ollie cromwell

For anyone still keeping score, I got funding in July.

I have a 12 hour drive from my current location to my future home. I'm actually going to arrive in August, so I feel like I've got a little more time in the summer to attempt another road trip. I might actually have a place to stay other than my car when I get there to scout for housing. I'm feeling pretty lucky about most everything. I know that U-Haul's the only option for me...I need to take along this new bed I just purchased. We're getting rid of most of the rest of our furniture. I'm concerned about getting rid of all this crap -- particularly my beater car that I won't be taking with me. I live in a rural area, so I'm having a lot of difficulty finding a charity that will take it off my hands. For those of you looking to ship lots of stuff, you might check out a company called PODS -- it turned out to be more expensive than a U-Haul for me, but if I was crossing the country with a lot of belongings, that's probably the route I'd take. They basically back all of your stuff into a large box and throw it on a semi with a bunch of other large boxes headed in the same direction.

My gut thinks that way too, if it's any help to you. I tried to stay open minded about it, but I don't want to be frozen. I'm wedded to the west coast, it seems.

I know that you're being purposefully vague regarding your options...but why were you considering leaving in the first place? And do any of the places to which you were accepted feel like they're going to "fix" the issue or provide a better fit? I figure you've already done that. I also figure you've done visits and talked to faculty. I'm not sure that there's much beyond going with your gut, as cliche as it is.

Looking back at this thread I posted makes me laugh. I must have had a free day last week or something.

I've thrown my hat in here for Geography. Should be fun.

Seriously. I like to think that I'm slacking off, but that's what I'm calling getting a day off here and there I think. I guess having grad school apps out of the equation just makes me feel like I should be doing something more.

Yay!

I have so many presentations and posters this semester at various conferences, I'm pretty much blowing off a lot of class time. I think I'll be ok in everything but a couple of classes. But I blew off a study group for a difficult course today...I'm already in grad school, what could they possibly do? My advisor said as much. Anyone battling with Senioritis? They should map it. But not me, I have too much mapping to do this semester.

I'm hanging in there with you, Studymom. They told me they might not be able to offer anything until after the 15th. Which is fine and good -- I'm still going to accept. I'm trying to get a hold of the grad coordinator to ask questions regarding deferral if funding isn't offered. Figure I have to work on residency anyways, and a strange job anywhere is going to pay the bills just as well as a strange job back home. I'm trying to view it more as a grand adventure until I actually hear back about funding. I'm also bracing myself for the reality of living in a city for a year without continuing my education. Its a roll of the dice.

Wow, some of y'all got awesome plans. I'm going to try and figure out how to scrape together first month's and last month's before moving to a strange city and attempting to find a place that will let me work for a month and a half (which probably means excruciating temp work). I think I get two weeks at my place of origin.

My understanding from talking to current grad students is that it has sharply improved in the last 1-2 years; they're trying to strongly downplay their available funding so as to not run into the same situation a couple of years ago. They started accepting fewer students and becoming more transparent with the process. Neither of the other two schools had funding either, so it's pretty much a moot point for me. My fiancee can make more money in Seattle and the people match my interests much more than U of Mich. I think I'm going to gambool and give it a shot.

I've heard back from all three of mine -- accepted at U of Mich, U of Oregon, and U of Washington. No funding at any of them. Maybe I'll go back home and rot.

It's your first week of class. You can miss your first week of class to check out schools. I bet your instructor would be more than cool with it, especially if you let them know up front. It seemed (this year) like my most cranky professors were the most supportive of taking time from class to go visit schools.

My first choice has 7 funding slots available. I'm "up near the top" of the second batch of 5. The school has a history of going through the entire list of acceptance (15-20, any given year, including 19 this year) before giving away all of their funding. The issue is that students often will withhold their decision until the last possible second (p.s., stop waffling) leaving me in the lurch until at LEAST late March-early April...but they said they could be making offers as late as the middle of May. They claim to usually get through the list with their offers, but can't offer any guarantees. I went up and met with the professors -- very nice, very much the people I want to be working with...but they can't commit to anything as well. I was also told I could accept and just hope for funding. I don't know what to do in that case -- but frankly, even though I'm 3/3 on acceptance, I'm 0/0 on any funding. Without funding, I can't do any of them. I have a two-body/two-undergrad-debt problem.