getitlow
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Posts posted by getitlow
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Long time no visit this thread and to APOCooter: I answered part of your concern in UB's thread. I cannot believe that I'm moving to Buffalo in less than 3 weeks. What's going to be the first thing that I should do on my first day? Bike around Amherst and see the campus? (I want to try the stampede and see how it works with my route to school) or venturing downtown, Elmwood, etc. Seriously though, I really need to learn how to navigate around before class begins shortly after.
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I would like to contribute to one aspect of the application process- that is the potential adviser. Make sure when you choose where to apply, balance between applying to your favorite schools/departments and to schools where your potential advisers are located. Of course, it is an ideal situation when these two aforementioned factors happen to converge. From my personal experience, I tend to prioritize advisers that match my specific field of interest over the schools/departments so in the last application season, I was very careful about where to apply and I spent almost the whole summer digging profiles of history departments and professors there (probably partly because I have a very specific field of study and a peculiar research interest that not many schools have professors for me to work with)
In addition to this, I read this post as my guidance when I apply for a PhD in history. Hopefully, you will find it useful. Good luck!
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I received my TA assignment, a course syllabus for Asian historiography, and some words from my potential adviser. For me, summer has been really chilled and low-key so I'm sort of in the mood for the semester to come already. I will start moving in early August and get my apartment furnished. This is my first time renting unfurnished housing so it's a headache to think of what to get and whatnots
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That's true though. I think it is the case for many places. Good luck with your application!
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I'm in the process of applying for UB's Transportation Engineering program for the Spring 2014 session. The posts above are quite insightful for someone like me, who's in a far off land. Fingers crossed, if i'm admitted, this thread will probably provide a good way to weigh out whether I want to join UB or decide to go elsewhere.
From what I know, they have quite an impressive engineering program. I think their best ranked one was civil engineering.
I'm also curious about public transportation discount too. I heard from my fellow program-mates that UB used to distribute free monthly pass for the metro rail and bus in large amount for the first 200 or 300 students who needed those. I have no single clue whether that program is still running or is discontinued. I'm biking next year because I will be living in Amherst so I guess I don't have to worry much about using public transportation except when doing grocery-shopping or chilling in another parts of the city.
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I initially wanted to live in Amherst too but after a while doing research, I figure it's better to live in downtown so that you can be close to everything. I'm a very "city" person so I think I will be better off living in that area of the city. What are you studying?
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that's really nice if you can drive to Buffalo. I've been to downtown during the visit weekend and I totally loved it. It's a very historic city and it provides a history buff like me with everything. Public transportation is not too bad either. You can easily get to campus with the metro train and UB stampede.
On a side note, I still haven't settled down with the housing issue. There are apparently too many options and I'm clueless about the real quality of these housing ads. We have a thread of Buffalo in the "city" session on this forum. Maybe you can get some useful information from there.
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But apparently these companies seem to own a lot of good-looking, decent apartments
those areas you mentioned are where I want to live too. If there is too much rush and I have yet to find housing once the semester approaches, worst comes to worse I will look at the on-campus grad housing.Do you have a lot of experiences with craiglist? I'm not used to dealing with housing up there at all. Your classes must be taking place at the South campus since you are doing biostatistics, which will help you with a shorter commute distance. I'm doing a PhD in history so most of my classes will be held in Park Hall at North campus. I will have to take the bus from South to North too...
Anyways, great to know you here on gradcafe !
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I'll be attending the University at Buffalo this coming fall semester. I plan on moving out there in July (possibly as early as June). I don't know anyone in Buffalo, so having potential new friends lined up would be awesome!
Hi. What program are you doing next fall at UB? It seems to me that a lot of people from UB are on here but not posting (judging by the result research page). I just barely started to look for housing....
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SUNY Buffalo yield was 8 offer acceptances out of 8 admits this year after the visit. We indeed have a very small cohort, which was exactly what I was aiming for from the beginning. Hopefully this does not sound like self-promotion but we have excellent scholars across 6 major fields with many who used to and currently serve as outside committee members for grad students at other schools. I discover during my visit that the department never really cared about ranking and try to keep the size of cohort at low level over years. The New York State Public Humanity initiatives group including SUNY Buffalo, Cornell, NYU, and CUNY is really the highlight of the program for those who will be considering these universities for your future PhD degrees. For those who are thinking of majoring in Modern China, we have Des Forges and Stapleton who are well-known in Chinese Urban and Cultural history (if that's your intended focus).
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I'm not sure if many of you realize, but UB's main campus is a bit of a distance from Elmwood/Allentown/Downtown etc. While those areas are great places to live if you are young and looking for a lot to do, as a grad student at UB now, I would suggest finding a place close to whatever campus most of your classes are (North, South, Downtown). Like I said, North campus is about 20 minuntes from the downtown area, in a suburb called Amherst, so it will be a bit of a hike everyday if you live in those areas. Amherst is awesome, especially if you don't like the city life, as it has a lot of bike paths, parks, etc. as well as TONS of stores/resturatants. If you like the hustle and bustle more, areas around South campus have more of a city feel, albiet more "ghetto" as well.
Thank you for the insight. I visited the campus and it actually took me a while to figure out that North campus is actually further from downtown than South campus. Do you think commuting about 40 minutes (maybe even more) every day on public transportation (metro rail, city bus, UB stampede) in exchange of living in Allentown or Elmwood, or anywhere downtown worth it? For me, as a history grad student, I can always enjoy some reading on these long commuting route but I'm not sure it will be a pleasant thing to do in the long run. Any feedback ?!
