xaelyn

Thanks for all the input guys. He's flown out there and is looking now. And it turns out he's going to bring his car, so public transport to/from Tufts is not an issue. Just a not-horrible commute. He's coming from Los Angeles, so "not horrible" relative to that is a low bar to beat.

Hey folks. A buddy and I will be heading to this area in the Fall, and we'd like to room together. Thing is, he got into Tufts while I got into Brandeis. It looks like we'll be on two different ends of town. Neither of us will have cars, and I'm happy to take public transit out to campus. I see that the T runs straight to Brandeis, so that's convenient. Anywho, can you guys think of any areas that have good access to transit routes to both campuses? I think he's leaning toward Cambridge, Somerville, and Medford itself. I'm definitely leaning away from Waltham. Maybe Porter?

Very cool. Might I ask what your interests are, if you have any?

Brandeis. Kind of excited about it.

I've accepted at Brandeis, and am about to email GSU to decline their offer. GL to whoever gets bumped up at GSU, and may the Force be with us all.

I figured. I've responded to you a few times over there, always as an anon. There were a few things. The largest was geography... I've lived the last 18 years of my life in a desert, and would rather not move to another one. Apart from that, I wasn't all that impressed by their placement. Other smaller things sealed it for me... I'm in at programs I liked better, they have not said anything about funding or teaching, and the only correspondence I've had has been an automated email which pointed to my admit letter. Compared to GSU, the communication has been incredibly impersonal.

I've turned down Arizona State. Good luck to whoever gets bumped up.

Yep. It's frustrating. Mostly because I don't understand why the process is going the way it is... maybe there's some delay between the department sending its decisions to the Grad School, and the Grad School updating the website?

I applied to 5 MA programs. Only MAs because my advisor suggested, while we were working on my sample, that my writing was not where it needed to be structurally in order to compete in the applicant pool for the PhD programs I want to go to. The programs were Tufts (for placement and location), Brandeis (placement, location, and fit), Georgia State (on a whim; surprisingly a good decision-- funding is spectacular), UW-Mil (advisor's suggestion, based on fit), and Arizona State (just because, but the fit is decent).

None yet. It's rather frustrating, given how up-front the other schools were. But perhaps it's coming via post... As soon as I hear anything I'll post in the thread.

I got into ASU, but also received no word on funding. I emailed the grad school a couple of nights ago and haven't heard back yet.

Brandeis offers have gone out. The financial highlights: Tuition is $44,100. Offered merit-based fellowship consists of roughly a 25% tuition discount. Need-based scholarship also available that would cover up to an additional 25% of tuition. The full amount of need-based scholarship, which most students qualify for, reduces tuition to $19,000. In addition, paid Teaching Assistantships are available. Guaranteed to TA at least once, though most students serve as TAs 2-3 times. The pay is $3,200 per semester-long course. An interesting bit: The program is only officially one year long, but most students stay on for an additional semester or year. If they stay on after their first year, the fee is $5,512 per semester, with no additional tuition. $1,300 of this is waived if one is a TA. TAship for the second year is not guaranteed, but there is a "considerable chance" one might be secured. The impression I get is that, if one is a TA after their first year, their tuition is ~$4,200 per semester. If the TA pay is the same (unclear on this; the discount on the already-reduced fees might be in lieu of pay, rendering the rest of this moot), one is left with ~$1,000 per semester to take care of. I now have a problem, but it is a good problem to have. GSU or Brandeis? We shall see, we shall see.

Hrm. I haven't even received that. I'm not sure who's in the worse boat. Unfortunately, I think it's you. You've got something in front of you, just no one knows what it is or when you'll reach it. In my case, it's possible that ETS was so slow sending my scores that my application was never reviewed. v0v

So there are Tufts results going out. There are a few notices posted on the results page, and a friend of mine let me know he got in. But I have no notice from Tufts, good or bad, emailed or on the application website. Anyone else? EDIT: Apparently the notifications that have gone out are "unofficial" notices sent out by the head of the department. Official notices from the GSAS will be going out later.

Woke up to a Georgia State admission email. That was pleasant. My primary areas of interest are ethics and Kant. In my WS I tried to overturn a popular interpretation of Kant's "contradiction in the will" put forth by Fred Feldman and Allen Wood (and promoted in basically every "intro to ethics" text that reaches the CW test). My GPA was around 3.65 from UCLA. GRE was 164 V, 150 Q, (I got these backwards on the survey, sorry stat bros) and I skipped the AW section.