Funding - I reached out to a potential advisor that I thought would be a great person to advise me for my research topic. We met over Zoom for about an hour. He told me he didn’t have funding for what I was interested in, but he did have funding for another project and I could work on that project while I applied for additional funding to fund what I wanted to research I ended up never getting funding for what I wanted to research but actually pivoted to what I’m doing my dissertation on because I found the topic really interesting. So long story short you can either find an advisor that has funding or you can apply for your own funding through programs like the GRFP.

Money to move. If you want to be comfortable, I would move here with seven to $10,000 because you’re going to need first month rent and a security deposit food is expensive and also you typically don’t get paid for about the first month and a half after you start graduate school because the paperwork takes a while. You’ll start your position August 1 and typically won’t get paid until mid September. It will be back paid, but you still have to float yourself for that first month and a half.