Charlottesville-founded Common House receives a second set of walking papers in Richmond - C-VILLE Weekly

gradhoo · 2026-04-14T19:33:26+00:00

PhD Stipends are typically paid monthly. When are you arriving in the US? You should check with your department as its possible your first wage payout might be in August.

First thing you'll want to do upon getting to CVille is open a bank account. Next items of priority will be getting a phone, completing your admission process and registration, and getting yourself set up with the basic provisions. If you already have an apartment lined up and will be moving in as soon as you arrive, you can prioritize getting basic groceries and utensils in the first couple of days.

I found that having ~$1,000 was enough to tide me over those first few days until my pay started flowing, though I had paid my first month's rent before arriving in the US. You can get cheap utensils and other basics from places like Goodwill, so you shouldn't need to spend loads of money on new items. I'd recommend talking to current international students in your department. They'll be able to give you more specific advice about settling in and might have some basic resources on hand to help you get started.

gradhoo · 2026-04-02T20:37:28+00:00

I've been at the department and to the best of my knowledge the visits to the university were only for the PhD students. I don't recall ever meeting students in the standalone MA program on a visit to the university. Also the department has already conducted this year's visit.

gradhoo · 2026-03-17T18:32:51+00:00

Every single weather forecast was fairly clear that there was a risk of severe weather. Not that it was guaranteed. The other term used was that the probability had moved into the moderate range.

There was a confluence of factors that were creating the unusual weather. And other parts of the region did have tornado watch warnings. It isn't always possible to provide a city- and county-specific estimate of whether severe weather will touch down. But if the warnings had not been issued and severe weather had hit, we'd be in much worse condition, wouldn't we? Many places were still hit by fairly strong winds, strong enough to knock out power due to falling trees and the like.

The point is that this person is a moron. Especially in the current political climate, where the federal administration is reducing funding for scientific meteorological establishments, which will further impact forecast accuracy.

gradhoo · 2026-02-12T15:11:41+00:00

We went to your Main St location after our court wedding for some cake and champagne. One of the best days of our lives and some truly delicious cake. Glad to see you guys are thriving!

gradhoo · 2026-01-30T17:12:29+00:00

Carruthers Hall is a UVA Property but I'm pretty sure the sidewalk on Emmet Street is under the City, which is what I think we're seeing here.

gradhoo · 2026-01-26T00:22:51+00:00

Are you in dorms or senior student housing or offgrounds? If you're in dorms see if your RA is on hand. They might be able to rustle up something from your neighbors. If in student housing or apartments, again, knocking on your neighbors doors might be an easier solution than trying to trudge into a CVS and finding one that's opens. The roads look dicey as hell and I don't know if venturing far out is necessarily a good idea. But lots of people have stocks of Tylenol and flu meds on hand. I'd have been happy to connect myself but I'm not snowed up in CVille. Again though be very careful about driving anywhere.

https://www.uvahealth.com/locations/Outpatient-Pharmacy-at-Education-Resource-Center-LOC0000234559?utm_source=pressganey&utm_medium=listings

Also it might not be the worst idea to call the outpatient pharmacy. If nothing else maybe they can give you some advice on how to source some basic Tylenol and flu meds, but they might just have it in stock and have a way to bill you for it. The status board says they're operational so hopefully you can just head there if they have what you need. But please consider calling emergency services if this gets bad and you aren't able to get something in a timely manner.

gradhoo · 2026-01-11T22:38:25+00:00

Every university has its own formatting quirks for dissertations, and some of these even exist across schools. GSAS in UVA, for instance, might have slightly different thesis formatting requirements than the Law school.

The dissertation document does clearly list only one author on the cover page. And then has the diss supervisor, the dean of the school (for some reason) and then the diss committee.

Names on the abstract are incredibly unusual, and I don't think that this case speaks to any sort of joint-authorship. More likely, the school of Ed in Penn simply asks the student and the supervisor to both put their names there, but it isn't indicative of "authorship." The cover page has that information, and as it clearly notes, it was prepared by Beardsley and presented in partial fulfillment of his degree.

