merrysoprano

Congratulations, lovely folks!!! I am so, so excited for you. I'm calling admitted AIE students on Tuesday (so I had a feeling you all would hear today)! So excited to hear from you all!

If you'd like added evidence that the application is holistic: my GRE quantitative score was in the... uh... 39th? percentile. Oh, dear. And I still got in! (Edit, because I just looked it up: 37th percentile, actually!)

This process absolutely plays with our emotions. It's a big step in a lot of ways. And I think that's even more evident for a school like HGSE, where the majority of incoming students are leaving, however temporarily, their established lives (jobs and significant others and homes, oh my!). Hugs. We will be there soon. It will get better.

I am not doing a higher ed program, but the biggest piece of advice I can give is to find out as much about your program from the people directly involved with your program as you can! Email professors and program coordinators (they're the best!) and current/past students. Program coordinators are often a nice place to start since they can point you to other people who might be more tailored to your interest. Twofold benefit: they get to know you, and you get to know the program and its fit for you better.

Two months, guys!!!

I am happy to help organize meetup 2.0 as penance for missing the first one!

IMO, I think POLS sounds like a better fit for you. You won't make a wrong decision, and HGSE certainly will shine up a CV just like POLS will, but the research project can probably only help you for future PHD hopes. Also, I mean, it's closer to your family, and you like the weather more, and those count for a LOT in my book. I dunno. Boston weather is brutal in the winter, y'know? I don't think that's superficial at all if California weather is more your style (especially since Boston weather is pretty much the opposite). This is all totally my speculation, of course!

Hii! Oh man, what a weekend. First - oh my god, I am so sorry I missed the meetup! Got out of a realty appointment suuuper late. Just sitting in the office without wifi... and waaaiting... and waaaiting... and then it was 4PM. (But at least there was an apartment gotten out of it!) But I bet you wonderful souls had tons of fun. We should absolutely do another one in August! (I'll be there before orientation starts, probably earlier in the summer, if other people are here too and want to meet up! Can't wait to explore.) And admitted students day was so fun! Haha. I think I saw sunshinegrl! I was trying to not-creepily stalk out Gradcafers too. I am glad I was not alone in this. Seriously amazing weekend though. Loved the AIE session, and all of the awesome people that I met, and the bright purple Harvard sweatshirt that I bought, and... yeah.

Sitting in the Coop right now... Hello, Harvard Square. Cannot stop grinning.

Thanks for all the loans advice and support, thread! It is daunting but all of your posts help a lot! Haha, same deal here. I just went overboard last week and got a few new dresses, and whenever I get something new, I have to wear it ASAP. Cramming in all the clothes. On another note... My flight leaves in five hours. Excited! And also a little nervous... I'm still pretty new to flying. Deep breaths.

Best of luck to all Fall 2014 applicants! We Fall 2013ers are getting ducks lined up in a row for grad school as we type and send good vibes your way. By the way, to future GradCafers who will read this thread and past threads: the HGSE newsletter that comes a day (or a few days) before your decisions are anticipated has nothing to do with your admission decision. I didn't get that newsletter and was utterly convinced that I'd been rejected, but I got in! Just to save you a little bit of worrying, haha. It's the little things that get you when you're waiting to find out where you get in!

Got about the same as CQE. Fingers crossed, all! You're going to end up at amazing places no matter what.

Oh man, I keep forgetting about One Harvard, haha. Some of the schedule seemed redundant with the HGSE weekend, so I need to figure out if I want to go to any of it. Saturday lunch might be nice for a meetup!

It's next weekend! Definitely not too soon.

YOU ARE AWESOME. Thank you!!! Joining right now. I'll do the same!

I believe that spots in GSAS housing are pretty limited for HGSE students as well. Only a handful are placed there. I think they might place people by home location, though, and the people who live farthest from HGSE are placed first, so GSAS might well work out for you, sharanya89! (I might be making this up. But I feel like I remember reading that one's geographic location coming to HGSE affected one's GSAS housing.)

VICTORY! You going to go for it, Bro DiMaggio (where have you gone, Bro DiMaggio? our nation turns its lonely eyes to you! now I'm going to sing Mrs. Robinson all day long)? I've been thinking about creating a HGSE 2014 group or an AIE group too but I've just been too scared of not knowing anyone else so I'd be the only one there, haha. I think you can set it so that any already-existing member can approve membership, which is sort of a nice compromise between everyone and one administrator.

Yeah, I've been looking into some of the FEP stuff, too. Sort of hoping to get an internship at one of the nearby museums (Harvard has like ten gazillion alone)! But I want to be involved with so much at HGSE, ay. I just can't wait. (By the way: any other AIE people? haven't met any yet, but hi if you are out there!)

soon enough! Hahvahd soon enough. my undergrad alma mater's colors were garnet and gray, so all the garnet stuff goes nicely. By the way, my mom ended up surprising me with the HGSE tee I posted a few pages back - it's wonderful! so cozy! I recommend it. It runs large, so order a size down, but it's otherwise mahvelous! Thank you so much! You're awesome!

It will be worth it. Just think about how you felt when you got that HGSE letter! I think we hear any time between mid and end of March. I figure by March 25, maybe? Since that's their big date.

Ahhh! So much wonderful information and vibes from this thread right now. Even though I'm not EPM, alliknits, I still found your information incredibly exciting and helpful! By the way, I've been doing some B&B hunting and the general vibe that I've gotten is that many of them are already booked up, but most people have told me to call back later in the week because they've hinted at cancellations. So call directly! I was originally just using the websites to check reservations. Drinking from my Harvard mug all the time now. It just makes me smile. I got it as a joke a few years ago and was afraid to drink from it for most of January and February lest I jinx something... edit: my mom just sent me this! http://www.studyboston.com/book-a-hotel.html

I think it varies. They say on their website that they try to be comparable to off-campus apartments. http://www.huhousing.harvard.edu/HarvardUniversityHousing/index.aspx http://www.huhousing.harvard.edu/documentmanager/rent_ranges1.pdf

Research is just so satisfying, haha! All that beautiful information. My mom really wants me to apply for housing through HUH, but since I'll likely be with some non-HGSE people, I probably will just look for leases through HGSE people, friends in the area (I'll keep everyone posted if any friends have leases up! lots of Swarthmore grads end up flitting in and out of Boston so chances are good), and padmapper.com. The HUH off-campus site looks helpful, too - better than most university classified sites, at a glance. I'm also going to look for an awesome tea or coffee shop to curl up and do work in. High priorities here, haha.

This is all such great info! I wish I could upvote it more than once. I made a whole bunch of apartment hunting docs yesterday, haha, and started making an apartment wishlist... I'm getting carried away. I'm hoping to be in Boston for a few years, so I suppose it'll be worth it! I think it'd be worth it... hmm. Cheap hotels. Or stay with a student (I saw people did that on last year's HGSE thread, great tip by EdYouKateOr). I have stayed at the Boston Buckminster before, which is closer to the Fenway, but is fairly cheap. http://www.bostonhotelbuckminster.com/reservations2.html Looks like there's a handful of Courtyards around the city so Marriott rewards'll come in handy!

Sounds like it was for the Higher Ed Cool Kids.