I'm considering South campus too. I may walk to South campus and take the stampede to reach North, where most of my classes will be held. What particular area in South campus is less "ghetto" and generally good to live?
Apartment hunting is really tiring me out, yet can't deny it's exciting because I learn more about the city and grasp a better gepgraphic sense of it.
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My Penn State waitlist did not work out so I made my decision. Sent the forms to formally accept the offer at SUNY Buffalo PhD program. oh and I did not forget to decline my poorly funded offer from NYU.
I'm glad this is over and a new semester is coming. It's been a great year on Gradcafe !
- Taco Superior and Andean Pat
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Well, it didn't take too much to get my rejection after I was told that I was waitlisted
Now I have 3 offers from Binghamton, Santa Barbara and Arizona State. And although ASU is ranked worst among them, due to the strong faculty in my field I will go for ASU, and reject the others. This process is now over for me as wellCongrats ! If you join the cohort at Binghamton, we would be SUNY-mate because I will probably go for SUNY Buffalo.
I'm visiting this weekend and trying to jot down in my note as many questions I can pose to the DGS and graduate students there possible (apparently I'm having dinner with everyone !). I know this may be old and repetitive but did anyone in our thread do campus visit so far? Besides all the classic questions on faculty, job placement, research funding, what other interesting points am I missing here? Thanks guys!
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I'm bringing this thread back on for the top view. We have had 43 inputs so far. Thank you everyone for your contributions!
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I don't have much personal experience, but I think UB is great. The North/Amherst is a nice area that's close to a lot of different stores and restaurants. The students, faculty and staff contribute a lot to the area and beyond with research, service, etc - it has a great reputation. Friends that have attended enjoy their programs and experiences. Almost all of them attended for undergrad, but I do know a few people in the law school who really like it (despite always having work to do!). And there are always great speakers, musicians and shows that they sponsor or are at the Center for the Arts; most of the time when I'm at UB it's to see speakers or for Fall Fest and Spring Fest acts.
Not a ton of specifics, but I hope it helps!
That helps a lot. I have always been receiving mixed responses toward Buffalo. People have been lamenting over its rustbelt status of a city and this and that. But I'm glad to hear from you many positive points. I'm visiting this weekend so I will definitely keep asking questions about the city. Thanks a lot for helps!
- anthemsosweet and Neuronista
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I'm finishing up my MA at UT-Austin now, focusing on 20th century China as well and would recommend looking into our program. Like most public universities we only have one modern China historian, Huaiyin Li, but he is excellent. Working with him has definitely had a tremendously positive influence on how I understand China, history, and research. I know from experience that he won't let you focus solely on intellectual history, but will make you tie your project into institutional, urban rural, whatever history as well, which in my opinion is a very good thing. He does however have a recent book on the evolution of CCP historiography to go with his detailed microhistories and a forthcoming book on late Qing statecraft. Generally speaking, he's a very well rounded and well respected intellectual in China and the US. China faculty in other areas (government, IR, and so-an) are pretty much nonexistent, which is the major downside to the program, but the rest of the Asia faculty are very global-oriented and very accessible. Plus, the history program in general is pretty highly regarded. Plus Austin is a pretty excellent place to live.
Worth checking out in any case. Good luck with your apps!
It is great to hear you work with Huaiyin Li. I did a research on land redistribution last semester under the Mao's regime and Deng Xiaoping's new era, and I read a micro-study of a village by him as reference, which is a great work on this particular topic, especially if you are interested in looking at rural China. However, I believe UT Austin does not offer a terminal MA. Were you admitted to the PhD-track program?
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glad someone jumped on this, well done
one thing i'd love to know is whether people are getting this funding coming into the program with a BA or an MA, as i think that plays into funding offers a bit
Good suggestion. I will add an "entering degree" column to this and thanks wicked_problem for the link! I think to simplify the format a little bit, people can totally get access to the link and check it out by themselves !
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Is anyone else still waiting on Harvard? I'm starting to feel like they forgot to reject me.
They sent me a letter via snail mail so I guess it should take a while to reach you
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I'm in the process of appealing to NYU for some sorts of funding, waiting to hear back from Penn State on funding information and as of right now I'm mostly sure to go with Buffalo. I guess I will begin to see movements at the beginning of April and I will be visiting the department next week too.
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Thanks a lot for the info. I'm really considering Buffalo now and I'm excited about the department. I have been patiently looking for housing and until then I can relax a little bit and enjoy the Queen city....
TakeMyCoffeeBlack and anthemsosweet, what do you guys think about UB?
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To all admits,
If you don't mind disclosing the funding packages you received from programs that admitted you, please take a brief moment to fill in the spreadsheet in the link below. I have been looking at the spreadsheet from the English, Rhetoric and Composition thread to get a very general idea of how generous the schools are, but realizing that what I get is not department-specific information, I figure this should help a lot for next year or (hopefully) future applicants. So thank you the ERC thread for the initiative !
- Cliana, kdavid, glycoprotein1 and 7 others
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Interesting - I have never heard of Assistant Professors working with grad students. Something I will keep in mind. Thanks for the tip.
In my case, all of the schools I have applied to, plus some I eventually decided not to apply, refused to let me work with assistant professors as primary advisors. I happened to email to some assistant professors ( I was not reading the website carefully) and they all directed me to full professors, stating that "although I cannot serve as your main advisor, I can sit on your committee".
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Thank you crazyCatLady! now that I have gone through an application season of ups and downs and everything is almost settled, with a bit of free time on my hands, I would love to do some good deeds for the next year's applicants.
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