Campus visits are important because…

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Photo taken from: http://www.iub.edu/about/tour/

Photo taken from: http://www.iub.edu/about/tour/

1)   You feel it; yes there is a feel to a campus that you will only get from walking around, tasting the local food, and seeing and visualizing your new living space

2)   Your questions will be answered; On your visit you can talk to grad students, faculty and administrators.

Photo taken from iugradschool.blogspot.com

Photo taken from iugradschool.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3)   It will be home; And that home needs to be conducive to learning, working, and playing.

IU Campus View Apartments Taken from http://www.rps.indiana.edu/campusviewapartments.cfml

IU Campus View Apartments
Taken from www.rps.indiana.edu/campusviewapartments.cfml

However, if for whatever reason you still can’t make the campus visit there is always an alternative. Check out Campus Tours, where you can take thousands of virtual campus tours. 

Happy touring!

Living within the means of your new life as a grad

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Yikes!! Reality can be painful but completely doable.  If you’ve been out in the workforce this return to school will require adjustment to your usual spending habits.

Here are some ideas on reducing costs:

-Housing: Do share the cost and get some roommates.  The Indiana Daily Student (IDS) has its very own housing guide to get you started.  To furnish your place check out Freecycle Network, a website dedicated to saving good furniture and household items from being thrown away and keeping you furnished for free.

-Food: Do cook; and if you don’t know how check out these blogs

Clearly Delicious        The Graduate Student Food Blog            Frugal Cooking

-Entertaining: Do get creative and check out all the free events on campus, there is always something going on.

Happenings Calendar                    Bloomington: Things to Do

-Car: On a campus like IU, you don’t need a car.  You have the campus bus which takes you to major shopping areas, the city bus which  has various campus routes and connects you to the rest of Bloomington. If you need a car you can always rent one from zip car, or get on one of the various shuttles to get to the Indianapolis airport.

Depending on what your income looks like now, the sacrifices may seem many but remember this is temporary and from my perspective well worth it!

 

 

Graduate Assistantships and Portable Funding

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Funding graduate school

Finding funding is an integral experience of most graduate students’ post-baccalaureate endeavors. The majority of funded graduate students earn appointments as graduate assistants. In fact, some programs will not admit a student unless they secure a graduate assistant position. Similar to most other job searches, many graduate assistant positions require an application, record of previous employment, statement of skills, and an interview. GA positions, as they are commonly called, frequently appear in job listings as teaching appointments (as associate instructor or an adjunct), administrative work in a campus office, or research. Graduate Assistantships are often institution specific, some are even departmentally assigned. (For help finding Assistantships at IU, visit or contact the GradGrants center http://www.indiana.edu/~gradgrnt/ .)

A more flexible, and accordingly much more competitive, source of funding exist as portable funding. Portable funding refers to financial assistance that is not tied to a specific institution and thus may be used at any institution accepting the funding.

See the following list of websites to find and further explain portable funding:
* US News & World Report – http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-graduate-schools/paying
* Grad schools website has a page dedicated to portable funding – http://www.gradschools.com/article-detail/graduate-fellowships-1676
* The National Science Foundation offers multiple fellowships each year – http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=12759

Spring has sprung!! Well….kinda.

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Hello everybody! Today is the first day of spring! As a southerner, and person who believes in minimum 45 degree weather, I am thrilled that winter is coming to a close. I personally prefer Bloomington in the spring and fall. Mother Nature puts on a show with an array of flowers, colors, sweet smells, and sunshine. However, I can live without the bugs…but I guess we need them for pollination…oh well.

If you are interested in coming and visiting Bloomington, the perfect time is right around the corner. Come up, make some new friends, and enjoy what the city has to offer. My favorite activities are the Farmer’s Market, Taste of Bloomington (a summer event, but start deciding which restaurants you want to try now), an IU Softball game, or you can just take a walk around campus.

That’s all for me folks….Have a springy day! :)

Living within your means

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Picture taking from Google images

This post hits home for me (*gets on soap box*). In America we have a major problem with the Joneses. They (the Joneses) buy something, and then something within our nature compels us to try and keep up with them. Even though as a family their net income is five times our gross income. That doesn’t matter, if we don’t keep up with them we feel less than, unimportant, or incomplete. It is truly a sad state of affairs, when our self worth is attached to what we own or what we can (or cannot purchase). But do not despair, there is hope! (*steps off soap box*)

As a grad student you can live within your means provided you plan ahead. The easiest thing to do is to create a budget. This is fairly easy to do. I would recommend using Mint.com. The software enables you to track your spending and analyze your purchasing habits. But making a budget is not enough, you must follow it.

In addition to using mint, I also keep a simple ledger where I personally track my spending each month. I use an excel spreadsheet to balance my checkbook. It’s not perfect but it helps me stay within my means. And believe it or not because I have balanced my budget in grad school, I have not had to take out any loans. I will graduate with my PhD without borrowing any money. You can do it too. All you have to do is plan.

The FTOD is make a budget and follow it. Simple to say but hard to do, but worth it in the end. Be well friends!

Living on a graduate stipend

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Get a loan.
Unless you’ve worked full-time and stored up a considerable amount of savings, then you will more than likely need a loan to supplement your graduate assistantship. Some positions pay better than others. My assistantship as a ten month associate instructor is pretty common for doctoral students. The assistantship allows for a 97% fee remission for up to 12 credit hours in the Fall, 12 credit hours for the Spring, and 6 hours for the summer. Thus, 3% of the fees is still mine to cover. To help pay for that portion of tuition fees and help with living costs, I get a stipend that covers, just barely, the rent, food, and personal bills. During the Fall and Spring, the stipend is enough for just living, but not exactly enough for books and going out; moreover, it is no help at all in the summer. In which case, graduate students do a scramble every summer to find work for the two months we’re unemployed. It can be difficult, but doable. To survive the summer, I teach math for Upward Bound high school students and serve as a counselor for any other summer program I can find on campus. Additionally, I room with two other graduate students to keep the cost of living low. To avoid such hardships, most other graduate students get loans and live comfortably.

Campus internationalization

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Internationalization is both an internal and external phenomenon for higher education institutions.  Because of our globalized world economy and the increase in international opportunities, this impacts everyone no matter their interests of study and research.  Whether or not you study physics, education, law, business, or psychology, our worlds are becoming more and more international.  That is why it is important to consider how international your institution is when deciding where to attend.

IU is international.  Along with its international strategic plan and its new School of Global and International Studies, IU’s alumni reach all corners of the world.  The programs here allow for study, research, and travel abroad to learn about your area of discipline in another country.  Experiences like these can only help you in your pursuit for a job.

Campus visits are important!

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Now that everything is submitted, it is now time to wait for responses. It is important to keep in mind that rejection letters are inevitable. Don’t let them get you down. There are many options out there, and it is not the end of the world.

However, you should still be proactive in the meantime while you are waiting. Do you yet know your list of preferred schools and why you want to attend them? Have you visited them? Visiting an institution and getting the “feel” to what it is like to be there will help you make a decision and not regret it later. Each institution is different. The campus life, environment, and structure can be a huge impact on how you will enjoy spending years there. Do you like big cities? Small college towns? A scenic campus to walk through? Visit, visit, visit! Visit IU by emailing us at emissary@indiana.edu! I hope to meet you at IU! GO HOOSIERS!