raneck

1) For the most part, UK Phds require a masters for admittance, while US Phds do not (it may help though). Depending on the length of the masters degree that narrows the time difference to 1 year (for a 1 year masters) to nothing (for a 2 year masters) 2)That said, US Phds can often take longer than 5 years. 3) Foreign language requirements? No idea what you mean by this. As a US Phd student I have not taken any courses outside of my general field. In the end, what matters is the quality of YOUR work, not so much the program. If you can do good, original research in a 3 year Phd, what difference does it make?

All three of the my letters were from faculty at my top choice school (two in the department I was applying to, one in another department). I did my undergrad at a neighboring institution, and my research advisor had appointments at both of the universities. It worked out for me, and I do think that it was a major factor in getting in for me, especially since I was switching fields a bit (bioengineering to CS).

Yes, typically department provided stipends are the same for all students. If you are bringing in money from an outside fellowship, that may be treated differently. In this situation that you described, It seems you are just getting a freebie the first year, and in subsequent years the work you do is earning the stipend. I am in CS, so I expect funding setups are very different compared to Classics/History, but at no point has my stipend been without work requirements. Any time that I am not in classes myself or TAing, I am expected to be doing research work for my advisor.

I use it for cat litter and a few other non-food household items.

Congrats Op! I know quite a few PhD students who had kids during their schooling. In fact, my advisor had to bolt out at the end of his own dissertation because his wife had gone into labor with their first kid ... or should I be saying that you should never ever ever have sex if you are not planning to have a baby that very moment? Sometimes I have trouble remembering what decade I'm in.

I have been here for about 7 years now, car free! Just make sure to keep in mind the locations of grocery stores when looking for apts. I have friends/family in the area that I can sometimes get to give me a ride for shopping purposes, but that doesn't happen that often.

Tea girl, I often find myself in the same position as you are, having to "defend" my personal experience. I am not able to point to an situation in my past where I can say that I have been discriminated against due to being a female in academia. I just can't. I know that it is prevalent, and I know lots of people who have experienced it. I just have not experienced it myself. But no matter how many caveats I stick in front of that statement, people still get pissed. The most memorable occasion was a semi-blind date that I was one with another female grad student in my university. She asked me if I had ever felt discriminated against as a woman in academia, and seemed shocked and disturbed by my negative response. The remainder of the "date" deteriorated into her positing ideas for how I had really truly been a victim of discrimination, but just wasn't willing to admit it. Was I just too ashamed to talk about it? (no.) Had I been programmed (as noted above) to automatically assume that men are truly better (No. Despite the arrogance of the statement I am the best/smartest student in my lab). Did I just never notice that I was being discriminated against? (... maybe? How the hell do I even answer that?) Needless to say, it was one of the worst dates I had ever been on.

Yep. The curse of having a two-bedroom apartment...

^I'm sitting here literally wishing that some of them would talk MORE about their relationships, so that I would have at least some advance warning when one of them is about to break up and have to move in with me.. :\ Literally out of the blue... Had to rearrange all of my furniture... In my experience, when people fixate on one thing like that, it means they weren't really listening at all...

Huh, I'm currently single and almost all of my friends (except one who just had a break up) are currently in relationships. They rarely talk about their relationship stuff, I usually have to drag it out of them. They still have tons of things going on in their lives that aren't relationship based. Like literally everything else...

^I'm not particularly surprised that posters on a forum dedicated to grad school view grad school as a high priority. The level of self selection seems like it would be very high. Perhaps posters on a dating and relationship forum would have a different view on grad studies

Since Pitt is an urban school , there really isn't a separate campus. The area around the Pitt campus is safe enough (Oakland, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, Bloomfield, etc.) and very affordable for students. I've lived in the area for 5+ years and never had any problems.

Evolving Personal Finance http://www.evolvingpf.com/ is another good blog for grad student finances.

If income is reported on a w-2, it is earned income, otherwise you are out of luck. 2012 IRS Pub 590, pg 7 "Scholarship and fellowship payments are compensation for IRA purposes only if shown in box 1 of Form W-2."

If you have classes that allow open book tests, you will need a physical book for that. They probably won't let you use a tablet or other reader.

Perhaps you should make a new poll with some more choices. I answered "cap," but in reality, i get my base stipend + a percentage bonus based on the amount of external money brought in. Maybe: nsf only, nsf + base (fully stackable), nsf + bonus, base + bonus, base + nsf (or bonus) up to cap, nsf + possible extra money from TA'ing, etc.

^ As an RA, is your tuition waived, or simply paid by whatever professor you are working for? My advisor pays my tuition/stipend out of his grant money, so the educational allowance decreases the amount he needs to pay, therefore freeing up money in the lab budget. So, technically, the whole $12,000 comes back for research expenses.

So, i think most schools put the educational allowance towards tuition (since the allowance is to the institution, not the student). My program has a set stipend, but you get a bonus for bringing in outside money.

<- Sergeant (aka Sargie). His sister Luna is probably glaring up at him from the floor. They were a pair of stray kittens a friend found during my last year of undergrad.

EVERYTHING IS STATS

We have to answer each question, so this isn't going to work (questions need a N/A option)

29k base stipend, bumped to 34k by fellowship. CS field, living in Pittsburgh

I was absurdly lucky, being the third of my siblings to go to grad school. By the time it got to me, my conversations with my mom consisted of: 1: She reminds me to follow up on my LORs/transcripts/other documentation 2: She quickly changes the subject

In my junior/senior year of undergrad, I thought a lot about just getting a job vs. grad school, but eventually I came to the conclusion that I could be successful in grad school, so why not? At the time, I certainly had more experience with the academic world, so going to grad school definitely felt more comfortable. I am not the kind of person to be "passionate" about anything. I'm a good engineer, I do good work. There are certainly some projects on my plate that are less interesting and more tedious, but who cares. I just like doing cool stuff.

Been in Pittsburgh for 7 years so far, lived in Pitt dorms, then 3 different apartments. You really need to start looking early for apartments, we're talking looking by february for leases starting in August. Found the first two places through friend/family connections, current place found on Craigslist. $750/mo rent, 2 bedroom , 1 bath. Only water included. Runs about $1000/mo with all utilities, including Internet. They are going to have to pry this lease from my cold, dead hands.