Post-Acceptance Stress & Misc. Banter

[dazedandbemused]

So many factors to consider!!! First world problems!!! Ahhhhh!!!

 

Werd. I'm continually thankful that first world problems are my only problems.

[dazedandbemused]

I'm with Sursie here. First off, I never imagined that i'de have multiple well funded offers. I think that i'm plenty qualified, but i've also seen plenty of impressive candidates not get in over the last couple of years (not to mention those who did get in for reasons unknown). The offer that I accepted (a few days ago!) is not the 'best' one financially. And, the other programs that hollered are extremely dreamy spots--in many cases 'better ranked' schools/programs. I am a good fit at all of these programs, and I wouldn't have applied otherwise. Maybe my opinion will change when I'm on my sixth year of ballin-on-a-budget, but for now i'm excited to be joining the community that has had the most gravitational pull during this process.

 

It's interesting that you use the phrase "gravitational pull" for your choice because I've definitely felt pulled in a specific direction this entire process. Then again, I don't really know if it's the allure of the unfamiliar, new territory that's pulling me or not. God, I sound so indecisive and pathetic.

[HHEoS]

To those unsure about your decisions: please remember that you can try to negotiate with programs, especially if you have fellowships or much better funding elsewhere. If you go to recruitment days and a PoI or the DGS asks, "how do you feel about joining us at U of X?" you should put it flatly that you would like to attend, but you're worried about the funding situation, especially since you have an awesome fellowship from YU. Last year I managed to talk myself into $10k extra funding in the first two years at a program (that I eventually turned down, hence my reapplication this year). So please, let your issues be known to these programs, they may not always have the wherewithal to find you extra funding, but some of them do (or can find you some from the Graduate School). 

Edited February 27, 2013 by HHEoS

[marlowe]

I disagree about the whole "follow the money" advice: if you are choosing between two funded programs, go where it feels right.  You are going to be living and working in this place for 5-7 years with no guarantee of a job on the other end -- live somewhere that you won't regret spending your twenties or thirties.  

 

As for the money at UT, it's fine.  We don't live extravagantly, but there are very few complaints about the money or lifestyle.  I turned down a better funded -- and perhaps more prestigious (in my subfield) -- offer because I felt this was right.  I immediately connected with my future advisors and the DGS on the visit.  If any of you have specific questions about the money, you might get five or six different perspectives with some carefully directed GC personal messages.

[asleepawake]

To be fair, Two Espressos gave the money advice with the qualifier of "all other things being equal." I do think it is wise to follow the money if one of your program's hasn't offered you enough to really live on--some stipends range can be especially difficult, depending also on where a school is located. If you would need lots of extra loans to make that work, then I think it's more wise to follow the money, assuming you feel pretty good about the program.

[Swagato]

This post is half my own musings and half directed to dazedandbemused (actually, at anyone who shares their position).

 

Recently, I somehow got accepted to two superb programs. One is a dream program, while the other--though underrated--also has a very good program, if not what I envision as the perfect fit for me. One of them funds me (there's no other way to put this) handsomely. It offers a reasonable teaching load, curatorial program options, TA in selected years rather than all, etc. The other provides $15k for 4 years, requires TA'ing in every year.

 

There's simply no way I could choose the latter. Quite aside from the fact that I'd be moving with my SO and all that, the two just do not compare. I'm not in this for the rest of my life. I want to go to the place that puts up the best package overall...and that definitely includes funding and the opportunity to focus on my work rather than be consumed with teaching responsibilities every year. At the same time it should offer me ample teaching options so that I may end up a well-rounded job applicant. 

 

(This part is directed solely at dazedandbemused.) I don't know Austin, but I seriously would have trouble going to place that doesn't offer, at minimum, a full tuition waiver. Especially so, if my other option is at a place that has just offered me a big fellowship.

Edited February 27, 2013 by Swagato

[Fishbucket]

No matter how much you love a program, if a program doesn't love you enough to pay you a living wage I would wonder how great a "fit" that could possibly be. Like Swagato says, it really depends on what your other options are. But I would assume that the glossy sheen of a program right now, before you start struggling to make rent and pay down loans, will quickly dissipate once real life woes start interfering with your intellectual productivity.

[asleepawake]

if a program doesn't love you enough to pay you a living wage I would wonder how great a "fit" that could possibly be. 

 

Nobody is offering low stipends just because they don't love their applicants enough. Funding isn't set by the adcom... they might get to decide how to distribute it, but at a lot of programs the money simply isn't there to start with. How much they offer you isn't necessarily a reflection of your fit...

