Are you wondering how other people approach graduate school? Want to hear the ups and downs of the experience on a more personal level? Idealist.org went in search of a variety of people involved with graduate education and asked them to blog about their experiences. Check out our Idealist.org Graduate School Blog Project bloggers!

HI, I am Joyce King. I am a doctoral candidate at Capella University. I am trying to finish my dissertation and cannot get any volunteers for my dissertation. I need 10 healthy young adults who took Ritalin or Concerta in elementary school. I need to interview them twice. I cannot pay but will provide snacks. Any ideas?

Yale's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will be increasing its living stipend for doctoral students, though there will be cutbacks in other areas of the school's budget due to university-wide budgetary reductions. In addition, the school said that funding for doctoral students will increase slightly and health subsidies for students and their spouses, partners and children will be maintained.
All doctoral students will continue to receive a 12-month stipend. For 2009-10, humanities and social science students will receive a stipend of about $25,500. Science students, whose funding varies across departments, will receive proportionately similar increases in their stipends.
Last year, students in the humanities and social sciences received $20,000 for five years, marking the first time students not in the natural sciences received full 12-month funding. Science students received $27,000 to $29,000, depending on the department.
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terrina

Edited by Jeremy on February 06, 2009

I completed my MBA in 2003' after a rather long hiatus of 20 years! All in all, it was a lot of work but well worth the effort.

I am earning a PhD Dance. My degree is a both a theoretical and practical and I look forward to completing it soon! In addition I am a mom of two (2 1/2 and 7 months) and I run an organization (a cultural arts and education consultant firm)--you can imagine how busy I am--my husband is also a full time student! Its nice to see a blog like this, a place where graduate students can connect, share, and support one another!

Hello everyone! I am one of the Idealist Grad School Bloggers. I am currently a Cultural Studies MSc candidate at the University of Edinburgh. I blog about what it's like to be an international student in the UK. It's been a lot of fun! I will be finishing up this August and then hoping to do a few internships and language programs before I settle somewhere in the States.

Okay so I have both a bach and a Masters in general Psych and in the near future will be going for a phd.

I am not really doing anything in my field right now. I waitress and then I do research one day a week but now I'm ready to get out there and make my days meaningful and do the 9-5. However, I need suggestions.
- What kind of jobs can I get with just a general Psych Master's?
-What websites are there for me to look what to do from here?
-Any books anyone reccommends?

Like I have been planning to do the PhD but I also want to know what I can do with just my Master's or what other routes I can take.

Vanessa
NYC resident

AHHHHH how did you get in?? I feel like I have applied everywhere and anywhere. Everyone keeps telling me this year is super competitive because of the crap job market. Anyone have any great ideas how to make someone more competitive in this getting to grad shcool market? I have already taken up and got a second BA, going to a field school this summer, volunteered with an NGO and two other internships, what now????????

So apparently this coming year should be interesting at least, if not an all out tornado of an experience. I applied for a number of graduate school places, received my top choice, turned it down thinking that I wanted time off after graduation, received a second, and after submitting my honors thesis and graduating realized that I in fact, did not want to stop, so I have accepted the second choice school, and it is a great school, but it was a decision that I did not invest the most thought into. I had taken a year off right after my sophomore year, and did quite a bit of development work in Bangkok, so I'm not one of the students who are ready to peace out from college and never look back. The problem is that, deciding so late has mean that my M.A. in South East Asian Studies (Histories of Ethnic Conflict/Economic Development of the Region) at the School of Oriental and African Studies, is going to cost me at least $20,000.00 with an estimated cost of living for the one year program at $40,000.00! Wow right. However, it's what I love to do, and want to do, I want to start publishing chapters of my thesis, and writing for academic journals as soon as I start, basically hitting the ground running. But I'm scared that this could easily be one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made, taking out so much money for an M.A. However, I also know that it is often about converting that one year into something, or a collection of things that are great. My focus is on ethnic conflict in South East Asia, with my thesis written on the insurgency in Southern Thailand, and the region is heating up, and I want to be on top of it. It's just tough to think that in order to continue studying, so much money needs to become involved.

I'll probably post this question elsewhere, but if you were entering a one-year, M.A. program, in what is probably your favorite field of study, and that would keep you on track to your dream PhD program, and it was costing you roughly $40,000.00 to make it happen...What would you do in order to ensure that you are getting your money's worth every step of the ways? That is the question I pose to anyone reading this. I immediately think of my undergraduate years at Stanford and want to make a list of every thing I screwed up, everything I accidentally passed up, and everything I loved, and to make sure I do it with even more passion over this year. We'll see how it goes!

Additionally: Is it really all that much more difficult to publish when you are not part of an academic institution?

Thank you.
- Quincy (quincyjt@gmail.com)

I am graduate student at the University of Louisville going for my MPA/Nonprofit Management. I really enjoy graduate school so far and I think this degree with really help me in the future.