PittPanther13
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Posts posted by PittPanther13
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Turns out I had reason to worry.... I went 0 for 6 in applications, even getting rejected from my current school. How did this happen?
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I visited Berkeley on Monday just because I was in town and spoke to the student services coordinator, and they are still working on sending out decisions, so I think there's still some hope for everyone
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I've seen several rejections in two waves, and one very early admission on the results list.
Anyone had any news since late February? Anyone who got admitted so far?
Hello, I go to Pitt now and am finishing up my masters for biostat, and they're still making decisions on the PhD students. I spoke to the person in charge and it should be any day now that they let us know. Especially since the students are on spring break so it gives the professors more time to meet.
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Hi! I'm in the opposite situation as you: I live in Pittsburgh and I am likely moving to Boston in the summer/fall for grad school.
I can repeat what everyone else has said in here: Pittsburgh is a totally affordable city on a graduate stipend, especially compared to Boston. I am in total sticker shock just looking at the cost of living in Boston!
As for neighborhoods to live in, I would definitely recommend either Shadyside or Squirrel Hill. Most graduate students live in one or the other. Shadyside is definitely more upscale and has nicer shopping and bars, but Squirrel Hill is a little cheaper and if you live anywhere near Murray Ave, you can walk to the grocery store and there are other shops on that road as well. Regent Square is also a nice area, but way more residential -- not as many students. I'd stay as far away as possible from South Side/The Slopes. South Side is basically a huge bar area and so if you value privacy and the quiet, it isn't that great of an area as a graduate student. Oakland is okay, but it's also become really populated with undergraduates so there is a ton of noise and partying there all the time. Fun for a Friday night, but not so much for a place to live.
I moved here last August from the suburbs and were it not for needing to move to attend a different program, I would definitely stay here. If you are planning on attending Pitt or CMU, riding the bus is free which is super nice. I don't really consider Pittsburgh a city in the way that I do New York, Chicago, or Boston. It feels more like a ton of different neighborhoods right on top of each other, each with its own ethos.
If you do plan to visit, don't plan on spending much time downtown. It's basically a big business area with a few nice/upscale restaurants. When I first visited and only saw downtown, I thought I was moving to the most boring place on the planet.
Also, everyone will tell you that when you get to Pittsburgh, you need to eat a sandwich at Primanti's. I'd skip that and just go straight to Fat Heads in South Side. Primanti's is a big touristy place and all, but really it's just a sandwich with fries and coleslaw on top. Plus, if you like beer, Fat Heads has 42 on tap! D's Six Packs and Dogs in Regent Square is another hidden treasure if you're into beer: they have over 1,000 different ones and you can make your own six packs.
I think that's everything important.
Fat Heads is by far the best, good assessment overall. haha
- crackthesky and Hanyuye
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When I spoke to the admissions office about 2-3 weeks ago, they said decisions would be out by the first week of March at the latest. So they should have something out by tomorrow hopefully.
As for me, I emailed them with a question about a professors research, and in his response, I saw the forwarded email from the secretary to him that said in parentheses "who was not admitted". Stay classy, Berkeley.
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I have 5 rejections, 0 wait lists, and the last school left is Pitt, which I currently attend and had a free application. Between the other 5 schools I spent over $700 applying. I am about 50% ridiculously determined to prove these schools wrong, and about 50% accept failure.
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All the information in the past couple posts is pretty current. The main 3 areas people live are Shadyside, Oakland, or Squirrel Hill.
Shadyside is likely the most expensive, probably running at least $900 for a decent 1-bedroom. Regardless of area, having a person to split rent with will benefit you. Shadyside has a good amount to do, lots of restaurants, bars, shops, grocery stores, etc. The buses will take you to Pitt in about 10-15 minutes depending where in Shadyside you're coming from. Walnut Capital is a good leasing company, they're a bit more expensive, but they're really good about maintenance and helping with whatever you need.
Squirrel Hill is nice and quiet, but also has a main street (Murray Ave or Forbes Ave) that has pretty much whatever you need (grocery stores, restaurants, 2 or 3 somewhat ok bars, a few shops). It's a largely jewish neighborhood (40% is jewish) but the rest is made up with a lot of graduate students from both Carnegie Mellon and Pitt. Depending on where you are in Squirrel Hill you could be very close to Schenley Park, and once again there are many buses which will take you to Pitt in about 10-15 minutes.
