GeoDUDE!

I'm currently paying 635 a month for a 4 bedroom 2 bath, and I wasn't there in person to get the room. I'm going to be moving into a 2 bedroom 2 bath (the last unit in the complex for fall 2015! Had to sign the lease last month to get it..) for 810 a month. Both are in what I would call "prime" locations so they are on the expensive side. They are less than 2 miles from campus and less than half a mile from grocery, and the new place is 2 minutes from downtown. I think thats the right idea, I'm not in bad shape, but not in good shape, and I easily bike 10 miles or so in davis. Its very easy because the roads are well maintained and its flat! I think craigslist is best... or you could do what I did and do university housing (8th and Wake) for the first year until you find some buds to live with. They do roommate matching, are very close to campus and trader joes. Leases are individual so if they don't pay rent or electric your not SOL. I don't think the housing is about being there in person, its about acting fast. Its just hard to find a place after a certain point (I booked 8th and Wake in march last year, but it wasn't full only because it was a new complex and people didnt know about it yet.). Most places have huge waitlists. Get on them !

Yeah! I don't have a car (I bike everywhere) so all the money spent towards a car is savings, or nice clohtes... or new pots and pans (oh god, I'm trying my best to resist).

During my masters, I was shocked at how easy it was to live off 13k a year, and actually save money. How much stuff my parents and people who make a ton of money have is somewhat gratuitous, though I imagine once my 7 year grad school stint is over ill have that kinda stuff.

I would take the better funding. I think funding isn't a matter if the program pays COL + tuition for your entire stay, but below that is unacceptable. Its like a check box. External Fellowships should be icing on the cake, not a necessity. I think most people who have been in graduate school will agree with this. At a certain point your going to want to spend all your time manuscript writing, and year 3-4 is prime time to do that. Year 3-4 should be focusing on getting funding for the next step, manuscripts and honing your presentation skills while writing your dissertation. Its hard to see that now, but you will thank yourself later.

Let me know if you guys have any questions about Davis. The housing market is extremely competitive, so I would start looking now.

I'd try to book before, I picked 1 place and stayed there 2 years so I don't really know the market that well. I would not suggest the place I stayed, University Village, as they are unethical people and the place is unsafe (people were stabbed in my complex, I was attacked, people coming home from pinch penny/bars really drunk and causing touble, a lot of undergrads). And btw, that is the east side of campus, I maintain my position that North of campus is the best option.

For what its worth, I had a 35k a year offer in a town where living alone would have been 600 a month. Its definitely possible to get that type of offer in my field if you apply to a private school in an area where there is a low cost of living. I think its wise to be weary of your debt. You should contact your loan officers to see if you can defer your loans. Goodluck.

I don't know which program is better in mathematics, but I would much rather live in Boulder than most places on Earth. The campus and city is fricken awesome.

because they were wondering.

Everything they ask for on the application.

You can say no. I certainly did. Why wouldn't you be able to ?

It all depends on the department. On a committee one of my friend sits on, its 4 faculty and 2 students, and each voter has 1 point. So an individual student's vote is the same weight as a faculty member ! You actually want it that way, after all, you want to be accepted by your peers, not just your superiors.

I do not, but I get paid a bit more than you (same monthly but 12 months). You gatta do what you gatta do. Your looking at 1500 a month if your having that for 9 months salary, I suggest finding a place closer to 1/3 your salary vs 1/2. Apartments vary. Both my apartments have been on the expensive side, but good. Houses are also great if you find someone looking to sublet a room, and can be cheaper. I have no idea about university housing, I've never known anyone or been in it. University sponsored stuff is very hard to get I think, huge waiting lists. Then again, there are waiting lists at any good apartment complexes (like i said, the one i just signed for was the last 2x2 for September move in and we signed in JANURARY 8 months before we were moving in ! ). The social atmosphere is really good. I enjoy it. plenty of happy hours at the bars, trivia, and people are really laid back. There are plenty of international students. And a lot of international/domestic student mixing. I really wouldn't worry about fitting in or anything to much. In the united states, almost no one fits in.

You will not find a studio or single bedroom for 800 dollars a month in davis. They usually go for around 1-1.2k a month. Davis is expensive. I live in a furnished 4 bedroom 2 bath and pay 650 a month + utilities. The housing market in davis is impacted and good ones go fast... me and my friend just signed a lease for september 2015 a month ago for a 2 bedroom 2 bath, we are paying 810 a month. Thats a little on the expensive side, but that isn't even furnished. Your best bed is craigslist or places that call themselves university housing. Anyway, I suggest looking and signing ASAP. If you don't own a car, getting by on ~1500 dollars a month is dooable. Lets say you pay 650 a month for rent. Then another 50 for cell phone. Then another 15 (split with roomates) for internet. Then another 15 for PGE (power gas electric). Then another 10 for water/trash. And then 250 a month for food. Thats ~1k. Living in davis without a car is very dooable, I don't own a car. If you do own a car, you can live in west sac, which you can get a studio apartment for 6-700 dollars. Its about a 20 minute drive to campus. There are a lot of different ethnicities in davis. You should not be worried, davis is one of the most friendly towns i've been in.

