maelia8

Folks applying for Germany (ETA/Research) started to hear back yesterday night, if it's helpful for anyone to know!

I got notification of my fellowship award on Wednesday (Graduate Student research - full year). In the letter it says to find a form called "Consent Processing Medical Data" to sign and return on the DAAD Portal website, does anyone know where to find that form?

I had the first day of my new internship at the graduate division of my university, working on graduate student professional development! Very excited ?

I'm not sure about insulted, but I am rather surprised that the conversation went this way. I am currently in a history Ph.D. program, and in my cohort, the majority of graduate students began the program after two or more years of work/life experience outside of the academy, rather than heading in straight from undergrad. Most of them say that what they did strengthened their applications, and most professors I have spoken to would agree - I for example was an overseas English teacher for two years in the country that is the focus of my historical research, and this has only been regarded positively by faculty at my institution. If anything, those who come in later are more motivated to get in and complete their dissertation in a timely fashion, since they know they aren't getting any younger and have also done so much research on grad school before applying that they know what they are getting into. It is also problematic for a professor at any Ph.D. granting institution in the humanities or social sciences today to denigrate the possibility of working outside of academia, when even elite institutions only have a tenured professor placement rate of about 1/3 two years after filing. In sum, I believe you were speaking to someone who represents a significant outlier, and should take their feedback with a grain of salt. This does not represent a typical response, and I would not want to work with someone who had that attitude about applicants' qualifications, or the realities of the postgrad academic job market.

I am not in SLP, but as someone in my 5th year of a Ph.D. program, my advice for covering rent is always to get one (or maybe two) side hustles, preferably on campus. Unless you're in a field with high levels of tipping, you'll make more per hour as a research assistant to a professor, or working for the student government (at my institution, there are many paid positions in student government, or as an intern in a graduate division or for a university administrator. These jobs usually have very flexible hours, often involve a monthly salary rather than being paid by the hour, and the work can even be done independently at your own computer, or while manning a desk and doing your on homework or research on the side. My sister is doing her masters' and she works as a TA for two undergrad studio courses (she's an artist) on her campus. Doing a job nearby and flexible is the way to go to ensure that you are not caught commuting (and paying for that commute, thus losing valuable time to do your own work.

I can second TMP. I have had grants from the DAAD before, and the sponsorship is a formality - the advisor is there for you if you need help (i.e. getting access to an archive, suggesting where you might go to look for a particular category of documents, allowing you to participate in their department's research colloquium, etc.). The relationship will be what you make of it - it's a way to form connections that might be useful to you while you're at your host institution/archives, but if you have it all figured out on your own, that's fine too. @Tigla I hadn't heard this, and I'm not sure in the case of an historical research grant that it makes much sense - for historian grantees from the US, the primary goal of the DAAD has always been that the research has a pressing need to be performed in Germany due to the existence of particular archives, documents, or similar, which usually means that the focus is on German history in some form. Of course, there are German topics that are more transnational (such as imperialism, colonialism, etc.) but these do not represent the majority of funded DAAD grantees who are historians, and I'm not sure how they ever could - many if not most grantees go to Germany specifically to research Medieval, Renaissance, Prussian, or Reformation topics that do not always lend themselves to the "Third World" research focus. In the case of scholars, DAAD funding is divided by regional divisions, so those from different regions are not competing against each other for funding; if more scholars from Asia/Africa/Pacific are chosen, it does not mean that proportionally less North and South Americans will be. DAAD has reduced the number of grants overall due to government spending reapportionment, though; almost no one who applied at large (not going through a university priority program) was given a yearlong research grant last year (at least among North American applicants).

Still nothing for US long-term research grantees either

In Germany everything's closed for Good Friday and Easter Monday, so we won't have news until Tuesday at the earliest. Fingers crossed!

Still nothing for long-term (academic year) US doctoral research grants, eh? Or does somebody know something I don't?

I'm from the USA.

Last year they sent out the email indicating change of status on the first Monday in March (at least to me) ... hopefully you'll all hear by the end of the week.

I take notes during lecture or discussion on my laptop in the (free) Evernote program so that my notes are completely searchable, taggable, and synced across all devices in the cloud. The program also has the ability to link to bibliographical information of works mentioned in lecture, and I often download and attach the lecture slides as well if they are offered by the instructor on the course website. I strongly dislike paper weighing me down (especially since I travel a lot, and paper notebooks tend to wear down with time), and have thus chosen to go fully digital with my life (aside from the most vital ID/medical/professional documents and my private diaries). i certainly think this is the most convenient and safest way to store and and organize notes, and makes looking through notes for research paper writing or exam prep a cinch (saves lots of time). However, I'm a person who types very quickly and hates handwriting, so I'm certainly biased in favor of digital methods.

In my department, the website has a secure login for all students and faculty and we can update our own profiles whenever we want by logging in - even down to our profile picture and what we are teaching this semester.. I'd check with your webmaster and see if that is an option if you're concerned about the information getting outdated.

I agree with what's been posted previously - If you're in the Bay Area or New York, anything under $1000/month for a private room in a shared living situation is probably either a scam or comes with significant issues (very dangerous neighborhood, crumbling apartment, landlord renting illegally without a proper lease so as to avoid rent control, etc.). I pay roughly 65% of my annual income towards rent/utilities, and I have what would be considered a really great deal in a mid-tier Bay Area neighborhood very close to my campus. The only way to get something cheaper in regards to rent is to commute over an hour by car or (still not cheap) public transport, and it basically saves you nothing when the cost of parking in central downtown Bay Area cities is factored in. I think that shopping around if you're in a different market makes sense, but if you're in a market driven by insane demand, the competition is too tough to turn down places that aren't dirt cheap if you get someone willing to accept your offer on the place.

My first name is incredibly unique, and, combined with a flowery-sounding last name, has led friends to joke that I should have been a romance novelist and am missing my true calling (seriously, my name doesn't even sound like a real name, it sounds like a nom de plume that somebody made up). That being said, there is no danger that I will ever meet anyone with the same name to compete with for publishing purposes. I'd never include the middle name or middle initial, as I think it would be overkill.