msocean

For the verbal, try purchasing a Latin roots guide. I was homeschooled and my parents used the Latin Roots workbooks when I was in middle school. They really helped me when it came to the verbal GRE. Also, there is a tool on the SAT website (a test for entering undergrads) to send you a word each day by email. Very helpful if you have time. Otherwise I would write the words on flashcards and keep them with you to review when you have a few minutes waiting for class to start or waiting in line.

It might be helpful if you had a handful of slightly different resumes designed for different types of jobs...retail, banking, HR that exploit your qualifications to each. Just be sure to make a note of which resume you sent to which company so that you can take extra copies of the appropriate resume to an interview. It sounds like your life is full of drama at the moment and I always thinks that comes across, both in cover letters and interviews. Maybe you are just appearing too desperate. Is moving out of the area a possibility? Have you used every single person you know to network with? Most jobs are not found by job listings, but through people you know. If you are in a tough city for jobs, I would consider broadening your search.

I was accepted at both schools I applied to, but funding is an issue for both. My first choice is on their last round of offers, and I'm waiting to hear...maybe by tomorrow. If not, I will attend my second choice. They have offered me a TA-ship for both years and will waive out-of-state tuition. In-state tuition is unbelievably inexpensive. And since I am only applying for a masters, I didn't expect full funding. Either way, I've decided to move forward with my MS as I think the funding situation is going to get worse over the next few years due to the sequestor. I'm thinking that most universities will not fund a masters program at all. And I really am not thinking that I want to stay for a PhD. Both schools I applied to have accepted 8-12 students each for the last 5 years. This year my first choice has only accepted 2 MS and 2 PhD. My second choice has accepted 3 students, I don't know if the other two are MS or PhD. Congratulations on your acceptance and the best of luck to you!

I have several friends at CU in various engineering fields. They are all very happy and very busy. There is defintely a high level of academic rigor, along with lots of opportunity for internships. CU has cultivated an unbelievable amount of professional connections for their students. Every one of my friends has done an internship every semester as well as during their summers. I think the time to graduation may skew a bit since many CU students stay for the summer due to internships and a fairly easy residency rule. The cost of living is not cheap. My friends have all gotten the best results from forming groups that they room with during the school year and then other groups that always stay for the summer. I don't see that it is very do-able financially not to have room mates. Boulder is an awesome place, I would love to live there. They are very green-oriented, tons of stuff to do, lots of farmers' markets during the summer, outdoor activities year 'round. There is also a very accomodating transit system in Boulder as well as easy and inexpensive connections into Denver. Boulder is also easy to get around with a bike since the bus system has bike carriers. If you will be attending conferences or other travel responsibilities Denver is a very central hub for United Airlines. And you can get to Denver on the trasit system in just a little over an hour, not needing a car at either end. I found my travel in and out of Boulder very easy. The first time I visited I was only 19 and not much experience traveling alone. The trip was incredibly smooth and easy. I've also traveled to the East Coast. I would say that you would find Boulder to be far more liberal and friendly, Troy to be less liberal and maybe more difficult to be social outside of your department. The academic ranking is a toss up, both are equally ranked. Good luck whatever you choose!

I think it depends on how much you have in the bank, and how much debt you are willing to incur. I have friends that will spend the rest of their lives paying off their student loan debt from UG and grad school. They have told me that they will be in their 40's - 50's before it is paid off. They are afraid that they will never own their own home or be able to provide themselves a significant retirement. Not in your field, but I've watched people dig themselves unbelieveable financial holes. I would sit down and figure out what the acutal cost would be to attend Elliott and how long it would take to pay that off, underestimating the amount you would earn after...just to stay on the safe side. If that make your stomach turn, then I would opt for Marquette and make the most of networking during the summers and at conferences. If, on the other hand, you can manage the debt well then you should go for Elliott. Is there any chance your current employer could adjust your schedule so that you could attend Elliott part time while still working? Best of luck to you!

