ciistai
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Posts posted by ciistai
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On 1/14/2020 at 11:33 AM, chrissy2020 said:
In regards to the Michigan program, from what I have heard, they do not interview. They have a welcome event for all the students who accept around March. I know they do not interview for the PhD, but I am not so sure about the Bridge MA, but I would assume it is the same. Good luck to everyone!
PhD Classics at Michigan = no interview. Bridge MA = I'm unsure. IPCAA (Classical arch) = definitely an interview over the visiting weekend. Hope this is useful for others in the thread.
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52 minutes ago, ciistai said:
Heya! I'm a Torontonian living in Ann Arbor and I'm super happy here actually. I eventually want to settle in a big city but this place is honestly perfect for me for grad school - I get my work done, but I usually find something fun to do when I have time.
1) The poster above said this already, but it's really nice being so close to nature. You can get to the Arboretum super easily and have a nice walk. Do you love KAYAKING? Well you should LEARN TO because you can kayak here and it's FUN AF. (You can even go down the cascades and capsize like my husband and I did. Really really fun. Except for when he realized he had left his phone in his pocket...)
2) This is a great place to be a vegetarian or a vegan. You will have zero problems. There's a huge veg scene here (look up The Lunch Room, Vedge Cafe) and great options at nearly every regular restaurant too.
3) There are some nice bars that aren't sports bars. My personal favourites are Last Word, Arbor Brewing Company, Mash, Raven's Club. The undergrads hang out usually in very specific parts of campus and I honestly can't say I cross pass with them often off campus. I live on the Old West Side as well and on my street it's mostly grad students and young professionals, and some families too. (If you're looking for an affordable 2-bedroom apartment really close to campus that's ideal for someone without a car, let me know; I'm trying to find someone to take over my lease)
4) Don't underestimate Detroit. There are great museums, there are great restaurants, and there's a really cheap quick bus to get there. Food scene in Dearborn is great - a little less accessible without a car but also, you will make friends who have cars for sure.
5) Really easy to get to Chicago on the train or bus!
6) I'm busy tonight so I can't write a longer post but please get in touch if you want to talk more. Always happy to meet other Canadians here in A2.
7) Congratulations and welcome! If you're in need of friends, I'm a chatterbox and love friends. My husband (who's British) and I have a car. Let's hang out!
Actually I want to add now that I'm taking a break from work. You can get to Detroit with the Detroit Connector, a bus that costs like $6 each way and runs pretty regularly. The centre of town is indeed walkable (you must have been in a different part of town, probably down Washtenaw Ave) and transit isn't bad. Obviously snow affects it but honestly even in terrible snowstorms I've been able to get around fine. Sometimes it is more reliable than the TTC lol. Ubers are also not bad here and since this isn't a huge place it's not expensive to take an Uber across town.
Aside from promo-ing my own place (though the deal is really good), the area where I live, the Old West Side, doesn't seem to be home to many undergrads. There are a lot of neighbourhoods like this - Water Hill is another. Those are some good neighbourhoods if you want to avoid the fraternity/ sorority kids, be in walking distance of downtown and everything central, and also afford your rent. Burns Park also seems to be popular and a lot of the streets off Packard too (though you're more likely to get undergrads down that way).
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On 4/9/2019 at 11:33 AM, Onwarrdz said:
Hi everyone,
Would anyone be able to provide me with any encouraging words about moving to Ann Arbor? I'm starting my PhD there in the fall and am really having a hard time looking forward to moving to a small town.
For reference, I'm Canadian and I've lived in Toronto and NYC, and am currently living in London. I don't drive and am not really in a financial position to buy a car and start doing it. I'm really used to being able to take super easy transit all around a city and having lots of interesting cultural things to do or tons of different restaurants and nightlife destinations, and just generally being in a big city. I've visited once last year for a few days, and found the whole thing a bit claustrophobic. I'm just really not a small town person.
I'm trying to do research into it and I'm not really finding much to work with. The internet just keeps telling me it's a family friendly place (I'm finding this hard to take as anything other than it's boring, things close early and there are a lot of children around), easily walkable (this did not seem to be the case when I was there--there were so many highways and roads with no sidewalks and I swear 1/3 of the land was just parking lots), and better than other small towns in the Mid-West (which I can't help thinking is a bit of a low bar in this respect). Unfortunately I'm not really in to college sports either, so that whole thing is lost on me. It also seems difficult to get to other place around Ann Arbor without a car. The only option to Detroit was the Greyhound? And none of this seems to be made up by cheap rental prices either, given the captive market of students.
