Fall 2014 Applicants

[wiewanderlust]

New England Nat, I'm curious how you find the P'ton semester system to be. I have a friend who has found it pretty rough, but do you think it's bad enough to impact a decision on whether to choose the school?

[New England Nat]

The second post was posted a day after the second, with both saying they'd gotten the acceptance on Friday.  You probably just looked between the time the first and the second were posted.

[New England Nat]

It's no reason not to take the very package they would give you.  It's bizarre and antiquated but really it's only hard on grad students in the first year.  By the second year the extra time off after papers are due in January is good for studying for your comps.

 

For those who don't know, Princeton still operates on an old fashioned semester system where you start at the end of September, have a 12 week semester, where fall doesn't end until January.  So students come back in January to write papers before something called "Deans Date" which is when the all undergrad papers have to be due before a dead period and exams.  Deans Date doesn't officially apply to grad students but many professors use it as a day papers are due anyway.  Since there is no such thing as an exam in a grad class the semester is effectively over for grad students at that point.

 

For second years taking their general exams in May, the graduate school mandates an extended deadline for their papers in the spring.

 

I went from a masters program where you were frantically finishing papers until about Dec 18, and than went home for Christmas.  So it was weird to adjust to but eh, I'd hesitate to call it "rough" for a grad student.

 

I'd hate it with a passion if I were an undergrad.

Edited January 12, 2014 by New England Nat

[TMP]

Ah, that's what "dean's date" is... I've seen it on Facebook from Princeton people and wondered what that meant... 

[New England Nat]

Yeah, last day written course work can be due before exams.

[Zephyr99]

Once you are accepted into a program, what are the steps that one usually takes?  Do most PhD program/advisors help guide their "younglings" at first? I just hope it's nowhere near the levels of stress I had  while working on and submitting PhD applications.

[CageFree]

Once you are accepted, or once YOU accept an offer? Those are two different answers.

 

When you are still deciding, some POIs will make themselves available for questions/chats/visits. Many programs have recruitment days/weekends where they fly you in to check out the program and try to convince you to accept. On recruitment weekend with my program, for example, my adviser emailed me and set up a time to meet over coffee so we could talk one-on-one, which I really appreciated.

 

Once you actually accept an offer, you generally will have little contact until you get closer to the new school year. The graduate director will generally be your go-to-person. You might get information from them or a graduate coordinator (i.e. an admin position) about registering for classes, orientation and what not, though that's probably program-dependent.

[kdavid]

Once you accept an offer, how much (if any) assistance is provided regarding housing? Is any help provided for those with a family? What about setting up health insurance (for you and a family)?

[Kelkel]

Once you accept an offer, how much (if any) assistance is provided regarding housing? Is any help provided for those with a family? What about setting up health insurance (for you and a family)?

 

They might put you in contact with another graduate student, possibly in a similar situation, that could help you know where to look for houses/apartments. The schools themselves might also have resources, such as apartment lists, room share requests, etc. It really depends on the school and area though. I attend a university where a great part of the student population lives off campus, so the resources are immense for both graduate and undergraduate students.

If you are offered a package that includes health insurance, the school will set that up for you. You will need to sign a few documents at the beginning of the year, but you will probably do that with the rest of your employment papers. I would probably make sure you ask human resources about the health insurance details before you accept an offer so that you know who and what the insurance will cover (for example, our student insurance is very cheap, but once you had a spouse it skyrockets, and since I don't have any dependents I don't know whether it would adequately cover a family or not).

Good luck!

[anoraklibrarian]

Hey all!

 

I've just been reading this forum and its really helping me with my anxiety over graduate admissions.  One thing that I've certainly not done that it seems everybody has been doing here is sending these emails to Professors of Interest.  I am slightly older than most PhD applicants (32) and have extensive graduate experience (two MAs) and public history experience (museum ed at a historical society, interpretive ranger for the national park service) and it just seems sort-of disingenuous for me to write an e-mail to ask questions I don't particularly really want to ask and that I'm pretty aware of the answer to in order to make an impression.  Will this hurt me? Should I try and send messages to these profs right now, as evaluation is going on? Or does it really matter at all?

