too late to edit (I've done that before, and it just feels terrible if you see something that really does need changing...) Either way, good luck!
  9. Berkeley is not cutthroat! I get that people might be more stressed out about money than they are at other top schools, but the grad students here are some of the nicest and most supportive people I've ever met in my life. I know there are people here and there that could certainly be called competitive, but I just don't think it's part of the overall institutional culture. I know I can't speak for everyone, and I know that I've mostly seen things from the outside looking in as an undergrad at Berkeley, but I've gotten a bit of a peak behind the curtain since getting accepted into the PhD program and I just have to say that it doesn't seem that way to me at all. I'm much less knowledgable about Wisconsin, but I've heard that that reputation is outdated. In the last few years they switched from a model of admitting large cohorts with precarious funding to one focused on admitting small cohorts with 5 years funding guaranteed, which is supposed to be reflected in more collegial dynamics between the grad students. Everyone I've talked to there has also insisted it's super collegial (though of course, it's hard to say how accurate that assessment might be...) I absolutely hear that about Chicago, though, which is a huge part of why I didn't apply. I've heard weird and slightly more mixed things about UCLA and Harvard along those lines, though. Does anyone have any other info on those schools?
  10. Yeah, I got pretty ridiculously lucky this year. I really don't know where I will end up, though I think on some level I'm narrowing in on a few schools. I'm going to do a lot of visiting over the next month, which will hopefully make things more clear...
  11. There is a pretty extensive thread solely about MAPPS in another forum-- maybe the Decisions Decisions one? Either way, it's worth looking around the website for, there was a lot of good info.
  12. At my financially unpredictable public school, I get the impression that the grad students are "guaranteed funding" through RAships or TAships, which will generally mean less money than fellowships offer. So the competition may still be pretty fierce for the best positions, and for any money that comes without teaching requirements attached. Also, I know at least Wisconsin-Madison has moved in the last two years or so from having large cohorts fiercely competing for funds to having small cohorts with guaranteed funding for five years. So even though they've changed tactics and are offering a reasonable package, I have grad students and profs warning me about the competitive atmosphere there based on outdated information.
  13. @Karlito: Stanford funding seems pretty generous, though I was a little confused on some of the details (it promises five years of funding, but only lists actual numbers for Year 1-- not sure that it guarantees it will stay that high the whole time): ~$24K for the academic year, ~$6.5 summer RAship, and several misc. funds ($3K for travelling, some more for computers, etc). I'm always a little hesitant to talk about funding specifics-- are funding packages typically uniform for all prospective students? And has anyone else run into that ambiguity about multi-year funding?
  14. Again, I would double check with people in your field, but I'm told over and over again both by current graduate students, McNair advisors, professors, etc, (again, all from top ranked universities) that negotiating is really standard. It doesn't make you look greedy. At least, if you're not totally clumsy or rude about it, it shouldn't make you look greedy. Most grad students are offered near poverty level salaries, so if you already have student loan debt, are supporting dependents, etc, it's completely reasonable to want to try for more. And it's also totally reasonable to factor funding into your decision, especially when you're deciding between two or more otherwise similarly appealing programs. And of course no one is implying that there aren't going to be other opportunities to compete for funding-- it's just a little silly to say that the reason they didn't offer you a bigger funding package is because there are so many other options for funding. That fact just seems so straightforward that I'm not sure how to defend it. I mean, anecdotally, the wealthiest schools that accepted me (who have the most options for additional funding inside the university itself and great records of students getting NSF grants and etc) are offering me substantially more generous funding packages than the top notch but increasingly broke public universities that accepted me (whose grant opportunities inside the university are drying up along with everything else). See what I mean? If they had the money, they're likely to spend it. If they're not spending it, it's probably because they don't have the money. Of course you should apply for outside money whenever and wherever you can, but you can't guarantee you will get competitive sources of funding, so it's totally reasonable and acceptable to ask for more funding from your department. I don't know-- is there a current grad student out there that can back me up on any of this, or have I just been steadily misinformed?
  15. The anticipation is killing me...
  16. They've been made, or awardees have been contacted? To quote the NSF GRFP website: "1. When will I be notified of the decision? All eligible applicants will be notified of the results of their application by e-mail around early April, 2012."