Oakland is where Pitt is actually located, and is mostly where undergrads live. It's nice to be near the campus, but most grad students don't live there. It is cheaper, but you get what you pay for. I would probably advise against Oakland. Unless it's North Oakland on the edge of Shadyside.
Some people live out in bloomfield or friendship but you would definitely want a car as the buses come much less often and take much longer to get to campus, but I hear they are nice.
Hope this helps!
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For anyone who applied to Berkeley biostat, they said they'd have decisions by the end of the month or the first week of March at the latest. So luckily that's not too long from now!
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At what point should I email the department and enquire about my status? A buddy of mine (in a different discipline) told me that lots of schools will think you're not interested if you don't follow up, but I'm usually not that kind of guy. Is this something I should start thinking about?
I think that early March is generally a good time point to wait until, unless you have seen most people have received decisions (both acceptances and rejections). I just emailed Berkeley, but only because I am possibly going to be around there early next month and wanted to see if I could possibly get a department tour, assuming they haven't decided to reject by then. I figure that also lets them know that I'm very interested in their program while doing a check up on my application status.
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Looks like some Yale decisions went out today.
Also, expect Berkeley decisions this week (source: graduate director of stats department there).
Any idea if the Berkeley decisions will include biostats or just the stats department? I'm dying to find out for biostatistics, and I'm not sure how much more I can take!
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3.36 undergrad GPA, but all of the core math classes I performed very well in. Top 100 National University. GRE scores 770 Quantitative, 550 Verbal, 4.0 writing. Current grad student in Biostatistics with 3.8 GPA.
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Yeah, I don't understand why they don't update status on an individual basis as they make them. Rather than make people wait it out long after the decision has been made. They got back to me within about an hour after I emailed them. I'm somewhat regretting emailing them, I should've just let nature take its course. Oh well. Good luck to you!
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I emailed UNC today to ask about my status, and got a reply back saying I had been rejected. I think it's officially time to give up for any option besides Pittsburgh I'm guessing. The last 3 I'm waiting to hear back from are Pitt, Berkeley, and Harvard. I never received an invite to interview at Harvard, and I'm guessing the rejections from UW, Hopkins, and UNC eliminate Harvard as well.
Berkeley I am really really hoping for, but doubtful. My advantage their is that I will already have a masters, and the applicant pool will thus be smaller to compete with than the other schools. But my rejections from the other schools really make me doubt my chances.
For Pitt, I'm already enrolled here, and if I don't get in with a LOR from the chair of the dept and a chair on the admission committee, then I'll probably just lose my mind.
Any thoughts from anyone as to how accurate my projections are?
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No need to worry, UW and Emory are highly ranked programs, I'm sure that since you applied to 14, you should definitely get into a few
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I wouldn't go as high as $1000 a month for a studio, even in Shadyside which is the most expensive, you can probably find a decent looking studio for 700ish. I lived last year in North Oakland on the edge of shadyside, and had a 1 bedroom for $850 and that was with all utilities included. A roommate would definitely cut your costs nearly in half. As far as extra money to have a social life, Pittsburgh isn't too expensive around Oakland and Shadyside, which is where most students prefer to go. Most places have half-price appetizers and happy hours all the time. I probably get by on about $800-$900 a month currently living in Squirrel Hill in a 2 bedroom and I go out to eat/ drinking about once or twice a week.
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It does sting a lot for the first few days, but you'll get through it. The amount of applicants this year is ridiculously high, and almost all of the applicants would do extremely well. You'll get in somewhere, and then just make the best of it and try to do so well that you feel that they should regret not accepting you.
I, for one, have taped my 2 rejection letters to the back of my door and set to the background on my phone as kind of a motivational poster (I found a typo in my Washington rejection letter, which made me feel a bit better after I wrote "idiots" next to it).
Just get that first acceptance letter and you'll forget about the rejections. Good luck!
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I don't think having a 4.0 GPA and top GRE score is necessarily a guarantee of a good profile.
Firstly, that's the old system 800, which is only 94th percentile. A great score, but a lot of people get that sort of score. Even a 170q isn't standout necessarily.
Secondly, 4.0 means very little without knowing what subjects were taken, and where (which school). If you avoid all the hard classes, the department you're applying to will notice.