[Zephyr99]

It's too late to email potential advisors, anoraklibrarian. It would only hurt you now. I also don't think you missed TOO much by not emailing professors. However, I say that hesitantly because I've had great conversations with several professors as a result of my inquiry emails. It also saved me a few bucks because they would let me know if they were taking graduate students or if they were retiring. I wouldn't worry about it now.

[jamc8383]

 

 It also saved me a few bucks because they would let me know if they were taking graduate students or if they were retiring. I wouldn't worry about it now.

 

 

This.  

 

it just seems sort-of disingenuous for me to write an e-mail to ask questions I don't particularly really want to ask and that I'm pretty aware of the answer to in order to make an impression.  

 

These are obviously not the type of questions you would want to ask.  

 

Dealing with questions whose answers are easily discernible from a cursory review of the program's website is just as repugnant to POIs as it is to you.  Questions such as "Will you be taking students next year?" on the other hand, are more than appropriate and exceedingly helpful as you make decisions about where to apply.  In this sense, I don't think it's fruitful for you to do this now, but hearing from a POI that they're not going to be around next year or that they won't be taking students has major implications for your applications and prevents you from going on and on in your SOP about how you want to work with Professor Z, who, as it turns out is going on phased retirement starting in the fall.  Embarrassing to say the least, and potentially damaging.

[anoraklibrarian]

This.  

 

 

These are obviously not the type of questions you would want to ask.  

 

Dealing with questions whose answers are easily discernible from a cursory review of the program's website is just as repugnant to POIs as it is to you.  Questions such as "Will you be taking students next year?" on the other hand, are more than appropriate and exceedingly helpful as you make decisions about where to apply.  

 

Glad to hear some concurrence.  I sort of did some of that sussing out in terms of 'who is available,' by talking to a relative who is a prof at U Colorado, where I nearly applied but decided not to on his advice.  I learned from him that it just wasn't worth applying to his program, because all the people who work with anything even tangentially related to my topic of interest (I work with Appalachian industrial slavery) are/have retired.  This was really useful knowledge, since I'm interested in going to school in the mountain west/northwest, and only a few schools in the area have strong faculties in terms of American slavery.  I just didn't see the point of the letters as it seemed rather unctuous and forced from my point of view and less valuable than the time I spent reading the books and articles that profs I wanted to work with had written so that I could write a really dynamic statement of purpose that showed full comprehension of their work...

Edited January 15, 2014 by anoraklibrarian

[CageFree]

Once you accept an offer, how much (if any) assistance is provided regarding housing? Is any help provided for those with a family? What about setting up health insurance (for you and a family)?

 

Hmm. I think with grad students the assumption is you can do your own research regarding housing in the town you're going to... I mean, you can email and ask for help, and the university may have a website for student housing. If you go to a prospective student weekend, that's a good time to ask about housing arrangements too. I more or less got referred to our local town Wiki, and had the email addresses of students in my field if I had questions.

 

Regarding insurance, if it's in your package, it's set up automatically. For my school, dependent insurance is pretty expensive... I was paying about 1200 a quarter for my partner, and it was a PPO (i.e. everything was expensive). Thankfully he has insurance through work now so I don't have to pay anymore.

[Zephyr99]

Starting next week, I think the results page will have more History PhD waitlists/rejections/acceptances. Ohio State and Michigan State typically report acceptances at the end of January. I think UNC is early too.

[hdunlop]

CageFree, I'm not sure why everything in a PPO would necessarily be expensive -- isn't the PPO just a description of your network, so costs could vary tremendously depending on what kind of plan you have?

 

I wonder if graduate student stipends count as employment for the purposes of qualifying for subsidies under the ACA exchanges. Does anyone know? I might try and figure that out. Individuals would certainly qualify for fairly generous subsidies if their only income was the stipend, unless they're prohibited from receiving them since their "employer" offers a plan.

[jamc8383]

Starting next week, I think the results page will have more History PhD waitlists/rejections/acceptances. Ohio State and Michigan State typically report acceptances at the end of January. I think UNC is early too.

 

Oh, man.  Here we go...

