kabutar

What's the best way to get to New Haven? I'm flying from Vancouver and it seems the cheapest thing is to fly to Newark... and then er, train maybe? Is it easy to get to the Newark train station from the airport, and is it easy to get to Yale from the New Haven train station...? thanks

I s'pose I can finally fill this out now. Program Applied To: (MPA, MPP, IR, etc.) MPP, MPA, MEM, MALD Schools Applied To: WWS (MPA), Duke (MPP), IUB SPEA (MPA), Yale F&ES (MEM), Syracuse Maxwell (MPA), Fletcher (MALD) Schools Admitted To: Duke ($5k, from waitlist), Yale, Maxwell Schools Rejected From: WWS, SPEA (?!), Fletcher Decision: Yale MEM Undergraduate institution: Top Canadian school Undergraduate GPA: 2.37 Undergraduate Major: Engineering (nanotechnology) GRE Quantitative Score: 750 GRE Verbal Score: 800 GRE AW Score: 5.0 Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 3.5 (2007 grad) Years of Work Experience: 2 Describe Relevant Work Experience: Too complicated to explain lol Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): I spent nearly a month on it and it turned out to be a abstract essay about why I love nature and why it needs to be protected etc etc. Strength of LOR's (be honest, describe the process, etc): Two from profs at UBC that I knew pretty well and liked me (I had high As in my classes with them), and one from my internship boss. Other: My undergrad GPA was a bit of a disaster, but it was 3.3 (= 80%) in 4th year which got me on the honour roll, and I had a 90 on my thesis. But I took courses at UBC in environment/social sciences and policy to get some background, and I had a 4.0 there (including grad courses) so I think that helped, plus my GRE. I didn't expect to get into WWS and that was just fine with me - too small/dead a town, and ditto Fletcher as I have no IR experience. SPEA was a bit of a surprise though since the admissions clerk seemed to think I had a strong app! Needless to say after getting into Yale I knew I'd be going there, no-brainer, though I did consider Duke a bit because it was an MPP as opposed to an MEM, but finally realized it wouldn't make any difference.

LOL @ me still waiting to hear back either way...

Depends what you want to do after. A professor of mine was saying that Duke grads are unlikely to get pigeonholed into pushing papers, and tend to have their choice of what kind of job/arena they want to work in. Of course it also depends on city preferences, etc...

Uh, so still paranoid here regarding withdrawal of offers... Mine wasn't an email, but an online offer of admission 'letter' that was added to the school's application management system. 1.5 weeks later came the funding decision as another letter added to the app management system. I just accepted the offer and paid my deposit etc. If the acceptance was a mistake, I wouldn't have gotten the funding info, right? There hasn't been any sort of snail mail letter yet lol.

well it should be far more convenient to be downtown / on campus I think! also, I feel like if grad students are going to just study, that's going to happen whether or not you're in an apartment, and if you are in an apt you have far less options for interaction with other people through meals, the dining hall, seeing people around, house/floor events etc. Would anyone also be able to comment on the town itself (safety aside)? As a college/etc town, how is it? The gold standard from what I'm hearing is Bloomington, Indiana... but New Haven still seems like a fairly good town to me, with a good variety of restaurants, theatre, clubs/bars, etc. Ignoring the safety issues, of course. But let me know what you all think...

thanks for the info! I looked at the pricing, and it seems HGS is around 5500 for the year and the meal plan is 2800... let's say 9k total for the year. That doesn't seem bad to me, especially compared to the Yale apartments which run AT LEAST 800/month... x 10 months that's 8k anyway, PLUS food. So Yale-operated apartments aren't really an option lol. Which leaves me with either grad dorms, or an off-campus apartment... which I would really rather not do - don't feel like bothering with the hassle of furnishing, cooking, etc (I know you have to do both for Yale-owned apartments too) - I'm pretty inept in the kitchen, and it's just easier to have it dealt with lol. Maybe after first year it'll be easy - I also don't want to just jump into a place without having been there long enough to scope out someplace for myself. I'm not sure if you'd change your recommendation based on my reasoning, but just thought I might as well explain myself

I'm heading to Yale in August and am trying to figure out where to live. I don't particularly want an apartment - I'm still in my early 20s and kind of want to be around a younger crowd rather than families, older couples, etc. Would I be best off in HGS, Helen Hadley, etc or the 254 and 276 Prospect St dorms? Are there any apartments that are a younger crowd? Anyone had any experience with any of these dorms? I'm in the School of Forestry, so anything close to that (Kroon Hall, on Prospect St) would be ideal. thanks! I must say I'm not big on this segregation of grad students thing... my undergrad was in Toronto and us undergrads lived in the same dorms as the grad students, all mixed together and had a good time...

