plastic_enthusiast

I had to do this as well, back in the day. I chose Ling in the end, but kept up with the other area as a hobby. It all turned out well.

Grad school is quite emotionally tough. Add a breakup to it, and it becomes even tougher. I was in a similar situation to yours and had every intention to drop out of my program, because for the first time in my life, throwing myself into my academic work didn't work as a distraction. As all this was going on, I suddenly had a bunch of stuff to do and basically forgot to go through the program withdrawal process. Before I knew it a whole semester had gone by, and I had gotten over any desire to drop out. It was still a very tough semester, but I stuck it out, and I graduated. I never rekindled the love I had for my program, but I still enjoyed the work and benefitted a lot personally from sticking it out and finishing. Good luck.

I would have replied with something along the lines of "yes, it's kind of like people who work in high schools because they want to hide from the real world and relive their former glory days over and over again." (For the record, my parents work in high schools )

What do you mean by "decent"? Can afford a mortgage decent, or can afford a Mercedes decent? For what it's worth, I don't know of any Humanities PhDs working in the private sector. They're all either working in academia, or they're unemployed.

Various not-so-close friends, and my former elementary school teacher: "Graduate degree in the US eh? Living off daddy's money?" Yeah, the TAship is just a volunteer gig that I'll do out of the kindness of my heart. Close friends: "You're not going to come back, are you?" They were right.

I received a $10,500 yearly stipend when I started grad school. As I remember it (roughly), per month I spent $355 to rent my own studio, $200 on groceries, $65 on internet, $60 on gas and electricity, $20 on a cell phone $50 on miscellaneous (toiletries, clothes, books, going out, medical copays), and $300 in savings. I wasn't able to work over the summer for immigration reasons so I had to save up summer money, and I also bought a laptop and took the occasional conference trip with my savings. I didn't have a car, and I used to buy food in bulk at CostCo by going as a guest with a friend who was a member. I bought maybe 5 new items of clothing per year, and one pair of shoes if that. My food costs went up in later years when I discovered a CoOp near my house that sold great food. I didn't have a credit card and I didn't take loans (not possible as an international student). I started grad school in 2005, if some of these prices seem a little low.

Have you drawn up a monthly budget of your current expenses yet? Once you've done that, compare it to the cost of living wherever you're moving to (if you're moving). That's the only way to get a realistic idea. Include ALL of your current expenses too - drinking, having fun, renting movies, etc. It's easy to say you'll just give that up as a grad student, but grad school is a very stressful time and you will need diversions and things to keep you occupied. You'll also need to buy healthy food. I lived entirely off my stipend about $10,000 my first 2 years and then $12,000 the next three; my rent was only $355 though. I had to save up money throughout the year for the 2 months over the summer wehre I wasn't getting paid as well.

I was only able to go home twice in 7 years. Didn't have the money.

Oh, wow. That's terrible. I don't know how they expect students to figure all of this out by themselves without help from more than just some program. At least the chances of the IRS going after an international student are pretty small - and, as I found out recently, many don't even file taxes because they don't think they have to - but still, what a headache.

I just took two suitcases of stuff, all of it clothing, needed stuff for my degree (books mostly), or personal items, included my entire CD collection (nearly ripped the straps off my backpack just carrying that around), my old trusty pencil case with my favourite pens in it, and my favourite blanket. My suitcases were really heavy, but this was back when the weight limit was higher than it is now. It's really not worth bringing anything more than the essentials, no matter how much you might think you need it. I ended up moving to the US permanently and nearly everything I brought has either worn out or got lost, and I've hardly moved any of my other UK stuff out here. Any books that aren't extremely rare, you can get from the library or buy cheap second hand. I would recommend bringing your entire sock collection though. It took me a bloody long time to find decent socks here.

I was dead set on renting my own studio because it was easily within my TA stipend budget, but in the end I decided to live with an American student already at my university for a semester so that she could show me the ropes. No deposit or rental agreement needed, as I was a sub-let in her place (some landlords are ok with this, others are definitely not). I'd never been to the city before, had no idea how to pay a phone bill in the US or set up utilities etc, so she was a life saver. I'd planned to just live in a hotel for a week or two and walk around the student neighbourhood looking for available places when I got to the US, which in retrospect would have been a horrible choice. By the time the first semester was coming to an end, I knew exactly where to look for housing and how to set everything up by myself. My flatmate also donated random bits of furniture to me as she was moving out of state, so I amassed items that way. I only had to buy a dresser, everything else she gave to me. For the record, when I moved into my own place I didn't need to do a credit check, just needed to pay one month's deposit. I suppose I got lucky because the property owner had relatives in the UK (my home country), so he was uncharacteristically friendly towards foreign tenants in his property and had a relaxed attitude towards renting.

I remember worrying about the taxation issue before I started my degree in the US, but it turned out to be nothing to worry about. My taxable income was automatically withheld from my monthly stipend payment; I didn't even notice it was gone, because it wasn't very much. I filed taxes at the end of each year, with a lot of help from my wonderful international office who offered tax seminars, and I got a refund each year (a few hundred bucks each time). Talk to your international office, and always remember that the taxation system is not set up with foreign students in mind, so most of the tax regulations don't make sense. Looking for sense in tax law is like looking for sense in immigration law; it's just not there. Your international office should be able to help you fill these forms out, and I'd rely on them way before I'd rely on TurboTax (I use it now that I'm a US resident, but I'd never have used it on my F-1). It really was very simple.

I went to Edinburgh for English Language and Linguistics. It's a really great programme. Hope you enjoy it.