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Markerz

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  • Application Season
    2016 Fall
  • Program
    Computer Science /biomedical

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  1. I went to the visit weekend. They seemed to be saying most people who want to get funded... but nothing more concrete than that
  2. What I would worry about is this is the BEST your going to be treated since they are still courting you. Do other people there seem to be ok? Can you ask the other students about their level of interaction? if at all possible visit, if not ask for other students to talk to (or hunt em down manually)
  3. Personally I would let them know, not coming from a narcasistic asshole perspective more comming from a you guys are so great I picked you over *blank* I feel like it will make them feel better about their attractability. Not sure if it will make them value you more but the way I figured it will make everyone from the small school feel better to know. Now HOW to delive that news... I dont know. Perhaps in your acceptance. "Hey guys Im sorry it took so long to decide it was a very hard decision that came down to you vs BLANK you won. Looking forward to working with you next year! something like that?
  4. Im in a similar position. I think I am going for a supportive community and cohesive department if the research interests are still "close enough" shit happens at grad schools. You dont know how youll get along once your actually working for her, better to have a more supportive community and more options than have to spend most of your time building it. Unless you know her really really well. edit: note I am VERY interested in hearing responses to htis as well as I havent officially committed yet.
  5. I might be in a very similar position soon. How many individual profs did you talk to that you would want to send it to? I think its appropriate, especially if they invested some time in talking to you. Youll probably still be working in the same feild as them and see them at conferences or suchlike, perhaps even collaborate in some way.
  6. So I have an option of working with someone who I think might be pretty good (not best in the feild but definitely far above average) or working at a school with lots of good people (who on average by statistics might be less "good" but will have more resources) How do I judge if someone is a "rising star" kind of deal? I can look up confrence rankings on scrimjour, I can look at h indexes, but I am very very aware that I dont know whats "good". Students have mad respect for their advisors. Any ideas? My feild is Computer science but I am also trying to compere them to Computer Engineering
  7. Do you know if one week si a HARD deadline? Do you have any PIs your interested in in this program? If so I would ask to speak with them, explain you need more time to thoughroughly examine all your options and start asking quesitons. If you really have only one week to decide this will still be productive towards helping you decide. If they see yoru a serious candidate and they want you they may extend the time. I had a two week deadline. Did this and it turned into a visit in a month and no one has been pressuring me since Im hoping for another two weeks and if htey bring up the time issue again I will tell them but since they just said youll have time and didnt give me any other hard deadline Im just ignoring it till they pressure me again or I come to a decision
  8. My advice would be to ask yourself what kind of a job you want. Look around at thei kinds of jobs in the area: UCSD is near a great biotech hub, UC Davis is kinda close to the silicon valley. Im not familiar enough with the areas of the other two but look into that. Another thing you should do is try to find students to talk to in each program. Ask htem about hte atmosphere. Try to look up facebooks of the schools, clubs etc and find out if theres safe spaces or clubs and events that cater to LGBTQ communities as well as what kind of career services they offer. In fact look up each ones career services and see whats offering the most. These are all great places! Personally I visited UC davis and they seem to put a lot of effort into helping find jobs and professional development. cant speak to the other ones.
  9. It is absolutely fine to ask as long as you arent demanding. Understand that its possible that Iowa doesnt have as much resources and might not be able to generally provide this or reimburse trael expenses. Explain that this is a big decision, you are very interested and you just want to take all the factors into account and you feel that a visit would help you do just that. If you are really worried about looking like your asking for handouts then you can qualify this in your email that you would be willing to pay, you just need time and arrangements in which case you should be adressing it to those you want to meet. I wouldnt because if you offer, they wont, whereas if you dont adress it and its important, and they say no you can qualify it later. I have had huge success with this myself. A school I applied to accepted me without a visit and wanted to give me a very short deadline. These things are negotiable. Asking for a visit shows interest, if they want you they might be able to do it even if they normally dont. Funding one visit for an interested student is different from doing it for many potentially interested students.