Have you tried Santa Monica Community College? I know it might be a bit of a trek for you... but Santa Monica or Long Beach is worlds better than the one's you have attended. The one thing you might take solace in is that you are at such a young stage in your career that it is very hard to mess up. I know that is hard to believe, but I graduated with a 3.05 GPA and am in a top 20 school in my field. Your GPA isn't that far off from mine. And quite honestly, I know UCLA might be your dream school, but are you sure that is the best place to help you with your needs? A bit pricer, and might cause you some debt, are the claremont colleges (small liberal arts schools) that are MUCH better in accommodating people with advanced disorders. As someone who now teaches in the UC system... In my opinion its already and uphill batter for the undergrads. Another thing that will benefit you is that you are doing well now, so that when you do apply for whatever you want after college, you will have your lower CC grades, and then great grades at a 4 year school. That is very indicative of someone who will be successful in whatever they want. I know you obviously can't use any more negativity in your life, but the ultimate mark of successful people is their ability to persevere through adversity. To find ways to get what they want even when original doors may or may not have closed. If being a biopalentologist is something you really want, killing yourself will never get you that. Thats closing all the doors. Going to UCI/R or one of the fine CSUs for the rest of your undergrad after CC is a fine choice. It's also important to note that there are very famous professors who got terrible grades in college. Jeff Erikson had a sub 2.5 GPA and is now a full tenured professor at a top 5 computer science department, with half of his students receiving tenure themselves. What is preventing you right now from being like him? Is UCLA really everything? I'm really glad that you reached out to someone, even if its the internet, about killing yourself. My best friend just left a note on his dresser and jumped off his balcony. He didn't give anyone the chance to stop him. What you are doing now is less selfish than you can even imagine.

Maybe, but it could be a generic mass email sent to all applicants who missed the deadline. Only time will tell.

And to reiterate my pervious point, the fields that tend to score higher also tend to be male dominated fields. Physics, Philosophy and Engineering are male heavy fields, so perhaps there is also a major bias ? The point you made to counter this point was the Physics GRE, but that is a completely different can of worms. I know people who have gotten into MIT physics with a 40% on the Physics GRE, its a completely different test that is probably too difficult.

Is psychology a male dominated field? Another thing: I only took the two practice tests when I studied for the GRE. There was really not much effort at all. I know this isn't the case for everyone, but I don't think myself some genius or great test taker. I just learned the material when I was supposed to. I scored ~325

Another thing is that you may find that you dont like what you are doing, don't like where you live ect and you can then change programs after your MS, and your application will only be stronger! Thats assuming you do well.

Sure, but every type of model has its problems. And its important to note that anything that someone uses for prediction (GPA, LOR, GRE, SOP) are just models with a bunch of assumptions based in them. I can write a novel on how terrible LOR have gotten in the modern age, with almost all of them being overwhelmingly positive, how is one to distinguish between candidates? Just by name of the written? Why should luck, that a student happened to go to a school with a famous person in some obscure field that they had no idea about when they were choosing college, be such a determining factor? I'm really interested in your counter point to my selection bias argument. And maybe the GRE is weighted much heavier than I thought, but do you really know? At super competitive programs, even people who have 4.0 and almost perfect (or perfect) GREs get rejected. If there was that much weight, shouldn't they almost always get into the schools they want? You are probably right in that graduate programs don't think enough about what the GRE, or any application requirement actually measures. I think they would probably be honest about that if you asked them up front. But I also think the GRE is also the best kind of standardization we have, since grade inflation is everywhere. Just like Obama's healthcare act, graduate admissions is an imperfect solution to a problem. What's a better solution ?

Is it more important to go to Caltech or study what you want?

They were requirements to get a degree (I have a liberal arts degree in phyiscs), and a degree is required for graduate school. While I made the minimum GPA , the minimum GPA is hardly enough to get into a PhD program just like the minimum GRE is hardly enough. Anyone can take the GRE,given funds, just like anyone can take college courses given funds. Are GRE scores increasing in every demographic? Or just white/asian males? Notice how close the male/female splits are. They are a few points between each other. Is there any evidence that someone was denied admissions over someone else souly because their GRE was even 5 points less than someone else? Presumably, if the older student gets into a program, he/she is qualified to get through it regardless of GRE. This is why there is a selection bias. He/She had to overcome that low score. Presumably, the low GRE candidates that get into graduate school are the best low GRE candidates of the crop. There are plenty of people with high GREs that don't get into graduate school. It is very important to contextualize statistics. There are deep problems, but there hasn't been any evidence that the GRE is inherently more flawed than GPA. In the early 1900s, college admissions was almost souly based on test scores and GPA. Harvard's alumni and donators started to complain that too many jews were getting admission (at one point almost 50% of incoming classes). To combat this, Harvard started using a holistic process similar to the one all colleges use today. Their rational was to try and predict who would be most successful upon graduation of Harvard, not who was most successful upon graduation high school. http://www.businessinsider.com/the-ivy-leagues-history-of-discriminating-against-jews-2014-12 How many people would replace the people in graduate school now without the GRE? How big of a demographic is it? Doesn't it seem more likely that the problem is getting women to apply to graduate school in STEM? Is the GRE stopping that from happening or is it something much more significant.

I'm not sure thats true. I got into Earth Sciences with 0 earth science classes (though a few years of research). If the research is closely aligned with your background (I'm assuming it is) then its possible. Like for example if you need to program and do math in whatever you do, and you have those skills, the biology or chemistry might be secondary and possible to learn while doing your phd. Again, someone at Caltech will probably be able to answer this better, but transferring programs within school and transferring to another program outside of school tend to be similar because of the funding constraints. I also think its disingenuous to go into a program you do not want to complete ( to yourself, program, and other applicants). You can decide if thats moral or not, but I'd advise you against going into a PhD program you are not intending to complete. You don't want to be miserable, and you risk the chance of looking bad. Perhaps look into taking a biology/chemistry postbacc ? If english majors can apply to medical school, a mechanical engineer can get into a chemistry program.

I don't know if caltech is different, but funding is usually done on the departmental level and not school wide, so it isn't just "transferring" but finding an advisor and having funding. You should probably just apply to those programs instead next year.