  17. Really? I would think twice about taking that approach. I can't imagine that they didn't offer you more money because there are just so many other opportunities for you to get funding. They didn't offer you more money because they don't have enough money to offer you more money, or at least not enough to offer it all up front. I have yet to start the negotiating process, but I've been getting barraged with advice about it from current grad students. Generally, the advice goes like this: Call the program and tell them that you'd really like to attend their program, but you don't have a lot of money and unfortunately funding has to be a factor in your final decision. Then you may want to tell them that you've been offered more from another school (don't necessarily have to be specific...), but you really would prefer to attend their program. Is there anything they can do? Of course, be polite, but don't be afraid to bring it up. I'm told this is really standard practice. I would get a second opinion on this from current graduate students in your specific field, but I've heard this a lot from successful grad students at my top ranked but increasingly broke undergrad university. Again, I'm not an expert, but it seems like asking what other sources of funding are available could easily sound like you're not going to try to negotiate the funding package you were offered. One more thing: I know this is uncomfortable for a lot of people (the idea is extremely uncomfortable to me too), but I've read some interesting articles that suggest one important factor in the gender wage gap is that women are too uncomfortable to negotiate salaries or ask for raises, while men usually aren't. I don't know your gender or if that specifically applies to you, but in general I think a good takeaway message is that other people in your field are likely doing this, and that you may be contributing to your own marginalization by not asserting yourself just because it feels a little awkward. Good luck.
  18. OK, that makes more sense. Those things will definitely help you. Having experience with original research, and being able to articulate how that connects to your own intellectual biography and trajectory in your statement of purpose, is really key to being a competitive candidate. One piece of advice based on personal experience: Once you've done the work, try to get as much out of it as you can. For instance, if you already have a presentation ready for ASA, look into other conferences where you can present. Ask your advisor if you can give the presentation at regional conferences (West coast= Pacific Soc Assoc Conference, California Soc Assoc Conference), undergrad research symposiums, etc. (If you're in the Northern California area, PM me and I have a specific suggestion for you. )
  19. Wow. There is no way that being on a waitlist is evidence of being a "so-so" candidate. In a process this competitive, "so-so" gets you cut really early on. Obviously the situation is frustrating, but being on a waitlist is still a pretty solid sign of excellence...
  20. Javits was definitely cancelled this last year too. I had to really dig to find that information, but I tried applying last fall and couldn't.
  21. I'm sure it's safe to say that something is always better than nothing. I can't imagine that any evidence of you participating in original research will be dismissed by any admissions committee. How much it will count is probably impossible to say, but, seriously, how can that do anything but help? It's a publication in a professional journal (the vast majority of applicants won't even be a third author on such a publication) and a presentation at a professional conference, and I'm sure it's also a great letter of rec from the prof you published with. Just out of curiosity, have you already applied and you just want to speculate after the fact how your application is being seen, or are you planning to apply in the future?
  22. @xdarthveganx, I would seriously reconsider depending on your timeline. If you're applying to grad schools next year and would just start submitting to journals now, it's extremely unlikely you would actually have something published when you turn in your apps. I've heard that saying you have a paper submitted for publication is pretty pointless, since virtually anyone can submit a paper (though I'm willing to bet it would shed a certain amount of positive light on your seriousness as a scholar that you attempted). But it won't be the same as an actual publication. The one caveat would be if the prof who's encouraging you knows about a particular journal with a more expedited process than the top ones (which can be like 18 months from submission to publication). I would definitely talk to your prof about it more, but I would personally lean toward UG publications that will be done for sure by the application deadline...
  23. Yeah, that looks like an excellent thing to discuss with a future advisor. I have a feeling that there are a lot of unofficial rules that change from discipline to discipline, and maybe sub-discipline to sub-discipline. And I'm sure the birth of online publishing has been baffling for the discipline. @xdarthveganx: Was the list supposed to be hierarchical? Because I would be shocked if publishing a book in your field counts less than journal articles, especially from less esteemed journals...
  24. I don't think you should worry for a second of scaring anyone off-- once you're in, you're in. And the bureaucracy thing will work itself out-- if you say yes on the phone and the person calling you isn't equipped to accept your yes, then presumably they will tell you that and explain how you officially accept the offer. The only reason why I would think you should put off saying yes right away is if you want to negotiate funding. I don't really have experience doing this, but I have to imagine that saying yes right away doesn't really help with that process.
  25. I don't think they're really comparable-- that is, I don't think you can really translate the value of any one item on your CV into another, like one undergraduate publication is worth two undergraduate conference presentations is worth one professional conference presentation, etc. It just doesn't work like that. I've already written at length about this in another thread, but different professors on different committees value different things. Anything you can add to your CV will probably help. And frankly I don't think publications and presentations should be mutually exclusive. If you have a paper you can publish in an undergraduate journal, you should also try to present it at conferences, both professional and undergraduate. If you have a paper you were able to present at a conference, try to get it published. I'm a huge proponent of getting as much mileage out of of every research project you can, and doing so definitely helped me beef up my CV. But back to the original post: are you trying to learn more about the publication hierarchy for grad school admissions purposes, or trying to figure out how to best go forward once you're actually in grad school?
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