PhDerp

fly. (new sentence!)

I heard MN puts New England to shame, with its lack of ocean climate influence! And I'm running to sunny California. I'm such a wuss XD

power edit: including this post, we have "Unfortunately, the cat consumed all glory of the moon and stars. It gave him severe anxiety, but also he received the power"

gave

and

Oh wow, I hadn't even thought of some of these. Thank you! Romantic spots, bike lanes / paths, bookstores, and movie theatres are all relevant to me, and I didn't think of them at all! I plan on going without a car, so I also need to make sure things are within walking or biking distance for me.

of

Reading this thread, I went and grabbed a can of Pringles. >_<

cat

I like your style. XD

I hope you get in, too, because that trip sounds amazing!!! Do you have a plan? Any particular countries on your list?

+my stats, that is all of my rejection posts. Ever. XD But I'm serious, I didn't expect to get in! I only applied to these longshot programs because my advisor said I might as well!

Based on ranking, research fit, and my conversation with my advisor-to-be, I'm 99% sure I'm taking the offer from this school. I'm going to visit next week and it's a flight across the country, so I thought I'd extend it a day and turn it into a mini-vacation (the week before my spring break, lol). I think the visit is still important because if I really, really hate the area, I won't go. But I hope this isn't the case! They're going to give me two days of visiting the school with a lot of guidance and a schedule when I'm there, and that's great! But I really want to go explore the area on my own (actually, I'm hoping to visit a friend, too). While I'm in the city where I will probably spend the next 6 years of my life, what should I do? Should I look at apartment complexes? Restaurants? Roller skating rinks? Grocery stores? Bars? I know I should see what I'm most curious about, but... I'm blanking here! It might help if anyone can answer this question: What do you wish you checked out at the school you were visiting, and the area around it? Is there anything you would've liked to look out for?

Also,

I'm so ronery... ;_;

I keep checking this post when it says someone responded, hoping it will be say that they've posted results. Now I'm paying the false hope forward. XD

I ate chicken. I've been a vegetarian for 7 years.

I'm glad none of the Ma* states did "UM". There's UME, UMass, UMD... When people see MA, sometimes they guess Maryland, then Maine, then Massachusetts. Today I figured out what TAMU is (Texas A&M University). I feel successful lol

OHHHH, that's what TAMU is!! According to one website, http://hireaggies.com/guides/reports/SalarySurvey/2011/Spring/SalarySurveyResults_Spring_2011_generated_07-13-2011.html , EE Doctorates made: avg $97.6k, max $119k, min $70k. It says "Offers: 5", but I'm not sure what that means in this context... Anyway, I don't think you'd be hard-pressed to find work with a PhD in EE, especially if you look in California or Eastern Massachusetts. It also depends just what you want to do with it. The obvious big divide in PhD careers is: academia or industry? Hope this helps!

WPI isn't a top program, but it's definitely an option! Here's the main website: http://web.cs.wpi.edu/cs/graduatePrograms/msProgram/ (some links are broken) Worcester has a train and regular buses to Boston (I think $10 for the train one-way), so you can visit each other pretty easily without a car. There are also areas to live in between the two cities, but they're more expensive than you'd think; I've been told that "east of 495" is the Silicon Valley of our coast! Also, I grew up in Worcester about a mile from WPI, so I can tell you things about the area. That being said, I think WPI might be lower priority for you. Schools that are decently accessible (as in, easy enough to get into, for the standard on this website) are: BU, Northeastern, Brandeis, Tufts, WPI Of these, WPI is the farthest away from Boston, and lowest-ranked! Then of course there's MIT, Harvard, Brown...

There are... So many... Especially for just a master's. And you can get a job at IBM, EMC, Google, Cisco, Akamai, etc. to get paid to do your master's. Have you done a preliminary search outside of this website yet? I think it might be better to post here with a list of potential programs and ask people how they feel about them. Massachusetts is lousy with colleges, it's hard to list them all!

Sounds like Oxford vs. West Point Either way, I want in on that compsci program.

I demand more posts in this thread! More good news for the people!

I know, right?! I got accepted to a school in LA during the middle of the 24-hour snowstorm a week and a half ago (east coast). It was funny looking up pictures of the school, then looking out the window, then back, then out, then back... I think New England is making my last winter here count.

Congrats!! Hope it's awesome!!