raneck

Totally agree with @bibliophile222. Why on earth is this forum dogpiling criticism on someone who came here for looking for understanding? No wonder this place is slowly dying.

Maybe adding one or two more post grad school specific sections would help encourage people to stick around. Ex: split jobs into academic and non-academic, a section for postdocs/young profs, a section for industry phds. I think more people would hang around if there was a dedicated space for it ("Post Grad Life" or something)

You know, we can just ask @Pscott to weigh in on whether or not they feel the term microagression is appropriate, and skip the chest-thumping over feminist credentials.

Very few places in Pittsburgh are going to have in unit washers/dryers. If you are willing to budge on that, take a look at Kenmawr apartment building: http://www.pmcpropertygroup.com/properties/kenmawr-apartments

He only has an adjunct advising appointment at the campus we do most of our work at. He and I are actually employed by a neighboring university (literally just down the street), and he has a parking spot there. But instead of parking in his spot and walking the few blocks to the building, he parks at the meters right next to the building and leaves at 4 pm everyday.

The next time my co-advisor leaves a meeting early because his parking meter is expired I might just stab him with a screwdriver.

For small purchases, I would recommend I-bonds over tips. TIPS function like normal bonds, except the principal (I.e. Face value) of the bond is inflation adjusted according to the CPI. They earn an interest rate that is based on the inflation adjusted face value. Essentially the overall treasury market has an "expected" inflation amount priced in. If inflation is higher than expected, TIPs win since you get more interest based on the inflated principal. If it is lower, normal bonds win, since the tips interest rate is now being applied to a lower principal. If inflation is as expected, normal bonds will edge out TIPS, since there is a small premium baked into the TIPS rates to cover the "insurance" you are buying. For a given maturity length, TIPS rate + expected inflation < normal bond rate. I-bonds are a similar product, but have some benefits/drawbacks. They are essentially inflation linked CDs. They aren't marked to market like bonds, and so can be redeemed from the treasury for their face value at any time, past a one year holding period. ( bonds can't be redeemed until maturity, you have to sell to another person to get your money before that) There is also a small early redemption penalty if cashed in before 5 years. I used I-bonds to hold my emergency fund.

I'm doing monthly investments into a Roth IRA, buying an index fund based target date fund (as I am incredibly lazy).

Yes, index funds are invested in many stocks, according to an index that tracks a sector of the market. They are a class of mutual funds. Mutual funds don't have to follow an index, they can be "active" funds that have managers who do stock picking. Active funds tend to have higher fees (due to more effort being required to run the fund), and the extra fees are not always matched with extra profit. Stock picking and index funds have different kinds of risks. In index funds, you are vulnerable to overall market swings, but not the individual fates of companies. Stock picking ties you very closely to the companies you pick (for a very recent example of this, look at GTAT, the company that was supposed to supply Apple with sapphire screens for the new iPhone. Lots of teeth gnashing on investment forums over this one). You can try picking a large number of "good" stocks (I.e. a blue chip strategy), but the more stocks you hold, the more your returns begin to emulate an index fund anyway.

Unless you are very, very confident in your stock picking ability, a stock index fund or index ETF would be a much better choice. This is what I am currently doing with my investments. Perhaps you should check out bogleheads.org.

The money is not given to you, it is given to the school you are attending to cover... cost of education (tuition and mandatory fees). They are not required to make any portion of that money available to you. They are only required to not charge you any of the excess cost beyond what the allowance provides.

Academic incest is a slightly overblown worry (on the student's end at least). In my experience, the bias against academic incest exists both on the application committee and the post-phd job search, i.e. the grad program at your undergrad school simply won't admit you. Why would they admit a student that would be have difficulty succeeding after the program?

