MidEastApp

I was talking to friends and family about moving -albeit ones with a bit (to put it lightly) more funds available when apartment hunting in NYC. They told me to budget up to a month to find a place. In my situation, a studio anywhere in the city is not possible so I've been skimming pad mapper to see where people post places in my price range (less than 800 USD a month would be ideal). Is it that hard to find a place, any tips, etc as a graduate student on what to do? I live abroad currently and I have never had to deal with craigslist and actual apartment hunting in the USA. Is it that difficult? I keep on hearing stuff about credit scores, pay stubs, etc and that freaks me out. I have had a US credit card for nearly 8 years but I haven't had an actual job for the past three years and I have no access to pay stubs, much less ones in English . I guess this stuff freaks me out as I don't want to be sleeping on a friend's couch for months. Like how much money should I have with me before moving here? I know more is better but how much should I budget at a minimum? I have a stipend and I did a late apply to Fafsa for CUNY but those won't start up until after classes start and I plan to start looking for a place in late July.

Hi, I'll be attending GC CUNY for History. I haven't lived in NYC before but I have spent time there visiting people and such. For CUNY, I have scoped out neighborhoods that are not that far by subway >45 minutes. Seems that parts of Queens n/q bits, part of brooklyn, and manhattan Columbia and north of it are good cheap areas. The main thing I worry about is that studios are obviously out, but is there a listserve or something like that for CUNY or other students to scope out apartments together? 2 and 3 bedrooms are rather cheap but I'm outside the USA until July and I don't know anyone that is moving to NYC soon so yeah, that bit sucks.

I applied to PhD programs after the first year of my graduate studies. There are certain things that need to be remembered when going through the cycle. First, assume that most apps are due between December and January - will any of your profs get to know you at the graduate level well enough to write you a letter of recommendation, a good one that is, by that point? I was lucky and took courses with my advisor since I started so I could have one letter from a graduate level prof. Also, with those deadlines, can you juggle writing up all your SOPs and the normal course load for the semester? Same with the writing sample - I made the mistake (or blessing) of using a writing sample from the fall semester - annoyingly editing it severely after the app cycle had finished for the class. I used that one over others because it was stronger overall and showed that I can use not only French but more importantly Arabic sources. If you have a paper from this year (or tidy one up over this summer), that will remove at least one burden from your applications. Likewise, when the spring semester rolls around and acceptances, rejections, and waitlistings come out, you will have an opportunity to also see the unis in a more serious light. In my case, I had three programs, 2 which I seriously considered and the visits changed my opinions and made me sure I made the right choice. That being said, you will need to miss time at your current school - so if you have classes, this can be problematic. In my case, I'm happy I applied as I got into some of my top choices but the process was stressful. Very stressful. December/January were trying times and you need to make sure that you are willing and able to go through the process - the combination of normal course loads, apps, and other things took a heavy toll. (In my case, I took some years off between my undergraduate and graduate studies as was in no mood to repeat that again).

Well it is what they say, this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper. At this point, I have to imagine most people made their decisions. I made my final one this week and had to turn down an amazing offer with more money for the school with a better fit on various levels in my view. I'd just hope that my new school lets me know who is in the program so I can start meeting people and finding viable roommates. Almost everyone I know that is in this cycle had it more or less rolled up in the past several weeks. EDIT: I'm still amused that one school I'm not interested in attending hasn't informed me yet. I want them to tell me because I went through their application cycle and have received no info whatsoever from them.

I'm getting amused that NELC at Michigan has yet to reject me but that isn't a real update I gather.

I was going through several pages, does anyone have any rec's on where to look for apartments in NYC? I'm going to CUNY and student housing is rather pricey.

I focus a lot on sexual identity construction, so I lean towards that with interests in historiography and "modernity." There are some stuff in Arabic and French that I can list but I'm not too sure who they would be of use to on the forum. For Massad, I agree due in part to politics and my own experiences/understanding of movements in a Middle Eastern country. I'd say more, but I'm not up for having people know who I am on the internet and our field is a small one. Oh, and Salibi's House of Many Mansions is a must read. As is Thompson's Colonial Citizens (I'm reading it now after being told to for months) and Puar's Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times.

I'm a second year masters student finishing my thesis and starting a PhD next fall. This is a pretty good list but I'll add to it. Lara Deeb - Enchanted Modern Lamia Zayzafoon - The Production of the Muslim Woman *Joseph Massad - Desiring Arabs Dror Ze'evi - Producing Desire Khaled el-Rouayheb - Before Homosexuality *Chase Robinson - Islamic Historiography *Tarif Khalidi - Islamic Historiography *Selim Deringil - Well Protected Domains *Hisham Sharabi - Arab Intellectuals and the West *Rashid Khalidi - Palestinian Identity *Rashid Khalidi, et al. - The Origins of Arab Nationalism Afsaneh Najmabadi - Women with Moustaches and Men without Beards *Timothy Mitchell - Colonising Egypt *Fred Donner - Narratives of Islamic Origins * Tayyeb el-Hibri - Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography * Samira Haj - Reconfiguring Islamic Tradition * denote books read for a class in part or whole. Also, while Lewis' book on Turkey is a classic, it is rather outdated these days but I'm not well-versed enough in Ottoman history to give a better example of overarching history for that field. Mernissi also needs to be read with a grain of salt in my mind. Also, Said's other works are useful to read.

When you read an article, monograph, etc check how they talk about when they introduce the idea and develop their points. Also, their footnotes/endnotes and bibliography can provide info on who they are using for their ideas. For example, if they talk about mirror stages or something, they'll probably write something like "As Lacan says in xyz blah blah" or he'll pop up in a footnote. So the best bet would be to read major works that are recent or have buzz and check their footnotes and bibliography - this is also useful to see who was big a while ago as if Mr. X gets cited a lot, he might be worth checking out. If you aren't up to date on what is big, just ask a prof in your field or related to your field about it - or a friend that studies something similar.

What is useful to do during the summer alongside reading the major works in your field is also to look at the theory they use. If your field is heavy on theory - whether it be postcolonial, post-structural, etc do read the key books. In many cases, you will read these books again but reading say Foucault over the summer and getting a chance to understand how his ideas work and are deployed is much easier when you can read it over a period of time instead of say a week.

Did you get a mass email or what did they send?

Does anyone know when Penn, NYU, and the various other programs are going to inform people? A lot of programs have already sent out info but nary a word from these ones.