Very true, also who knows that their undergrad major was and how intensive. Now if they had a 4.0 from Harvard in Math, then that would be extremely shocking. But the old GRE scoring system was very gentle to grading, and an 800 isn't anything immaculate (although, still something to be proud of).
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I would, without a doubt, take Minnesota if I were in your position.
From my understanding, Minnesota is actually higher in the realm of Biostat rankings than Berkeley is, and a PhD program offer there is a far better offer than a Masters from UC Berkeley. Also, the cost of living in NoCal around Berkeley is probably higher like you mentioned, and with UMN offering you even more per month, I wouldn't hesitate to take it between these two choices!
I completely agree, the extra time you have to spend at Berkeley to try and get a PhD could be extremely irritating, and although unlikely, it could be possible that they don't accept you when that time comes (I'm sure you are a great student, and that they would accept you!). Living around Berkeley is ridiculously expensive, I have a best friend who lives in San Francisco, and even if I moved in with him and his roommate it would still cost considerably more than most places I've researched. The weather in Berkeley isn't as great as most people expect, although the winter is very mild, it doesn't actually get to hot there (around 75-80) in the summer and rarely hotter. But yes, a definite step up in weather and culture compared to Minnesota.
If they offer an open house for accepted students I'd suggest you go to those and just try to get a feel for the schools, and see how you think you'd feel living there for a couple years. Congrats on the acceptances!
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This year definitely seems to have more applicants, and an even higher percentage of highly qualified applicants. I'm shocked that someone who got into UWashington would get rejected from Emory.
Has anyone heard from Cal Berkeley? I noticed there were 2 masters and 1 PhD acceptance posted on the results page. And I'm on pins and needles waiting to hear back from them.
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Has anyone had their status change on the UNC application page from submitted? I've seen that there a few decisions from UNC so far, and I'm wondering if they are similar to John Hopkins in that they switch from submitted to "In Review" when it has been sent to the admissions committee. I submitted my application in early December, so I would think that they should have gotten around to it by now but I can't be sure, and I don't want to email them. Thanks
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Congrats!
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So the yield is 3? They are still accepting over 15% but not everyone takes the offer.
Yes, you are correct. I made a mistake and thought for some reason that was including the other programs, but now I realize they had their own set of stats for them on the website. So that isn't too bad of an acceptance rate compared to other schools.
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I've found that looking up the actual numbers are usually more discouraging than anyone could prefer. Although Cal had a nice 9/58 acceptance rate according to their website, when you dig in further they state that they normally only take 3 (hopefully more this year) for the PhD slots for biostats. As you can imagine, that's not a very encouraging number given the amount that will be applying. I could dig more into the profiles of accepted students, but that is a little too exhaustive for my efforts. I found that the websites provide enough info, and that the estimate I would get by getting all the other info would not be much more accurate or encouraging.
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I'm kinda wondering whether Harvard (and UNC for that matter) have reviewed all applications yet. From what I've seen there's only been that 1 person who's posted that they've received an interview from Harvard for biostats. I'm assuming there has to be more. Also, the status on my application has never changed from submitted, which makes me wonder if it has been sent for review yet. I know for John Hopkins they changed my status when it had been sent for review, and then again when they had made the decision. I'm unsure if all schools have that stage in the status, but if not, then there should be more interview invites to come. Hopefully, you hear back from Harvard for an interview. Unfortunately, I have no idea about the regular statistics applications
Pittsburgh, PA
in City Guide
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Mid-may will definitely give you enough time to find a place. Granted, earlier is always better but when I first moved down here I didn't get a chance to find an apartment until late June - early July. For pet friendly, your options are indeed limited. I have a bigger dog myself (about 65 pounds), and I rent through Walnut Capital who I've had no issue with. They ask a half-month's rent non-refundable deposit for pets, but that is much better than others who sometimes ask a whole months rent. From my experience, Franklin West also will allow dogs of bigger size (even though their information says a 30 pound max), and has very nice apartments. Generally, they are quite big and a little more expensive, but if you have a roommate and a dog it's a good idea. Squirrel hill is very dog friendly with a lot of parks and other people with animals. Most companies in in the area do not allow dogs, so I would recommend calling around a bit to find the places that do and then targeting them.