rising_star

Does your university have a writing center you could work with, @Dr._Robotnik's_Shadow? That's the route I would go. They often have people who specialize in working with graduate students on theses/dissertations.

I wouldn't attend a PhD program with a tuition waiver and a stipend.

Go with wherever you have the better research fit. There's not enough information here for us to help you with that.

I also recommend having an actual numeric keypad. In addition, you'll probably want a PC because you'll want to be able to use SAS.

My first choice would be none of the above because paying for a master's, even in STEM, is a bad idea. But, since you're a California resident, UCLA would probably be the least expensive option.

Yes, you should clarify. "Dear Dr. X, Thank you for the additional information about the cost of attending XYZ Program. It is very helpful. At this time, I am still waiting to hear about the financial support available before deciding where to attend. Do you know when details about financial support will be available? Thank you in advance for your assistance." Or something similar to that.

You're going to need a committee of 3-5 people for your dissertation so, who would the other 1-3 people besides the two you already know? Those are the people you should also ask to meet with to start gauging now whether you truly want to work with them for several years.

This seems like a request for homework help...

Duplicate post. To reply, go here:

A few things come to mind so I'll just list them: 1) Rather than living alone, find a place where you have a roommate, ideally one who already lives there. That way you'll need a smaller security deposit and fewer furnishings for the new place. That also means you'll have less to move and could potentially move using only your car, if you have a car. 1a) You could also look into subletting since that has fewer upfront expenses and many come furnished. 2) You really can't move that much stuff for $500. I've moved cross country a few times and $500 is basically fuel for the car, food, and a couple of nights in a hotel along the way. I did that when I moved to my PhD program and it was fine. I sold a bunch of stuff on Craig's List before I left and used that money to help pay for gas. 3) Get a side job ASAP. It doesn't really matter what it is because any money you make can either be used to pay down your credit cards or save up money for the move. Babysitting, tutoring, working as a bartender, waitressing, etc. You don't want to be picky put you do want to make whatever you can. It's definitely a tough situation so you should see if your undergrad or grad institutions offer any financial assistance for a situation like yours. Good luck!

If you're concerned about scholarships/funding, I would wait. You'll want to talk to professors who may be able to fund you in advance of applying, which you don't really have time to do right now.

It's to torture and stress out applicants. Just kidding . Honestly, it's due to hedging in many cases. It's also the case that, at most US universities, budgets for the upcoming year are still being planned right now, which means that departments may not know how much funding they'll have available for TA positions. In addition, professors may be awaiting decisions on grants, which affects their ability to employ RAs (which in turns affects the number of available TA positions). A lot of things are still in flux from Jan to March.

If stipends are indeed comparable, then I'd consider cost of living. Berkeley is probably the most expensive of the four places. Personally, I think Chicago is fun but I hate winter so I wouldn't want to live there. The UC Santa Cruz option sounds like a good mix of access to startups and a surrounding environment you'll like. Then again, I have no clue what the rankings in CS look like or what you want to do after the PhD...

SOOO true. I said this the other day on a different thread. There was a whole conversation about the merits of being concerned about location in this post. Here's what I said there: "There's also the fact that, in some ways, the PhD program could be the last time you truly get to pick where you live. You can't choose where job openings are or which openings will lead to an offer when you're on the job market. Plus, landing multiple job offers and being able to decide between them is rare compared to having a couple of funded PhD offers to choose between. In that sense, while you can choose where not to apply, if your choice is between applying for everything (AFTDJ in Chronicle forum speak) and unemployment, people generally choose to apply widely to anything that seems even remotely reasonable, weather be damned. To me, that makes being able to choose location for graduate school even more important because the next stop in your career as a VAP, postdoc, teaching fellow, or even TT faculty may not be in a place you really want to be (the stepping stone approach to building one's career). I had far more choices about location and the associated weather as a PhD applicant than I have ever had since." I stand by that, despite the statements from those currently applying to grad school that location shouldn't be a major factor. As fuzzy says, the mentality about that definitely changes over the course of graduate school. For me, it changed during my master's program and played a role in where I applied for the PhD and where I ultimately went. To each their own though. To me, life is too short to spend a chunk of my 20s/30s living in a place I don't like without a real tangible benefit (so a guarantee that it will lead to a better job or some other thing I really want). 2-3 years, maybe. But the 5-6 years of a PhD, hell no.

