evolution786

Yeah I've decided on UIUC for a master's. My RA-ship starts this summer though so I'll be down there in June. Are you going to Illinois?

From the professors I've spoken to, GA Tech is a much more reputable school than Cornell, especially in structural. They really are a phenomenal school and I think you could have a better chance with it in the job market.

Any input on public transportation in the cities? Also, I'm curious about parking near residential areas. Is street parking fairly prominent or will I have to pay for parking every month? I'll be near the engineering campus if that helps.

Haha yeah I visited them a couple weeks ago too. Open house? I was there. I agree with you regarding flaws in the U.S. News Rankings, but I think the main factor in UCSD's absence from top 10 rankings is that they have a "Structural Engineering" department, which doesn't get ranked in "Civil Engineering". I would definitely say they are in the top 10 for structures. Likewise, funding is really important to me. After the open house, I had a few extra days to kill in San Diego (my flight didn't leave till Saturday) so I tried meeting with a few profs on campus. I could only meet with 2 out of 3 that I wanted to see and both said that they just don't take many master's students because of how short the degree is. One prof (Shing) said he has only advised 2 master's students in the past and they both did research with him as undergrads. So they technically started and finished a 2.5-3 year research project with him. The other prof (Uang) said he has never worked with master's. The projects at UCSD are simply much larger so they require more time and, therefore, a PhD student. I'm just assuming I won't get a research position at SD and will just have to TA or be incredibly poor. I've been accepted to UW-Madison (my undergrad school) and have a strong possibility of a great research project with funding, so that's on my mind. I just feel like it's a cop-out if I stay at the same school without exploring, but I also have the option of not coming out of grad school $60K+ in debt. Still waiting on UIUC but I have little hope left there. What other schools are you looking at? If you're the one I'm thinking of, you also applied to North Carolina and Austin?

JPeterman- what are your thoughts on UCSD? Are you considering going there or does it depend on other acceptances?

Any news on UIUC? They're taking forever and it seems like very few people have been accepted so far.

Does anyone have access to the full US News rankings?

Are you going to UCSD's open house this Wednesday?

My profile from earlier in the thread: I've only applied to 3 schools for a masters program: UW-Madison, UIUC, and UC-San Diego. Overall GPA: 3.76/4.00 Major GPA: 3.87/4.00 GRE: 160(V), 160(Q), 4.50 Experiences: 2 full time summer internships, one of which lead into the school year part time for the past 2 years 1 semester as a TA in structural analysis 1 semester of research Yeah, my buddy with Virginia Tech went to their visitation weekend last week.

My friend got into Austin (master's), another one into Vieginia Tech (PhD), and I got into UCSD (master's).

I think it's varies greatly from school to school. I called my top school last week (it's also the top grad school for my major) since I hadn't heard anything yet. They said professors haven't even looked at most of the applicants yet. They've only found the top ~10 students and accepted them, otherwise nothing else. So I wouldn't lose hope yet by any means. It just suggests that you're not in the top 1% that has applied there, but you might still have a good chance. It's frustrating to wait this long, but there's nothing we can really do at this point.

Are those hours including class time? Or do you only conduct research?

It's not that bad- you'll get used to it. I was born in India, lived in the Middle East, and now live in Wisconsin

I spoke to the UIUC grad office and she said that they've admitted less than 10 students so far. She hasn't heard anything about funding from the professors yet either. Traditionally, they admit many students right before their spring break (which is March 16th this year) but she's not sure if that'll happen this time. Just a heads up, it's going to be a long couple months

Wow that sucks. Is there a list or map that shows which routes won't be running? And do you know how much a bus sticker costs? I'm debating whether that would be cheaper than driving and paying for parking at on campus, but I doubt it