[sankofa]

Oh, man. Here we go...[/quote

Ditto ! Good luck everyone. May the odds be ever be in your favor

[kdavid]

Starting next week, I think the results page will have more History PhD waitlists/rejections/acceptances.

 

 

Really? For some reason I was thinking it would be mid-March before all offers were out....

[jamc8383]

Really? For some reason I was thinking it would be mid-March before all offers were out....

 

Of the programs to which I applied, two were notifying accepted students last year as early as January 24th and all six had finished acceptance notifications by February 21st.  It's upon us.

[CageFree]

CageFree, I'm not sure why everything in a PPO would necessarily be expensive -- isn't the PPO just a description of your network, so costs could vary tremendously depending on what kind of plan you have?

 

I wonder if graduate student stipends count as employment for the purposes of qualifying for subsidies under the ACA exchanges. Does anyone know? I might try and figure that out. Individuals would certainly qualify for fairly generous subsidies if their only income was the stipend, unless they're prohibited from receiving them since their "employer" offers a plan.

 

I'll give you an example. My husband had to go see an allergist and do some testing. Even though it was in network, the insurance only covered a percentage of the visit... we had a 300 dollar bill. That did not include shots, which were completely out of our budget.So we know what he is allergic to but didn't have the money to actually treat.

 

When you have an HMO, you would pay whatever the copay is for a specialist... I think it might be $25 or so. That's how it's expensive. PPOs make sense if you have a doctor you want to see that might not take your HMO, but they don't cover medical costs the way HMOs do... I've had arthroscopic surgery (not recently), and because I had an HMO I didn't pay one cent. Even my physical therapy was covered. My friend who has a PPO had the same surgery recently, and had several thousands in bills. We were coworkers at the time.

 

As far as the other question, some universities (mine, for example) have been able to make the university-promoted insurance qualify as the minimum coverage for the purpose of ACA, which means you would not be eligible for participation in an exchange. You are only eligible if your work does not provide insurance or if the insurance doesn't meet certain qualifications.

Edited January 16, 2014 by CageFree

[hdunlop]

I could be wrong as I'm no expert, but it sounds to me like you just had a really good HMO and a not-so-good PPO. The plan I had before the current high-deductible plan I'm on had coinsurance for hospital stays, but copayments for specialists. And I'm pretty sure I've seen HMOs that have coinsurance for specialists. It seems to me the only for-sure difference between the two is that HMO requires you to have a PCP and referrals to see specialists whereas the PPO lets you go outside the network. It may be true that HMOs tend to have stronger coverage for less cost, and I think it is, but it's not at all a rule.

 

You can participate in the exchange even if your employer offers qualifying coverage, you just can't get the subsudies. At issue is whether the university counts as an "employer" when they're giving you a stipend. I'm thinking the answer is yes; from what you're saying, it sounds like that's the case.

[silentbirds]

I just received an email from my recommender telling me to contact a POI of an institution I've applied to. She told me that the department is considering my application very seriously, but they aren't sure of my interest because I never sent a letter of inquiry. Well, the reason why I didn't send any was because I thought it's too late (December) to properly express interest,and isn't it worse to send something now? What am I supposed to say?

[jamc8383]

That's bizarre.  Although, I had a similar situation in which a POI/adcomm member contacted my advisor to ask how serious I was about their program.  Of course I'm serious; I applied, didn't I?!

 

My advisor and I discussed it briefly (deciding on a reassuring though noncommittal response), and s/he responded on my behalf.  In this case, I would talk to your recommender.  Did the POI say that you should reach out to the school (I agree with you, it seems late to do so)?  Or does the POI simply want an assurance from your recommender?  Get clarification.

[silentbirds]

That's bizarre.  Although, I had a similar situation in which a POI/adcomm member contacted my advisor to ask how serious I was about their program.  Of course I'm serious; I applied, didn't I?!

 

My advisor and I discussed it briefly (deciding on a reassuring though noncommittal response), and s/he responded on my behalf.  In this case, I would talk to your recommender.  Did the POI say that you should reach out to the school (I agree with you, it seems late to do so)?  Or does the POI simply want an assurance from your recommender?  Get clarification.

 

Hello jamc8383, many thanks for the response. My advisor doesn't seem to care, and just instructed me to email the POI again. Argh.