imonedaful

It is actually a good idea to get a diverse set of letters of recommendation. The more people that can vouch for you from a wide spectrum the better. I know when I applied for an MBA, the letters of recommendation was purely just a qualifying thing, who or where they are from carried only minimal weight. The rest of your application is probably more important (in my case). After my MBA when I was applying for a PHD my letters of recommendation came from 1 graduate school professor, my professional background, and my collegiate track coach. So I would not worry about an unrelated field.

$30,000 a year for a single person should be easy to live off of. However, most grad stipends are significantly less than that. A lot of PhD programs (in my discipline) are around $10,000-$20,000 for 9 months. On average about $1,600 a month. For masters programs, if you have an assistantship it is even less. A friend of mine only received $800 a month on his masters assistantship and was contractually not allowed to work some place else. I think it would be difficult to live off of only that much money a month. Living economically should not be hard or make you miserable. But it can be a difficult transition for someone who goes into graduate school from a full time job. You get used to having extra money to play with. Then, all of a sudden, that "extra" money shrinks considerably and you have to reevaluate what exactly you spend your money on.

If you read an article and don't understand it a great thing to do is look up reviews of the article online. If you are reading it, somebody else probably has and wrote a review or an editorial about it. You can use that sort of like cliffnotes so you know what the main point is and what exactly you should be reading for. Then after you do that, look over the article again so you can have a more focused reading.

On one hand you say you are in PhD program and on the other you say you are taking Masters exams? I am not really sure which program you are referring to, but it is not unreasonable to switch schools if you are unhappy. A student in my current cohort did two years in a PhD program at another University and did not like it or succeed in their structure and transferred to our program. I don't know all the circumstances surrounding it, but in their situation it was not highly frowned upon. The only downside to that is that the higher level of courses you are taking the less likely they are to transfer any place else. You may have to take some classes over again. Look at the websites of some schools you would be interested in applying and see what they take as far as transfer credits are concerned. Masters it is normally a very minimal amount and for a PhD they normally don't take transfer credits unless there is some stipulation for it.

Thanks for the edit.

Thank you guys for the advice. I kept my research section to the research assistantship I currently have and my research interests. Rather keep it simple than make it look like I am trying to put a bunch of random information. Another one of the students told me that for a new doctoral conference they do not expect you to have anything published and to worry about that section.

I met my advisor for the first time today. He told me it would be great to attend a conference for beginning doctoral students in my field at the end of October. He was getting all the information for me and come to find out the deadline is September 1st. It is a fairly simple process, I just have to turn in an application, have a letter of recommendation from a faculty member, and a CV. Currently, I only have a professional resume not an academic CV. I have been given a few examples of how it is supposed to be laid out. However, I have not had any works published so I do not really have much to list. I am just wondering what other things do you put on your CV as a new student to fill that hole in your CV? Would it be reasonable to put research projects on there that have never been submitted to a journal? Thanks in advance for any advice!

I have taken 2 classes so far, and apparently I am the only new PhD student from the United States.... and I am in the United States. When I go to class, I feel like I am at an international airport, haha. It should be interesting. For one of my classes our professor e-mailed us the syllabus two days before the class started with some readings we were expected to do and I started printing it out and realized that it is 33 pages long. Who has a 33 page syllabus? I will meet my advisor tomorrow whom which I was told is a brand new professor. I am guessing I am his first PhD student? All new and fascinating experiences. I have also realized I did not come prepared as far as school supplies. I printed out an article and could not find a stapler to staple it with. Haha I will have to pick up a few things.

I am a woman in a male dominated field (business). I was admitted into a program that is approximately 70% male. When I was doing my MBA I did a research project for an international business class about women entrepreneurs in Africa and the Middle East. In a large percentage of African countries women are still unable to own land. There are women with great ideas and have businesses but cannot have a location unless a male relative or their husband purchases land and oversees what they are doing. Women in the Middle East in Islamic countries generally are not allowed to work unless they have permission from their husband. So even though the production of women contributes to the overall production of the country and makes the economy more successful a lot of cultures discourage this kind of behavior. Doing this research really made me want to take full advantage of the opportunities I do have and I feel very priveleged. I think it is important not to feel extra pressure because of your sex, race, religion, or what not but to feel empowered by what you are able to accomplish.