  10. Personally, I feel that as long as you are in schools that are not unknown it shouldnt hurt you. I am by no means an expert and just as lost as you but I feel that if your in the first teir most things will be fairly similar, second tier, third tier, that is dont worry about being 1st or 3rd but worry about being in the first 20 vs the first 50 vs the first 100 or worse. If your at a fairly good program, and more importantly working with a well known and respected advisor in their feild you should get hte connections you need you jsut need to do good work and your advisor likely knows how to help advise you on what good work is. If your at a lower ranked school you will have to work harder, especially if your advisor is less knowledgeable on how to produce good work but you can still accomplish the same, you will likely have to work harder to overcome a lack of resources though.
  11. So I have been accepted to a few programs that would be wonderful. Have narrowed it down to two and am now trying to decide. I dont have to ask questions to impress faculty, more to genuinely get to know the programs and make the best decision but of course I would really like to not get off on the wrong foot. I have visited one but was vastly unprepared for the visit and was knocked off by the implication of some faculty that perhaps I chose the wrong department(ECE rather than CS where my current knowledge and interests is) so made terrible use of the visit day. Later I got accepted anyway and thinking it through I might have applied to the correct department after all. Theres seems to be a wide variety of interesting things and I dont know who I would want as my advisor there, which can be kind of scary but also gives me time to explore. The one thing I dont want is to go there only to discover that there is no one for me to work with. Also this is so far out of my current range of knowledge I am afraid of what if it turns out I am bad at/ or don't like this kind of research after all or that the culture really doesn't work for me.This school is well ranked and well known, I think around top 20 definitely top 50. In the other school the research they are doing aligns exactly with the system I am actually familiar with and have already a strong interest and fairly good background in, and I think they are doing cool stuff. Its a far lower ranked school. I am visiting soon and trying to get a feel for the school. There though I feel like I would be pigeonholing myself and while I dont worry that I wont find someone to work with, if it turns out we dont work well together I am in bigger trouble. Its hard to figure this out from limited contact. Being a smaller less regarded school I worry that I would have to fight more for my career as well. This school is probably not in the top 100 maybe not even the top 200. Though they do seem to be publishing in decent places just not often, small school, few students. Both have their own "risks" I feel like the first highly ranked school might be a "smarter" option but I also feel that the second program has a lot of resources for the particular problem that I could potentially do good work there. The first program has given me the option to conduct an additional skype interview with a member of its faculty and while this would be very helpful I am having trouble choosing and figuring out how to not step on feet. I am also not entirely sure what would be most helpful for me to know that I can present without making myself look bad. Same applies to the second program. I will get to visit a lab meeting and get to know potential lab mates as well as speak with the potential advisors but what else should I be doing/ asking to make best use of my time to gather information? Again without potentially stepping on any toes.
  12. For me its more to the effect of research fit vs everything. I have a school thats the perfect research fit for me but their ranking is terrible, 140ish or less, their location is terrible, both in terms of weather and in terms of potential job hunting later I guess they also have a nice funding package for me. On the other hand I have a much more highly ranked school with a much nicer location but I would have to work very very hard to find research in alignment with my goals. The resources are there but no one seems to be doing it.
  13. I got a simular thing attached to a very nice fellowship offer from a low ranked school. I asked my advisors what they thought and they said its a strategy often employed by low rank schools when they are pretty sure your not going to accept them cause your "too good for them" and want to cut their losses and move on to the next best quickly. It also feeds on fears that you might not get accepted to a "better" program since you havent heard back from them yet. This may or may not be simular to what you are experiencing because Im in a very different feild than management. If you are genuinely interested express that but explain that this is a big decision and as a critical future graduate student you like to have all the data and analyse it before making a decision and if you could have more time and they could give you more recourses, it helps to be specific I think. I spoke with the PIs of the lab I wanted to get into because I have a real interest in the research they are doing, research wise they are pretty much a perfect match for me, and was given nearly a month's extension and a campus visit so I can better evaluate my options. This is exactly what I wanted so I can consider my options without time pressure and make the best decision so Im pleased as punch.
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