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jaywalker

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About jaywalker

  • Birthday 03/24/1988

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  • Yahoo
    hakim_walker88@yahoo.com
  • Skype
    CloudStrife8803

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Washington, DC
  • Application Season
    2013 Spring
  • Program
    Mathematics

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  1. 22.2%...1 PhD acceptance, 1 Masters acceptance, and 7 rejections (including my dream school). But after seeing first-hand just how competitive this process is, I am more than happy with my results! I'm also at 25% for outside fellowships (accepted to 1, rejected from 3). I fully expected this rate to be 0%.
  2. Yeah I made a profile there, and I already sent some requests. But I've only heard back from one person (who already had a roommate)...I get the feeling that a bunch of profiles there are old and inactive. So I figured I would ask here to hit a different angle. Have you used the housing site? if so, any luck?
  3. Hi everyone! I'm starting a PhD program at GWU in the fall, and I'll be moving to the DC area in August. If anyone is looking for a roommate, let me know!
  4. By the way, I just want to mention that I got rejected from my top choice today, which was obviously very upsetting. But seeing this forum really helped me to put my future back in perspective. I have an offer from a PhD program with a phenomenal outside fellowship which is paying for everything and giving me the opportunity to work for a government agency. All things considered, I really don't have much to complain about!
  5. I wish there were some kind of national convention for First-Gen/Low-Income/Minority graduate students where I can meet you all! That would be sweeeet! My parents are Jamaican immigrants who definitely come from modest means. My dad never finished high school (nor did he get his GED), and spent years of his life dealing drugs and working odd jobs. After ending up in jail, getting separated from my mom, getting kicked out of his apartment, nearly getting deported, suffering multiple nervous breakdowns, and dealing with multiple health problems, he is now living with his brother and working a minimum-wage job. My mom started college at age 17, right before getting pregnant...4 times. She finally got her BA at a community college when she was 38. Now she's an elementary school teacher, getting master's credits through a teaching fellows program. But needless to say, we all grew up in poverty...roaches, rats, hand-me-downs, cereal for dinner, eviction notices, 6 people in a one-bedroom, the whole nine. All of my siblings dropped out of college. I am still the only one of them with a bachelor's degree. I'm also the only one in my entire family to pursue a PhD, and the only one to even consider studying math. So i'm definitely the odd ball in the family. Honestly, I never felt too close to my relatives, and I took the first chance I got to move away from home. I still remember how out of place I felt in my first days of college...kids who went on happy family vacations, kids who paid tuition out of pocket, kids who owned laptops and iPods. I remember meeting one girl who had never seen a roach! But I realized that I only really felt out of place because I was defining myself by what I didn't have, instead of by what I did have. I had ambition, drive, intelligence, goals, an open mind...and those are traits that I had in common with all of my friends in college. So in the end, I had an AMAZING undergrad experience, despite working my way through school and having thousands of dollars of debt now. Even now, as nervous as I am to go into the unchartered territory that is grad school, I feel comfortable knowing that I have everything I need to get everything I want. Instead of dwelling on the somewhat discouraging messages I've received from professors and staff, i'm deeply encouraged by how far I've come, and by how far others have gone (including everyone on this thread!)
  6. It's looking like I'll also be at GW in the fall for a PhD in Math. Moving to DC will be bittersweet for me, since I LOVE the city, but I had my heart set on somewhere else. But I'll definitely be making the most of it. If anyone is looking for roommates, let me know!
  7. Thanks for the advice everyone! I've emailed the CUNY director to let him know, and he said he would be in contact with me sometime this week. Hopefully with good news...
  8. That was actually me! I still can't believe it! I'm scared that any minute now, they're gonna email me back and say "We're sorry for the mistake, and we wish you the best in your graduate studies..."
  9. If you love both programs based purely on academics, then you can't go very wrong with either one, I'd say. So I would definitely take the location into account. I've never been to San Fran, but I've lived in Boston/Cambridge for the past 7 years, and I currently work at MIT, so I'll speak on that. I think Cambridge is the better college town (perhaps the best in the nation). It has a very young 30's and under demographic...very clean, and lots of people live an active, healthy lifestyle. I'm pretty sure it's colder than San Fran on average, and we definitely have a longer winter. But I would never call this city ugly just for that reason. And we actually had a really mild winter this past season. As for the "girls" argument, MIT is actually a lot more gender-balanced than people think. Not that it matters much...you can always go elsewhere to find women. Be warned, our nightlife ends at 2am (our public transportation ends earlier)...not sure how that compares with Berkeley. Like I said, both programs sound amazing, so I wouldn't think too much about which has better academic outcomes. If you're committing to move to a city for a few years, make sure it's the right environment.
  10. Woah! I forgot one important caveat...apparently, NPSC member universities who accept NPSC fellows agree to waive tuition and fees for up to 6 years. So if I let CUNY know, they'd have to decide between accepting me and waiving everything, or just denying me.
  11. Here's the position: Last week, I got accepted to GW for a Ph.D in Math (yay!!!)...however, I'm on their wait list for funding, which means I may or may not get any support from them. Yesterday, I called CUNY (my top choice) to check the status of my application, since they haven't told me anything yet. The director basically said that I'm on the wait list for admission. About an hour ago, I got an email from the National Physical Science Consortium saying that I am being sponsored for a graduate fellowship ($20,000 a year, up to 6 years...YAY!!!) The fellowship only sponsors grad students at certain partner schools...lucky for me, both GW and CUNY are on that list. Now this is where strategy comes in... I REALLY want to get into CUNY, and I'm thinking that if I let the director know that I won this awesome fellowship, he'll be more inclined to admit me off the wait list. BUT, that might also make them less likely to give me funding from the school (I hear CUNY is notorious for bad funding). And NPSC's award by itself won't be nearly enough for me to survive in NYC. On the other hand, if I don't let the director know, I might not get into CUNY at all, and I'll be forced to go to GW, who might also be stingy with money. So the question is: do I play my hand and tell CUNY, or wait and see what the dealer gives me? Any advice would be much appreciated!
  12. Did anyone here apply for this fellowship this year? Has anyone heard anything from them yet?
  13. I think the word "science" is the 2nd most popular...it has 27,084. Can you find the most popular city? My guess is New York with about 5,000.
  14. Rejected as well, though not unexpected. Congrats to all the winners...to the victors go the spoils!
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