[Fishbucket]

Excuse me, I was using figurative language. What I mean is that I don't think anyone (apart from the independently wealthy, for whom stipends aren't really a concern to begin with) will be comfortable in a program in which they have to struggle to survive financially while also teaching and developing a dissertation. Programs don't "love" anyone, and even individual professors who do love their students don't really have the power to make them financially solvent. These are 5-7 long years, and I just don't think that $13,000 is enough to allow a person any degree of stability or security. On top of that, even first years at UT-Austin have to teach, so they really are being underpaid for a legitimate and valuable service. It all just sounds awful to my ears.

[Fishbucket]

And in terms of the definition of poverty, for a single person an income of $12,000 is the poverty line. If you're in a couple with no children the level is $15,000. So based purely on the numbers, the UT-Austin stipend is poverty wages.

[asleepawake]

Excuse me, I was using figurative language. What I mean is that I don't think anyone (apart from the independently wealthy, for whom stipends aren't really a concern to begin with) will be comfortable in a program in which they have to struggle to survive financially while also teaching and developing a dissertation. Programs don't "love" anyone, and even individual professors who do love their students don't really have the power to make them financially solvent. These are 5-7 long years, and I just don't think that $13,000 is enough to allow a person any degree of stability or security. On top of that, even first years at UT-Austin have to teach, so they really are being underpaid for a legitimate and valuable service. It all just sounds awful to my ears.

 

I'm not disagreeing with the fact that a lower stipend is something you should consider when making a decisions, but that stipend has nothing to do with fit or how comfortable you'll feel in your program. It has a lot to do with how comfortable you'll feel in your life and finances, but if you're getting 20k+ at a program where you don't fit in, it might have been preferable to have had a few k in loans per year or a smaller apartment to be in a program where you have people who support your work. It's also worth noting that 13k in one city can be easily equal to 17 or 18 in another (or, conversely, it can be worth 8 or 9 in another). Cost of living is far more important than the exact amount you'll receive. You also have to consider things like benefits, travel funding, opportunities for summer funding, etc. 

Edited February 27, 2013 by asleepawake

[asleepawake]

And in terms of the definition of poverty, for a single person an income of $12,000 is the poverty line. If you're in a couple with no children the level is $15,000. So based purely on the numbers, the UT-Austin stipend is poverty wages.

 

 

I actually don't know what the UT stipend is (did I miss it? Is it 13k?), but yes, this is true. However, it also means you may qualify for food stamps or other benefits that can help with your expenses.

 

I've been living on a 9-12k stipend during my MA, and I wouldn't do it for the PhD, but I'm still glad I did it.

Edited February 27, 2013 by asleepawake

[Fishbucket]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I personally would prefer not to fall into that cliché of the PhD Humanities student on foodstamps. 

[HHEoS]

Cost of living is far more important than the exact amount you'll receive.

 

A little off-topic and just an FYI for anyone interested in comparing cost of living stats between cities (and who hasn't already used this tool), this CNN Money calculator seems legit(-ish): http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/

[sebastiansteddy]

A little off-topic and just an FYI for anyone interested in comparing cost of living stats between cities (and who hasn't already used this tool), this CNN Money calculator seems legit(-ish): http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/

 

Thanks for posting that! I have been looking for something like that!

[Swagato]

Excuse me, I was using figurative language. What I mean is that I don't think anyone (apart from the independently wealthy, for whom stipends aren't really a concern to begin with) will be comfortable in a program in which they have to struggle to survive financially while also teaching and developing a dissertation. Programs don't "love" anyone, and even individual professors who do love their students don't really have the power to make them financially solvent. These are 5-7 long years, and I just don't think that $13,000 is enough to allow a person any degree of stability or security. On top of that, even first years at UT-Austin have to teach, so they really are being underpaid for a legitimate and valuable service. It all just sounds awful to my ears.

 

 

I'm not disagreeing with the fact that a lower stipend is something you should consider when making a decisions, but that stipend has nothing to do with fit or how comfortable you'll feel in your program. It has a lot to do with how comfortable you'll feel in your life and finances, but if you're getting 20k+ at a program where you don't fit in, it might have been preferable to have had a few k in loans per year or a smaller apartment to be in a program where you have people who support your work. It's also worth noting that 13k in one city can be easily equal to 17 or 18 in another (or, conversely, it can be worth 8 or 9 in another). Cost of living is far more important than the exact amount you'll receive. You also have to consider things like benefits, travel funding, opportunities for summer funding, etc. 