OK, now I see what you mean. However, I'm not sure this is a problem with FES in particular but more with Western education in general. eg. I doubt you'd have much better luck with an MPP grad who would probably be used to throwing numbers around - I could see locals being overrun by statistics that mean absolutely nothing to them. Also, this sort of thing is a problem even in developed countries - eg it's easy to say NO LOGGING! but what about the towns and communities that rely on logging? that being said, I don't think NGO heads are paid a whole lot anyway, so I can understand them trying to get a good salary... lol.

The forestry dean at uni here is an FES alum, and he says the Yale/Duke programs are top in the country. I think you may have missed something: you take one course from each of 7, but then you can specialize in one of those if you so choose, or you can stay unfocused if you so choose. It's all in what you make of it I think. what do you mean by 'lack of field skills/adaptability'? Curious now. I'll PM those who requested info on finances...

Just got my financial aid package... it's more than I was expecting, so I'm really happy.

I can't comment on the programs because I know nothing about what you want to study, but just think if you're in Denver you'll be within a stone's throw of so many awesome ski resorts...

I think they said they're sending out the first batch of funding info next week, so I wouldn't worry too much

Thanks for the info! That's good to know. It definitely seems more management oriented than Duke's - I was basically thinking about doing the Enviro Law and Policy stream which would make it closer to a policy degree lol. You probably still know more than me though: what kind of jobs do people usually go into coming out of this? The dean of forestry at my local university is an FES grad so I'm going to talk to him, but I also want to ask around as much as possible The 30% number was from last year - from the article posted on page 1 of this thread where it said apps were up 5% from last year too.

I'm curious if anyone knows how the school is regarded? Is it Yale's prodigal son or is it on par with everything else? I suppose I'm only curious because the acceptance rate is 30%, which seems high for an Ivy... Maybe I'm so stunned at being accepted I'm looking for reasons to discredit myself lol. Anyway, questions meant in the nicest way possible.

You need to update your sig

He got an email acceptance to WWS, then a few hours later he got another bunch of emails saying there had been a mistake and he was actually waitlisted. Luckily I think since we have actual letters there should be less chance of such a mistake...

In mine it said if I applied for financial aid the information would follow shortly. I'm still checking and rechecking to make sure it isn't a mistake. I'm paranoid now after the unfortunate experience the other fellow had with WWS.

In! I'm still not sure whether it's a mistake Sorry to hear that, chenchak...

Aha... that explains it Juli... I think! My GPA was pretty low but my GRE was high, so that may be why. Keeping fingers crossed then! Also... what do you mean by 'great jobs' out of curiosity? And, lol, what is GAO?

ditto here re stress! also, I disagree that rolling deadlines favour lazy applicants... if they're too lazy they may just lose a spot. I think hard deadlines tend to favour lazy applicants because they can just submit right at the end... while rolling deadlines favour early birds who submit right at the beginning before anyone else...

Hmm, the thing is I applied Dec 1, since I'm international, and sent updated grades/etc Jan 7th, let's say Jan 31 just to be in the safe side. So it's a VERY long roll lol. To the last poster - yes I did make a phone call and they just said it's 'still in review'. One of the ladies said it looks fairly strong, but I'm not counting my chickens... And yes I am seriously considering SPEA if I get in - it's going to be that or Syracuse I think, and that's a hard choice because both are strong in the enviro program, but Syracuse has that great alumni network and post-grad job placement, while I like SPEA's 2-year program but a lot of their grads seem to end up in state or local management jobs, which I'm not quite so hot on lol. Let's see if I get in first... but yes, I would also love some unbiased opinions on SPEA's reputation in DC, NYC, etc as well as outside of the US...

I actually just spoke to one of the lovely ladies in admissions and she said spring break is next week so most likely the week after... unfortunate, but such is life! Hence just wondering if I'm the only one (which would not bode well? lol)

Has anyone heard from SPEA *recently*? I know there were a few that heard way back when and/or really soon after submitting their application but are there any others who haven't heard anything? Apparently they're on spring break next week, so we've gotta wait till the week after...

MALD, Last/first E/N. Hope that helps and good luck!