People seem not to hate Ann Arbor though, so I feel like maybe I'm missing something. Is there an arts scene at all? What are the bars like (that aren't sports bars)? Are there areas that aren't crawling with undergrad frat boys? Is the food scene any good (I'm vegetarian)? Any good places to go dancing? Does everyone just take ubers and they're super cheap or something?
I mean, I guess it's only a four hour train to Chicago, but that's hardly commuting distance.
Does anyone have anything to say that makes the next 5+ years of my life seem less like a yawning expanse of boredom and me trying desperately to spend time elsewhere?
Would really appreciate any tips at all!
Heya! I'm a Torontonian living in Ann Arbor and I'm super happy here actually. I eventually want to settle in a big city but this place is honestly perfect for me for grad school - I get my work done, but I usually find something fun to do when I have time.
1) The poster above said this already, but it's really nice being so close to nature. You can get to the Arboretum super easily and have a nice walk. Do you love KAYAKING? Well you should LEARN TO because you can kayak here and it's FUN AF. (You can even go down the cascades and capsize like my husband and I did. Really really fun. Except for when he realized he had left his phone in his pocket...)
2) This is a great place to be a vegetarian or a vegan. You will have zero problems. There's a huge veg scene here (look up The Lunch Room, Vedge Cafe) and great options at nearly every regular restaurant too.
3) There are some nice bars that aren't sports bars. My personal favourites are Last Word, Arbor Brewing Company, Mash, Raven's Club. The undergrads hang out usually in very specific parts of campus and I honestly can't say I cross pass with them often off campus. I live on the Old West Side as well and on my street it's mostly grad students and young professionals, and some families too. (If you're looking for an affordable 2-bedroom apartment really close to campus that's ideal for someone without a car, let me know; I'm trying to find someone to take over my lease)
4) Don't underestimate Detroit. There are great museums, there are great restaurants, and there's a really cheap quick bus to get there. Food scene in Dearborn is great - a little less accessible without a car but also, you will make friends who have cars for sure.
5) Really easy to get to Chicago on the train or bus!
6) I'm busy tonight so I can't write a longer post but please get in touch if you want to talk more. Always happy to meet other Canadians here in A2.
7) Congratulations and welcome! If you're in need of friends, I'm a chatterbox and love friends. My husband (who's British) and I have a car. Let's hang out!
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On 4/1/2019 at 8:56 AM, nimsaj95 said:
My parents are both immigrants (from Cuba and Colombia) neither went to college, and have little understanding of what graduate school is. One example I always think of when I compare my parents educational upbringing versus my own, is that when my mom came to America at age 10, she was always pulled out of school to accompany her parents to doctors appointments to try and translate, although she was just learning English herself. There's always a sense of guilt for how easy I had it in comparison.
My parents deserve to see "PhD" after our last name. Any other females against changing their last name if they get married for this reason?
I got married and I haven't changed mine, for multiple reasons, but this is 100% one of them! My parents both graduated from high school but that's it. I'm a first gen - some cousins after me ended up going to college after I started, but no one has gone this far. It can be hard sometimes, and a bit alienating. Weird to have friends whose grandparents have PhDs while mine were farmers who couldn't read. I'm doing this for them!
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On 3/12/2019 at 4:24 PM, JennyGoat said:
Looking for housing/area recommendations with no breed or weight restrictions for dogs. I also have two cats, and am having trouble finding a place that either doesn't have breed restrictions or a two-pet limit. I'd like to be within walking/biking distance to campus (International Studies MA so I'm not quite sure what part of campus those classes will be on yet) but I also don't mind a short commute.
Try calling Wickfield Properties, I don't think they have a two-pet limit but I'm not sure. I am actually looking for someone to take over my lease with them for a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom near campus (2nd and William) either June 1st or July 1st so if you find out that they accept more than two and you're interested in talking about that more, let me know! I'll DM you too
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On 2/26/2019 at 4:46 PM, ClaudiusRex said:
Accepted to PhD Classics at St. Andrews! Still waiting on results for Wolfson scholarship/general funding there, and Ertegun scholarship/Clarendon fund at Oxford.
Congrats to Princeton and Harvard admits!!
Very many congratulations on both admits. Re: Ertegun - I think the end of March is when they usually notify. Fingers crossed for you over these next weeks.
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On 2/21/2019 at 5:31 PM, Withnail said:
This is the criminal elitism of academia at its most problematic. The faux liberal classicists smacking themselves on the asses with #ClassicsTwitter always want to talk about reframing classics' status quo. Yet they encourage it. Firstly, they require official transcripts for applying which costs even more money. They require the GRE. All of these cost money to take, let alone report scores. Then, they punish students with immense potential because they're lacking a year of language. They encourage a master's or post-bacc, both of which cost unseemly amounts of money and are utterly useless in an American system since 2 of your 5 years are technically to earn a master's degree. It's bollocks. And it rewards students who had the money to go to fuck-knows-where to take fuck-knows-what course simply because s/he had the $$$.
