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Hello all! Since I am considering a few different places for my Ph.D., I was curious about the culture of the colleges/universities you're attending that you enjoy there. Bryn Mawr College is currently my top choice for my potential Ph.D. program, so I'd be extremely interested in that school in particular. I figured it would help if everyone shared their current institution's community/culture on-campus so others can get an idea of how the schools are; I'm interested in both inside and outside of the academic aspect. For example, what's the library situation like? What are the housing options like? Is it easy to get around? Is it loud/quiet at night? Can you walk to places easily or do you need to have a car to get around? Do you interact with graduate students from other departments often? What are some of the school traditions that you enjoy partaking in and why? What's around that you do for fun that has nothing to do with academia? Are there extracurriculars you do on campus, or is it all off-campus? How close are you with your cohort? Did I miss anything? Overall, I just want to know about everyone's experience at their campus and in their program, especially in the following programs: Bryn Mawr College (Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology), Brown (Archaeology and the Ancient World), UC Berkeley (Ancient History & Mediterranean Archaeology), UPenn (Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World), NYU (ISAW), University of Michigan (Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology (IPCAA)), and the University of Chicago (Graduate Program in the Ancient Mediterranean World). I'm interested in everyone's current experiences. What do you like best about the program and the interaction of profs/students, etc.? I just want to hear a little bit about each of the kinds of cultures because I want to make good decisions on which schools I'll be deciding on and I want to hear the perspective of students who are there already (and if you want to send me a message about anything, in particular, you don't want to discuss publicly on the forum about your program if it's one of the ones on my list, please do!). I've looked around and haven't seen much about BMC in particular, but I figured it would be good to start this thread to discuss how the cultures of graduate Classics programs are at different schools. Sorry if this is a bit ramble-y, but I am going to visit some of these schools and think it's important to get an idea of how everything fits together before I even do that. Thanks in advance!

Hi gradcafe! We're the Graduate Recruitment Initiative Team (GRIT) at the University of Chicago. We're a team of graduate students committed to the recruitment and retention of students from marginalized backgrounds to graduate programs in the Biological and Physical Sciences at the University of Chicago. For students from marginalized backgrounds, the road to grad school can be confusing, downright scary, and may seem impossible. The lack of diversity in STEM is a huge problem, generating unsupportive and sometimes hostile work environments for students of color, LGBTQ+ students, students with disabilities, and female-identifying students. GRIT aims to help fix the "leaky pipeline" in graduate school recruitment by actively recruiting minority students to graduate school, connecting prospective students with faculty members of interest, and fostering personal connections with prospective students to ensure they find the best graduate program for their interests. In addition we aim to bridge gaps in marginalized student retention by providing programming that aims to provide supportive environments, community building, and increase access to mentors and role models (such as seminar series featuring LGBTQ+ scientists, womxn's networking and mentorship events, and community-focused events). So... why are we here? We want to reach out to the prospective graduate student community and offer our support! We're here to talk diversity and inclusion, talk about struggles we have faced, talk about the graduate school experience, talk about applications: ranging from "am I a competitive applicant" to how to talk about non-scientific strengths (i.e. you balanced 3 jobs in undergrad and don't have a high GPA because of it) and even what graduate and non-graduate programs to consider, to talk about our successes in recruiting, STEM identity etc. We are here to help other students have a better experience, both in the application process and after they get in. Reach out and let us know what we can do.

Hello! How do you guys take care of yourselves spiritually? This is a huge component of my personal journey, and I have been very fortunate to be mentored and included in a group of grad students who undertake this together. I think it is hard to find this unless you expressly go hunting for it on your campus, so if this is important to you I would love to know how you balance this with your busy lives. Sometimes I feel very disconnected with my little community because I never see them around (we are all in different departments) and I would love to bring more open discussions on spiritual self-care into my department.