My salary in the field with a masters cannot possibly pay the student loans for what it would cost me to pay for these opportunities. If they can't fund me then I will go out and find a job or internship. I have a couple of years to wing it, no debt from undergrad, money in the bank. I also think the sequester is going to be a multi-year deal breaker for many grad students, especially MS applicants. There is going to be less funding available and I think the sciences will want PhD apps since those students are sticking around for 5-7 years worth of slave labor in the labs. I believe the perception for an MS student is that they are only around for a few years, about the time they get to know the work, they're going to move on. I'm not sure what the right answer is. For me, I refuse to go into debt in the current economy. Too many of my friends are slaves to their jobs due to undergrad debt. I think I would rather be in a lower paying, lower stress job with no debt. My end goal has never been academia though.

I've been told by both schools I applied to that they received many more applications than last year, and their available funds is about half.

http://www.usatoday....career/2002879/ http://aas.org/posts...u-speak-science http://inscope.iu.ed...t-inscope.shtml

Networking, looking at internship opportunities, dreaming about the opportunities to explore other areas if grad school doesn't work out this year.

Same here, masters applicant...accepted at both schools I applied to. One has already said only TA positions will be available and no tution remission. The other is still working to find me an RA position with a PI who has any funding. With applications up and funding down...either fewer students and keep the funding level, or same number of students with less funding. I just can't go into debt over a masters....thinking about doing some internships and applicable seasonal jobs for a year. I really want the masters educational experience so I'm determined to reapply next year if necessary. But if things continue to get worse I may push myself out into the big job world!

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/30/scientist-alternative-career/2002879/ http://aas.org/posts/news/2013/02/aaas-asks-you-speak-science http://inscope.iu.edu/headlines/2013-02-28-headline-sequestration-impact-inscope.shtml

I basically got the same email from my PI. I was told it boils down they know how many they can accept with funding (their policy), how many have been offered, historically how many will accept (I think that will be a different picture this year which will seriously affect those of us on wait lists), and how many / how qualified the others are who are on the waitlist. "Cautiously optimistic" may be more optimistic than I am, given the financial situation in the sciences this year. The PI that I work for as an UG has had major problems with his own funding this year. Watching his situation has made me understand that other schools are all in the same situation and they will be accepting fewer students unless they have awesome endowments or PI's have more private funding vs. federal funding.

Roasted chickens has been my go-to for my busiest weeks! Works great for finals or when I have tons of papers to write. I throw two whole chickens, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and tons of veggies in the oven to roast 325 degrees for about 90 minutes. I usually indulge in eating a bit of everything for a wonderful Sunday dinner. Then I have enough for fajitas, chicken and smashed potatoes, pasta with chicken, chicken salad sandwiches, checken wraps...everything I need for a week to 10 days. And then soup! with the carcass and leftover veggies when I just can't stand to look at it anymore. I'll usually throw in some barley or rice to make it a bit more interesting. And then I usually freeze half the soup because I'm so tired of looking at chicken by that time ;-) Another thing that works well for me is to turn on the gas grill and fill it up with brats, burgers, salmon patties, tons of veggies and even some fruit (pineapple slices or wedges, peach halves, plums) and whatever else can be grilled. This will keep me going for over a week with meat/veggie wraps, chop it up and throw over past or rice or beans. Lastly a good pork or beef pot roast with potatoes and veggies...yum...another good week of food. And for all of these I can freeze anything that is hanging around too long. Depending on where I'm living I've actually eaten well on $125 / month.

I swear the suspense is going to kill me!!!

How deep are your personal pockets? How much can you reasonably expect to earn once you have graduated? How long would it take to re-pay the loans? How much debt do you already have?

$54 BBBBBBBillion! over the next 5 years. Any funded opportunity is starting to look really sweet.

I'm not in your field. But anytime you can get a free ride, and your goals are not tied to "brand name" academia for future teaching/research, I'd take the free ride. Although I'm in the sciences, I do not see myself teaching either. I have gotten through my UG with a state scholarship, so I am debt-free at the moment. I have plenty of friends who will spend the rest of their lives paying off their loans. I can't imagine taking on the kind of debt they have with employers taking advantage of the economy and no guarantee you're going to make the type of wage to get ahead with debt looming over you. I know engineers are more in demand than biologists, but I would still lean to the "bird in the hand." Good luck, whatever you choose!

