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XanthusARES

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XanthusARES last won the day on July 21 2020

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About XanthusARES

  • Birthday April 28

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  1. Congrats! I haven't been on here for a while, but I love checking in and seeing these posts. It always makes me smile to see profile names that were on here years ago asking for application advice end up getting jobs. Welcome to this side of the PhD program, go grab a drink and enjoy the next few months.
  2. Check out Craigslist for the area you are looking to move to. They generally have a lot of apartments that aren't on the main rental sites (like rent.com and apartments.com). If you're looking to rent from a landlord rather than from a company, Craigslist is a great place to start. That being said there are positives from renting from a company that you won't get from a landlord, so the choice is really yours. As far as timing goes, it doesn't hurt to start looking now. Some college towns expect people to be signing leases now to move in August. Just talk to students in the program and see where they live in terms of distance to the school, parking, public transportation etc... They can also go check out an apartment for you if you can't get to the city to check it out for yourself. One final piece of advice. You're going to be at the PhD program for a minimum of 4 years (although I'm pretty sure that average is closer to 5.5 now). If you have the money and if the market is good, you should consider buying. Again, assuming the market is good, you'll build some, not a lot, but some equity in the house in 4-5 years which will help with a down payment for your house in your new faculty position. There are obviously risks to buying a house and you definitely need to know those and be willing to take them, but I know a lot of students who bought houses during their programs and it hasn't been bad for them. Only do this though, if you have the money, if you can find a house that will give you a mortgage payment on par or cheaper than rent in the area and if you are comfortable with the possibility that perhaps the house won't sell when you move.
  3. Good luck! Be yourself and be as calm and confident as you possibly can.
  4. It's hard right, and it doesn't get any easier. As someone who went through faculty job interviews, I will tell you that the nerves don't lessen. I've had a ton of interviews in my life between a ton of jobs, graduate school and now faculty positions. I've picked up a few tricks which may help you out. 1. Like someone else said, the interviewers want you to do well. They aren't looking for reasons that you'll fail. They want to let people in. 2. No one, and I mean absolutely no one, cares about you more than you care about yourself. I guarantee that you think the interviewers think way worse about you than they actually do. 3. You will ALWAYS do better if you are confident. ALWAYS. In every part of your life. Not over confident, but confident. And, thankfully, confidence is a self-feeding instrument. The more confident you act (regardless of how you feel) the more confident you will feel. That being said, this isn't exactly easy to act confident when you are feeling really really not confident, but hopefully the other tips I'm offering will give you just enough confidence to start the confidence chain. 4. You will not, no matter how great you are, bat a thousand. What that means is that you are going to fail. There will be schools that you don't get offers from. Once you realize that, life becomes much much easier. Maybe you didn't get an offer because you weren't good enough. Maybe you didn't get an offer because someone else was a better fit for any number of reasons that you can't control. No matter what, accepting that there is a place for you, and that you won't fit in everywhere will give you the confidence you need to do well in your interviews. This can be helped significantly with my next tip. 5. Know who you are and what your strengths and weaknesses are. Know where you actually fit. Most people are not good fits for Stanford or Chicago. Be realistic about that, it will keep you from being too disappointed when Harvard doesn't call you for an interview. Obviously, there will be schools where you think you are a perfect fit, but still won't get an interview or offer from them. At that point, I refer you back to point 4. It's going to suck and it's going to hurt when you don't get that dream school offer from the school you thought you were perfect for. Don't let my tone suggest that you shouldn't grieve when you don't get what you thought would be perfect. By all means grieve, feel your feels, but then pick yourself up. 6. The biggest tip I can give you is to act confident, until you are confident. I can't stress enough how important that really is. It will get you through so much in your life. Absolutely do not lie, but be confident that you belong in a PhD program. Good luck.
  5. Yeah, schools are reticent to post their placement rates and I would be very surprised to see any schools post information on those leaving the program. The reality is that schools don't want you thinking about leaving when you are entering a program. Asking students is a great way to get that information, way more than faculty would be willing to share. On average across all PhD programs in all fields, the last I saw the rate was somewhere around 50% actually complete programs. Reports from the Chronicle of higher education suggest that business schools are closer to 75% finishing, but again those stats are really difficult to parse out because they're based on self-reporting. The reality is also that this is really school dependent. I know schools that drop the majority of their students after the first year, and I know schools that basically will guarantee you to finish if you don't drop out yourself. Placements are a little easier to find for marketing we have the who went where survey. Now, obviously, that report is extremely biased, like grossly biased, those who do well are much more likely to respond than those who do not. But even with that being the case you can see where the students who did best in their programs ended up. It's possible that the other business fields have something similar, so check around for that. Additionally, again you can ask the current students, theoretically, they will be honest with you about the program (I hope so at least, the worst thing that could happen would be a bait and switch). Comps are best asked about after being accepted but before accepting their offer. Again, ask the students, not the faculty. They will tell you what's up.
  6. It feels great.
  7. After 8 years of graduate school, I made it to the other side. Because of anonymity I'm not going to share the school with everyone, but I'm beyond excited about it. It's in a dream location for my family and an ideal environment for my research and teaching. This forum definitely got me through the whole process of applying and even through the first few years of my program. I know I haven't posted much recently, but I still check up on the site every day. Good luck to those of you applying and to those of you in programs, keep your heads down and work hard. Further, and I can't stress this enough, a PhD is not for everyone. Leaving academia is not a failure. I know of a ton of people who left and are happier because of it. I also know of a ton of people who didn't leave and really wish they did. Industry is not a failure regardless of what you think and perhaps what your faculty will tell you. It's your life, you only get one, don't do something that makes you miserable.
  8. I probably wouldn't emphasize it. A line or two at the bottom wouldn't hurt, but it also probably wouldn't help. As far as I know, schools aren't as concerned about getability of students at the PhD level. Sure if you're an all star (i.e. already published, perfect GPA and test scores, coming from an elite undergraduate program with research experience and letters from top scholars) and you are applying to a very low ranked program, you may need some additional reasons that you would come there. Ideally, though, your letter writers will provide those reasons in addition to a line in your SOP. In my opinion, I believe that it is unlikely to inform your packet either positively or negatively. Schools just don't care that much. Good luck!
  9. Go ahead and start it. The administrators will likely pin it once they move the 2019 thread. Good luck by the way!
  10. I have heard of some people moving schools. In general, I've heard that yes you have to start over as a 1st year and take classes all over. I imagine, though, that this is program, school and person specific. Perhaps there is someone on here who has gone through the process. The people that I know who didn't pass prelims, most of them just left their programs and when back to industry.
  11. Truer words have rarely been spoken on here. All of your tier 1 and tier 2 schools will place you well.
  12. A top tier school will place you equally as well as another top tier school. Rankings only matter in terms of tiers. Go with your gut, work hard and you'll do as well at Wharton as you would at Columbia.
  13. Different schools call positions different things. RA = Research Assistant TA = Teaching Assistant PA = Project Assistant The difference between RA and PA is largely meaningless. Technically, I think, a PA is supposed to be for a specific project (and may be funded by a grant so may be specific to that project). An RA, on the other hand, technically could be for various projects. But again, it doesn't matter, it's generally a useless bureaucratic distinction. Feel free to PM me.
  14. If the school is part of the grad council (or whatever the group is called) they're supposed to let you have until April 15. That being said, they may not hold it for you. If it is your top choice go ahead and accept it just withdrawal from the rest. If there is a school you would definitely take over it, then you can roll the dice and decline it. Honestly, though, I'm sorry this happens. It's a tough situation to be put in.
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