Hi everyone, One of my class teaching requirements is planning two community event for students. If students attend one of them, they get 5 points, if they attend both, they get 10 points. I am pregnant, so hiking is not very feasible right now - I am exhausted most of the times. I have two sections (20 students each) 40 students so buying dinner/lunch for all of them also is quiet expensive for me. What else can I do? I live near the beach, so may be going to a beach is possible - but what do we do after we go to the beach? Also, I am an introvert and I have literally never planned parties for people I just know. I only plan parties for my closest friends and family. Any guidance or ideas? Do you may be know about any board game that 40 Freshman (together) would like to play? I can probably buy it. Any tips would be helpful!

What impact do you think forums like thegradcafe have had on the admissions process and the graduate student community as a whole? There are many threads for applicant profiles and admissions results, which shed more light on the admissions process than in years past (not that any conclusions drawn are necessarily correct, in fact I would guess most conclusions are either false or too black-and-white). I did, however, find the information here pretty valuable when I was applying. Admissions committees absolutely know that these exist, so do you think this has affected the admissions process on their end? Do you think this has affected where prospective grad students apply, and what information they consider most valuable on their applications? Also, on a related note, what does this mean for the community of graduate students as a whole? Freak-out threads and sweat threads seem to be somewhat toxic, with people ranging between crippling anxiety and bragging, with everything in the middle. On the other hand, we get so many more resources and are able to connect with people outside of geographic location and area of study. In my opinion, the good outweighs the bad here, but there are some interesting things to think about.

I just wanted to say I really appreciate what a great forum this is, and how much having a support network like this has made things so much better. This past academic year and a half has been exceptionally difficult for me. I entered my program full of beans and and have since felt like I've let my department and my supervisor down repeatedly. Life got in the way (changing doctors from moving, chronic medical condition deteriorating, spending weeks recuperating part of which was in the hospital, difficult supervisor, sexual harassment, death of a mentor, supporting mentally ill family member; you name it!) and it just spiralled out of control from there. I was / am the grad student department chairs cringe when they see because yet another something has happened. There are days I am convinced my department made a mistake and I just slipped in by mistake. (This is not a post asking everyone to reassure me I'm doing well and all that!) I could not have done it without all of you, taking time to respond, support, encourage, and give perspective to strangers on the Internet. Many of you support each other without judging. A special shout out to the ?admin? and / or just really smart people like @TakeruKand @fuzzylogician and @telkanuru and @rising_star and @Sigaba for replying to virtually every panic stricken, lost, and scared graduate student on this board. I am sure I've missed some people, but know I do appreciate you. My memory sucks from all my drugs, so I shamelessly blame that. If you ever feel like graduate school is just too much and feel like quitting (that's me very often lately), come here. You are not alone. This community will support you...or knock some sense into your head.

Hello, I am a first-year PhD student. I want to ask about input on thriving. As background: in undergrad, I consistently had leadership roles in extra-curriculars, which helped balanced the necessary classroom focus. During Master's studies, I was also engaged (more participatory) in social and recreational groups. Now, as a PhD student , I would like to be able to connect better - it is strange, since more opportunities seem available than ever before, at my current institution. There is certainly a difference in rigor, but I have also never had so much time to focus exclusively on my studies (no need to work externally, for example). I would love any feedback you can share on growing as a healthy individual, and developing ties within the community.

Hi,So I apply in February for a Master in Community and Population Health Science in the University of Saskatchewan, they acknowledge the reception of my documents and under my application profile I have the status of "Complete Ready for Review".I already checked it online on the webpage of the University and I was unable to find a date when I should expect a response (either positive of negative) so I decided to contact the office for an advise and they just confirmed that my documents were in order, but were unable to provide me a date, should I insist, wait, cry, continue eating my nails?

Hello prospective planners. I am probably heading to UO this fall and was wondering if anybody else on here got in and/or is heading there as well?

Hi! Has anyone heard from PDX Applied Social and Community? I tried searching through the Results Survey for some clue as to when I'd hear back, but there isn't a single thing. On the site it says March, but I'm getting anxious. Let me know please!!