I'm in the somewhat awkward position in my lab group where I am out... but still nobody knows. We do not have frequent (or really, any) social events, and there is little discussion of personal lives. It literally has never come up. I only know that two of the other grad students are married because they had to take time off in the summer to go back to their home countries for the weddings. One of them had gone back to get his visa renewed and happened to come back with a wife I am not even sure that HE knew he was getting married. So, short of randomly announcing my sexuality... status quo remains

In social situations, I say graduate student. People unfamiliar with grad school may not know that there is a distinction anyway. Otherwise, it is always interesting to see if people ask for clarification, assume, or just don't care. In professional/academic situations I use the correct title.

Roth IRAs allow you to withdraw contributions without penalty.

I use an online bank for cash holdings, since it gives a better rate than my brick and mortar local bank (0.9% vs. 0.35%). It can take a few days to ACH money back and forth, so I keep some extra cash in the local bank for emergencies. Time to access money is pretty much the only concern with online banks (so longs as they are FDIC).

This is entirely situation dependent. In my program, it is pretty much up to your advisor what he/she considers appropriate, and the school regulations allow for a one week summer vacation.

If you are going to conferences a lot, it is not a bad idea. You should use the title that fits the context. You aren't at the conference because you are a TA. Just because you aren't being paid doesn't mean that you aren't filling a role. Maybe something like "graduate researcher" or "graduate student research assistant"

This depends entirely on what you mean by investment. You are going to need the money in less than a year, and so you are looking at putting the money in ether a very short term CD or a money market/savings account. You can search on www.bankrate.com, www.depositaccounts.com, or www.nerdwallet.com to find the best rates for the time period you are looking at. If you mean investment in a more speculative sense (i.e. stocks, etc), I seriously recommend against doing that with money that you know you will need. I am currently keeping my cash holdings in an online banking savings account at 0.90%, which is about the best you can get right now while still maintaining principal and liquidity. You may be able to get higher rates with "rewards checking" accounts (see: http://www.depositaccounts.com/checking/reward-checking-accounts.html), but these tend to come with more strings attached (minimum number of debit card uses per month, minimum balance, maximum balance, etc.)

Be careful with IRA contributions, as those require you to have "earned income," which your stipend/fellowship may not count as. The rule of thumb is that if your pay is not reported in box 2 of a w-2 form, it is not earned income. I currently have a Roth IRA through Vanguard. Here's a helpful article for grad students looking at retirement investing: http://www.evolvingpf.com/2012/03/earned-income/

After helping my advisor work through some budget snafus with the administration, I had a t-shirt made to commemorate what I was being paid as according to our strange accounting practices: "2/3 Graduate Student 1/3 Technical Supplies"

I guess I don't see what the great teaching moment would be if OP doesn't follow the grading guidelines? Students don't have to turn in assignments on time if they feel the instructor is has slighted them? Non-trad students shouldn't be held to the same standards as other undergrads? I know that some people actually feel that way, but I don't think letting that slip into your teaching is a good thing.

I'm in CS, and its pretty much jeans/t-shirt/hoodie for most people. So long as you "match" with the dress level of other students you should be fine. Sweats/yoga pants probably aren't going to cut it. However, IMPORTANT NOTE: Keep some slightly dressier clothes (business causal or better) within easy access at all times. Or you may find yourself in a super awkward situation. I had to attend the reception for one of my committee members who was receiving an endowed professorship... in jeans and a bright green hoodie.

My happiness and well being in high school (and later undergrad) increased dramatically when I decided that my priority was the project, not babysitting my group members. Their education is not my responsibility, and I don't have to sacrifice my peace of mind and free time for it. If they wanted to contribute (which was rare) fine, that's great. If not, what do I care what they get out of it? This attitude was born of a few high school teachers deliberately grouping me with their more obstinate students, and then asking me "help get them up to speed." I fail to see why I had to do their jobs for them.

And I am in a US program with no language requirements, and that will take me ~5 years (with no previous masters degree). The large variability of PhD programs makes these comparisons difficult. As far as the "extra" two years (which would not even exist in my case), that may or may nor produce a better product. It is very highly dependent on both the specific program, and the student in question. Comparing US and UK PhDs as monolithic groups isn't particularly useful.