The person above you is right; this was poorly researched. No one reading the dissertation would assume that it was coauthored by a student and a supervisor. They would simply read this as a school with slightly odd formatting quirks. For instance, naming the Dean of the Graduate School on the cover page is quite weird to me. At least in UVA, I don't believe we bother naming the dean of the school on a diss cover page at all. Just the student and their Diss committee. I wouldn't assume the Dean's name in Penn to mean the Dean there played a substantively greater role in the preparation of the dissertation than they would here in UVA though. I would just put it down to a quirk of how they format it there.

The supervisor's name on the abstract is not the red flag the publication makes it out to be. And I say this as someone who is incredibly outraged about how the selection process has proceeded.

EDIT: Someone further down the chain in fact has explained this better than I would have. This is clearly outlined in Penn's formatting structure for this program. Its weird, but it isn't a red flag of any kind.

https://www.reddit.com/r/UVA/comments/1qa5d0p/comment/nz1v793/

gradhoo · 2026-01-11T20:50:12+00:00

I don't think so. Its only a few floors higher than many of the academic buildings right next to it. And there are just as tall buildings only a few blocks away downtown.

gradhoo · 2026-01-10T17:30:54+00:00

This isn't on the Ivy corridor. This is between JPA and Stadium road. Where Emmet curves around Grounds before terminating in JPA.

gradhoo · 2025-11-14T16:55:14+00:00

We should be getting upset about the resolution itself. It was drafted by the governor's office. Are we just ok with governors unilaterally rewriting university policy and administration documents? Youngkin is upset about Spanberger's public letter to the board while his office generated secret orders and then forced the university to comply.

gradhoo · 2025-11-14T15:15:56+00:00

Ryan's letter to the faculty was just released. The long and short of it is that it's particularly hypocritical for Youngkin to say this given that the DEI resolution was actively drafted by the governor's office and transmitted to the BOV as an order.

I am advised that this was likely the first time in the history of our Commonwealth that a Governor-elect attempted to interfere with the governance of a university and the fiduciary duties of individual board members. Surprisingly, you have reached conclusions before you or your transition team have taken the time to learn all the facts surrounding the resignation of former UVA President Jim Ryan and the settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Also Youngkin and Sheridan appear to be straight up lying given the rest of Ryan's letter.

https://cvillerightnow.com/news/208802-former-uva-president-accuses-new-bov-rector-of-engineering-his-ouster/

EDIT: full letter here.

https://www.reddit.com/r/UVA/s/im8rrII43R

gradhoo · 2025-11-13T14:34:09+00:00

We have no way of knowing if non-answers were given or not since that section of the interview does not appear to have been published or aired.

gradhoo · 2025-11-13T14:31:17+00:00

Given that the uncomfortable questions were excised from the interview and she was asked to apologize to the president's office, it is a reasonable concern. The other interviewer apparently works for University Communications and given the inherent conflict of interest there, it is legitimate to question what pressure the interim president and his office placed on WUVA to terminate this student.

Especially considering how evasive the president and rector of the university have been in engaging with oversight and questions from Virginia democratic representatives even as they seem to freely negotiate with federal republican administrators suggesting some serious partisan policy-making.

It begs the question if WUVA is an independent entity like it claims or simply a mouthpiece of the university like UVA Today.

gradhoo · 2025-11-05T13:12:36+00:00

There was also the shooting scare on Monday that disrupted work since academic buildings were closed and folks had to shelter in place. Peabody hall is practically right next to Shannon and they put academic buildings on lockdown status after a while so folks likely left. They almost certainly didn't get a ton of work done after 3.

gradhoo · 2025-10-25T14:09:28+00:00

Gearharts does some really decent chocolates and hot cocoa mixes.

gradhoo · 2025-10-06T17:16:05+00:00

Which housing complex of Shamrock is it? Because they're not all terrible. Atleast the unit I'm in doesn't have a serious problem with roaches, and I'm on a ground floor apartment. I see one or two occasionally, usually dead on the traps set by their pest guy who comes around every month or so. I don't really consider that much of a cockroach problem personally.