I earned my master's in G+L after a BA in English and Latin. Supplemented it with a year of Greek, giving me four of Latin and two of Greek. I was told by every school that I didn't have enough language training. So I sat out last year and did a third year of Greek, as well as any extracurricular non-credit courses I could simply to show my enthusiasm. It paid off this year, but it cost me money I'll never be able to pay back.
Some interesting reading:
There was a twitter thread which leaked the notes of a PhD admissions panel from a Californian uni (can't remember which—USC?) and it said that they find "MA students" are often "too rigid" and don't perform well because they're not as open to new teaching.
The point: academics can be persnickety, hypocritical, and pedantic. But businessmenwomen are even worse. As someone who just took a year out working with my local uni to get cheap classes and watched it pay off, I strongly urge you to consider a way to make it work. Feel free to DM me if you'd like.
The Twitter thread in question was about a meeting between Chairs of PhD-offering departments and Liberal Arts College Classics department Chairs.
A few schools are finally (thankfully) starting to opt to remove GRE requirements now that many graduate faculties have removed their own overarching requirement for them. Watch this (or their) space(s).
The transcript and GRE cost is absolutely criminal especially for international students trying to apply to American universities. I paid over 200 USD for my GRE. I remember Stanford's application cost was 120 USD. Hard when you don't have USD.
Trust that these conversations are happening! (Mostly led by graduate students.)
Signed, liberal classicist from #classicstwitter.
- Withnail and unbeliever
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On 2/10/2019 at 11:07 AM, Hellanicus said:
I wouldn't interpret the length as a bad sign at all. They're just being businesslike, probably. Mine also fell in the ~15 minute zone (as they predicted).
I definitely found it one of my more pleasant interview experiences. Mine was essentially 10 minutes of writing sample talk and then 5 for the meta (why Harvard) type questions. Last year Harvard put out offers two weeks after interviews. I guess we can start getting anxious around the 24th.
Best of luck to everyone! This was my last interview in the cycle (with the exception of whatever might happen with Princeton). Should be an interesting few weeks
I know I'm late responding to this, but I need to echo this comment about time - even my in-person interview at Michigan was only 15 minutes long, and my Skype pseudo-interview with AAMW was a 15-minute conversation with one faculty member too. That's pretty standard in terms of time.
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Hi everyone,
I've popped my head onto this board a few times over the years. I'm very grateful for all help so far - my husband arrived last February (2018) on a J2 visa, received his EAD in early May, started working in late May - happy happy all around! We couldn't have done it without your help.
Well, now it is TAX SEASON. International students at UMichigan are given free tax software via the international centre but not much in terms of support for how to go about filing. Dependents get absolutely zilch from the same office. My husband has been working for a US subsidiary of a larger UK company and needs to file his taxes, but he doesn't even know what forms he needs, nor what kind of questions he should ask to find an accountant who can properly handle his filing this year. We're very scared of the IRS and want to do everything correctly!
Could anyone who is a J2 dependent or HAS a J2 dependent share your experience with filing? Was it complicated? What kind of forms did you need? Did you see an accountant? What should we look for in an accountant - do we need a CPA or someone more specialized, a tax attorney, etc? (If it helps - I'm Canadian, he's British - I got here in 2016 so we're still non-resident for tax purposes.)
Any help super appreciated. I've emailed the international caucus of my union to see if they can put me in touch with any Js kicking about, but most international students here are on F visas, so I'm not hopeful.
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Hey so, kind of a weird post but wondering if anyone else kicking around A2 has some insight. I've been here since Fall 2016 and living in an apt on the Old West Side with a couple of different roomies and most recently with my husband who finally made it over from the UK (ask me about J1/ J2 visas, go ahead!!). We've kind of outgrown the outdated 2-bedroom shittily-insulated apartment life and are planning to move sometime next summer (our lease is up Aug 18th 2019). We're torn between trying to look for a little single-family home with at least 3 bedrooms or 2 bedrooms and a basement (for us and our future catchildren) that's in budget - easier said than done - OR for a pet-friendly condo that has at least 3 bedrooms/ 2 beds+basementy type space.
We're okay with moving further out from downtown than we are currently - my husband is a young professional and I'll be a candidate next year so will have much less coursework/ fewer reasons to be on campus. We'd ideally like something that also has an exercise room since we are paying monthly at the YMCA and could cut that cost out and re-deploy that money towards rent for a place that includes it.