 

This could just be me, but I've always felt that the program I attend will inevitably be a part of my life (stating the obvious, in a way). But what this means for me is that I could not feel comfortable in my skin without feeling comfortable in my program, and vice versa. Perhaps this is a romanticized perspective, but I'd like to think of my future department and institution as an extended family in a way, with all the degrees of separation that implies. I want to make it my home for the next 5-7 years. That is why I think fit definitely includes more than intellectual fodder. It includes funding, because what I am doing is work. I'd like a decent level of appreciation for that, please. I don't think that's unreasonable. I may have a perfectly wonderful fit at another place, but unless that place is somehow near the top of the totem pole yet is offering me peanuts, I would not consider it. We may talk about "fit" all day long, but ultimately if we got into 2-3 places, then it's because those places believe we will fit in with them.

 

And first-year teaching? No. 

[asleepawake]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I personally would prefer not to fall into that cliché of the PhD Humanities student on foodstamps. 

 

So, you'd prefer to not eat so you don't fall into a cliché? I'm in agreement with the idea of following the money when you can do so, but that's not a good option for everybody, and not everybody even gets offered "big" money to follow. Food stamps are there for a reason, and it shouldn't be embarrassing to take advantage of them if you need to. 

[asleepawake]

This could just be me, but I've always felt that the program I attend will inevitably be a part of my life (stating the obvious, in a way). But what this means for me is that I could not feel comfortable in my skin without feeling comfortable in my program, and vice versa. Perhaps this is a romanticized perspective, but I'd like to think of my future department and institution as an extended family in a way, with all the degrees of separation that implies. I want to make it my home for the next 5-7 years. That is why I think fit definitely includes more than intellectual fodder. It includes funding, because what I am doing is work. I'd like a decent level of appreciation for that, please. I don't think that's unreasonable. I may have a perfectly wonderful fit at another place, but unless that place is somehow near the top of the totem pole yet is offering me peanuts, I would not consider it. We may talk about "fit" all day long, but ultimately if we got into 2-3 places, then it's because those places believe we will fit in with them.

 

And first-year teaching? No. 

 

I think that funding is important for making the decision, like I've said. I am just personally seeing it separate from "fit," which I think has more to do with your work itself. That's just me, and it's just semantics. 

[HHEoS]

Thanks for posting that! I have been looking for something like that!

 

No problem! Glad I could help. 

[Swagato]

Oh, I wasn't arguing against you. Naturally, different criteria for different people and all that. And I may indeed be romanticizing things a bit in my perception of how I want the next years to be. 

[ishmael]

Hmm. All this talk of money makes me worry about my (currently only) offer. How do people feel about partially funded MA programs? Let me clarify, the first year is partially funded, with promise of full funding the second year (with a 2-1 teaching load). Is it worth it to do a program funded as such? 

 

So. Much. Anxiety.

[muchado]

My MA offered a similar situation. It was worth it for me, but I had very few loans for undergrad, and my husband had none. For us, it wasn't a huge deal to have to take out more loans for my MA.

[Datatape]

I took an unfunded M.A. and only ("only") ended up with $17,000 in loans.  I went through undergrad with no loans, so it wasn't as big a deal to me as it might have been to someone who already had $80,000 from undergrad that they owed.  If you have funding solidified for the second year and even get some funding for the first, and you really love the program and want to go there, I don't think there's anything wrong with taking out a small amount of loans for your first year.  It's obviously not good to be in debt for any graduate degree, but one year of an M.A. is not going to cost you that much.

[Two Espressos]

Hmm. All this talk of money makes me worry about my (currently only) offer. How do people feel about partially funded MA programs? Let me clarify, the first year is partially funded, with promise of full funding the second year (with a 2-1 teaching load). Is it worth it to do a program funded as such? 

 

So. Much. Anxiety.

 

I'd never attend an unfunded or partially funded M.A. program in the humanities...ever.  Of course there are exceptions, but generally I don't think it's a good idea.

 

What's worse: partially funded/unfunded Ph.D. programs.  I'm looking at you, Claremont Graduate University.

Edited February 27, 2013 by Two Espressos

[ishmael]

I'd never attend an unfunded or partially funded M.A. program in the humanities...ever.  Of course there are exceptions, but generally I don't think it's a good idea.

 

What's worse: partially funded/unfunded Ph.D. programs.  I'm looking at you, Claremont Graduate University.

 

Two Espressos: Why? Just curious to hear your reasons.