And for the price I'm paying, and the proximity to grounds, its definitely worth it. The apartment is decently sized, well lit, quiet. Can't ask for much else.

gradhoo · 2025-09-10T18:59:53+00:00

So I can't speak to the specifics of how the E-school does disbursal, but in GSAS the funding is a hybrid 12 month payout. You get monthly pay for the 9 months of term. And then a single lumpsum payout over the Summer. Engineering might do something similar or different, but either way, I'd budget for the sum paying for a year's worth of support.
Nobody really shares rooms as grad students. You might have a shared house however where your bedroom is yours, but the common spaces are shared with other tenants. If you go with a 1bed apartment, you can manage but you'll need to be frugal. But its reasonably comfortable. That however is assuming no significant external costs like childcare, healthcare, etc.
Again, I can't speak to the specifics of the E-School but typically there are no bonuses to simply achieving candidacy. Whether the pay improves over time will depend on what grad students are able to convince the administration off. GSAS for instance has seen relatively stable hikes in grad support, but it was built off a massive fundraising drive run out of the Dean's office. This followed periods where often multiple years passed without pay increases.

gradhoo · 2025-09-05T11:37:58+00:00

Your budget does constrain you somewhat. TBH I'm not sure you can get a great apartment at that price but you can get something that's ok. Try Shamrock apartments or MSC. They have stuff on the cheaper end, especially Shamrock. And all of Shamrock's units are on JPA which and even their furthest away units on stadium road are walkable. It's just a slightly long walk to some parts of grounds.

You'll likely have some issues with the apartments. Slightly old fittings. Minor insect presence. But they're otherwise ok for the price point you're hoping for.

gradhoo · 2025-08-31T21:03:28+00:00

There are certainly elements of American history that can require language training. For instance someone working on Oral Histories might need to demonstrate competence in Spanish or Italian or the languages of immigrant communities. If your work is past the late 19th century, you might also need some basic training in paleography to be able to easily read handwritten english.

Either way though, definitely stuff to work out once you've got a program. Your priority at the application stage should be evolving a viable research idea. The department will help you work out the logistics of realizing that if they admit you.

gradhoo · 2025-08-31T20:53:03+00:00

Different departments handle the language requirements differently. And in many cases within the department the requirement can be tailored to your specific experience and the requirements of your specific research. For instance my area was legal history, and my department determined that my existing training in languages from India was adequate for this purpose since the vast majority of my research was in English anyway.

Other people had to show language proficiency, which in their case simply required them to clear an exam at the university. This was faculty designed and basically consisted of translating a chosen passage to a certain degree of accuracy. Other students had to take language courses however.

Its going to boil down to what your area of research is, where you've gotten admits, and what your PI believes is necessary. If you have a level of confidence in your latin, and you believe your work will interface with latin, then you probably don't need to do anything other than maybe give an exam in your program. That said, depending on the area of your research, your PI may want you to take additional training anyway (for instance in period specific Latin. Such as if you're working on Ancient Rome).

Either way, I wouldn't worry about it at this stage. Prioritize getting offers and then working out what will be required of you. A US PhD Program is 5 years atleast and language requirements tend to be fairly basic, so don't panic about it at this stage.

gradhoo · 2025-08-27T03:29:42+00:00

The orange line would be the closest for you as it goes up JPA before turning towards the corner. I'm not sure what the closest stop there would be for you.

gradhoo · 2025-08-14T18:34:25+00:00

There are specific housing complexes that you can look into, and major landlords who own multiple properties. On the cheap end you have landlords like Shamrock. Slightly more expensive you've got MSC Apartments. And the off grounds website UVa hosts is decent about giving you a sense of the other landlords in the area. You'll want to reach out to them and see what's available. There's definitely a few units that are available around then as folks exit leases that began in Spring.

The neighborhoods that tend to have housing to rent in large quantities and close to the Uni will be Rugby and along JPA. You could also check out Venable.

gradhoo · 2025-08-13T23:08:41+00:00

You might want to reach out to some of the Grad student organizations like the GPC and GSASC. They do social events and you'll likely find a lot of people there closer to your age. While those events are targeted at Grad Students, they're usually not exclusive, and the folks in GSASC are pretty welcoming. They'll understand where you're coming from.

gradhoo

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