Do you live in a hip and cool and good condo complex? We were looking at Arbor Landings, but saw a lot of reviews that complained about poor maintenance response time. Tell me about your dang cool condo experiences. But not if it's $2K a month pls
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On 8/28/2018 at 3:08 PM, DidoofCarthage said:
Hi guys. I've seen people in other areas begin threads for the Fall 2019 applicants, so I figured I would start the Classics thread. I'm graduating in May and working on applying to a large variety of Masters and Ph.D programs related to Classical Archaeology.
*pops head in* Hey! I'm in a Classical Arch PhD program so let me know if you have any questions. I do like to make an appearance on the board from time to time to see if anyone applying is in need of some info. Good luck with your apps
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Hi all, me again!
I posted in here ages ago and I'm happy to say that my husband arrived in Michigan on Feb 8th on his J2 visa. We are ecstatic after living on different continents since August 2015!
He's taken a bit of a rest for the first 10 days of being here but now is going to get started on the EAD application. I was wondering if anyone has any advice about writing that letter of explanation. I have budget breakdowns that show that I can support myself and my husband for the duration of my PhD program, through combined funding from the uni and from the Canadian government, but I've also heard that I can't show that I have TOO much extra. I really don't lol so I'm safe!
I'm just wondering how to phrase the reason he's seeking a job. Primarily it's that he obviously wants something to do, but also are we supposed to say that he'd like to continue his career and also have $ for recreation?
I'm very paranoid as I had an extremely frightening experience in early January when flying to Detroit from Toronto - border agent at the pre-check at Pearson berated me for 25 minutes claiming that I was trying to circumvent the system by having my husband come here and work... I've proven that I can support myself plus him, and supported myself without a single penny from him in the first year and a half of my PhD, with my funding... I suppose part of the problem is that my husband is a mechanical engineer so if he gets a job in his field (and he's likely to, since we're in Michigan) he'll be making good money. He's prepared to make minimum wage if necessary, as long as we can be together, and I didn't think that there were rules about how much a J2 can make! My international centre says there is no such rule but I want to be very conscious about how we phrase this letter...
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1 hour ago, FlosVeterisVini said:
OMG!! Congratulations to you both! I got into Penn as well! Are you both going to the prospective student event?
Also, @Phemius, you are obviously the STAR candidate this go-around! I don't know how you're handling the high of all of your acceptances. I could barely contain myself with the offer from UPenn!
Congrats on your acceptance, proud of you!!!
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Out of curiosity, how many of you are applying/ have applied to archaeology programs? It seems like there are very few archaeologists on this board applying this year, but maybe I've just been less attentive to detail in my lurking this time around...
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I was also working full-time, 8:30-4:30. I tried to spend a lot of time reading to prepare for the term, but I was also preparing to teach at a field school the following summer, so that took up loads of my time. I did try to force myself to take breaks, because after a lengthy applications process (which can start quite early if you're applying for particular grants, like I did), you need some time to rest!!!!
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I went from humble beginnings at York University in Toronto to a fully funded place at the University of Oxford to a PhD program at the University of Michigan.
So, imho... no.
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10 hours ago, TakeruK said:
Hi!
My spouse and I just moved back to Canada after being on J-1 and J-2 status for the last 5 years. Standard disclaimer: the following is just based on my experience, and I'm not an expert on this, so your experience may vary! Probably a good idea to contact your school about this and/or legal experts. But hope this is still helpful.
The full information from the Department of State on J status/visas can be found here: https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/study-exchange/exchange.html
Although there is no direct requirement for the marriage certificate, as with almost any dealings with US immigration/customs, there is always a potential that they will request documentation beyond what is minimally required.
In theory, the DS-2019 should only be issued to your husband if you already proved your marriage to your school's international office. Therefore, in theory, they don't "need" to see the original marriage certificate. However, my experience with USCIS was that they often request things that have already been produced (maybe it's just bad organization, or maybe it's to make it harder to be fraudulent). For example, when my spouse (J-2) applied for employment authorization in the US, our first application was returned to us because they wanted a marriage certificate copy (even though this was already proven when attaining J-2 status). On the other hand, when we entered the US for the first time, they didn't look at the certificate at all (my spouse is also Canadian so no visa interviews for either of us).
So my opinion is that your husband should do his best to have as many originals or copies of documents on hand as possible. It's far better to have it and not need it. If he doesn't get the original marriage certificate on time, he should have whatever version you submitted to your school to get the DS-2019 for him in the first place. If the original marriage certificate doesn't come on time, don't worry about it too much because it might not be asked for. Since you already have the interview scheduled, I'm not sure if it's worth rescheduling or delaying.