Last year when I was working, I was spending on average $250 per month on food. As a graduate student I plan on cutting back a little bit on that. I do have a Costco membership (my brother works there so it is free, lucky me!) where I do stock up on things. I generally take one trip to Costco each month and get dry goods or something freezable and then go to a local grocery store every 1-2 weeks for things I cannot buy in bulk. If I spend $100 at Costco, $25 each week at the local store I can average out to $200 a month. I agree with everybody posting about getting the deals at the local stores. A lot of places have buy one get one free promotions and have cheaper generic brands. When I lived in Florida they had great farmers' markets where they sold things in baskets for $1-$5. I may have to look for something like that here.

I would recommend waiting a year. But then again, see how you feel after you have finished your master's. You do not want to get burnt out on school. If you take a year or two off you will be ready and anxious to go back to school and it will feel like a welcomed change of pace and not as "daunting." Furthermore, it gives you an opportunity to work and save up some extra money. Having 1 or more years off between programs will not make your application weaker. If you spend that time gaining work experience it will actually make it much stronger. I took 2 years off between getting my master's and starting a phd and I think it was a great decision.

Wow, your computer is only 1.5 years old and you are considering a new one? Man, my my laptop is about 5 years old now. It is a slightly heavy but very reliable Toshiba I use for just about everything. I was debating about getting another computer when I start my program. During my Master's I used my laptop quite often. Not sure whether to get a desktop or get a lightweight laptop to tote around.

Thanks for posting this. I read through most of the book (while being useless during my last week of work) and enjoyed it. It is interesting how the writer's first full year of being in a PHD program was not what he expected (difference between our ideals and how things work out in practice). Also, it was nice to know he spent his summer interning at different companies and away from the university.

I definitely felt that way when I applied to graduate school. Of course I wanted to get into a school and go but however, I realized that my life would not be over if I did not. I had a job and my life wasn't miserable. I just believe you should put 100% into whatever you do, whether it is going to graduate school or a career elsewhere. It is not bad to have a mentality that you can do other things. But if you do decide to go to graduate school, definitely make it count!

I am glad you resurrected this. I know I was a little unsure about my test scores when applying to PHD programs. I took the GMAT, not the GRE. I had a not very good score (550... it is out of 800 for those unfamiliar) the first time I took it for my MBA program, but I had already been conditionally admitted into my program (thank you athletic scholarship) and just needed to get a minimal score. I retook it before I applied to PHD programs shooting for much higher. I got a 600, which is pretty much the bare minimum to apply anywhere. The program I got into actually had a minimum score of 600, but I have a well rounded portfolio and interviewed very well. I am sure a beat out a number of individuals with much better test scores!

I am not in engineering, but I am in business and I do know that if you want to to R&D for a manufacturing company a PHD is not required for most jobs you would be looking at. If you want to work in industry and do not really want to spend more years in school, stick to the master's degree. A PHD is only something you should do if you REALLY want to do it. Most PHDs do go into academia or into specific research jobs in organizations. I agree with the poster above, do a job search. It will give you more specific information.

When it comes to how many programs you want to apply to you should consider a few things. 1). Cost. Each application itself is $40-$75 plus the scores, transcripts, documentation and what not you have to send. Applying to 12 schools would be around $600.00 in application fees alone. 2). Time. What are you doing right now? Are you working full time or do you have a lot of time to devote to applications. Schools require a lot of different things and applications can become time consuming. 3). Desire. What schools do you really want to attend? What area do you see yourself living? 4). Fit. Some schools may have a great program, but is it the right one for you? You seem to have a strong portfolio, what I would recommend is that take the 12 schools you are interested in and use that as a starting point. Compare and contrast the programs and maybe narrow it down to maybe 6. You can apply to 12 if you would like, but do you REALLY want to attend all 12 of those schools? For a phd I applied to 3 schools I know I wanted to go to, had a program I was interested in, and I believe I could get into. Getting accepted to a lot of schools might boost your ego, but you really only need one. Just my opinion. Best of wishes!

I am glad I am not the only person who does this... for nearly everything. I just made a cost analysis spreadsheet on what the most efficient way to move! Haha. Last year in July/ August, I was dreaming about graduate school, studying to retake the terrible GMAT, working at a gym, and signing on to become a substitute teacher.

