Congrats - and, that sucks.

1. "The prof" - is that the person who's supposed to be your supervisor? Are there alternative professors who would be willing to fill in?

2. In the sciences, at least, grant applications happens on an ongoing basis.

There may be no significance in the prof being at a neighbouring university while on leave. Is he on sabbatical? Most profs on sabbatical try to get out of dodge to avoid all the daily little demands on time and focus. It could be the close by university is the most convenient, or it could be it has some particular resource. If he isn't on sabbatical, there may be more to it than that. Also, at most universities, profs who go on sabbatical are contractually obligated to return to their normal position for at least a year.

There may well be greater opportunities for funding in your second year and onward -- tuition reductions, lab instructor positions, research assistant, etc., all of which might be better than TA anyhow. Also, a lot of universities find more money in the late summer for extra TA positions out of "soft money" once it is clear exactly where the undergrad enrollments are going to pile up.

The key need here is for communication. It is perfectly reasonable for you to be talking to the department about all this -- they probably have a Graduate Advisor who can give you the drill on money etc., and the potential supervisor himself can quite likely fill you in on his whereabouts. Normally an entering PHD student already has a prospective supervisor lined up. an you visit the campus and meet some of the alternative supervisors?

(and congratulations. figure out the details and make the jump!)

k8t, congratulations on both the acceptance to the PhD program and on the very interesting approach you are taking to the Communications field. I do not think that you will have a problem because of the different background, in fact you will bring a different perspective which is what people might be looking for. I cannot say more than that because I am in a different field in sciences.

Per professor: make an appointment and talk to the prof. Tell him you want to work with him and you heard he is leaving and that you do not want to end up working with someone else. He will not lie to you. Besides he could be in a different University and still oversee your work and collaborate with you (as a member of your PhD committee).

TA-ship sucks because you spend so much time on teaching/grading/office hours that you have little time/energy to work on your thesis. Ask for the possibility of RA (research assistanceship). I would not expect my salary to increase dramatically otherwise (but keep in mind I am not in your field). You should be getting a stipend that you could live on without outside helpings. You could also talk to the prof about that (don't hesitate is very OK). You could also approach a grad student or two who could give you more relevant details than me (ask the prof to suggest a few students).

In general, be assertive and talk to people in the program you applied (oh! and remember you can always switch to a master's and go elsewhere for your phd).

I just e-mailed the 2 best alternative professors to see if I could speak with them this summer.

Thanks for all of the good ideas and good feedback on the money situation.

Breathing-breathing-breathing-breathing. :)

My usual advice about grad school is that if you have to pay you should not go. But I am in the humanities, where competition for jobs is so brutal that a PhD is no guarantee of a job and the pay if you get one is terrible. How are the job prospects in communications? How much total debt are you looking at? You are doing the right thing in talking with the professors there before making any commitments.

A good resource are the discussion boards at the Chronicle of Higher Ed: chronicle.com.

My usual advice about grad school is that if you have to pay you should not go.

Totally with you Larry. I sometimes hesitate to say that myself just because I know some fields are harder to get funding for research. But if k8t is TA-ing they should better be paying her enough. One year master's programs where you pay than being paid are OK. But not OK if you work for them. No.

also, k8t, do you have an idea what other Unis do in your field? It is easy to just ask. For comparison purposes.

Is this a standard academic want-to-be-a-prof PhD program, or is this more of a professional/technical degree? I ask because you mentioned doing work on IT. I suppose the real difference is where you plan to work when you're done.

If this is a standard academic PhD and you plan to be teaching, don't go anywhere that isn't granting you a full ride.

Paying for an advanced degree that's something more like a technical qualification doesn't necessarily seem out of line.