space.cadet

I'd recommend reading this article.

Anyone else going to UO in the fall? I'll be doing and MS in geography. I'm moving from Michigan, the trip should be a bit of an adventure.

Most departments divide their department into three or four sub-disciplines: Human geography, Physical geography, Human-Environmental Interaction, and sometimes GIScience. They, of course, all overlap to a great extent and are internally heterogeneous, but it sounds like you are leaning towards human-environment. Depending on what exactly you want to do, you'll probably want to take some GIS courses, as its a strong methodological tool for any quantitative studies. Feel free to PM me if you have any more specific questions.

Jahilyya, your options are far from limited. A large portion, possibly even the majority of academic geographers come from other fields. History is closely tied with geography (it has its own sub-field), and your experience abroad will surely be helpful. You will likely have to take some undergrad courses to catch up on the basics, but that should be expected when switching fields in any discipline. What area of geography would you like to study? I can try to help point you in the right direction. Starting with an MA might be a good idea, but it is by no means necessary or terminal.

In the nine schools I have applied to, I have been accepted to three schools without funding, and am on one wait list (I still have to hear back from one school). When notifying me that I'm waitlisted, the secretary implied that after the April 15 deadline, they'd take any offers that have been declined by other students and bring them back to the pool. I want to avoid the situation where I bit the bullet and decide to pay for a master's program at one of my schools I've been accepted to, only to get offered funding after April 15 by my waitlisted school. Would there be any legal with accepting from unfunded school with the intention of dropping out (and forfeiting a deposit) if I get a funded offer elsewhere?

I still haven't hear anything from Boston University, Oregon State, or Boulder (Masters for all three). Other than a few PhD acceptances from CU, there doesn't seem to be much on the survey about any of these programs. Has anyone else heard anything? At this point not hearing anything seems to be bad news...

What school is it? Most schools have signed an agreement not to set a deadline for decisions before April 15. Sometimes the faculty don't know this, so it'd be good to find out and let them know. Otherwise, you might lose a deposit, but like MediaMom said, they can't force you to go.

I would e-mail them and remind them they their school has signed the document. I had a friend who was in a similar situation, and it turns out the department didn't know it was supposed to abide by these rules.

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Haha, regarding the last post on the survey results. Guy/gal sure has the humility of a top-teir university faculty already!