After using U-hauls to move twice before, I decided to go with the U-Pack ABF relocubes this time around. I actually wrote a cost analysis sheet comparing numerous different options. haha! Paying for the cube seems to be slightly cheaper than getting a U-haul and having to drive it and probably tow my car behind it. It seems like less of a hassle. I went through a long debate whether my stuff was actually worth spending money to move. But when I worked out how much it would cost to buy all new stuff, it is cheaper to move it. I am only moving a little over 600 miles. We will see how it works out.

This point is very valid. However, we all get blindsided from time to time and there is no real preparation for that except the ability to think on your feet. I used to think I had my whole life figured out until I decided to go to college in New Orleans the year of Katrina. After Katrina, I realized there is no way I could be prepared for everything and all those contingency plans mapped out in your head do not encompass everything you could possibly be given to handle. You can't really plan on how to deal with feelings, you have to learn as you go a lot of the time.

Thanks for the advice everybody. I don't think I am going to puruse any drastic action with company since I don't think it is worth the effort. I can get a stellar reference for just about anybody in the company except this guy. The previous manager I had still works for our company just in a different location. By the time I would need a reference this guy probably won't be around. I do have a Research Assistantship lined up already for me when I get to the university so I am not exactly itching for a gym reference right now. I think I will contact the temp agency that I used to employed through when I was a substitute teacher. They normally have some kind of summer employment. I am trying to not stress about it too much since in the long run, it is not going to have a major affect on my life.

We are an independent training company that works inside of the gym. The employees of the gym (the people who work at the front desk) actually work for a different company. I could have told them all kinds of things... but it would not have done me much good. Nobody is going to wonder what happened to you if you are not actually scheduled to work. If someone comes up to me and asks me where to find another trainer I just pull up their schedule online and see if they have sessions that day. If their schedule is blank I tell them "hey, they are not coming in tonight..." or what not. I would not go tell a manager "so and so isn't at work tonight, oh no!" because we don't operate that way. We are only paid per session we are not paid any other time to be there. Nobody would expect you to be there if you did not have anybody scheduled. So when I rescheduled all my people when I was sick, there was no expectation that I would be there hanging out. I agree, it was an overreaction. I know it wasn't illegal what happened (I did not sign the papers understanding that I was being terminated though). There is no use trying to get my job back, but maybe I should file a formal complaint through the corporate office? And try to find a temp job for the next few weeks

I wish we were as awesome as Canada. Here we have the "employment at will" contract which means I can leave or they can terminate me at any time. Generally, the only time you are entitled to severance pay is if it stated in your benefits. I was a part time hourly employee, no benefits. We have a no compete clause in our contracts as employees (i.e. we cannot work at another gym and try to convince our clients to work with us there instead kind of deal) but if I am no longer employed there I am not legally obligated to it anymore. However, since I was let go, I have been dealing with angry backlash of clients contacting me asking why they are being rescheduled with a different person. I told them I would be happy to train them independently if they wanted but most of them are in a contract with the company or have already prepaid for sessions. It wouldn't be fair to ask them to pay the company and pay me unless they really wanted to. The issue was we as trainers operated autonomously for the most part. We set our own schedules and scheduled people around it. So if you are working another job, going to school, or taking Friday off to visit your Grandma you just block it off on your schedule and don't make appointments then. We never had to get our time slots approved my anyone. The managers are there to sell training and assign us clients, they do little else (they make a meager base salary and are paid commission). Scheduling around being sick seems no different than scheduling around taking a class or having to work another job. Therefore, I did not think I needed approval. If someone new comes in and wants to implement a system where everything has to be approved ahead time then okay, but at least tell me that first and not just fire me. Thank you for the advice. I will look into it!

