PhDerp

Temporary housing unit? Is that a thing? :i What bothers me is that orientation is a solid 10 days before move-in... Why? Just, why?

Lol NP! So I got accepted for housing, but it's 2 person - 1 bedroom with a complete stranger. Eurgh. Not sure if I should take it... Thankfully, USC lets you cancel for a full refund until June 14th. Phew! The hunt is on for better apartments! >_<

I know USC offers online courses for master's degrees. I can't speak for the rest of those schools, but that's a start! USC also boasts a huge population of international students, which they mention on their website. And if you do get into an on-campus graduate program there, they offer a summer program for international students to come and get settled in, and take english courses.

No. UMass is my undergrad institute, and my advisor told me at our last meeting. That is not a formal rejection.

I didn't even apply. I'm just cheering for this thread like it's my local sports team. Go GC!

When you hear about an "implicit waitlist" on this forum, this is exactly what it's referring to! EDIT: When this happens, you can ask the program about your application status. They might let you know. You can turn that "implicit" into an "explicit"!

They still haven't formally rejected me, but I have been notified of my rejection? I don't know why they're taking so long...

Count me in. XD

I accepted an offer before hearing back from one school. I'm withdrawing my application from the remaining school, so I'm in a similar boat! I'd imagine the grad admissions people don't really care that much about the details unless they ask for them specifically. For example, the school I accepted had an option when I notified them that read "I'll be declining this school for the following reason", then provided a list of possible reasons, including fill-in-the-blank. Otherwise, I can't picture admins pouring over every letter that is obviously a "nope" and wanting to take in all the details! I say keep your e-mail brief, like two sentences. Unless you e-mailed a POI; you should politely inform them in whatever (reasonable) amount of words you require if you'd had contact with them in the past. Don't forget to make it easier on the people processing your e-mail and include application account information if you were provided any!

One of the reasons I do it is to try new things! It works out nicely for me. The vegan food at restaurants is always so interesting... I usually use hedge words in these kinds of statements, but I really don't remember ever experiencing a bad vegan meal at a restaurant! It's an easy cop-out for me to go straight to bread-n-cheese options, but this restriction has me trying a much greater variety of foods. I support veganism for a few reasons, but I don't want to hijack the thread, and there is plenty of material on the internet about why people consider going vegan. I haven't been vegan for a few years, but I will be again once I'm settled in across the country! I'm excited for that. (In before all the hate. )

What is the alternative right now? Based on what you've told us, I'd say at least attend institution 1 for now and decide after a few months what you want to do. If your professor needs an answer sooner, maybe you can suggest waiting (i.e. tell him that you want to make sure it's the right decision before committing, and to ask again after fall semester). As for opinions on the overall decision of program vs. professor: if you want to get into a PhD program after and especially if you want to end up in academia, I think the professor's prestige matters more than your school's... if he's as great as you say he is! Heck, if institution 2 hired him, they might be a more up-and-coming program anyway! People know to take rankings with a grain of salt. But judging professors individually is much more... doable. Your graduate advisor will be a force throughout your entire future. Working with someone awesome can be career-defining. (I learned this from my advisor as an undergraduate, if you're curious. She definitely pushed me for person, not program, when making decisions!) Unless the institution is some kind of serious-big-name-like-crazy-whoa school, like MIT, I'd say it's worth the move, with respect to your career. (All of this is based on my own humble impression, of course. )

I'm not sure!! I asked them for an update weeks ago, but still nothing. I don't know who to e-mail to withdraw my application. This is awkward. >_>

Just don't fail to advocate for yourself. It's going to be a lot worse for you if you don't get what you need out of talking to them than it's going to be for them to help you, which is part of their job (I assume).

Hopefully you do, if you applied there! Just to be helpful for people browsing this thread: what would you like to know? This might be useful to you: http://crr.umd.edu/research

To answer your question: I always opt for the vegan option when one is readily available at a restaurant. I'd say that's eating vegan sometimes! (I'm always vegetarian.)

My friends at Hampshire have difficulty sometimes trying to convey their educational history for job interviews and graduate school applications. But man, I know students there who are taking crazy intensive courseloads, and they make it look like a breeze because they just... Really love learning the material. Even when they don't love a particular topic as much, they know they need it, so they get it done. It really is different than my state university!

Just so you know, your profile says "Cognitive Science". Is that what you meant?

Yes! Someone told me this! I won't even try it. Not worth it for the awful noise.

Sue 'em for emotional distress! I'm kidding. Best of luck, I hope it works out. I agree with Munashi.

Ooh! That reminds me: Cold water. I hate drinking cold water. I always ask for water without ice when I'm out.

I actually might do souvenirs from all the colleges I took classes at for my undergrad... My school is part of a Five College Consortium, and I took Russian at Amherst and Smith college. I kind of just want an excuse to get their shirts anyway. Amherst, MA is the only Amherst I know of that specifically does not pronounce the "h", so there's a shirt I want that says "Am'erst College", hehe. And then if I get the shirt with "SMITH" in giant letters, I can wear an open hoodie and it just looks like "MIT". It took me forever to figure out why Smithies were so obsessed with MIT! XD

Nope! I didn't know DerpTastic was from the east coast, either. I chose this user name after seeing something cute, I think it was "PhDreams", so I decided to do a similar kind of thing, only sillier. Then I saw that a magikarp was already taken as an avatar, so I playfully one-upped it. I'm just unoriginal. x)

One of my friends in a master's program just got a job at a nearby research lab that stems off of a different school. She's getting paid to do work that will be able to contribute to her final master's project anyway (yes, she's had this approved by both the employer and the school she attends). So maybe check out nearby paid research opportunities! The odds are one in a million, I'm sure. And my friend is in the Boston area, so there are quite a few research facilities around. But you never know!

It's UMass Amherst (the MS/PhD program). I do software engineering there, and I could've gotten in if I applied for that kind of research, but I want to do AI... So my advisor couldn't vouch for me. It was my only safety school because I already qualified for a master's fellowship there and was guaranteed in on that. I didn't expect to get into a PhD program until after I finished my master's, so I was pleasantly surprised to have gotten in anywhere!

It says "a lot of salad, vegan, and lean meat". As in these separate things.