I just read an article in the Sunday paper about cuts to research due to the budget sequester...take a deep breath...$54 billion over the next 5 years to NSF and NIH!!!! Maybe this explains the late responses and less funding for those that are being accepted. Unless your research is funded by endowments or private money...looks like it will be a rough road for those of us who depend on government funding. I'm also thinking that if this remains the case, the next few years are not going to get any better.

All funding from NSF and NIH is being cut. Most programs are accepting fewer grad students this year, especially those having a reputation for fully funding students every year. Most programs I've heard about are accepting less than 1/2 the students they take in a normal year. And interestingly, I've heard that the number of applicants is way up in 2013. I'm wondering if people are just applying to more schools, thinking it will give them better odds of getting in somewhere. And it seems to me that the schools are having a hard time with this as well. This year seems particularly late in notifying students, especially masters applicants. In addition everyone in the research lab where I work on campus has already received rejections. They applied to bigger schools that I did, but they all have lots of research experience and better GRE's than I do. However, even though I have been accepted academically, I have yet to receive any funding. So that's still a "no" in my book.

Born and raised in Reno, attending UG at UNR..ask any questions you have or PM me

There's one tax credit you can take as many times as you want (Lifetime Learning) and the Amercian Opportunity Hope credit can only be used for a student for 4 years of post-secondary education. So you might need to check with anyone who has been claiming you as a dependent. If they used the Hope credit for your undergraduate, then you can still use the Lifetime Learner. http://www.irs.gov/uac/American-Opportunity-Tax-Credit:-Questions-and-Answers

Boulder is awesome! I visited a UG friend there last year. Every department has tons of really great research and internship opportunities going on, very highly respected. Living off campus is a tad bit expensive, but my friend has a regular group of guys who share a house during the school year and a regular house-sitting gig for the summer. He stays in Boulder year 'round as an in-state resident (for tuition purposes) now. Boulder is a fun town, a bit quirky downtown, and close enough to Denver for museums, zoos, good food, shopping. As for waiting, the professors that I interviewed with have kep in contact with me since soon after my application was received. The biggest problems this year for the sciences has been funding. In marine bio, the BP stuff is pretty well staffed at this point since the funding has been around for more than a few years. And with the budget sequestor, tons of fundng through the NSF and NIH is no longer available. The programs I applied to normally get 50-75 applicants, offer to 25, and accept 8-12. This year they will be lucky to accept about 6 in each program. And some of those will not be funded positions. I'm happy to continue answering their emails. But frankly, I'm down to the last possible advising professor and I just want to know. I want to know what I'm going to be doing this summer, and then in the fall. I'm trying to stay focused on finishing this semester and packing my stuff to leave, whether it's to grad school or an internship. But I just seem to lose all motivation when I check my email constantly.

Congrats on Mote!!! I wish I had applied for some summer internships. I was so busy with my grad applications that it didn't occur to me to apply to summer internships just in case. If I don't get accepted with funding for a grad program I will have to start looking at internships for the Fall soon. Any suggestions?

Be careful about those emails if your status has not changed. I know of more than one instance (one at UT) that an email was sent out, status didn't change, after a few days student emailed coordinator to find out that the wrong student received the email. Always question your status if it doesn't change.

Not an expert here...but I think CO would be much easier to establish residency for tuition purposes and that CU Boulder is much more lenient (once you have changed your drivers license, etc for one year) than any of the CA schools. I interviewed at a couple of CA schools and spoke with residency advisors. It seemed very difficult to establish residency for tuition purposes. On the other hand, I have a friend who goes to Boulder as an undergrad and he qualified for residency very easily after living there for one year. He moved to Boulder in June, paid out of state tuition for the first year, and got in-state standing starting his second Fall term.