The issue is that I train clients very early in the morning (5:00am or 6:00am). When I woke up for a 6:30am client is when I had realized I had gotten much worse and was going to the doctor. I contacted my early morning clients directly and told them what was going on. The managers are not there until 9:00am or 10:00am and I had never officially met this new guy and did not have a cellphone number or anything for him. There was no way for me to contact him and in all likelihood he was asleep at 6:00am and not going to be of much use. We have a computer system that allows me to schedule and reschedule clients at my own discretion. If this was not allowed, then it wouldn't be designed into the computer system. Clients change their time slots all the time if they have things going on and I never had to ask permission then. In the two years I had been working there, I never had to report when a session was rescheduled, that just isn't how our system works. I get that, to a certain extent. I did not exactly go around telling everybody. I only told a handful of people that knew my plans and had asked me. One of my clients had written me a letter of recommendation... I am pretty sure they had an idea that I was planning on going to graduate school. Obviously, I wasn't going to tell a manager my plans until I knew for sure what I was doing. I could have told my manager as soon as I knew I was going to graduate school, but oops that manager was transfered to a different location. That information would have been lost as soon as it was given. Your point that it is "not unusual for a boss to bench/reassign a worker after that person has given notice" was even more of a reason not to tell a manager right away. If I tell somebody two months ahead time I am moving and they decide to just fire me instead I would be even worse off. In addition, it is nearly impossible for me to poach any clients here, I am moving almost 10 hours away, nobody is going to come that far to train with me. I was actually going to give notice to the person that hired me (the district manager) when I was leaving and not whoever was working at our location since it changes so frequently.

This whole scenario embarasses me terribly (not sure why) but it makes me not want to discuss it with anybody I actually know. So here I am asking for advice from random people on the internet. Here is the background, I have been admitted to a PHD program beginning this fall (yay!) which requires me to move. I have been out of school for the past two years just working and living like a "regular" person. I am currently working two part time jobs and had planned on working both until the beginning of August when I move and start graduate school again. One of my jobs, I am an administrative assistant at a college (fairly irrelevant) and the other I work as a personal trainer at a gym. I have been working at the gym for the past two years and for the most part I have enjoyed it. I had already told a number of my regular clients that I was planning on leaving to attend graduate school. I had not told anybody in "management" about my plans yet. I did not feel obligated to give more than a two week notice, as it is not difficult to hire another trainer, albeit they will not be as awesome as me . Also, our company is virtually a revolving door when it comes to "management" positions. I could make you a page long list of the number of managers I had seen come and go over the past two years of employment. We recently got a new guy in our location last week. This week I started feeling sick on Sunday but kept going to work through Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday morning I felt much worse and decided to go to a walk-in clinic. I let all of my clients I had scheduled that morning know that I could not make the session because of being sick and I received confirmation that they understood and there was no problem. I got checked out, I had strep throat, highly contagious, was not recommended to return to work until Friday. I made sure to get into contact with everybody I had scheduled for those two days, whether through text or strained phone call (I had lost my voice entirely) to say I couldn't make it and reschedule for a better time. It is very rare I have to reschedule sessions on my behalf because I hardly ever get sick or have anything major happen, it wasn't a big deal. I was at home Thursday night recovering when I get a call from this new manager guy. He asks me why I haven't been showing up for my sessions. I tell him "I rescheduled all my sessions today I am at home with strep, I am not supposed to be at work." He told me that "no, you did not reschedule." I mentioned I had talked to everybody and worked out the schedule. We went back and forth and he said I was not allowed to reschedule clients without telling him first. In all of the years I had been working there, nobody ever said I had to do that and I never had done that. I was told I had to tell him that I was sick first before contacting my clients. That does not make logical sense to me, since I was meeting my clients when he was not even working. What was he going to do? In conclusion, the misunderstanding ended in him handing me termination papers that listed the reason of "absenteeism." I never actually missed anything. I feel like the real reason is that we had conflicting personalities and every time we get a new manager they fire somebody to show their power. You may ask me, why does it matter if you were going to quit your job in four weeks anyway? Well, here is why: 1). What happened was unjust. It was a misunderstanding. He did not even ask the people who I was scheduled with whether I contacted them or not, he said he would do that later, after he fired me. I was accused of something I didn't do. It makes me upset. 2). I feel bad for my clients. I had told them I would train them up until I left. Now, I look like a big fat liar. They got the short end of the stick with this one, abruptly having to change their whole program with no warning. 3). I could use the extra money. I only had two part time jobs. I will not starve or end up in a cardboard box without it but it was going to help cover some things I needed to do. I.E. replaces the blown out shocks on my car, moving expenses, etc. So what should I do? I know it is not worth throwing a fit over since I am moving in a month but it just feels wrong. Furthermore, what can I do to earn extra income in that time frame? I am trying in mind to think of what I can do for a few weeks that will help with these expenses? Work at a summer camp or something? I don't know. I am kind of put in a bind here.