GeoDUDE!

Where does your funding come from ? Is that person taking on students? If that person is A) taking on students and you are funded by the department i dont see why not, but Its a bit weird as often times they use departmental funding as a way to give professors who might be on an off grant year another student to get funding with.

Research fit if you dont care about time until degree. Potentially you could get into very competitive PhD programs from UIUC, but, no guarantee. Rice is a very good school, i would make the decision based on research fit.

afternoon. source: I flipped a 3 sided coin.

my first time around, i did not have safeties, and by pure luck i got into a funded masters program in which they opened the doors for me even though I did not apply on time. You applied very wisely, many talented people get shut out of PhD programs for random reasons.

Thanks! i'm ganna go check out the area in a few weeks.

I would have gone to those places if one of my top choices didnt admit me.

the graduate coordinator.

I'm not one to collect acceptances/rejections. The schools i cut off my list are schools i wont considering going to no matter what.

I decided to withdraw a few of my applications today.

My POI There said that they dont even look at applicants until mid jan, despite their deadline being jan 1st.

Nope, though I am probably going to be pulling my application soon.

Nice wander. Is maryland your top choice ? Just looking at your list I would be waiting out on Lamont; I spent a few months working there and that place is lovely.

If you want the traditional "Graduate School" experience you will need to live in davis; often times me and the rest of the department shuttle out of the geology building (at my school, not Davis) and grab some brews after work. It will be very hard for you to do things like that because of your long commute. It helps that you don't have labwork since you are in an MFA. I see no reason why you need to be on campus every day if you dont have a GA from a education point of view. I probably would commute, i think its fairly common for MFA people to do. On the converse side, a room in davis is going to set you back, but you can live further away if you have a car so it might be cheaper. Congratz on getting into Davis... there is a good chance I will be attending aswell.

Looks like someone got into UMD, oh well. It wasn't one of my top choices anyway.

My last semester of ugrad i did 2-3 a week. Now its about 1 a week.

I think boston is a cooler city than pasadena. Also i tend to like the overall population of MIT better than those at Caltech. Since MIT is a liberal arts school you tend to meet people interested in all sorts of things.

I think your GRE is too low for those places if you want funding. most top schools look for 320 combined.

I think that's the case you will find of a majority of graduate students doing an MS. Oil oil oil.......

Congrats, though funding for MS is very hard to come by. I was very fortunate to get mine fully funded.

You can apply to all 3 if you can afford to pay for all 3 applications. You can contact them if you have the ability to 1) write a letter, 2) call them on the phone, 3) write an email. If X,Y,Z are doing similar work, chances are you will not postdoc with any of them no matter where you go. Post docs often with someone who does a different type, for example the modeler might work wtih an observational or experimental scientist.

I read nature, science, G^3, JGR, Lithos, EPSL, ect.... idk there are maybe 20 that i've found people in my field publish in ?

It feels kinda weird to get an acceptance really early and then hear nothing for weeks....... ominous

I read an article or 2 every day. That being said, i'm a masters student so it might be a bit different if you are just coming out of ugrad. I've been reading Geophysics and Planetary Science journals for the better part of 4 years.

I can post relevant videos from youtube:

I'm not sure. I bet you could take Geology; do you have some aversion to chemistry or physics? Both are very useful classes, in ways to view the world and problem solve.