But you should definitely talk to your school about it. Based on your sidebar info, it seems like your school might have a very good office, since when I have tried to search for international student related things in the past, your school's international office website pops up a lot with plenty of useful information!
Also, happy to answer any other J1/J2 related questions if they come up later
Thank you so much!!! I know I've encountered you on these fora in the past talking a lot about your J process so you have always been incredibly helpful! It turns out that when I submitted my request for our certificate on Saturday (!) it was processed immediately so it should be at my parents' house by this week. I get back home on July 30th so I'm thinking that I should have more than enough time to get an official, certified copy sent over to the UK if I go to the post office on July 31st, so he can take it with him. Just in case I'm also going to send him all of my past travel documentation and a USB with our wedding photos. We've been living on opposite sides of the Atlantic since August 2015 so I'm pretty anxious about what we'll need to "prove" our relationship... I'm hoping they won't be as intense with us as they would be for an immigrant visa. Michigan's int'l office has been incredibly easygoing about the whole thing so I'm hoping our luck continues...
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Hi friends! I'm a PhD student living in Michigan, originally Canadian. I just got married in May and am switching from an F1 to a J1 so that my British husband can apply for a J2. We've just submitted his application and also scheduled his interview for late August. My q is - does he need an official copy of our marriage certificate in hand for his interview?? I've ordered two copies to my parents' house in Ontario but I'm not sure when it will arrive so I'm a bit nervous that this interview may be too early for him to actually have this with him...
TIA!
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3 days late on this but congratulations on everyone for surviving this trying process!!!! Be sure to check out some of the city guides on the forum as you prepare for your move. The Ann Arbor thread really helped me, especially when I was looking for a place to live but couldn't make it down to A2 to check places out.
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On 4/11/2017 at 5:27 PM, LibrosArtesqueCano said:
Thank you! It looks like I'll be going to Michigan(!!), although I am waiting to commit until I hear about waitlists at two schools on the east coast (I am at the top of both). The waiting game is torturous, and I hate that I'm holding up Michigan, as they have wonderful people, a wonderful program, and I am sure wonderful waitlisted applicants. Alas
Classics or IPGRH?
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Also, forgive me for SO many posts at once, but if my inbox is any indication, it's Ertegun Scholarship interview season! As I've mentioned elsewhere, I was an Ertegun Scholar from 2013-2015 while I did my MPhil. It feels like ages ago that I interviewed, but if you have an interview and have any questions for me please don't hesitate to reach out to me! (I've got a long night of reading so I will be online for many hours...)
My biggest point of advice for anyone interviewing for this is to BE YOURSELF... if you have more specific concerns do let me know
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On 3/2/2017 at 11:25 AM, Spiro Spero said:
This must be some kind of sick joke. The day after the Trinity deadline, I get acceptances from Edinburgh and Durham and an interview request from Cambridge. All at once!!! The others are roughly the same as Trinity (and a lot more expensive), so I'm forgoing them, but can't pass up an interview with Cambridge. How's everyone else doing?
Amazing albeit strangely-timed news! I'm surprised Trinity's deadline is so early, given that it's really in the first week of March that the other UK schools start sending out loads of acceptances (I got into Oxford in the first week of March four years ago).
Definitely don't pass up the interview with Cambridge! Though Durham is a great school too - two of our first year Classicists went there.
Wishing you luck with the interview whenever it is!
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On 3/2/2017 at 11:54 AM, suntaliquidmanes said:
I used to work outside year-round, so I've had this for the last couple years: https://www.thenorthface.com/shop/mens-mcmurdo-parka-ii-cql4
Definitely Michigan-ready! Congrats on your recent success as well.
Congrats and welcome! Not sure if we met at the weekend (since I think I only met one of the Classics prospectives, and I'm an archaeologist myself) but I'm so glad that we stood out as a program and a community. Looking forward to meeting you (if we haven't met already)!
Edit: having looked through previous posts of yours, I think you may indeed be the only Classicist I met at the prospectives weekend! Glad you're coming to join us
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This advice is all great and also the same advice I was given last year when I was in the same position. I emailed a great program to turn down their offer and everyone was so lovely; I received multiple warm and effusive emails wishing me the best of luck, and some even passed very flattering words about me on to a former professor of mine from my alma mater whom I see frequently (who, of course, told me). They won't be upset and this is all part of the process for them as well as for applicants.
Fall 2020 applicants
in Classics
Posted
Can confirm they usually send out acceptances in late January.