DorisDad

I see that you decided to attend UW-Madison. I cannot stress enough how awesome Madison is. It's surrounded by lakes, there's all kinds of bike trails, and there are great state parks to hike at. You'll probably have to drive a bit to get to any really good backpacking, but the Porcupine mountains in Michigan are fantastic. Madison probably doesn't have the music scene/extremely broad nightlife that Minneapolis has, but there is still a pretty good scene for graduate students. Thanks to the capitol, there are a lot of young professionals in the downtown area, which keeps it from being totally overrun by undergrads (if that's not your thing). I did my undergrad in Madison, and I'm actually going to be attending Seattle, and I felt like the atmosphere in both places was very similar. The student body is generally a pretty active and involved group. Good luck!

I've been on a couple official visits to departments this year, and I was actually pretty surprised at the number of non-EE admits there were. In the program that I am probably going to go to (University of Washington- pretty highly ranked and competitive), there were EE, ME, EP, Physics, Mathematics, and many other majors that were admitted.

My first questions is this: Where are you from? I've lived in Madison, and I've visited Minneapolis a whole lot, so I can give you some idea what the cities are like.

I emailed Wisconsin this morning, and they got back to me just now saying they were still working on funding. Oof.

Still waiting on Michigan (doubt I'm getting in, since I've seen the cluster of Master's, no funding go out), Oregon State, and Cal-Irvine. Accepted Wisconsin, Washington, and Iowa State. At least Berkeley had the good graces to reject me early...

Thanks for the input. In regards to Madison funding, I was there last week. The admissions chair told me they would have funding offers sorted out this week or next week, so hopefully they'll be sending them out soon. How much you are willing to trust a university to stay on schedule is, however, another matter entirely. EDIT: Also, even with a visit, I had a hard time getting professors to talk to me- and everyone else I've talked to has said the same thing. You're not alone!

So, I've been accepted to three Electrical Engineering graduate programs. Generally, I'm interested in renewable energy/power electronics. Here's the schools I've been accepted to: University of Washington - Seattle (Master's, TA offer @20 hrs per week, $1650 per month, full tuition). University of Wisconsin - Madison (Master's, on visit day the head of the admissions committee guaranteed me funding, but wasn't sure what type). Iowa State - I was accepted to their Wind Energy Science, Engineering, and Policy Ph.D program with an NSF IGERT fellowship (full tuition, 30k per year) for 2.5 years and an RAship for 2.5 years. I've been rejected from Berkeley, and have yet to hear back from Michigan (Ph.D), Oregon State (Masters), and Cal-Irvine (Masters). I'm assuming I've been rejected from those three as well, although I may be admitted to Michigan's Masters program with no funding (which they seem to do fairly frequently). Currently, I'm thinking that I will end up getting my Ph.D, even in the programs for which I've only applied for a masters. Here's the rub: I have a partner that I've been with for 5 years, and she's committed to following me wherever I want to go. We both did our undergraduate degrees in Madison, so we know what Wisconsin is like, and we've lived in a small town (10k people) for the last 4 years. We've really been looking forward to the west coast- I know she really likes Seattle. I, too, really like Seattle- basically, the quality of life and personal fit is off the charts. However, Iowa State offered me a load of money and the prestige of an NSF fellowship. I've never been to Ames (visiting next week), but I would hate to live in a smallish town for another 5-7 years. They are also generally lower in the "prestige" category as a school, especially when compared to... UW-Madison. Don't get me wrong, I love Madison. But I was kind of looking forward to starting over somewhere new and exploring new areas of the country (I've lived in the midwest my whole life). However, there's no denying the fact that WEMPEC and the Power Electronics group in Madison is outstanding. I know there's no one who can make the decision but me, but I was wondering if you guys had any thoughts on this situation: Is a fellowship at a normally third-choice school too good to turn down? (Iowa State) Is the prestige of a school (Madison) really all that important)? Can I be happy with less money in a more expensive city, doing research that isn't EXACTLY what I'm into (Seattle group does work in power system optimization, I'm more interested in hands-on stuff), as long as I love everything else? I wish ONE place had EVERYTHING I wanted, but it looks as though I'll have to decide among competing values.