Have you talked to any current students at Stanford about your two main concerns (money and being forced out after quals)? I imagine they'd be able to tell you if the stipend/fellowship amount provides sufficient financial support. They would also probably be able to tell you more about why students are eliminated after the qual exam and how that actually happens. Talking to them should be your first step. I don't know anything about ranking but, I can say that you shouldn't be comparing absolute dollar amounts. Instead, you'll want to use a cost of living calculator because San Diego is also a fairly expensive place, though maybe a bit less so than Palo Alto. You should also look at the placement record of each of the departments and of your potential advisors at each institution. CMU and Stanford have the advantage of excellent industry connections to companies like Google, which is valuable if that's where you want to end up after the PhD. If your goal is to teach after the PhD, then you may want to look at the pedagogical training and experience you'd get in each program and where they place their graduates. Good luck!

Why did you apply to programs outside the top 10 if you aren't actually willing to attend them?

What kinds of positions are you looking for? Academic positions starting in fall 2017 will typically begin advertising after July 1 of this year (2016), so you wouldn't really want to apply for those yet unless it is your absolute dream job and you'd regret having not applied. The hiring timeline for positions in industry varies but you'd probably want to be within 6 months of graduating when you apply.

There are a bunch of recent posts where people have given the kind of advice you're seeking, OP. Here are links to two of them. There's also a recent post where I argued for the importance of considering location.

Apply for anything and everything you are eligible to apply for.

Not all programs let you have outside employment so that's something you'll need to look into. You might also see if the school would let you work an additional 5-10 hours per week on campus, which would net you more money. Whether or not it's worth living frugally for five years is something only you can decide, imo.

Do these visits require plane tickets? If so, each change to the typical nonrefundable flights is costing the school an extra $150-200, unless you're flying Southwest. So, in that sense, it is a bit inconsiderate of you to have them pay a bunch of money to change your flights because you don't want to miss a thing with your friends.

I would contact the department to ask about the funding available.

I don't know that there is any "best" quantitative method. As you note, people prioritize different things, which leads to a multitude of ways of ranking programs. You really need to decide for yourself what the most important factors are and then develop a personalizing ranking system from there. Personally, I put the most weight on the PI I would be working with (not in the lab sciences so there were no rotations), the stipend, departmental atmosphere (collegiality, whether I wanted to hang out with the grad students, etc.), fees and health insurance, and location (weather, cost of trips home [flights or driving]), in about that order. I actually didn't care much about job placement or publications because, at the time, I wasn't all that concerned about an academic career. I was actually more concerned about getting dissertation research funding and the PI's success rate with those. I don't know if this is helpful though, since we're in different fields.

You should contact them and ask if you need to submit transcripts again. Personally, I'd revise the statement at least slightly to reflect any of the values they're looking for in a scholarship applicant. Usually scholarships have specific criteria they seek in applicants so you should make sure your statement addresses those. Good luck!

You're on the right track for "fit" but, it would probably be easier for you if you were able to narrow your interests. "Urban politics" is really quite broad. Knowing what kind of research you want to do (methodologies, theoretical frameworks, location, etc.) should help you figure out where your fit is best. If you want to be doing qualitative comparative work, then there are going to be departments where that work fits in and departments where it doesn't, for example. My advice is to figure out what you want to study, why, and how, and then look for people who either do the same kind of studies or are interested in the same thing. That's where your "fit" will be best, in many ways. You don't want to try to contort your interests to fit those of the faculty. Rather, it should be the other way around such that in the "fit" paragraph, you're showing them why they'd be the perfect person to advise/supervise your research project.